Strolling Semoran Boulevard

Light colored clothing for strolling the streets of Metro Orlando is de rigueur, definitely in fashion and absolutely a must to wear this spring.

As well as making a fashion statement, wearing light colored clothing is a practical, defensive, proactive move.  When you are crossing the street and are hit and killed some tranquil evening or rainy, dark day, the newspaper article describing this shocking event will not be able to say, “she was wearing dark clothing”.  Such a report is tantamount to saying, “she was so very dumb and mostly to blame for not wearing the latest, hot colors and standing out like a mating cockatoo”.  It’s not everywhere that wearing the wrong clothing can get you killed, or at least be able to be used as an excuse for killing you.  But wearing dark clothing on the streets of Metro Orlando will give a murderous driver the time-honored excuse:  “I didn’t see her, she was wearing dark clothing and darted in front of me”.  This excuse is almost always excepted unless the driver is weaving noticeably and smells like the inside of the neighborhood pub.  If the driver is let off, your heirs will have a very tough time of it collecting anything from the motorist’s insurance company.  And after all, you do want the little life you just gave up to count for something to those you leave behind, don’t you?

The same goes for where you walk.  Using a marked pedestrian crosswalk for your promenade instead of crossing the street any old place you feel like is definitely recommended.  Not only does it provide that ramp-like experience, if you’re hit and thrown 50 feet or so and land on your head and another SUV runs over you and drags you 100 feet further down the street, you want all that final sacrifice to have meaning.  However, if the whole sordid affair happens without benefit of a crosswalk, the newspaper will report “she was not in a crosswalk and failed to yield to the vehicle”.  And that means, “Solly Cholly, no monee”.  Of course by the time you are hit, thrown and dragged it might be difficult to determine just where you were crossing the street.  So another tip is, make sure there is an audience around to watch your stroll and testify you were launched from a crosswalk.  You do want someone watching you strut your stuff.

Well that’s the pedestrian fashion advice for the day.  Hope you enjoy walking the streets of Metro Orlando and don’t become a casualty, at least not without some recourse for your next of kin.  What did you say?  Make the streets safer?  Punish drivers for killing pedestrians?  Oh dahling, that would take all the sport out of it, and cost real money besides.  Now wouldn’t it?

Please plan to join us between 3:00 and 5:00 PM to meet with local pedestrians, explain to them the proper use of the crosswalk, hand out brochures, and to exercise the crosswalk to instruct motorists on the need to yield.

If you want a T-shirt, you can order them from Big Frog in Winter Park, 321-972-8879.  Just ask for the I Stop 4 Pedestrians shirt (in the Bike/Walk Central Florida file).

Since it will be Halloween, costumes are optional.  What would really be great is to have someone dressed up as the Chicken That Crossed The Road!  Let me know if you’re interested in this very prestigious position.

Contact me at wbcarpenter5@att.net, 407-504-2455, or leave a reply to this post with any questions or for more information.

Check out video from a previous visit to this crosswalk:

There’s work to be done!  See you there!

If you’ve only seen Dallas from the driver’s seat of a car, you don’t know what you’re missing!

A year ago, I knew nothing of Dallas except what I’d read: it’s one of our nation’s most sprawling, low-density, car-centric mega-metros; its many freeways are enormous and clogged with traffic; its arterial roads are jammed with impatient hostile drivers in huge vehicles; it’s the worst city for cycling in the U.S. (according to Bicycling Magazine).

Upon discovering CycleDallas last summer, I was presented with a different image of Dallas: a pleasant, livable, inner ring with a dense mesh of quiet streets; up to a 12% biking and walking mode share in the inner city (although low overall); an 800-lane-mile signed bike-route system (and map) using cyclist-selected roads; a besieged bike-ped coordinator who steadfastly refused to buy into symbolic, potentially-dangerous bike facilities in that already-rideable urban core.

Last week, LisaB and I got a chance to go to Dallas. As our unique travel plans would have it, we were able to launch rides from various parts of the city and surrounding suburbs.

Our Rides

Wednesday we explored in Downtown. Lisa and I cycled on parts of the bike route system, the inner neighborhoods, the downtown business district and some larger thru-roads (here’s the route).

Aside from some construction detours and a few confusing one-way streets, we found downtown cycling extremely easy. We rode into downtown via bike routes 220 and 65 (PM Summer gave us a printed map book Tuesday evening). The streets were quiet and scenic, perfect for any level of rider who can balance a bike and follow the rules of the road. Downtowns always feel intimidating to novices, but most are actually excellent cycling environments. Downtown Dallas traffic was more docile than most big cities I’ve ridden in (including Portland, OR). Riding down Elm street between high-rise buildings, we found ourselves alone on the road behind a platoon of cars, arriving at traffic lights just as they turned green. Riding back out of town we took bike route 190, then deviated onto Abrams, a busier thoroughfare, to sample the experience. We certainly had a lot more traffic interaction on Abrams, but we claimed our lane, motorists changed lanes to pass and our passage was easy and pleasant.

Thursday we were staying at the Four Seasons in North Irving. Lisa was busy at a conference all day, but I was on vacation. I planned to take Trinity Rail Express (clued in by Steve A, who we met for dinner on Tuesday evening) into Dallas from Irving, but I puttered too long and then discovered that the trains stopped running regularly after 10 AM. Concerned that I might miss the train, I looked at the DART bus schedule. I have to admit, I’m transit retarded after two decades in Orlando. The express bus station was a mile north and the train station was 4 miles south. I had to make a decision. The DART website was somewhat confusing, so I decided to ask the conceirge.

It was a total brain fart for me to think the concierge at the Four Seasons would have a clue about mass transit! She, of course, didn’t. She managed to offer lots of information I did not need or ask for and waste enough time that I had no choice but to head for the bus. That’s one way to make a decision.

I arrived at the bus station as the bus I wanted was pulling out.  I then discovered that the next bus would not depart for an hour, contrary to what the concierge told me. I certainly wasn’t going to sit around a desolate transit station for an hour, so I called PM Summer and asked for route advice to ride from Irving to downtown Dallas.

PM gave me a direction to head, then got to work on a route for me as I started riding. He then emailed turn-by-turn directions which I followed with help from the GPS on my iphone (pulling over to memorize 4 or 5 turns at a time). It was an excellent adventure! I experienced just about everything—industrial, commercial, suburban, residential, urban, 2-lane, 4-lane, 6-lane, wide and narrow lanes, a construction zone… and a loose pit bull.

Besides the dog, everyone else I encountered was respectful and courteous. I was passed safely by hundreds of cars, SUVs, pick-up trucks and heavy trucks. I was never honked at, endangered or mistreated in any way. In fact, I was surprised to find most motorists reduced their speed when passing, even on multi-lane roads. On 2-lane roads with wide lanes, many waited for the oncoming lane to clear so they could give additional clearance, despite my lane-sharing position. This unusual experience has been corroborated by other vehicular cyclists in Dallas and can be seen in the Dallas Run videos shot by Brian DeSousa.

After a long lunch with PM, I took the Trinity Rail Express (TRE) back to South Irving and rode back to the conference hotel. That was the first time I’ve had a chance to take a bike on a train. The train didn’t have bike cars like the one in San Jose, instead cyclists use the wheelchair car.

The TRE was a great way to traverse 10 miles in 18 minutes! Bike-friendly transit is such a huge asset for extending the range and usefulness of the bicycle. Here’s my route for the day (the TRE line is between the RR icons).

The readers and bloggers of CycleDallas join us for happy hour.

Friday Lisa and I moved to a hotel located on the service road at the High Five interchange of U.S. 75 and I-635. This became a starting point for several more rides.

Friday evening, we used the DART rail line to meet the CycleDallas gang for happy hour. The DART station is on the opposite corner of the High Five from the hotel. That intersection is an example of how emphasis on high-speed auto travel can destroy connectivity for other modes. It is not possible for a pedestrian to travel efficiently from the hotel to the DART station, even though it is only 1/2 mile away. PM gave us a 2 mile bike route that was easy to ride, but would be intimidating for the uninitiated. There is an infrastructure solution in the works for that interchange.

Returning from the festivities, my lack of transit skill put us on the wrong train. We ended up about 6 miles from the hotel. Always up for an adventure, we decided to ride the bikes rather than backtrack on the train. The route consisted of 6-lane roads and freeway service roads. We felt just as safe and respected at night as we had during the day.

Every single bus in the DART system has bike racks.

Saturday we decided to ride to a DART Bike&Ride event at White Rock Lake. To get there, we used the White Rock Creek trail, which is accessible a mile west of the hotel. It’s a river trail with very few street crossings and the potential to be a quiet oasis away from urban noise. It has several immediate problems. One is that it is only 8 feet wide—uncomfortably narrow for 2-direction bike traffic, let alone other users in the mix. That is being corrected as the older paths are being reconstructed to current standards. A less-correctable problem is that the creek floods, covering the path in mud. A recent flood had left a layer of now-dry silt on the path. It wasn’t hazardous but it coated our bikes, legs and water bottles as we rode.

While lack of intersections is desirable for speed and ease of use, it also means lack of connectivity to surrounding neighborhoods. This is a problem we have with many recreational trails in Orlando. They are not being built as utilitarian facilities to enhance the road system, but as places for people to play with toys.

Personal safety is another concern with remote greenways. I would never ride such a trail at night or times when there was no other trail traffic. Aside from the obvious crime aspect, if a cyclist were to suffer a solo fall and be incapacitated, he might not be found for many hours. Even on Saturday morning, we didn’t see many cyclists on the trail until we got to the White Rock area. As one would expect, there were lots of cyclists on the White Rock Lake loop trail.

The DART event was great fun! We both enjoyed the opportunity to practice putting bikes on the bus bike rack.

To return to the Richardson area, we decided to explore more of the bike route system. Following the signs for Routes 73, 270 and 45 took us to within a mile of the hotel. Most of the roads were quiet, residential streets with just a few sections of 30 mph 4-lane roads. We again found excellent cycling conditions and cooperation from motorists. (here’s a map of our Saturday ride)

True friendliness

Keeping score, I’d say the majority of motorists were attentive and cooperative. We had no negative encounters, no territorial behavior and nothing that suggested oblivious driving. I had a handful of positive interactions in which motorists were exceptionally courteous and accommodating. They also thanked us for little courtesies like allowing them room to turn right on red and acknowledging their right-of-way at 4-way stops. We graciously declined a number of wave-throughs and the motorists always responded with smiles and friendly waves. It was clear that in the White Rock area motorists expect cyclists to violate their right of way and were pleasantly surprised when we didn’t.

Doing things right for cyclists

The Dallas bike route system is an amazing resource! It was created decades ago by principled cycling advocates who examined all possible facility types and designed a system utilizing the ones best for cyclists.

Dallas had excellent infrastructure to begin with—a grid street system with miles and miles of easy-to-navigate, quiet streets. This kind of system is a nursery for smart cyclists. It allows novice cyclists access to destinations without having to brave traffic. It allows them to learn to ride according to vehicular rules and principles that translate to any road and traffic situation. The combination of such an asset with enthusiastic cycling advocates who knew what they had and how to maximize it is a rare and beautiful thing in America.

The devil is in the details

On our first day of riding, Lisa and I noticed how smooth the speed humps were on the traffic-calmed bike-route streets—especially in contrast to the hideous, bone-jarring domes Orlando uses. I mentioned it to PM. He told me the story of how the speed humps were tested by cyclists before a design was approved! The details of traffic calming are grossly overlooked by “bike advocates” who are more obsessed with slowing motorists than making sure the devices don’t punish cyclists for the sins of speeding motorists.

Paradise in peril

The city of Dallas can’t control how the surrounding cities and suburbs develop. It can’t control the extreme low density and long travel-distances of its metroplex. What the city can do, and has under the leadership of PM Summer, is maximize its assets to serve utilitarian cycling. The Dallas bike plan should be studied as a positive example of cycling advocacy and accommodation, but instead it has been derided as “bike unfriendly” because it didn’t include bike lanes.

In the years since the bike plan was developed, several destructive forces have chipped away at cycling in Dallas.

Nationwide social norms regarding cycling have steadily deteriorated because industry-driven advocacy has focused on symbolic accommodation and ignored fundamental social and access issues. Those influences have permeated the Dallas bike culture, like every other. As a result, the new generations of mostly-recreational cyclists don’t recognize the assets they have, so they clamor for the kind of symbolic “solutions” popular culture says they need. It’s such a tragedy that national advocacy movements have sought to dumb down bicycling by catering to misperceptions rather than lift it higher with education and empowerment.

In addition, misguided advocates have fed the mythologies of danger with their myopic focus on safety devices vs safety skills. It is widely recognized that helmet laws decrease cycling, yet the city of Dallas passed an all-ages mandatory helmet law.

In recent years, political forces manipulated by land speculators and planning firms seeking government contracts have brought pressure upon the public works department to abandon its principled approach and implement symbolic “accommodations.” These forces have managed to manipulate naive cyclists and ignorant politicians, but their motives are not for the safety and well-being of cyclists.

If the city can find the political will to throw off the parasites and nurture its assets through low-cost solutions, it can become a shining example of a “better way.” Encouragement, which most advocates think must be painted on the pavement, can also be achieved through intelligent social marketing… for a lot less money. Education, too-often shunned by so-called bike advocates, overcomes all inadequate infrastructure solutions by providing recipients with the skills and confidence to reach every destination. The choice is so simple. Spend millions of taxpayer dollars on symbolic facilities what won’t make cycling any easier, or spend a lot less money on education and encouragement to show people how to use the existing assets with confidence.

It remains to be seen if Dallas can save a good thing from destruction. If it can’t, a real treasure and learning opportunity will be lost.

What does this road need? Here’s some context:

It’s in a Mayberry-like hamlet about the size of my neighborhood, with less population density, surrounded by empty rural land and lakes. We’ve really hit bottom when a place like this needs bike lanes to be “bike friendly.”

My neighborhood <|> Howey in the Hills

Mighk already wrote a post about this. I’m bringing it up again because it’s become an issue. It turns out that some homeowners want the money used for resurfacing the roads. And if you’ve ridden out there, you know why! But some bike lane advocates in Orlando are trying to encourage cyclists (who don’t live in Howey) to fight against them.

I’ve ridden on that road as recently as a few months ago. It’s as quiet as it looks in the photo. It’s a narrow road, so adding bike lanes will require adding pavement and a foundation for that pavement… unless they’re defining bike lanes as substandard tack-on shoulders, then they’ll have no foundation and a crappy, uneven surface. Either way, it turns grass into asphalt. It’s far more expensive than simply resurfacing the road. It’s not something that should be undertaken without a demonstrated need—meaning a high volume of automobile traffic, which would make bicycling unpleasant.

Where they are clearly not needed, bike lanes are a waste of tax money that could be used for something that benefits everyone in the community. Or at least something that actually benefits cyclists. How could that not be the logical choice, given that bike lanes won’t offer the slightest improvement to cyclists? Which would you prefer as a cyclist? 2 miles of bike lane on a road with no traffic or a lot more miles of smooth pavement?

Worse than wasteful, it sends a terrible message about cycling. If cyclists are perceived as needing bike lanes on a road like that, where can they ride without special facilities?

It’s a sorry state of affairs that “bike advocacy” has come to fighting for symbolic bikes lanes on quiet, low-traffic streets in towns that are already perfect for cycling. It’s especially disheartening when it’s pushed by people who have had ample access to good discussion about quality facilities and holistic advocacy.

Bike lanes are the most misused tool in the planner’s tool box. It’s time to take a hard look at that and how it affects the overall health and sustainability of a bike culture.

Regarding enforcement of the 3-foot law

This quote is from one of the TV news story links Eric provided. The officer is explaining the legitimate difficulty of enforcing the law, but throws in another little gem of absolute car-centric bias:

“It’s very hard to do. The officer has to be in the right place and he has to observe a vehicle not giving the cyclist three feet. And if there’s on coming traffic, it’s hard for the motorist” said Dusty Stokes of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department.

Excuse me? Hard for the motorist? Because the motorist HAS to pass? Because his car will explode if he takes his foot off the gas and waits until it is safe to pass with adequate clearance?

This is exactly the kind of institutionalized anti-cycling bias that undermines the foundation of the advocacy pyramid. Cyclists are not drivers of vehicles to this official, they are an obstruction that poor motorists have to get around. Those poor motorists, in their comfortable seats and climate-controlled shells, having to wait a second.

Sorry. I’m not anti-motoring. I’m anti-entitlement (for either party). We are all equal users of the road, so let’s kill this notion that having to slow down to safely pass a slow vehicle is some kind of hardship.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this kind of “sympathy” for motorists having to wait. It’s been framed in terms of potential downstream road rage, too. If law enforcement is worried about the causes of delay-induced frustration, they might want to take a look at traffic light signal timing! Let’s have some official love for the hardship of long red lights, and freight trains, and school buses—cripes, you can’t even pass those things!

And now I have a few things to say about the 3-foot law

1. It is virtually unenforceable unless a cyclist is actually hit. We’ve seen, repeatedly, that it’s not being enforced even then. Even here in Orlando—last year a cyclist was hit with a landscape trailer and the motorist was not cited with anything.
2. There were already applicable laws on the books which cover safe passing of vehicles. All this one did was codify a minimum distance for bicycles—a minimum that is way to close in the most critical circumstances.
3. Safe passing clearance is a variable that depends on speed differential and vehicle size. If a motorist is passing at a speed close to mine, I don’t mind letting him come by with less space (a foot or two, even, if the situation warrants it). I’ve had Lynx buses give me exactly three feet—that’s intimidating at any speed. High speed differentials make three feet feel like 6 inches, even with small cars. Really, there is only a small window of speed at which it feels comfortable for a small vehicle to pass at 3 feet. “But it says ‘minimum!’” I hear you cry. Need I remind you, all interpretations default to the minimum? Especially for bicyclists.
4. Cyclists can get way more than 3 feet of passing clearance with good lane position. I rarely get less than 5 feet. The occasional close pass is one in many hundreds of drivers that pass me. That’s a REALLY SMALL target audience for all the energy people want to spend advertising this law. Of the tiny minority of drivers who pass me too close, most are doing it on purpose. Do you think they give a rat’s ass if there’s a law against it? I don’t.

When you’re used to getting space, your perspective changes

A year or so ago, a small group I was riding with was passed by a utility truck on Markham Woods Rd. It felt kinda close, but it was at least 4 feet away. That group had been using good lane position for a few months and they had quickly become accustomed to much greater passing clearance. When we stopped, they all remarked about how close that truck was… not realizing it was more than 3 feet.

Here’s some perspective demonstrated by research

Click the image for a larger view.

Brian and Dan of CyclistView rode a series of video passes on a 6-lane arterial road. They gradually increased their distance from the edge and measured the passing clearance. This chart shows how lane position influences the behavior of overtaking drivers and results in increasing passing clearance with leftward lane position. There are corresponding screen shots and video clips to show you what each of these passes looks like (here).

The following description applies to multi-lane roads. The optimal lane position is essential on a high speed road, where maximum passing clearance is most critical.

If you ride at the right edge of the lane, many motorists will pass within the lane, even if the other lanes are empty. At the left edge of the Exclusion Zone, most motorists will move over if the next lane is empty. But, if a platoon approaches at high speed, many motorists will squeeze through rather than wait to merge. This results in uncomfortable and unsafe passing. It’s a terrifying experience.

Riding in the Optimal Zone communicates, from a distance, the need for motorists to change lanes. With this information, they change lanes early, at speed, and traffic files into the next lane over well in advance of the cyclist. The result is an increasing gap as the lane clears behind the cyclist—a virtual 11 foot bike lane. The few that aren’t paying attention will have to slow and wait until they can merge. That’s their problem. And don’t think you’re delaying them, you’ll see the whole platoon waiting together at the next traffic light.

In this video, the above-described practice is demonstrated on University Boulevard. The passing clearance you see is ~6ft at the closest, most cars are 8 or more feet away. At those speeds, I would not want them any closer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUNKox4-W90

Included in this clip are the high-speed entrance and exit ramps for the 417. Toward the end, Brian’s microphone picks up an unintelligible territorial noise, which neither of us heard while riding.

We need to reach higher than three feet

Want awareness of your rights? Publicize this!

The 3ft law has become a distraction from solving core problems. Now, every time there is a discussion about harassment problems or cycling safety, someone talks about publicizing the 3ft law. Awareness of that law isn’t going to solve either of those problems! First of all, we need to attack intimidation and  aggressive driving for what it is—assault and reckless endangerment. Passing clearance is the least of the issue with abusive behavior. Second, no matter how much you publicize that law, it is not going to make up for bad lane position. If cyclists ride so far right that motorists can squeeze through, they will. They just can’t help it! Impatience plus opportunity overrides reason, consideration and law. I mean, c’mon, look at the other stuff drivers do that EVERYONE knows is illegal!

If we truly want cyclists to be safe, we have to educate them (and the public) about how cyclists protect themselves. We need to remove the stigma of being slow in a fast world. We need to enforce the laws that protect all road users—speed limits, following distance and safe passing. We need to make hostility and aggressiveness socially unacceptable, with some legal teeth. There are so many bigger problems we aren’t finding solutions for when we waste energy trying to make people aware of an inadequate and unenforceable law.

Introduction

Building a cyclist friendly community requires a combination of social and physical structures. Like a  pyramid, these structures must be built upon a solid foundation, or they will collapse.

When the foundation is strong and the layers of the pyramid reinforce each other, they will support a healthy, thriving bicycle culture.

1) Foundation: Cultural Respect

Bicycles are Vehicles/Cyclists are Drivers

This is the foundation upon which a healthy bike culture must be built. It supports all other advocacy efforts, and the lack of it undermines them. Likewise, advocacy efforts must support this foundation, not erode it.

It begins with the law—not just the legal definition of bicycles as vehicles, but legal equity and access to the roadway. Laws which restrict cyclists’ use of a travel lane (Far Right and Mandatory Bike Lane/Shoulder/Sidepath laws) must be eliminated. Even with exceptions, these laws carry discriminatory weight and are most often misinterpreted to the detriment of cyclists.

Institutional bias also extends to transportation engineers and the standards set for bicycle facilities. Current minimum standards for bike lanes (and even sharrow placement) are harmful to people on bicycles. Coupled with mandatory use laws and social pressure from motorists, they restrict—rather than facilitate—access to the roadway. Current institutional research is equally destructive, concentrating on the “feelings” of novice bicyclists often at the expense of both the operational characteristics of bicycles and the needs of competent bicycle drivers.

Correcting institutional bias is the basis for changing the cultural norms — bicycles must be a normal, accepted, respected part of the transportation system (vehicles, not toys). This bias must be corrected with education of law enforcement, planners, engineers and policy-makers.

When our culture treats bicycles as vehicles, the average person will think of himself as a driver when on a bicycle, thus be more inclined to obey the rules of the road, seek education and act assertively as an equal user.

NOTE: “Respect” is treating bicyclists as equal drivers with the same rights and responsibilities as other drivers. Bicyclists are neither inferior nor superior to other road users.

2) Bicycle Driver Education

The majority of reported bicycle-related injuries are the result of collisions with fixed objects, other bicycles, pedestrians or falls due to loss of control. Teaching people simple bike handling skills and increasing their confidence with the vehicle will greatly reduce these accident rates.

The majority of bike vs motor vehicle crashes are a result of bad choices by cyclists (running stop signs/lights, riding against traffic, on sidewalk, in the dark without lights, hugging the edge of the road, etc.). The crash data indicate that regardless of other safety issues in the traffic environment, uneducated cyclists are too often the cause of their own problems.

Law enforcement for dangerous practices like wrong-way riding, riding without lights at night and violating right-of-way should be part of the education process. Poor cyclist behavior feeds the belief that cyclists don’t belong on the roads and fuels animosity toward cyclists. Crash reports feed the incorrect belief that cycling is dangerous and cyclists are vulnerable victims. Fear feeds the behaviors that increase crash risks.
The cycle can only be broken by education. Education will only be widely accepted if:

1. bicycles are treated as serious vehicles;
2. the forces wishing to promote cycling do so by promoting education (like the motorcycle industry does).

When the public is made to understand how easy it is for bicycle drivers to control their safety and interactions with other road users, we will improve both cycling safety and the attractiveness of cycling.

3) Motorist Education/Re-education

There are 3 traffic-culture forces at play for bicycle advocacy:

• actual safety;
• the perception of safety;
• and the effects of hostility.

Fear of hostility causes bicyclists to operate in ways that are inimical to their safety. Riding on the sidewalk or squeezing into the gutter to avoid the wrath of motorists contributes to both (solo-fall and bike-v-car) crash types listed in the previous section.

Bicycling is relatively safe, educated bicycle driving is even safer, but our traffic culture itself is not a paragon of safety. The evening news gives us constant, if not disproportionate, reminders. Unsafe behavior is on display continually, even as most of us elude the consequences.

Improving safety requires changing the way people behave and view their responsibilities as drivers. We need more traffic enforcement, better traffic justice and a greater sense of citizenship and civility. We also need more exposure to laws regarding bicyclists and pedestrians in the driver education and licensing process.

Improving the traffic culture will have a positive effect on everyone in the community, not just bicyclists.

4) Infrastructure

Bicycle infrastructure is a concept that covers a broad range of applications. I’ve divided infrastructure into four basic categories:

Facility improvements that benefit all vehicle drivers: maintaining good pavement/repair of pavement hazards.

Safety improvements for bicyclists: Replacing parallel grates that catch wheels, fixing longitudinal pavement cracks and bad shoulder seams, addressing steep-angle RR crossings, and upgrading unresponsive traffic signal sensors.

Facilities for bicyclists: When behavioral problems affecting safety are addressed, and when the institutional bias against bicycle driving is replaced with respectful understanding of bicycle drivers’ needs, infrastructure can be targeted to solve practical issues of connectivity and access. Intelligent infrastructure solutions are less expensive and less likely to have unintended consequences than facilities that are built in an attempt to bypass education or solve social problems.

Land Use Policy and Transit: Better vision for land use really should be a foundational element, but for most of our cities, that ship has sailed—at least for the time being. However, as our growth has stalled, now is a good time to at least look at policies which would promote bicycle permeability through new suburban development.

Another global asset to cycling is a complete, integrated transit system. When bicycle transportation is added to bus and rail, they complement each other. Public transit extends the range of the bicycle. The bicycle increases the service area of public transit. A functional public transportation system also makes it easier to keep dangerous drivers off the road.

Opportunities

There are opportunities for alternative transportation funding developing at the federal level. Most bike advocates are pushing for money to build facilities without addressing the critical social and education aspects of a healthy bike culture. We need to encourage advocates, community leaders and policy-makers to think bigger and focus on core issues.

I found it interesting that LAB chose a speaker from Copenhagen as the keynote for the Bike Summit. It’s easy to get distracted by the cycletracks, but something more fundamental caught my attention. Danes who ride bikes for transportation don’t think of themselves as “cyclists” or “bike commuters”… in the same way Americans who drive cars to work don’t think of themselves as “motorists” or “car commuters.” Directly related to that, Danes can expect the same level of engineering and concern for efficiency, safety and connectivity on their bike facilities as we do on our roads. Bicycles are also welcome and respected on all roads outside the network of bikeways.

Infrastructure did not create that. Respect for the bicycle as a mode of transportation existed first. We aren’t even there yet.

How do we get there?

Considering how important equity is (especially in light of recent events), I think it deserves more. So here it is, the contents of the Equity Statement PDFs:

Cyclists’ Equity Statement

Cyclists have the same right to fair and equitable treatment by the government as other road users. The basis for these rights is expressed through the six Es approach that the League supports:

• Equality – Legal: traffic law and legislation, including movements, access, equipment, uniformity
• Engineering – Transportation: road and bicycle facilities development, design, and construction, and mobility and funding sources
• Enforcement – Police and Courts: Equitable treatment of cyclists through citations and trials
• Education – Schools and Smart Cycling™: Traffic skills education for the public, engineers, enforcers, and legislators
• Encouragement – Public and private agencies: advertising campaigns, promotions, etc.
• Evaluation – Public agencies: Measurement of the effects of the other Es using relevant research methods and testing.

The League of American Bicyclists supports equity in the treatment of all cyclists in the
implementation and evaluation of all Es.

EQUALITY – The equal legal status and equal treatment of cyclists in traffic law. All US states must adopt fair, equitable and uniform traffic laws, that are “vehicle-neutral” to the greatest extent possible. Cyclists’ ability to access to all destinations must be protected. State and local laws that discriminate against cyclists, or restrict their right to travel, or reduce their relative safety, must be repealed.

Engineering – Roadways and separate facilities must conform to state and national standards and allow for safe, legal and efficient traffic movements. Construction and maintenance of roads must equitably serve all users. Separate facilities must be maintained at a level not less than that applied to the public roadway. Trip-endpoint and waypoint facilities such as parking must serve bicyclists.

Enforcement – Cyclists must be given equal treatment by police and the courts in the enforcement of traffic laws and in the investigation of crashes that involve bicyclists which reach the threshold for the state or jurisdiction in question. Cyclists must be viewed as fully equal to other parties in the determination of culpability in crashes, the economic value of injuries or death, and non-economic losses that are commonly awarded to crash victims.

Education – Cycling training should be based on the principle that “cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles.” This type of cycling is based on the same sound, proven traffic principles governing all drivers, and is the safest, most efficient way for all cyclists to operate. by making them highly visible and their actions predictable to other road users.

Encouragement – Promotion of cycling as a healthy and environmentally sound method of transport and recreation. Encouragement is done via promotional campaigns, incentives for those choosing bicycling rather than another form of transport and promotion of cycling as a healthy activity. The encouragement of bicycling should be inclusive of all types of cyclists.

Evaluation – Evaluation of the other five Es (Equality, Engineering, Enforcement, Education and Encouragement). Evaluation must involve measurement, analysis and research using rigorous, statistically sound methodologies.

There you have it. Not a bad policy statement with Equality as the underpinning of all else. Many thanks to Amanda and Dan for making this happen. If you want to tell the league to act like they mean it, you can do that here.

Fred, and many other cyclists around the country, really need the League to take leadership action on this! Regular roads will always be our primary means of getting to our destinations, we need to have the right to protect our space on those roads without fear of misinterpretation and harassment. Florida (and many other states) have a backwards, misleading law full of exceptions that try to mitigate the damage it does. The poor wording (and malintent) of this law causes a lawfully-traveling cyclist to have to defend his legal right to the road against misinterpretation by authorities (and everyone else). This places an unjust burden on law-abiding citizens.

To make matters worse, Florida even has so-called bike advocates trying to enact a mandatory bike lane law to get public support for more bike lanes. As if we didn’t have enough to do protecting ourselves from external anti-cycling bias.

It will be interesting to see how LAB takes action with this new policy. We’re watching.

I believe it is possible to create a healthy bike culture through education, social marketing and intelligent infrastructure. But I have not seen an example of a place that has deliberately tried a comprehensive alternative to the mindless application of paint… until now.

This article on TransportXtra.com made my day:

Hackney shows you don’t have to have lots of cycling infrastructure to get more people on bikes

By Gary Cummins

The London Borough of Hackney has one of the fastest growth rates of cycling anywhere in the UK, yet planners and transport professionals visiting this borough with a view to imitating its success on their own turf may be surprised to see little in the way of conspicuous cycle facilities. Danish-style cycle tracks are nowhere to be found and the 1,000-strong local cyclists group, the London Cycling Campaign in Hackney, actively lobbies against the installation of cycle lanes.

… Carry on…

That the penny has dropped regarding cycling as transport in London is well known but the reasons behind this success story are less clear, often being (incorrectly) put down to the development of a comprehensive network of segregated cycle routes. Attend any transport conference with a speaker endorsing the success of London and chances are they will present a slide of a London Cycle Network + (LCN+) route showing a section of segregation in Bloomsbury. Certainly some segregation within the LCN+ does exist but these sections account for only a tiny proportion of that network; probably amounting to not even one percent of the total. Outside of the occasional section of pedestrian-cyclist segregation in local parks there are few cycle lanes or tracks in Hackney itself, where the cycling modal share is ten percent and rising.

Of all the London Cycling Campaign borough groups, Hackney’s is the largest. It has benefited from a longstanding and consistent core of activists creating a mature and confident lobby group that speaks with some authority on what it believes to be the key issues behind the success of the bicycle as transport in this part of London.

Like many success stories, it is due to a combination of factors. These include: the congestion charge; a positive press reaction to the increase in cycle use; the free TfL London Cycle Guide maps and better bus lanes. Along with this there is peer observation (the general ‘fashionableness’ of cycling in London) and the cycling lobby developing a trusting and respectful relationship with local authority officers.

However, there are other factors that may be less familiar to a visiting planner: ‘permeability’ and what Hackney’s cyclists call ‘invisible engineering’.

Local cyclists describe permeability as ‘maximum route choice with minimum diversion’. For cyclists the bicycle performs best when it is used to travel as directly as possible to the desired destination. Diversions are a waste of time and energy. For a commuter with a four-five mile journey the occasional detour may be acceptable but a journey that involves travelling around three sides of a square to avoid a priority junction becomes unnecessarily tiresome.

According to Trevor Parsons, the co-ordinator of the London Cycling Campaign in Hackney, the restoration of permeability to non-motor traffic through parts of the borough, along with engineering measures to reduce traffic speeds, have been among the most influential physical interventions carried out. By their nature these measures are almost undetectable to anybody seeking out what might be termed ‘typical’ cycle facilities. Rather, Hackney’s cyclists and their borough officers have developed a consensus that seeks to avoid what they consider to be tokenistic, and in the long-term potentially harmful, engineering solutions such as cycle lanes and tracks. Instead they have implemented measures that seek to reduce motor traffic speeds, restore cycle permeability to sections of the borough where this had been lost (principally to egregious one-way systems), operate a comprehensive programme of cycle training and support a general acceptance for people’s right to cycle on the highway.

Hackney has hardly any green painted cycle lanes and the few dedicated segregated cycle tracks that do exist tend to be there to facilitate cycle access where other motor traffic is not permitted, for example restoring permeability via a cycle contra-flow along a previously barred one-way street.

The restoration of two-way working to the Shoreditch Gyratory, a formerly inner city triangle that stifled non-motorised traffic movement across the borough, has seen permeable access restored. It may be argued that this has assisted ongoing economic development to this previously unfashionable part of the city. Hackney alone is now home to 12 bicycle shops, where in recent years there were only three or four, which says something about the potential economic impact that promotion of cycling as transport can bring to an area.

Conduct a survey on what most non-cycling people want before they will consider riding a bike and this list is likely to include cycle lanes, green paint and segregated cycle tracks. But ask Mr Parsons and other members of his group in Hackney and the list will be quite different. It will involve offering a comprehensive cycle training programme, lower motor traffic speeds, easy direct travel from A to B by bike and general acceptance that we can share highway space.

Within the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges the hierarchy of provision for cyclists places traffic reduction, speed reduction and redistribution of the carriageway via bus lanes and wide nearside lanes among the interventions to consider first when developing infrastructure for cyclists. The large increase in bicycle use within Hackney demonstrates that, when thoughtfully implemented with other complimentary measures, this hierarchy works extremely well.

From home to the beach and back. Click the image for the mapmyride route.

While visiting my parents over Christmas, I joined them for several bike rides on Gulf Breeze (a spit of land between Pensacola Bay and Pensacola Beach). Much of this peninsula is essentially a sand bar with a busy US Highway running through it.

Years ago a recreational cycling loop was designed to circle the sound from Gulf Breeze to Navarre to Pensacola Beach and back to Gulf Breeze. It’s no longer a complete loop because the beach road was washed away in Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis.

Part of the remaining route includes 6.5 miles of connected low volume roads marked by numbered wayfinding signs. This allows cyclists to bypass busy and complex US 98. It connects them to a bike path and to numerous commercial destinations. It has given my parents a unique opportunity to ride on roads with light traffic and no bike lanes… an ideal environment for novice cyclists.

This is the part of the route that most interested me. I took several trips on it and saw a lot of other cyclists, some recreational, some appeared to be utility cyclists. It was good to see my parents ride safely and confidently in the narrow lanes with motorists passing courteously. The numbered route signs are a nice navigational aide for people who aren’t familiar with the roads, as well as a reminder to motorists that it is a cycling route.

The Naval Live Oaks Area preserve occupies a 3 mile stretch of land between the eastern neighborhoods of the peninsula and Gulf Breeze proper, where the Bob Sikes bridge connects to Pensacola Beach. FDOT has constructed a bike path alongside US 98 connecting those neighborhoods to the city limits.

The path is wide and has only two intersections in 3 miles—the entrance to the park visitor center and the exit from the park. The adjacent highway has shoulders and “bikes sharing roadway” signs. Side paths and shoulders are optional in Florida, so cyclists can still legally claim the right lane. This is what Dan Gutierrez refers to as “Inclusive Design.” In an ideal world, inclusive design would also include a cultural awareness of a cyclist’s right to the use of the lane, regardless of any facilities present.

Unfortunately, like too many facilities built in a culture which doesn’t respect bicycles as vehicles, the path runs into problems before connecting to the city and the bridge to the beach.

At the end of the public land is a piece of private property and a shopping center. The private land owner refused to allow the trail to extend through his property, so the nice wide trail ends abruptly and is routed onto a less wide sidewalk wedged between the highway and overgrown vegetation.

It then dumps into a parking lot entrance, after which it becomes a narrow winding sidewalk (I’ll come back to this). The local cyclists have created their own bike route through the shopping center parking lot and an adjacent office complex to connect to the bridge. The parking lot route isn’t bad, it follows a somewhat-predictable road, but it contains one dicey left turn when headed west. Parking lots are full of unpredictable movements by both vehicles and pedestrians, they are not ideal bike routes. The best and safest bike route for entering the bridge is the vehicular route over the cloverleaf. It’s very easy to use from the westbound side of US 98, but it isn’t easy to get to from the path.

Once beachbound cyclists return to the path on the bridge road, they must cross the road in order to ride with traffic. There is no traffic light for this crossing, and the crosswalk is oddly marked. There are crosswalk warning signs, but they are for another crosswalk after the place where cyclists cross.

The dicey left turns for cyclists suggest the recreational loop was intended to be ridden only in one direction—clockwise.

The Bob Sikes bridge has wide shoulders on both sides and cyclists are able to bypass the toll paid by motor vehicles.

Upon entering the beach, the shoulder becomes a path, then a sand-filled bike lane. The bike lane is routed through a parking lot and directly behind the rear bumpers of parked cars.

Pensacola Beach has suffered a lot since Ivan, but the roads have been repaved. The bike path appears to be repaved in places, but it has been chopped and patched in numerous spots for what appears to be utility placement. The patch jobs are horrible, sometimes with 3 inch drop-offs in the pavement. The smooth roadway pavement is far more inviting.

Turning around to head back to Gulf Breeze, there are no bike lanes or paths until you reach the bridge. This is, of course, ideal for vehicular cyclists. But the cyclists lured to the beach by bike paths are left to ride through a series of parking lots, or ride the wrong way back across the bridge. Many choose to ride against traffic across the bridge, we passed several wrongway riders on our way over (a nerve-racking experience for Mom who had enough excitement dealing with her first climb and descent).

We returned on the correct side of the road. The peninsula-side parking lot improvisation was easier riding east than it was on the way out. I returned a day later to check out what the trail looks like past where we turned into the business complex parking lot. As if the narrow sidewalk wasn’t bad enough, part of it isn’t even paved!

There are more photos of the pavers and shoddy maintenance in the gallery.

The path system is riddled with the kind of careless design and neglected maintenance which makes things much more difficult for cyclists than using the road. Looking at this path system from the perspective of an experienced vehicular cyclist, it’s ridiculous and unnecessary. Looking with the eyes of a novice, it has some frightening gaps and requires several nerve-racking technical maneuvers. One has to wonder just who it is designed to serve.

The wayfinding system, OTOH, serves all levels of cyclists. It creates a desirable alternative to US 98. It allows cyclists to follow the rules they understand as drivers of other vehicles. It creates no illusions of safety. It contains no tricky turns. It gives cyclists the same standards of design and maintenance motorists receive.

When we think about finding ways to encourage people to ride bikes, let’s think in terms of the gold standards of what best serves cyclists of all levels… above a basic standard of competence. Anything added to the existing transportation network should really accommodate cyclists, not simply get us out of the way or create an illusion to lure novices. It should encourage correct, law-abiding behaviors. Good solutions empower cyclists to expand their range and travel network, not enable them to cling to fear. Facilities should enhance access, not make bike travel more difficult.

Coexist sign concept by Wayne Pein

Christmas came early in Winter Park, Eatonville and Maitland. Earlier this month, the trustees of the Winter Park Health Foundation agreed to fund the next phase of the Civility on the Road initiative. This grant will support the research phase of the initiative—focus group testing of attitudes and successful social messaging. Funds will be administered by the Florida Bicycle Association. The social marketing professionals at Salter>Mitchell will conduct the research. The project will be overseen by a citizen advisory board of bike/ped advocates, law enforcement and driving educators (Safety Council).

The idea for this initiative was submitted by me last December when WPHF put out a request for citizen ideas to create a healthy, active community. The purpose of the idea is to encourage active transportation by creating a more welcoming environment for non-motorized road users (see, Roads are for People). The idea has resonated with non-cyclists as well as cyclists because everyone feels the impact of impatient, uncivil behavior on the roads (I feel it more driving a car than I do on my bike).

Through its Healthscaping initiative, the Winter Park Health Foundation has funded several other projects to benefit cyclists, including 34 new bike racks in Winter Park, Eatonville and Maitland and a Wayfinding system which is being overseen by Metroplan Orlando. Last year, they produced a Fun & Fitness Map which included favorite routes through town, next year the map will be expanded to include more area and detail.

Merry Christmas!