2nd Annual Heartbrakes Prom Benefiting Bici Cooperative

Our friends in Birmingham are having an alleycat!!!!! 


This event on February 13 marks one year that Bici Bicycle Cooperative has been kicking it wild style in Birmingham, Alabama. Couples race around downtown and partying all night long with a keg, music of some sort, karaoke, photo booth, and PIE lovingly made by PieLab in Greensboro, AL!

It’s that time again! We’re working hard to plan our next Bici Alleycat, the 2nd Annual Heartbrakes Prom Benefit. It’s going to be just as much fun as last year – racing around downtown Birmingham, killer prizes, beer, music, and a photo booth – all in a brilliant old warehouse.

Deets:
February 13, 2010
Race at 7:00
Start and after party @ Magic City Wholesale
$10 gets you racing, partying, and beering!
So far, we have prizes from Chrome, Rickshaw Bags, Knog, Higher Ground Roasters, and Good People Brewing Company. Hell Yes!

4 Million Fewer Cars on the Road

America's Love Affair with the Automobile May Be Coming to an End
Surprisingly, the U.S. car fleet has started shrinking, and while this is widely associated with the recession, there are other forces at work.

America's century-old love affair with the automobile may be coming to an end. The U.S. fleet has apparently peaked and started to decline. In 2009, the 14 million cars scrapped exceeded the 10 million new cars sold, shrinking the U.S. fleet by 4 million, or nearly 2 percent in one year. While this is widely associated with the recession, it is in fact caused by several converging forces.

Future U.S. fleet size will be determined by the relationship between two trends: new car sales and cars scrapped. Cars scrapped exceeded new car sales in 2009 for the first time since World War II, shrinking the U.S. vehicle fleet from the all-time high of 250 million to 246 million. (See data atwww.earthpolicy.org/index.php?/plan_b_updates/2010/update87.) It now appears that this new trend of scrappage exceeding sales could continue through at least 2020.

Among the trends that are keeping sales well below the annual figure of 15-17 million that prevailed from 1994 through 2007 are market saturation, ongoing urbanization, economic uncertainty, oil insecurity, rising gasoline prices, frustration with traffic congestion, mounting concerns about climate change, and a declining interest in cars among young people.

Market saturation may be the dominant contributor to the peaking of the U.S. fleet. The United States now has 246 million registered motor vehicles and 209 million licensed drivers--nearly 5 vehicles for every 4 drivers. When is enough enough?

read more here

Help Haiti

Tuesday evening a major earthquake struck Haiti near the capital of Port-au-Prince causing catastrophic destruction in the western hemisphere's most impoverished nation. At least 2 million people have been affected. Oxfam has 200 staff on-the-ground responding with public health, water, and sanitation services to prevent the spread of disease.

• Help now by donating to our Haiti Earthquake Response Fund

BOISE IDAHO Leads the way!!!!

BOISE - A nearly five hour Boise City Council meeting Tuesday evening ended with several new laws in place to protect cyclists and pedestrians. The changes contain three sections penalizing both reckless drivers and cyclists and nearly everyone at the city council meeting attended in support.

Drivers will now be expected to yield to cyclists at intersections, leave at least three feet of distance between bikes and cannot cut bicycles off when turning. Cyclists are now legally required to give a warning before passing someone on the sidewalk, dismount in crowded pedestrian areas and cannot ride recklessly swerving on and off of sidewalks.

"Motorists and bicycles have to share the road," said Michael Zuzel, member of a special city task force on cycling safety. "They have to share the responsibility for making the roads safe. That's why some of these ordinances would penalize motorists for their behavior and some would penalize cyclists for their behavior."


read more here

Homeless in Gadsden The homeless: Our neighbors

In every place that some call home, there are others who have no home, and the experience for those who don't can vary from place to place, said Gene Champion.

“That's the thing about being homeless: You have to travel a lot,” said Champion, who lives under a bridge on U.S. Highway 431 and carries all his ragged worldly belongings — blankets, clothes and a tent — in the baskets of a bright pink bicycle.

More than 80 years old, Champion has lived the homeless lifestyle periodically throughout Alabama. He thinks some cities are more conducive to that life than others. His favorite is Dothan, where he plans to return by Christmas since he thinks he'll find work there. He hasn't had much luck finding employment in Gadsden the last three months.

“If your work plays out in one (city), you have to go to the next (city),” Champion said.

The lack of work isn't the only reason he's leaving, though. He said it's hard to find a good place to camp without being disturbed and asked to move. He's also been struck three times by moving vehicles while riding his bike.

Although job markets, camp sites and attentive motorists may be more abundant in some places than others, Champion's hand-painted “HELP” sign on the back of his bicycle seat evokes assistance from people in Gadsden and “coast to coast,” he said.

read more here

US states could make it illegal to harass cyclists

Laws forbidding the harassment of cyclists could make it into the statute books if plans in Mississippi and Los Angeles come to fruition – following in the wake of similar legislation passed in other US states and cities in 2009.

Mississippi cyclists have been pushing for such bike-friendly legislation for three years, and next year they anticipate success at last. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, a similar law seems to be making steady progress ahead of a crucial vote in January 2010.    

If passed, the Mississippi bill will give riders protection from harassment by motorists, but it will also set out responsibilities for cyclists, such as using hand signals, having the proper equipment (ie. lights) and not riding more than two abreast.

Rich Adair, former president of the state's Jackson Metro cycling club, said harassment was common. "We're competing for the same space, and cars see us as competition," he said. "We have a problem with cars swerving at us or having items thrown at us."

One criticism of the proposed law is that it would fail to define a legal minimum passing distance – something that is already in force elsewhere in the US  (see below).

Los Angeles City Council's transportation committee has also been considering a 'bicyclist anti-harassment ordinance', which is likely to be voted on in January 2010. read more here

Risky cycling rarely to blame for bike accidents, study finds

Cyclists disobeying stop signal or wearing dark clothing at night rarely cited in collisions causing serious injury

A tiny proportion of accidents involving cyclists are caused by riders jumping red lights or stop signs, or failing to wear high-visibility clothing and use lights, a government-commissioned study has discovered.

The findings appear to contradict a spate of recent reports speculating that risky behaviour by riders, such as listening to music players whilecycling, could be behind a near 20% rise in cyclist deaths and serious injuries in the second quarter of this year.

The study, carried out for the Department for Transport, found that in 2% of cases where cyclists were seriously injured in collisions with other road users police said that the rider disobeying a stop sign or traffic light was a likely contributing factor. Wearing dark clothing at night was seen as a potential cause in about 2.5% of cases, and failure to use lights was mentioned 2% of the time.

read more here

Please sign Complete Streets Petition For Huntsville

Please consider signing this petition to have the City of Huntsville adopt the Complete Streets Policy. As you may or may not know Huntsville is the 2nd most deadly city in Alabama for pedestrians.  Lets make the streets here safe for all!! http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/adopt-complete-streets-policy-in-city-of-huntsville-alabama

The streets of our cities and towns are an important part of the livability of our communities. They ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams.

Now, in communities across the country, a movement is growing to complete the streets. States, cities and towns are asking their planners and engineers to build road networks that are safer, more livable, and welcoming to everyone.

Instituting a complete streets policy ensures that transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate the entire roadway with all users in mind - including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.

more info can be found here http://www.completestreets.org