More on “Cyclists” versus “People Who Ride Bikes”

A couple weeks ago I posted an opinion piece entitled “The Last Thing Toronto Needs is More Cyclists” and attempted to make the point that any Torontonian should not be labeled, stereotyped or pigeonholed based on the type of transportation they like to use.

Photo by MBeauchamp on Flickr

The post fostered much discussion, both among people who understood what I was saying and those who thought I was saying that cycling advocates or people who eat-live-sleep bikes are not needed (I suspect these people may have just skimmed the post?) … when what I was in fact saying was that regular, ordinary “people who ride bikes” are more powerful than people who choose to label themselves as “cyclists”.

Cycling advocates are very important in the pursuit of better and more extensive cycling infrastructure… and here in Toronto, nobody does it better than the Toronto Cyclists Union and the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation.   They have a presence at City Hall, reach out to groups across the city, and generally are involved in policy stuff that regular non-advocates do not have time for.

My post “The Last Thing Toronto Needs is More Cyclists” made the point that the label of “cyclist” is not only a loaded one (media portrayals of cyclists in Toronto often involve mentions of rule-breaking and self-righteousness) but inaccurate (since most people who ride bikes in Toronto are also pedestrians, motorists and transit users) and that it is harmful to the promotion of cycling in Toronto to use it… because the vast majority of cyclists in Toronto do not identify themselves as such.

The following infographic shows the numerical ratio between “cyclists” and “people who ride bikes” and asks what group obviously would have more influence.   We’ve used the approximate number of members of the Toronto Cyclists Union (which does an excellent job of cycling advocacy) as a rough estimate of how many people self-identify themselves as cyclists.  These ~1000 cyclists should be commended for paying to join an organization with the purpose of lobbying for cycling infrastructure improvements. We’ve also used the 2009 City of Toronto survey which identifies dedicated and occasional users of bicycles in the city for utilitarian and recreational purposes.

INFOGRAPHIC: BY THE NUMBERS

Essentially, the label of “cyclist” is helpful because it’s a form of identification and unification… but it’s also a hinderance, as it allows mainstream media and society to lump us all into the same group and marginalize us as a monolithic group instead of the diverse and varied individuals we are.

Copenhagenize makes this point very well with the comparison of bicycle afficionados with vacuum afficionados… sure there are some, but there are far more people who simply find bicycles (like vacuums) a very useful tool to help make their lives easier and/or more fun:

We all have a vacuum cleaner, we’ve all learned how to use it and we all use it. But we don’t go around thinking about our vaccum in the course of a day. Only when the bag is full do we roll our eyes and sigh. Kind of like when our tire is flat/chain is loose and we chuck our bike into the bike shop.

We don’t have a ’stable’ of vacuum cleaners. We don’t buy vacuum cleaning clothes from our LVS or wave at other ‘avid’ vacuum cleaning ‘enthusiasts’ whilst we clean. The relationship to our bicycles is the same as to our vacuum cleaners. They’re both merely incredibly effective and useful tools for making our daily lives easier.

- Copenhagenize

What do you think?  Is it better for all people who ride bikes in Toronto to be lumped into the “cyclists” label… or is it better for them to just be people who happen to sometimes (or always) use a fun, green, cheap way to get around the city?

Cycle Chic in Copenhagen and Beyond

The true cost of gasoline

From City Block

The New York Times’ oil map now includes a close-up of the landfall area around the Gulf Coast.

In Sunday’s Washington Post, Ezra Klein provides some much-needed context as to the true cost of oil, and in turn the gasoline we buy to power our cars. The key part is framing the overall cost in terms of externalities:

Most of us would call the BP spill a tragedy. Ask an economist what it is, however, and you’ll hear a different word: “externality.” An externality is a cost that’s not paid by the person, or people, using the good that creates the cost. The BP spill is going to cost fishermen, it’s going to cost the gulf’s ecosystem, and it’s going to cost the region’s tourism industry. But that cost won’t be paid by the people who wanted that oil for their cars. It’ll fall on taxpayers, on Gulf Coast residents who need new jobs, on the poisoned wildlife on the seafloor.

That means the gasoline you’re buying at the pump is — stick with me here — too cheap. The price you pay is less than the product’s true cost. A lot less, actually. And it’s not just catastrophic spills and dramatic disruptions in the Middle East that add to the price. Gasoline has so many hidden costs that there’s a cottage industry devoted to tallying them up. At least the ones that can be tallied up.

Klein lists pollution, congestion, the need for our military to secure oil reserves, and citing some other research from Ian Parry at RFF, he concludes the premium is $1.65 per gallon of gas – which put on top of the current average cost per gallon of $2.72, would mean we’d need $4.37 gas to cover the true costs – a number Klein notes is almost certainly an underestimate. However, Klein notes that while higher gas prices would certainly curb some driving (and data suggests this to be true), the larger move over the past decades has been the entrenchment of our auto-dependence, and thus our gasoline dependence.

The key to reducing use is to provide alternatives:

That gets to the bigger issue, which is that energy sources are cheap or expensive only in relation to one another. And the heaviest anchor beneath our reliance on oil is that, at this point, there’s nothing to replace it with.

“We’re pretty much stuck with our dependency on oil,” Parry says. “We don’t have any substitutes. Even if we hugely increase the price on oil, we’d only have limited impact on it. People need to drive and get to work.”

In urban situations, reducing oil use means reducing driving. A key part of that equation would be to provide more alternative transportation modes. If we were to raise the price of oil via an increase in the gas tax, that revenue could be used directly to build those new transportation infrastructures – internalizing the externality.

In other urban, externality pricing schemes, linking the revenue generated from the tax to a tangible benefit for users is the key to gaining political support. Donald Shoup talks extensively about funneling parking revenue to parking benefit districts; polls in New York suggested that dedication of congestion pricing revenue to transit improvements was the key to securing popular support (if not legislative support). Linking revenues to the tax is a key part of helping people understand the value of the virtuous cycle – no matter how counter-intuitive it might be.

Tom Vanderbilt Talks “Traffic”

Story of Cap & Trade

The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Accessibility

by Sarah Goodyear

Too many American cities and towns are places where humans fear to tread. (Photo: =kryz= via Flickr)

A few months ago, we had a discussion in this space about the question of whether mobility is a basic human right. Many commenters expressed concern that framing the issue this way was counterproductive, leading to the impression that people in our society should have the right to jet anywhere they want at a moment’s notice. Here’s what commenter Mark Walker had to say then:

I would argue that we’re already hyper-mobile and need to reduce the need for mobility by building walkable communities served by efficient and sustainable transit. Telling Americans mobility is a human right is like telling the morbidly obese that Doritos are a human right.

Several other commenters suggested reframing the argument to emphasize "accessibility" rather than "mobility." And that’s exactly what member blog A Place of Sense, in Indianapolis, is talking about today.

The blog’s author, Graeme Sharpe, writes that it can be instructive to keep the Americans with Disabilities Act in mind when considering how much access people have to the amenities and opportunities of their towns and cities:

[T]he Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Title III, clearly defines universal accessibility as a right. Architectural barriers to access are not permitted in open establishments, transportation, or public places.

It is well known that the layout of a city shows the values of its citizens. Seen through the lens of the ADA, our street design policies are upside down. Accessibility is a prime concern for any new building
project, but other than a few laudable street designs (Cultural Trail!), most cities cede the public right-of-way to automobiles without a second thought.…

Continue…

Editorial: Riding on the Shuttle Bus: A Moving Misfortune

From UAH Exponent

I distinctly remember, as a little kid, hopping on the Red Line El train with my mother in Chicago, and there it was, life and civilization at its finest. People talked to each other and the quality of life was superb. The buses weren’t as exciting, but they were reliable, and they got me and others to school, downtown or wherever we needed to be.

That was the late nineties. Now fast-forward eight years, and here I am in Huntsville, Ala., where public transportation is a very intrinsic problem that needs to be addressed, especially with a city of its nascent size.

But before I attempt to down something, I have to experience it firsthand. After my last class I decided to take a ride on this short bus that drives around town so empty and desolate—the Huntsville Shuttle.

After the 20-minute wait off Holmes across from the library, with no bench or anything that encourages anyone to actually wait, I finally saw the bus come from across the bridge. The bus driver looked pretty surprised, with a stark look on his face. As I paid the 50 cents and looked inside, the bus was virtually empty—except for an old lady whose hair was literally as white as snow.

She had Wal-Mart bags in her brittle hands, with various fruits and vegetables and what looked like Arm and Hammer baking soda because of its distinct orange box. So I sat down across from her as she smiled. I then envisioned this same bus filled with college kids and 20-somethings, who might be going to work downtown or to Bridge Street.

Countless studies show that public transportation offers surprising benefits to our health, the environment and our local communities. Public transportation and walking increases social capital by promoting and encouraging face-to-face interaction with your neighbors. As obesity continues to plague our society, we must realize that there are alternatives—just not necessarily in Huntsville. Huntsville lacks density, which is a major factor because a bus or train can’t go everywhere in every neighborhood. Huntsville also isn’t very well-connected except for one neighborhood—Five Points. Its grid-like street network with a mix of residences and businesses built right next to each other is convenient to those who live there. It is also the only neighborhood that offers a diverse, mixed-income environment for everyone—young and old, singles and families, the rich and the poor.

So what can be done? Maybe write a letter to the mayor. But as for now, I’ll see you at the Kangaroo.

Public Transportation Improvements

University Crosswalks do not work for the handicap

From the same city which just settled 1.2 million lawsuit  for not including handicap access for the Von Braun Center Remodeling.

Garth Road bicycling dangers could be alleviated with wider sidewalk

By Keith Clines, The Huntsville Times

June 04, 2010, 6:30AM

View full sizeEric Schultz / The Huntsville TimesBicyclists ride along Dug Hill Road.HUNTSVILLE, AL - Mary Ann Demaioribus wants to know if the city can do something to make bicycling on Garth Road safer.

DeMaioribus said that on a recent Saturday about 7 a.m. she was biking up a hill northbound on Garth Road toward Drake Avenue when not only a car passed her, but another car passed the car that was passing her.

"That was the last straw," DeMaioribus said in an e-mail. "What can be done to make Garth Road near Jones Valley farm safer for bikers? The road is very narrow with no bike lane. Garth Road is the only way a biker can go from the northern areas around Drake Avenue to the southern valley without going down to Whitesburg Drive."

DeMaioribus offered two suggestions if widening Garth Road is not feasible.

She said the city could ban automobiles and allow bicycles only on Garth Road from Jones Valley Elementary School to Carl T. Jones Drive for three hours on Saturday mornings.

"This is done in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park at Cades Cove every Saturday morning and it works beautifully," DeMaioribus said.

Her other suggestion is to widen the sidewalk on Garth Road for bikers and pedestrians to share.

Jo Somers, a city traffic engineer, said she was sorry to learn of DeMaioribus' bad experience. Unfortunately, she added, many motorists don't realize that cyclists have the same rights to the road and should be treated the same as other vehicles.

Closing Garth Road several hours on Saturday is not practical because of the few north-south roads in the area, Somers said.

Widening the sidewalk to accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians is on theTraffic Engineering Department's wish list, she said.

"We recognize the safety benefits that would be derived by a bikeway and this improvement is much more economical than wider lanes on Garth," Somers said.

Protesters urge BP boycott at gas station

Posted: June 1, 2010 08:14 PM

Updated: June 1, 2010 08:14 PM

BRADENTON - Some Manatee County residents were urging drivers to avoid filling up at BP Tuesday afternoon.
A handful spent the afternoon protesting in front of the BP station on State Road 64 east of I-75.
Like many others across the nation, they're upset over BP's response to the spill and the company's inability so far to stop the leak.

via urbanvelo.org

City employees promote bicycle commuting

City administrative assistant Peach Stebbins bikes 13 miles round-trip to and from work about three times weekly in the summer. “It gives me great energy and satisfaction,” she said. Photo by Kathie Meyer Bike-to-work basicsFor more information about bicycle commuting, download the handout (PDF, 66 KB). Fourth annual Fort2Fort Bike Ride The Fort2Fort ride offers three choices, beginning at McCurdy Pavilion in Fort Worden State Park: a fun ride of 17 miles round-trip, a more challenging 42-mile loop to Old Fort Townsend or a 62-mile round-trip to Fort Flagler. Riders may start any time between 8 and 10:30 a.m. Preregistration is $35 if postmarked by Saturday, May 29; cost is $40 after May 29 and on the day of the ride. For more information, visit www.fort2fortride.org. Mail the registration fee to: F2F Ride c/o Friends of Fort Worden 200 Battery Way Port Townsend, WA 98368 By Kathie Meyer of the Leader Bust out the bike!City employees are making a commitment to ride their bicycles to work more often and want others to join them. Last week, some of the city’s most ardent and aspirant bikers met for a short training and encouragement session on the benefits of biking, led by Rick Sepler, director of development services. The training was sponsored by the city’s Wellness Committee. “We figured everyone in Port Townsend can be well,” said Mary Heather Ames, civil engineer. City employees who bike to work regularly are Sepler, Ames, Judy Surber, Peach Stebbins, Tyler Johnson, Ken Clow and Ian Jablonski. Some of them meet at the Haines Place Park-and-Ride, at Haines and 12th streets, at 7:30 a.m. and bike to City Hall together. While they don’t do this every day, any other interested bikers are welcome to show up and join them, they said. Some of the essentials for bike commuting are a headlight, a rear red blinking light, a bell and panniers for transporting a change of clothing, your lunch and other daily needs. Sepler, who coordinates the upcoming Fort2Fort Bike Ride (see sidebar), has an answer for every excuse in the book that people can use for not riding more often. “The hills are the biggest reason people don’t bike here,” said Sepler. To tackle the steepest inclines, he said, use the smallest front gear with the biggest back gear. Using alternate, less direct routes that are flatter is also an option. One can always drive to work, ride their bike home and ride back the next day, said Sepler. Jefferson Transit is another way to get your bike back home, if a two-way commute feels daunting or the weather turns sour. Jefferson Transit also offers bike lockers for use at the park-and-ride and at the Jefferson County Library. “Right now, all four [lockers] at the [county] library are available, and three of the six at the park-and-ride are available,” said Carla Meyer, transit services administrator. The lockers, which come with a built-in lock, are available for an indefinite period of time and are renewed semi-annually. Occupants must sign a user agreement and pay a $45 refundable security and key deposit. Call 385-4777 and ask for Meyer. The benefits of cycling include less pollution, staying fit, saving money and a sense of accomplishment, said Sepler. Biking from work to home is a great mental transition from those stressful problems we sometimes carry home with us, he said. For those who also want to ride recreationally, the Port Townsend Bicycle Association is the best resource for area cycling activities. Visit www.ptbikes.org.

Ride of Silence 2010 PSA

Car-Free Diet Skeptics Challenge "Incentives"

Car-Free Diet Skeptics Challenge: "Incentives" from chris keener on Vimeo.

Man charged in hit and run on River Road

Louisiana State Police have charged Marshall A. Hahn, 30, of Lacombe, La., in the hit and run on River Road Saturday morning that severely injured LSU graduate student Michael Bitton.

Investigators received a tip last night that a Black 2006 Toyota Tundra matching the description involved in the hit and run was parked behind Walk-On's restaurant near the LSU Campus.

According to sources, he was most recently employed as a manager at Walk-On's.

Saturday night, State Police confirmed it was the car and Sunday morning took the car into evidence.

Hahn faces five different charges, including: felony hit and run, passing a bicyclist, careless operation of a vehicle, driving under suspension and negligent injury.

We'll have more on News 2 at 5:30 and 10:00p.m.

Biking around town with Randy “The Ethicist” Cohen

A few years back, Randy Cohen, writer of the NY Times Magazine "The Ethicist" column, visited the Streetfilms set for a unprecedented interview with Mark Gorton about "Transportation Ethics.".  Well we wanted to talk more, so this time we got out of the studio to take a two-wheeled jaunt around New York City and visit many of his favorite spots and take in the alfresco enchantment of the capital of the world.

As you'll see during our ten mile journey, Mr. Cohen offered up some very decisive opinions about car-free Central Park, weighed in on the ethics of  "bike salmoning" (riding wrong way in bike lanes), whether he stops for red lights (you might be surprised by his answer), and comments on how transformative our streets have become for pedestrians and cyclists.

He also doesn't hide the fact he has a massive "policy crush" on NYC DOT chiefJanette Sadik-Khan.

Driving without Dying

Thought about Clint on this one from our friends at Fuckgas.org in Louisville.

Found this one over at Copenhagenize and it’s got some really great points. Check out Jack’s 10 reasons to wear a helmet in the car. This coupled with another post by Mikael really got me thinking about the whole cycling helmet issue. Riding a bicycle down the street is not a dangerous activity. It’s the cars and neglectful driving that create the hazard. I’ve always had an issue with this from a parenting standpoint. The mother of my children is very much on the side of helmets. “The kids need to wear helmets when riding their bikes.” This I don’t have so much of a problem with when we’re at the skatepark or trails. That has a danger element thrown in. However, I feel they’ll be just fine riding over to their friends or up to the store.

Well, what about in the car? The spot where the real danger emerges from while traveling. Driving is dangerous as fuck, plain and simple. Over 1 million people die from car crashes a year. That’s insane! Regardless, communities still push forward with a carcentric infrastructure with no plans on vearing in another direction. As Mikael mentions over at Copenhagenize, we have to stop falling into this wear your bike helmet bullshit. Riding a bike isn’t dangerous, cars are dangerous! The general ideas behind so many bicycle advocacy measures focus on safety and honestly it makes riding a bike on the road sound scary. No wonder more people aren’t out there riding. All they hear is how dangerous it is to be on the road.

Bicycles are a fast form of transportation. However, here in America the landscape has been designed for the car. Nothing is convenient. I really don’t know what the answer is. How do you turn generations of thought around? We’re raised in cars in this country. How do you convince cities to take driving lanes away, narrow roads and reduce the amount of space for cars to travel in? I suppose this is nothing new and I’m just bitching and moaning as we all know these aspects. I’m just asking for everyone to stop making bike riding sound so damn dangerous and slow the fuck down if you’re driving. The speed limit is that, a limit. You can go slower.

Ride To Earth Fare

Rode out to Earth Fare today to see what all the hoopla was about. They did have a bike rack as they promised they would. And although I could not fit my tires in the rack because they were 700s and not 26". It was still nice to lock my bike up to something other than a hand-rail or cart return. They did inform me that the beef was grass fed up until 90 days before slaughter and then grain fed. I asked the clerk at the meat counter if the beef had been fed corn during those 90 days. He turned to a supervisor who then informed me that the beef had been fed corn, but maybe I am becoming a food snob after reading The Omnivores Dilemma. I am sure the meat is better than what I would get at other stores and looked very good, as did the fish and cheese. They are also the only grocery store I have seen so far to carry High Gravity Beer, and right along side all the other beer. They had some good prices on things and others I thought were a little high and could be purchased just as easily at Fresh Market. Downside is that it is a little far for me to shop on a regular basis but I did enjoyed the bike ride out there. On the plus side unlike the other three stores I shop at: Kroger, Publix, and Fresh Market. Earth Fare is the only one of them to provided a bike rack to secure my bike. I know that Star and Garden Cove have done their part in providing bike racks, but bottom line the produce sucks at Star, and Garden Cove is always out of everything. Very ironic that the least bike-able place for me would be the only one with a bike rack, but hey what are you going to do "Welcome to Huntsville."

Major Bike Mojo in Minneapolis

by Elizabeth Press on May 3, 2010 | 6,520 Plays

In a surprising choice, the May edition of Bicycling Magazine named Minneapolis America’s best city for biking. The city still trails Portland, Oregon in the percentage of commuters who bike to work (4.3 percent to 5.9 percent, respectively, according to the most recent American Community Survey), but Minneapolis has been gaining momentum.

Next month, Minneapolis will launch the largest bike-share program in the country, building on a strong foundation of extensive bike trails and a thriving bicycling community.  They're also using federal funds to double the mileage of on-street bike lanes, build more road diets, introduce bicycle boulevards, and more. Have a look and see how Minneapolis has shot to the top of America's best bicycling cities.

[Editors Note: This film was produced in association with NACTO - the National Association for City Transportation Officials.]

New StreetSense Bike Safety Video!

Check out our brand-new bike safety video for Louisville, featuring Kirby Adams and co-written by local cycling guru Joe Ward! The video covers the ABC Bike Quick Check, where to ride in traffic, where not to ride and lots more! Thanks toVia Internet Studio for work on the production. The video was funded by a Paula Nye Education Grant. Learn more.

Transportation advocate urges Mobile to make streets safer for bicyclists, pedestrians

We are second in the state maybe we can get them to come here?

By Mark R. Kent

May 07, 2010, 9:00AM

MOBILE, Ala. -- The greater Mobile area leads Alabama in the rate of pedestrian and bicycle fatalities -- 31 deaths in 2007-08 alone -- but an advocate of traffic re-engineering says it's more than just judgment errors that kill.

During a seminar Thursday night, Dave Goldberg of the advocacy group Transportation for America cited a national problem of urban and suburban street and road design that favors expanding auto needs at the expense of those who walk, ride bikes or use public transportation.

And it's nothing new, according to Goldberg. Highways feeding suburbs that sprung up after World War II separated residential areas from commercial zones and schools, making walking both impractical and increasingly dangerous. It made America a society increasingly dependent on the car, he said.

Speaking at a seminar titled "Dangerous by Design" as part of Healthy Coast Week, Goldberg showed pictures of numerous examples of roads that he said ignore the needs of pedestrians, including one along which he walks his son to school in Decatur, Ga.

"More than half of pedestrian fatalities happen along arterial roads, often state roads widened from two lanes to four or more," Goldberg said. "About 40 percent are killed where there is no crosswalk available."

Goldberg's group was one of several that advocated the establishment of "complete streets," arteries that serve not only cars but dedicated passage for public transportation, bicycles and walkers.

Three area communities -- Fairhope, Daphne and Chickasaw -- were cited at the seminar for complete-street policies already in place.

Goldberg said his group's long-term goals are to instill policies that repair existing roads and bridges, promote public transportation and complete streets, reclaim aging corridors -- especially in areas "where big-box stores stand vacant" -- and to give new life to arterial roads.

Citing an aging population in the United States, an AARP spokesman said that future community developers need to address not only outdoor needs, but development of homes more easily accessible to older people who may have trouble getting around.

Adam Goldberg -- no relation to David Goldberg -- displayed a number of illustrations showing homes with wide entrances and no porches situated in communities where people can move about "without fear of isolation."

Citing a figure of 29 percent of non-drivers among more than 404,000 people in greater Mobile, Sharon Z. Rorety of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking echoed the sentiments of both Goldbergs in advocating more space for cyclists and walkers.

Smart Coast honored longtime activist Teko Wiseman with its "Giraffe Award" for "sticking her neck out" with her work in helping develop bike and walking trails from Fairhope through Daphne and on to the Battleship USS Alabama.

Sprawlanta

Considering that Huntsville seems to model itself after Atlanta, cars, suburbs, sprawl.

City gets nod for being bicycle-friendly

Saturday, May 01, 2010

By Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

John Heller/Post-Gazette

Bicyclist Stephen Marlette, of Regent Square, left, rides behind Raionda Jemison, 10, of East Liberty, on Friday at the Washington Boulevard bike oval, which was repaved last week.

It still takes some willpower to navigate what Stephen Patchan, city bicycle-pedestrian coordinator, called Pittsburgh's "spaghetti network" of roads.

But the ride is a lot smoother than it used to be, according to a national group that today will announce that the city is a "bicycle-friendly community."

In all, 140 communities nationwide have the designation, recognizing their efforts to make bicycling safer and more convenient. Pittsburgh is one of 16 cities new to the American League of Bicyclists program today. Others include Dayton, Ohio; Spokane, Wash.; and Roanoke, Va.

"I know Pittsburgh is definitely moving forward quite quickly," Meghan Cahill, spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based league said.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10121/1054801-53.stm#ixzz0nAVEymg8

Cycling Up, Injuries Down: NYC Bike Policy Is Working

by Michelle Ernst

In recent years NYC has invested in cycling infrastructure like this separated lane on Sands Street, which created a much safer approach to the Manhattan Bridge.

Fewer bicyclists were injured in 2009, even as more New Yorkers take to their bikes, according to a new analysisof city and state data from Transportation Alternativespublished in the Wall Street Journal.

2,730 people were injured while bicycling in 2009, a 7 percent drop from 2008, and marking five straight years of declines. Since 1998, cycling injuries have fallen by more than 45 percent.

The numbers are especially compelling given the dramatic growth in cycling in the city in recent years. Some estimates suggest that the number of people bicycling in New York City has grown by 20 percent in the past year, a testament to the improvements NYC DOT has made to the city’s bicycling infrastructure.

While at first blush it may seem contradictory that injuries are declining even as cycling rates climb, several academic studies have found that cycling safety improves when there are greater numbers of bicyclists as drivers grow more accustomed to sharing the roads. And certainly NYC DOT’s efforts to improve safety for cyclists and other road users deserves credit.

Image: Gersh Kuntzman/Brooklyn Paper.

More 'ghost bike' memorials erected around Colorado

It's time Alabamians look outside the state to solve the Bicycle safety issues.
"Vermont had zero fatalities, and Alabama had the most: 22.5 deaths per 10,000 bicycles."

Photo by JOE AMON/The Denver Post/AP

A “ghost bike” memorial to Marvin “Chip” Webb is shown April 13 in Lafayette. Webb, a Lafayette cafe owner, died after a collision with a bus while riding his bike near Lafayette City Hall.

---

DENVER - The mountain bike, spray-painted white, is chained to a lamppost at the busy intersection in Lafayette where Marvin “Chip" Webb was hit on his bicycle by an RTD bus. He died the next day.



The bike is adorned with some flowers, a memorial card signed by friends and a stenciled sign that reads “A Cyclist Was Struck Here 4-6-10."

Read more here

EDITORIAL: City must come clean on its glass recycling program

By John Peck, The Huntsville Times

May 03, 2010, 9:50AM

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ Huntsville's Solid Waste Disposal Authority has trashed - pun emphasized - the principles of honesty and responsibility.

For years, the agency that administers the city's highly acclaimed recycling program has steered residents wanting to recycle glass to specially marked dumpsters at a recyclerly in southwest Huntsville.

From there, the old glass was to be delivered to a remanufacturer to turn into new eco-friendly products.

The SWDA is now left red-faced by a dirty little secret that has been revealed. Turns out the glass hasn't been recycled for a couple of years.

At least not in the traditional sense. Instead, it has been burned with other garbage in the city incinerator -  its ash then used as landfill cover.

Thanks for telling us.

What that means is every citizen who dutifully hauled their empty glass containers to Allied Waste's recyclerly off Triana Boulevard - burning their time and their gas - did it all for naught. The glass could just as easily have been tossed in their garbage at home.

read more here

Huntsville residents: Your 'recycled' glass has been ending up in an incinerator

This should be listed with the Huntsville's other awards.

By Steve Doyle, The Huntsville Times

May 02, 2010, 8:33AM

View full sizeRobin Conn / The Huntsville TimesMichael Jones drops off glass bottles for recycling in the public glass recycling bins at Allied Waste's Huntsville Recyclery.

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- For six years, the Lowe Mill arts center took great pride in lugging its empty glass bottles to Allied Waste's Huntsville Recyclery off Triana Boulevard.

Assistant Manager Grace Billiter didn't mind the smelly, heavy work because keeping the bottles out of the landfill was good for the planet. She assumed they were being turned into new, eco-friendly products.

But Allied officials confirmed last week that glass hauled to the recyclery by green-minded residents - about two tons every month - has not been recycled.

read more here it gets better:)