Warning redux.

This tragedy is the result of what many consider a "bike friendly" design in a "Platinum" bike friendly town. Personally, I consider this to border upon criminal negligence on the part of the municipality that installed and promoted a design like this.

What makes this different than other bicycle tragedies? This is different because THE DESIGN of the facility caused the collision, and the death. This didn't just happen, it was designed in. The truck driver did nothing wrong. He obeyed the "rules" of the design. The cyclist was obeying the "rules" of the design. And those who promote designs like this? They just shrug, and suggest fitting cattle-guards underneath cement trucks to catch cyclists.

This same danger is exacerbated by "cycle-tracks", a design long unequivocally and emphatically discouraged by the AASHTO Guide for Bicycle Facilities. But the same folks who brought you the "straight-through" bike lanes are bringing cycle tracks back... also known as sidewalk cycling.

Why would this be necessary?

The City of Portland is installing these on all LWB city vehicles, and considering that they be mandated for all LWB trucks operating in the city.

Do you know why?

Take your pick.

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.

In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.

The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.

There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.

-- George Orwell

Cargo Cults.

What does this have to do with anything?

What are they afraid of?

It's not too late!

Christmas is just two weeks away!

Irony-deficient bicycle advocacy contortions.

The President of the League of American Bicyclists is presenting a city with a Platinum Bike Friendly Award today (it's highest honor). The city in question is an idyllic university town in the mountains, with over 60% of its population directly associated with the university. It does have lots of segregated facilities (many of which are quite nice), and lots of cyclists (note the demographics), but it also has a bike ban on one of it's streets. Accepting a bike ban as part of a bicycle friendly attitude requires flexibility worthy of a contortionist.

Why not withhold the honor pending removal of the bike ban?

Being as this city is not the only LAB-certified "bike friendly" city that bans bicycles from some of its streets and roads (we aren't talking about limited access freeways and toll roads, but normal thoroughfares), bike bans don't appear to be a concern to the LAB, only the number of miles of segregated bike facilities. If your job (or your home) was on that street, too bad.

The LAB continues it's drive to define bicycles as a separate vehicle type that requires segregation from other vehicles. To the LAB, seemingly, Bikes Belong (off the street). They've come a long way, from defending bicyclists' full rights as road users to promoting them as toy vehicle operators.

Happy Holidays!

Don't over-specialize the season. Spread it out over the whole year.

Memorandum

CITY OF DALLAS

DATE
December 5, 2008

TO
Transportation and Environment Committee Members: Linda Koop (Chair), Sheffie Kadane (Vice Chair), Jerry Allen, Carolyn Davis, Vonciel Jones Hill, Angela Hunt, Pauline Medrano, Ron Natinsky

SUBJECT
Status Report on the Dallas Bike Plan Update

The Regional Transportation Council (RTC) has programmed $300,000 in Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) funding for an update of the City of Dallas Bike Plan. The Dallas Bike Plan was originally approved by the City Council in 1985 and has had only minor route updates since its adoption. The RTC endorsed the use of regional funding because it wants to use the Dallas Bike Plan update as a model for other North Texas cities to develop and implement bicycle plans.

The project will be administered by North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) with the City of Dallas providing project oversight of the selected consultant. The consultant selection process will be managed by NCTCOG with guidance from the City of Dallas. The funding source for the UPWP funds will be the Texas Department of Transportation and will require a local match of $75,000 from the City. Total funding for the project is $375,000. The project is expected to begin in May 2009 and take about eighteen months to complete.

Public involvement will be a vital part of the update of the City’s Bike Plan. It is anticipated that the development of the plan will be guided by three committees:

A Steering Committee will consist of policy officials representing public agencies. In addition to the City of Dallas and the RTC, this committee could include representatives from other agencies such as Dallas County and DART. It will provide overall policy direction regarding the development of the plan, and ultimately, forward a recommended plan to the Council’s Transportation and Environment Committee (TEC) for consideration. Linda Koop, as Chair of the TEC, has indicated that Councilmembers Angela Hunt and Sheffie Kadane will represent the City of Dallas on the Steering Committee serving as the Committee’s Co-Chairs.

A Stakeholders Committee will serve as the primary source of input from the community at large. This committee should include a broad spectrum of community perspectives including recreational and commuter cyclists, bicycle club interests, trail users, and others interested in encouraging bicycle use as part of a multimodal transportation system in Dallas.

Finally, a Technical Committee will be comprised of key staff members from the City of Dallas, NCTCOG and other public agencies involved in the project. Several departments would be involved from the City including Public Works and Transportation, Parks and Recreation, Dallas Police Department and Development Services. The purpose of the Technical Committee is to provide information and data on local conditions and constraints, technical oversight of the consultant’s work, and assist in the development/evaluation of alternatives for review by stakeholders and policymakers.

The Bicycle Plan Update will consider a full range of bicycle facility types (e.g., shared lanes, striped bike lanes, off-street trails) to accommodate and encourage bicycle use as a mode of transportation. Elements that planning process should include are:

• Identification/evaluation of all available bicycle facility types;
• Design requirements for bicycle facility types and guidelines for the appropriate application of each type;
• Review of existing Dallas Bike Plan on-street routes and development of recommendations to retain or modify the routes and facility types;
• Integration with NCTCOG’s Veloweb plan and the Park and Recreation Department’s Trail Network Master Plan;
• Identification of connection points/corridors between cities;
• Methods to facilitate bicycle accommodation on public transit;
• Recommendations for on-street and off-street bicycle parking;
• Bicyclist and motorist education program recommendations; and,
• Electronic and print versions of the Bike Plan and maps in both English and Spanish.



Please contact me if you need additional information.


Ramon F. Miguez, P.E.
Assistant City Manager

c: The Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
Mary K. Suhm, City Manager
Thomas P. Perkins, Jr., City Attorney
Deborah Watkins, City Secretary
Craig Kinton, City Auditor
Judge C. Victor Lander, Judiciary
Ryan S. Evans, First Assistant City Manager
Ramon F. Miguez, P.E., Assistant City Manager
Jill A. Jordan, P.E., Assistant City Manager
A.C. Gonzalez, Assistant City Manager
Forest Turner, Interim Assistant City Manager
David Cook, Chief Financial Officer
Jeanne Chipperfield, Director, Budget and Management Services
Helena Stevens-Thompson, Assistant to the City Manager – Council Office
Edward Scott, Director, Office of Financial Services
Rick Galceran, P.E., Director, Public Works and Transportation

PNP: Exhibit A

From the dark side (of the Atantic).

It's a good reminder that we may be seen differently than we intend, and that we all get tarred with the same brush.

This is why it is so important to ride competently, lawfully, and courteously. As the saying goes, "Same Rights. Same Rules. Same Roads." But as I told my beautiful bride after she related a run-in she had with some unpleasant cyclists, "You can take an asshole out of a car and put him on a bike, but he's still an asshole."

Currency of the times.

A good reason to wear a helmet confirmed.

While much of the propaganda behind bike helmets is often false, exaggerated, and dangerously misleading, there is one aspect of their usage that I have always endorsed: visibility.

I believe that bike helmets make you more visible in the streets, and wearing one instantly communicates to motorists that you are not merely a pedestrian. At first glance, you may be a motorcyclist, or you may even be a motorcycle cop. This is "first recognition" stuff, the kind of response that causes immediate reaction.

This was confirmed to me by watching some Dallas Police motorcycle officers running two speed traps recently. With their bikes parked out of sight, they stood behind some bushes with their radar guns poised for quick action. In both recent cases, on mornings when the temperatures were in the 30 degree range, the officer's bare heads stuck up above the concealing shrubbery. They both had removed their helmets, AND their aviator sunglasses, as a form of concealment. Approaching motorists saw them as pedestrians.

So, do you want cars to slow down as they approach you? Wear a white helmet.

BTW: Studies in the UK show just the opposite... that motorists drive faster when they are around helmet-clad cyclists than they do when the cyclists are bareheaded, but that doesn't necessarily mean they won't still slow down more and more quicky when they see the helmet here in the USA.

It's not too late!

Makes a perfect gift for that Elected Official, Transportation Department Executive, or National Bicycle Advocacy Czar on your Holiday gift list. Why send a fruitcake when you can give the gift of education? Their morning coffee can open their eyes in more ways than one.

Just follow the T-Shirt link at the bottom right, or click here.

A warning to cyclists.

Bicycle facilities that place a cyclist to the right of vehicles at intersections are very dangerous. Even a wide curb lane can be dangerous, not just from the "right hook" collision caused by straight-through cyclists and right turning motor vehicles, but also from "right on red" trucks.

As usual, Keri Caffrey is "righting" the book on these dangerous situations at the Orlando Bike Commuting Blog.

Read it.

Read it now.

Paradise found?

William Blake: The Temptation and Fall of Eve

My daughter is doing her senior paper on John Milton's "Paradise Lost", the epic poem that dealt with mankind's fall from grace and expulsion from Paradise.

Some believe they have found it again.