Bicycle Safety and Advocacy – Page 4

September 27, 2009

Glo Gloves Add Safety to Night Riding

If you’d rather ride than read, skip straight to the video

I stuck my video camera on a RAM mount on my buddy George Primm’s bike and asked him to hang with me on a ride through West Palm Beach and Palm Beach. George was a copy editor in his former newspaper life, not a photographer, but he did an OK job.

His bike had some fairly low-powered lights, so the reflectors would have shown up much brighter in car headlights. Still, you can get a pretty good idea of how your signaling is much clearer with the Glo Gloves.

For you detail-oriented folks:

I’m a night rider. I like it because it’s cool and traffic is calmer and better behaved at night.

To see and be seen, I have a SON generator powered B&M Lumotec IQ Cyo R N Plus light on the front, along with at flashing 5-LED ViewPoint Flare.

In the back, I have two taillights. A huge 4×6-inch 18-LED RealLite flashes like a billboard and a solid generator-powered B&M Busch&Müller 4DToplight Senso Multi with battery standlight. I used to have a NiteRider taillight, but my battery died and I haven’t felt the need to replace it.

I’m a fan of reflective material

I have a large Slow Moving Vehicle Triangle on the back of my CamelBak M.U.L.E.. I also stick my Glo Gloves where they add some flash back at vehicles behind me when I’m not wearing them.

After my riding partner had an accident in the middle of nowhere and I didn’t have any contact info for her family, I wear two Medical Data Information tags made of reflective material.

One is attached to the back of my helmet (you’ll be able to see it flashing in the video); the other is on the Camelbak.

So, what are Glow Gloves?

In 2003, someone named Glolady asked if any of the folks on the phred bike touring list would like to test some prototype gloves. Shortly after I volunteered, a pair of Glow Gloves arrived. They looked pretty much like the Original Glo Glove shown on the web site.

I really liked the large red triangle on the palm, but they weren’t overly comfortable on the bike and they tended to slip on the bars. They were redesigned with the red reflective material higher on the wrist and a better gripping palm and named the Sport Glove.

Not enough padding in the right places

I still didn’t like them as a standalone biking glove, because they didn’t have enough padding in the right places for my taste.

What I DID discover was that they were stretchy enough to pull right over my normal gloves when I wanted that extra bit of visibility.

I rediscovered Glo gloves recently

I’ve been riding with some new folks lately and I’ve been stressing about how you need to claim your space on the road and to clearly convey your intentions.

I pulled on the Glo Gloves and found myself interacting with drivers more (and not just with a single digit). If I’m coming up to an intersection and see a car that looks like he may pull out, I’ll holler or whistle loudly while holding up a highly reflective hand. It’s actually more effective than my Delta Airzound Bike Horn in some cases. As I pass the intersection, I’ll give a friendly wave “thanking” them for doing the right thing, like not running over me.

Another nice thing is that the gloves add reflectivity to the front and sides of your bike when your hands are on the bars.

(The two white horizontal reflectors are on the Arkel Small Bar bag.)

Editor’s note: My Glo Gloves were provided for evaluation in 2003 and GloLady was kind enough to send me a new pair for review to make sure that I had the latest version. You can go to the Glo Glove website to find a dealer.

September 26, 2009

Soft Drink Tax, No. Bottle Deposits, Yes

You’re going to hear me talk a lot about stuff I discover when I’m scanning old film and prints.

Cape Girardeau Central High School vending machines circa 1963

This picture of Cape Girardeau (MO) Central High School students lining up to buy soft drinks in the Tiger Den sometime around 1963 caught my eye because of the glass bottles and the soda cases to hold them.

Nutritional aspect aside, what school would allow potentially lethal weapons like glass bottles today?

Fat tax on soft drinks

I’ve been reading lately about the idea of imposing a tax on soft drinks to discourage consumption. (And raise money.)

How about this instead?

Bring back deposits on bottles and cans

Make it a buck a container.

Don’t think it’ll work? Look at the roadsides. You don’t see many aluminum cans in the gutters. They’re picked up by folks who are willing to bend over to recycle them.

On the other hand, I’m constantly dodging broken glass from beer bottles. If you had to pay a buck deposit, you’d either bring the bottle back or someone would be more than happy to pick it up later.

It’s a win-win. The governmental agencies wouldn’t have to spend money to clean up litter, valuable resources would be recycled and folks willing to do a little work would have extra income.

Southeast Missouri Fair was almost as big as Christmas

When I was a kid, the high points of the year were Christmas, the 4th of July, Halloween, your birthday and the week the Southeast Missouri State Fair came to town.

School would let out for half a day and we’d walk our legs off looking at livestock, checking out the cakes and pies entered in the cooking contests and load up on free handouts from every form of local business.

At night there would be stockcar races and a midway lit up with all kinds of lights. Music from rides would compete with barkers who were very good at separating you from your money.

Eventually, you’d run out of cash

At some point, the buck or so you had saved from your allowance would be gone, spent on fair food, rides or trying to win a hunting knife or a teddy bear.

That’s when you and your buddies would go bottle prospecting. You’d crawl under bleachers, root thorough bushes and ask folks who were finishing up their drinks for their bottles – all for the 2-cent deposit.

Some of the more larcenous of the kids would lift up the edges of tents and snatch bottles that had already been returned. They grew up to be investment bankers or politicians.

No bottles left behind

When the fair finally pulled up stakes and headed to the next town, all that was left behind was a muddy field (it ALWAYS rained Fair Week), trampled sawdust and some blowing litter.

The one thing you’d NEVER find was a Coke bottle. They had all been Hoovered up by 10-year-old boys and turned in for two cents.

September 16, 2009September 17, 2009

Transportation Amendments Defeated

Good News: phone calls and emails work. Two amendments that would have eliminated the majority of federal funds for trails, walking and bicycling were defeated today.

It makes no sense that two senators proposed cutting money for alternative forms of transportation. My experience with these trails is that they are used by locals for short hops to neighbors and businesses as much as for “recreational” riding.

Here’s the background from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

On Tuesday, September 15, Senators John McCain (Ariz.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.) issued two amendments to the FY10 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. If passed, these amendments would eliminate the majority of available federal funds for trails, walking and bicycling.

Amendment 2370

Amendment 2370 would prohibit the use of federal funds for pedestrian or bicycle facilities, efforts to reduce vehicle collisions with wildlife, or other specified Transportation Enhancement (TE) projects if the Highway Trust Fund cannot cover unfunded highway authorizations.

Amendment 2371

Amendment 2371 is even trickier; while it claims to allow states to opt out of spending on TE projects, the actual amendment text in fact notes that “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to implement” TE projects.

Providing opportunities for Americans to walk, bike and take transit to get where they’re going improves our communities’ health and livability, reduces emissions, creates jobs and save money.

Here’s the full story.

I emailed my senators

The Rails-to-Trails folks suggested calling your senator. Several Phreds said they had tried to call their senators but kept getting busy signals. When they finally connected, they were told that they had been receiving a heavy response.

I used this link to find the email addresses of my senators. About 15 minutes after sending the email, I received the bulletin that the amendments had been defeated. (And, no, I don’t think there was any connection between the two actions.)

Keep McCain and Coburn in mind next election

If you live in Arizona (McCain) or Oklahoma (Coburn), keep their “support” of Transportation Enhancements in mind when you go to the polls next election.

Here’s an update from Rails to Trails

The final vote was 59 to 39 to defeat the Amendment 2371 (Sen. Coburn, finding minimal support for 2370, withdrew it on his own).

Florida’s senators split the vote. Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson voted to defeat the amendment. I sent him an email of thanks.

Republican Sen. LeMieux voted against peds and cyclists

Newly-appointed Republican Sen. George LeMieux voted FOR the amendment and against the best interests of pedestrians and cyclists. I sent him the following email:

I was pleased to see Senator Nelson vote against Amendment 2371 on H.R. 3288, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill.

I was equally disappointed to see that you voted to eliminate set-asides for the Transportation Enhancements (TE) program.

Florida has the highest death rate for cyclists and pedestrians in the country.

I know that money is tight right now, but that makes it even more important that we do everything we can to provide safe and healthy transportation alternatives.

August 19, 2009August 19, 2009

New York’s Summer Streets Clears Roads for People

New York Summer Streets

Chicago Bike the Drive

Back in May, I posted a video of Chicago’s annual Bike the Drive day that attracts nearly 20,000 bike riders.

It was impressive to see what the streets would look like if they were covered with people biking, blading and walking instead of being cooped up in tin cans belching dead dinosaurs.

Imagine NEW YORK without motorized gridlock

2009 New York City Street Smarts

The Summer Streets program sounds like a great idea.

I’ve never been to New York. I never wanted to go to New York.

In fact, I always told my photo staff that New York was the exception to my rule, “I won’t send you anywhere I haven’t been or wouldn’t go.”

Because of that, this map doesn’t mean anything to me and 7.9 miles doesn’t sound like very fair.

Still, the video almost makes me want to go see what the city’s like when it’s set up for humans for three weekends: August 8, 15 and 22.

Like Critical Mass without the angst

One YouTube viewer commented, “That is pretty cool! It is like Critical Mass without all the yelling, angst, bloodshed and police brutality. :)”

Another suggested, “I think it would be better if once a year they opened those streets to cars and let people have them the rest of the time.”

August 17, 2009August 18, 2009

Iowa bike ban petition headed nowhere

Really stupid ideas bubble up from time to time and my first instinct is not to comment on them. One of those is a petition drive to ban bicycles from farm-to-market roads in Iowa.

No shared farm-to-market roadways in Iowa

Here’s the text of the petition being circulated by the Citizens for Safety Coalition of Iowa:

We the undersigned are Iowa residents who urge our Legislature to support a ballot initiative for the November 2010 election which will prohibit bicyclists from using state and county defined farm-to-market roads.

A farm-to-market road is a state or county road which serves to connect rural or agricultural areas to market towns.

Over the past ten years the number of bicyclists using these farm-to-market roads for recreational purposes has increased dramatically as have the number of preventable accidents and fatalities.

Rural commerce and citizens are significantly impacted when forced to share the farm-to-market roadways with bicyclists. Because of the growth of today’s commerce and agricultural business, shared roadways are no longer safe or practical in today’s society.

What are the bike-banners really griping about?

Bikes don’t pay taxes or have licenses on them. (If people want to ride their bikes on the highways, we should tax the air they put in their tires as we are taxed on the gas we put in our cars.)
Bikes don’t belong on the road. (Get their asses off the road for their safety and mine.) (After this, can we ban them from city streets?) (They tell you not to swerve for deer, so why swerve for bikes.)
Bikes should stay on their own bike trails. (If you want to play basketball, you go find a basketball court. If you want to cycle, you should have to go to a trail.)
Slow-moving farm equipment needs to be on the roads. (It is a shame that leisure time cyclists have more of a right to the road than the hardworking farmers supporting this state.)
Cyclists are law breakers. (They can’t seem to follow rules, so ban them.)

You get the idea. I couldn’t read more than the first 300 or so comments without getting a headache. By the way, if you want to sign their petition, find it yourself.

See my Slow Moving Vehicle triangle? Treat me like a tractor

If you’ve been reading this blog long, you know that’s my mantra. I ride with a Slow Moving Vehicle triangle on my Camelbak and left pannier to drive home that point. I identify with farm folks, who have always been pretty friendly when I’ve encountered them and would like to be treated like a piece of big, slow-moving farm equipment.

Do Iowans need to worry about the bike ban?

Not really.

The petition drive hasn’t been all that popular. Even the organization’s site says they’ve only gotten 782 signatures out of a goal of 1,500.
A counter petition launched by the Iowa Bike Coalition gathered over 2,000 signatures in a week.
Iowa is the home of RAGBRI, one of the first and oldest group bike rides in the country. It’s so popular that the organizers limit the number of week-long riders to 8,500 cyclists. The event, which is sponsored by the Des Moines Register, is estimated to bring about $24 milllion dollars into the state during the week-long ride that has gone through all 99 Iowa counties in the past 36 years. Small towns vie to host the event.
Iowa does not recognize petitions from citizens as a means of introducing new legislation. That means that BOTH petitions are non-starters, although movements like these may let legislators see which way the wind is blowing.

Ban all slow-moving vehicles

What convinced me to visit this topic? A posting on the phred list by virtual friend Gene, who said he took a lot of the comments on the pro-ban list and did some search-and-replacing of key phrases.

Why stop at bicycles? I say ban all slow-moving vehicles.

Tractors don’t pay the fuel taxes which pay for the road upkeep so there should be no tractors or combines on any paved roads.
Fields are for farm equipment, highways are for cars. We have come up over a hill and had to make a complete stop as slow-moving tractors were right over the hill.
Iowa has plenty of corn, soybean, and wheat fields that the STATE OF IOWA has spent many hundreds of thousands of dollars subsidizing for the farmers – this is where they belong. They cause serious situations on the roadways!! We have hundreds of square miles of fields JUST FOR them!
They have forced me into head on traffic to avoid hitting them because I was too lazy to slow down and wait until it was safe to pass and also I’ve had to slam on the brakes on highways. They won’t even move over to the shoulder of the highways to let traffic pass! It’s ridiculous!!
Roads are for cars!!!