It’s the Tuesday Bike News Roundup! As always, this is an open thread. Feel free to discuss anything bikes in the comments.
First up, this top secret look behind the scenes reveals some Cervélo 2013 line trade secrets…
— Advertisement —
Pacific Northwest News:
- BikePortland.org » Over 28,000 turn out for first Sunday Parkways of the year – Wow.
- Seattle Subway: “We want it all, and we want it now” | The SunBreak – Let’s do it!
- BikePortland.org » Reader Story: Portland Bike Polo, ten years in the making
- Internship: Sightline Seeking “Traffic Data Geek” – Seattle Transit Blog
- 26 Ways to Store Your Bike | Sightline Daily – Featuring Seattle Bike Blog’s former HQ
- Motorcyclist hit by Ride-the-Ducks vehicle files lawsuit | The Seattle Times
- @cascadebicycle posts a photo of a smoothly paved Ravenna Blvd. It should be completed in early fall.
- Vancouver, B.C., has idyllic and easy urban biking for all ages | The Seattle Times – Travel writer loves Vancouver’s low-stress bike facilities. We can do that, too!
- Northern Tier Bicycle Route highway opens in Washington » Biking Bis
- Most pedestrian-involved crashes caused by turning vehicles: Vancouver study
- School Shout Out Series! Pt 3: Baby Steps « Cascade Bicycle Club Blog
- “Bike to School Day is our favorite holiday.” « Cascade Bicycle Club Blog – Great profile of the Loper family, a big Bike to School force in NE Seattle.
- Nobody ever played towards a goal « A Rebalanced Life – A recap of Grant Petersen’s Seattle visit.
- Kent’s Bike Blog: Lots of nice bikes came to see Grant Petersen in Seattle – A recap of the bikes outside Grant Petersen’s Seattle visit.
- BREAKING: 4.2 Miles of Copper Wire Stolen from LINK – Seattle Transit Blog
- Choose Your Way Bellevue :: Tuesday May 22 :: Bicycle Maintenance Workshop – One day left to register
- The Riding Reporter: Dozens come out for the first Seattle Critical Lass/CycloFemme ride SLIDESHOW | Ballard News-Tribune
- Menstrual Monday · Girls of Summer Alleycat 2012
- Should Montlake Kids Ride the “Hazard” Bus to Montlake School? | montlaker
Halftime show! Did you know some crazy people are digging tunnels under Capitol Hill right now? (pretty awesome video)
National and Global News:
- Ask Transportation Bill Conferees to Save Sidewalks and Bikeways – America Bikes
- Why There’s No War Between Drivers and Cyclists in the Netherlands – Commute – The Atlantic Cities
- The Bike Effect: How ‘Copenhagenization’ Saves Time, Money, and Lives – The Atlantic
- Kids Who Get Driven Everywhere Don’t Know Where They’re Going – Commute – The Atlantic Cities
- House Votes To Cut Census Survey Done Since Thomas Jefferson – The House sucks.
- Which commute is the healthiest? | Fox News – Even Fox News says: “Of course, the best way to get to work is to walk or ride a bike”
- Training wheels don’t work: Balance bikes teach children how to ride. – Slate Magazine
- Chalktrail miles of creative colorful fun! – I want one.
- When Flash Mobs Go Right: A Symphony Surprises Copenhagen Subway Riders | Co.Create: Creativity \ Culture \ Commerce – Awesome.
- Are more cyclists getting hit from behind than ever before? | Bike Delaware
- Here’s an excellent infograghic from America Bikes about why walking and biking investment is both popular and smart:
Comments
19 responses to “Bike News Roundup: How a Bicycle Is Made”
We’re in day two of free bus rides for bicyclists and I wonder what the point of it was? If you attempted to use a bus without paying a fare many drivers weren’t aware or didn’t listen when it was explained what was supposed to go on. This behavior for Metro drivers is pretty typical or so it seems. Back when mounting a bike on a Metro bus in the ride-free zone during the day was permitted some drivers gave bike riders a big hassle when they attempted to load bikes. Were they not informed or did they just not think it was necessary to learn about new regulations? Who knows. I still question why Metro decided that it would be worth it to forgo making money for four days.
The new paint is on the bike path on Seventh between Denny and Westlake. Given that last week there were three cars driving in the bike path the entire way between those two streets, I can’t imagine it won’t help some. But there needs to be some serious driver education that bike lanes are not alternatives for cars when they feel like it. Or perhaps, God forbid, some enforcement.
I saw a car driving smack down the new Ravenna Blvd bike lane. It’s buffered with bright fresh hash lines, for crying out loud! I thought it was a slam dunk, but apparently not. Perhaps it’s time for more physical barriers that still allow people on bikes to move out of the lane if needed, but deter cars from entering them.
Topes! Engineer the road to break the car if they do something wrong. This would make drivers more alert and aware, if not, would pump money into the local economy for towing and repair fees, and would create a path towards car-free public spaces. Win-win-win for society.
A barrier that can be safely crossed by a cyclist (who, while making a lane change, needs to be focused on traffic and not the pavement) but deters a car, with its powerful engine and suspension? Good luck.
Spikes at a distance that a bike can weave but would take out a car tire?
I’m probably not alone in this but I’ve seen quite a few vehicles use that buffered lane, intentional or not, since it was installed. At first it bothered me tremendously but now with the degraded paint, it looks like an extra lane and I can’t fault them. That being said, I would like to see SDOT remove the right turn lanes and instead install curb bulbs at the intersections. This would provide the driver with the visual cue that the right most pavement area is for parking and the area next to it is for bikes. It’s a pricier solution than paint but I think from the recent experience, it is the best option.
Breadbaker: I have been done the Ravenna area a lot lately. It is a work in progress around there with construction no where near complete but some roads open. Before they had the Buffer properly painted while going towards greenlake I was thinking the buffer was the bike lane because cars were freely using what I am now seeing as the proper bike lane. I am serious, I was using the buffer because cars were using my lane. I am not sure about 7th, but seeing ravenna I am ok with understanding things are still a work in progress and couldn’t fault a driver for not understanding an incompletely painted and maybe even paved roadway. Things today looked and worked much better than a couple days ago now that there are actual stripes through the buffer, now that’s easy to understand.
Yea here is the picture
http://ow.ly/i/ChrR
MJ and I are not joking! That buffer has now been painted in so it helps, but this lane is huge and just so inviting to cars. My personal experience was under the underpass.
That is clearly a work in progress. On the other hand, 34th at Fremont has supposedly been complete for quite awhile, and yet cars and trucks turning right onto Fremont from westbound 34th pay absolutely no attention to the green bike lane. I’ve seen as many as seven cars and trucks all blocking the lane, and missed the light at Fremont because of it.
I’ll take another photo, but some of the Ravenna lanes now have additional diagonal striping in the buffer zone, and that’s when I’ve seen people driving in the lane — after the buffer was properly painted. Last night I spotted the initial spray painted bike symbol indicators (yay!), so those must be next.
What made me shake my head at the car, was their clear effort to squeeze into the lane, as if it was a mini-HOV lane. It WAS a sub-compact. :)
I’m delighted this section is getting an overhaul. It’s one of the few arterial treatments that feels on the safer side to ride with children.
Now as for the people running in the Ravenna bike lane… well, I don’t know what to do about that.
Does anyone have any idea how to transport a trail-a-bike via bus?
Take the trailer into the bus with you?
Bungie it together? (duct tape?)
Probably not going to work well.
My advice is to carry a lock, and remove the trailer at the drop off the kid point, and lock it up there. (I’m making an assumption that you aren’t trying to take everybody on the bus.)
Thanks. Yeah, that’s about where I was in the thought process.
I often do the lock it up and retrieve, but then that kinda defeats the purpose of staying out of my car.
I suppose if a bus weren’t too crowded, I could bring it on, but I don’t know if a driver would say nay. And at that point it’s too late to lock it.
My idea is to take my my preschooler on long rides, but have a back-up plan if he’s exhausted.
The article on why there’s “no war” between cars and bikes in the Netherlands focuses entirely on education, and education is important. But it doesn’t mention that the Netherlands did have such a war. After the post-WWII freeway-building boom major roads did serious damage to walking and biking. Then the country made a conscious decision to focus on making biking safe again. It removed many urban roads and limited auto access to many places in order to do so. It’s not that they don’t need a war because their people are so well-educated on safety. They don’t need a war because they already fought it and won.
In the US, like the Netherlands, the war was started by the car as it took over streets and built towering new ones, destroying neighborhoods and dooming new ones to auto-dependence. The Netherlands fought back sooner. Education is one thing, but it’s not the only thing. I’m surely as well educated on safe cycling (and driving, for that matter) as your average Dutch citizen. And that doesn’t make me a whit less convinced that we need to do all the other stuff they did, too. Which is largely the stuff that the Seattle Times interprets as a war.
While it might look like “cars have won” in the USA, there are those who see that we’ve reached the apex of the car culture and are turning, if ever so slowly to a different mode, where New Urbanism is appearing and likely to take hold.
http://kunstler.com/blog/2012/05/still-standing-amid-the-wreckage.html
That first video I think is the Raleigh Factory. The clue is the crane head crest on the chain ring. What’s also interesting is that in general business which own all the processes, from resources to finished products tend to be the most profitable. And yet Raleigh as we knew it is gone.
I also remember removing those cottered cranks and what a pain it was to also not dent the bearing races in the BB.
I’m no bike maker, but those massive furnaces don’t seem like a particularly affordable or efficient way to do thing… :-)
Look Ma, no eye protection! (I can’t believe all the industrial process taking place there w/o eye protection. I think I total one guy – off in the background, probably brazing – wearing goggles.)
@ Gary, yeah I spotted the Raleigh crane on the chainring too. And the name Rudge on one of the frames. Both made in the same factory, I guess.