It’s time for the weekly Bike News Roundup! First up, here is Chicago’s strategy for dealing with intersections and right-turning cars on their new protected bike lanes: Mixing zones. Does this bike lane count as an all-ages-and-abilities facility? (video by Steven Vance of StreetsBlog Chicago)
Short ride down Desplaines Street from Steven Vance on Vimeo.
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Pacific Northwest News:
- Both of WSDOT’s Seattle Megaprojects Off to a Bumpy Start | The SunBreak – Let’s start a betting pool: Who thinks the cost overruns alone on these projects will be higher than the state’s entire biking and walking budgets?
- BikePortland.org » Bike commuters are happiest (and other PSU research tidbits)
- Northgate/105th: Another Epic Repaving Project – Seattle Transit Blog – Northgate Way complete street?
- You, too, can have a desk inside Capitol Hill’s super green Bullitt Center | CHS Capitol Hill Seattle
- BikePortland.org » PBOT will begin installing new 20 mph signs next month – Let’s pass the Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill so we can do this, too!
- Being A Vulnerable User: I’ve Been Robbed! Again and Again and Again!
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Really @seattledot, this is the best you can do?maps.google.com/maps?q=47.6259… #bicycleneglect #slu #fb flic.kr/p/dPMpBr
— Tim K / Carfreedays (@oninformation) January 26, 2013
- SIR Permanents – Some great-looking long bike ride routes in the area
- Lies we Tell our Children (or how to get kids to go bike touring) | Car Free Days
- Nominate Your Top-Priority Bike Project | Bicycle Alliance of Washington
- Car2Go parked2long » Magnolia Voice – One solution: Get a card and move the car yourself.
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New sign! Burke-Gilman Trail/Pacific, west of Latona. #SEAbikes twitter.com/familyride/sta…
— familyride (@familyride) January 24, 2013
- Street sign vigilante messing with rules of road in Maple Leaf | KOMO News
Halftime show! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!
National & Global News:
- Study: Protected Bike Lanes Reduce Injury Risk Up to 90 Percent | Streetsblog Capitol Hill – Seriously, this is no longer up for debate. They work. Really well.
- chainguard : Message: Re: [CG] Re: [BicycleDriving] Perhaps we should all stop using the ambiguous and divisive terms, “vehicular cycling” and “VC” – Speaking of people who still think bike lanes are worth arguing about, here John Forrester calls people who use bike lanes “incompetent.” Yeesh. Also, is “vehicular cycling” a divisive term, or is it just unpopular because IT DOESN’T WORK as a city’s sole strategy to increase safe bicycling?
- 1 | These Airbags For Cyclists Might Save Your Life When A Car Slams Into You | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation
- The Separation of Church and Parking – The Atlantic Cities – Side note: Any religious readers want to start Safe Routes to Church?
- Charge: Man, 71, beat woman in fit of road rage – seattlepi.com – William Zesbaugh really really really really really sucks.
- ‘I Was A Teenage Cyclist,’ or How Anti-Bike-Lane Arguments Echo the Tea Party – NYTimes.com
- Nicholas Lovell appears in court accused of killing Ross and Clare Simons – WalesOnline – Very sad story.
- Poll: The Hunt for the Worst Intersection in America Continue – StreetsBlog
- Denis McDonough: Bike Commuter No Longer After Chief Of Staff Appointment – I would’ve turned down the job. If the White House wants to attract top talent, it better start providing better bike access…
- Big bucks for bikes? | an SFGate.com blog – If we don’t invest, SF is going to leave us in the dust
- I will not serve a second term; but we have more work to do – The Official Blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation
- You Don’t Have to Be Superhuman to Commute by Bicycle – The Atlantic Cities
- Downtown Bike Lane Results Are In – Gazettes.com – Spoiler: They work really well!
- Drivers Cover Just 51 Percent of U.S. Road Spending | Streetsblog Capitol Hill
- Urban Adonia: Moving from Subaltern to Sustainable Transportation
- 2012: Car ownership busts the $10,000 bar « Price Tags – Round number makes future references to this stat much easier. Also, sell your car.
- Police: Santa Cruz man steals bicycle while leaving jail
This is an open thread.
Comments
6 responses to “Bike News Roundup: Bike lane mixing zones”
Looks like a high clusterf potential but still less scary than the roll of the dice which is 2nd ave Seattle.
I think these mixing lanes are a much better idea. They show motorists what to do, which is the biggest problem. I run into this constantly on roads such as Dexter, a car goes past me, wants to turn right, but is scared to merge into the bike lane and make the move. So they just stop in the middle of the road and wait for me (and everyone else biking to pass). This is dangerous, inefficient, and likely makes everyone driving pissed off at the cyclists. These mixing lanes allow cars to move into position to turn and are wide enough that the cyclists can get over to the left still. I would love to see these implemented in high traffic areas that get a bike lane.
I agree. Admittedly most of my riding is done in the south end despite daily forays into downtown, so I dont have as much experience with the newer infrastructure such as many of the bike lanes to base a final opinion on.
The ease of theft from bicycles is sometimes a big deterrent to cycling. When I’m going to a business with easily available parking, it’s often quicker to park my car than it is to secure the bike to something sturdy, then secure everything removable to the bike. Unfortunately I don’t see an easy solution to this.
Orv, replace all quick-release bolts with standard ones. Don’t use an expensive or flashy bike for commuting nor errands. And always use a good u-lock that fits snugly around your bike and bike rack/pole. You will never be able to make a bike easily thief-proof. However, you can deter thieves relatively easily and for cheap. Have fun out there and don’t be afraid to ask a fellow cyclist for tips!
So true. I used to have bikes stolen regularly and I ended up not paying much for a bike because of it. I just accepted it. Then I learned about how to lock it up and now I’ve had the same bike for over six years.
I lock the both wheels and the frame to something that can’t be moved. Some sign posts are made to pull out of a sleeve in the concrete (for when a car hits the sign.). Don’t use those to lock to.
You can change your quick release skewers to a type that’s hard to remove without an allen wrench or special tool.
Don’t leave a bike outside overnight.
Some simple things are all it takes and then things are fine.