[This article could be written about Baltimore as well.]

by Marc Fisher - Washington Post
...
Despite the jokes about how being hit by a bus is the quickest, easiest way to go, the blend of driver arrogance and pedestrian recklessness we've seen on local streets is downright scary. I watch my own kids crossing the street, and I realize that they, like me and probably most of you, too, are alive through some weird combination of luck and a sixth sense about when cars might be hurtling down the street. The kids' necks seem to be wired to turn in one direction at most; looking both ways is far too complex a maneuver.

It's not just kids, of course. I stood at Seventh Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, where two women were killed by a Metrobus this month, and watched pedestrians. Any relationship between the walk light and when people decided to cross the avenue was purely coincidental.

And the new "Turning Traffic Must Yield to Pedestrians" signs that the District put up for the benefit of Seventh Street motorists could just as well be pictures of a bunny for all the impact they're having.

[Note I do not recommend not wearing a helmets for increased safety, if you are interested in increasing your safety while riding I provided a link at the end of the article. There is another link to a story by John Stossel (video) where he explores if Americans are worrying about the right things and for me the inference is how the media exaggerates how dangerous cycling really is.]

Even Being Careful Has Unintended Consequences
By JOHN STOSSEL, KRISTINA KENDALL and PATRICK McMENAMIN

Hello friends of the bicycle!

We have lots of exciting events coming up at Velocipede!!!


-- First of all, tomorrow night, monday form 7-9 is the next installment of our monday mechanic series, BRAKES. Learn about the different types of brakes, how they work, and how to adjust them...fun for the whole
family!!!!

--Then the very next day the rescheduled SIngle Speed Workshop, will teach you to simplify your ride on Tuesday the 27th from 7-9. Experienced mechanic, Neale Stokes will tell us everything we need to know about building up a single speed or fixed gear bicycle, from choosing a frame to getting a good chain line (and why that's important). Come with your questions--we'll come with the answers.

--In the future, Tuesday, March 13th from 7-9 we will holding a talk by antique bicycle collector, Sam Fitzsimmons on The History of the Bicycle--the beginning, and it's early social impacts. Sam will bring some examples of early bicycles for us to ogle. Maybe I'm a huge bike nerd, (I know I'm not the only one out there), but I get excited just thinking about it!!!


Also we at velocipede need volunteers interested in working with youth on saturdays from 4-6. We are starting up a youth mechanics class in Sharpe-Leadenhall, but we need people to help us out. Some experience working on bicycles would be helpful, but you don't have to know everything there is to know to help out. We really need extra hands!!!
If you're interested or know anyone who might be, just email us at info@velocipedebikeproject.org

And while we're at it, we can always use more help!!!
Come by when we're open(wens and thurs 6-10, sun 2-6) and ask a collective member how to get more involved!!!

Hope you're all keeping warm, enjoy the snow!!!

-The folks at Velocipede
www.velocipedebikeproject.org

By Kerry Fehr-Snyder - The Arizona Republic

Phoenix has selected Ahwatukee Foothills for bike safety signs to remind motorists that they must give cyclists at least three feet of roadway.

The signs, which could be 8 feet wide by 3 feet tall compared with standard street signs that are about 2 by 3 feet, come more than two years after a retired engineer cycling along Pecos Road was struck and killed by a car and about three months after a triathlete was seriously injured when struck by a car on Chandler Boulevard.

The driver walked away without a ticket in the Pecos Road incident in which Don Anselmo died, outraging fellow cyclists and other Valley residents.

His widow, Rita Anselmo, and other bicyclists groups pushed for the signs "because you know, motorists think they own the road down there," Rita Anselmo said.

By LiveScience.com

People who live in the densest, pedestrian-friendly parts of New York City have a significantly lower body mass index (BMI) compared to other New Yorkers, a new study finds.
...
The researchers say placing shops, restaurants and public transit near residences may promote walking and independence from private automobiles.

"There are relatively strong associations between built environment and BMI, even in population-dense New York City," said the study's lead author Andrew Rundle of the Mailman School of Public Health.

The study appears in the March/April issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.

Conversely, other research has shown that suburban sprawl and all the driving that comes with it leads to health woes.
...

The Gwynns Falls Trail Council, in partnership with the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks and the Parks & People Foundation, invites individuals and/or teams to submit proposals for site-specific, environmentally sensitive installations addressing the theme,

(HAGERSTOWN, Md)

Rank per 18seconds.org: MD #42, Baltimore #314, Salisbury #8, Hagerstown #190, Cumberland #219.

The following by Glenn Chapman
...
The amount of electricity saved by using a 13-watt CFL instead of a conventional 60-watt bulb translates into a reduction of 450 pounds of greenhouse gases spewed by a coal-burning power plant, according to Yahoo.

"This movement is about empowering the individual -- to say to every person in America that with one easy step, they can become part of a movement that will literally change the world," said Bender, producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" made by former US vice president Gore.

"I believe the CFL is the Trojan horse into the minds of the public. Once you get somebody who feels good about making a difference and at the same time saving money, you have them thinking about what else they can do."

Permanently installed SpeedCheck

-> According to an article in the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation "Bike Traffic" newsletter, "Next month the Healthy Streets Campaign rolls out a partnership with the city of Chicago aimed at reducing automobile crashes by 50 percent in a 10-square mile swath of the city's Northwest Side...The Northwest Chicago Drive With Care initiative is a pilot designed to test and demonstrate an integrated approach to crash reduction, employing data to map out crashes and targeted enforcement and social marketing to change motorist behavior. Inattentive, careless self-absorption has become the prevailing standard for motorist behavior, causing the deaths of 200 people and injuring about 32,000 in local traffic each year in Chicago...