Europe slapping rich with massive traffic fines

GENEVA – European countries are increasingly pegging speeding fines to income as a way to punish wealthy scofflaws who would otherwise ignore tickets.

Advocates say a $290,000 (euro203,180.83) speeding ticket slapped on a millionaire Ferrari driver in Switzerland was a fair and well-deserved example of the trend.
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Big Transit News: Bush-Era Rule Tossed, Enviro Benefits on the Table

Transportation reformers and members of Congress have long clamored for changes to the federal government's major transit grant program, otherwise known as "New Starts," and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood answered today with an announcement of sweeping changes in the works.

The first move: LaHood's DOT will rescind a 2005 rule that elevated "cost-effectiveness" above all other criteria used to determine whether a local transit project can receive federal funds. Cost remains a factor in the "New Starts" process, but is no longer given more weight than factors such as congestion relief.
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“Our new policy for selecting major transit projects will work to promote livability rather than hinder it,” LaHood said in his announcement. “We want to base our decisions on how much transit helps the environment, how much it improves development opportunities and how it makes our communities better places to live.”

Late Update: Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) weighed in with a statement connecting today's news to the White House's broader sustainable communities push:

Rescinding this Bush administration restriction will unleash funding for important transportation projects across the nation, jumpstarting local economies and creating good jobs. This means quicker and better funding for streetcars, light rail, and bus projects that improve transportation, revive local economies, and reduce global warming pollution. After much hard work with the administration and my Congressional colleagues, this is an exciting outcome that will create better and more transportation opportunities.

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“Take the Lane” Court Case - Columbus OH

Michael O’Shaughnessy as ticketed under Columbus Municipal Code 2173.04 for not riding his bike as far to the right side of roadway as possible [Note the misstatement of the law]. He was apparently riding his bicycle in the middle of the curb lane on High Street…."controling the lane" in a manner that he felt was warrented due to traffic, weather, and road conditions. It was 11:30 at night, rainy, and low-no traffic on southbound High St near Nationwide…where he was cited by police.

He is being defended by Doug Morgan, who is on the Consider Biking Board of Directors. Assuming there are no other circumstances we’re aware of, the bicyclist’s behavior to protect himself and take a visible position….clearly falls within legal parameters. We feel that this court case will present an opportunity to educate cyclists, motorists, even the police force, regarding the rights and responsibilities of bicyclists.

Consider Biking worked for six months in late 2008 to provide leadership & feedback to the enhancement of the Columbus Municipal Code regarding bicyclists’ rights and responsibilities on our roadways. We have some very progressive language that protects bicycists that ride as "vehicular cyclists" on our roadways.

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Quotes for the day

“Mankind has invested more than four million years of evolution in the attempt to avoid physical exertion. Now a group of backward-thinking atavists mounted on foot-powered pairs of Hula-Hoops would have us pumping our legs, gritting our teeth, and searing our lungs as though we were being chased across the Pleistocene savanna by saber-toothed tigers. Think of the hopes, the dreams, the effort, the brilliance, the pure force of will that, over the eons, has gone into the creation of the Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Bicycle riders would have us throw all this on the ash heap of history.” – P.J. O'Rourke

“The bicycle is the perfect transducer to match man's metabolic energy to the impedance of locomotion. Equipped with this tool, man outstrips the efficiency of not only all machines but all other animals as well.” – Ivan Illich, Energy and Equity, 1974

“When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day's sensations: bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue-jay's call, ice melting and so on. This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead. I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity. But I am mentally far away from civilization. The world is breaking someone else's heart.” – Diane Ackerman

“The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.” – Iris Murdoch, The Red and the Green

“When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.” – H.G. Wells

Child Labor – a 10-year-old boy moves a burden of plastic waste by bicycle down a city street in India, an unfortunate validation of the observation that “the bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created: converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon.” –Bill Strickland, Quotable Cyclist

“The hardest part of raising a child is teaching them to ride bicycles. A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom. The realization that this is what the child will always need can hit hard.” – Sloan Wilson

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Anti-bike lanes Locals vs Cyclists



I wish we had bike lanes to repaint. But the basic issue of locals not liking bike lanes and preventing them from being built is a major issue in Maryland. If the logic DOT uses to minimize cyclists comments and maximize local comments is valid then no expressway could be built. We need to stress that we need a viable network for bicycle travel as much if not more so then cars. And it can be done with a lot less expense then over accommodating cars.
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Legislative session opens up with a bang for cyclists

The Maryland General Assembly opened today and Senate Bill 51 first reading was today as well!

Synopsis:
Requiring that a driver of a vehicle, when overtaking a bicycle, an Electric Personal Assistive Mobility Device (EPAMD), or a motor scooter, pass safely at a specified distance; requiring a driver of a vehicle to yield the right-of-way to a person who is riding a bicycle, an EPAMD, or a motor scooter in a bike lane or shoulder under specified circumstances; etc.

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Battling Obesity in America

190 Million Americans are Obese or Overweight. Childhood Obesity has Tripled in the last 30 Years
imageClick to play video

(CBS)  In its "Where America Stands" series, CBS News is looking at a broad spectrum of issues facing this country in the new decade.

The evidence of an epidemic is everywhere.

Two-thirds, more than 190 million Americans are overweight or obese.

Obesity-related diseases are a $147 billion dollar medical burden every year.

Childhood obesity has tripled in the last thirty years.

CBS Reports: Where America Stands
Calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI)
Tell Us What You Think Send us an email.

As CBS News correspondent Seth Doane reports, this could be the first generation since the Civil War to have a shortened life expectancy.

The Problem

To gauge the problem, a team of doctors and cardiologists from Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital set up a MASH unit of sorts in a middle school gym, where they run a battery of tests on 97 seemingly healthy children.

But the results reveal an alarming reality here: three out of every four children are either overweight or obese.

Heart Screening for all Sixth Graders?

That means about seventy of the children are on a high-risk trajectory for coronary artery disease by their 30's and 40's.

Doctor Joshua Samuels treats kids with blood pressure levels of an unhealthy adult. Back at his clinic, 11-year-old Wesley Randall has dangerously high blood pressure, and is 60 pounds overweight.

"I just eat," Wesley said, "to solve my problems."

Where America Stood, 50 Years Ago

"A few years down the road these are the people who are going to be flooding into our hospitals and emergency rooms," said Dr. Samuels.

Fifteen-year-old Emily Allen is trying to avoid just that. "What I look like now, she said, "it upsets me."

The Hudson, Michigan teen was healthy at age five. But by age ten, she could no longer fit into kids clothing. She became obese.

"I just feel guilty," she said, "that I couldn't change earlier."

On doctor's orders, Emily joined a weight loss program called "m-power" at the University of Michigan. She's already lost 26 pounds, thanks, in part, to support from other teens.

Other teens, like Amber Bell, who is in an even scarier life or death struggle. She's shed 50 pounds, but still weighs nearly 400 lbs.

"What made you say, 'I'm going to make a change here,'" Doane asked.

"I didn't want my parents to feel like I was a failure and I wanted to have friends," Amber replied.

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(CBS)
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Doctor's prison sentence isn't a sea change for cyclists

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Still, drivers who enforce some imaginary version of the vehicle code by assaulting law-abiding cyclists tend to do so repeatedly; for this reason, I advise cyclists to report these incidents to police. A driver with a reported history of violent assaults will be less likely to get away with claiming, as Thompson did, that it was all just "an unfortunate accident." Real change will happen when law enforcement begins to take each report seriously, rather than waiting until serious injuries (or worse) have been inflicted.

But the most important change must occur within each of us, because when tempers flare on the road, nobody wins. The roads are common spaces, and their use is an ancient right for all -- except motorists. The state allows them to use the roads, and far too often that revocable privilege is misinterpreted by motorists as having some sort of superior right to the road. More often cyclists are endangered by drivers who are simply too distracted, or otherwise too careless, to even notice the cyclist whose life they have just endangered. And just as cyclists notice -- and remember -- the occasional dangerous motorist, it is the occasional rude cyclist that motorists notice and remember. It is these minority of bad actors on the road that lead to much of the resentment toward each other.

The real issue here is not "scofflaw cyclists" or "motorists hell-bent on killing cyclists;" it is competition for limited road space. For that, motorists owe cyclists a debt of gratitude; merely respecting our need for safety is all the thanks we need. Every cyclist you see on the road represents one less car contributing to congestion. Yes, you may occasionally have to slow down for a few seconds, but those few seconds are offset by the time you save for every car that is not on the road ahead of you. Cyclists also neither consume gasoline nor contribute to climate change, and they cause far less wear and tear on the road than cars. These are benefits that accrue directly to motorists in the form of less demand for limited resources, driving regulations and limited tax dollars.
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Bicycling for all trips hits 1 percent

Blogging live from the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, one of the biggest events of the year for transportation nerds…er, professionals. I got an early look at the 2009 data from the National Household Transportation Survey. The NHTS is in some ways better than the American Community Survey because it asks respondents about all trips, so we can see bicycling’s share of all trips in the US.

Bicycling’s share of all trips in the US hit an even 1 percent in 2009. That’s up 25 percent since 2001. Bicycling’s journey to work and school numbers both top out at 0.7 percent

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