OCTOBER EVENTS to share

·         Tour Du Port is Sunday, October 4 (One Less Car)

·         International Walk To School Day is Monday, October 7 (National Center for Safe Routes to School)

 

AND then the Roland Park Civic League Oct. 23-25th Sustainability Weekend one attached with emphasis on the Sunday Streets Cyclovia!!!

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Fall 2009 Bicycle Friendly Businesses Announced

Congrats to Arrow Bicycle in Hyattsville, MD for making Bronze in this years round of awards for Bicycle Friendly Businesses.

The League announced 45 new Bicycle Friendly Business award winners today, including two platinum winners Bicycle Sport Shop of Austin, Texas and Quality Bicycle Products of Bloomington, Minn. This was the third time BFB winners have been announced since the program's inception in 2008.

The Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) program recognizes employers’ efforts to encourage a more bicycle friendly atmosphere for employees and customers. The program honors innovative bike-friendly efforts and provides technical assistance and information to help companies and organizations become even better for bicyclists. This new initiative complements the League’s Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) program, which has been recognizing cities and towns for their bicycle friendliness since 2003.

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Webinar: Taking Proper Care of Pedestrians in Work Zones

September 30, 2009, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM EST

The MUTCD requires that work zone traffic control meet the needs of all road users on a facility, including pedestrians. Register now to listen in on this important webinar on how to meet the work zone traffic control needs of pedestrians, including those with disabilities.

Presenters:
Gerald Ullman, Texas Transportation Institute: Designing and Maintaining a Pedestrian-Friendly Work Zone

Brooke Ullman, Texas Transportation Institute: Assisting Handicapped Pedestrians through Work Zones: Meeting the ADA Requirements

Cost: Free

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Cars, Air Pollution and Health

Update Oct. 2009: Driving a car is the most polluting act an average citizen commits.
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Cars have two opposite personalities. One is friendly and attractive the other is destructive and can be lethal.
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Emissions from passenger vehicles increased in Canada and the US despite attempts to make engines more fuel efficient and despite the addition of antipollution devices. The two main reasons were: 1. vehicle use increased 2. in the US and Canada, cars were getting bigger; pick-up trucks, vans and sports vehicles often replaced smaller, lighter passenger cars. An average new vehicle in 2003 consumed more fuel that its counterpart in 1988. In the USA in 1987 cars averaged 25.9 miles to the gallon. Fuel efficiency dropped to 24.6 miles/gallon by 1998 and is dropped further as larger vehicles replace smaller ones.

Despite scientific evidence of climate change, governments in most affluent countries have avoided their responsibility to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The USA is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases worldwide. US emissions have increased to 7 billion tones of CO2 in 2004, 16 % higher than emissions in the late 90's. The UK has done better reducing their emissions to about 0.6 billion tons, 14% below 1990 levels.
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Advertising and Delusions

Television Ads for sports and recreation vehicles show solitary, impeccable machines in wilderness locations. One TV ad shows a couple making a mad dash to escape the city core in their expensive, luxury upholstered clone of the land-rover. The ads are selling a fantasy of wilderness, fresh air and escape. Is the consumer is completely deluded? These vehicles are mostly found in suburban driveways and in the traffic jams of polluted cities. They have nowhere to go to escape the environmental degradation they help to create. 4x4 drives and large tires are rarely useful in cities and are not suited to highway driving. You see these machines, submerged in suburban driveways by the floods they helped to create
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REINVENTING AMERICA A Free-Wheeling City

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Until recently, Columbia (pop. 100,733) was, like most American cities, designed almost exclusively for automobile transit, offering up a host of four-lane mini-highways over which motorists could zoom between parking lots. For Hindman, a retired lawyer, the situation was all wrong. “If we depend too much on cars, then we increase our reliance on foreign oil, childhood obesity goes up, and life just isn’t as much fun,” he says.
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Comments on Bicyclist Ticketed for Going through Red Light

I support the police officer who ticketed the bicyclist for going through a red light on University Pkwy. Bicyclists have both the rights and DUTIES of a motor vehicle driver. If motorists and bicyclists choose which laws to obey and which ones to disobey; travelling by bike, foot, or car becomes more dangerous.

I disagree with the cyclist who compares cycling to jogging and feels that by keeping far right cyclists earn special proviledges, like being allowed to run red lights. Cyclists are vehicles , though pedestrians should also wait for the green light to cross. In addition, one should only ride as far right as safe and reasonable. Riding too far right can increase the chance of a right turning motorist cutting you off, as was the case in the fatal accident of John Yates, who was killed by a right turning truck on Md Ave at Lafayette. His riding next to the curb on SB Md Ave left him no room for escape.

Finally, if you are wrong then you should admit it and listen to the officer's constructive criticism. The officer is just doing his job. The police take a lot of abuse and deserve respect. If the officer is wrong (e.g. - ordering you to ride in a right turn only lane when going straight), then you have a right to politely stand up for your rights, even if it means a ticket. In this case, the officer was correct.. Now, if the officer will follow through by stopping motorists who pass cyclists too closely or fail to yield, then the police will be helping to make cycling safer.
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