Portland's Bicycle Brilliance

And I'll think to myself: What does Portland know that Vancouver hasn't yet quite learned?

Why is it that, while a city like Portland has bridges backlogged with bike traffic-jams, Vancouver remains choked in car traffic, and I, nearly alone on my bike route to work? A mere 2,700 cyclists trickle into Vancouver's downtown every day, while over 9,000 daily cross over Portland's bridges.

[Interesting stuff about Portland's bike history.]

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AMTRAK BICYCLE SERVICE SURVEY

Currently, there is limited opportunity for bicycle transportation on Amtrak’s Capitol Limited route, which parallels the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal Towpath between Washington, DC and Pittsburgh, PA. This brief survey attempts to determine how much consumer interest there is for Amtrak to expand upon its bicycle service on the Capitol Limited route. We appreciate your time in completing the survey.

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Terrible Crash, another perspective

Last year my friend was dragged to death at the age of 29 by the back wheels of a commercial vehicle while crossing the street legally as a pedestrian in a pedestrian-friendly town. Two links:
<a href="http://www.thebostontraveler.com/graduate-student-killed-crossing-the-street/">http://www.thebostontraveler.com/graduate-student-killed-crossing-the-street/</a>;
<a href="http://chemiche.blogspot.com/2008/03/killer-truck-backwheels-where-poor-man.html">http://chemiche.blogspot.com/2008/03/killer-truck-backwheels-where-poor-man.html</a>;
As you can imagine, we spent a great deal of time investigating the death, and the following are my conclusions.

Trucks have no idea what the back end of their vehicle is doing. They don't know exactly where the back wheels go, they don't know if they have struck someone with their back wheels, and they really can't be held responsible for that. The issue has nothing to do with people valuing the life of a bicyclist or favoring cars.

Perhaps the conclusion is that, given how little control drivers have over their rear wheels, 18 wheeler container trucks have no business driving on most city streets near pedestrians. Businesses could use smaller delivery trucks or get their deliveries at night.

Realistically, they won't stop using 18 wheelers at least not in the near future. It's left up to everyone else to stay far far away from these behemoths.
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Road Fatalities and Injuries Up Since 55 MPH Speed Limit Repealed

&quot;The study found that over the 10-year period following the repeal of the National Maximum Speed Law, about 12,500 deaths took place due to the increased speed limits across the U.S.&quot;

It amazes me how society feels that going fast is more important then death.

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Bicyclist killed by truck in Charles North; driver sought

A 67-year-old bicyclist was killed Tuesday morning in Baltimore's Charles North neighborhood after he became entangled in the rear wheels of a white box truck, said a city police spokesman.

Police, who said the truck driver left the scene and was probably unaware of the accident, are seeking the truck with unknown tags.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the truck was southbound on Maryland Avenue at 11:38 a.m. and was making a right turn onto West Lafayette Avenue when the biker, who was directly behind the truck, struck the truck's right rear wheels and became entangled in the wheels.

Agent Donny Moses, another police spokesman, identified the bicyclist Wednesday as John R. Yates of the 2800 block of Maryland Ave. in Baltimore. Medics pronounced Yates dead at the scene. He suffered massive trauma to his abdomen area and to his left leg, according to Moses.

Anyone with information is asked to call the city police accident investigation unit at 410-396-2606.

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The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Bicycle Police

I ran across this interesting paper and I thought I would share. I have heard reports of how effective bike patrols are from IPMBA and other sources but I had no idea that Baltimore was one such experiment.

&quot;Baltimore started experimenting with bicycle patrols in March 1972 because police cars had difficulty traveling through narrow alleys. Crime dropped 50% in six months of the four beats patrolled by bike from 8 AM to midnight (Bigart, 1972).&quot;

I also found this of interest:

&quot;Technology-dependent police officers became isolated from the communities they served.
...
A study by the Kansas City Police Department attempted to evaluate the effectiveness of randomized patrolling in marked police cars. They study found that increasing or decreasing the frequency of patrols had no significant impact on the level of crimes believed to be deterred by police patrols and the change in levels of patrolling was not noticed by citizens.&quot;
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We feel police are isolated from the communities they serve and is crime a problem. Gee I wounder what ever can we do to solve these issues?

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EVs: First clarification on impact in cities

First clarification on impact in cities

Three key issues my Stanford and Cal students have ferreted out.

Do EV pay their road tax? In California, we pay 3 cents/mile in road taxes. IF an advanced EV gets 5 miles/kwh, that works out to 15 cents/kwh, more than double the average price of electricity in California. TAX THOSE MILES

Even with taxed electricity, EV still cost 30-50% per mile as much as gasoline cars to run. Even a small “rebound effect” (see the June 2000 issue of Energy Policy, which I edited) is important – if the cost of a mile drops by 2/3, then at a rebound of 10% that still means more miles driven. Not a good thing necessarily. Worse if the electricity is not taxed.

Unless the electricity come from a meter that charges during charging according to what CO2 the utility is emitting at that time, its not at all clear what the CO2 balance is for countries with lots of coal (US, Germany).

Plug in hybrids (PHEV) are touted in the US as 120 mpg (&lt;2 l/100 km!) by supporters who assume most of the driving is done with electricity AND then only counting the gasoline. More realistic is that most of the PHEV will be driving at least half or more in the gasoline mode. The net fuel and CO2 savings are hard to estimate, but not big unless the electricity is essentially carbon free.

In the early 1990s Eric and I were at conferences where many cities bragged how they were giving EV owners free parking or free access to bus only lanes. Why? Is the emissions saving worth the likely extra driving? And is it fair as we do in California and DC (and for the time being Stockholm) to offer “green vehicles” free parking, car pool lane privileges, or free access over tolled bridges or congestion pricing cordons?

I just wonder if this is winner—picking all over again? In the US much of our past is about loser-picking!

Lee Schipper, Ph.D
Project Scientist
Global Metropolitan Studies

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