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Worthy of a Bike Statue

By Daniel Hamermesh

My Dutch co-author and I biked to his office this morning, with very nice new bikes he owns. I remarked on them, and he said his university gives him the right to buy a bike out of pre-tax income every three years.

Every Dutch employer can offer this triennial subsidy of $750. I thought that was quite interesting, and asked why.

The answer is that earlier the government gave employees a subsidy on commuting costs, but only if they lived at least 10 kilometers from work. He says the government realized that this was unfair to short-distance commuters and, worse still, increased incentives to live far from work and to use gasoline that generated air pollution.

The bicycle subsidy is designed to counter those effects; and it is also consistent with the national image as devoted to bike-riding. (The Netherlands is the only place I have seen a public statue/monument consisting of a 10-meter-tall bicycle!)

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StreetFilms.org - Bike Boulevards

Berkeley, CA sports some of the best bicycling amenities anywhere in the U.S. They are called Bicycle Boulevards - and are essentially bicycle priority streets - where thru traffic is diverted from the neighborhood and traffic calming is plenty.

Directed by: Clarence Eckerson Jr.

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Police patrol on bikes to save on gas

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Since even the long arm of the law can't rein in fuel prices, the long legs of the law are getting more exercise these days.

Bicycle patrols -- a community policing tactic that some law enforcement agencies de-emphasized in recent years -- are seeing a resurgence as the price of gasoline approaches or surpasses $4 a gallon across the country.

"You think the car's the great savior of us all, but in urban areas and dense areas, you're probably better off on a bike," said Chris Menton, an associate professor in the School of Justice Studies at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island who has studied police bike patrols.

In the tiny western Pennsylvania borough of Hollidaysburg, police Chief Jeff Ketner said high gas prices prompted him to resume daily bike patrols several weeks ago.

The department's regular bike patrol had fallen by the wayside and was mainly being used for special events. Ketner resurrected the program after realizing he was on pace to go $6,000 over budget on the department's four vehicles by the end of the year.

Other departments are making similar decisions. In Clive, Iowa, a Des Moines suburb, police Chief Robert Cox said more officers will be biking and walking to save gas.

With gas at more than $3.50 a gallon, Cox said his department has already spent its 2007-08 budget of nearly $41,000, which allotted $2.40 a gallon for 17,000 gallons.

It's the same story in Toledo, Ohio. Chief Mike Navarre said that although the department has long had bikes, he has been telling his officers to use them more, and walk more, to save gas.

Police bike organizations say they have noticed a spike in interest.

"Gas is one of a number of factors that come together in terms of establishing, revitalizing or expanding a unit," said Maureen Becker, executive director of the Baltimore-based International Police Mountain Bike Association, which provides training and resources to public safety agencies.

In the 1980s and 1990s, many departments started bike patrols, which were then a relatively new concept, said Wes Branham, a police officer with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in North Carolina. But after the September 11 attacks, he said, they went "totally out the door. Money went elsewhere."

Now bikes are coming off the rack.

Branham, who heads his department's bike unit, said it began with two officers in 1994 and has grown to 25 full-time officers and 150 part-time riders. The department has about 1,800 officers.

"Departments are just trying to find more economical ways to patrol," he said. "A lot of departments are starting to realize they're getting a lot of bang for their buck with a bike."

Even departments that implemented bike units for other reasons are noticing gas savings.

In Bedford, Virginia, the police department bought eight bikes last year and is now saving 200 to 400 gallons of fuel per month, said Lt. Jim Bennett, who's in charge of the department's bike unit. The benefit is twofold, he said, with cost savings and increased police visibility.

Trek Bicycle Corp., in Waterloo, Wisconsin, sells more than 1,000 police bikes a year, and sales have been going up for three years, said Stefan Downing, who manages the company's police bike program. He said rising gas prices have probably been a factor.

The prices of police bikes vary, but they typically cost about $1,100, Downing said. One special feature: a silent hub that doesn't make the ratcheting sound that typical hubs make.

Bike patrols do have limitations. Weather can be a problem and bikes can't be used to transport suspects or chase vehicles.

But advocates say the benefits are worth it. Bikes even help officers keep in shape.

"I keep myself in pretty good shape, but it's hard," said Hollidaysburg Sgt. David Gehret, 46. "I'm primarily a desk sergeant ... it was really nice to get out and about."

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Crashes vs. Congestion - What's the Cost to Society?

Washington, D.C. - 3/5/2008

Groundbreaking AAA report shows traffic crashes cost American motorists $164.2 billion per year

The societal cost of crashes is a staggering $164.2 billion annually, nearly two and a half times greater than the $67.6 billion price tag for congestion, according to a new report released today by AAA.

The report,

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Parents 'stop children cycling'

Parents' fears about road safety are turning children into a lost generation of cyclists, says a government-backed agency that promotes cycling.

Four out of five children are banned from cycling to school by their parents, a poll of 1,079 parents for Cycling England suggests.

This compares with the 35% of parents who were allowed to bike to school when they were children themselves.

Launching Bike to School Week the group said road accidents are declining.

The survey found 81% of parents ban children from cycling independently.

This was creating a new breed of "cul-de-sac kids" restricted to cycling only in their own road and neighbouring streets, Cycling England warned.

The biggest reason why parents did not let their child cycle on the road was concern about safety - but only 3% knew someone who had been in an accident.

In 2006 there were 10 times more accidents involving cars than there were accidents involving bicycles.

Most parents said cycle training would make them feel more reassured about their child cycling without any adult supervision.

And some two-thirds said they felt their child did not have the confidence and skills to ride on the road.

Although three-quarters of children are allowed to cycle for recreation at the weekend or after school, only one in five is allowed to use his bicycle as a way of getting from one place to another.

More than half of the same parents said they had regularly used cycling as a way of getting around as a child.

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They think it's funny if they swerve into you

[Don't you wish bicyclists had some recourse in Maryland?]

By John Meyer - The Denver Post

Six days after a friend of hers was struck and killed by a mail truck while riding his bike on West 32nd Avenue near Golden, Denver bicyclist Shelby Katz was nearly run off the road by someone driving a lawn-maintenance truck.

Katz believes the driver deliberately tried to frighten her and says motorists are getting "meaner and meaner" when confronted by cyclists.

"They honk at you, they think it's funny if they swerve into you

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How to Fit a Bicycle

Bicycle fitting is a subject most people find quite mysterious. Fitting systems with charts and graphs, computer software, measuring devices and "rules of thumb" make for a lot of confusion. But I believe it's really quite simple. Bicycle fit involves compromises. Compromises between comfort and performance, quick acceleration and handling stability, top speed and "taking in the scenery".

Your body's position on the bike affects how you ride. It affects how much power you can efficiently deliver to the pedals. It affects how comfortable you are on the bike. A position that is more comfortable may not allow you to put as much energy into moving the bike forward as a less comfortable position might. How do you decide where to position your body on the bike?

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Introduction To Dutch Bicycle Culture

There are a lot of bicycles in Holland, in we have one for every man woman and child in the country, that is some 16 million bicycles!.

Bicycle have rights too, that is to say that the bicycle has the right of way every time, unless you are a tram, then the tram is master, but that is the only time that the bicycle has to yield. Think about that for a moment - can you imagine this happening in America, a country that is so pro-car that car owners have been known to successfully sue the pedestrians they have struck for their flesh and blood bodies causing damage to a car. In Holland bikes (fiets) have the right-of-way.

From birth we are brought in close contact with our bikes. They are often part of a cramped city centre apartments furniture, so that baby grows up playing around them. As you will see from the day a Dutch child is born it travels by bike. I can still recall being a tiny tot in the handle bar seat facing my mother and laughing as the wind blew her long hair about her as we sped through the woods of Arnhem. Being older an on the back seat, then graduating to my own bike beside her on the cycle lanes. The bike is simply bred into us.
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Helmets
This is extremely important; do NOT wear a helmet. Three types of people wear a helmet on a bike in Holland;
The English.North
Americans.
The mentally afflicted.

The English and Americans wear helmets because in their worlds common sense no longer rules and people must be safe from their own actions at all times. Also it is a well known fact that when Americans fall off a bike they fall on their heads, why this should be we do not know. God gave us each an ass, he appears to have given many Americans more than one ass and yet they do not use them, you have to wonder why. On the rare occasion a Dutchman comes off their bike we fall on our well padded behinds (and it’s ALWAYS the fault of a German motorist).

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Americans leery of bicycles despite gas price jump

By Jon Hurdle

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - It's U.S. National Bike to Work Day on Friday and Americans are facing record high gasoline prices, but most commuters will stick to their cars.
...
Similarly, the number of people who ride bikes at least six times a year fell to 35.6 million in 2006, the lowest since the survey began in 1984, from 56.3 million in 1995.

Thomas Doyle, vice president of information and research at the association, said the decline was probably due to the aging population, reluctance by parents to allow children to ride bikes and more children using wheeled toys such as scooters and skateboards.

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