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Did you know there are people who drive their cars to work?

By Tim Kelley, Bike Arlington

People who ride their bikes to work often feel like they are in the minority because, well, they are. The percentages for bike commuting in Washington-area jurisdictions range from 4% (DC) down to 0.1% (Prince Georges). So at least 96% of commuters get to work some other way, and as a result, sometimes talk about bike commuters like exotic animals or eccentric distant relatives. Tim Kelley, BikeArlington’s Operations Manager of the past 8 years, likes to turn the tables on this conversation style, and presented this ironic blog post on his final week at work.

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Did you know that there are people who drive their cars to work? That’s incredible. I mean, I own a car and I like to drive it on the weekends for fun with friends, but I could never drive it to work. Don’t get me wrong, some of my best friends are car drivers and I even had a cousin who married one. I guess I’m more of what you’d call a “recreational motorist.”
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http://www.bikearlington.com/did-you-know-that-there-are-people-who-drive-their-cars-to-work/
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Media reports on cyclist fatalities shift blame from drivers to riders, says researcher

by Simon MacMichael, Road cc

The way many media outlets report road traffic collisions in which someone riding a bike is the victim can provoke strong emotions in the cycling community – and research by a PhD candidate in Canada has found that typically, the way such incidents are reported often shift responsibility away from the motorist towards the bike rider.
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http://road.cc/content/news/226710-media-reports-cyclist-fatalities-shift-blame-drivers-riders-says-researcher
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Reckless driving, deadlier than terror

[B' Spokes: It amazes me that there is no observable difference between a terrorist attack and just an accident but there is a whole world of difference on the reaction to either event. A car crashes into a government building as a terrorist attack and all government buildings get cement barricades to protect that space. A car crashes into pedestrians on the sidewalk and the reaction is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

So a terrorists has no respect for life, does someone who drinks and drives? Text and drives? Speeds and drives? So we end up with a situation where nothing is done to prevent 30,000 traffic deaths but a few terrorists attacks steps are taken so it can't happen again.]

The article that got me on this tangent: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/reckless-driving-deadlier-terror-article-1.3177621
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If Americans Paid for the Parking We Consume, We’d Drive 500 Billion Fewer Miles Each Year

By Angie Schmitt, Streets Blog

Most parking spots might cost you nothing, but parking is never really free. We just pay for it in ways that are completely divorced from our actual consumption of parking.

Instead of paying directly for parking, the costs are almost always bundled into the price of other things we consume. These costs are very real — it takes a lot of land, material, and labor to build and maintain parking spaces — but in the name of cheap driving, we’ve made them invisible. Everything else costs more so that driving can cost less.

Pricing a good this way produces what economists call a market distortion. Because the price of parking is hidden, Americans purchase more parking than we would if we paid for it directly.
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http://usa.streetsblog.org/2017/07/26/if-americans-paid-for-the-parking-we-consume-wed-drive-500-billion-fewer-miles-each-year/
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New study looks at attitudes of drivers toward cyclists, and it ain't pretty

By Lloyd Alter, Treehugger

It appears that cars are like guns: Instruments of control and vehicles of intimidation.
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The more legitimate a system is perceived to be, the greater in-group favoritism and out-group discrimination that dominant users will display (Pratto et al., 2006). Our automobile system, although less than a century old, is inarguably the dominant mode. The automobile is considered the default mode in much of the Western world, as evidenced by mode share and even the term “alternative transportation” applied to bicycling and walking. One distinguishing characteristic of social dominance is that “the degree of lethality . . . is often orders of magnitude greater” by the dominant group toward the subordinate group (Pratto et al., 2006, p. 3). As discussed earlier, the roadway environment has a high degree of lethality: automobiles are a leading cause of preventable death.
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The greater the degree of lethality, the more popular they are, which probably explains why everyone is driving big pickup trucks, which are the AR-15s of the road. They are vehicles of intimidation. It's no wonder that cyclists and pedestrians feel threatened by cars; the system is designed to do exactly that.
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https://www.treehugger.com/bikes/new-study-looks-attitudes-drivers-toward-cyclists-and-it-aint-pretty.html
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End the Punishment Pass

By Peter Wilborn, Bike Law

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Today we announce a campaign to address the problem of close calls and the punishment head on. We are joining others and calling it “End the Punishment Pass.”

At Bike Law, we are devoting significant and on-going resources to do what we can, across the country, to bring attention to this problem, and offer tools to punish those criminal drivers that persist in endangering our lives. Our goal is that this inhumane behavior is recognized for what it is, prevented, punished, and ultimately eliminated.

We have been working on this for months so far, and in the coming days and weeks, we will release more about our campaign to End The Punishment Pass.

https://www.bikelaw.com/2017/07/13/end-the-punishment-pass/
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LOS ANGELES, CA: SAFETY ANALYSIS OF ROAD DIET CORRIDORS

-> A UCLA student’s master’s capstone project conducted for the Los Angeles DOT studied road diets and their effects on crashes in Los Angeles. This project analyzed changes in rates of collisions, injuries, and severe and fatal injuries on 5 streets that received the “classic” road diet treatment in Los Angeles between 2006 and 2009. These road diets experienced statistically significant reductions in crash and injury rates of 32.4% and 36.7%. “Who Wins When Streets Lose Lanes? An Analysis of Safety on Road Diet Corridors in Los Angeles” http://bit.ly/2sZKhog

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
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PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS TO PREDICT & PREVENT COLLISIONS

-> Govtech reports according to a new study, cities may be able to collect data on dangerous driving behaviors and focus on unsafe areas before collisions ever take place. (Predicting and Preventing Traffic Casualties: Preliminary Mapping Analysis of New York City Driver Behavior Data and Collision Data: http://bit.ly/2spMmNi) Zendrive, developer of software that measures unsafe driving through smartphone sensors, partnered with New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering to compare hard braking and rapid acceleration habits and found a 71% correlation between crash sites and the examples of risky driver behavior. http://bit.ly/2spGBzc

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
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A Guide for Drivers and Bicyclists to Properly Share the Road

By Kurt Holzer, Bike Law

In every car versus bike collision, it is the same loser every time: the bicyclist.

In a well-meaning effort to reduce such collisions, a number of states have adopted a “Share the Road” campaign. Since 1997 the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (the ‘MUTCD”) has approved the use of the Share the Road sign in conjunction with the bicycle symbol. The MUTCD is the road signage “bible” used by road authorities across the country. The intention is all good but I hate that slogan.

I HATE THE SHARE THE ROAD SIGN

Why? Because it is so open to interpretation. Many motorists take it to mean bikes and cars can be side by side in the same lane or that bikes should share the road in the sense of getting the heck out of the way of the car. That is bikes should never “take the lane.”

The signage is basically intended to alert motorists that they should expect bicyclists on that road. It really implies that somehow motorists “own” the road or lane and have a choice to not share to other road users.

BICYCLES MAY USE FULL LANE

I think the new effort to get signs that read “Bicycles May Use Full Lane” or “3-feet to pass” signage is far better and more useful.
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[B' Spokes: I'll note there is a section titled "10 WAYS BICYCLIST CAN SHARE THE ROAD..." that is completely bogus IMHO, like cyclists are the main offender in not sharing the road. If anything cyclist are too giving to motorists. If you are one of the few that is not, well then maybe those 10 ways can help you but for most they are not all that helpful.]

https://www.bikelaw.com/2017/04/17/a-guide-for-drivers-and-bicyclists-to-properly-share-the-road/
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Injury Facts Chart

Cause of Death Odds of Dying
Heart Disease and Cancer 1 in 7
Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease 1 in 28
Intentional Self-harm 1 in 95
Unintentional Poisoning by and Exposure to Noxious Substances 1 in 96
Motor Vehicle Crash 1 in 114
Fall 1 in 127
Assault by Firearm 1 in 370
Car Occupant 1 in 645
Pedestrian Incident 1 in 647
Motorcycle Rider Incident 1 in 985
Unintentional Drowning and Submersion 1 in 1,188
Exposure to Fire, Flames or Smoke 1 in 1,498
Choking from Inhalation and Ingestion of Food 1 in 3,461
Pedacyclist Incident 1 in 4,486
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http://www.nsc.org/learn/safety-knowledge/Pages/injury-facts-chart.aspx
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