It’s time for the Tuesday Bike News Roundup. As always, this is an open thread. Feel free to discuss anything bike-related in the comments.
First up, this video of a PA bus driver stopping a hit-and-run driver has gone viral. The driver was caught and charged with breaking the state’s hours-old three-foot passing law.
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Pacific Northwest News:
- How Not To Forecast Traffic | Sightline Daily – If you’re trying to sell a dubious expansion to a mega-project (like, say, the Columbia River Crossing), Sightline teaches you how to cook the traffic forecast books.
- Garage burglarized in south Phinney/north Fremont Sunday night – I’ve been seeing a lot of these secured garage burglaries in north Seattle recently. Keep an eye on your stuff.
- Rain Garden Backlash Is All Wet | Sightline Daily
- Bikes on the Hill: Top Ten Highlights from Washington, D.C. « Cascade Bicycle Club Blog
- JENNIFER JACKSON’S PORT TOWNSEND NEIGHBOR COLUMN: Peninsula bicycle collector masters the high-wheeler
- Jarrett Walker and Darrin Nordahl at Town Hall – Seattle Transit Blog – April 18
- My neighbor Dave, a paramedic, hauls his firefighting gear between rotating firehouses on his Big Dummy #Xtracycle | Flickr – Photo Sharing!
- We’re hiring! « Cascade Bicycle Club Blog – Staff writer position! Want to write stuff for me to blockquote? This could be the job for you!
- SPD Blotter » Child struck by van in South Seattle
- Need help planning your summer bike tour? « Cascade Bicycle Club Blog – Tonight (Tuesday) at REI!
- Magazine and new books aid search for bicycling adventures in Pacific NW » Biking Bis
- Seattle Times: Regulations Are Bad, Except Regulations That Require Subsidizing Our Car Culture | Slog – This car-blinded Times editorial is so bad, it’s earning national ridicule.
- Tell WSDOT to Build the Portage Bay Bike Lane | montlaker
- “I’ve found salvation on the seat of a bike.” « Cascade Bicycle Club Blog – I love how many newsies ride bikes (or, in this case, unicycles)
- BeaconBIKES projects get district council recommendations
For our halftime show, we have a brand new video from the Seattle Times Editorial Board presenting their 2012 Transportation Plan:
National and Global News:
- Why don’t Americans walk more? The crisis of pedestrianism. – Slate Magazine – The first in a serious about America’s walking decline crisis
- Raleigh brand may ride into Dutch sunset – The Independent – Raleigh sold to the Dutch?
- Results of our Train and Bike Survey | The Path Less Pedaled
- Bikes Belong Selects Six Cities to Fast Track Protected Bike Lanes | Streetsblog Capitol Hill – Seattle is not one of them :-(
- CicLAvia Rules! How Bicyclists Made L.A. a Better Place – LA Weekly – Features interview with Seattle’s totally rad Adonia Lugo
- BBC News – Cornwall’s penny-farthing postal service
- Bug on a Bike | Colossal
- Detroit’s Bicycling Booming To Meet Transportation, Recreation Needs
- Shareable: The Boom in Biking Benefits Everyone, Not Just Bicyclists
- Another reason not to text while walking: 300-pound bear roaming streets of LA – Boing Boing
- If fossil fuel subsidies were distributed to every person, we’d each get $58/year | Grist – We have enough money to fix this problem. We’re just spending it all wrong.
Comments
15 responses to “Bike News Roundup: The Seattle Times Ed Board’s 2012 Transportation Plan”
What does “on your left” mean to you?
There are too many links above to find the one for the 2012 Seattle Times Plan.
Less is more.
Different strokes…
The Times plan is the halftime video (joke spoiler: it’s not actually their video)
Oh, and it’s a flash video, so it might not show up on your mobile device.
Given those two retaining walls on either side, and the speed differential between cars and bicycles, I don’t think you’ll ever see me ride in traffic on a road like this. Three foot rule or not. I’d rather ride slowly and annoy the pedestrians.
No sure of their laws, but sidewalk riding might be illegal there. But I agree, that bridge looks awful for biking.
“Arrest me” at least I’ll be alive. If there is such a law it deserves a lot of civil disobedience.
Looks like we are a “national force to be reckoned with!” yeah, about dam time.
http://www.alternet.org/environment/154806/the_bicycling_community_is_becoming_a_political_force_to_be_reckoned_with_–_and_that%27s_great_news/
You know, it sucks dude got hit, but here is another cyclist riding like a dick. I mean, come on. Dude was riding what looked like 2mph in the MIDDLE of the lane. He could have been riding WAY closer to the divider and not causing traffic to be balled up and pissing off drivers. We as Cyclists should respect cars and the fact if we ride like dicks, this type of shit will happen..
A: You can’t tell how fast he’s going. B: It is ridiculous to suggest that there is some minimum speed you need to be capable of biking in order to not bike like a “dick.” C: There is no shoulder space on that bridge. I’m sure if there were a safer spot, he would have been there.
If there is not room for a driver to pass you safely within the lane, is it safer to (a) ride far to the right or (b) ride down the middle?
My experience is that if you ride far to the right drivers either try to pass you with inadequate clearance within the lane, or move over partially into the next lane without properly checking for traffic there. Either of these puts you in danger. Riding down the middle you make it clear that drivers need to make a full lane change to pass. For the most part they respect you.
Riding down the middle when there’s not room to pass within the lane and another lane of traffic in the same direction is never being a dick; it’s your legal right and it’s usually the right way to ride. The driver in this collision, on the other hand, was a dick twice. First, when he failed to keep a proper lookout or exercise due care (the two most basic responsibilities of a driver), resulting in rear-ending the cyclist. Second, when he drove away from the scene of the collision without stopping. The first is at least negligence. The second is a serious crime, and is frankly psychopathic. This driver should lose his license.
From the “YouTube” comments”
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avlanidn: The offending black car starts out in the right lane and makes a move to pass the silver car and the bus. The bus moves to the left lane to pass the cyclist and the black car moves to the right lane and strikes the cyclist. It is a case of aggressive driving where the driver of the black car is trying to pass everyone, regardless of lane choice. The bus driver did the right thing and bikes should follow motor vehicle rules.
BethlehemPoliceDept in reply to avlanidn 1 day ago 38
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The “dick” was the driver in the black car. Also it does appear that the lanes have been narrowed due to problems with the pedestrian walkway and that bicycles are not permitted in that walkway.
I love that video “Give yourself the Green light” It clearly shows that driving wasn’t the solution in ’54 and yet here we are 56 years later and traffic at 5 still sucks. Miss America “What can I dooooooooo!”
“We as cyclists…” Is that the mating call of the ‘concern troll’ I hear?
Whoops, I meant to post this as a reply to Mattybmx’s post.
On Tuesday the 10th at about 7:40 AM I was heading into downtown from the north on 7th ave and two SPD squad cars had a cyclist pulled over. The cyclist did not look amused. Anybody else happen to see this, or know what the deal was?