As bike riders, we understand the unique issues facing cyclists, especially when riding in busy urban areas. The personal injury attorneys at Rahman Law PC are knowledgeable about the special laws for bicyclists.
Biking to work has numerous health benefits. Most people are aware of this fact, but few people can visualize what this really means. America Bikes, the nationwide cycling advocacy group, has compiled a series of graphics to really put biking into perspective. Here are a few of the most powerful (for the full article and all of the infographics go to AmericaBikes.org):
Thursday night the BART Board of Directors shied away from lifting the ban on bikes during rush-hour, voting 6-3 to instead implement a 5 month testing period starting July 1. The vote means that between July 1 and December 1 bikes will once again be allowed on all but the first 3 BART cars during rush hours. However, the move appeases the opposition more than supports the cyclists and leaves the Board with an easy way out.
The test period will include “careful monitoring and a review in October”. This review will determine whether or not the ban is lifted permanently. The six Board Members who voted to implement the test period instead of permanantly lifting the ban argued that the two 5-day test periods in 2012 and 2013 did not provide enough data to make an informed decision.
The legions of bicyclists who filled the boardroom and the overflow room disagreed. They spoke of the hardships posed by the ban and the benefits of lifting it. The two test periods, especially the most recent week-long test in May 2013, produced overwhelming positive results. A large marjority of BART riders supported the lift of the ban and a very small percentage reported problems with cyclists or disruptions in their daily commute as a result of the bikes.They argued that the blackouts during rush hours deter many cyclists from taking public transportation at all in the Bay Area since they often get stranded in San Francisco during the evening rush hour. A lift on the ban will likely increase the number of people commuting by public transportation as it will allow those who would prefer to ride their bikes, but can’t work around the blackout times, to again ride BART to and from the city.
The test period will be an important indicator of the negative impact of bikes on the trains during rush hours. The success of the program will largely depend on ridership numbers and whether the positive numbers observed during the week-long test periods (“about 25 percent of those surveyed said they would be more likely to ride BART if they could take their bikes along, while 11 percent said they were less likely to ride if they had to share the trains with bikes, six percent of those surveyed brought their bikes on BART during the experimental period, and 3 percent said they avoided BART because of the test”) are proved accurate.
Cyclists in the Bay Area can help make the lift of the ban permanent by taking advantage of the test period. Take your bikes on BART, participate in the experiment, but be courteous to your fellow BART passengers. Its true that right now the burden of proof is falling on the shoulders of the cyclists. For the next five months cyclists will have to make the extra effort to ensure that the ban is lifted permantly. In the meantime, brush up on your BART etiquette. Refresh your memory by participating in a cycling etiquette class or simply reading the BART Bike Rules. It might be a bit tedious, but in the end it will benefit all cyclists in the Bay Area.
Bart Bike Rules: http://www.bart.gov/guide/bikes/bikeRules.aspx
If you ever need a bicycle accident attorney in San Francisco, Paso Robles, or the surrounding Central California Coast area, contact us for a free consultation.
Source:
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/BART-plans-another-test-for-bicycles-4544867.php
Last week Governor Brown released his budget for the 2013-2014 fiscal year and one of the programs getting cut is California’s Safe Routes to School.
A Little Background on ‘Safe Routes to School’:
California’ Safe Routes to School program began in 1999 and has since become a model for the Federal Prgram and for State-Wide initiatives across the country. The program targets the crosswalks, sidewalks and bike lanes in school zones. Its goal is to make these areas safer for the children who frequent them, to increase the number of children who bike and walk to school. In its more than 10 years of implementation the program has proven to be a success. “During a time of rising childhood obesity nationwide, obesity rates have started to reverse in California, and children in California are walking at ten percent higher rates than they did in 2001. Safe Routes to School is helping kids across California stay safe and get healthy on their way to school.”
How YOU Can Help:
Cutting the program will stop the progress that has been made. Schools will not receive the funding they desperately need to make their streets safer and traffic safety education in these schools will also decrease substantially. Protecting our children as they travel to and from school is one of the most important initiatives the state can fund. Do not let it fall between the cracks now.
1) Call the Governor’s Office: (916) 445-2841
2) Email the Governor’s Office: http://govnews.ca.gov/gov39mail/mail.php
3) Send a Letter in Support of AB 1194 (Ammiano): http://saferoutescalifornia.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/action-alert-two-letters-of-support-for-active-transportation-and-safe-routes-to-school-today/, which will ensure funding for the Safe Routes program.
If you ever need a pedestrian accident attorney in San Francisco, Paso Robles, or the surrounding Central California Coast area, contact us for a free consultation.
Source: Marin County Bicycle Coalition
Many of the safety upgrades that were supposed to have been made to Oak and Fell streets by the end of last year have yet to materialize and the cycling supporters who fought so hard for the projects to be approved are calling the delays unacceptable.
To the residents who rely on the streets everyday, it seems that SFMTA has put the improvements, the most crucial being the installation of bike lanes that are separated from street traffic by physical barriers, on a back-burner. The bike lane on Oak Street is nonexistent and Fell Street’s bike lane has no barrier between it and the fast-moving street traffic, making it a dangerous thoroughfare for cyclists.
Ed Reiskin, Transportation Director for SFMTA, said that the labor-intensiveness of the projects along with some unforseen circumstances, like private construction along Oak Street, have caused the delays, not the agency’s lack of initiative in pursuing the projects.
In spite of these reassurances, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is requesting that both projects be completed by Bike to Work Day on May 9. And the SF Bike Coalition is not the only group frustrated by the delays and speaking out about it. In addition, to protests by individuals at the SFMTA Board of Directors meeting Tuesday, April 2, the North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association sent a letter to the transit agency asking for the projects to be completed, saying that without the completed bike lanes, the streets are unacceptably dangerous for cyclists.
Source:
Photo Source:
http://www.c4cycling.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/bike-sharing.jpg
Source:
Hundreds of merchants along Polk Street turned out for the March 18th meeting intent on voicing their concerns about and opposition to SFMTA’s “Save Polk Street” Project. SFMTA had drafted proposals to reduce Polk Streets parking spaces by more than 50% in an effort to decrease the number of collisions on the street after published data showed that 53 pedestrian and 69 bicycle collisions occurred on Polk Street between Union and McAllister streets from April 2006 to March 2011. The goal of the proposed significant decrease in parking spaces was create a safer path for cyclists on one of their busiest commuting streets.
Polk Street merchants were more than a little worried about the affect of the changes on their businesses and they attended the meeting to make sure that the SFMTA knew it. The Agency had a rough time at the meeting with Merchants often booing and laughing at what they had to say.
In the end, Director Ed Reiskin agreed to go back to the drawing board to see if safety improvement projects could be developed that would involve the loss of fewer parking spaces. Leah Shahum, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, argues that while this meeting was important, it was also not representative of all of the groups with a stake in the Polk Street improvements. This meeting was held with the express purpose of hearing the arguments and concerns of the Polk Street merchants. Other interested groups, like the SF Bike Coalition, were not involved. Given the one-sidedness of the meeting, she urged Director Reiskin to keep the original proposal on the table as a viable option.
Source:
The SFMTA has announced its goal of increasing the percentage of trips taken by bike in San Francisco from 3.4% t0 8-10% in the next 5 years. To do this, the agency has proposed three different plans. The proposals all have the same general focuses; more bike lanes, bike lane improvements and intersection improvement. The difference is really in the extent of these projects and the amount of money needed to make the projects happen. The cheapest proposed plan is for $60 million, the next for $190 million and the most expensive proposed plan is for $500 million dollars. This mother-of-all bike plans which would “add 35 miles of new bike lanes and improve 200 miles, outfit 200 intersections to better handle bicycles, add 50,000 bike parking spaces, roll out a bike sharing system with 3,000 bikes and 300 stations”, and would put San Francisco on the same bike-friendly level as Copenhagen and Amsterdam. The problem that faces all three plans, however, is that only $30 million dollars in funding has been allocated to bike projects over the next five years, which means that anywhere from $30 – 470 million dollars will have to be found from other funding sources.
Sources:
L.A. is known for Hollywood, for its sprawling suburbs and for those jam-packed freeways. It is not known for its cycling-friendly culture. That’s because until very recently L.A. was not a safe place for cyclists to ride. It can’t really be called safe now either, but the difference is that L.A. is changing. The story of L.A.’s journey to becoming one of the U.S.’s most bike-friendly cities is one for the record books.
According to the Los Angeles Times “On July 17, 2010, after a P90X workout, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his police bodyguard began riding mountain bikes west in the bike lane on Venice Boulevard. About 6:30 p.m., heading toward La Cienega Boulevard, they were cut off by a taxi cab. Villaraigosa flipped over the handlebars. His elbow shattered on the asphalt.” His accident, along with his trip to Copenhagen (what may be the most biyclce-friendly city in the entire world), and his trip to Mexico City where he saw a Ciclovia event, the Mayor became a cycling advocate.
And it’s amazing (and often-times discouraging) the affect one person can have. With the Mayor’s support, the cycling culture in L.A. has been completely transformed.Projects and ideas that cycling advocates have been supporting for years are finally gaining some traction. 1,680 miles of bikeway are to be implemented over the next 30 years. L.A. is now the home to the biggest cycling event in the U.S., CicLAvia; and we have already written a post or two about L.A.’s new bike rental program. These changes have really had an effect. For the first time, L.A. has been recognized as a Bike Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists.
And all of this because a major public official put their weight behind cycling. Villaraigosa leaves office in June. Bike advocates in L.A. can only hope (and vote) for the next Mayor to be just as or more cycling-friendly.
If you ever need a bicycle accident attorney in San Francisco, Paso Robles, or the surrounding Central California Coast area, contact us for a free consultation.
Source:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-0126-villaraigosa-biker-20130126,0,4079324.story?page=1
San Francisco gets a mention in this great short video by Al Jazeera!
http://www.aljazeera.com/video/americas/2013/01/201311675349997107.html
They make a good point: Businesses who want to attract young professionals should actively support bike lanes and cycling infrastructure because many of today’s ‘young professionals’ don’t want to sit in a car and commute for an hour, they want the ease and environmental-friendliness of cycling to work.
Two new studies suggest (as bike advocates have long argued) that bike lanes are good for small businesses. The rationale is very simple. Bicyclists tend to eat and shop more locally. For example, they are more likely to stop in at a mom and pop diner than at a McDonald’s drive-through.
One of the studies was conducted in Manhattan by the New York City Department of Transportation. This study, entitled Measuring the Streets, compared the growth of businesses on small city streets with bike lanes and that of ‘borough-wide averages’. The results of the study are convincing. Ninth Avenue, which received the nation’s first parking-protected bike lanes in 2007, saw business grow nearly 49%, 16 times the borough-wide average.
The second study, called Consumer Behavior and Travel Mode Choices, was conducted in Portland, Oregan by the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium (OTREC). It found “that people in the Portland, Ore., metro region who drove to bars, convenience stores and restaurants often spent more money per visit than bicyclists, but bicyclists visited the same venue more often, and spent more overall.”
Business owners are often worried that bike lanes will reduce their available parking and therefore hurt their business. However, although this may be a short-term effect, the bike lanes will actually increase business as it brings in more locals more often. The health and environmental benefits of cycling are often those heralded loudest by cycling advocates. However, in this time of economic crisis in the U.S., it may be time to change the conversation. Cycling is good for the economy. It is truly as simple as that. Cycling advocates have been saying it for years. Now, they have some more data to back it up.
If you ever need a bicycle accident attorney in San Francisco, Paso Robles, or the surrounding Central California Coast area, contact us for a free consultation.
Source:
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/bike-lanes-may-benefit-small-businesses-1C7488581
Disclaimer | Copyright © 2024 Rahman Law PC All Rights Reserved.