"driving is why you're fat"

Good Magazine diagrams a simple equation: the more time you spend driving a car, the more likely you are to be overweight.  Meanwhile, the DC Streets blog reports that the car-dependent states are more likely to have high rates of obesity.

"Correlation isn't causation..." of course, but interesting stats nonetheless.

la mayor Antonio Villaraigosa finds out first hand how drivers generally treat cyclists

...and becomes an advocate for enforcing laws to protect cyclists and force drivers to share the road:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is the new champion of cyclists' rights in the nation's second-largest city, a conversion that came after a bone-breaking fall from his own bicycle.

The mayor, who said little on the topic during five years in office, is campaigning to make streets safer for cyclists after a parked cab abruptly pulled out across a bike lane, causing him to shatter an elbow. The ill-fated ride was his first on city streets since taking office.

Since the July 17 accident, Villaraigosa has utilized the Huffington Post and YouTube to say that it's time to recognize that bicycles also belong on LA's streets, which were largely designed for autos. In the YouTube video, he announced plans to convene a bicycle safety summit.

if you've ever wondered how google maps gets its directions "by bike"

...then read this great article from the New York Times!  A highlight:

The beta version for bicyclists is just a few months old, but it is already reshaping how bike enthusiasts travel. Spanning more than 200 cities nationwide — and with plans to roll out bicycle routes internationally — Google Maps relies on a mash-up of data, from publicly available sources like bike maps to user-generated information. It joins a host of other bike-mapping Web sites, from Bikely, which lets people share routes in cities around the world, to Ride the City, a geowiki (or self-editing map) app, available in 10 cities (including New York, Boston, San Francisco and Toronto) that allows users to edit their routes as they ride, to MapMyRide, which is geared more toward fitness training and logging workouts.

But the one with the most potential — and the most buzz among bikers — is Google’s. There are three kinds of routes highlighted on its maps: bike-only trails (dark green), dedicated bicycle lanes (light green) and bike-friendly roads but with no separate lanes (dashed green). The algorithm factors in variables besides bike lanes, like confusing intersections, steep hills or busy streets, before spitting out the “best” route. The software includes more than 12,000 miles of off-road trails as well.

bikers vs. mosquitos

Today the Daily Illini featured an article about two UIUC students working as "mosquito abatement bikers" for the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District:

As mosquito abatement bikers for the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD), Kathleen Doran, recent graduate of ACES and Claire Keating, a senior in Fine and Applied Arts and Illini Media employee, travel around Champaign County to spread mosquito larvicide to help prevent the coming of West Nile Virus, a disease of the brain transmitted through infected mosquitoes. The CUPHD hired the two students as part of the district’s special program to reduce Culex mosquitos, the insects that cause the disease, said Jim Roberts, director of environmental health for the CUPHD.

Doran and Keating bike around C-U dumping larvacide into stagnant water, thus totally refudiating moquito breeding grounds and helping to fight mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile Virus.  Check out the article!

smile politely investigates hit and run crash involving cyclists

Today, Smile Politely featured a long article about a couple of hit and run crashes involving cyclists that have taken place around C-U over the past year:

Dornick was riding near the back of the pack, and immediately noted how quickly the honking car was approaching, close to 100 mph in his estimation. By the time a rider had called “Car back!“ the vehicle — a blue Chevy Impala with heavily tinted windows — had reached the cyclists, slowed to around 35 mph, and was rapidly moving through the group.

As Hand describes it, “Almost immediately the car was already up in the middle of the group.  We had already tried to start moving over and were probably halfway over.  I saw the car moving into the group.  It sounded like he was driving in the grass for a second, and then that sound went away and it looked like he was moving toward us.“

As the pace line tried to move to the right to clear room for the driver, riders at the back of the pack saw the car pass less than a foot to the left of their bikes.  Cyclist Sean Walker watched the passenger side mirror pass over his handlebars, narrowly avoiding a hit.  The driver then hit Dornick’s left elbow with his passenger side mirror, knocking him off-balance.  Dornick was able to remain upright, and the driver continued forward.

At this point the driver had reached the middle of the pack. Nangle was riding near the back of the pack and had an unobstructed view of the vehicle as it approached the center of the pace line.  Nangle watched the driver reach the middle of the pack before “clearly, deliberately turning to the right and moving the car into the pace line of riders, clearly making an attempt to hit one or more of the riders.“  The other cyclists confirmed this unmistakable display of intent.  Rob Raguet-Schofield observed “a good four feet of pavement and at least one or two feet of solid grass shoulder to the left of the car.  It was absolutely, unmistakably clear this was no accident.  This was intentional.“

 Incidents like these spurred Governor Quinn to sign an anti-harassment law compelling drivers to give cyclists at least three feet of space on the road.

vets' cross-country bike ride arrives in c-u today!

Sunday's News-Gazette included a story about a group of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans (and others) trekking across the country on bikes.  C-U will welcome them today, with a ceremony taking place at Hessel Park beginning around 2pm:

A group of exceptional bicycle riders, many of whom are wounded Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, will be in Champaign-Urbana this week as part of a 3,696-mile tour.
The riders, whose trek is called Sea to Shining Sea, have undertaken the effort to pay tribute to service men and women and challenge perceptions about how Americans see disabled athletes. Some of the 19 cross-country riders have prosthetic limbs, while others with spinal cord injuries or without legs are using specially designed hand-powered bikes. They are from all branches of the service. Among the riders is Paul Bremer, the former diplomat who oversaw Iraq’s provisional government in 2003 and 2004.

They are scheduled to arrive in Champaign around 2 p.m. Tuesday. A welcoming ceremony will be held between 2 and 3 p.m. at Hessel Park in Champaign.

For more info, visit their website.

don't ride your bike on the sidewalk

Urbana police are -- rightly! -- enforcing a prohibition against riding your bike on sidewalks.  You shouldn't be riding on the sidewalk in the first place, but the $100 fine for a citation might be more persuasive than our moralizing.  Here's a blog post from the City of Urbana:

please note that riding bikes on downtown sidewalk is prohibited. Due to the large number of pedestrians walking, diners eating outdoors, and shoppers stepping out of shops, the sidewalk is not a safe place to ride a bicycle. For everyone's safety, the City asks you to dismount and walk your bicycle on downtown sidewalks. Thank you for your cooperation.

Riding a bicycle on downtown sidewalks is punishable by a $100 fine.

urbana & champaign producing a bicycle safety video

At Smile Politely, Joel splogged (it's a special form of blogging) about a News-Gazette article about a bicycle safety video our fair twin cities are jointly producing:

The cities of Champaign and Urbana are collaborating on a bicycle safety video that will provide information to both cyclists and drivers on the proper ways to deal with various traffic scenarios.

They are working with a bicycle safety consultant with the League of Illinois Bicyclists, Donnie Miller, who has done bicycle safety training in Champaign-Urbana before. The cost of making the video is about $1,200.

Let's hope it includes something capable of teaching grumpy men in the passenger seats of Toyota Corollas not to curse at me for taking the lane beneath a bridge on Springfield as their young daughters watch everything from the backseat!  We are traffic, &c....

the bike project in the news, again!

Joel and I appeared on page B3 of the local paper this past Saturday.  A photographer made our picture Friday afternoon at the campus shop, as we conferred about a bent brake on an old BSA mountain bike:

(photo credit to John Dixon/The News-Gazette)

(I replaced the brake and the BSA's now for sale at the Campus Bike Project!)

weekend bike events?

We've got some!

First, the Art Gallery Bicycle Tour, which was rained out last weekend, will take place rain or shine this Saturday, 12 June.  It's a self-paced ride around town, punctuated by visits to some of C-U's art galleries.  Entry fee is a $10 and you'll get a discount on food at some participating restaurants. Check out the Champaign Cycles page for more details.  (And read a preview I wrote for last fall's iteration of the Tour.)

This weekend Champaign will also host Taste of C-U in West Side Park.  Some Bike Project volunteers will be volunteering at the bike corral and if you get there by bicycle, you'll get a free drink ticket good at one of the Pepsi tents.  The Champaign Park District website has more info.

(And if you'd like to see some live theater, the U-C IMC's hosting a "woven collage of music, theater, and dance" called Aquatown: A Future Hydrohistory.)

The Bike Project's also got a bunch of open hours this weekend if you'd like to stop by our shops.  The U-C IMC shop will be open 2-5pm on Saturday and Sunday; the Campus Bike Project from 5-9pm on Sunday.

Hope to see you out and about!

"sharrows" coming to philo road

Later this week, Urbana will start painting "shared lane markings" or sharrows on Philo Road, as part of the Urbana Bicycle Master Plan.  Campus shop manager Joel wrote about the city's press release for our favorite local website.

Here's some good lines from the city's press release:

there are several purposes for the shared lane markings on Philo Road south of Colorado Avenue:

• Let motorists know they can expect bicyclists on the road;
• Help bicyclists position themselves in the travel lane (i.e. “take the lane”) since it is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel side-by-side in the lane;
• Positioning the bicyclist in the lane will encourage safe passing by motorists (if a bicyclist rides too close to the curb, they risk being squeezed by a motorist trying to pass without leaving their travel lane)

the bike project on tv!

(We cleaned the campus shop especially well last night because...)

This morning, Campus Bike Project manager Joel and The Bike Project's Volunteer Coordinator Emma appeared in two segments on WCIA's morning show!  WCIA's Nichole Szemerei spoke with Joel and Emma outside the campus shop and then Emma showed off the shop itself, including our collection of build-a-bike possibilities.

• Here's the first video, in which Joel and Emma talk about The Bike Project.

• And here's the second, in which Joel undertakes a brake repair while Emma shows off the shop and talks about the co-op.

PS: if you want a Bike Project tee shirt like those Joel and Emma are wearing, come by the U-C IMC shop in Urbana and get one for a $10 donation!  And if you'd like to become a member or to check out The Bike Project, stop by either the campus shop or the U-C IMC shop during open hours.

PPS: Thanks to Joel and Emma and thanks, too, to Nichole and WCIA!

and we're back

We've been on vacation from blogging, spending time scouring rust off old Schwinns with steel wool and elbow grease.  We really should get a Dremel.

But last week we heard that we "should totally blog about the shop!" ... and we agree.

Despite our laxity, we're still in the news!  Smile Politely (our incestuous sort of sister site) featured an article by a U of I journalism student about how we recycle old bikes.  And next week, probably on Monday, 7 June, C-U tv station WCIA's morning show will feature a segment on The Bike Project live from the campus shop.

And if you're looking for some bike-related fun this weekend, check out C-U's Art Gallery Bicycle Tour.  (Here's a preview I wrote for Smile Politely for the last iteration of the Tour.)

One last PSA: if you'd like to contribute to the blog, please email us and let us know.

tomorrow: ride of silence

Tomorrow night -- 19 May at 7pm to be precise! -- C-U will play host to the annual Ride of Silence.  The Ride of Silence aims both to honor cyclists who have been hurt or killed and to raise awareness that cyclists are by-right users of the roads, or, as the slogan goes, that "we are traffic!"

Here's some details from an email to The Bike Project's member listserv:

We start at the parking lot near the assembly hall at First and St. Mary's. The route will be N on first to Stadium Drive, then across 45 (Neil Street) to Randolph and through downtown Champaign, then South on First and then down Green Street, then a bit North on Busey to Main and through downtown Urbana, then South on Vine to ILlinois, then Goodwin, then Pennsylvania, Fourth and back to the lot. It's about 9 miles and we'll be going less than 12 MPH and regrouping whenever we get spread out.  (Note:  this is pending me looking at this on the map -- it's changed a tad from last year so we can ride a little on new bike lanes on Goodwin).

In the past we've had about 35 riders; if riders wear black armbands (a garbage bag cut into strips works) or have a sign on bikes indicating who they're riding for, then it communicates what we're doing to passersby.

The purpose of this ride is

• To HONOR those who have been injured or killed
• To RAISE AWARENESS that we are here
• To ask that we all SHARE THE ROAD; that drivers recognize that there’s room for all of us out here, and that a bicyclist may be around the next corner and has every right to be. 

We are looking for respect, not retaliation; for visibility, not vengeance. Let us show how to share the road by a positive example. Please follow the rules of the road. Ride as you would in a funeral procession; ride predictably.

Point out potholes and road hazards; signal turns and if you slow down. Momentary inattention is the number one cause of accidents -Be aware of what is in front of and BEHIND you, watch your line, and keep your hands near your brakes. 

We are riding as a group, silently but use your judgement regarding both. Allow for breaks in the group when it makes sense.

online petition to support a bike-friendly downtown urbana

Tonight the Urbana City Council will meet and discuss their master bicycle plan.  If you can make it to the meeting, you should come out.  If you can't -- and even if you can -- but still want to show support for a bicycle-friendly downtown Urbana, Champaign County Bikes has developed an online petition you can sign to express your support for keeping Urbana bike-friendly.  Here's the details:

For all Champaign County residents - NOT just citizens of Urbana! As Urbana is the County Seat everyone in Champaign County should fill-in this petition.

BACKGROUND
Urbana has been recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists. Creating an active transportation system for Urbana will improve our residents health, add economic benefits, reduce our carbon footprint, and give our community more choices in transportation.

WHAT IS NEEDED
The Urbana City Council approved the Urbana Bicycle Master Plan and an Urbana Downtown Plan that both call for the redesign of Main Street in downtown Urbana implementing a road diet that would improve safety, reduce traffic speeds, create a more attractive environment for shoppers and diners and provide better access for pedestrians and bicyclists. The Urbana Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission also approved this plan as did the Officers and Steering Committee of Champaign County Bikes. Road diets have been shown to slow and calm vehicle traffic and encourage bicyclists and pedestrians to shop and enjoy the downtown. We encourage the city council to proceed with implementation of these plans.

WHY
The Urbana Bicycle Master Plan was created with the assistance of the best professional bicycle and transportation consultants in the state of Illinois along with the City of Urbana staff and extensive public input. It's implementation will provide safe, affordable, and healthy access for bicycling as a regular mode of transportation. In 2008 this plan won awards from both the Illinois Chapter of the American Planning Association and the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, validating the very high level of expertise and the outstanding quality of Urbana's plan for bicycles in the city's future. Implementation of our excellent bike plan will benefit many generations to come and enhance the vitality of our downtown.

Thank You!
Champaign County Bikes

Please come to the Urbana City Council meeting this coming Monday evening, 5/10/2010.
Urbana City Building, 400 South Vine Street Urbana, IL 61801
Be there at 6:45. Meeting begins at 7:00PM

For more information about the street plan and for Urbana City Council contact information, please visit: http://UrbanaBikeLanes.notlong.com.

this monday: urbana city council holds public discussion on urbana's "master bicycle plan"

This upcoming Monday, 10 May, starting at 7pm in the Urbana City Council Chambers the Urbana City Council Meeting will include a public discussion about implementing Urbana's Master Bicycle Plan.  If you care about bike lanes in Urbana, come out and make your voice heard.  Here's some excerpts from an email to the Champaign County Bikes email list:

There will be an important Urbana City Council Meeting (of Committee of the Whole) next Monday, May 10 starting at 7pm in the Urbana City Council Chambers at 400 S. Vine St. in Urbana.  At this meeting, there will be a discussion about implementing Urbana's Master Bicycle Plan which calls for a road diet and bike lanes to be installed on Main St. in downtown Urbana. This plan is supported by Urbana City Staff, the Urbana Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Commission and the Officers and Steering Committee of Champaign County Bikes. It has also been endorsed by Ed Barsotti, Executive Director of the League of Illinois Bicyclists.

And yet there is strong opposition to the plan by some of the Downtown Urbana merchants would want to see more parking (angled) on Main Street and no bike lanes, despite the fact that there is an excess of parking space in the downtown area.

...we need people to support the plan to show up at Monday evening's meeting, especially Urbana residents and especially people from anywhere to shop and dine in downtown Urbana.

There are different ways for you to show your support of downtown bike lanes at the meeting, from the least involved and time-consuming to the most:

1. Leave a comment card with your support of the road-diet and bike lanes on Main Street in Downtown Urbana. You can then go home. Your name and comment will be read when the agenda item comes up.

2. Leave a comment card with your support of the road-diet and bike lanes on Main Street in Downtown Urbana. Stay through the discussion of the agenda item. I suggest wearing your bicycle helmet throughout the meeting as a very visible indication to the City Council of your support for bicycle infrastructure in Downtown Urbana (the helmet may also prove useful if an earthquake or tornado strikes Urbana during the meeting).

3. Leave a card requesting to speak as public input at the beginning of the meeting. And then speak. Comments are usually limited to 5 minutes, but may be shortened to 3 minutes of a lot of people want to speak. You can then go home.

4. Leave a card requesting to speak as public input when the item comes up on the agenda. Stick around (with your helmet on) and then speak. Comments are usually limited to 5 minutes, but may be shortened to 3 minutes of a lot of people want to speak.

All other things being equal, comments from those living in Urbana will have more impact on the City Council than comments those living outside Urbana. But comments from those who shop and dine in Downtown Urbana will have impact regardless of their place of residence.

In addition to encouraging bicyclists to come to the Urbana City Council meeting to show their support for the road diet and bike lanes in Downtown Urbana, Champaign County Bikes may be soon circulating a petition for signatures. More information will be provided about this soon.

But for now, put the Monday evening on your calendar and plan to be there if you possibly can. 

tax credits for bicycle commuter

Now that you're biking to work, persuade your employer to offer the Bicycle Commuter Act tax credit!  A university in Pittsburgh, PA just made news when it began offering the credit.  From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

The benefit is a $20-a-month credit for people who make a "substantial portion" of their commute by bicycle, to pay for purchases, repairs, storage, upgrades or helmets (padded shorts and tight shirt are excluded from the reimbursement). The employer can reimburse employees based on their expenses, offer regular monthly payments or devise some sort of voucher system.

Similar benefits are allowed for transit and parking, but they allow up to $230 a month. The bicycle benefit can be applied only in those months during which an employee does not file for transit or parking benefits.

Some members of the United States Congress have started to call for equity in tax credits offered to bike commuters:

To that end, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who had pushed for the benefit to be a much higher amount, has introduced legislation called the Green Routes to Work Bill, or H.R. 3271.

The bill calls for equity in the benefits, so that biking, transit and parking would have the same cap, which would make it easier for bike commuters to afford a new helmet or pay for fenders. It also would allow for workers to use the credit for multimodal transportation. For example, taking the bus part way and the bike the rest of the ride might qualify both up to the total cap.

Anybody know of employers in C-U that offer these credits?  If so, props to them!

"if you love oil spills, keep driving your car..."

"...and if you care about the future of human beings on the planet, please kiss your car goodbye."  So argues Jason Henderson in an article for alternet.org about the irresolvable contradiction between caring for the environment and owning and operating an automobile.  Some exemplary paragraphs:

We need oil to make the "shift" to other energy paths. Yet the vast majority of oil that Americans consume is squandered for short drive-thru trips. We are seeking to expand drilling offshore and in remote areas to keep this system of automobility afloat. At the same time we as a nation expect to make a great leap to new energy systems but that will require lots of oil to build them. We cannot do both.

To any rational thinking person this should be an alarming state of affairs. But to people who identify themselves as political progressives and yet continue to own and drive cars on a routine basis, this should be an embarrassment. Any progressive-leftist-liberal-"green"-environmentalist cannot, with a clear conscience, drive his or her children to school and expect those children to find a planet they'll thrive on. He or she cannot smugly shrug that the transit system does not go where he or she wants to go, or that the distances are too far to ride a bicycle. Any able-bodied progressive who regularly exclaims "But I need to drive!" is in need of some deep reflection on his or her values and especially the idea of a green car.

The "green car" movement has been around since the rise in environmental awareness and recognition of resource scarcity. It reflects how American progressives have held a great discomfort in trying to balance the convenient automobile lifestyle enabled by oil against the messy work of extracting and refining oil. The Prius will not cut it. Engaging in some sort of medieval offset-indulgence scheme won't either. You are driving an oil-consuming machine made from polymers derived from oil and designed to carry you under 30 miles a day in an urban configuration.

According to Henderson, by driving a car you could be complicit in destroying the beaches in my home state, Florida.

congratulations to the bike project's half-marathoners!

Congratulations to The Bike Project volunteers Emma, Barry, Emily, and Todd for completing yesterday's Illinois Half-Marathon!  Thanks, too, to volunteers Carl and Phil for volunteering with the marathon's bike patrol!

urbana named "bicycle friendly community"

Congratulations to Urbana for being designated a "Bicycle Friendly Community" by the League of American Bicyclists.  Here's the city's press release:

The City of Urbana is proud to announce that we have been named a Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) by the League of American Bicyclists. Andy Clarke, League President, said "Communities from all areas of the country, climates and populations see bicycling as an integral component of building livable communities. The Bicycle Friendly Community program is recognizing those leading the way."

Receiving Bicycle Friendly Community recognition was a goal of the Urbana Bicycle Master Plan as well as an Urbana City Council and Mayor goal. The City of Urbana recognizes that Bicycle Friendly Communities are places with a high quality of life, where people want to live, work, and visit. Building such a community can translate into a more connected, physically active, and environmentally sustainable community that enjoys increased property values, business growth, increased tourism, and more transportation choices for citizens.

The application process to become a Bicycle Friendly Community is rigorous. The BFC application provides a comprehensive picture of a community by asking questions across five categories often referred to as the Five Es - Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluation & Planning. A community must demonstrate achievements in each of the five categories in order to be considered for an award. Currently only 140 of the 359 total applicants have a BFC four-year designation. Urbana was the only city in the state of Illinois to receive BFC status this round and is the first downstate city to receive recognition (Chicago, Naperville and Schaumburg are BFCs).