For the Love of Bikes

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Oklahoma HB 1316

March 14, 2011 /

 

The following letter was sent by the FTLOB’s household to OK State Rep. Sullivan concerning his decision to not allow HB 1316 to come to a hearing on the House floor.  For all of you locals, please write Sullivan and urge him to allow democracy to proceed.  Sullivan’s email is:  [email protected]

Representative Daniel Sullivan

2300 N. Lincoln Blvd.
Room 442
Oklahoma City, OK 73105

March 14, 2011

Dear Representative Sullivan:

It is our understanding that you are not allowing HB 1316 to have a hearing on the House floor, although it passed the House Public Safety Committee by a vote of 9 to 7.

We understand that you believe that the texting while driving issue is covered by the state’s current distracted driving laws. Generally a person is cited for distracted driving after an accident has occurred and one of the purposes of this bill is to prevent accidents, not wait until they have happened. In fact, Oklahoma’s existing laws require a violation or other demonstration of distraction before law enforcement can act.  Existing state laws against reckless driving and distracted driving do not clearly capture all activities that constitute driving recklessly or being distracted.  We believe that the risks involved in text messaging while driving are such that it warrants being singled out legislatively to allow officers to enforce it before a crash or traffic violation occurs. 

With reports of texting while driving on the rise, it is clear that education and enforcing Oklahoma’s reckless driving laws aren’t working. Nationwide, text messaging is soaring. In December, phone users in the United States sent 110 billion messages, a tenfold increase in just three years, according to the cellular phone industry’s trade group, CTIA.

We understand that enforcement of a texting law will present special challenges, but the tell-tale bobbing of the head as the driver texts and drives is a dead giveaway. While some texting may not be easily spotted, the texting law would be enforced just as DUI laws are now, at the time the driver is stopped for another offense or in the event of a crash. A drunk driver goes un-noticed on Oklahoma roads until he is observed drinking behind the wheel or is stopped for another offense or is involved in a crash. Yet we have a DUI law. Enforcement of a texting while driving law would be done the same way, much the same as seat belt laws are enforced. Even without significant enforcement, passing a law can have great safety benefits through compliance based on the fear of being ticketed, the social stigma attached to a behavior that has been made illegal. Many look to the law as the standard for traffic safety. 

While some may think that forbidding texting while driving is an infringement of our personal rights, our driver’s licenses can currently now be taken away for a variety of reasons. The law requires us to not speed, to not drink and drive, etc. These laws could all be considered infringements of our personal rights, but they were passed for the greater good.

This is a public safety issue that we are dealing with here and we think it is reasonable to ask that the bill get a fair hearing and vote on the floor of the House. At such time that the House votes on this bill then the will of the people will be done. To not allow a vote on the floor is to infringe on the rights of all Oklahoma citizens and their duly elected representative to vote on a bill that has move through the committee process as this bill has.

We hope that in the interest of public safety and fairness that you will allow this bill to move to the House floor for debate and vote.

Sincerely,

Guest Post: Emotion of Motion

March 8, 2011 /

For the Love of Bikes is happy to offer this guest post by Frederick Su~

Frederick Su pic

Fred and Taz, a 50 lb Chow Chow, who loves to ride!

To see the sense of joy on a child’s face as he or she bicycles along with a newfound sense of freedom is to recognize the emotion of motion. Free, not from gravity, but from the constraints of the striding mechanics of walking or running, the child now recognizes the ease of bicycling and how this rolling method of locomotion is so efficient that he or she can easily pass a walking adult.

Somehow on the long road to middle age, many children and even young adults who once rode bicycles, suddenly eschew this mode of travel for the motor vehicle. Their thinking probably goes something like these thoughts: “I’m too old to bicycle.” “I’m in a hurry and a bicycle takes too long.” “I don’t want to get hit by a truck.” “It’s raining.” “It’s too hilly.” “The roads don’t have good shoulders.” “I’m worth more now as an individual and I need to show my net worth when I drive.” “It’s faster in a car.” "I don’t want to break a sweat and have to change at work."

I can only argue that those who eschew the bicycle eschew joy. Pure and simple, the modern multispeed bicycle is one of the greatest inventions of all time. In my mind, it is greater than the internal combustion engine and the airplane. It is a fitness machine on steroids that allows the world to pass beneath your feet. On a bicycle, you are a like a pioneer, subject to all that Mother Nature can throw at you. You are subject to her tantrums and her beneficence. Moreover, recent research has shown that exercising outdoors has much greater benefits for you than exercising indoors. Apparently, expanding the horizons of your experiences also expands the joy.

You are the engine of your travels. The bicycle is powered primarily by your legs, lungs, and heart. As one 90-year-old gentleman remarked to my wife and me, “Keep your legs moving.” In middle age, we all slow down and tend to put on more pounds. Without exercise and a healthful diet, we can easily slide into obesity and incur such health problems as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. My philosophy is to suffer the exercise or suffer the disease. Which would you prefer?

© 2011 by Frederick Su / www.bytewrite.com

Wheels of Change

March 2, 2011 /

Excerpts~

Wheels of change

“To men, the bicycle in the beginning was merely a new toy, another machine added to the long list of devices they knew in their work and play.

To women, it was a steed upon which they rode into a new world.”

Women and the Wheel Munsey’s Magazine, May 1986

What possessed Frances Willard to learn to ride a bicycle at age 53?  She did it for her health, she wrote, and for the “pure love of nature”. She also wanted to inspire other women to learn to ride:  “I hold that the more interests women and men can have in common, in thought, word, and deed, the happier it will be for the home.”  Finally, she declared that she did it “because a good many people thought I could not do it at my age.”

In less than a decade, the growing bicycle craze created one of the largest industries in the country.  In 1885, the heyday of the ordinary, there were only six cycle manufacturers in the U.S., with a total annual output of 11,000 bicycles.  Five years later, with the safety now available, there were 17 manufacturers, and they produced 40,000 bicycles.

In 1895, the New York Times reported the existence of 126 manufacturers with an expected output of nearly half a million machines in the U.S. alone.

Annual production reached one million bicycles in 1896.

“I am delighted with my wheel, I am equally as fond of it as my horse”.

                                                                                  Annie Oakley 1892

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