Life is better on a bike!

Category: share the road (Page 1 of 6)

Rethinking Streets

Rethinking Streets, An Evidence-Based Guide to 25 Complete Street Transformations, available free in PDF and hard copy format, is a book detailing 25 complete streets projects from around the U.S. The following article discussing the book is from Planetizen.

The book written by, Marc Schlossberg, John Rowell, Dave Amos, and Kelly Sanford, may be downloaded here.


“Rethinking Streets,” a new report by the University of Oregon’s Sustainable Cities Initiative, provides detailed information on 25 complete streets and streetscaping projects. It is available free in PDF and hard copy format.
It is time to rethink the street.

For too long we have been building streets as though they have one function: to move cars quickly. The reality is that streets can to do more than just move cars. They can move people on foot, on bikes, on transit, without hurting vehicular throughput and safety. They can be more than a way to get somewhere else. Good streets are good places, too, public places where people meet, sit and socialize, conduct business, wander about, play, and more.

This new book uses evidence from completed street projects from around the United States in order to help communities imagine alternative futures for their streets. The book does not show hypothetical street re-designs, but actual examples from typical communities to show how they did what they did and see what resulted from the change.

30 Days of Biking–Day 5

Day 5 ride was the longest of the #30daysofbiking rides so far.  I joke – and like most jokes there is truth there – that rides in street clothes are rides of a *bike rider* and rides in spandex are rides of a *cyclist*. It is a well understood fact (by most anyway) that drivers are more tolerant of bike riders than cyclists.

I talked yesterday about how easy going drivers were on Day 4’s ride, today’s bike jersey/shorts ride i.e., cyclist ride was an example of how irritated drivers can be. I find it so interesting that depending on how you are dressed (and possibly the type of bike you are riding) people actually react differently to you. It wouldn’t be an issue for cyclists except the irritated drivers sometimes respond in a manner that puts us at risk. There have been studies done confirming this, according to one, the safest person riding a bike is a female pulling a trailer commonly used for hauling kids.

Today’s ride was great regardless. We parked at Oakdale school and rode to Jones on Hefner Rd. The same road that hundreds of cyclists (and bike riders 🙂 will be riding tomorrow at the Redbud Classic bike event. Signage was already out warning drivers to expect possible delays.

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The ride to Jones is so peaceful (and easy), especially on weekdays when most are at work. We saw more cows than people. I had to stop to take a picture of this longhorn and her calf. 

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Once we hit Jones and started heading back we decided to just ride home and pick up the car later. Good decision because once we started heading north we had a very nice tailwind from the southwest. You can see how strong the wind is from the flag in the photo below.

Aren’t the redbuds beautiful!

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We picked up another 8 miles by riding home of mostly easy pedaling although there was a fair amount of traffic. One person buzzed us even though the left lane was completely empty choosing to stay in the right lane where we were passing us very close and THEN got over into the left lane. 

Once we could we got off the busy streets and ride through neighborhoods to get home we did. Also gave me time to get a few more shots.

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Day 5: 26.5 miles/14.8 avs/119 ahr/922ft of ascent.

30 Days of Biking–Day 4

Day 4 of the 30 Days of Biking challenge brought a day of sunshine and white puffy clouds, along with cool temperatures.

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Today I rode Condor to the hair salon and grocery store then home again, taking the long way back. I like running errands on my bike and especially in street clothes. I love encountering the friendly drivers “ you go first, no you, after all you’re riding a bike – I am serious! Waves, smiles and courteous behavior from all involved. I love rides like this and wonder why they can’t all be.

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Cool reflection of a similarly cool cyclist, eh. Laughing out loud

I rode to the same grocery that I was returning from when I got *the ticket* last year. I thought about testing out the new affirmative defense law, but it was such a pleasant and peaceful day, I thought lets not. 😉

I rode by the municipal court building where I was able to get the fine waived for said ticket.

I waited at the light where said offense occurred. Notice the sign stating that bicycles should use the crosswalk – if that big black arrow had been there last year I would have seen it!

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Day 4 mileage was just under 11 miles.

We Are Traffic

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Here’s an excellent graphic that explains what a driver sees as they approach a person riding a bike.

Personally I don’t usually ride in the middle of the lane (although at times I do when I need to control the lane e.g., riding up a hill), I ride slightly more to the right, but the point here is NOT to ride along the white line. Ride far enough into the lane so that vehicles must change lanes to pass you. If you give them enough room to squeeze by you that’s what they’ll try to do, putting you at great risk.

Someone on our Facebook page commented that they couldn’t ride like this because they have to ride as far right as possible (laws generally state as far to the right as is safe or practicable) so as to not impede the flow of vehicular traffic (even though bikes are recognized as vehicles).

What are your thoughts about this, agree or disagree? Please explain your position.

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