I¹m for any strategy that works. In Baltimore, there¹s a park that has a training ³village² set up on a tennis court-like area where they train young kids about rules of the road.
I think that the younger and older people I¹ve seen have probably been taught by their parents to both walk and ride on the left side of the road facing traffic. Can we depend on 3rd and 4th graders to re-educate both themselves and their parents? I hope so. Mary On 9/12/13 11:07 AM, "STRAWSER, Charles" <[email protected]> wrote: > An even better strategy than PSAs (on billboards or otherwise) would be a > comprehensive system of educating everyone in, say, the third grade, about the > rules of the road (using bikes in a controlled environment). Then, regardless > of whether one uses a bike as an adult, every adult (at least every adult who > participated in our public school system) would understand the rules of the > road as they apply both to drivers of cars and riders of bikes (and users of > feet). > > This is how citizens are educated using parklike environments in places like > Winterthur Switzerland: > See http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/10janfeb/04.cfm > And scroll down to the image captioned ³At the Winterthur, Switzerland, > Traffic Garden, scan team member Charlie Zegeer examines a demonstration > intersection that is used to teach children about safe bicycling.² > > Instead, in the US, we (at best) educate teenagers in high school in ³driver¹s > ed,² which is taught by instructors who are sometime virulently against the > (legal) use of bicycles in the road and/or ignorant of the laws regarding > bicyclists use of the roads. > > And to the naysayers who argue the impracticality of bicycling in winter in > our climate, you can¹t tell me they don¹t have winter in a place called > ³Winterthur, Switzerland² > > Chuck Strawser > Pedestrian & Bicycle Transportation Planner > Commuter Solutions > Transportation Services > UW-Madison > Room 124 WARF > 610 Walnut St > Madison WI 53726 > 608-263-2969 > www.wisc.edu/trans > > From: Mary Mullen [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2013 10:49 AM > To: Troy Thiel; STRAWSER, Charles; fortkendall tds.net; [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Bikies] Fwd: Where are not more crashes at University and Park? > > Nearly every time I¹m out on my bike or in my car I see bicyclists riding on > the wrong side of the street maybe not on University Avenue, but lots of > other places. > > I even saw an employee from Dream Bikes coming at me when I was in the bike > lane on the right side of the Beltline frontage road near the Dream Bikes > store. That guy should know better and should be giving a good example, not a > poor one. When he saw me coming, he turned around and went back to Dream > Bikes. I did stop in to Dream Bikes to razz him for doing that stupid thing. > > The other day, when in my car in my neighborhood, I also pointed to the right > side of the street when a biker was coming at me on the wrong side of the > street. I¹m happy to say that he, too, moved to the right side. > > I think it¹s time for some public service billboards all over town that tell > and show everyone on a bike that they need to ride with traffic, not against. > Bike cops ought to be pulling these people over and writing tickets. I > believe all of us need to take some action when we see this kind of behavior > as well. > > Mary Mullen > > > On 9/12/13 9:51 AM, "Troy Thiel" <[email protected]> wrote: > thanks all for volunteering..I hope I can help when next needed...I've been > thinking about writing a blog about simple violations from all users on my way > to work/around town/etc...some reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly > ridiculous behavior at morning "rush" hour..from cars AND bikes > alike...personal favorites (NOT) 7 cars running red lights with FULL ON > pedestrian vehicle activity on the right of way...yeah you in the grey Rav 4 > with plates that begin with UAA...you almost killed two students to get to > that next red light faster....and you in the Grey (must be a theme) skateboard > helmet who road full speed ACROSS A STREET that has bikes and cars with you > having the yield on the East path...then yelling at THEM to get our of your > way....c'mon people...you live in a community with other people doing things > and you have to share the space...there's a few dozen more violations..but > those stick out the most...I could write this everyday..as could we all...and > that ain't that cool. > > Troy Thiel > > > > > > > > From: "STRAWSER, Charles" <[email protected]> > To: fortkendall tds.net <[email protected]>; [email protected] > Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2013 8:26 AM > Subject: Re: [Bikies] Fwd: Where are not more crashes at University and Park? > > > > This is very interesting data. Thanks for sharing. > Could you be more specific about how long the period of time was in which you > counted 1394 cyclists and 3260 pedestrian crossings? > Thanks, > > > Chuck Strawser > Pedestrian & Bicycle Transportation Planner > Commuter Solutions > Transportation Services > UW-Madison > Room 124 WARF > 610 Walnut St > Madison WI 53726 > 608-263-2969 > www.wisc.edu/trans <http://www.wisc.edu/trans> > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of fortkendall tds.net > Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 9:56 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [Bikies] Fwd: Where are not more crashes at University and Park? > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Schimpff, Jeff A - DNR <[email protected]> > Date: Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 5:01 PM > Subject: RE: [Bikies] Where are not more crashes at University and Park? > To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > > > Robbie Webber <[email protected]>; Bikies <[email protected]> > > Being a late volunteer for the bike-ped count, I was assigned to the ³Gulag² > site at Park and University that was abandoned at the last minute by two other > would-be volunteers. > > Placing myself upwind and ten feet above most of the machines that formed a > major portion of the transportation mash-up here, it was in most ways very > enjoyable to witness this cavalcade of youthful and in cases erudite optimism, > energy and everything else streaming by on the sidewalks and bike lanes. > > Despite some occasional honking, impatience, wrong-way pedaling, and other > bursts of chaos, the only near-accident occurred when one cyclist swerved > abruptly in front of another in the counter-flow lane, to cross north on Park. > > In the same period that Robbie would have been able to have a personal > conversation with every cyclist who came by, at the Park & U intersection > during that same two-hour period, there were approximately: > > 1,394 bicyclists > > 3,260 pedestrian crossings (people who made 90 degree crossings were counted > twice there was no way to keep track of that) > > 21 skate boarders > > Zero dog walkers > > The sad part was the creeping motor traffic along University for the first > hour and 15 minutes or so, wherein very few personal autos contained more than > one person, and the persons in those autos vastly outnumbered the cyclists and > pedestrians. Cycling was the far superior way to go at that time, as most > people on the list know. > > A little later that evening, one of our local TV news station reporters > referred to an increase in gasoline prices over the past two weeks of 6 cents > per gallon in terms of ³pain at the pump.² Obviously, most people in Dane > County are pumped full of anesthetic > > > > >
_______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
