Recently in Biking Category

A picture of the Ryno is to the right. (I have yet to see one in the wild). It is self-balancing, and so the Segway of mobility scooters/motorcycles. As they say, don't let the road get in the way of your life. It is limited to 12.5 mph, and so one may ask, how is this better than a bicycle? Well if you don't want to pedal. ... How is this better than Segway? Well if you don't want to stand, and somehow it looks cooler.

A page devoted to vehicles with only one wheel is here: Motorwheels monowheels They are not all of the unicycle variety.

Jessica Schoner @ Network Distance on the perception of Nice Ride as Gateway Bikes? :

"One thing that I found difficult to swallow is how many different people quoted in the article think of Nice Riders as non-serious bicyclists."

I am glad the drugs metaphor is being extended from automobiles (automobile dependence) to bicycles (gateway bikes).

Drunk Engineer @ Systemic Failure minces words with: Sharrows Suck . I wish he would tell us how he really feels.

In general I agree. See here and here.

A nice write-up of NiceRide in the MnDaily by Jessica Lee, quoting Nexus researcher and MURP/CE graduate student Jessica Schoner and streets.mn blogger and Geography graduate student Bill Lindeke:

Study finds Nice Ride boosts biz:

"Nice Ride planners also look at the area’s accessibility to recreational bike routes and the area’s population density.

‘The study definitely showed a positive relationship between the number of trips to the station and the number of food-related businesses nearby,’ said Jessica Schoner, the chief author of the report and a University graduate student. ‘The proximity of food-related businesses was a really good predictor of how well the station was doing.’

As of late August 2012, the IDS Center downtown and the station at St. Anthony Main were the two most popular kiosks with a combined 13,000 rentals, according to a Nice Ride report.

Nice Ride estimated 2012 was the best year yet with 275,000 rentals.

Two stations on the University campus were ranked in the top-10 most popular in 2011, according to the study. Dosset said he works ‘really closely with the University’s transportation department to select the locations that would be best.’

Schoner said the Nice Ride season of April through November is almost opposite of the academic school year and that affects the research.

‘I think if we were to look at the system at a finer level, maybe by month, we would see the [University] having a much bigger impact in terms of their overall usage,’ Schoner said.

Alexander Matson, economics senior and president of the University’s Cycling Team, said the Nice Ride bikes ‘have provided a topic of conversation here at the U.’

‘They are a much easier way to bike rather than having to worry about the logistics of riding or the stress of possible theft,’ Matson said. ‘I don’t know many hardcore cyclists that use the Nice Rides, but they definitely raise awareness and get people on bikes.’

Accounting senior Charles Kranz, another member of the cycling team, said that Nice Ride bikes ‘serve their purpose,’ but he thinks it’s better to own a bike.

‘I see them getting used around campus and throughout the Twin Cities a good amount,’ Kranz said. ‘In my opinion, people who are serious about biking will probably just buy their own bike for getting to class and stuff.’

Geography doctoral candidate Bill Lindeke agreed, saying that Nice Ride bikes are ‘starter bikes’ for people who are uneasy about tackling the city’s busy traffic and complicated routes.

‘One of the big barriers people have about riding a bicycle around the city is it’s scary; it’s intimidating,’ Lindeke said. ‘You see people wearing all this equipment, and you don’t really understand the bicycle
perspective.’

Lindeke specializes in non-motorized transportation. For his research, he interviewed people riding the Nice Ride bikes and talked to planners from the system as part of his study on bicycle advocacy that began last spring.

‘People I’ve been talking to see them as gateway bicycles,’ Lindeke said, ‘like that whole idea of a gateway drug. You start with these.’"

KurzweilAI shows the press release from Volvo: Volvo’s autonomous cars travel 124 miles in Spain in ‘road train’

[This is interesting technology, I am glad they got it to work technically. I still want and expect autonomous robot cars.]

A podcast makes today's Linklist: Horace Dediu on The Critical Path #40: Awaiting the Big Bang:

"This week, Horace follows up on his discussion of automobiles and road infrastructure by talking about how road networks were rebuilt in European countries to accommodate cycling. That leads to hints about the challenge of re-building energy infrastructure to support new power train technologies. Finally He and Dan also analyze comments made by Tim Cook at the recent D10 conference about Apple TV and disruption of the entertainment industry."

Colin Harris @ streets.mn: Open Streets 2012 is Back:

"Following the inaugural Open Streets Minneapolis event in June of 2011, Minneapolis residents will have another opportunity to explore and enjoy their neighborhood streets without the presence of motorized traffic on June 10th, 2012.  Open Streets events (based on the Ciclovía from Bogotá, Colombia) bring together families and neighbors to bike, walk, socialize, play and shop in their communities in a safe, car-free environment."

NYT: Big Data Troves Stay Forbidden:

" In the future, he said, the conference should not accept papers from authors who did not make their data public. He was greeted by applause from the audience.

In February, Dr. Huberman had published a letter in the journal Nature warning that privately held data was threatening the very basis of scientific research. 'If another set of data does not validate results obtained with private data,' he asked, 'how do we know if it is because they are not universal or the authors made a mistake?'"

In the "be careful what you wish for department" ... NYT: George Lucas's Plans in Marin:

"But after spending years and millions of dollars, Mr. Lucas abruptly canceled plans recently for the third, and most likely last, major expansion, citing community opposition. An emotional statement posted online said Lucasfilm would build instead in a place 'that sees us as a creative asset, not as an evil empire.'

If the announcement took Marin by surprise, it was nothing compared with what came next. Mr. Lucas said he would sell the land to a developer to bring 'low income housing' here."

TOLLROADSnews: Traffic congestion dropped off 30% in 2011 INRIX says - weak economy, higher gas prices :

"2011 saw a dramatic drop in traffic congestion in the US - 30% fewer hours wasted in congested traffic according to INRIX, the nation's leading provider of traffic data. The 2011 improvement is only outmatched in the years since INRIX has been measuring congestion by the financial crisis year of 2008, when congestion dropped 34%. In 2009 congestion was up 1% and 2010 saw a 10% regrowth of congestion. "

Wired: SpaceX In Orbit - Successful Launch of Falcon 9 Rocket :

"CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — The second time’s the charm for SpaceX. This morning at 3:44 a.m. EDT the company’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. After a faulty valve led to an aborted launch on Saturday, today’s successful flight marks the third of the Falcon 9 rocket, the second flight of the Dragon capsule, and the first flight for a commercial spacecraft bound for the International Space Station (ISS)."

Kottke: Douche parking: "I can't tell if the app featured in this video is imaginary or not, but it's a great theoretical solution to the problem of douche parking. Douche parking is basically parking like a douche, and is way more prevalent in Russia than in the US. The Village feels publicly shaming is the best way to deal with douches. Unfortunately, one trait of douches is an inability to be shamed."

Matt Kahn @ Environmental and Urban Economics: New UCLA Research Suggests that Men Should Not Bike:

"A study by researchers at the UCLA School of Nursing has found that serious male cyclists may experience hormonal imbalances that could affect their reproductive health. "

Walk Score has put out: Most Bikeable Cities

Just for the record:

Minneapolis - 79

Portland - 70

Their map is here:

I am not sure how exactly they decided this, but we do have our Bike Accessibility data online for your mapping pleasure.

Via Daring Fireball, @ the I love typography, the typography and fonts blog The design of a signage typeface

Brad Plumer @ WaPo on airline deregulation: Should we worry about cities abandoned by airlines?

Brendon @ streets.mn: Why urbanists (and others) should love the coming of the robot car (Part 1)

Behind the Big Wheel Special Event On Thursday, April 26!:

"Drivers of large vehicles and bicyclists share the road every day but rarely get an opportunity to see the road through each others eyes.

In this special demonstration event, bicyclists & pedestrians will be able to get behind the wheel of a big rig or bus, sit in the driver's seat, and check blind spots while bikes & pedestrians walk in the street below.

"Share the Road" safety information will be available to all participants.
Thanks in advance for helping us make the University of Minnesota campus a safer place for all!
If you have any questions about the event, please email biking@umn.edu.."

Reihan Salam @ The Agenda on National Review OnlineA Few Thoughts on Sorting and Agglomeration

Via Greater Greater Washington: Animated history of the T:We have our animated history of Metrorail. Vanshnooken­raggen has created a similar animation showing Boston's T growing (and sometimes shrinking) over time.

[Of course, if you are interested in this stuff, see what we have done over here.]

Krista Nordback @ Vehicle for a Small Planet: Guest post: Adjusting for variation in bike counts.

NYTimes: Biking and Sexual Health in Women.

Jessica Schoner just received an honorable mention from APA's Transportation Planning Division for her paper (which was a class term paper (technically 2 term papers), not a thesis or dissertation!): Shifting Gears: A cross-regional analysis of bicycle facility networks and ridership. A Reviewer said: "Of all the years doing this contest this is by far the best on bicycling I've seen." If you care about network structure, or about travel behavior, or about bicycles, read it.

More on Understanding bicycle markings

From StreetsWiki:

Class I Class I bike lanes are "physically separated from motor vehicle and pedestrian traffic," providing a buffer against faster, heavier vehicles. This physical separation can come in the form of a tree-lined path, a sidewalk, a concrete buffer, bollards, or a line of traffic cones.

...

Class II
Class II bike lanes are demarcated by paint on asphalt. In some cases, the entire lane is painted a distinct color so as to be distinguished easily from the rest of the street. In most cases, the lane is marked by a stripe, often thicker than a standard dotted white line. Some Class II lanes also receive a stencil in the middle of the lane (also refered to as a "sharrow").

Class III
Class III lanes are bike routes that are represented only by posted route signs.

Brendon commented on my post "Given recent severe crashes, I'd say eliminating markings will not make things safer. In a perfect world where drivers always expected and anticipated all legal modes might be using the road, perhaps so, but we don't live in a perfect world."

and Hokan said "The point of these markings isn't so much actual safety (although the hope is that they don't make things worse), but perceived safety (comfort). This improved comfort is supposed to encourage more people to ride bikes rather than drive cars."

I argue instead that Class III bike lanes are a meaningless distinction. All roads where bikes are allowed and not given their own marked lane should be considered Class III. Signing (or marking) something in some places that is legal everywhere is confusion-creating. It will lead motorists to think they can ignore bikes (or worse, that they are illegal) where they are not marked, just as drivers ignore unmarked crosswalks.

I understand the logic of network effects that Brendon suggests, more bikes make roads safer by reminding motorists. However more signs do not do that. While the signs may hypothetically attract bicyclists (I would be interested in real counts before and after signage as a Class III bikeway on and off the bikeway, i.e. are bicyclists actually attracted by such signage, or is it just feel-good politically correct actions on the part of the bicycle bureaucracy), but the signs are more visual clutter distracting from important information about the environment (e.g. watching for actual bicycles and pedestrians rather than bicycle signs).

Many signs are ineffective (See Tom Vanderbilt on Children at play signs), and too many signs are counter-productive.

Kevin Krizek also comments.

Understanding Bicycle Markings in Minneapolis: A guide for motorists and bicyclists

Anyone besides me think this is far too complicated?

[Complications will cause more violations (and less safety) compared with a simpler system.]

Hypothesis: to increase safety, anything that is optional or advisory ought to be eliminated.

Bikes are either allowed (in which case they should be respected) or prohibited (like freeways, in which case they should be ticketed).

Cars are either allowed (in which case they should be respected) or prohibited (like exclusive bike lanes, in which case they should be ticketed). Transitions from prohibited to allowed and allowed to prohibited should be clearly marked.

4 types of lanes:

From what I can tell there are at least 5 shared lane markings: Green bike lanes, Advisory bike lanes, Sharrows, Bike Blvd, and Green shared lanes. There are at least 3 exclusive lane markings: Bike lanes, Cycle track, buffered bike lanes. This should be reduced to one exclusive marking (a bicycle symbol [maybe on a green pavement] with solid white lines). Buffers (no car) areas are standard markings that have no special meaning here. Some transitionary marking indicating the beginning and end of an exclusive bike lane can be used.

MnDaily: U to implement bike reward system [RFID Tracking comes to biking before cars, and it is voluntary, something to look at for Road Pricing]

Inner Auto Parts History Of Crash Safety : " … While the jumble of confusing ordinances continued to plague pioneer motorists, a new wrinkle was added: the "speed trap." In smaller towns, particularly, marshals and other law officials lay in wait for unsuspecting drivers, timing them by stop-watch or "by guess and by gosh." Some lawmen were authorized to shoot at tires or to stretch chains or wire across the road. Until the motorcycle became a police vehicle, the local sheriff's office was somewhat limited in their pursuit of fleeing cars, since they were either on foot or on bicycles. … " [I really like this history for some reason, but I don't know where it originates, i.e. there are no references. I suspect it is not from Inner Auto Parts originally]

KurzweilAI: Human gait could soon power portable electronics [Capturing kinetic energy rather than letting it dissipate into heat].

Thomas A. Rubin, James E. Moore and Shin Lee cite Peter Gordon on the irreversibility of infrastructure, and why "no" is never finalTen myths about US urban rail systems Transport Policy Volume 6, Issue 1, January 1999, Pages 57-73. "Local transportation authorities understand well the political mechanisms available to them, and they continue to apply their misinformation tools with full cognizance and considerable effect. Voter propositions may fail, but there is nothing to prevent local authorities from studying their message, refining the marketing context of their appeals, and proceeding again. In the end, “They can lose as often as they have to. They only need to win once.” (Gordon, 1994)." Gordon, P., 1994. Conversation with authors, Los Angeles, CA. 14 July..

Susan Handy biking the bike and taking NiceRide

MSNBC: Mayor (of Vilnius) crushes 'illegally parked car' with tank: ""

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The 'well-dressed' owner of the Mercedes seems none too happy.

Lisa Schweitzer: Remember when biking used to be a fun thing rather than An Important Thing? « Sustainable Cities and Transport:

"I think one of the reasons why there is a resistance to otherwise nice things like local foods and bicycling concerns the often terminally joyless way their advocates present the Great Social Good that The Better People Who Do These Things create, unlike you, you indolent, planet-killing dolt."

YouTube - bike lanes

""

(Via NT.)

3-Way Street from ronconcocacola on Vimeo.

3-Way Street from ronconcocacola on Vimeo.

twin city sidewalks writes: Predictable Bicycle Tragedy Points to Need for New Street Priorities at University of Minnesota: "To put it bluntly, much of the the street design at University of Minnesota makes it almost inevitable that pedestrians and cyclists will be killed. "

This is the second pedestrian/bicyclist death in Dinkytown in less than a week, though the other was hit-and-run driver running onto the sidewalk.

Obviously the driver is at fault. The question the community needs to ask is could street design have something to do with bad driving? Or, is a one-way pair appropriate here (University/Fourth)? Sure it is great to evacuate the arenas and stadium after a game, but it is an inherent conflict with the more common daily activities on the route. Getting the through vehicle traffic away from local non-motorized campus traffic should be a strategy considered. (e.g. Suppose Granary Road were to be completed instead of just discussed).

Ars Technica reports: Moving bikes stay upright - but not for the reasons we thought

The phrase "just like riding a bike" is used to refer to something that, once learned, you never forget how to do. As it turns out, bikes make that easy on us. If a typical bicycle is moving forward fast enough, it tends to remain upright and steer in a straight line, even if the rider takes his or her hands off the handlebars. In fact, you can set a bicycle rolling without a rider at all, and it tends to remain upright and roll in a straight line.

...

To test the relative contributions of these factors, the authors eventually built their own computer model of a bicycle and started playing around with various features. It turned out that they could eliminate both the gyroscopic and the negative trail factors, and the bike would still be stable as long as it was moving faster than 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) per second. They could even move steering to the rear wheel and produce a stable design.

The apparently unreasonable stability of different bicycle designs must have suggested that their model had probably lost touch with reality, so the authors went out and built a bike with a counter-rotating wheel to get rid of gyroscopic effects, as well as a negligible (4mm) trailing between the front wheel and the steering. As their model predicted, it tended to stay upright, and would steer into any falls that their grad students tried to induce.

What their math can't apparently tell them is why so many different bike designs tend to stay upright. "Why does this bicycle steer the proper amounts at the proper times to assure self-stability?" they muse. "We have found no simple physical explanation equivalent to the mathematical statement that all eigenvalues must have negative real parts." In other words, they can see why the math works out the way it does, but can't figure out what physical properties correspond to that.

The best they can surmise is that the stability is related to the ability of the bike to steer into a fall if it starts to lean, and that there are multiple ways of constructing a bike that does this.

Science, 2011. DOI: 10.1126/science.1201959

The Bikists are recycling a good ideaSPBC » Projects » university: ""

The Saint Paul Bicycle Coalition requests that the Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) and the Metropolitan Council reexamine the current street programming plan for University Avenue post-light rail transit construction. The current plan calls for two vehicle travel lanes in each direction (four total travel lanes). A review would examine the benefits of having a single vehicle travel lane in each direction, a parking lane with bus pull-outs and right turn lanes, and a bike lane. The Avenue's planned minimum width of 25'would permit an 11' travel lane, 8' parking lane and 6' bike or buffer lane, creating a "Complete Street" to accommodate all modes of transportation. We request that the FTA and MET Council restudy and commit to at least try this programming configuration when the LRT project is completed. We are not suggesting any physical street design changes but only changes in how the avenue is striped and programmed.

Comment: If The Twin Cities were serious about making the Central Corridor work as a transit-oriented area, it would do this. The extra capacity is only needed at intersections (where it would be available), but not on the linehauls. University Avenue vehicle traffic is approximately the same as it was 60 years ago (pre-interstate) ! See the traffic flow maps from City of Minneapolis, In 1954, University Ave had an AADT of 21,306 at the city line with St. Paul, vs. 21,200 at 27th Avenue in 2005. That is 2 way traffic. If the peak hour is 10% of daily, this is 2120 peak hour flow, which is 1060 in each direction (probably more in the peak direction. In any case, well below the per lane capacity on an arterial aside from the intersections. If the intersections flare out as proposed, the capacity should be sufficient with 1 lane in both directions in most places.

(Via Twin Cities Streets for People.)

According to a ranking by League of American Bicyclists of Bike Friendly Universities, Stanford wins at Platinum. The University of Minnesota comes in at Silver, which is tied for third best public university, which is after all, our aim.

Transportation for America has published a table: Dangerous By Design: Most Dangerous Large Metro Areas for Pedestrians

Interestingly of the 52 largest US metros, the Twin Cities was the safest for Pedestrians, with only 0.54 Deaths per 100,000 residents, despite 2.4% walking to work. Orlando, Tampa, Miami, and Jacksonville topped the list as most dangerous.

Probably not coincidentally, Minneapolis-St.Paul-Bloomington ranks 6th in the US on funds spent on federal bike/ped $ per person (though I suspect it is skewed toward bikes compared to their number), at $2.61.

I don't know why I didn't see this earlier, World Streets proposes a Street Code

The idea is works is that legal responsibility for any accident on street, sidewalk or public space, is automatically assigned to the heavier faster vehicle. This means that the driver who hits a cyclist has to prove his innocence, as opposed to today where the cyclist must prove the driver's guilt (not always very easy to do).

I suppose there is a conflict if the heavier vehicle is not necessarily faster, or if you get the irrational (drunk) pedestrian or cyclist, but it seems a good heuristic that will give those who impose the greatest unsafety externality the incentive to yield.

Note that all vehicles are expected to yield to trains, because trains can't brake quickly (and they were there before cars in general), despite the fact that trains were heavier.

Nice Ride gets $1.78 million for expansion of bike sharing system From the Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal.

This is apparently for a capital expansion, but as noted before, the system is quite expensive to operate, and requires more labor than buses on a per ride basis.

More to the point, this 4.5 million in capital (let's say the capital lasts 4.5 years, or 1 million per year annualized)) is for a system that served 100,000 riders last year, and probably will continue at a similar level. This implies a capital subsidy of $10 per ride (not as expensive as NorthStar, but not cheap either). Obviously if they double use, this halves the capital subsidy, but it is not cheap. Just sayin'.

A podcast worth listening to if you are interested in a cultural history of the bicycle is a wonderful, if scandalous, talk by Jennifer Dill: From Spokes to Sprockettes: A History of Women and the Bicycle. The podcast can be downloaded here

From MnDaily Nice Ride program tops first-year goals

Nice Ride Minnesota, the largest bicycle-sharing program in the United States, ended the season with 100,817 checkouts, beating its goal by 817.

The organization has 14 employees (who balance bikes across the network), so they are serving over 7000 rides per employee per season, or if they did this year round 20 rides per employee per day (probably closer to 30 rides given they are closed for 1/3 of the year). This is less productive than buses, but more productive than taxis.

Shweeb: ""

"This may be one of the silliest, most impractical ideas I've ever heard get funding. It can only have two stops, one at each end. It only goes as fast the slowest rider. And there's no way to return the cars without riders. And where do you put your stuff? How about this: build a bike path. All the advantages, probably 1/100th the cost and you get all the same political challenges!"

Are Bicycles a Plot to Surrender the United States of American to UN Control?: ""

One of the most unfortunate aspects of transportation policy in the United States is that it winds up playing as a “culture war” issue.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are “converting Denver into a United Nations community.” “This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed,” Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial. Maes said in a later interview that he once thought the mayor’s efforts to promote cycling and other environmental initiatives were harmless and well-meaning. Now he realizes “that’s exactly the attitude they want you to have.”

From the Strib: Are downtown two-way streets better?

"On Tuesday, the brass at Minneapolis City Hall declared last fall's conversion of Hennepin and 1st Avenues back to two-way traffic a success.

Crashes are down for both motor vehicles and bikes, despite a slight increase in volume, and the number of traffic-clogged intersections is down. But out on the avenues, opinion is decidedly more mixed."

It seems people feel less safe. What they don't recognize is that feeling less safe may make them more safe if they are then more cautious. Bike traffic is down on Hennepin, but up overall on parallel routes.

Net Density was not happy with the design, and I don't think this is fully resolved despite installation of seemingly temporary and not attractive bollards/delineators .

I think the problem is they are doing this on the cheap. I am all for inexpensive, but a bit more investment in paint/pavement coloring would help. A slightly more serious attempt could much more clearly delineate which people/vehicles are supposed to be where, with somewhat less confusion. The signs don't help, probably because the regulations are too complex about lane usage.