Bikes as Transportation

Bike News, July 2009

2009-06-26T02:00:25Z

Here’s what’s new in the bike world as I see it from here in Richmond, Indiana.

Upcoming Local Events

Reid Hospital is having their first Reid Ride this year. It’s a 24 mile ride from the eastern border of Wayne County to the Eastern side. It’s $10 per peddler, and they ask that peddlers be at least 12 years old. Passengers under 12 years old are welcome in trailers, box bikes, etc. The ride starts at 7:30 AM on July 25th and mostly follows Route 40 across the county, after taking Main St through Richmond. There are checkpoints at 6 mile intervals if you don’t want do the whole thing.

The ride is billed as “Family Friendly” and the logo curiously shows a family on European commuting bikes, including light kits and fully enclosed chainguards.

Seen Around Town

Kurt Ritchie got his back-to-back tandem recumbent back on the road:

Although, the last time I saw the bike it was back in the shop to repair a weak weld in the steering column. I wish the Beast a speedy recovery and hope it see it more around town this summer.

Becky and Matt McKimmy bringing a little vélocouture to Richmond with their inspiring bike style:

For more inspirational bike culture, see these videos of Copenhagen as a Cycling City and Charleston Cycle Chic.

Around the State

Earlier this year, we are discussing and help to shape updated bike laws for Indiana. The final bill, Senate Bill 553, did not pass. Bike Michiana has the details. Paul Taylor is already leading a renewed efforts for an updated proposal for 2010. Contact him if you’d like to collaborate directly on this.

Volunteering Opportunties

You may recall our announcement of a Bicycle Safety class back in January. The project is currently in need of one or more volunteer instructors to move forward. I believe the Townsend Center is still interested to offer this, and we will have an excellent, easy-to-use curriculum to teach from.

If you are looking for a one-time volunteering opportunity, considering organizing a themed ride around town. This can involve as little as picking a time and place to start the ride from, and promoting the ride through Bike Richmond. I’d like to see a “Cycle Chic” ride like the Charleston Cycle Chic ride mentioned earlier. Or perhaps a dapper and dashing tweed ride would more your cup of tea, modelled after Tweed rides in San Francisco.

Bike Touring Hospitality

Every year a number of transcontinental cyclists come through Richmond. If you’d like to meet some of these adventurous souls, you can join Warm Showers, a mutual hospitality network for bicycle tourists. I recently met Evan Heidtmann (below) this way while Chris hosted a traveling band of bike polo players.

Charleston gets Chic

2009-06-08T01:30:56Z

Charleston's got the right idea:

That's what I'd like bikes-as-transportation to look like more cities in the US.

Embedded in the video you may see some mentions of Pedal to Properties, a real estate designation system based around realtors showing homes by bike. That's another idea I love, I agree with their pitch that it could just the thing to help a realtor stand out in a challenging market. I know I certainly would have gravitated to such a realtor if one was using the program here in Indiana.

Vision of a Cycling City: Copenhagen

2009-05-09T12:46:59Z

In this excellent three minute video, glimpse into the cycling culture of Copenhagen, a city that gets it right:

bakfiets touring step 1: lower gears

2009-04-20T02:15:55Z

This week I lowered the gear on my bakfiets to prepare it for use on longer trips with steeper hills and bigger loads. It was shipped to me with a 17 tooth (17t) rear cog. Lowering the gear range involved purchasing and installing a 20t rear cog.

I found the 20 tooth cog online through Niagara Cycles, refered to as the “Shimano Nexus 20 tooth cog”. The product doesn’t seem to be listed on the site now. Perhaps it is temporarily out of stock. The part was about $6 plus shipping. My local bike shop charged me about $25 to install it for me, which seems like a good deal.

I was quite concerned that I wouldn’t like the change, that it would be too drastic. I had read online that people made this modification for “hilly areas”, almost as if there would be no good gears to use on level ground. My experience has been the change is no compromise at all. In fact, I think it would be sensible to sell them like this in the first place. On flat ground, I am more likely to be able to use the most efficient direct-drive gear. Before, the direct drive gear was set to high for my common use. The lower gearing is welcome on hills, allowing me to spin at a higher cadence. I doubt I’ll miss the lack of gears at the top end of the range. I rarely used them. As a cargo and kid bike, getting up to 20 mph sometimes is plenty, and the adjusted gearing still allows me to do that.

While I’ve only had a few days to test the new gearing, it already seems like a clear upgrade from the 17 tooth cog the bike shipped with.

Already this spring I’ve made a successful 20 mile trip with my 13 month old daughter, and she seems to love bike rides, even as long as that two hour trip. This summer I hope to try full day tours, with 50 or 60 mile distances. At this point, my primary concern is working out a shade solution for her.

Pranayama for car-free winter commuting

2009-02-04T02:29:12Z

Pranayama, or yogic breath control, taught me that breathing differently can make a big difference in how I feel. I applied an awareness of breathing to my car-free commuting and developed these two mindful breathing practices to increase my comfort walking and biking in the winter.

The basic breath I use is a heat conservation breath. It recognizes my primary heat source is myself. Maximizing warmth is accomplished by simply breathing in and out slowly through the nose. The nasal passage is a longer route than mouth breathing. A slower breath through the longer passage maximly warms the air before it reaches my core. A slow exhale means I’m holding on to the air I’ve just warmed up for a maximal amount of time.

A second technique, the breath mask, is an alternative to wearing a scarf or face mask. I breath in quickly through the nose then exhale slowly through my mouth aiming the warm air upwards. This creates a small cloud that warms my face. By breathing in quickly and exhaling slowly, I feel some heat on my face most of the time. The breath mask is ideal while walking into a headwind— the oncoming wind will blow the warm you’ve exhaled air back towards you.

Mindful breathing has made my winter walks more enjoyable. If you are looking to increase your own car-free commuting comfort, I recommend giving it a try.

Against Mandatory Helmet Law proposed by Indiana Senate Bill 553

2009-01-26T02:57:31Z

Indiana currently has a significant bike bill under consideration, Senate Bill 553. Bike Michiana, who helped draft the bill, has a good summary. There’s also discussion at Bike Richmond.

One of the many proposed changes in the law is a mandatory helmet law for those under 18 years of age.

Mandatory helmet laws are a point of controversy of cyclists, and many cycling organizations and cycling advocates, including myself, don’t support them. There are many well-documented reasons to not support a mandatory helmet law, backed up by research. Wikipedia has a good overview, and Bicycle Helmet Research Foundation has much to say against mandatory helmet laws, and the British Medical Journal has come out strongly against mandatory helmet laws.

A compelling proposal for mandatory helmets would at least address the major, well-documented reasons for not having such a law. Instead, this proposal offers only two weak justifications.

First, there’s the suggestion that we should make a law that is consistent with a minority of states. One could just as well argue that we should stay with the majority of states who don’t have such law. Then there was suggestion that would be good to be consistent with laws that apply to motorcycles, a vehicle that can travel much faster and thus more dangerous to operate. That’s like suggesting it would be a good idea to make motor vehicle safety laws that would be consistent with safety regulations of NASCAR drivers, who wear helmets inside their cars.

Helmets.org, a pro-helmet site publishes statistics about the number of fatal bike crashes that happen to kids to who would be affected by this law, during the hours which they may traveling two and from school. (Search on this page for Indiana). In that report they report zero fatalities for Indiana. That’s not the kind of crisis that sounds like we need new laws to address.

The reality here in Indiana is that beyond the general reasons for opposing mandatory helmet laws, we have other problems that complicate the alleged benefits. Most importantly, we have a lack of education among our cyclists, and among our drivers about cyclists. From what the Indiana Bicycle Coalition relayed to me fatal bicycle crash statistics in this area, a major contributor to these was not the lack of a helmet, but unsafe, and sometimes illegal, cycling which set the stage for the accident in the first place. Education can prevent accidents to happen at all, while a helmet cannot. Now on the one hand we lack bike safety education, on the other we lack enforcement of bike safety regulations.

A mandatory helmet law does nothing educate children about riding on the correct side of the road. And if our current bike laws aren’t being enforced, adding yet another just adds to the sense that the laws are meant to be followed, or are there to be enforced selectively against “bad kids”.

There are more effective ways for the Indiana government to support cycling and cycling safety, which I’ll cover separately.

As an experienced rider, a parent, and founder of Bike Richmond, I don’t support a mandatory helmet law. I find the rest of the proposed Indiana Senate Bill 553 to be a mixed bag. I’ll post more thoughts other details of the bill to Bike Richmond soon.

Cayenne for Winter Warmth

2009-01-24T16:05:48Z

I’ve tried many things to warm my skinny fingers on winter bike commutes. Wool mittens with overmitts are best for the coldest days, but the most interesting heat source I’ve found is my diet. I’ve rediscovered what the Chinese learned ages ago when they classified food as warming and cooling. Science now understands that “warming foods” work in part through better circulation, stoking the internal furnace.

One winter I experimented focusing my diet on warming foods and spices. On my morning oatmeal, I add small amounts of cayenne, cinnamon and powered ginger— each has its own warming properties. Cayenne in particular is great for improving circulation. At work I keep a shaker of cayenne to add lightly to my lunch and at dinner I may add red pepper flakes or hot sauce. Even small amounts will help. There’s no need to create painful levels of heat. I combined this with centering my winter diet on warming foods like potatoes, onion and garlic. I cut out cooling foods like cucumbers, lettuce and ice water. Now my hands now stay warmer, longer throughout the winter.

You may also rub a little cayenne directly on your fingers and toes before you go out for immediate additional warmth. Add more slowly— it’s possible actually use too much in a result in painful burning sensation.

]]> Further references:

How to Keep Kids Warm on the slopes. This page includes the Cayenne-in-the-gloves tips and others
Flourishing in Chicago’s Winter includes a number of easy tips to improve winter warmth, including using cayenne.
Cayenne for improved blood flow explains about cayenne’s ability to improve circulation
Chinese food chart for warming and cooling foods (PDF) summarizes which foods are considered to have warming and cooling properties.

Effective bike advocacy in the face of declining city budgets

2009-01-23T02:37:42Z

One approach to bike advocacy is to believe that persuading the the right people in government is the way to get things done.

Here in Richmond, Indiana, the issue is generally not getting the local government on board to support cycling, it’s that the city budget seems to be in an ongoing decline. There aren’t particularly funds for non-critical projects, and there may be less funds next year. It’s a tough time to launch any new government initiative that involves local tax dollars.

My approach to bike advocacy is to believe that a small group of committed citizens can create positive change. With strategy and creativity there’s plenty that can be done while the city budget is in decline.

Here’s a summary of what we’ve done here in Richmond, what’s planned, and what’s possible.

]]> Removing “NO BIKES” signs

Getting “NO BIKES” signs removed dowtown was the catalyst for forming ‘Bike Richmond’. A petition was circulated to have the signs removed. The petition was presented to the mayor, who readily accepted it and ordered the signs removed. This cost nothing to organize, and no new budget items for the city. The project was relatively fast to execute, and made our downtown more welcoming to bikes and visitors.

Creating and printing bike maps

I already documented the process of producing bike maps in detail. Creating bike maps improved the real and perceived viability of bicycling in Richmond. The bike route network was approved by the city, but the maps were funded privately by a small handful of donors. As an agile, independent project, we were able to produce 5,000 maps for about $2,000. Omaha, a much larger city, recently spent over $50,000 to produce the same number of maps, while Cincinnati still struggles to update a decade-old map. For creating bike maps, the smaller physical size of our town worked to our advantage and so did having fewer layers of local bureacracy.

To proceed, I have several ideas for bike advocacy efforts that that can be effective without significant local government spending:

Educate ourselves

Ground zero is educating ourselves. There’s plenty to learn for free on the internet and through library books. If you’d like to follow in my virtual footsteps, you can see my bike advocacy links. Physically or virtually visiting functional bike communities is also inspirational. I follow with Copenhagenize.com and BikePortland.

Educate others

Taking a hard look a national and local bike injury data, it’s clear that many accidents are due to uneducated or irresponsible cycling, such as riding at night without lights and not following the rules of the road. This spring Stephen Johnson will be volunteering to offer a 10 week bicycle safety course at the Townsend Center, using curriculum developed by the BTA.

Cycling and Fitness Warehouse organized a free bicycle maintenance workshop, and is interested to do more. Potential topics could include road riding safety basics for adults, and tips for bike commuting year road.

There’s plenty of potential for bike-related education, and the simplest formats can be free: you just need an instructor and some students to show up.

Improve access to bikes

Bloomington, Indiana has a Community Bike Project, which is a volunteer-driven effort that accepts donated bikes, fixes them up, and gives them away or sells them extremely cheaply. The project is a win for the donors, a win for the volunteers who improve their bike maintenance skills, and a win for the recipients who get a great deal on a smooth running bike. Kurt Ritchie has started to collect bikes to start a Community Bike Project here.

Pursue a bike/pedestrian coordinator for the city

Michael Thuman and I have already been in conversation with the city about having a formal bike/ped coordinator. Possibilities for getting started with a bike/ped coordinator for the city could include using an intern or a volunteer. I gave a sample job description for this position to the Mayor to clarify what this position could do, which could include keeping bike issues on the radar for new road construction, organize events like bike-to-work day, and generally be a resource for bike information, inside and outside of city government.

In the long term, this position should be funded by the city to demonstrate its commitment to this part of its Comprehensive Plan to be a “sustainable city”.

Develop ‘Art Racks’

As creative individuals, we can come up with more interesting and visually appealing than bike racks than a standardized city program might roll out. Vicki Hair and others have been working with the high school welding class to produce custom ‘art racks’ to be installed downtown. It’s likely the city would approve them on public property (other cities have), but they could also be placed at local businesses with only private permission.

Learn from the best

I have been fortunate that some bike advocacy experts have sought me out to offer help. Nancy Tibbets from the Indiana Bicycle Coalition drove across the state to meet with local bike advocates. And Greg Raisman, a Traffic Safety Specialist, noticed I was visiting Portland and offered to spend a long lunch break with me. Both provided great advice. With people like this out there passionate to help, imagine what could happen with a little effort to seek out mentors and directly ask for help.

Plan for bike lanes

One of Greg’s tips was to buy a $10 measuring wheel on eBay, which could be used to accurately measure a road width by simply walking across it. That has enabled us to start DIY bike lane planning. Rather than waiting for the city to develop a bike lane plan, experienced cyclists can measure key roads ourselves and develop a solid plan for striping some existing roads, referencing the standard widths for car and bike lanes. We will of course needs the cities cooperation, but we can get the ball rolling by developing a specific proposal.

Greg also offered great tips for how we might repurpose existing roads. One concept is called the Road Diet. Another is Bike Boulevards. Both avoid costly construction of new facilities. Instead they make current facilities better for bicycling, and generally safer for drivers and pedestrians as well. We can consider these approaches as part of our proposed bike lane plan.

Pursue state funds

Nancy provided another great tip: While our local funds are dried up, there are Indiana state funds for bike safety education that are hardly being applied for. With some organizational effort, our community could apply for and receive and a $75,000 grant for bike safety education. Funds like that could pay to offer a bike safety education course to every six grader in the city.

Influence current projects

Advocates in Frankfort, Kentuckly recently successfully intervened in an update of Route 421 there. By switching from a “standard rural” road layout to a “standard urban” layout, they were able to add bike lanes to a stretch of road without requiring a wider right-of-way, or significant project cost changes.

In Richmond, we could be working more closely with the city to review the planned updates for 27, 40 and South E Street, to insure that they have the interests of cyclists in mind. The City’s current Comprehensive Plan calls for supporting a “non-motorized network” around the city, so we are helping the City to support it’s own stated goals.

Have fun!

Finally, I don’t underestimate the value of simply getting out, riding a bike, and having fun. People notice, and fun is contagious. Copenhagen Cycle Chic has the right idea.

When we follow through on several of this points, we will have demonstrated commitment and results that the City will consider when local funds are available. These cost-effective efforts will also put our City in a better position to be awarded state and federal funds for more extensive bicycle facility updates.

DIY sleeve extender for winter bike commuting

2008-11-02T20:00:52Z

Wrists are prone to getting cold while winter bike commuting. With arms stretched out to reach the handlebars, a gap appears between jacket and gloves. When my wrists are cold, I'm cold.

I tried jackets with sleeves that cinched over my gloves. These slipped. I tried giant over-mitts that tightened over my jacket sleeves. These slipped too, and the big mitts were bulky to carry around in my pockets when I was off the bike.

So I made this simple sleeve extender, shown in this photos after the jump. It's super to easy to use, doesn't slip, and is very low bulk. It also happens to look like an extra long shirt sleeve, rather than technical mountain climbing gear.

]]> Creating a sleeve extender couldn't be simpler: It's just a the top of a sock that's been cut off, after the bottom has worn out. My favorite pair of sleeve extenders were formally light-weight merino wool socks, but other kinds would work as well.

When sidewalks and sidepaths are suitable for bicycling

2008-10-28T22:39:06Z

There's plenty of articles and statistics out there damning the practice of riding a bike on a sidewalk.

That's why I so surprised to come across what's seen in this photo from Portland, Oregon, the bike capital of the United States. On the Hawthorne bridge, bike traffic is directed on to the sidewalk.

As luck would have it, a Traffic Safety Specialist in Portland noticed I was posted bike photos of Portland on Flickr, and invited me out for a beer while I was visiting.

Greg Raisman was prepared to be questioned about that. He was aware of the same bikes-on-sidewalk-are-evil rhetoric. He explained this was technically a sidepath, and the important difference here is how the traffic is managed in the facility.

A sidewalk typically has many conflict points with motorized traffic-- driveways and intersections. Those are the places where accidents to tend to happen on sidewalks and are the source of the danger from riding bikes on them.

On Portland's Hawthorne bridge sidepath there are zero conflict points between bikes and cars. Cyclists roll up their own ramp to enter the facility from a bike lane. There are no roads or driveways to cross on the bridge while traveling westbound, and cyclists have their own exit ramp at the other end (rather than being dumped at an intersection). Meanwhile, the curb physically separates the bike traffic from the cars, providing extra safety and security compared to a painted stripe on the road.

I think the League of Illinois Bicyclists may have the right idea with their Sidepath Trail Calculator. Rather than being simply for or against bikes on sidepaths, they calculate a rating based a number of factors, such has how many driveway and road crossings there are along the path.

I still believe that there are many cases where riding a bike on sidewalk or sidepath could be more expensive for a city to support and more dangerous for bicyclists. Bridges generally don't have intersections in the middle of them and strike me as a place where a sidepath could be a safe and effective facility for bicyclists.

Is your street already wide enough for bike lanes? Find out for $10.

2008-10-13T01:38:44Z

Greg Raisman was one of many gracious people I met in Portland, Oregon last week. He's a Traffic Safety Specialist for the City of Portland, and he gave me this tip for those interested in advocating for bike lanes in their own towns.

There are likely roads in your own community that you suspect are already wide enough to accommodate a bike lane-- They just need stripes to mark the lane. You can check road widths yourself by using a measuring wheel, found for about $10 on E-bay. A measuring wheel measures distances as you walk. To measure the road width, you just have to walk across the road while rolling the wheel. Keep in mind these details and do the math to determine if you've already got room for bike lanes:

Road Element	Width
Standard through traffic lane	11 feet
Standard parking lane	8 feet
Standard bike lane	5 feet
Standard center turn lane	12 feet
Possible gutter	1.5 feet
Possible buffer*	3 feet

* The possible buffer zone is between parked cars and the bike lane, to prevent "dooring" and allow for possible snow piles in winter.

There are cases where narrower minimum lane widths for all cases may be acceptable. Check the federal standards for details.

Armed with these calculations, you can make a much stronger argument to City Hall if you can show definitively that no costly road width expansion will be needed, and you can say with certainty that bike lanes will fit.

But you may also find that there is in fact no room to simply stripe a bike lane on roads you check. There are still possibilities to make roads more bikeable by using a road diet or the bike boulevard concepts. I expect to write more about these in future posts.

I ordered my measuring wheel tonight. I'll be interested to see what I learn about my city streets!

Distribution and Beyonds

2008-09-01T13:46:07Z

We are currently in the distribution phase. I'm using a simple spreadsheet to list out my major distributors (who are often the funders), along with how many maps they are getting. A simple formula then calculates how many maps are in the remainder pool that may be available for other purposes. Even before the maps are back from the presses, the maps are in demand. Earlham College wants at least 1,000 copies, and Richmond High School has asked to have a copy for each student (over 1,600). I expect the first printing of 5,000 will find it way to prospective cyclists fairly easily. I'll update this section once I have more experiences to share.

The city would like to put of official signs along the official route, but doesn't believe they can be afforded right now. To help them with the signs when the funds are ready, I provided links to very specific references about what the standards for official bike route signs are.

Note that if any of the routes recommended were "state roads" then the state must become involved to get new signs put up along these roads. For our project, it was convenient to avoid them-- they were the busy roads we were providing alternatives to!

At this point I hope to grow Bike Richmond to foster other leaders in the organization. Together we will guide our efforts based our collective interest. Events? Education? Bike Lanes? Join Bike Richmond if you'd like to play a part.

We as citizens can own our communities and change them. Education and experience are perhaps the best ways to make cycling safer, and providing bicycling education and experience has to be neither costly or complicated. If you want to improve bicycling in your community, you can.

Thank Yous

2008-09-01T13:29:11Z

With the maps back from the printer, it's important to remember to send "Thank Yous" to donors as well as mailing sample maps to everyone who contributed, such as the organizations that granted me permission to re-use some text or photo in the document.

My "Thank you list" includes the following the organizations:

Cope Environmental Center
Cycling and Fitness Warehouse
Earlham College
Earlham Bike Co-op
Economic Development Corporation of Wayne County
Ike's Bicycle Shop
National Road Heritage Trail
Summersault
Reid Hospital and Health Care Services
Richmond High School
Richmond/Wayne County GIS
Rose View Transit
Wayne County Convention and Tourism Bureau
Wayne County Foundation
Wayne County Surveyor's Office
The City of Albuquerque, New Mexico
The City of Richmond, Indiana
The City of Bloomington, Indiana
The City of Calgary, Canada
Indiana Department of Natural Resources
Indiana Department of Transportation
Indiana Bicycle Coalition
WayNet, Inc
carfreedays.com
Kalkomey Enterprises, Inc

Plus many more individuals not affiliated with one of the above organizations who provided valuable feedback or assistance:

Anna Lisa Gross
Barry Cramer
Jim and Vicki Hair
John Weber
Steve Melamed
Hopi Stosberg

Plus some others I'm forgetting, I'm sure. Thanks!

Financial Logistics of being a Lightweight Bike Organization

2008-09-01T13:23:45Z

While I enjoyed the informality of bikerichmond.org, this meant there was no legal entity that checks could be addressed to, and we did not directly qualify for one mini-grant from the Wayne County Foundation that we could receive if we were a formal non-profit or a government organization.

I shopped around for organizations or city departments that could be a "fiscal sponsor"-- someone who would receive checks from supporters and write the check to the printer, but won't necessarily provide any funds on their own. Such a sponsor organization would also allow us be the recipient of some kinds of grants.

A contact within the city advised me that trying to use a city department for even this expense-free task could add more red tape than it was worth. So, although I would like the map to be a public project of the city, eventually, I continued to work outside the city for now.

Eventually, our local Cope Environmental Center agreed to be an organization sponsor for the project. I was up front them that I expected this to be a short-term arrangement. If Bike Richmond continues to have a financial life, it makes sense to becoming a formal legal entity.

Fundraising for a bike map

2008-09-01T13:22:24Z

Now that I had a map and I knew how much it would cost to print, I had to raise money to get it printed. Having the map essentially completely ready at this point was definitely as asset, as I could show the full size draft to potential funders, making the project very concrete and real.

My approach to fundraising was to build a distribution network and raise funds at the same time, by asking potential distributors if they would be willing to prepay 40 cents per map for maps that I would give to them to give out.

I successfully signed up seven funders for the project including a bike shop, a hospital, a college, tourism and economic development groups and our local community foundation. I always asked for specific amounts and most people gave me what I asked for, in the $200 to $400 range. Perhaps I could have asked individual funders for more, but having a few more funders meant a broader base of support, and a larger built-in distribution network.

In each case, I pitch the benefits and relevance to the specific organization. When possible, I tried to drop by and show off the map in person, although a lot of the fundraising was done with simple e-mails.

I did not promise anyone up front that they would get their logo on the map or even their name, and no one insisted on this. I didn't want to end up with a document that looked like a hodge-podge of corporate logos, like those event t-shirts no one wears in public once the event is over. In the end, I gave all the supporter a subtle text-only mention, which I hope provides sufficient recognition while keep the visual focus of the document on the key content.