Bike Racks

Springfield, OH is set to receive $$$ from ODOT for bike racks. They should look at Cincinnati's Artworks ArtRacks Project, marrying local artists with local locations & local bicyclists.

More from Spfld Noose Son here

Cyclists on the Roadway

This is muggy Florida but a lot of it is pretty universal in the United States. Unfortunately the militant road hog cyclists latch on to the TAKE THE LANE statements….
The emphasis on People is what I think is most important.

Enjoying the "protected" bike path

From a bike cam we can see in jittery detail the bedlam a "protected" bike path will unloose. But, at least ut protects the cyclist from an accident that rarely happens…

The Licensed Cyclist

I often hear motorists bitch, whine & moan about how they need licenses & license plates but none of those demon spawn bicyclists do.
So here's why
Early Saturday, May 24, 2014, one car on a straight, flat stretch of road with a 25 MPH speed limit managed to take out 3 utility poles & 1 storefront in a neighborhood business district.
Try, just try doing that on a bicycle.

Not much more at WKRC

Sound Off

In the discussion of the charnel house that we call the US Highway system, the topic is usually focussed on the bumper car aspect of fellow drivers careening into one another in a mad chaotic dance. But there are other victims of the cyborgic mayhem - the road crews that keep the whole thing going.
Giant blinky signs & arrows are routinely overlooked by the speed crazed motorist, so, in Missouri, they have tried sound alerts to wake up the caged & comatose.
Perhaps this is something bicyclists could do. It could be as simple as riding around screaming at the sky or maybe some sort of siren whistle sort of deal generated by the turning wheels.
The trick is channeling the sound in a narrow path in front of the rider since most bike car collisions occur when people pull out in front of one another. Dunno how much the navy doohickey used by the MODOT weighs but I'm guessing nobody wants to lug it around on a bike.

Let the Games Begin

Cincinnati's Central Parkway 'Protected' bike path appears to be a go.
'Mann's Bend' will permanently eradicate more than a dozen mature trees to save 2 hours of parking on early weekday mornings for businesses that do not open before the parking restriction ends.
Furthermore it will upend thousands of years of roadway traditions & force motorists cum pedestrians to cross the 'protected' bike path to get to the sidewalk.
In the picture above, from the Gotham City's DOT, there appears to be a designated crosswalk. I do not know what to expect in Cincinnati. Most likely, motorists cum pedestrians will just cut across in front of or behind their parked cars.
How will this work in the dark winter mornings with commuting cyclists & distracted peds on their phones?

Bizniz Courier article here.

Cranley...

punk ass motherfucker rich boy....

Compromise Solution

Here are the trees David Mann wants to remove & pave over to make a wide sidewalk that bicyclists can share with pedestrians, some with mobility issues.What could go wrong?
What's been lost in the argument about a 'protected' bike lane in front of 2145 Central Parkway is that the building also backs onto Central Avenue (you might say the building is centrally located) where there is more parking as well as entrances to the building.There is also a stairway to the left/north of the building.
So, here's my solution.
The owner of the Mohawk building can knock a hole in the east side of his basement wall and let drivers enter via Central Avenue, drive through the building and park in the subway tunnel under the Parkway. Not only would this solve the problems & save the trees, it would provide safe, dry parking for the employees & customers in the building.

Death Trap v. Killer Trees

This video, used without permission, kinda shows why an elaborate bike path on Central Parkway is unnecessary. It also shows why there's room for one. Mind you, the parked cars would all be allowed to park there at the time the video was recorded.

Here We Go

A 'protected' bike path is unnecessary on Central Parkway but could increase cycling in the city. If the path, as originally designed, were built, it could be removed fairly inexpensively. At a Cincinnati City Council Committee meeting April 21st, it was estimated the whole thing could be erased for $40,000.
The meeting was called because Vice Mayor David Mann had 'new information' and mayor John Cranley 'had questions'. I heard no questions from Cranley who I didn't even see at the meeting. David Mann's 'new information' was what had been on the intertubes for a few days prior, that 1 building owner was griping about the plan.
During the speaker's time a business owner complained about it impacting loading & unloading in front of his store. Another business owner complained of lost free parking. Another couple people expressed worries that emergency vehicles getting stuck in traffic. Some people worried about traffic jams during special events downtown. These are all legitimate concerns.
How did Mann respond?
He issued a motion that would appease 1 building owner, cause permanent change, put cyclists & pedestrians in conflict with one another, some of the pedestrians having mobility issues, and cost the taxpayers about $110,000. The other citizens' issues? fuck 'em - Mann didn't address any of the other issues raised. Mann calls this "common sense". I don't. Further I don't call these 11th hour shenanigans good governance.
Why not install the system as planned & see what happens? Any modifications can be made as needed in the future and, as previously noted, it can be undone at a fairly low price.
Now, will Cranley issue 4,285 trivial questions?

The Protection Racket

Some bicyclist today want their own protected roads. Sharing the roads, a social custom dating back thousands of years, is broken they say due to the rise of the machine. Currently the move is towards protected bike lanes.
It's kind of amusing since it was motorists who wanted bikes out of their way who promoted the same idea 40 years ago. Back then, however the cyclists fought back. They refused to cede the thousands of years to the machine.
This 1974 study noted that the 'protected bike path' only really protected the cyclist grom being rear ended by an automobile. That particular collision is actually rare & the least likely collision to happen between a car & a bike accounting for only about 4% of car bike collisions. A cyclist is about 3 times more likely to hit a car making an improper turn in front of the cyclist or a cyclist making an improper turn in front of a car. The most common collision comes from cyclists riding on the wrong side of the road. This problem will likely become a bike on bike issue with the 'protected bike path'. The turning issue might only be exacerbated with the paths & the decreased lines of visibility.
But what's changed in 40 years when the cyclists defied their adversaries and now when the cyclists worst enemy is himself?
Fatal car crashes have been slowly declining over the last 30 years. Cycling whether it be serious/utility cycling or recreational/sport riding certainly seems up over at least the last ten years. Removing the cyclist from the roadway here & there will not help the motorist learn to deal with the cyclist who needs an 'unprotected path'.
I'm reminded of what Ben Franklin once said"

They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Let this be my warning to all of you who want your special 'protected paths' - the route you are taking will lead to your banishment from the common roadways.

Trippin'

On April 16, 1943, Al Hoffman took the first LSD trip - on a bicycle!

The Willful Surrender of the Road

Road Sharing (& drafting - not recommended)It seems really clear to me that every time you cede the roadway to the auto, the bicycle loses twice what it actually gives up. It seems like the cyclists who love the 'take the lane' (be a road hog) strategy are the same ones wanting special bike infrastructure that separates them from the road.
I have considered why people have a fear of sharing the road with autos. Living in Cincinnati, it's kind of hard to get out into the country. I grew up in a smaller community where getting onto a rural highway was pretty easy. Before I could drive, I was riding up & down RT68 to Urbana & Yellow Springs. There was about a foot of pavement to the right of the white edge line. Cars, pickups & semis gliding by at 60MPH…
The notion of sharing the road was also reinforced as motorists had to contend with slow moving farm machinery on the rural roads.
Are the Cincinnatians afraid of the road just 'city slickers'?
People who just ride for recreation, sure bike paths are fine, but if you want to get somewhere, Chillicothe maybe, you are going to have to ride with traffic & the motorists are going to have to know how to deal with the cyclists.
When cyclists continually cede their rightful place on the road, it just empowers the motorists to monopolize the road. heck, look at what they've done to thousands of years of tradition in 100 years.
The argument of 'safety' is just a common tool used to achieve other agendas and you will see both cyclists and motorists use that 'argument'.
CYCLISTS - to keep your rightful place on the road - USE IT!. Hiding and being obnoxious won't help at all.
The clip above is from the movie, Breaking Away.

Of Bikes and Cars

There's a young contingent that wants to undo 150 years of organization for no good reason other than they think their unseasoned and convoluted ideas will save the world.
Some small bit of bike infrastructure is ok in our transportation system but completely undoing generations of structure just because it sounds cool is ridiculous.
Bikes and cars are supposed to share the road.
The problem will never be solved with dumb gimmicks and there is no reason to antagonize motorists. Their fragile eggshell minds can barely deal with driving already. No, more crap in the road is not the solution.
The more special stuff that segregates bikes from cars, the more likely bikes will wind up banished from the roads and serving as transportation & just becoming recreational toys.
What we need to do is double the hours of training one needs to procure a drivers license. Furthermore, people learning to drive should be required to learn to ride a bike.
Students in drivers ed classes should take turns driving, biking and walking together to learn how to share the road. As the class bonds and the driver, biker & ped get to know each other as they trade roles, it will become much less of an us v. them issue.
The cost of drivers ed will have to increase but that will get some poor people off the road which I am sure the GOP dominated Ohio legislature would love.
There is currently a plot to reduce Central Parkway to a two lane road. The OTR Community Council and the Northside Community council support this. Why? How many of them have ridden the route for 3 decades? I have. Do people drive like idiots? Absolutely. The solution is not to manage the lousiest driver - it's to raise the standard of driving proficiency.
Contact city hal, the mayor, Mel McVey & Amy Murray and tell them not to head down this self defeating path. Tell your state legislators to improve drivers education.
It's like the fish parable thing, ya know?

Been There Done That

There's one way to get motorist's attention while riding a bike…
When I was young, thin & had long wavy hair, I would ride shirtless in the summer. Frequently I would catch male motorists checking me out & quickly snapping their noggins back into the forward position when they got a look at my hairy chest & ugly mug. How lucky did they think they were? So, I dunno, it might not be a good way to get their attention.
Anyway, when I did ride naked, it was only late at night in a residential area.
With no helmet…

Bike Sharing = Insanity

The yahoos over at Urban Cincy go off on Bike Sharing like they just found Bettie Page. They seem to go for any weird bicycle jimcrackery. At some point it comes down to pedaling from point A to point B, tho.
The proposed Cincinnati bike share program is expected to cost $1.2M to get going & $400,000/year to run. It uses a system of stations with bikes nobody wants to ride locked in high tech bike racks and card readers to determine if you are a subscriber or just snaging a bike for half an hour. It appears to service people who, out of the blue, decide they need to ride from one station to the next. So, what if I neither live near a station nor want to go anywhere near a station? The rationale is that

usage of shared bikes is intended for one-way rentals

Seriously? You're never going home? 99% of all trips are round trips.
So, this scheme relies on paying people to constantly redistribute the bikes.
You may or may not be able to get a bike, so, do you leave for your destination an hour before you need to be there or twenty minutes? You won't know til you walk over to the station to see what's available.
A one year membership/subscription to ride a crappy bike that may or may not be available & may or may not get you where you want to go & may or may not be available to get you home again will be around $80. If this is as serious you are about riding - BUY A CHEAP BIKE!!! It's gonna be about the same price.
Bike rental services can rent by the hour or week or anywhere in between. They can offer crappy bikes or nicer bikes & fit you. They can work with hotels & deliver & pick up the bikes and you can just have the hotel valet store your bike. They could probably work something out with the train depot.
Investing almost $2M to service people who randomly spaz out & need a bike to go from one bike rack to another is just crazy.

Fishwarp regurgitates UrbanCincy story here

Attention "Lane Takers"For all the cyclists out there wanting to "take the lane" for "safety", here's the scoop - you're illegal &, more to the point, rude.
Per Ohio Revised Code

4511.22 Slow speed.
(A) No person shall stop or operate a vehicle, trackless trolley, or street car at such an unreasonably slow speed as to impede or block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, except when stopping or reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or to comply with law.
4511.27 Overtaking and passing of vehicles proceeding in the same direction.
(A) The following rules govern the overtaking and passing of vehicles or trackless trolleys proceeding in the same direction:
(1) The operator of a vehicle or trackless trolley overtaking another vehicle or trackless trolley proceeding in the same direction shall, except as provided in division (A)(3) of this section, signal to the vehicle or trackless trolley to be overtaken, shall pass to the left thereof at a safe distance, and shall not again drive to the right side of the roadway until safely clear of the overtaken vehicle or trackless trolley.
(2) Except when overtaking and passing on the right is permitted, the operator of an overtaken vehicle shall give way to the right in favor of the overtaking vehicle at the latter’s audible signal, and the operator shall not increase the speed of the operator’s vehicle until completely passed by the overtaking vehicle.
And, specific to bicycles:
4511.55 Operating bicycles and motorcycles on roadway.
(A) Every person operating a bicycle upon a roadway shall ride as near to the right side of the roadway as practicable obeying all traffic rules applicable to vehicles and exercising due care when passing a standing vehicle or one proceeding in the same direction.
(B) Persons riding bicycles or motorcycles upon a roadway shall ride not more than two abreast in a single lane, except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles or motorcycles.
(C) This section does not require a person operating a bicycle to ride at the edge of the roadway when it is unreasonable or unsafe to do so. Conditions that may require riding away from the edge of the roadway include when necessary to avoid fixed or moving objects, parked or moving vehicles, surface hazards, or if it otherwise is unsafe or impracticable to do so, including if the lane is too narrow for the bicycle and an overtaking vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.
(D) Except as otherwise provided in this division, whoever violates this section is guilty of a minor misdemeanor. If, within one year of the offense, the offender previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to one predicate motor vehicle or traffic offense, whoever violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor of the fourth degree. If, within one year of the offense, the offender previously has been convicted of two or more predicate motor vehicle or traffic offenses, whoever violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor of the third degree.

SHARE THE ROAD

Spun Has Begun
Watching business start ups can be pretty grueling just for the potential customer. Here in bucolic Northside we have seen the American Can retrofitting take years to complete. There was supposed to be a restaurant open there back in September/October of 2012. The space between the apartments & Hamilton Avenue, The Old Myron Johnson lumber yard, has gone nowhere. Plans for a micro brewery there kinda came & went. The Clifton IGA is over a year late & still not open. The Listing Loon craft beer & wine store opened almost 6 months late. New tenants of the old Charles Miller funeral home were a couple months late. A Mexican restaurant on Spring Grove, in the old Kay's location never even opened.
But Spun Bicycle, after announcing a 3/9/13 opening date, has already opened! And they are already selling bikes!
Hopefully, this will mark the beginning of a new trend.

Sitting at the light, the motorist has GOT to want to inch up a little bit at a time while waiting…..
Never got that.
While the cyclist sitting in the middle of the lane at the light is a good idea, after getting through the intersection, she, as a slow moving vehicle, should move to the right to make it easier for motorists to pass - it's called "Sharing the Road".

ArtWorks Installs New Sculptural Bike Rack in Northside's Jacob Hoffner Park

Bike Rack is Ninth to be Installed through Queen City Art Racks Project~Press Release:
On September 11, ArtWorks installed their latest sculptural bike rack on Hamilton Avenue in Northside's Jacob Hoffner Park. The bike rack is a part of ArtWorks' Queen City Art Rack project, and was designed by local artist and metal worker Kate Demske.
Queen City Art Racks is an ongoing initiative to bring artist-designed, functional bike racks to public spaces throughout Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. In the process, it engages community stakeholders, employs professional artists, and strengthens the region's transportation options by creating awareness around bicycle parking. Since its launch in the spring of 2010, Queen City Art Racks has created 14 opportunities for artists. The new art rack in Northside is the ninth to be installed.
The design for this art rack was inspired by Northside history. Demske, who lives and works in Northside, shared, "This park was once the estate of Jacob Hoffner, noted Northside land owner and philanthropist. He was also an avid gardener, and Palm Street was named for the most famous plant in his greenhouse: a Sago Palm which had been owned by Robert Morris (one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence) before and during the Revolutionary War. This palm lived more than 130 years and was eventually donated to Horticultural Hall in Philadelphia. It's said that the only specimen that could rival it was owned by George Washington."
The project was sponsored by John Castaldi and Terry Bazeley, with additional support provided by MoBo Bicycle Co-op. Castaldi stated, "Terry and I see art created through ArtWorks every single day and believe very strongly that public art enriches the lives of all Cincinnatians. We are also very committed to Northside and our neighbors here and wanted to do something for our community. Finally, we wanted the rack to be designed by one of our neighborhood's many artists and were thrilled with the choice of Kate Demske and the final result."