Check out the CBS4 coverage of Jacob, John and Mark at Panda Bikes.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Panda Bicycles Makes Innovative Bamboo Bicycles in Fort Collins
Fort Collins' very own Panda Bikes hit the big time this week with coverage on Denver's CBS4. Yes, indeedy, we're getting famous as a bike town with the passion and persistence of a bunch of bike folk.
Check out the CBS4 coverage of Jacob, John and Mark at Panda Bikes.
Check out the CBS4 coverage of Jacob, John and Mark at Panda Bikes.
Monday, November 9, 2009
City should rethink stance on bike safety
Soapbox in the Coloradoan, Nov. 11, 2009
by Rick Price, Ph.D.
Safe Cycling Coordinator for the Fort Collins Bicycle Cooperative
Thanks go to City Council member Lisa Poppaw for questioning funding for bicycle safety at the Sept. 1 City Council meeting. That question, and the discussion that followed, gave us Traffic Engineer Joe Olsen's study of bike/car crashes, which appeared Nov. 1 on the front page of the Coloradoan.
Although data on bicycling are sparse and the statistics on bike/car crashes are preliminary, we can make some interesting inferences from the data we do have. Hopefully, these inferences will help the City Council rethink funding priorities for the city's bike program.
According to the estimates of the American Community Survey, a project of the U.S. Census, 5.4 percent of commuters rode their bicycles to work daily in Fort Collins in 2006 (about 3,800 people). In 2008, that percentage had risen to 7.4 percent (5,800 people), a jump of 37 percent. With this increase, we saw a 31 percent increase in bike/car crashes compared to annual growth in the single digits for most of the early part of the decade (one exception was the increase of 13.5 percent from 2003 to 2004). (We don't have data on the increases of cyclists during the early part of the decade as this information has been collected only since 2006.)
Based on these statistics and observations, most of us would agree that bicycling in Fort Collins is on the rise and so, it seems, are bike/car crashes. Is this because we reinstated the bike coordinator's position in 2006, or is it because there is a bicycle revolution going on across the country? Probably both, but the alarming increase in bike/car crashes and the deaths in the last year of two children suggest that we have an issue that needs the immediate attention of the City Council.
Our bike coordinator will be funded from federal monies at about $287,500 per year for two years beginning in 2010. Those funds are allocated as follows: $70,000 to promote bicycle events; $70,000 to fund the bike coordinator's position (including benefits and training); and $32,500 to fund "regional bicycle coordination and marketing" so we can help Loveland and Greeley become more bicycle friendly. Finally, $100,000 a year will continue to fund the Bike Library. By comparison, $38,500 of other federal funds will pay for a Safe Routes to School Program during 2009/10. As yet, no funds have been awarded for Safe Routes in 2010/11.
The council has scheduled a work session Feb. 9 to address "transportation safety." That session should focus on a review of the city's bicycle policies and take a serious look at reallocating funds from bicycle events and encouragement to bicycle education. And by education, I mean just that: "providing knowledge and training through formal schooling, teaching and learning," not through pamphlets and posters.
Is it not reasonable, given the present situation in Fort Collins, to suggest that federal funds be reallocated so that we are spending $250,000 annually on bicycle education and $38,500 on encouragement and events?
If you have an opinion on this, please let City Council know.
by Rick Price, Ph.D.
Safe Cycling Coordinator for the Fort Collins Bicycle Cooperative
Thanks go to City Council member Lisa Poppaw for questioning funding for bicycle safety at the Sept. 1 City Council meeting. That question, and the discussion that followed, gave us Traffic Engineer Joe Olsen's study of bike/car crashes, which appeared Nov. 1 on the front page of the Coloradoan.
Although data on bicycling are sparse and the statistics on bike/car crashes are preliminary, we can make some interesting inferences from the data we do have. Hopefully, these inferences will help the City Council rethink funding priorities for the city's bike program.
According to the estimates of the American Community Survey, a project of the U.S. Census, 5.4 percent of commuters rode their bicycles to work daily in Fort Collins in 2006 (about 3,800 people). In 2008, that percentage had risen to 7.4 percent (5,800 people), a jump of 37 percent. With this increase, we saw a 31 percent increase in bike/car crashes compared to annual growth in the single digits for most of the early part of the decade (one exception was the increase of 13.5 percent from 2003 to 2004). (We don't have data on the increases of cyclists during the early part of the decade as this information has been collected only since 2006.)
Based on these statistics and observations, most of us would agree that bicycling in Fort Collins is on the rise and so, it seems, are bike/car crashes. Is this because we reinstated the bike coordinator's position in 2006, or is it because there is a bicycle revolution going on across the country? Probably both, but the alarming increase in bike/car crashes and the deaths in the last year of two children suggest that we have an issue that needs the immediate attention of the City Council.
Our bike coordinator will be funded from federal monies at about $287,500 per year for two years beginning in 2010. Those funds are allocated as follows: $70,000 to promote bicycle events; $70,000 to fund the bike coordinator's position (including benefits and training); and $32,500 to fund "regional bicycle coordination and marketing" so we can help Loveland and Greeley become more bicycle friendly. Finally, $100,000 a year will continue to fund the Bike Library. By comparison, $38,500 of other federal funds will pay for a Safe Routes to School Program during 2009/10. As yet, no funds have been awarded for Safe Routes in 2010/11.
The council has scheduled a work session Feb. 9 to address "transportation safety." That session should focus on a review of the city's bicycle policies and take a serious look at reallocating funds from bicycle events and encouragement to bicycle education. And by education, I mean just that: "providing knowledge and training through formal schooling, teaching and learning," not through pamphlets and posters.
Is it not reasonable, given the present situation in Fort Collins, to suggest that federal funds be reallocated so that we are spending $250,000 annually on bicycle education and $38,500 on encouragement and events?
If you have an opinion on this, please let City Council know.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Bike Co-op Schedules Open House Saturday, November 14
The Fort Collins Bike Co-Op would like to invite you to come help us celebrate our Grand Re-Opening/Open House at our new location at 331 N College Avenue on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 between 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. (We have glass in our windows now! You must see to believe!)
We are excited to show off our new space (our fourth home since 2003) and encourage the public to drop by and see what we’re all about. Bring along your neighbors, friends, and people you meet in the bike lane on the way there. Its a great chance to learn more abut the Bike Co-Op’s programs and discover how you can learn about bike maintenance and bike safety. Join our army of volunteers and help us give back and encourage a better bicycling community. Drop off a business card for a chance to win our Bike-A-Way.
The Fort Collins Bicycle Co-Op is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to 'Building community through bicycling". Our programs and services are designed to give back to the northern Colorado community through your open bike shop, bike education, bike recycling, bike donations, and coordination of bike parking at local events. We put a strong emphasis on a zero-waste goal to help minimize the impact on our environment. Please contact us at outreach@fcbikecoop.org for more information or we’ll see you on the 14th! Spread the word - pass this information on!
Come and see how our pile of bikes for Ghana has grown! More importantly, come and see what a pile of 500 bikes looks like!
We are excited to show off our new space (our fourth home since 2003) and encourage the public to drop by and see what we’re all about. Bring along your neighbors, friends, and people you meet in the bike lane on the way there. Its a great chance to learn more abut the Bike Co-Op’s programs and discover how you can learn about bike maintenance and bike safety. Join our army of volunteers and help us give back and encourage a better bicycling community. Drop off a business card for a chance to win our Bike-A-Way.
The Fort Collins Bicycle Co-Op is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to 'Building community through bicycling". Our programs and services are designed to give back to the northern Colorado community through your open bike shop, bike education, bike recycling, bike donations, and coordination of bike parking at local events. We put a strong emphasis on a zero-waste goal to help minimize the impact on our environment. Please contact us at outreach@fcbikecoop.org for more information or we’ll see you on the 14th! Spread the word - pass this information on!
Come and see how our pile of bikes for Ghana has grown! More importantly, come and see what a pile of 500 bikes looks like!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Phys Ed: Do More Bicyclists Lead to More Injuries
Great article by Gretchen Reynolds in yesterday's NY Times Blog
Recently, surgeons and emergency room physicians at the Rocky Mountain Regional Trauma Center in Denver noticed a troubling trend. They seemed to be seeing cyclists with more serious injuries than in years past. Since many of the physicians at the hospital, a Level I trauma center serving the Denver metropolitan area, were themselves cyclists, they wondered if their sense of things was accurate.
So the doctors began gathering data on all cycling-related trauma admittances at the hospital and dividing them into two blocks, one covering 1995-2000 and the other 2001-6.
The data, which were presented in mid-October at the 2009 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons in Chicago, revealed “some pretty alarming things,” said Dr. Jeffry Kashuk, an associate professor of surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, attending physician at the trauma center and an author of the study. Over the years, the severity of the bodily damage, as measured by a standardized injury severity score, had significantly increased. The number of chest injuries rose by 15 percent, while abdominal injuries tripled. The typical length of cyclists’ time in the intensive care unit grew. Meanwhile, the average age of the injured riders had risen, from 25 to about 30, and when the researchers plotted the most recent injury sites against a map of the Denver area, they found smatterings of accidents along bike paths, but large clusters downtown.
“What we concluded was that a lot of these people were commuters,” Dr. Kashuk said, adding, “If we keep promoting cycling without other actions to make it safer, we may face a perfect storm of injuries in the near future.”
There has been an enormous push in recent years to increase bicycle ridership, in hopes of improving both individual health and the environment. Cities like Denver, New York and Portland, Ore., have added bike lanes, given away helmets and otherwise tried to lure more cyclists onto the roads. But the Denver study seemed to indicate that getting more people to ride meant more would be hurt.
But that is not necessarily so, a well-established body of counterintuitive science promises. This research, which has examined bicycle-riding patterns in the United States and in Europe, has found that in virtually every instance, when the number of riders on the road increases, the likelihood of accidents declines. This surprising result is known among its researchers as the “safety in numbers” effect, and it has been repeatedly documented. In Britain, for instance, the number of cyclists soared by 70 percent during the oil crisis of the 1970s, a 2002 report on cycling safety there pointed out, but the number of annual deaths among cyclists then fell.
Similarly, in the Netherlands, a nation that loves its bicycles, the level of bike use rose 30 percent from 1980 to 1990, while the number of cycling-related deaths declined by a third. Closer to home, when a California public-health expert compiled data about accidents involving cyclists and walkers in major cities in California, he found that, as his 2003 study reported, “the likelihood of an injury is not constant, but decreases as walking or bicycling increases.”
How can more cyclists mean fewer accidents? “It seems unlikely that people walking or bicycling obey traffic laws more” just because more of them are on the streets, the author of the California study wrote. “Adaptation in motorist behavior seems more plausible.” In other words, when more cyclists show up on the roads, car drivers become used to them and respond appropriately. As the British report pointed out, “common events are safe, and rare events are dangerous.” Making cycling safer, the report concluded, “ requires that it become more popular.”
There is a Catch-22 in that proposition, of course, and studies like the one from Denver underscore the issue’s complexity. In the early stages of increasing bike ridership, injuries may increase, as may their severity, since drivers will not yet be acclimated to the influx of two-wheeled traffic (and many of the early-adapter riders will not be attuned to the nuances of negotiating in traffic). At the same time, according to surveys conducted over the years by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, most people say that the primary reason they do not ride bikes is a concern for safety. So reports about an increase in injuries, even if it were ultimately short-lived, could blunt the rise in ridership, making those who do cycle less safe.
What, then, can be done? No solutions are easy, said Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and an avid cyclist who, with others in his department, is studying how best to increase bicycle safety. “It’s definitely a good idea to promote bicycle riding for a multitude of reasons, foremost among them better health,” Dr. Willett said. “But as with any health-related intervention, there are benefits and side effects.”
Transportation experts cannot agree, for instance, about whether to segregate bicycle and automobile traffic, using concrete barriers along bike paths or creating separate bikeways. In the short term, such an approach should protect cyclists. But if if drivers are not given the opportunity to acclimate to riders, will it actually make it more dangerous for bikers in the long run? No one knows. “We need studies; we need data,” Dr. Willett said.
In the meantime, as more cyclists are taking to the roads but drivers and cyclists have not yet reached an accommodation, individual responsibility seems the best response. Bicyclists must obey traffic laws, an obvious prescription often flouted, at least according to a study in May of cycling behavior in Midtown Manhattan. It found that many riders ran red lights and illegally ribboned through traffic. Even more egregiously, an April epidemiological study of bicycle fatalities in New York City from 1996 to 2005 reported that alcohol was detected in 21 percent of the cyclists killed.
Finally, do not assume that, should you dutifully follow the rules, you are freed from constant vigilance. Individual driving behavior, no matter how many cyclists ride, will always remain unpredictable, if not perverse. Consider the results of a 2007 study from Britain, which found that, when cyclists skipped wearing helmets, drivers yielded more of the road to them while passing; if the cyclists did don their helmets, the drivers tended to crowd dangerously close.
Recently, surgeons and emergency room physicians at the Rocky Mountain Regional Trauma Center in Denver noticed a troubling trend. They seemed to be seeing cyclists with more serious injuries than in years past. Since many of the physicians at the hospital, a Level I trauma center serving the Denver metropolitan area, were themselves cyclists, they wondered if their sense of things was accurate.
So the doctors began gathering data on all cycling-related trauma admittances at the hospital and dividing them into two blocks, one covering 1995-2000 and the other 2001-6.
The data, which were presented in mid-October at the 2009 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons in Chicago, revealed “some pretty alarming things,” said Dr. Jeffry Kashuk, an associate professor of surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, attending physician at the trauma center and an author of the study. Over the years, the severity of the bodily damage, as measured by a standardized injury severity score, had significantly increased. The number of chest injuries rose by 15 percent, while abdominal injuries tripled. The typical length of cyclists’ time in the intensive care unit grew. Meanwhile, the average age of the injured riders had risen, from 25 to about 30, and when the researchers plotted the most recent injury sites against a map of the Denver area, they found smatterings of accidents along bike paths, but large clusters downtown.
“What we concluded was that a lot of these people were commuters,” Dr. Kashuk said, adding, “If we keep promoting cycling without other actions to make it safer, we may face a perfect storm of injuries in the near future.”
There has been an enormous push in recent years to increase bicycle ridership, in hopes of improving both individual health and the environment. Cities like Denver, New York and Portland, Ore., have added bike lanes, given away helmets and otherwise tried to lure more cyclists onto the roads. But the Denver study seemed to indicate that getting more people to ride meant more would be hurt.
But that is not necessarily so, a well-established body of counterintuitive science promises. This research, which has examined bicycle-riding patterns in the United States and in Europe, has found that in virtually every instance, when the number of riders on the road increases, the likelihood of accidents declines. This surprising result is known among its researchers as the “safety in numbers” effect, and it has been repeatedly documented. In Britain, for instance, the number of cyclists soared by 70 percent during the oil crisis of the 1970s, a 2002 report on cycling safety there pointed out, but the number of annual deaths among cyclists then fell.
Similarly, in the Netherlands, a nation that loves its bicycles, the level of bike use rose 30 percent from 1980 to 1990, while the number of cycling-related deaths declined by a third. Closer to home, when a California public-health expert compiled data about accidents involving cyclists and walkers in major cities in California, he found that, as his 2003 study reported, “the likelihood of an injury is not constant, but decreases as walking or bicycling increases.”
How can more cyclists mean fewer accidents? “It seems unlikely that people walking or bicycling obey traffic laws more” just because more of them are on the streets, the author of the California study wrote. “Adaptation in motorist behavior seems more plausible.” In other words, when more cyclists show up on the roads, car drivers become used to them and respond appropriately. As the British report pointed out, “common events are safe, and rare events are dangerous.” Making cycling safer, the report concluded, “ requires that it become more popular.”
There is a Catch-22 in that proposition, of course, and studies like the one from Denver underscore the issue’s complexity. In the early stages of increasing bike ridership, injuries may increase, as may their severity, since drivers will not yet be acclimated to the influx of two-wheeled traffic (and many of the early-adapter riders will not be attuned to the nuances of negotiating in traffic). At the same time, according to surveys conducted over the years by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, most people say that the primary reason they do not ride bikes is a concern for safety. So reports about an increase in injuries, even if it were ultimately short-lived, could blunt the rise in ridership, making those who do cycle less safe.
What, then, can be done? No solutions are easy, said Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and an avid cyclist who, with others in his department, is studying how best to increase bicycle safety. “It’s definitely a good idea to promote bicycle riding for a multitude of reasons, foremost among them better health,” Dr. Willett said. “But as with any health-related intervention, there are benefits and side effects.”
Transportation experts cannot agree, for instance, about whether to segregate bicycle and automobile traffic, using concrete barriers along bike paths or creating separate bikeways. In the short term, such an approach should protect cyclists. But if if drivers are not given the opportunity to acclimate to riders, will it actually make it more dangerous for bikers in the long run? No one knows. “We need studies; we need data,” Dr. Willett said.
In the meantime, as more cyclists are taking to the roads but drivers and cyclists have not yet reached an accommodation, individual responsibility seems the best response. Bicyclists must obey traffic laws, an obvious prescription often flouted, at least according to a study in May of cycling behavior in Midtown Manhattan. It found that many riders ran red lights and illegally ribboned through traffic. Even more egregiously, an April epidemiological study of bicycle fatalities in New York City from 1996 to 2005 reported that alcohol was detected in 21 percent of the cyclists killed.
Finally, do not assume that, should you dutifully follow the rules, you are freed from constant vigilance. Individual driving behavior, no matter how many cyclists ride, will always remain unpredictable, if not perverse. Consider the results of a 2007 study from Britain, which found that, when cyclists skipped wearing helmets, drivers yielded more of the road to them while passing; if the cyclists did don their helmets, the drivers tended to crowd dangerously close.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Bicycles are a Pimple on the Butt of Fort Collins
Here's a great little video from Street Films shows how some people view vehicles on our roads. (This is worth your time while you wake up with a cup of coffee.)
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Does Stop REALLY Mean Stop?
How do we get bikers to obey traffic laws? Asks Christopher Beam in the October 16 issue of Slate online. "Why bother?" Would seem to be his answer. In this thoughtful and provocative essay Beam addresses the social and legal complexities of treating bicycles as vehicles. He discusses the "Idaho stop," which allows cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs and he cites the failed attempt in Oregon in winter/spring of 2009 to institute the legislation there. He also has a succinct explanation of the divide among the two camps of "vehicular" (those who believe cyclists are vehicles and belong on the road) and "facilitators" (those who believe cyclists belong on bike paths or lanes separated from the road.) An interesting essay.
The above sign was (was) in Fort Collins until the spring of 2006 when it was called to the attention of our streets engineer. It disappeared within a few weeks.
The above sign was (was) in Fort Collins until the spring of 2006 when it was called to the attention of our streets engineer. It disappeared within a few weeks.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Shared Lanes: Sharrows are a Great Educational/Engineering Tool to Promote Sharing the Road
(Scroll down for additional photos)
Fort Collins transportation planners conducted an experiment in February of 2006 along Laurel Street near College. Never mind that the "sharrow" ("shared lane arrow") shown here is placed incorrectly and quickly dissipated in the grit and snow, the symbol communicates clearly to cyclists and motorists exactly where cyclists can be expected to ride in the travel lane. This particular series of sharrows was west of College Ave. on Laurel where the street is too narrow (because of on-street parking) for a bike lane. Here bikes should ride in the center of the travel lane.
"Share the lane signs" went up on College Avenue in Old Town Fort Collins in September. The signs (a total of eight signs both north and south-bound, between Laurel and Cherry Streets) were placed along College as a part of the new campaign to discourage cyclists on the sidewalks in Old Town. Signs such as the one below communicate clearly to cyclists and motorists alike that bicycles are both allowed and encouraged on College Aveune in this part of town.
Fort Collins transportation planners conducted an experiment in February of 2006 along Laurel Street near College. Never mind that the "sharrow" ("shared lane arrow") shown here is placed incorrectly and quickly dissipated in the grit and snow, the symbol communicates clearly to cyclists and motorists exactly where cyclists can be expected to ride in the travel lane. This particular series of sharrows was west of College Ave. on Laurel where the street is too narrow (because of on-street parking) for a bike lane. Here bikes should ride in the center of the travel lane.
"Share the lane signs" went up on College Avenue in Old Town Fort Collins in September. The signs (a total of eight signs both north and south-bound, between Laurel and Cherry Streets) were placed along College as a part of the new campaign to discourage cyclists on the sidewalks in Old Town. Signs such as the one below communicate clearly to cyclists and motorists alike that bicycles are both allowed and encouraged on College Aveune in this part of town.
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