Bike-To-Brown

Ever wonder why the Henderson Bridge is a freeway?

I guess we’re a little obsessed with the Henderson Bridge around here. Many of us cross it every day on our way to school or work, whether on foot, by bike, in our car, or on a bus.

The Henderson links the back end of the upscale suburban East Side of Providence to a light industrial zone and working-class suburbs in Rumford and East Providence. Why exactly was it built as a freeway with three lanes on each side (one of which in each direction has been closed for decades)? Was it really necessary to build it with freeway-style curves, sightlines, signage, and ramps? Do commuters and local delivery trucks really need to zoom over that half-mile of river at high speeds? Sure, the bridge is posted at 35mph, but it’s all too common to find small and large vehicles alike flying over the bridge at 55mph+. And why not? It feels like you should with all those freeway visual cues.

The “freeway-ness” of the bridge and the driving behavior it induces has been the root of many problems that affect the bicyclist trying to cross the river, especially since the alternate crossing at the Washington Bridge was closed to bicycles for construction.

Everything is complicated at the moment during maintenance construction on the Henderson: bikes can’t use the travel lanes on the construction side where the road is closed down to one lane, and must use the opposite sidewalk instead. On the non-construction side, you can still ride in the roadway in the direction of traffic if you want. Regardless of construction closures, when a rider does legally use the roadway, those zooming vehicles are enough to cause anxiety and concern.

So, why did they ever build a freeway for a half mile when a calmer smaller-scale bridge seems more appropriate for its traffic use pattern?

I recently stumbled upon a brief article on the history of the bridge at Wikipedia, and it explains everything. From the article:

The bridge was opened in 1969 to replace the old Red Bridge and was also part of a planned Route 44 freeway that would have extended from the Gano Street interchange with Interstate 195 (whose ramps were built specifically for the Route 44 freeway), along the west shore of the river, over the bridge, then along a never-built section of freeway in East Providence, returning to Route 44 just east of Route 114 and Route 1A. Since the freeway was never completed, the section that was built was not given a route number.

So, I guess that explains it. I wish the planners had been a little more clear in their thinking at the time, though hindsight surely is always 20/20. Hopefully the bike lanes that are planned for both sides of the bridge after the completion of the current construction will mitigate some of the dissonance and anxiety we’ve often found when riding on the bridge.

More Bike Love from the ProJo

With good timing during this Bike Month, the ProJo produced a beautiful two-page spread in the middle of the Lifebeat section today about Rhode Island’s collection of bike paths. It has a lot of good information about the many paths and bike routes in the state, with a well-designed map and many color photos of riders enjoying the sights along some of the paths. It even has a section that lays out the rules for pedestrians to share the path effectively. It takes a well-balanced view of the path’s uses for both recreational and transportation purposes, which is great. It adds to their earlier article about transportation alternatives. I hope the ProJo publishes additional articles this month that focus on cyclists using the broader road network as well, and prints the rules for motorists to share the road effectively! That would be a real coup, and a great service to all bicycle users in the state. Today’s spread is a positive tribute to all the hard work that our communities and RIDOT are doing together to build facilities for cyclists. Even though I don’t get onto these paths much myself, I definitely appreciate all the hard work and coordination they take to create and maintain.

100% Wind Powered Town

This isn’t really related to bikes, but I thought it was too cool to pass up.  According to a KOMU news article, the town of Rock Port Missouri, population 1,300, is the first US city to be 100% powered by wind.

“It’s a big deal,” Project Director Eric Chamberlain said. ”It’s a big deal for renewable energy and it’s a big deal to be energy independent.”

“What we’re celebrating is that the wind farm in Rock Port can produce more energy each year than what this community uses, and that has never been done before,” Chamberlain said.

“What we’re showing here is the city is producing 2 megawatts more than they need, so in essence, this meter is running backwards,” Chamberlain said.

I was just excited to see some town in the US taking alternative energy seriously, now back to bikes…

For Congressman, Life in the Bike Lane Comes Naturally

Imagine for a moment, if Rhode Island were represented by a congressman like Earl Blumenauer from Oregon. You can read the entire Wall Street Journal article, if you are strapped for time, some of the excerpts I enjoyed were:

Though he was alone on the road, and despite the downpour, he stopped at every red traffic signal. At one odd-shaped intersection, Mr. Blumenauer mused aloud about all the streets jutting off at odd angles. Perfect for a traffic circle, he suggested.

Later that morning, House Minority Leader John Boehner, the Ohio Republican, was incredulous that anyone had been out in such weather. “Are you out of your mind?” he asked.

Don’t we all get asked this frequently?

“Bikeman,” a House colleague from Oregon calls him. Mr. Blumenauer owns seven bikes. His congressional office is one of the few — if not the only one — that didn’t even apply for a parking permit. On occasion, Mr. Blumenauer has cycled to the White House. On Mr. Blumenauer’s first visit, the Secret Service, more accustomed to limousines, was flummoxed at the sight of his bike.

He launched the Congressional Bike Caucus, a bipartisan group that promotes public investment in cycling. In his early days, he tracked down Speaker Newt Gingrich in the House gym to pitch transit-fare subsidies for House workers. He got them. As the ranks of the Bicycle Caucus have grown — there are now more than 170 members — money for bike projects has grown, more than doubling during his time in office.

With Democrats in the majority for the first time since he came to Washington, Mr. Blumenauer snagged a seat on the Ways and Means Committee, and has had some success peddling a proposal to encourage bike commuting. The tax code already encourages employers to subsidize parking spots for workers who drive or fare cards for those who use mass transit. But it is silent on bikes.

“You can’t provide a benefit for people who burn calories instead of petroleum,” says Mr. Blumenauer, in disbelief. “It just seemed outrageous that somebody who cycles got zip.”

The provision would encourage employers to provide fringe benefits to bicycle commuters — such as for repairs and annual upkeep — at a cost to American taxpayers of $1 million a year.

I’m sure he is one of the forces behind the bike commuter act. I’ve always been amazed that this act is repeatedly brought before congress, although it’s never been acted upon. I’d love to see it go through some year, but I’m not holding my breath.

My hat is off to Congressman Blumenauer.

MIT Cyclists Power Supercomputer

In response to Google’s Innovate or Die Contest, a team of ten cyclists from MIT banned together to power a supercomputer running a simulation of a fusion reactor.  Here’s a short video about the entry

The only question remaining is, “why didn’t we think of this first?”

Cyclist Health and Injury Survey

Mark Greve, Clinical Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, recently joined Brown Cycling Club as the faculty advisor.  He posted a request for participation in a health survey and thought some of you might be interested in paticipating.

In addition to my roles with Refunds Now and now Brown Cycling I am also a researcher on sports injury. We are in the process of developing a survey instrument to study cyclist’s health and injury. We invite you to help test out the survey and give some feedback on it before we officially release it. You can leave feedback on the last page of the survey, or can reply by email to me. Don’t tell me about your injuries though. That data is confidential and the survey is a protected format for that kind of stuff.

Much of the data on cycling is biased towards pediatrics, pedestrians and intoxicated subjects. Little data exists on folks who use their bike for competition, fitness, fun, commuting or for commerce. This study is the first of a number of efforts to unlock the data on these types of cycling.

Keep in kind that the survey you will be responding to is a test version and the data will not be part of our data set for the official study. The official study will be on-line around the new year and I invite you back to give your data officially at that point. Links to this study will be seen on a number of different cycling specific websites. The study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board of RI Hospital.
I am looking for any glitches you may find, how long it took to answer the survey, were you able to accurately describe your injuries, were the questions technically accurate etc….

Take the Survey

Bike to Brown Apparel and Gifts

One of our talented-but-shy members, D__ (not Don, if you’re curious) has created some Bike to Brown products at CaféPress! The designer has asked to remain anonymous at this time, but they’ve spent some time designing a range of men’s and women’s shirt designs, as well as a cool bag. These would make great gifts for fellow riders, or for you to put on your own Wish List for the holidays.

As you may know, CaféPress is a print-on-demand operation, so items are pretty much always in stock. They also offer a huge range of products, from mugs and mousepads to buttons and even license plate frames! Our anonymous designer has offered to make any other customized items available that you might want. If you would like a new item with a different layout, slogan, or color, just let us know at our contact page, and we’ll forward your request on to D__. They’ll make it and add it to the store for you to purchase.

American Lawbreaking and Traffic Policy

The CycleDog blog has an interesting post exploring the current attitude of Americans with respect to breaking the law. He is a bicycle commuter and League of American Bicyclist instructor, so he has some very practical experience. In the post, he discusses how tolerant Americans have become about breaking the law

In effect, the almost universal disdain for speed limits reflects our society’s view that exceeding the limit is acceptable and that the resulting carnage is acceptable too. Periodic enforcement actions meant to reduce speeding have merely temporary results. Likewise, the occasional enforcement action targeting cyclists who run stop signs is merely another temporary irritation. As soon as the cops are gone, traffic returns to normal.

You witness this any time you get on the road, people have little regard for how fast they are traveling. How many times have you been biking along, only to be passed very closely by a car, that just couldn’t wait that 10 seconds until the opposite lane was clear and they could have given you a wide birth. Drivers want and expect to get everywhere they are going fast.

Cyclists shouldn’t get off the hook though.

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Excellent Bike Propaganda

This morning, linked from the Commute By Bike blog, I saw the best-produced pro-bike video I’ve ever seen. It’s from the CTC, a UK National Cyclist’s Organization, and it’s playing in British movie theaters lately. More information on their campaign is available at the Cycle Hero website. Check out the video …

Anger, On the Road and Elsewhere

On any given day, we are usually exposed to some episode of anger, and the threats and violence that sometimes go with it. This is all too common on the road, whether we drive or ride, but of course it appears, unwelcome, throughout the rest of our social interactions as well. The Utne Reader just published a thoughtful article by Andrew Santella, originally printed in Notre Dame, examining anger as a long-time component of our history and culture, and why it seems so prevalent right now. In light of our all-too-common interactions with angry motorists, I think it offers some interesting insights.

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