Bike-To-Brown
Bicycle Commuting at Brown University
Subscribe to RSS FeedH5074 Hearing Today!
| April 2, 2009 | ||
| 4:00 pm |
Sorry for the late notice, it’s been a busy night. The H5074 legislation will be heard today by the House Judiciary at 4pm in room 205 of the State House. We encourage any cyclist who is able to attend, as it will be a show of stregth and support for bicycle legislation. Over at the Providence Bicycle Coalition blog, you can read about the proposed changes and the history of this legislation.
Spring Break Bicycle Removal
Did everyone notice the Morning Mail announcement this morning re: Spring Break Bicycle Removals? In particular, the following jumped out at me:
If possible, please secure your bicycle during this 5 hour period in your office in order to avoid the possible removal of your bicycle. We all thank you for your cooperation in advance.
There must be a better way to deal with this. Perhaps, if police and security, as they are patrolling the campus took note of what bikes haven’t moved in months, they could proactively determine which ones have been abandoned. I for one am going to be really miffed if my bike gets cut off as I’m in a meeting somewhere on campus. Thoughts?
Velibs Facing Uncertain Future?
Most of you have probably heard abou the Velibs program in Paris. They are the frontrunner in large scale, bicycle sharing programs. A recent report out of the BCC attracted a lot of attention for their doom and gloom outlook for the program
It was introduced to roaring success — hailed by environmentalists and cycling enthusiasts as the ideal solution to congestion on the streets. But life is now proving brutish and short for the Vélib, the self-service bicycle that the city of Paris introduced 18 months ago.
The article sites that the bicycles were
Hung from trees, thrown in the river or shipped to foreign parts, the Vélib bikes have met much more aggressive treatment than expected when the first of the 20,000 of them were docked at their 1,250 stations in July 2007. The damage has forced JCDecaux, the advertising company that supplies them to the city, to replace most of the original bicycles at a cost of more than €400 each.
After reading this article, my concerns over whether the small programs being started by Brown and RISD students can work. However, the people over at Streetsblog provided some great coverage of this issue, in particular the response from the city of Paris and Velib. Their claim is that
“Decaux is using media sensationalism in order to obtain more money from the city of Paris,” said Denis Baupin, who as Deputy Mayor for Transportation oversaw the Vélib launch in the summer of 2007.
and
Not that bicycle abuse is a phantom problem. It exacts a real toll, but much of that cost has been anticipated and accounted for. Last July, the city of Paris agreed to pay JCDecaux 400 euros for every bike stolen in excess of four percent of the total fleet each year. Given the enormous popularity of Vélib — users have taken 42 million rides since its debut — the cost of those payments is minimal. Using the BBC’s figure of 7,800 missing bikes, the pricetag for the city comes to less than 2 million euros annually, out of 20 million euros in user fees.
The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. I for one hope that the model is sustainable, because I imagine there are many other places watching this program closely to see whether or not the model would work for their cities.
Bikes @ Brown
The February 5th addition of Morning Mail mad a passing comment about a new Bikes @ Brown effort. Numerous people commented on whether we new anything about this program, so I went ahead and contacted the group. Here is what I heard back:
Yes, this program is very new- we are actually not quite off the ground yet. For now, we are separate form RISD. We have 7 bikes but are hoping to grow pretty quickly. We also have a storage room in Faunce. The next few steps are to build a wall bike rack (which we have a a design and all of the supplies for), paint the bikes, publicize the program and wait for it to get a bit warmer. We are hoping to launch the program by beginning of Mach. I have created a listserv bikes@listserv.brown.edu.
Apparently, there was an article in the BDH that I completely missed introducing the program. Best of luck to this group as they try to get a program started. Hopefully we will see fleets of brown, or pink, or yellow bikes flying around campus come March. I’ll certainly try and post more info as I learn more about the program.
Advocacy Meeting – March 5th @ 6pm
| March 5, 2009 | ||
| 6:00 pm | to | 8:00 pm |
Save the date: March 5th @ 6pm in MacMillan room 115
Bike-to-Brown is teaming up with Bike Providence and Brown Cycling to hold a special “town hall” type discussion of the proposed Three Foot Rule legislation. If you are a cyclist and ride the roads, then I would strongly encourage you to attend this meeting and voice your opinion about the merits of this bill.
Keep an eye on the H5074 thread over at Bike Providence for some history about this proposed legislation and further updates.
H5074 – Three Foot Rule
I posted a while back about the Three Foot rule being considered before the RI House Judiciary. A date has yet to be announced for the hearing. If you are interested in this issue, and I hope you all are, I’d encourage you to follow the thread on the Bike Providence Blog. We had a really lively discussion at their advocacy meeting last night and came to the realization that cyclist really need to gather together and talk about this bills merits before the House Judiciary committee considers it.
I’m in the process of finding a location where we can hold a “Town Hall” type meeting for cyclists. In the meantime, I’d encourage you to start thinking about this bill and the potential benefits/harm it might cause should it become law. Please share your comments either here or on this Bike Providence post.
Three Foot Rule
If the recent snow is keeping you off your bike, then I’d suggest you hunker down and spend a few quality minutes at your computer screen. The RI General Assembly is going to consider H5074. It’s new language added to the RI laws requiring motorists to keep “a 3 foot passing distance when passing a bicycle”. You can read the entire changes on the Providence Bicycle Coalition website.
I would encourage each and everyone one of you to contact your legislators and encourage them to support this bill. You can find legislative contact information on the RI General Assembly website.
Many other states/cities already have a law like this on the books, it’s time for RI to join their ranks. While we all know the likelihood of this law making any immediate impact on driver’s behavior is slim, it does offer a way for the RI AG to press charges, should another cyclist be struck.
Please take the time to send off a couple of emails or make a few phone calls, it could really make a difference!
A Sign of the Times
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been struggling to keep tabs on the recent weather. One day starts in the 40s and by the ride home it’s almost sixty. The next day it’s snowing. It may just be me, but I’m beginning to wonder if this is a sign of the times to come, more unsettled weather, etc.
Geoff recently posted a pdf slideshow of pictures he took during his commute in just after this most recent storm, where we received around three inches of rain in a day. If you missed the email on the list, you might enjoy looking at what a mess the EBBP was.
Staying Motivated
Now that the weather has turned colder (depending on the day of the week anyways), I thought it would be a good time to start a quick thread on motivation. The Commute by Bike blog had a post near the end of September citing 10 Tips for Staying Motivated:
- Ride a different bike. Swap bikes with a friend or co-worker you trust or switch one of your other bikes out as your commuter bike.
- Try multi-mode commuting. Over winter, I switch to a bike/transit commute which allows me to choose how far I want to ride depending on where I choose to get on and off. You can also drive part-way or drive in, then ride home. Ride back to work and drive home the next day.
- If you have a geared bike, try a “one gear” commute. Over a few days, use trial and error to find the one gear combination that works best for your commute.
- Pick up and throw away one road hazard per day: nails, screws, tacks, and big chunks of debris. Don’t neglect your traffic awareness, but try to make a point to get one piece of potentially harmful debris off the road.
- Find some new routes. Talk to fellow cyclists or just go exploring on one of your recreational rides. Not seeing the same scenery every single day can keep things interesting.
- Recruit some friends. It’s a lot easier to keep riding if you have a buddy to talk to and at least share the misery of a chilly morning or baleful headwind.
- Take some pictures. You can use your camera phone, an inexpensive digital point-and-shoot or even a disposable camera! If you see something interesting, there’s no harm in taking a break to enjoy it and capture it to admire and share later.
- Reward yourself. For every week of car-free commuting, do something as a small reward. You might need to get your significant other to sign-off on this.
- Greet anyone and everyone that you pass. One of the great things about riding a bike is that you’re out in the open. Say hi to joggers, dog-walkers, and even pedestrians hogging the multi-use path by walking three abreast… not that it ever happens…
- Mix up your commute a bit with small errands that you can run on the way home or to work.
What works for you?
Save the Bay Community Cleanup
| December 7, 2008 | ||
| 9:00 am |
I received word from the folks at Save the Bay that they are hosting a community cleanup this coming Saturday. Their focus will be along the East Bay Bike Path, so I thought some of you might be interested. Here’s the official announcement:
We’ve had a volunteer just schedule a Community Cleanup for this Sunday, December 7th in East Providence – if you’re free and looking for something to do and or some community service – please sign up!
Community Cleanup of East Providence
Meet at the parking lot at the East Bay Bike Path on Veterans Memorial Parkway at 9 am on Sunday the 7th
Dress for the weather, bring your own work gloves and a drink.
Your leader will be Rob Resendes
Please sign up by emailing shessler@savebay.org or calling 401.272.3540 x 130