02.08.10
Posted in Events
by Mark Dieterich at 5:20 pm
Tired of riding outside in the cold or alone on the rollers in your basement? It’s time for the next installment of RIVeloSprints! Come join us on February 8th @ 6:30pm for some fun on rollers. Rumor has it that someone from the Providence Journal will be joining us this evening, let’s show RI how much fun you can have indoors on a bicycle!
RI VeloSprints is an indoor bicycle roller racing tournament. Two cyclists climb aboard bicycles securely mounted to rollers and pedal as hard as they can for 500 meters. There will be nightly, monthly, and tournament-wide winners in various categories.
Proceeds from the event go to support the US Open Cycling Foundation, East Coast Greenway Alliance, & the RI Bicycle Coalition; organizations working to make cycling safer and better in Rhode Island.
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02.06.10
Posted in Advocacy, East Side
by Mark Dieterich at 5:29 pm
The folks over at Greater City Providence did a great job summarizing the alternatives RIDOT presented this past Monday for the Wickenden St./195 interchange. I wasn’t able to attend the meeting and am hoping that anyone who was in attendance would add their thoughts to this post. My understanding was that the following option was most widely accepted by everyone:
I’d encourage everyone to take some time and submit any thoughts or comments you have to either Melanie Jewett in the Planning Department and/or Lambri Zerva at RIDOT. They will be accepting comments until the close of business on Tuesday, February 16th.
Looking at these designs, it’s still not clear to me how a bicycle is expected to navigate from the mulit-use path coming from India Point Park, through the intersection, and continue down to the bicycle path on South Water Street. Clearly they are going to need to use the pedestrian signals, because crossing over two plus lanes of traffic, coming off at highway speeds, is going to be a death wish. I just hope RIDOT has the sense to build some sort of large catchment area for bicycles, as people riding along paths can often be families with children.
I’m also seriously concerned about how RIDOT and the city plan to encourage motorists to slow down to the posted 25mph speeds after coming off the highway. I don’t see any sort of traffic calming built into the plans. I’m also dismayed to see that no thought, once again, has been given to HOV lanes in either direction.
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02.05.10
Posted in Advocacy, Events
by Eric at 3:11 pm
We’ve got a shot at real, good improvements to Pleasant Valley Parkway! Please join the forces for good!
When: Monday Feb 8, 6 pm
Where: Capital Ridge (assisted living facility) 700 Smith St
Early word is that the new plan calls for one-way movement on each side of the stream, removal of one car lane, and addition of bike lanes on each side. It would end up looking like a small-scale Blackstone Blvd, if this is true. Currently, the roads on both sides of the median/stream BOTH allow 2-way traffic, with little room for cyclists and walkers, and extreme confusion at intersections.
See you there! We’ll all head to RI Velosprints (at McFadden’s, on Pine St) afterwards!
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01.30.10
Posted in Advocacy, General
by Dennis at 2:59 pm
Everyone that I work with knows that I ride my bicycle to work. By now they don’t even give a second look when I walk in the building in spandex (for the most part). A recent comment made me stop and consider what folks must be thinking. For the second time in a month someone asked me, ” Do you even have a driver’s license?”.
It stopped me. Do my coworkers think that I ride my bike becuase I’ve had my license taken away? And the drivers out on the road, what are they thinking? Usually, I don’t much care what others think but this might be a case where it’s a bit more important.
What if people knew that I decided to ride my bike to work one nice Summer day about 3 years ago. Heck, I didn’t really have time to ride as much as I wanted to and parking is always an issue… so why not ride? I had a shower waiting for me at work along with a change of clothes so I tried it a couple times. The more times I rode to work the more I liked it. Of course, there are political, environmental and other reasons to ride instead of driving and I won’t list them all, but the bicycle has turned into my primary form of transportation.
My question is about descrimination. What do you see out in the world? In the workplace? On the road? How are you treated as a Bicyclist in the different places that you go?
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01.29.10
Posted in Events
by Mark Dieterich at 6:07 pm
| February 1, 2010 |
| 6:30 pm | to | 10:00 pm |
Tired of riding outside in the cold or alone on the rollers in your basement? It’s time for the next installment of RIVeloSprints! Come join us on February 1st @ 6:30pm for some fun on rollers.
RI VeloSprints is an indoor bicycle roller racing tournament. Two cyclists climb aboard bicycles securely mounted to rollers and pedal as hard as they can for 500 meters. There will be nightly, monthly, and tournament-wide winners in various categories.
Proceeds from the event go to support the US Open Cycling Foundation, East Coast Greenway Alliance, & the RI Bicycle Coalition; organizations working to make cycling safer and better in Rhode Island.
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01.28.10
Posted in Alerts
by Mark Dieterich at 1:30 pm
Wicked Local Natick, is reporting that a Natick man, Colin D’Aguiar, involved in a bicycle SUV accident on January 16th died from complications recently. As usual the press reports that the man was
riding his bike when he was struck by a Ford SUV.
It’s amazing how many vehicles suddenly turn on cyclists and run them over. Come on press, it’s time you at least acknowledge how an accident happens, the driver of the SUV struck the cyclist with the SUV! This may seem like a minor point, but it’s not. Driver’s need to take responsibility for their actions. Yes accidents do happen, but it’s not the car’s fault!
It will also come as no surprise to readers of this blog, that
the driver of the SUV has not been identified by authorities because he has not been charged.
The article has very few details about the accident, so it’s impossible to know who is at fault. [Addition] As an astute commenter pointed out, the picture shows the accident scene at night. It’s entirely possible that this cyclist was riding without any sort of reflective gear or lights, in which case, there may truly have not been enough time for the motorist to respond. [/Addition] However, I do still wonder if this will be another case where it’s deemed an accident, another innocent cyclists looses their life, and a motorist just goes on driving their death mobile as though nothing happened. As usual, we will try to post a follow-up if further details emerge.
We should all spin a few miles in silence in honor of Colin D’Aguiar and his family.
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01.27.10
Posted in General
by Mark Dieterich at 5:41 pm
Our very own Dick Durishin in an article today on Daily Peloton. In it, Dick discusses his plans to host the return of the US Open of Cycling in Rhode Island. He has
a date with the UCI and USACycling for 2010 and a planned course, here in Rhode Island, that takes in the dramatic beauty of the coastline and the historic grandeur of our capital city, Providence.
Hopefully, Dick and his helpers, I’m sure many of us will be hearing from him 
, can pull it off. This would be a big boon for cycling in Rhode Island and certainly help to put cycling front and center on the minds of the Mayor and, perhaps even, Governor. Yes, even us humble bicycle commuters can benefit from professional cycling.
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Posted in Advocacy
by Mark Dieterich at 9:41 am
An article in today’s Projo lists eight new projects RIDOT announced will be funded with Federal stimulus money. From an advocacy point of view, I think it’s important for our group to stay on top of lists like these, review areas RIDOT is working in, and see if there are any infrastructure improvements that can be made to help cyclists. Below you find the list of projects. If you happen to live in one of these areas or your daily commute takes you by one of these areas and you can suggest specific improvements RIDOT could work on during their construction, please let us know! We can then lean on RIDOT to include improvements for cyclists while other work is being done.
• Foster: Rehabilitation and resurfacing of Moosup Valley Road from 0.9 miles west of Route 14/Plainfield Pike to Cucumber Hill Road (1.4 miles, $800,000).
Rehabilitation and resurfacing of Route 14/Route 102 from Briggs Road to Old Plainfield Pike (1.2 miles, $800,000).
• Glocester: Replacement of the Chestnut Hill Road Bridge, which carries Chestnut Hill Road over the spillway that flows from the Sayles and Smith Reservoir to the Chepachet River. The project includes construction of a replacement spillway structure and wetlands restoration ($1.5 million).
• South Kingstown: Repair work to the roof at the historic Kingston Station, located in the village of West Kingston. ($300,000).
• Statewide drainage improvements: Various drainage improvements in the following communities: East Greenwich (First Avenue at Division Street), Providence (North Main Street), Scituate (Danielson Pike) and Tiverton (East Road and Crandall Road) ($300,000).
• Warren: Installation of new curbing, sidewalks, minor drainage improvements and street tree preservation and replacement on Main Street (Route 114) from Cherry Street to 160 feet south of Beach Street (0.3 miles, $700,000).
• Westerly: Resurfacing of Route 91/Westerly Bradford Road/Bradford Road, including curbing, sidewalks, guardrail, minor drainage improvements from Westerly Maintenance Facility to Bradford Railroad Bridge/800 feet north of Church Street (3.8 miles, $3 million).
• Woonsocket, Cumberland and Lincoln: Resurfacing of Route 99/Woonsocket Industrial Highway, including curb replacement, minor drainage rehabilitation, new signs and structures, guardrail replacement and minor bridge work from Route 146 to Route 122/Mendon Road (3.75 miles, $5 million).
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01.25.10
Posted in Advocacy, East Side, Events, Jewelry District
by Eric at 6:27 pm
| February 1, 2010 |
| 6:00 pm | to | 8:00 pm |
RIDOT and PVD city planning have scheduled the follow-up meeting for street designs emerging from the teardown of “old” I-195. Changes to the earlier design (based on earlier public feedback) will be presented, including new alternatives for the Wickenden/Point/Benefit/South Main/South Water clusterf#*k interchange. Your participation is crucial to ensuring livable streets in Fox Point and the Jewelry District!
Monday, Feb 1, 6-8 pm, at Vartan Gregorian Elementary School Community Room (that’s the Bath House to you that have been living here for a while), 455 Wickenden Street.
Here’s a flier, courtesy of PVD Planning & Development, that you can forward around, stick on your fridge, pin to your office bulletin board, etc. (Right-click image to open separately or save to your computer.) See you there!
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Posted in Bike Commuting, Education
by Mark Dieterich at 10:59 am
We don’t post a lot of commuter tips on this blog, perhaps it would be good communal goal to do so in 2010! Here’s a start…
I was heading for home on Friday, when I picked up a piece of glass in my rear tire. I was on a tight schedule and was heading for the bus anyways, so I decided to just toss it on the bus as is and I’d deal with it over the weekend. Come Sunday night, I patched the tube and all was looking good. I hope on the bike to leave home this morning and I hear a very faint, almost unnoticeable rubbing sound, almost like a break pad just barely touching a section of the rim. I check the brakes, but they look fine and start riding again. The noise is still there. I stop for a better look and discover that the rear tire isn’t completed seated and is just barely bulging a little. Mind you, the clearance on this bike is quite tight with the tires I use, so it’s really minor. However, at the really high rate of speed I ride (you can stop laughing now , it’s quite possible that this could have been a serious problem down the road. I turned around, two minutes with a pump and re-seating the tire, and I’m on my way again.
Moral of the story, get to know how your bike should sound. If you’ve never really done this, then I’d suggest you take your bike in for a Spring tuneup and focus on how it sounds right after it’s left the hands of a professional. When something doesn’t sound right, investigate it or you could be in for a surprise later down the road.
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