05.16.08
Posted 05.05.08 at 7:59pm
Bike to Work Day 2008 is just around the corner:
- When: May 16th 7:30am - 10:00am
and again from 3:00pm - 6:00pm
- Where: Bank of America City Center in
downtown Providence (skating rink)
Starting at 7:00am refreshments will be available, with a
kick-off press conference at 7:30am. At 3:00pm, the skating
rink comes alive with bicycle-related vendors providing safety
tips and demonstrations, local environmental organizations,
information about upcoming bicycle signage and lane striping,
Rack n' Ride demonstrations by RIPTA, refreshments, a bike
raffle, entertainment, and more!
Read the entire press announcment
for more information.
If this is your first Bike to Work Day, then consider joining
one of our Bike Trains,
where there will be experienced bicycle commuters riding a
published route arriving at specified locations at
pre-determined times.
Let's show Providence how many cyclists there really are.
To do this, we need YOU to join the festivities and ride your
bike to work!
05.13.08
Posted in Advocacy
by Mark at 9:10 pm
In conjunction with Bike Week, the PBC has put together a quick survey asking about how you use your bike and what, if anything, can be done to get you on your bike more frequently. Our goal of the survey is two fold:
- We want to better understand the community of cyclists interested in the PBC and our activities
- We want to get some input on where we should focus our energy
Please take a moment and fill out our survey. Thanks to the generosity of The Hub and Providence Cycle, we are able to reward those of you who fill out the entire survey!
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Posted in Bike-to-Work Day
by Mark at 8:49 pm
I road home on the bike path this evening and it looks like the sewer repairs in Riverside won’t be completed in time for B2WD. So, I’ve updated the East Bay Bike Train map to reflect our detour. See you Friday!
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Posted in Advocacy
by Margherita at 7:04 am
Menino pedals for cycle-friendly city
Boston to unveil its first dedicated bike lanes
By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | May 13, 2008
Blue track suit billowing, Mayor Thomas M. Menino pedaled up Congress Street, legs churning against a stiff wind that turned a ceremonial half-mile ride into an exercise in perseverance.
“I didn’t think we’d ride into a hurricane,” the mayor shouted from his Specialized bicycle.
The mayor’s campaign to make Boston a bike-friendly city has forced to him to fight headwinds of another sort: an entrenched transportation culture that has long considered the car the king of the road.
But seven months after Menino announced the initiative, advocates say the bike, long an afterthought in city road projects, is at least some getting respect.
Read the rest of this entry »
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05.12.08
Posted in Bike-to-Work Day
by Mark at 9:21 pm
We are pleased to announce that a Blackstone Bikeway train has now been organized. You can read more about this train on our bike train webpage.
Since the bike trail is still being developed, the online map data has not caught up with the physical changes. We’ve done our best to accurately represent the path of the train, but this train may not be represented as accurately as our other trains. However, the stopping points are correct.
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05.10.08
Posted in General
by Margherita at 1:27 pm
May 10, 2008
Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit
DENVER — With the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon, more commuters are abandoning their cars and taking the train or bus instead.Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.
“In almost every transit system I talk to, we’re seeing very high rates of growth the last few months,” said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.
“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”
Read the rest of this entry »
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05.08.08
Posted in Bike-to-Work Day
by Mark at 3:55 pm
The May 1st edition of the Providence City news has a piece on B2WD. It’s great to see an increase in publicity for the event this year. Now all we need is some nice weather!
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Posted in Bike-to-Work Day
by Mark at 10:33 am
The BikeTalk program on Brown Student Radio (BSR) covered B2WD on their latest show. You can listen to an archived version of this show. Thanks to Alex, Chris, and Tom for talking up the event.
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05.07.08
Posted in Bike-to-Work Day
by Mark at 8:39 pm
The Providence Journal posted an article today entitled Heed the Rules of the Road. In addition to mentioning the upcoming Bike to Work festivities, the article reminds people that
Rhode Island’s four main bike paths are already crowded on good-weather weekends, not just with bicyclists but with walkers, dog walkers, Rollerbladers –– even Rollerbladers with dogs. With so many people using the bike paths, the potential for accidents and collisions is ever-present, so the start of the season is a good time for all users of the bike paths to be reminded of the rules.
Confusion arises because the posted signs and painted icons that instruct walkers to “walk in the left lane, facing bicyclists” don’t spell out the rest of the rule, which is that walkers are to stay to the left, close to the grass edge, and make way for oncoming bicyclists.
Just as on an automotive highway, pedestrians are safer if they are facing the oncoming traffic –– but that doesn’t mean that they can walk in the middle of the road.
Overall, I don’t have a strong opinion about what side of the bike path pedestrians use, I’d just like it to be consistent. I mentioned to my wife after my ride home on Monday that I’d seen the last of commuting home via the bike trail until the Fall. It’s just too tough to try and weed your way through the disorganization on the bike path in the afternoon, I’d rather leave the path for those that feel more comfortable away from automobile traffic.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Advocacy
by Mark at 3:01 pm
As if we aren’t already having enough fun with part of the Washington Bridge Pedestrian Bridge gone, eminent work to begin on the Henderson Bridge, WPRI reports that RIDOT announced today they will be lowering the weight limit on I-95 even further:
The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) announced it will lower the posting of the Pawtucket River Bridge between Exits 27 and 28 in Pawtucket to 18 tons. Signs will be put in place by the end of the day. That means that loaded buses and trucks weighing more than 18 tons will no longer be permitted to cross the bridge. The bridge was originally posted at 22 tons in November 2007.
This means even more commercial traffic will be funneled off I-95 via Division Street to bypass the bridge limits.
“The Pawtucket River Bridge is safe,” said RIDOT Director Michael P. Lewis. “However, in an abundance of caution and to further preserve its deteriorating condition until the bridge is replaced, we are lowering the posting of this bridge.”
I’m sure they are concerned about another MN type bridge atrocity, but define “safe”? If the bridge can’t handle what it was originally designed for, who can say that a bunch of 17.9999 ton trucks won’t decide to go over it at the same time? If we were to close that section of I-95 to cars completely, I’m guessing that the bridge would remain quite safe for all the pedestrians and bikes we could cram onto it for many years to come.
I caught the end of a story on NPR yesterday that discussed some towns completely closing roads, because there simply wasn’t enough funding to continue maintaining them. I wonder if some of the issues we are beginning to see here are the writing on the wall? Imagine how much cheaper it would be to maintain enough infrastructure to only support the number of cars, buses, trucks, etc. really NEEDING to drive somewhere.
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Posted in Bike-to-Work Day
by Mark at 2:38 pm
Our list of bike trains continues to grow. We just added an additional train heading to the B2WD events originating from Glocester. If you live out this way, it’s a great way to try your hand at bike commuting! See our bike train page for a listing of all the offerings.
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Bike to Work Day 2008 is just around the corner:
