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?
Permalink
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.
Permalink
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.
Permalink
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.
Permalink
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).
Permalink
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!
Permalink
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.
Permalink
01.19.10
Posted in Events
by Mark Dieterich at 7:52 am
Tired of riding outside in the cold or alone on the rollers in your basement? Come join us for an evening of RIVeloSprints!
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.
Permalink
Posted in Alerts
by Mark Dieterich at 7:42 am
One of our readers reported the following to a traffic engineer at DPW over the weekend:
I wanted to bring a situation to your attention that the City needs to fix asap, as it’s quite dangerous along River Road for bicyclists, runners, and walkers.
Yesterday I was bike riding with my son through Blackstone Park, along River Road near the red bridge. My son had a near-miss with a street runoff grate where one of the metal bars across the grate (sorry, don’t know the exact terminology) is actually broken, leaving a wide gap, large enough to swallow up a small bike wheel, someone’s entire leg, etc. The situation is across from “hockey pond.”
One other thing, the grates are parallel to the road and I doubt that these metal grates break very often but even if not, with narrow tires of some bikes they are a hazard, and have noticed this is an issue throughout the City. I wonder if DPW can make switching these grates to be perpendicular to the road something that happens with all future road repairs?
We will follow up with an update if there is any response. As to his last point, I’ve asked this very same question in the past. The grates are aligned in such a way as to maximize drainage from the road and, yes, this often means they are running parallel to the road and more dangerous for cyclists. The good news is there are more recent designs for storm grates, that are just as effective at capturing water, but far safer for cyclists. We should all be encouraging DPW and RIDOT to install better grates when they come up for replacement.
Permalink
01.18.10
Posted in Bike Commuting, East Bay, General, Tales from the Trenches
by jackmadden at 1:00 pm
I had to run an errand in Riverside yesterday so I decided to use the bike path. Previous attempts to use the path have been difficult because of the snow cover we have had this winter. The recent warmer temperatures have had a clearing effect; and even though the above picture shows one of the occasional stretches of ice and snow, the rain we had in the last twenty four hours have probably cleared the lingering cover. Overall it felt great to get out there along the Bay.
I love winter for riding and exploring. The world seems a little more desolate and wild. With the trees bare of leaves, secret places reveal themselves to you and are more accessible. On my way to Riverside I pulled off the path to get a look at one of those places. A path led me out to a rocky outcrop on the waters edge. There was a tanker unloading on the Providence side and I watched as the tugboats did their work on the massive ocean going ship. I pulled out my phone and took a panorama of the entire scene. I would post the pictures but when I was stopped by the East Providence Police and Homeland Security, I volunteered to delete them. Apparently, I seemed pretty suspicious to the Coast Guard security boats positioned around the tanker. I didn’t get a half mile from the scene before they were all over me. Impressive. They were both Professional and Polite and sent me on my way after running my ID.
So a notice to all bike path users: the path is clear for now; but if you happen to see an oil tanker on the bay and you want to get a closer look, the smaller boats with the big blue lights motoring towards you probably aren’t trolling for stripers.
Permalink
