Posted in Advocacy
by Mark at 9:26 pm
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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05.22.08
Posted in Advocacy
by Margherita at 9:51 am
1. AGRICULTURE: Change your menu and save the planet? (05/22/2008)
Sara Goodman, ClimateWire reporter
Climate change means different things to different people. To Tim LaSalle, chief executive of the Rodale Institute, it has brought opportunity: the acceleration of a trend his group has been pushing for years. He wants to make people more aware of where their groceries come from and how they are produced. To the Rodale folks, saving the planet can begin by altering your dinner menu.
“People are concerned about their health, and they’re getting worried about the chemicals and pesticides that are in regular farming,” LaSalle said. “They’re trying to get cleaner, safer food and many understand they’re making an environmental commitment.”
What’s new is that this message is resonating well beyond the crunchy granola set. In recent months, organically grown food has been a better bet than the stock market. Food producers are beginning to prick up their ears. According to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, a consortium of Iowa State University, Kansas State University and the University of California, the organic food market has grown nearly 20 percent per year for the last seven years as climate-consciousness has spread.
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05.19.08
Posted in Advocacy, Bike Commuting, East Bay
by Margherita at 7:17 am
Inertia at the Top
Belated, Patchy Response Further Hamstrung By Inadequate Federal Attention, Experts Say
By Susan Levine and Lori Aratani
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 19, 2008; A01
The problem at first was that the problem was ignored: For almost two decades, young people in the United States got fatter and fatter — ate more, sat more — and nobody seemed to notice. Not parents or schools, not medical groups or the government.
But since the alarm was finally sounded in the late 1990s, the problem has been the country’s reaction: a fragmented, inchoate response that critics say has suffered particularly from inadequate direction and dollars at the federal level.
“The sense of this as a national health priority just doesn’t come through,” said Jeffrey P. Koplan of Emory University, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and chairman of the Institute of Medicine’s 2004 study of childhood obesity. The top recommendation of that seminal report was for the government to convene a high-level, interdepartmental task force to guide a coordinated response. No such body has been assembled.
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Posted in Advocacy
by Margherita at 7:01 am
May 19, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Stranded in Suburbia
BERLIN
I have seen the future, and it works.
O.K., I know that these days you’re supposed to see the future in China or India, not in the heart of “old Europe.”
But we’re living in a world in which oil prices keep setting records, in which the idea that global oil production will soon peak is rapidly moving from fringe belief to mainstream assumption. And Europeans who have achieved a high standard of living in spite of very high energy prices — gas in Germany costs more than $8 a gallon — have a lot to teach us about how to deal with that world.
If Europe’s example is any guide, here are the two secrets of coping with expensive oil: own fuel-efficient cars, and don’t drive them too much.
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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 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.
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05.07.08
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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05.06.08
Posted in Advocacy
by Mark at 11:27 am
The people over at Climate Ride are planning a ride to raise awareness about the need to address climate changes. The have put out a call for participation:
Join us this Fall for the first multi-day supported bicycle tour where you pedal to raise money and awareness for action on global warming. Climate Riders will cycle 320 miles in five days from New York City to Washington D.C., following scenic country roads and finishing on the steps of our nation’s capitol, where we will make a statement about our country’s need for action.
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Posted in Advocacy
by Margherita at 9:19 am
TRANSPORTATION: Congress looks to infrastructure funding for economic boost (05/06/2008)
Josh Voorhees, E&E Daily reporter
Amid growing concerns over a slowing economy, lawmakers are turning their attention to the nation’s infrastructure as one way to provide an economic boost.
The case for infrastructure investment made by many legislators, and heartily echoed by the transportation industry, is that federal funding translates directly into the creation of much-needed American jobs.
A second economic stimulus package, complete with transportation and infrastructure incentives, remains high on many lawmakers wish lists, but lawmakers are also working to inject money into infrastructure development through other legislative vehicles.
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05.05.08
Posted in Advocacy
by Mark at 7:47 pm
According to a Pantagraph article, Florida is the latest state to pass a 3-foot law, whereby
vehicles are required to give cyclists at least 3 feet of clearance when passing. Violators face fines up to $500.
Ed Barsotti, executive director of the League of Illinois Bicyclists, stressed the new law merely spells out what earlier traffic laws referred to as a “safe distance” between “vehicles.” Previous state law defined bikes as vehicles and gave them the same rights and responsibilities as cars, trucks and other traffic.
“We aren’t hearing many naysayers about the 3-feet rule,” Barsotti said. “Most people understand that it’s common sense. I realize enforcement will be difficult. …Should there be a collision where a motorist hits a cyclist, there’ll now be something they can be charged with. …But, the big impact is in education. Now, in drivers’ education classes and the Rules of the Road (brochure), we can talk about not squeezing by cyclists. When you see a cyclist, give them 3 feet.”
This follows on the heels of an even stricter law passed recently in Chicago
In March, Chicago aldermen passed an ordinance mirroring the state law mandating at least 3 feet of clearance, but they went further. They disallowed making left or right turns in front of bicyclists, opening a vehicle door into the path of bicyclists (a type of crash called “dooring”), and double parking in marked shared vehicle/bike lanes.
Fines for driving, standing or parking in a bicycle lane also were increased: Each violation carries a minimum $150 fine, increasing to $500 if the violation results in a bicycle crash.
Perhaps the cyclists in Rhode Island should unite and start asking our representatives to enact such a law. While it’s unlikely the law would ever be enforced, it goes a long ways towards protecting cyclists should there be an accident. I totally agree with Mr. Barsotti that one of the big benefits is that the law will now be taught in driver education classes, forcing at least some amount of bicycle education upon motorists.
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