bike for short trips worth billions- USA study

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111102082804.htm

The biggest health benefit was due to replacing half of the short trips with bicycle trips during the warmest six months of the year, saving about $3.8 billion per year from avoided mortality and reduced health care costs for conditions like obesity and heart disease.

The report calculated that these measures would save an estimated $7 billion, including 1,100 lives each year from improved air quality and increased physical fitness.

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So Waterloo can find money for an ambitious 'light rail' plan.

Toronto still wants to expand the subway.

But nobody can seem to manage a decent bike lane/ multi-use trail system that can get you from one end of town to the other - that 5mile sweet spot for 1/2 to 3/4 of the year - for bicycles.

This is a failure of the will and imagination - not of funding.

D - I am quite intrigued by elevated bike paths.

It somewhat resembled Chinese plans for extra-wide commuter light rail over roads.

I saw something like that in Detroit.

placing bike lanes by sidewalk, not outside of parking

No fun at all, being uptown Waterloo. Endless car-dooring chances. Traffic.

The sidewalks are choked with signage, if not pedestrians.

Bikes- the unwanted bastard child of walker and driver.

Not really though- they were the car version 1. Caused quite a stir in their day.

I don't consider cycling practical- not without supporting infrastructure.

Aside- studies say women prefer trails and other bike venues away from traffic.

waterloo to put cycling on equal footing

http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/531511--waterloo-adopts-groundbreaking-transportation-plan

When city councillors adopted the new plan they enshrined the doctrine of “Complete Streets” as official-municipal policy.

“Plan, design, operate and maintain streets to enable all users of all ages and abilities — pedestrians, cyclists, transit users and motorists — to safely move along and across city streets,” the Transportation Master Plan, says

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D - winter is nearly here. Hey I've done my share of winter cycling.

But maybe bike lanes are an easier pitch when portrayed as somewhere to put all that snow.

Otherwise, without proper clearance, it ends up thrown onto the sidewalk.

new traffic idea 'bike boxes'

http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/bike-boxes-come-to-toronto-in-last-gasp-of-bike-infrastructure-investment.html

From Toronto. And yep, they're still going on about the only (freakish) bike-on-pedestrian accident resulting in death in the last 3 years...

100 buck fine for dooring cyclist to death

http://therecord.blogs.com/take_the_lane/2011/10/driver-in-fatal-dooring-will-likely-pay-110.html

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Driver+faces+fine+after+cyclist+dies/5606689/story.html

The crash happened on Oct. 11 just before 9 a.m. Nacu had been cycling when she was struck by a door being opened by the driver of a parked car as she passed. Nacu was thrown off her bike into oncoming traffic and struck by a Volkswagen.

Nacu was pronounced dead at the scene.

So that is why cyclists dislike on-street parking so much.

But uptown Waterloo, if you try to occupy a whole lane to stay a yard away from an endless row of car doors, well expect honking despite the presence of a pass lane.

coroner to study bicycle deaths

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1075267--coroner-to-review-ontario-cycling-deaths

The first ever province-wide review of cycling deaths will examine fatalities from 2006 to 2010, try to identify common factors and make recommendations to prevent future deaths. Coroner’s inquests do not assign blame or make any judicial findings.

D - the pic is of a "ghost bike".

Recycle cycles made on for that fellow on University Ave. last year. But

1) they assumed everybody knows what a ghost bike is, and

2) they locked it to a sign. The bike was simply lifted over the top of the sign, and ended up by a dumpster on the residential property I live at.

D - a large laminated "what is a ghost bike" would have actually increased awareness, as opposed to just eliciting curiosity and puzzlement from the public.

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http://www.maplandia.com/canada/ontario/waterloo-regional-municipality/kitchener/

Grr, Bulent is not saving the file pic.

Ok, look up Caroline and Erb in Waterloo.

I've seen so many cyclists blow through the pedestrian cross walks once the walk sign has expired. And nearly get splattered.

On Thanksgiving weekend, I saw a truck pulling a ?! plane with no wings on a trailer.

A cyclist cut in front of him as he tried to turn right onto Erb from the one way.

He hauled on the brakes and got within a meter of the cyclist.

I've been cut off in my car by a cyclist heading off the trail to Caroline as I turned left onto Erb.

I'm not sure what about this corner makes cyclists so nonchalant, but they are their own worst enemies.

I dismount and walk my bike across when I use the pedestrian crosswalk.

Playing chicken on a bike against a ton of steel is not a wise career choice.

rental bikes. cities of the world.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20110909-travelwise-bike-sharing-around-the-world

D - locally, this is the chicken before the egg.
The egg being a working network of bike lanes, and a trail between Guelph and Kitchener.
Build it and they will come.
But build it in the right order.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/toronto-police-considering-charges-for-cyclist-who-fatally-struck-pedestrian/article2158467/

D - I detect a double standard. Last year, a car hit a bike in a bike lane and killed the cyclist. There were no angry editorials.
But if a cyclist- also in the wrong lane ( a sidewalk), and for considerably better reasons, hits a pedestrian? Off with his head!
This is BS.
It's the war on the cyclist.
Ford is full of it - there is no war on the car.
There IS a war on the unquestioned supremacy of the car.
The car basically has a Monroe Doctrine and no other means of transportation is allowed to questions its empire-like status.

http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/531368--is-paid-parking-coming-to-uptown-waterloo
Biz is abuzz about this. A car occupies an area of about 7x15'. It is public land. Not everybody has cars. What is wrong with charging a fee? Plus this actually INCREASES business for them. Folks will show up, buy and go. Instead of parking all day, or move the car every 2 hours.
D