commuting hazards continued

[Geonz]

... okay, *one* more...
http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/0630/bicycling.php

This is an article from Seattle - which has a lot of the same issues our little town does. In a nutshell:

Seattle's bike-friendly reputation isn't everything it's cracked up to be. "I think that it probably got that reputation because people look at things like the Burke- Gilman trail or Green Lake and think, 'Oh, there's bike paths,' because that's what the city is promoting, but the reality of actually commuting is different," he says. "It's one thing for people like myself who are avid bicyclists, but certainly somebody who doesn't bike much and thinks it might be a new way to commute, they might find it frightening. Especially downtown."

A lot of these bottlenecks and dysfunctions have solutions, but they require investment on the part of local government. And for the most part, local government, both at the county and city levels, has tended to treat the bicycle infrastructure more as a boutique recreational amenity, with specialized paths being built here and there, rather than a functioning segment of a regional commuter-transit system."

(going to work on FLASH now...)

[tulip]

Thanks for all the info AND enthusiasm, Geonz. Washington, DC is actually a great place for bike commuting, and alot of folks do it. Once when I was a bit bored on my commute, I counted all the bike commuters I saw. I have a reverse commute, so most are going the other way. I counted 120 just in my one little hour. That was gratifying.

I'm going to do some looking into organizations and such. Let's keep the conversation going!

tulip

[mimitabby]

Thanks for the great Article!! this gives me, an urban Seattle bicyclist hope!

[Geonz]

Let the paper know! Write a letter, send an email ;-) If it gets a lot of response, it'll be like those fleas... keep 'em scratchin...

GOING BACK TO MY HOMEWORK NOW, NO THANKS TO NY TMES AND FLOYD STUFF...

[tulip]

Today my commute went down 9th Street NW. One lane (of the about 4--all going one direction) is marked in huge white letters on the pavement "BIKES AND BUSSES ONLY) with the appropriate bike and bus symbols. Cars always drive in this lane, and there's nary a traffic cop to enforce the lane restriction (grrrr)

So today, I took the lane, and it felt great! I got a few honks and at least one "salute", which I deftly tossed back (I shouldn't do that, it just makes people madder). The more cyclists stake their claim to what is theirs (the road), the more acceptable it will be to drivers. Well, that's the theory at least.

[Geonz]

I tend to give an inane non-salute wave back, which I realize may invite trouble, too, since it projects a "this may be a vulnerable human" visage instead of my usual "unpredictably eccentric" (or "oh, that's just Sue") one. The finger might actually send a better message (sounds like a doctoral dissertation! Let's do the research...)
I still can almost sense the "oh! a bicycle is there!" perception sometimes , and I hope that that gets logged into the memory and the next intersection that person is just a little more likely to recognize a bicycle image just a little sooner. (It's how things work in my brain.)