DC cyclists: Fines for skipping red lights coming

We all knew that it was coming. Just over a week ago, I was stopped for the first time after having cycled through a red light (that was just about to change). The first thing I was told is that it is a $25 for each time you are caught skipping a red light. It sets off warning signs when the first reason we are given for obeying a law is that we will be punished. Anyway, I decided to see how obeying car traffic rules would be over the last week. There are some positive sides - I didn't risk a car coming the other way and hitting me. So that is nice. But thanks some little things I like to call 'eyes' I rarely seem to have this problem anyway. On balance, I felt a lot less safe. Here is why:

1. I couldn't get away from traffic at the lights by going a little before them. More dangerous for me and more annoying for them. It is especially scary when cars need to turn right soon after lights and cut right in front or right behind you.

2. Turning left at lights became quite dangerous. I couldn't turn when I spotted a clear safe moment but rather I found myself in the middle of the road with cars coming in both directions. I tried to counter this at times by making myself big and blocking a large part of the lane. Not something all cars appreciated.

3. I used the pavement more. I tend to stay off the pavement when I can but I started to use it more when I saw one of the above coming up.

Possibly I can adapt to all of these things and my behaviour should be taken with a pinch of salt. It is difficult to analyse your own behaviour. It reminds me a little of an economist friend who decided to record each day how many cigarettes he smoked along with information such as did he drink? was he bored? stressed? have an argument?

Still, I am going to keep watching.

For those interested, it was just north of Du Pont Circle. I don't think they are giving fines yet but want the word to be spread that they would start some time soon. So there we go. I am helping the word get out.

Safe cycling!

Should cyclists obey the same rules as car drivers?

I have thought a little about this over the last few years and especially since a pedestrian kindly pointed out that "it's red for you too" as I glided perfectly safely though a red like. He was, as I was reminded shortly afterwards, correct.

But should cyclists and drivers be expected to follow the same rules? Henry Graber at the Atlantic Cities thinks that we should Never Fine Cyclists. I don't know if 'never' is the right way to think about it but I agree that there is no reason why bikes and cars should be treated equally.

Fines exist for cars because they put other people and property in danger. The fine is higher the more the (perceived) risk of a manoeuvre has been. The average car weighs about 1.5 tonnes in Europe. You can do a lot more damage with that than with a bike that weighs a few kilos. It also takes longer to stop in a car than on a bike and you can go faster. This makes both the likelihood of doing harm and the level of potential harm higher with a car. It is perfectly reasonable to have different standards. Just like the fines are higher for not following gun rules than for not following knife rules.

Then there are moments that happen quite regularly when it is actually safer if cyclists do not obey rules. While this can also be true for cars (speed to get away from a driver weaving all over the lane), it is likely to be less so because the rules were made for car safety, not bike safety. One nice example of this is crossing an empty junction to avoid a line of stressed rush-hour drivers waiting at the light. Getting ahead of them gets you out of their way. This is especially important on one junction on my morning commute, after which cars slip onto a lane to go right. With the bike lane on the right and cars cutting across lanes, this is an accident waiting to happen. I don't mind admitting that I am happy when I have got though that.

If rules were made for cyclists that were more appropriate then we could enforce those. In the last example, it would mean allowing cyclists to cross a junction earlier than cars. This already happens for pedestrians (in DC at least).

There are other reasons to make rules easier for cyclists. When one person chooses to drive, there is a cost for the community. If we favour cyclists, we would encourage people to cycle rather than drive, reducing the social cost. My bicycle pollutes your children's air less than your car does. It takes up less space, is more social, keeps me fitter (reducing medical costs and making me much nicer to look at :)  ), releases less carbon dioxide and looks cooler than your car (yes, seriously). Society should encourage me to ride.

So when those rules for bikes are designed, they should consider the benefits of biking and the lower risks and design the rules accordingly.

Why I love my Brompton

1. Isn't she a beauty?

2. The greenness of a bike combined with the practicality of having the option to take a cab after a few beers.

- fits easily in the boot of a cab and metro

3. Safe: solidly (hand-)made

4. Folds up wonderfully small and is carry-able

5. It takes under 30 seconds to fold and unfold

6. The gearing is *amazing*. You can comfortably get up steep hills but you can build up impressive speeds on straight stretches of road. (Mine has six gears)

7. Loads of fantastic little features like the bag that clips on the front (and looks professional enough when slung over the shoulder), the nicely tucked away pump, the foldaway pedal, the little bag it packs away into.

8. Much easier to duck onto and cycle on pavements than normal bikes because it is smaller and less disturbing for pedestrians. 


9. Carry it in to restaurants/bars - no need to search for a place to lock it up and then worry about it getting stolen. Even better, the people who give snide remarks about it being a 'children's bike' look like the ones who would be most likely to steal it.

10. There is a World Championship! (see the video)

Learn more about Bromptons HERE.

You can buy them in DC from Bicycle Space.

Amazing new cyclewear

The Sporty Supaheroe* cycle jacket has "intelligent" sensors and dynamic LEDs meaning that it could glow bright red at the back when the cyclist is breaking. The range should be released later this year by the utopeproject. I want one! (HT: SS)

*The name is not my fault

ReCYCLE in Lesotho

Bikes are really taking off in Africa! Global Cycle Solutions are doing a great job making them a 'vehicle of transformation' in Tanzania, you can join the Zambia bike challenge, or the Uganda bike challenge, there is a possibility of manufacturing bikes for the first time in Africa. 

Just posted by the wonderful folk at Kick4Life Lesotho is this great little video on their program using bikes to collect rubbish and recycle it: ReCYCLE.

Bikes to be manufactured in Africa

"Across Africa they are used to carry infants, lug sacks of grain and ferry boxes of vegetables and crates of chickens to and from markets. In Rwanda, people careen down hills astride homemade wooden versions bereft of brakes. The bicycle is a part of everyday life for many Africans. Yet, despite demand, there is no mass-market African bicycle manufacturer."

Read the rest of the article HERE (gated - create a free FT account to read)

Britain's progress (and lack of) in cycling

HERE is a great Guardian Focus podcast on cycling in the UK. Part of the great Bike Podcast they do. 

With the caveat that I do not live or cycle in London, I agree with some of the things discussed but disagree with others. Not enough is invested in cycling especially considering the economic benefits of cycling and the billions lost every year because of congestion. I think they have been too harsh on Boris Johnson - although it is not perfect, plenty of progress seems to have been made in London on cycling. A lot more needs to be done though. London's Blue Lanes are clearly insufficient but I disagree that they do nothing - I think that they are likely to raise awareness and change attitudes slowly. I am concerned however at the lack of resources used for cycling when funds are found for other transport. I was interested to discover that Tony Blair revealed in his memoirs that the closest any of his governments came to collapse was when there were queues at the petrol pump (I have not read it). It shows the power of the car lobby. I was happy to see that petrol prices in the UK are probably now about two thirds to three quarters of the full cost of humanity. They still need to rise further.

A couple of cool bike things

1. Strava. I used it for the first time today. Very cool app for smartphones keeps track of cycling times and distances, plots it all on maps and shows you the main climbs. No need for a special computer any more! (HT: SS)


2. Phones use a lot of battery especially if you are running GPS using strava. So what you need is a way to charge your phone using your bike. Enter Global Cycle Solutions. They design products that can improve lives in developing countries using bikes and I love them. You can buy your own from their website too!





3. Buy some bicycle art from this etsy store. Available in different sizes.

How biking can save cities billions of dollars in health expenses

Nearly 70 percent of Americans' car trips are less than two miles long. It's a no-brainer that biking instead of driving to take care of these trips is a great way to get exercise while cutting air pollution. While we've always assumed that the cumulative effect of many individuals making that choice would be longer, healthier lives and cleaner air in our cities, a recent scientific study put some rigor to our hypotheses and proved us right.

Read the full article HERE.

HT: MM

Bike-sharing in Brașov, Romania

You have to leave some form of ID though and return the bike to the same place. A start though.

Istanbul bike lane Fail

A good effort though:

 

(the bus is parked - it seems you should cycle straight into the doors)

It reminds me of this NYC video:

Green car sharing

I was wandering around the streets of our fine European capital the other day and I snapped a photo of these great zencars:

It's a carsharing scheme like zipcar but the cars are all electric. How great is that?! You can see that the cars are plugged in and charging in the photo*. Electric carsharing is coming soon to Paris through Autolib (see also THIS interesting article in the Economist about the man responsible). 

These are all a bit like the bike-sharing schemes like Capital Bikeshare (in DC), Vélib (in Paris), Boris bikes (in London - yes not the official site, but I like this better), and, happily, Mejor en Bici in Buenos Aires.

It would be great if ways to encourage urbanites in polluted developing country cities to use electric cars as an alternative to petrol ones could be found. 

*As an aside, note the bits of Berlin Wall in the background on Place du Luxembourg.

Bike transport in the developed and developing world

Bike sharing around the world

Rent an electronic bike in London

Bikes made from bamboo in Zambia (HT: MM)  


Speaking of Zambia - a free and fair election in which the incumbent loses and goes peacefully. Could Banda be a candidate for the Mo Ibrahim Prize?