You
can also view this issue at www.biketraffic.org/biketraffic/BT1102/
or download the PDF at www.biketraffic.org/biketraffic/BT1102.pdf.
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You're not a member? Good
god, not so loud. Someone might hear. After all, everyone's fed up with traffic
jams, tired of being afraid on the streets of their own neighborhoods, sick of
dirty air, and done with spending the vacation money on a new transmission. So
they've all joined the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation and are making a difference
(and getting discounts on maps, at bike shops, and events to boot). So carefully
now, slip off with this issue of Bike Traffic (another member benefit) and call
us or join at www.biketraffic.org.
That was close, but it's gonna be okay. |
| Cubicle-looza!
Open House at the Federation's Cube Farm, 650 S. Clark invites niche-seekers to
party like prairie dogs December 5, 5-8:30 p.m. Refreshments, music, better looking
people than at home. Wicker Park Bike Pool! Every workday, rain or shine, meet us at the Nelson Algren Fountain, intersection of Division, Ashland and Milwaukee, at 8:15 a.m. We leave at 8:30 a.m. sharp for a leisurely, law-abiding bicycle ride downtown, roughly three miles. The ride ends at the Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza, at Washington and Clark, before 9 a.m. So grab your bike, pump up your tires and join us! Deadline for the January '03 Bike Traffic is December 5. Guess it's finally safe to start delving in to those Millennium Bug rations. |
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Get our FREE Bike to Work Guide!
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Exclaim yourself!! |
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Chicagoland
Bicycle Federation At 650 S. Clark: Randy
Neufeld Pamela
Brookstein Steve
Buchtel Heather
Convey Dave
Glowacz Cathy
Haibach Nick
Jackson Anne
Nepokroeff Rosie
Newton Neile
Rissmiller Randy
Warren David
Callahan Alex
Wilson At
Chicago Department Mark
Counselman John
Greenfield Milda
Grigaite T.C.
O'Rourke |
Take the lead on calming traffic, and your neighbors will follow. Literally
By Steven Buchtel
Cars patiently pass through my neighborhood. Behind me.
Four blocks ahead of me, a boy bounces a basketball while riding a bicycle. Girls talk on the left side of the street a block closer. There's plenty of room to get by both, when I get to them. And there's plenty of time to get to them, because I'm driving the posted speed limit, 20 mph.
It's
hard to pass another car on a residential street; there ain't enough room. So
163rd St. in Markham experiences the rarest of situations: four cars, travelling
the posted speed limit. All of them slow because I slow when I pass the girls.
All of them stop when I stop to let the boy on the bike chase his ball across
the street.Traffic calming guru David Engwicht has turned behavior like mine into an organized solution to transform communities. Although Engwicht sparked much of the American interest in speed bumps and other facilities-based traffic calming measures in the early 1990s, by the late 90s Engwicht was looking for solutions that sidestepped the municipal bureaucratic hurdles, funding issues, and driver animosity that came with them. In enlisting courteous, law abiding drivers, Engwicht envisioned rolling speed bumps that, unlike the bumpy speed bumps, don't have to be built, don't cost any money, need no municipal approval or resources, and put the safety of streets directly into drivers' hands.
In the summer of 2000, Engwicht and the anti-sprawl organization Idaho Smart Growth created for Boise the first Neighborhood Pace Car Program. It had—and has, wherever it's implemented—two primary elements:
- A Pace Car Pledge, signed by each participating driver, that obliges the driver to drive less, obey all traffic laws (including speed limits), stop to let pedestrians cross, and respectfully share the road with bicyclists, pedestrians, other drivers, and the community at large
- A sign for the back window identifying the car as a Neighborhood Pace Car, usually accompanied by a funny bumper sticker, with messages like "Honk if I'm driving too fast."
And that's it. Simple, cheap, and applicable nationwide, the Neighborhood Pace Car Program has spread dramatically. Roughly a dozen towns and cities, most of them western, have implemented the program in just two years. Towns ranging in size from tiny Capitola, Ca., population 10,000, to metropolises like Salt Lake City and Atlanta now have drivers effectively escorting other traffic down their streets, literally leading by example. Local government agencies manage roughly half of the programs, advocacy or neighborhood organizations run the others. The program's cheap enough to be effective no matter who implements it.
I interviewed organizers from three of the towns featuring Neighborhood Pace Car programs: Boise, Atlanta, and Capitola. All three are managed by advocacy groups, with the municipality participating at some level; all three feel their programs are effective. But it's important to understand the context because otherwise the numbers seem pathetic: about 75 drivers have signed the Pace Car pledge in Capitola; in Boise, 550; in Atlanta, 450.
Are 450 drivers bound by oath to drive the speedlimit and wave pedestrians across going to transform Atlanta, Ga.? Of course not. But the Neighborhood Pace Car Program isn't the Sprawling Megolopolis Pace Car Program. Its focus is close-up: it aims to give control of traffic through a neighborhood to the neighborhood. "Lots of people like to write letters to the city complaining about cut-through traffic and speeding where they live," said Kimberly Mallard, who works for Peds (peds.org), a pedestrian advocacy organization that manages Neighborhood Pace Car Program in Atlanta. "The Pace Car Program teaches them that they shouldn't wait for the city, and gives them a way to solve their own traffic problems."
Jon Barrett, co-director of Idaho Smart Growth (idahosmartgrowth.org), agrees, saying that giving residents control is the program's greatest asset. "Boise citizens were frustrated at our local highway district's traffic calming efforts," said Barrett. "We wanted to demonstrate to local agencies that the citizenry was very concerned about neighborhood traffic and were willing to be part of the solution." Those neighborhoods that have embraced pace cars have safer streets and are more livable, he says.
Roger Thornburn from Capitola Walks (capitolawalks.org) thinks teaching participants and other drivers to take responsibility for their own driving habits is the most important element of the Neighborhood Pace Car Program. "Most people think that [unsafe driving] isn't 'their' responsibility, that it's an enforcement issue. This is of course logically true, but in reality, without the use of radar speed cameras or other automated devices, the police can't be everywhere."
But getting drivers to accept their responsibility for traffic problems probably limits their willingness to participate. Mallard, Barrett, and Thornburn all spoke of drivers' surprisingly stout resistance to the idea that the key to calming traffic on their streets might be their own behavior. Thornburn told the story of a neighbor who "is always complaining about the speed of the traffic on our street, including writing letters to the City and the Mayor. However, when I asked him to display a Pace Car Sticker, he refused. He said if HE drove the speed limit, he'd be rear ended!"
At the other end, some participants only hold up part of the Pace Car Pledge. Peds' Mallard told me that some retirees in Atlanta's program spend time driving their car around the neighborhood to explicitly make traffic slow behind them; so much for driving less. But most have deeper motives than self-righteousness. "Many seniors join who are trying to influence their adult kids," Mallard said. "They think that as parents their own dangerous driving habits rubbed off on their children, and they want to take responsibility for that and try to make amends."
Frankly, I'm smitten with the Neighborhood Pace Car Program, which because of its cost and its independence from local agencies seems tailor-made to small suburban communities like mine. And I love the smell of grass roots action that— because speeding and stop-sign running is so pervasive and its influence on quality of life so ignored—seems so subversive, even revolutionary, maybe even heroic.
Barrett finds beauty intrinsic to the program itself. "I think its simplicity, clarity of vision, economy, and lack of philosophical clutter is like a perfect piece of poetry. It asks [participants] to obey traffic laws, but it also asks them to be conscientious, trusting, and trustworthy citizens.
"I think it's divine."
Living Large
Cul-de-sacs, like many things French, are fattening
By Nick Jackson
"U.S. obesity rates frightening." reads an Oct. 2 headline from the Chicago Sun Times. The article refers to a recent study published in the Journal of American Medicine, which found that the alarming fattening of Americans continues.
Currently more than 60% of adults are overweight and 25% are obese. Long thought of as merely a cosmetic problem, the evidence is that too much body fat can lead to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke and other related health problems. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that every year 300,000 deaths are associated with being overweight and obese, making it second only to smoking in causing preventable deaths. The U.S. Surgeon General recognized the dangerous trend toward obesity and in 1999 labeled it an epidemic as significant as any epidemic of a deadly infectious disease like the plague or AIDS.
So what has this got to with riding your bike? Actually, a lot. Both the Surgeon General and the Center for Disease Control recognize that the design of our physical environment has played a crucial role in the growth of this epidemic. Both cite the increasing reliance on the automobile and the lack of safe places to walk and bike as preventing us from the necessary physical activity our body needs to be stay healthy.
While earlier public health campaigns focused on "fitness" and "exercise" there has been a recent campaign towards a more inclusive strategy of encouraging "physical activity." The distinction is a subtle but important one, especially for the work of organizations like the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. To many people, exercise implies specialized clothing and equipment; like scheduling a high intensity workout in an athletic gym. New evidence shows we benefit from just 30 minutes of moderate activity on most days; thus the term "physical activity," which stresses the everyday, including everything from household chores, to walking and riding your bike. The message is you don't need to wear Lycra, ride an expensive racing bike, and go on long, early morning training rides to see health benefits from biking. Moreover, the message that you've got to be a serious cyclist to get the health benefits might actually discourage people from thinking they can improve their health significantly by starting to using their bikes for some short trips they currently make by car. This question of how to get people out of their cars in significant numbers and to begin using their bicycles more is fundamental for those who care about our public health.
Part of the answer comes from overseas, as the obesity epidemic is growing worldwide. Australia's National Strategy for bicycling called for a doubling of bicycle trips within five years as part of the effort to improve the health of its citizens. One of the primary strategies identified to increase bicycling is advertising and marketing. While attempting to implement this strategy the Department of Transport in Western Australia realized that little was known about what might motivate people to use their bikes more.
In order to develop an effective campaign with measurable results, they surveyed the population to develop baseline data about attitudes toward bicycling and developed focus groups to determine what messages would result in the biggest increase in overall levels of bicycling. They also borrowed behavior modification models from the health care field to determine the different stages in people's attitudes toward bicycling. What they found was that overwhelmingly people responded best to the message that they could improve their personal health by cycling more. This worked better than arguing that by cycling they are protecting the environment or saving money.
Armed with this information they developed a coordinated marketing campaign called Cycle Instead. They created two high profile television commercials that promoted bicycling for everyday transportation as a good way to stay healthy. They also produced brochures targeted at health care professionals encouraging them to prescribe the bicycle for weight loss maintenance. Cycle Instead merchandise was developed and widely distributed through rides organized with the help of the government. Follow up surveys show that Cycle Instead has worked. There has been a significant increase in people making more trips by bike, as well as people considering biking for the first time.
The possibilities of the new alliance between bicycle advocacy and public health are exciting. Our Safe Routes to School program has partnered with Childrens Memorial Hospital through their Children's Mobility Task Force, and that's just a beginning. One need only look at the change in attitudes toward smoking to see the potential a prime time public health campaign aimed at driving less and biking more could accomplish.
Pedalgoguey
Lesson for today: Bikes are fun!
By Arline Welty
Students who commute to class while living on or off campus at schools in Chicago need safe, convenient, and affordable transportation. Cars are expensive, inaccessible, and wasteful, and public transportation can be unreliable or unsafe, depending on where you are and when. Fortunately, Dear Reader, bicycles make Chicago accessible and fun! Bicycles are socially and environmentally friendly, and are effective tools of independence for students.
Under a grant from the Chicago Department of Transportation, the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation has developed a program to encourage new university students in Chicago to choose bicycling as a form of transportation. Four universities participate in the program, including DePaul, Loyola, University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Utilizing a variety of formats including classes, workshops and other events, the Student Bicycling Program provides materials and knowledge to assist the student cyclist. Research will identify students' and university's bicycling needs regarding rules, resources, routes, infrastructure, information distribution, and existing groups and opportunities. Furthermore, an intern at each university is helping us to understand how best to meet the unique needs of the school and its students.
I first delved into cycling as a primary transportation when I couldn't bear to put another cent into my CTA card. I didn't ever own a car here, but cycling sure helps to subvert the habit of people driving with one person per huge vehicle, destroying the environment and my precious lungs.
I haggled for a lovely Schwinn 10-speed road bike, and started cleaning it, learning about it, and, most importantly, riding it. I took it on trips along the lakefront, to the Point to swim, and to explore Chicago. Then I began to take longer, more functional rides. One of my first trips was on my birthday—I rode to the Music Box Theatre from Hyde Park to see a midnight movie. After feeling the independence of getting to a place at the time I wanted, through a method I was proud of, I began to take other trips. I went to Grant Park for picnics and evening movies, to the Art Institute for summer afternoons, to the Garfield Park Conservatory, and on Critical Mass bike rides.
Riding fueled my interests in bike mechanics. I joined an all-women's cycling club and started going to bi-weekly bike workshops. They were informal and fun, and I scored some valuable bike knowledge—I have on several occasions taken apart my bike with grease and gusto only to find that it wasn't as daunting as I thought. So many times, a woman entering a bike shop for, say, brake cables instead gets a sneer and a look that she couldn't know a thing about bikes, because of her sex. BLING! WRONG! Learning about how my bike works, little by little, has provided me with invaluable confidence when in that sort of situation, and when making adjustments to my own little cycle-vehicle.
This sort of bike knowledge is great and fun, but it's also important for folks to just hop on their bikes and let the little zinger take them places they'd be going anyway. City streets are fun, with the aid of a bike map, helmet and confidence. I'm still learning a lot about my wheels, and currently my goal is to continue to set an example for using bikes to get around this city!
For more info on Student Bikes email Alex Wilson, Student Marketing Coordinator at. alex@biketraffic.org
Bee up your shorts
Fighting a Sheridan sidewalk ticket's like getting stung twice. And that's if you win
Bike
rider Jim Malls decided to grocery shop at Dominick's on Broadway on July 15.
On his return trip, heading south on Sheridan with grocery bags dangling from
his handlebars, he decided against negotiating the frightening traffic at 5900
north. Instead Malls piloted his bike up onto the sidewalk and into the wasp's
nest of eight police with their own cheering section of loitering condo owners.Malls was not famiiliar with the area, and signage before late September was by all accounts inadequate. Furthermore, automobile traffic then, as now, made a forceful argument for sidewalk riding.
Malls decided to fight. While the exact details of his case remain unavailable before his court date of November 18, one available detail made us sit up: filing for an appeals hearing cost Malls $230, just $20 shy of his fine.
Let us know if you're fighting your ticket too, or if you're not fighting (who can blame you?) but wish you could at ticket@biketraffic.org.
Lanes
Make It Official: South Damen Is Great BikingDamen's ALWAYS been a great bike street, except during rush hour when drivers doubling up could lay the squeeze on you. But with support from Alderman Latasha Thomas (second from left) and the hard work of CDOT's Mo Javadi (center), CDOT Bike Coordinator Ben Gomberg (second from right) and city Bike Program staffers T.C. O'Rourke and Beth Meier (on the ends), you've got a lane, baby, from 63rd to 71st.
Pret-A-Včlo
All hailfinallythe Ready to Ride Bike
By Randy Neufeld
There probably aren't many families that are more into bikes than ours. School, groceries, work, soccer games, birthday parties: We're on bikes for most of the places we go. Yet our fleet of bicycles leaves much to be desired. When we go places there's this flurry of trying to locate locks, keys, panniers, and helmets. If we figure out we'll be coming back after dark, there's a whole new checklist. Headlights, rear blinky lights, safety vests. You might hear my daughter yell, "I gotta go to play practice, has anyone got any AAs?" The fenders I bought my wife 6 months ago hang in the basement waiting to be installed.
One of the things that makes cars useful is that they are designed to beŠ wellŠuseful. If you can make them go you can lock them. There's always cargo space. You never have to take your seat, your safety equipment, your lights in the movie theater with you. When the road's wet, mud doesn't splash up on you.
Bikes can be like that too. Carrying racks, fenders, kickstands, bells and locks are standard equipment on most European bikes. Lights are required by law. Bikes sold in the US, aimed at a primarily recreation market, require extensive expensive accessorization to reach the same level of usefulness. Even with the rare bike shop that is prepared to be helpful with utilitarian accessories, it's a major ordeal to make your bike convenient to use.
Joe
Breeze has a new line of bikes to rescue my family and yours. He's got eleven
fully outfitted bikes including 3 that fold. Priced from $400 to $950, Breezer's
machines have all the necessities integrated into a lightweight package. When
the accessories come with the bike two good things happen. One is price. You get
the gadgets with the bike for a fraction of what it would cost you to buy them
individually. Two, the stuff fits on the bike. The fenders and rack don't have
to be jerryrigged because the accessories were designed for the bike and the bike
was designed for the accessories. Will US bike shoppers look past the suspension mountain bikes that they will never ride off-road to something that will make their cycling much safer, more convenient and comfortable? I hope so.
For Chicago area dealers of Breezer, go to breezerbikes.com. Or you could go out and buy a bell and a lock and fenders and a rear rack and a kickstand and lights and try to put them all on. By the way, I'm sick of buying and recharging batteries. Where can you buy a good generator system?
I hope this is the next big thing in bicycles. I want the family bike fleet to come ready to ride. I'm ready.
Hard Work, and Still No Play?
Cook County FPD got some 'splainin' to do
By Ed Bartunek
Chicago Area Mountain Bikers
Since 1993 CAMBr has partnered with the Cook County FPD, first to prevent the county from banning mountain biking altogether from Palos, and then to develop a workable plan to provide access to trails more challenging than Palos' crushed limestone path. We agreed to close all trails in two prime biking areas and several others located in close proximity (approximately 30 miles total) in exchange for the county's promise to allow CAMBr to build 20 or so miles of new primitive trail.
So naive! Mountain bikers actually believed the forest preserve was bargaining in good faith. Since 1993, CAMBr has been allowed to build only one new trail, "TURF1", all by hand, with no mechanical assistance and minimal support from the county and its resources. Total miles of new trail to date: less than two miles. Since the completion of that trail we have walked the proposed trails many times with the naturalists, environmentalists, and various other professionals of the forest preserve, we've attended meetings, we've made changes. Plenty of walking, talking, routing, meeting rewalking, retalking, rerouting again, then nothing. Waiting.
Don't they get it or do they not want to get it? I mean the Forest Preserve District of Cook County and some of the commissioners. It's not just me, or the Chicago Area Mt. Bikers (CAMBr), or the smaller groups that ride or use the trails, it's also the Friends of the Forest Preserve and Friends of the Parks that are frustrated with the county. Every group that has an interest in beauty of the forest preserves has their own goals and objectives. What is common is to preserve and enjoy our forest preserves the way they were intended. Mountain bikers that use the trails in the area didn't leap out of a Mountain Dew commercial; we're educated and professional, have families, own homes, pay taxes. When riding we observe the IMBA trail rules and county regulations, dress appropriately, always wear helmets and ride proactively. Naturally, there are exceptions, just as there are exceptions among equestrians, hikers and picnickers. But if punishing all for the boneheaded actions of a very few were the rule on roadways, no driver would be allowed on the Dan Ryan.
TURF1 is an excellent example of what CAMBr can do to bring quality primitive trails to an area desperately needing more trails. This trail is low cost, low maintenance and self-sustaining. It cost the forest preserve almost nothing to put in and even less to maintain. Several forest preserve personnel from Cook and DuPage counties have complimented CAMBr for our impressive and professional work.
So enough kow-towing for a measly two miles of trail! We are owed more rideable trails, we have earned the right to build more. Before November 5, call the commissioners and ask if they're ready to support expanding off-road riding opportunities in the forest preserves. You can post their answers on cambr.org's bulletin board so we all can make reasoned voting decisions. After the elections, write the commissioners, ask them to fulfill their promise of new primitive trails for mountain biking. If we can't get new trails built in Palos, we can build a new Forest Preserve District at the voting booth and through grass roots action.
RanDog sez to his
hucksters take a camera to the trails and burn some sick tricks onto film for
the Bike Town Bash Photo Contest! The
Bash is tight!
Mr. Bike Tip:
Bike Lanes &
the Door Zone (in pdf)
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Not
as tacky as an e-card. Even in the midst of economic collapse, you can still
give something thoughtful and fun: an electronic gift subscription to Bike Traffic!
Go to the Bike Traffic subscription
page. Enter the name and e-mail address of the person you like (but not enough
to spend money on) and they'll get three (3!) free ($0!) monthly issues e-mailed
to them. We promise no pics of fluffy kittens or old people without their teeth.
Although the editor's kid makes it in from time to time.
California sued by U.S. Justice Department for wanting cleaner cars. The federal government filed suit to stop California from requiring that 10% of new cars sold in the state from 2003-2008 be either hybrid or zero-emissions. The Bush Administration agreed with auto makers (and most third graders) that the pollution-reducing measure would result in more fuel-efficient cars that well exceed the minimum fuel mileage standards set by Congress. And it agreed that this is bad. (Not an opinion shared by most third graders.) The federal Clean Air Act gives California the authority to set stricter standards for air pollution than federal standards, but car makers and the Justice Department say that California can not require higher mileage cars than required by the feds, which the state's effectively doing. (By the way, did you know Subaru makes cars?) Hey Governer Davis: tell your constituents to boycott new cars. See how long auto makers push for a ruling after dealers start bitching. No non-profit has more places to hide and make out. See for yourselves the potential our office cube farm holds for discreet amore, December 5, 5-8:30 pm at our 2002 Open House, 650 S. Clark, 3rd Fl. Some say the dividers make our space more corporate, less "alive." But if you meet me in the second cubicle from the south along the east wall, we will drink fully from life's cup. I am speaking of course only to my wife. |
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Bike Traffic is published by the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, a nonprofit, volunteer advocacy organization that is improving the quality of life in Northeastern Illinois by making cycling safer, more convenient, and more fun. All material that isn't copyrighted may be reprinted. Advertising rates available on request. Managing Editor Editors Layout
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Copyright
2002, Chicagoland Bicycle Federation
650 S. Clark, Ste. 300, Chicago, Ill. 60605
Ph: 312/427-3325 Fax: 312/427-4907 E-mail:
cbf@biketraffic.org
