Loosely Assembled

Similar But Fundamentally Different: “

Ariel Schlesinger took an 80’s Italian racing bicycle and filled the tube with cooking gas. Check the valves!

found at datenform

“

(Via today and tomorrow.)

This is important.

In the fall, I witnessed a friend, biking her daughter to school, get pulled over and ticketed by a cop, for rolling through (and turning right into a bike lane!) a stop sign. It’s one of those intersections where you can see so clearly in all directions, there is actually never a reason to actually stop here (if you are on a bike). The reflective yellow clad mother was in tears, the helmeted first grader was scared, and the cop had no mercy, he was a literalist.

My main issue I have with the “equal rights, equal responsibilities” rationalization for enforcing traffic laws designed for cars onto cyclists is that CARS OFTEN KILL PEOPLE, AND BIKES DON’T.

The wording in the new proposed law explicitly cites this huge difference in potential injury and damages as the primary argument for the bill. My only concern is that it could be seen as an attempt for cyclists to simply get around the law. I hope the conversation gets statistical, looking at this as an incentive for more people to bike, for biking to be more pleasurable, more efficient, more rewarding, to feel special, yes! If Portland wants to be the model of a bike friendly city, we need to make biking as attractive as possible, and the cops won’t stop ticketing for bullshit reasons till the laws are changed. Go BTA!!

Exclusive: BTA will go for “Idaho style” stop sign law: “

The BTA hopes to make
it legal to roll through
stop signs.
(Photos © J. Maus)

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), a Portland-based non-profit with over 5,000 members statewide, has proposed a new law that would make it legal to roll through a stop sign while riding a bicycle in Oregon.

One tactic Rohde has found works well in explaining the proposal is to equate it to walking. ‘When you walk up to an intersection in a neighborhood and no one’s around,’ he said, ‘you don’t come to a complete stop. You just look around and then go if it’s safe. We’re just applying that same logic to biking.’

For the BTA, passage of the Idaho Stop Law would accomplish many things, including:

• It would make biking easier and more efficient (having to stop unnecessarily is a ‘deterrant to many people’),
• it would put an end to the long and controversial legacy of Police enforcement actions (a.k.a. ‘stings’) at stop signs so they could ‘focus more of their limited resources on high-risk intersections’,
• it would ‘eliminate the argument that cyclists are always breaking the law when they are actually acting in a very rational manner.’

(Via Bike Portland.)

This thoughtfully culled article provides a lot of support for something I have always felt, “bike helmets are basically worthless”.

A few very brief points:

• the kinds of injuries bike helmets aim to mitigate, and are tested against, (linear) are not the kinds that cause long term damage (rotational), and in some studies have been shown to convert linear injuries into rotational ones.
• studies showing helmet effectiveness are not based on primary research, but extrapolated case-control studies with potentially flawed methodologies.
• many other primary research studies indicate no reduction in head trauma.
• cycling is safer than walking (regarding head injury statistics).
• helmet laws always reduce cycling numbers, which does increase cycling danger.

So read up, think critically, follow your heart.

Oh yeah, also, add stories of your bike wrecks to This Map.

After noticing NYC’s new Ride the City site, I rediscovered bycycle.org for bike route mapping in Portland. To celebrate, I’ve created a little route from Pirate Island to Pirate Town, enjoy the summer by bike!

see many more pics here

No joke, bamboo tallbike coming soon, right here!!

update: found a few more examples: