“When I first saw the headline, I figured either LAB had gone crazy or else I had.” – recent comment by Bike Delaware reader

Just a few years ago, Delaware’s “Bicycle Friendly State” ranking by the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) was somewhere in the 30s among the 50 states. In 2011, we were ranked 18th. Then, last year, we cracked the top 10 and started eyeing the #1 spot. (In fact, we said getting to #1 was the #1 reason to join Bike Delaware.)

This year the LAB announced its new Bicycle Friendly State rankings on May 1. Delaware had not only managed to hold on to its #10 ranking, we had shot up to #5! And the only four states ranked higher were all western states, making Delaware the most bicycle-friendly state east of the Mississippi River.

When a reader recently commented that ”when I first saw the headline, I figured either LAB had gone crazy or else I had“, we could understand.

So how do we explain our rapid ascent in the LAB rankings? Rather than just making up an answer ourselves, we thought it would just be easier to ask LAB. So we did.

According to Nicole Wynand, the manager of LAB’s Bicycle Friendly State program,

“Governor Markell’s vision to make Delaware one of the most walkable and bikable states in America has transformed the way transportation policy is developed and implemented in the First State. Delaware’s impressive financial commitment to cycling, the proposed Trails and Pathways Plan, the recent 3-ft passing and vulnerable road user laws, and the strong support by advocacy groups and citizens has catapulted Delaware past great states for cycling like Massachusetts and Wisconsin. We see a lot of potential in Delaware to move up even further in the coming years.”

So there it is. It’s actually a simple explanation:

• Two past legislative successes
• The First State Trails and Pathways Plan
• Money for cycling improvements
• Governor’s Markell’s vision
• Strong support by advocacy groups

In terms of how we keep our new #5 ranking (or improve it), we have to execute on these promises. Everything except the two legislative successes is contingent on continued funding for cycling improvements. Delaware’s Bicycle Friendly State “report card” just underlines that. And so does the same reader I quoted at the top of this article:

“Thanks for posting the actual report card. It explains how Delaware can rate so high in spite of my Delaware cycling experience being much worse than when I rode regularly in the South Bronx and other parts of New York City in the 1990s. When I first saw the headline, I figured either LAB had gone crazy or else I had. But none of the rating items is actually a measure of cycling *experience* or real conditions on the ground, so the divergence is perfectly understandable. And I realize that I live in a particularly bike unfriendly part of the state. Anyway, keep up the good work Bike Delaware! Change is slow.”

If Bike Delaware had $10,000 laying around that we had to spend tomorrow on a public service announcement, it wouldn’t be for a giant “Share the Road” billboard. But it might be for a giant billboard that said “CHANGE IS SLOW”. Probably the most difficult single idea we strive to get out to the public AND to decision-makers is just that: Change is slow. The reason that change is slow is because the primary variable that controls the quantity and quality of bicycling in Delaware is not a regulation or a sign or even public or cultural attitudes. The primary issue is the bicycle-friendliness of the physical built environment. And that’s not something we (or even Governor Markell) can snap our fingers overnight to change.

But just because the magnitude of the problem is huge doesn’t mean we can’t make Delaware more bicycle-friendly than it is right now. Indeed, every single year we have a huge opportunity in Delaware to do just that. How huge do you want? Is $400 million huge enough for you? Where does that number come from? That’s the size of DelDOT’s annual capital budget for transportation “improvements”. $400 million. Every single year.

Here are our choices. We can take every last penny of that $400 million and spend it on more / larger / better roads. Or we can just spend most of it on more / larger / better roads and some of it on other transportation modes (including cycling). Bike Delaware is fighting for the latter. The vote by the critical committee of the Delaware General Assembly on whether any of next year’s $400 million for transportation improvements will go to Bike and Pedestrian Improvements is within the next 4 weeks. Be sure to read www.bikede.org every day for the next 4 weeks to keep abreast of the latest in this fight, and for information about how you can make your voice heard for building a more walkable and bikeable Delaware.

  James Wilson is the executive director of Bike Delaware.

RELATED:

• Will the Delaware General Assembly Vote For Bike and Pedestrian Improvements This Year?

• Reason #1: Because we can make Delaware the most bicycle-friendly state in America

Pictured above:  Bike-to-Work Day 2012

This year’s Bike-to-Work Day reception will be at the H.B. Dupont Plaza from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. (across from the Central YMCA on Delaware Avenue). Snacks will be available at sponsor and bike vendor tents.

Participants: are a) entered to win a Grand Prix gift basket and b) receive a free happy hour beverage at Friday evenings Monkey Hill Time Trials in Brandywine Park!!

After work, join Mayor Williams and Bike Wilmington at the Monkey Hill Time Trials (in the Brandywine Park) at 5:30 to watch the amateur and professional bikers climb the cobblestones in search of victory!

2013 Bike-to-Work Day Supporters and Sponsors:

- TBB Cyclery (The Bike Boutique) – The Neighborhood Planning Council  – Downtown Visions – Out & About Magazine – Bike Delaware – The White Clay Bike Club – The Delaware Bike Council – The Wilmington Area Planning Council -  The City of Wilmington – The Wilmington Renaissance Corporation – The Delaware Department of Transportation – Highmark of Delaware

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Bike Wilmington staff at bikewilmington@wilmingtonde.gov

Cross-posted from Systemic Failure

Each year there are tens of thousands of fatalities on the nation’s highways. A disproportionate [number] of those are non-motorized users — bicyclists and pedestrians. Given that the NTSB has made over 13,000 safety recommendations, you might think at least some of those would relate to the dismal state of our bicycle infrastructure, right?

A search of the NTSB online database finds hardly any mention of bike safety. I could find just a single report, which simply gives general guidance that the use of bicycles should be encouraged by the DOT and Dept. of Health. It was issued in 1972 — during the Nixon Administration.

I spent over an hour trying different keywords, but could find nothing else on bikes. On the other hand, I had no trouble at all finding reports on airplanes, trains, and automobiles.

It is ironic because the NTSB was specifically created by Congress to give outside, independent advice to highway planners. State and Federal transportation agencies have been so clueless about bike planning, you would think this would have been the one area where the NTSB outside “experts” provided guidance.

Read rest of article from Systemic Failure HERE>>>

RELATED:

• Bike Delaware Archive Category: SAFETY

• 29% of Traffic Fatalities in Delaware in 2012 Were Pedestrians and Bicyclists

• Traffic Fatalities Are Declining in Delaware…Except for Pedestrians and Bicyclists

• News Journal: “Pedestrian, bicyclist deaths jump in 2012 traffic fatalities”

On May 15, 2013 at 7:00 PM, the northern Delaware 10 mile Ride of Silence will begin at the Ed Oliver Golf Club in Wilmington.  Cyclists will take to the roads in a silent procession to honor those cyclists who have been killed or injured while cycling on public roadways.  Although cyclists have a legal right to share the road with motorists, the motoring public often isn’t aware of these rights, and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves.

The Ride of Silence is a free ride that asks its cyclists to ride no faster than 10 mph, wear helmets, follow the rules of the road and remain silent during the ride. There are no sponsors and no registration fees.  The ride, which is held during National Bike Month, aims to raise the awareness of motorists, police and city officials that cyclists have a legal right to the public roadways.  The ride is also a chance to show respect for and honor the lives of those who have been killed or injured.

See the flyer for more information on the Wilmington ride.  A Ride of Silence will also be held in Sussex County.  Click here for more information.

For more information on the world-wide Ride of Silence event, click here: http ://www . rideofsilence . org/main . php.

When U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced his departure, the bicycling community asked the White House to appoint a successor with a clear commitment to multi-modal solutions to local transportation challenges. Mayor Anthony Foxx clearly checks those boxes.

Under his leadership, Charlotte has invested in light rail, a bikeway network, and a bikesharing system. The city’s Complete Streets approach to building a transportation system that serves all users is a model for the nation. He clearly understands the importance of biking and walking to creating a vibrant and economically successful community where businesses want to locate; where people want to live, raise a family and retire; and where people have a real choice of transportation modes.

Cities are the economic engine of the nation and Mayor Foxx knows firsthand the importance of providing an efficient and equitable transportation system that offers real choices, while also addressing the health and safety of its residents.

By JOHN SCHWARTZ
New York Times
May 13, 2013

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dan Mauney keeps misplacing his car.

Mr. Mauney, 42, lives in an apartment tower in this city’s Uptown neighborhood, a pedestrian-friendly quarter with new office buildings, sparkling museums and ambitious restaurants. He so seldom needs to drive that when he does go to retrieve his car in his building’s garage, he said, “I always forget where I parked it.”

…

[Jacob] Curtis, 29, moved to Charlotte in recent months to take a job as a cameraman at a local television station, and was pleased to find a home close to rail and bus lines, and that he could ride his bike to the office along a no-traffic greenway. He can shower when he gets to work, and drives to assignments in one of the station’s vans.

Read rest of article from New York Times HERE>>>

RELATED:

• 2013 Newark Bike to Work Day Press Release

• Bike to Work – Wilmington Friday, May 17

• The sharrows have landed (on Newark’s Main Street)

Newark: May 9, 2013

After a long wait, sharrows have finally landed on Main Street in Newark!

Wilmington installed the first sharrows in Delaware on its Market Street downtown in 2010 and Lewes installed some on Bay Avenue last summer. City of Newark Principal Planner (and chair of the Newark Bicycle Committee) Mike Fortner fought hard to make Newark the third place in Delaware to get sharrows. “I give a lot of credit to our City Manager, Carol Houck,” said Fortner, “who made using sharrows a top priority and directed the City to have sharrows installed on E. Main Street by Bike to Work Day.  Also, both our Public Works & Water Resources Director and Assistant Director, Roy Simonson and Tom Coleman, who oversee all city streets, are both bicyclists and understand the value of having a transportation network that incorporates bicycles and pedestrians, as well as cars.”

Wilmington Area Planning Council Principal Planner Heather Dunigan applauded Newark for its initiative. “Sharrows on Main Street were identified as the top priority bicycle project in the 2011 Newark Transportation Plan and improving bicycling on Main Street has emerged as a major concern we’ve heard during the Newark Bicycle Plan development. Along with added bike racks and completion of the Pomeroy Trail, Newark is showing a true commitment to encouraging bicycling.”

The new sharrows on Main Street are showing up (not coincidentally!) just in time for Newark’s Bike to Work Day on Tuesday (May 14, 7:30–10 a.m. on the Trabant University Center patio at the corner of Delaware and South College Avenues). Speakers will be University President Patrick Harker, Delaware Secretary of Transportation Shailen Bhatt, Sen. David Sokola, Rep. Paul Baumbach, and Newark Mayor Vance Funk III.

The “sharrow” (or “shared lane”) pavement marking is a relatively recent pavement marking that was introduced a few years back into the manual of allowed pavement markings. Main Street in Newark is a particularly compelling place for the use of this new pavement marking. Main Street and Delaware Street are a pair of one-way streets. But Main Street has parallel parking and lacks sufficient width for a bike lane. The sharrow assists bicyclists in this situation by indicating that bicyclists should “take the lane” (and avoid bicycling in the “door zone“). Delaware Avenue, meanwhile, sees large numbers of “wrong-way” bicyclists who are not using Main Street to travel west. Main Street is the economic heart of Newark, a mixed land use regional center with retail and restaurants, high-density residential and offices.  In 2011, Newark’s Main Street was selected for the prestigious “Great American Main Street Award” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

While most motor vehicle traffic on Main Street is, unfortunately, just through traffic without any local destination, the same is not true of bicyclists. If you see a bicyclist on Main Street, the odds are that she has a destination there, whether it’s a restaurant, store or bank. So encouraging even more bicycling on Main Street just makes good business sense.

Way to go, Newark!

  James Wilson is the executive director of Bike Delaware.

RELATED:

• Reason #3: Because streets are not roads

• “Four Solid Uses For Sharrows”

• A lesson in door zone avoidance

• Delaware’s 1st Sharrows!

• Pomeroy Trail Opens in Newark

• Newark achieves LAB’s Bronze Bicycle-Friendly Communities award!

A Greenway Network Vision for Metro Boston

by Peter Furth, David Loutzenheiser, Steven Miller and Peyman Noursalehi

Urban greenways are attractive for walking and especially for bicycling because they offer a pleasant and near-traffic-free environment in an area with high population density and rich with destinations. Unfortunately, urban greenways are often not connected to one another, requiring cyclists to negotiate heavy traffic getting from one greenway to another and thus diminishing their utility. In the Boston region, a planning and visioning effort is underway to promote the vision of a network of connected greenways offering continuous pleasant, low-stress routes by bicycle or by foot between origins and destinations across the urban area. The network plan emphasizes both connecting existing greenways and creating new greenways. Opportunities for new greenway corridors are described, including radical road diets that remove two lanes from overly-wide roads in order to create parkland strips that can host a shared use path.

Greenway network planning involves balancing the desire to increase the network’s reach and connectivity by adding segments against the need to preserve the integrity of the “greenway” brand. We show that using strict criteria that emphasize low traffic stress, an extensive and dense greenway network is feasible using creative engineering solutions such as road diets and cycle tracks. Evaluation measures examine the quality, reach, geographic distribution, and connectivity of the network.

Read the rest of the paper HERE>>>

RELATED:

• Delaware General Assembly calls for the creation of “interconnected networks of walkways and bikeways”

• First State Trails and Pathways Initiative

• Will the Delaware General Assembly Vote For Bike and Pedestrian Improvements This Year?

A Bike Delaware Archive note: This article has been categorized in the following Archive category:

• Bikeway Networks

Saturday, September 14:  3^RD ANNUAL - BIKE TO THE BITTER END

Join the Camp Arrowhead Alumni association for ride loops of 5, 20 and 35  riding through the countryside between Angola and Milton.  Registration fees are $35 for riders 18 and up, and $20 for riders 7-17years.  Fees include a post ride lunch and the afternoon use of the camp beach. (Non rider lunch fee is $15)  Registration can be completed at the ride website, and additional information can be obtained from our ride coordinator Nancy Lafontaine at seebreezelady2@aol.com.