Bike Lane FAIL: Door Prize in Mountain View

Remember those funky arcade games where you slid in tokens to win prizes by rolling a ball up a ramp or squirting a water pistol into a clown’s mouth? My favorite was Whac-A-Mole where you had to guess which hole the little rodent would pop out of and quickly hit it with a mallet. Guessing which door in a line of parked cars will pop open and quickly dodging it so you don’t get hit? That’s not nearly as much fun.

Location: Rengstoff Avenue near Montecito Avenue, Mountain View, California, USA.

Transportation planners, don’t build bike lanes like this! Narrow bike lanes next to cars are traps for new riders and savvy cyclists who ride outside the bike lane to stay out of the door zone make motorists really angry.

 

Bike Lane SUCCESS! Newly Grateful in San José

Last week, after I posted the photo of the dangerous rain grate on Bike Lane FAIL, I tweeted to the folks in charge: “@SJ_Bikeshare The rain grate on SB Coleman at Airport Blvd is very dangerous old style. Would you please replace it? http://wp.me/p1sDc4-3l6″. I expected a response, but I wasn’t holding my breath.

Lo and behold, I got a tweet in return yesterday: “Hey @ladyfleur, guess what…. New bike friendly drainage grate! http://pic.twitter.com/en6wUOKm”. After work I rode down to check it out myself. Works great. Thank you, Jesse Quiron, John Brazil and the San Jose DOT for the blazing fast response fixing this road hazard!

Location: Coleman Avenue at Airport Blvd, San Jose, California, USA. Special thanks to the folks at the City of San José Department of Transportation Bicycle and Pedestrian Program for resolving this problem so quickly.

 

Bike Lane FAIL: Grateful to Not Be Dead in San José

There’s a reason things go out of fashion. Often they just don’t work, and in some cases they’re downright painful. This dangerous style of rain grate thankfully went of of fashion in most cities in the late 1970s along with bell bottoms, tie-dye and scraggly long hair. Too bad this bike trap is still seen on the streets of San Jose.

If you don’t know better, the rain grate might not seem like a problem.

But even with my relatively wide city tires, it’s a wheel trap.

The grates further down road are safer. Why did they use an old style one?

Location: Coleman Avenue at Airport Blvd, San Jose, California, USA. Special thanks to Mark Sauerwald for alerting me to this bike lane’s dangerous rain grate.

 

Bike Lane FAIL: Cowper Street in Palo Alto

If it’s a bike lane, then why are cars parked in it? If it’s legal to park (per the signs on the lamp posts) then why is it marked as a bike lane? Even the long-term bike folks in Palo Alto can’t fully explain the history of these decades-old bike lanes. Either the parked cars or the bike lane have to go. Sadly, I know which one will.

Location: Cowper Street near Loma Verde Avenue in Palo Alto, California, USA

 

Bike Lane FAIL: Door Zone Sharrows in San Jose

The bike route to the hospital is striped with good intentions. Bike lanes that suddenly disappear mid-block. The bike path that blindly crosses a busy road. Sharrows that guide you perfectly into the door zone. Like an ugly sweater from your Aunt Edna, you know they’re trying to please you. But it’s something you really can’t use.

Location: North 7th Street just north of Taylor Street in San Jose, California

What are Sharrows? “Shared Roadway Bicycle Markings are intended to help bicyclists position themselves away from parked cars to avoid being struck by suddenly opened car doors, and to alert other road users to expect bicyclists to occupy travel lanes.” That’s the exact opposite of what these sharrows are doing.

 

Golden Wheels of Change

“From the air, streets are the largest public space in our cities. Are streets for cars or can they build community?” So began Gil Peñalosa, the keynote speaker at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s Golden Wheel Awards. “As the city’s most valuable asset, officials must choose: streets for cars or streets for people.”

I had read how Gil Peñalosa and other city officials in Bogotá, Colombia had improved the lives of residents by building walking and bicycling paths, even in neighborhoods without paved streets. “It’s not a matter of money, it’s a matter of priorities,” he said. So I had to attend the Golden Wheel awards ceremony to hear him speak. And how could I resist an opportunity to dress up and ride my bike, and hang out with like-minded bicyclists?

So Dick and I hopped on the baby bullet Caltrain and rode two short miles across the heart of San Francisco to the War Memorial Opera House for our first Golden Wheel Awards benefit. We had never ridden in San Francisco’s rush hour traffic before. But because of the bike lanes that the SFBC lobbied the city hard to create, we arrived comfortably and on time. At the War Memorial, volunteers valet parked our bikes right out front.

Even though we don’t live in San Francisco, Dick and I have been members of the SFBC for years. I’ve always admired their belief that cycling should be for everyone from 8 to 80, and appreciated their hard work to make it happen. And it shows. Twenty years ago when they held their first Golden Wheels Awards, the award was given to a downtown building owner who put a single bike rack in their garage.

This year they honored BOMA, the city’s building managers’ association, who wholeheartedly supported legislation that prohibits building owners from banning bicycles from their buildings, as well as Lower 24th Street Merchants & Neighbors Association for their support of the Sunday Streets program. And five of the San Francisco’s 11 supervisors attended the Golden Awards event. That’s progress.

In his address, Peñalosa stated that cities should be built primarily around pedestrians, but very close to the pedestrians are cyclists. To him, cycling is just a more efficient way of walking. “When we build bicycle infrastructure, it shows that a citizen on a $30 bicycle is equally as important to one in a $30,000 car.”

What does “streets for people” mean to you? Would you be willing to drive slower on city streets so that others can walk or ride more comfortably? Would you be willing to ride your bicycle slower in busy pedestrian areas?

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Leaving on a Jet Plane (with Help from My Bike)

Today is Bike to Work Day for the San Francisco Bay Area. For new bike commuters, it may be a challenge: planning a good route, deciding what to wear and what to carry, finding secure parking for their bike and a place to clean up. As a daily bike commuter, I have the basics down, so I push myself with new challenges: commuting in a dress suit, grocery shopping at Costco, and riding in the big city, in the rain and really late at night. It keeps things interesting for me.

Last week I faced with a new challenge: riding to the airport for an overnight business trip. The flight wasn’t terribly early, the airport is right across the freeway from my office, and I knew there was a bike rack in the garage and a low-traffic way of getting there. Yet I was nervous. Could I carry my luggage on my bike? Would my bike be safe overnight? Would I be safe riding down the bike trail and catching the train the next night?

For the luggage, I realized that I could pack everything I needed in a small messenger bag. For the theft issue, I decided that the rack was in a visible spot near the entrance and I would ride my least valuable bike and take the risk. So I took the train like I do every day, rode my bike to San Jose Airport and caught a flight to Seattle.

The next evening I flew back to San Jose, where I found my bike exactly where I left it. But instead of riding down the trail that night, Dick picked me up at the airport. Some challenges are not worth the risk.

What challenges do you face in riding for transportation? Which ones have you overcome?

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The Most Bicycle Friendly City in America

When a city aspires to be “the most bicycle friendly city in America” and it’s not Portland, Minneapolis or San Francisco, you have to check it out. Since I was down in Southern California for a professional conference, Dick and I stayed over for the weekend in Long Beach to see if there was a glimmer of reality behind this lofty goal. And the beach is always fun in the off-season.

Knowing little about Long Beach, we chose a hotel located on the waterfront with a bike path connecting it to downtown and hoped for the best. When the waiter at the hotel restaurant casually mentioned how nice the weather was on his commute along the beach, I knew we had hit the jackpot. The hotel rented bikes at $25/day, but waiter Kelly declared them junk and recommended renting from the Bikestation instead. That’s service.

The next morning we walked the mile to the Bikestation Long Beach, the founding location of 24/7 facilities for storing and repairing bikes, plus lockers and showers for bike commuters in a half dozen cities, including nearby Palo Alto. It only took a few minutes before the gruff mechanic warmed to us, gave us a military discount on a couple of city bikes (33%!) and sent us off with brunch recommendations that I’m sure waiter Kelly would not have approved of.

Colorful characters on bikes, whimsical bike racks and a cool new vintage bike shop. Well-designed separated bike lanes with bike-only signals, beach paths, river paths and patient, friendly motorists. Long Beach has the makings of a great bicycle-friendly city. Will it be the most friendly in America? Perhaps, but only if Portland, Minneapolis and San Francisco don’t find out.

What makes a city bicycle friendly to you? If you could do one thing to make your city more bicycle friendly, what would it be?

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No Need to Fight City Hall

If you live or work in San Francisco, you should know that Supervisor John Avalos and other supervisors are watching your back, that is, your bike. Last fall, he proposed legislation that would require building owners to allow bicycles in office buildings where there’s no secure bike parking. I was so stoked I wrote about my reserved parking at the office and why indoor bike parking was important for me.

Last Thursday the legislation went to the San Francisco Public Safety Committee for approval. The meeting allowed for public comments, so the folks at the SF Bike Coalition (who had read my blog) asked me to come up to San Francisco City Hall and give my perspective on workplace bike parking. What an honor!

Built in 1915 to replace the original city hall destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, San Francisco City Hall is a grand dame with a storied past. In 1923, President Warren Harding’s body lay in state under its rotunda following his death in San Francisco. In 1954, Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe were married at City Hall. In 1978, Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated there by former Supervisor Dan White. And in one short month in early 2004, 4,000 same-sex couples were married at City Hall after a directive by newly-elected Mayor Gavin Newsom, until the courts shut them down.

With its grand history, I was excited and a little nervous to to speak in the lavishly paneled room, especially on camera (I start speaking at the 14 minutes mark). My points were simple: without a safe place to store my bike from theft and damage I wouldn’t commute to work, bringing bikes inside doesn’t damage the building and making bicycles more visible in the workplace encourages more people to ride.

It turned out that no one in the room needed convincing–no one spoke against it. BOMA, the city’s organization for building managers, supported the legislation since most of their members already provide indoor parking. Supervisor Eric Mar wanted to know how it compared with New York City’s similar regulations. The supervisors unanimously voted YES, and asked if they could do more. That was easy.

Have you ever geared up to fight for bicycle rights only to find the person or group said yes immediately?

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We Are Not Roadkill

I was a little nervous this morning when I pedaled to the Hall of Justice from the San Jose Caltrain station. The case of the People vs Schiro was finally going to trial nearly three years after a hit-and-run collision left Ashleigh Nelson bleeding and convulsing on the side of the road. I was nervous because I’d never been in a courtroom and didn’t know the protocol–who would have guessed that helmets aren’t allowed? But I was mostly nervous about how I would react to Ashleigh being cross-examined by Schiro’s attorney.

I had heard details of the collision through my network of cyclists and through the local news media, including how her boyfriend Dave and the cycling community rallied to find Schiro’s car, how a woman who worked for Schiro was appalled by his behavior and helped with a sting operation, and how Schiro and his attorney had tried various creative strategies to keep the convicted drunk driver out of jail.

Still, I felt like I had walked into a suspense movie an hour late. Why was Schiro’s attorney asking Ashleigh what position she usually keeps her hands on the handlebars? Why was he pressing her to calculate the exact date a photo was taken? Ashleigh got emotional on the stand: “I can’t answer these questions. My brain doesn’t work the way it used to.” She teared up and the judge called a recess.

I needed the recess too. It was painful for me and I wasn’t on the stand. The sad fact of being the victim of a traumatic head injury is that you probably won’t remember much. That makes it really hard to defend yourself, much less help in the conviction of your assailant. And as a cyclist, I couldn’t help but put myself in her position. It could have happened to me. I’ve ridden that road many times before and I ride similar ones every week.

I would say it could have happened to my husband, except that it actually did. In 1972 my husband was riding with his girlfriend on Uvas Road, headed home to Gilroy from a camping trip. He remembers hearing the car’s screeching tires long before it careened past them. Further down the road, they saw the car was pulled over on the shoulder. As they passed, the middle-aged driver scolded Dick, “You were in the middle of the road. You scared my wife.” Dick responded with a flat “I was on the shoulder.” As he rode away, the man yelled, “You do that again and I’ll run you off the road!”

It was no idle threat. Minutes later, the man drove past Dick’s girlfriend and swerved onto the shoulder and hit Dick, breaking both bones in his lower left leg and sending him flying. Dick landed on his head and spent a month in the hospital for the massive head injury. He came close to losing his leg and losing his life.

His girlfriend gave a description of the car and the driver to the police. But without a license plate number, they had no interest in investigating. No case was opened, no one was interviewed, no one was detained, no one was tried, and no one was convicted. It probably didn’t help that Dick had long hair and muttonchop sideburns.

So it’s no surprise that I take road violence seriously, as do most cyclists. Schiro’s attorney accused the cycling community of being a “lynch mob”, but a lynch mob wouldn’t have waited three years for justice. We are tired of cyclists being run down and left to die on the side of the road with little success in getting killers convicted. Until the legal system can protect us without our help, we will stand up for our rights and will work to help victims get justice. We are not roadkill. We are people.

Have you been subjected to road violence on your bike? Have you been verbally threatened, had something thrown at you, or worse? How did you react?

One more thing: Do you find today’s Pearls Before Swine as inappropriate as I do?