When the political pressure to paint stripes trumps logic and engineering best practice

 Andy Cline posted the picture below on his Carbon Trace site in Springfield, MO, showing some really bad traffic engineering just foisted on bicyclists. This bike lane egregiously violates AASHTO guidelines by including the gutter pan in the bike lane space. This forces cyclists to ride on the gutter pan seam while being squeezed into a very poor ("gutter bunny") lane position, encouraging motorists to think there is enough space for a cyclist and motorist to be riding side by side. This will undoubtedly be sold as making cycling "safer" and "more attractive" and making Springfield more "bicycle-friendly".

Cherry St. in Springfield, MO. The AASHTO minimum bike lane width is 5 feet to the curb face, with a minimum of 3 feet of smooth pavement to the left of the gutterpan seam**
 Photo showing actual dimensions here.

“The keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink. Doublethink is basically the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

— Part II, Chapter IX — The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism” (George Orwell--1984)

The job of any PE or PTOE should be "first, do no harm". Unless we take an Orwellian view of bicycling infrastructure, believing that designs incongruous with bicycling best practice become advisable if you "hold two contradictory beliefs...simultaneously".  What I find acridly humorous is that the point of the sharrow lines up with the hazardous gutter pan lip. Fall down and get hurt---here.

Thankfully, I don't think the picture above would ever make it past the laugh test here.  But unfortunate results can creep in even when accepted designs are installed without adequate analysis of specific conditions. Three recent crashes on Diamond between Orange/Sandia and West Road this year come to mind, as bike lanes were added to areas rife with right turning traffic, hence right hooks. Another example of the law of unintended consequences.

**19.2 Bicycle Lane Widths and Construction Standards
Bicycle lanes serve the needs of all types of cyclists in urban and suburban areas, providing them with their own travel lane on the street surface. The minimum width of a bike lane should be 1.5 meters (5 feet) against a curb or adjacent to a parking lane. On streets where the bike lane is adjacent to the curb and the curb includes a 1-foot to 2-foot gutter pan, bike lanes should be a minimum of 4 feet wide (width does not include the gutter pan, since bicyclists are typically unable to use this space). http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/PED_BIKE/univcourse/pdf/swless19.pdf

Memori Hardwick gets the max

Memori Hardwick, who ran down cyclist Matt Trujillo in Albuquerque in 2011 while running a red light as she was high and on her way to buy methamphetamine (per police and media reports), was sentenced to 9 years in jail today, the max allowed by law, in Judge Ross Sanchez' courtroom. Matt died of his injuries after spending two weeks in a coma. If you want details to turn your stomach, read about it at KOB.

According to the Albuquerque Journal, Hardwick's sentence broke down to "...six years for vehicular homicide and 18 months for possession of a controlled substance, to be served together, plus three years for leaving the scene of an accident with great bodily harm or death. She will be referred to Delancey Street during her parole for inpatient treatment for substance abuse."

Matt was about to be related to Los Alamos cyclist and scientist Joe Martz as an in-law had his life not been senselessly cut short. Nine years won't bring back a life. I hope it changes Memori for the better, and sends a clear signal to others: Thou shalt not kill.

Memori led a dark and troubled life, to be sure, according to this more recent piece in the Journal. She has to pay the price for this horrific act but indeed, we have to be our brother's keeper and keep things from ever getting so dark. How one does that, I really don't know.

Matt Trujillo's Ghost Bike, from the KOB story

The Lance doping fiasco: how far back should we go?

 Read this article by Bill Strickland while making breakfast, and penned the following response to Bicycling.

 Editor, Bicycling

Please convey my thanks to Bill Strickland for his nuanced and complex analysis of the Armstrong case in the October issue (gasp--where did the summer go??) As usual, Bill gets the yellow jersey for journalism.

Those expecting a black or white outcome of the doping vs. Armstrong investigation have long suffered from naivete. Doping has been part of the sport since as far back as the six-day races of a century ago. How far back should we censure and strip riders of their wins and fame? Shall we take down Tom Simpson's granite memorial on Mount Ventoux? Tom was, after all, a doper!

One also has to ask how modern, high tech doping could be so well established if it is only the riders who are complicit. The riders are not sinless, but "performance enhancement" has been as integral to modern pro cycling as high tech frames and big corporate money. Which riders do we throw under the bus to offer penance for the pro race industry as a whole?

As Bill so clearly points out, the problems of doping will only become more complex in a modern age of nanotechnology and genetic engineering. I have no idea how we will manage such technologies or what we, in the future, will call "clean racing". Meanwhile, I agree with Bill: Lance was the best Tour de France rider in his era; even the most negative outcome of this case will not erase the memories of him riding away from his adversaries to win those jerseys. Giving his jerseys to anyone else, or even just taking them away, would result in a cure worse than the doping disease, which will take more than sanctioning Armstrong to cure.

Later addenum: Thank you, Anon, for pointing out Padraig's carefully and comprehensively written essay ("Keeping Score") in Red Kite Prayer.

And yet a later addenum from the excellent Red Kite Prayer:

Forgoing Judgement.
"...Could it ever have been any other way, with the fall of Armstrong? It seems cycling has been on a collision course with this moment for the better part of its history. From riders dosing up with brandy in the early days, to the scourge of amphetamines, to modern day blood doping, top level racers have always pushed beyond the rules in search of an advantage...."

Granite Memorial to Tom Simpson on Mount Ventoux

Is New Mexico dropping to 50th in LAB Rankings?

From a post sent by Craig Degenhardt, past president of BikeABQ, to the BikeABQ e-list, in response to a query on cycling accommodation on the proposed Paseo del Norte/I-25 interchange.

From :	Black Tie Bicyclist   Date :  Wed, 29 Aug 2012 08:24:37 -0700 (PDT)
To :	Khalil   [+], BikeABQ BikeABQ  [+]
Subject :	Re: [bikeabq] Urgent CALL TO ARMS: Open House on the Paseo Del Norte/I-25 Interchange Reconstruction Project

The New Mexico State Department of Transportation removed from office the State Bike Ped Coordinator and disbanded the New Mexico State Bicycle Pedestrian Equestrian Advisory Board.

 Jennifer Buntz (Duke City Wheelmen) adds this:

Between George Person and Tammy Schurr and myself, we have been going to NMDOT Commission meetings – 3 of the past 4.  We have been monitoring the status of the NMDOT policy that covers the BPE (bicycle, pedestrian and equestrian) advisory committee.  There was a new policy passed at the meeting in July, although I don’t know when the implementation of that policy, i.e., meetings of an advisory committee, will happen.  But the policy does mandate a BPE committee.  As far as having an NMDOT employee who is the BPE coordinator, the person who previously held that position was let-go and I have no information about hiring a replacement.  I’m not sure what is called for in the current federal transportation bill, MAP21.

One of the issues around BPE and everything else that has to do with funding projects that are for “alternative road users” is that MAP21 does not mandate funding of what use to be called “transportation enhancements’ or TEs.  Now they are “transportation alternatives” (TAs) and funding them is at States' discretion.  There is a mandate for taking public input, but I think it is rather vague in MAP21.  If TA expenditures are not strongly called for by citizens, then much of the funding for them can be diverted under MAP21 provisions, up to 2/3rds I think, without any justification (it’s all about States' rights you know).

DOTs around the country are quite busy figuring out what MAP21 means and NMDOT is no different.  Advocates for bicycles and pedestrians should be busy figuring it out too.  The three of us have been trying, but it is pretty far outside my usual knowledge base.  I’m sending this to George and Tammy so that if they have insights they can add them to the discussion.

From my recollection of GABAC meetings, a bicycle crossing was part of the plan for this interchange. 

This may be an instance where citizen requests are necessary, given MAP21’s lack of mandate for BPE infrastructure.  If I can find out any more in the next few days I will pass on that information.

And from George Pearson

RE: State Transportation Commission (STC) and Commission Policy 66 (CP-66)

Tammy and I attended the May STC meeting in Alamogordo and Jennifer attended the June STC meeting in Las Vegas where CP-66 was under discussion at the Policy Committee. Tammy and I had a good discussion with senior NMDOT staff and I believe Jennifer also had good interaction with senior staff. Unfortunately, none of us were able to attend the July STC meeting in Santa Fe where CP-66 was on the agenda for formal acceptance. The minutes of the July STC meeting are available on the NMDOT web site (available via http://www.dot.state.nm.us/en/TC_Publications.html) and the minutes indicate that wording from the proposed policy was deleted. It's not clear from the minutes the extent of the deletion, but my interpretation is that CP-66 contains the minimum requirements to fulfill federal policy. It could be that the BPE Technical Committee that was proposed by staff (and that sounded like a good idea to be able to identify bicycling issues and actually get tasks accomplished) has been removed. Again, I'm not certain that this is true, but it is implied by the minutes.

I am the chair of the Las Cruces MPO Bicycle Pedestrian Facilities Advisory Committee (BPAC) which is an advisory committee, along with the Technical Advisory Committee, to the MPO Policy Committee. We have representation from NMDOT District 1 on BPAC and a good working relationship has been established with District 1. One result of this relationship is that BPAC representation has been added to the NMDOT District 1 design review committee (allowing bicyclist representation at the design level rather than trying to work with projects after design and sometimes after construction). After meeting with senior NMDOT staff last May, I was encouraged that the type of relationship we are working towards with District 1 could be established at the top levels of NMDOT. It seems like STC and perhaps other political appointees are overriding want staff proposed.

The July STC minutes say that the October STC meeting will be in Silver City, so I will plan on attending that one. The September STC meeting is scheduled for Albuquerque.

RE: MAP-21

The best graphic I've seen that describes the changes to Transportation Enhancement funds is included at the League blog at http://blog.bikeleague.org/blog/2012/08/map-21-how-much-money-will-my-state-get/. A longer analysis, and the source of the graphic, by America Bikes is at http://www.americabikes.org/map_21_analysis.

Transportation Enhancements are know under MAP-21 as Transportation Alternatives (TA). Safe Routes to School (SRTS) was previously funded separately, but now it is under TA along with the Recreational Trails Program (RTP). The RTP is funded at 2009 levels, unless the governor opts out. I received a separate email indicating that the governor can opt out of RTP as early as September 1. TA funding is reduced from previous levels by 33%.

I am very concerned about SRTS. We have an excellent program going in Las Cruces (I just heard that we were allocated several hundreds of thousands of dollars of Phase II funding from Albuquerque since they were not prepared to spend the money). The state SRTS coordinator position is currently empty and it is not clear if it will be filled. Support for SRTS from the top levels of government is important (and why would anyone want to argue against increasing the safety and health of our children?). The Las Cruces City Council this Monday had a SRTS presentation. A side effect is that a resolution to be sent to Santa Fe (the governor, I suppose) is to be brought forward at a future city council meeting supporting SRTS (and maybe TA in general).

Being south of the Tortilla Curtain, we don't get much news about what's going on at the state level without making an extra effort (for those that don't know, we are in the El Paso television market). I have some contacts with state legislators, but it's currently silly season (that is, election time) with a different emphasis on trying to get out a message. While I am interested in advocacy and support those efforts (and sometimes find myself involved), my primary interest is in bicyclist education. My message to NMDOT has been to use me as a resource to help improve bicycling in New Mexico. This has been, I think, well received by NMDOT staff and I'm hoping this type of relationship can be continued, even as policy makers are making things more difficult.

Regards,

George Pearson
Chair, Las Cruces MPO Bicycle Pedestrian Facilities Advisory Committee
League of American Bicyclists Cycling Instructor #2614

P.S. The New Mexico Bicycle Education Summit is being planned for Saturday, October 27 in Santa Fe with a get together planned for Friday night and a bike ride on Sunday. Registration is still under development but will be available soon.

Don't Drive (or Ride) Stupid

I've been meaning to find a way to work this clip in. After a recent senseless crash that left a cyclist injured and will probably leave a young driver facing charges that may hurt him for a long time, here 'tis...

Don't let Carlos be talkin' about you. Drive and ride smart. You can't un-break an egg, you gotta prevent it from breaking.   Just sayin'

Comedy Central

Its a Dark Day in Austin...Armstrong declares "no mas"

With acknowledgements to despair.com

Armstrong Drops Fight Against Doping Charges

...and will likely be stripped of his seven tour titles. so I wonder which doper will be declared the winner of those races?

 

Casey at the Bat,by Ernest Lawrence Thayer
The Outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, if only Casey could get but a whack at that -
We'd put up even money, now, with Casey at the bat.

But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,
And the former was a lulu and the latter was a cake;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,
For there seemed but little chance of Casey's getting to the bat.

But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Blake, the much despis-ed, tore the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and the men saw what had occurred,
There was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third.

Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.

There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile on Casey's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat.

Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance gleamed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip.

And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped-
"That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one," the umpire said.

From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore.
"Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone on the stand;
And its likely they'd a-killed him had not Casey raised his hand.

With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the spheroid flew;
But Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said, "Strike two."

"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered fraud;
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again.

The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville - mighty Armstrong says "no mas".

My favorite Lance photo. Dedicating his Stage 18 win in the
1995 Tour de France to fallen teammate Fabio Casartelli,who died
after a high speed crash descending the  Col de Portet d'Aspet 
durng Stage 15. Photo by Graham Watson.