Ride of Silence 2011

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Twenty Percent

That's the failure level among people taking the GMAC Insurance multiple choice drivers test. Twenty questions and you need to miss more than six to fail. The test is actually quite simple. Answer the questions with safety being the overriding factor for determining the correct answer and you can match my 20 for 20. Who says cyclists don't know the vehicle code?

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My Poor Bike!

Yesterday on my way to work I was accelerating off a start when I heard a loud "pang" (like a ping but more discordant) and the steering got a bit wobbly followed by some squeaking sounds I have always associated with the leather saddle especially when the humidity is high. I though the "pang" came from the drive train (slip gear or some such) and continued on to work.

At the end of the day I got back on the bike and started to head home. I came off the sidewalk to the parking lot and the steering felt sloppy again so I stopped to make sure the panniers were secure (a loose pannier will raise Caine with the steering). All mounts were solid as was the rack itself. Then I noticed this:

From Commuting in NC

Which led me to look at the other side of the downtube:

From Commuting in NC

Followed by a look from the bottom (eek!):

From Commuting in NC

I then very gingerly rode home becoming so very keenly aware of how poor the roads are in some sections of Greensboro. Fortunately the rear brake pad is fairly new so was stopping me well as I didn't want to use the front brakes and put more stress on the downtube.

Once I got home I moved the rear rack and lighting systems over to the trike so it could pinch hit as my commuter until I can resolve my diamond frame conundrum.

From Commuting Scenes

Now it so happens there is a new Trek dealer coming to Greensboro: Trek Bicycle Store. Unfortunately for me, they are not yet capable of servicing warranty claims yet but Chris Pieck of Greensboro's Trek Bicycle Store is passing on my info to "the territory manager for Trek". If I don't hear anything by this weekend I'll try the Trek dealer over in High Point to see if they can provide satisfaction.

If not then I'm developing a list of replacement candidates. To make the list the bike must be considered a loaded touring bike and have disc brakes and 700c wheels (700c wheels are a nice to have to preserve my investment in Schwalbe Marathon Supreme tires of which I have three waiting to be used). So far the rides that make the grade are the Co-Motion Americano and the Salsa Fargo. If you know of any other candidates, let me know.

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Greensboro Ride of Silence 2010 Coverage

Put the Onus on the Risk Bringers

Mikael from The Copenhagen Bicycle Culture Blog has got it right. So many times road DOTs design roads with only motorists in mind. They treat pedestrians and bicyclists as invaders who are left to fend for themselves if they dare to travel on right of ways designed for motor vehicles. The purpose of roads is to move people, goods and raw materials, that they are built out to support motor vehicles does not make their operators the sole "owners" of those spaces.

On Your Bike!

Share the Road

Here's an editorial from the Baltimore Sun about sharing the road. Maryland just passed a three foot passing statute and some are up in arms about how it will delay them. This piece, while occasionally sarcastic, takes pretty good aim at the issues.

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Score: Utility Bike 1 -- Automobile 0

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Greensboro Ride of Silence 2010

This year's ride will start again at the VF Jeanswear parking lot on N Elm St near the intersection with E Lindsay St at 6:00PM on May 19, 2010. Please arrive a little early to complete the legal rigmarole.

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Olympic Spirit

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Champion Cyclist

I mean look at all the Blue Ribbons he's earned!

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Spike Bike Rides Again

Ever wonder what Spike Bike rode?

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Twice as Many

I was reviewing some polls on Greensboro Gas Prices and I found this one from a month ago that asked the user what their usual commuting method was. As expected the overwhelming majority of site users were single occupant car/truck users. What surprised me was the result of bike commuters--twice as many poll answers favored bike commuting over motorcycle commuting.

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Detached Bike Parking

I finally closed on my condo in central MD last week and immediately turned around and made an offer (which was accepted with some modification) on a nice home with a detached garage. This will put a bit of a crimp in my style regarding reporting on progress on the BRT as once I move it will no longer be along the way on my route to work but I still intend to go out of my way once in a while to keep up on the progress. Looks like major work on the Cone Rd tunnel is complete although they filled in the ends of the tunnel until the rest of the trail is ready, at least that's my guess as to why they filled it back in.

From Wrenwood Dr

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BRT in Progress

Here are my first photos of the BRT as it is being built.

From Battleground Rail Trail

This view is from about 50 yards south of Total Wine looking north. The trail will connect to the sidewalk just before the driveway for Total Wine/CVS. This looks to be a crash waiting to happen. In fact when I headed through the driveway intersection I had a ROW conflict with a right turning pickup. Fortunately we were both alert to the potential for problems and no harm done.

From Battleground Rail Trail

This shot was taken from the same location as the first but looking south. The crushed stone bed looks reasonably wide.

From Battleground Rail Trail

This view is from Martinsville Rd looking north. Hopefully that speed bump is not part of the design.

From Battleground Rail Trail

This shot was taken from Isaac Pl and Martinsville Rd. It illustrates two things:

1. Looking over the hood of the second car you see the beings of the next section of trail.


2. Due to the high traffic volume I had to shoot the shot with cars in the picture. Combine this with the 30-40 yard offset between trail segments and we have a significant conflict point. No pedestrian facilities means all trail users will be using the road to get between the trail segments.

From Battleground Rail Trail

This next segments have much work to be done at this point. Here is the segment that curves around the Toyota lot to begin running parallel to Patriot Way.

From Battleground Rail Trail

Same location as the last shot but looking west now.

I hope the designers have thought about the conflict zones I have highlighted here. It seem to me the money being spent to tunnel under Cone would have been better spent tunneling under Martinsville or Pisgah Church. On Cone a crossing pedestrian or cyclist only needs to negotiate with traffic from one direction at a time. They get to change their focus once the median is reached. Martinsville affords no such luxury and I have yet to figure out how the Pisgah Church crossing is expected to work but unless those high speed corners are squared back off I expect it can't help but be dangerous.

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Battleground Rail Trail

Kudos to General Greensboro for highlighting this article which led me to this article. I've heard rumor of this trail but nobody had been able to provide facts relating to it. Even armed with the name of the trail I am finding very limited information about the rail-trail conversion. GDOT had this but no one else appears to be talking about this project on the Internet which I find utterly amazing.

The current phase of the project will run the trail from the end of the Bicentenial Greenway next to Mt Pisgah UMC on Pisgah Church Rd down to Markland Avenue. A tunnel will be used to get around the traffic on Cone Blvd but I wonder how traffic will be handled at the Martinsville Rd and Pisgah Church Rd crossings.

A quick look at satellite photos overlaid on the old rail alignment shows the homes and businesses that adjoined the old rail bed have taken over the space of the old rail right of way. Where I to guess about the alignment of the trail I would expect it to use Isaac Pl from Pisgah Church Rd to Martinsville Rd. Then comes the challenge of crossing Martinsville Rd. Despite a 30 MPH speed limit a large number of road users appear to confuse this street with the speedway of the same name. Combine this with short site lines and substantial traffic (frequently and issue during the evening commute for me) and you have a very difficult crossing. Add to this the fact that following Isaac Pl puts one a hundred yards east of the rail alignment and the problems start to compound. Do you follow Martinsville to get back unto the rail alignment or follow Lane Rd to Patriot Way which eventually realigns on the old rail bed.

The other alternative that I can see is to follow Isaac Pl about 200-250 yards to get around the back of the mini-mall that sits squarely on the old rail alignment. At that point follow that property lines back to the alignment. Now this reduces some of the Martinville Rd conflicts as the crossing will be closer to Battleground and eastbound motorists won't have time to accelerate to uncontrollable speeds while the sight lines to the west are improved by the higher elevation.

There still are problems though with the Pisgah Church Rd crossing though. If it is made at the original rail alignment it will be nearly 100 ft wide and eastbound traffic exiting off northbound Battleground does not have a stop sign or red light. Given my experience in Greensboro marked crosswalks mean nothing to local drivers so crossing here would be extraordinarily dangerous. Crossing from the Bicentennial Parkway to Isaac Pl is only marginally better but could easily be improved with a concrete pedestrian island to afford some protection from eastbound motorists heading for Forest Lawn Dr who might cheat over to the turning lane without checking for pedestrians or cyclists trying to cross. I really don't understand why this isn't already in place given Isaac Pl is the northern end of Bike Route 9.

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More Recalls

The CPSC has a new batch of recalls this month.

1. First up is a chopper from Nirve. The Cannibal Chopper has a stem that can crack producing the usual control problems when the steering system fails. CPSC says to take the ride back to the vendors.
2. Felt Cycles has a similar issue where the steerer tube can fail on their F1X cyclocross product. Felt dealers should be providing free inspection and repair.

Other than that it's been a quiet month. So unless you ride a Nirve Cannibal or Felt F1x...

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Texting While Driving III

It appears Yankees are good for something. Charles Schumer, Senator from NY, has introduced a bill in Congress to cut Federal highway dollars to states that fail to enact texting bans. This came on the heels of a report from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute report on the dangers of texting and cell phone use while driving. Currently 13 states and the District of Columbia have texting bans in place or slated to take effect. The largest issue surrounding these laws is enforcement. Unless the act is seen it is difficult to prosecute although not impossible. My take is anything that makes road use safer, which this type of law has potential to do if enforced, is a good thing.

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How to Organize This

Boston has a new program to combat bike theft. A simple online form allows a bike owner to register their bike giving a full description and even allows photo uploads.

The hard part is GPD buy in. Despite the fact that the "take" from bike theft is four times higher than bank robbery (DOJ stats put bank robbery at 72.7M and bike theft at approx 225K units--it is estimated only 1 in 5 bike thefts gets reported so at an average value of $250 bike you have a take of over $281M) my guess GPD would cry "understaffed" to any request for a new/revamped program given they say as much in their FAQ about why they don't respond to certain crimes. Also, the bicycle registration form looks like it was designed back in the '70s and hasn't been revisited since (Banana seat? Give me a break!).

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...From My Cold Dead Fingers

I'm guessing it is a sign of the times that bicycles are getting a bit more acceptance when they are lumped in with cell phones in a threat to confiscate either as a official government crackdown on antisocial youths in the UK. I'm having personal issues with how I feel about this one...

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NC DOT Adopts "Complete Streets" Policy

Until now NC road designers had no requirement to add facilities to highways that accommodated any other users except motorists. Now a "Complete Streets" policy has been adopted that directs designers to consider the needs of non-motorists. The operative word there is "consider". Using costs of adding such infrastructure as a reason to drop plans from consideration is something that will have to be watched closely before we can call this a "win" for transportation outside of privately owned motor vehicles.