A Great Way to Report Bicycle Crashes and Hazards?
Friday, 26 March 2010 08:26
Reporting, keeping track of, and broadcasting locations of bicycle crashes, road hazards, and bike thefts is important for improving cycling conditions in our cities and neighborhoods. Right now there is not an effective way to do this in North Texas.
Although not the best, there are at least two systems in place. Our friends at Bike Friendly Oak Cliff have a page on their blog where they post reports of stolen bikes sent in by email. We have a page with an online service to report road hazards and other problems directly on Google Maps. The information is automatically transmitted to city and county maintenance departments...and we've gotten multiple reports that it actually works!
The lack of an easy way to report and find information that can make cycling safer and more fun in the Dallas-Fort Worth area may be coming to an end. A promising-looking system for viewing this information on a map has gone online. It's called bikewise and was developed by Cascade Bicycle Club (one of the largest bike club and advocacy organizations in the country). Contributors can submit reports on crashes, hazards, and bike thefts, which then automatically appear on Google Maps. Although the Cascade Bicycle Club is based in Seattle, the maps work anywhere... including North Texas.
We'd like to encourage all cyclists in our area to use bikewise and provide them (and BikeDFW) with feedback to help improve the system.
Here's more information copied from the bikewise site.
The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Planners Women’s Cycling survey was launched on March 17. This survey is for women about women’s cycling. Guys, please encourage any women you know to complete this survey.
Survey results will offer a snapshot of female participation in cycling while furthering a lively discussion blossoming in the U.S., Canada and England. Why don't – or do – women bicycle? The survey is open until May 15 to women and girls only, please. Preliminary results will be reported at the March 31 webinar. Click here to start the survey, which takes about 15 minutes to complete.
The free webinar on March 31st, "Writing Women Back into Bicycling," continues the conversation with examples of cultures where women bicycle at rates similar to men, a review of survey results so far, and next steps that would encourage more women to cycle more places more often. Listen live from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. ET or access the archived webinar. Register here: http://www.apbp.org/event/women_in_cycling.
The League of American Bicyclists is proud to be the forum for Google to announce what all bike riders have been waiting for – Grab Your Bike and Go with Google Maps. Google is announcing at the Opening Plenary Session at the National Bike Summit that they are adding biking directions in the U.S. to Google Maps. “This new tool will open people’s eyes to the possibility and practicality of hopping on a bike and riding,” said Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists. “We know people want to ride more, and we know it’s good for people and communities when they do ride more – this makes it possible. It is a game-changer, especially for those short trips that are the most polluting.”
This new feature includes: step-by-step bicycling directions; bike trails outlined directly on the map; and a new “Bicycling” layer that indicates bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roads. The directions feature provides step-by-step, bike-specific routing suggestions – similar to the directions provided by our driving, walking, or public transit modes. Simply enter a start point and destination and select “Bicycling” from the drop-down menu. You will receive a route that is optimized for cycling, taking advantage of bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly streets and avoiding hilly terrain whenever possible.
Visit http://maps.google.com/biking to try out this new feature. Biking directions for Google Maps is currently in Beta. [Now... all we need is the iPhone App!]
Lance Armstrong defended cyclist's rights to the road following comments by Tony Kornheiser on his Thursday ESPN980 radio talk show suggesting that cyclists "dare you to run them down, and then when you do, they get angry." Apparently, Kornheiser received a firestorm of criticism after Armstrong posted on his Twitter feed that the comments were "Disgusting, ignorant, foolish. What a complete ... idiot." Armstrong spoke with Kornheiser and followed with a post stating that the talk show host was "very sorry 4 his comments."
You can listen to Lance's interview with Tony Kornheiser on ESPN 980 Audio Vault - Play Now. Armstrong makes some great points about sharing the road and why we need to be encouraging more bicycle use, not spreading fear and outrage.
Although it's an obscure agency with a funny-sounding acronym, NCTCOG (the North Central Texas Council of Governments) is the 700 pound gorilla when it comes to transportation funding in North Texas. Almost all of the hundreds of millions of dollars of state and federal monies ear-marked for transportation projects get funneled through NCTCOG. Funds awarded by NCTCOG support every aspect of transportation; from rebuilding State Highway 161, to a downtown Dallas streetcar, and the new Dallas Bike Plan.
NCTCOG assists local governments in planning and funding regional transportation development and serves 16 counties centered on Dallas and Fort Worth and includes 165 cities.
NCTCOG is developing its next long-term transportation plan, Mobility 2035, to address transportation needs for the next 25 years. This plan will determine how future transportation funding is allocated and will likely have a big impact our mobility and quality of life. Mobility 2035 will be a blueprint for a comprehensive, modern transportation system for the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
A great thing about NCTCOG is that they, usually, listen. Input from North Texans is important in their decision-making process. Area residents have been invited to provide their input for setting goals and priorities for Mobility 2035. A series of public meetings are scheduled for March 8-10 in Allen, Irving, and Fort Worth. The times and locations are listed on the Transportation Public Meetings flyer. All North Texas residents were also invited to provide input for Mobility 2035 by taking a survey about long-term transportation goals and priorities. Although the main survey has ended, you can check the website (Mobility 2035) for weekly polls and additional surveys that will become available as they reach new milestones in their planning efforts. They also encourage submission of written comments at anytime to
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BikeDFW urges everyone to provide your input to NCTCOG, especially if you believe, like we do, that increased bicycling will be important for improved mobility and better quality of life, and that spending billions on more toll roads is not the path to a sustainable future for North Texas.
