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Hi Everyone,
by Nancy LaRocque 04 Feb '07

04 Feb '07

Hi Everyone, I apologize for not being an active participant with the bike board. At this time I am going to resign my position on the board so the Traffic Commission can appoint a replacement. I am sorry as I realize I should have done this sooner. Good luck with everything, and I know I will see and experience your progress. Sincerely, Nancy LaRocque

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Bikes on Road sign
by Frank Gmeindl 03 Feb '07

03 Feb '07

Bike Board, Remember at last week's meeting, I described the "Bicycles on Road" signs that I thought Ron Eck meant? Here's the link to "San Francisco's Shared Lane Pavement Markings: Improving Bicycle Safety" at http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/site/uploadedfiles/dpt/bike/Bike_Plan/Shared%20Lane%… This is an excellent report that may represent the cutting edge in share the road signage as well as provide substantive data on the effectiveness of the signage. (Too bad it's a pdf file. It has some … [View More]

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3/10-11 LCI
by Frank Gmeindl 03 Feb '07

03 Feb '07

Bike Board Members, Before you know it, Mark Archibald will be here to teach us the Road I course of the Effective Cycling program March 10-11. If you haven't already paid me, please let me know if you'll take the course. At our meeting last Thursday, 5 Bike Board members paid. At our January meeting, 9 or us signed up. (I still have the sign up sheet;) Our instructor says 12 is a good target class size. A few people who aren't Bike Board members have told me they'd like to take … [View More]

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Re: [Bikeboard] share the road with bicyclists
by Jim Rye 03 Feb '07

03 Feb '07

Hi Bob, Thanks again very much for your interest in signage to facilitate bicycling for transportation at WVU. Here are two robust sites that illustrate quite a variety of signage (including "on pavement") to facilitate bicycling and walking for transportation: http://www.pedbikeimages.org/category_front.cfm?categoryId=2 (Bicycling Pictures--see especially "On Street Bike Lanes" and "Pavement Treatments") http://www.pedbikeimages.org/category_front.cfm?categoryId=19 (Design and … [View More]

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Context Senstive Solutions Put to Practice: A Warning
by director 03 Feb '07

03 Feb '07

Good morning, I wanted to share this message from Thunderhead with the bike board, because it deals with an issue that has already happened in most of West Virginia. The emphasis of separated bike paths and exclusion of bikes on roads (by intent or neglect - I've seen both). Although sidewalks, separated trails and shorter pedestrian crossing distances on roadways are important - the federal right of cyclists to share the roadway safely is being eroded - irrationally. The effective end … [View More]result is that cycling - the most efficient and effective means of single rider transportation over short distances - is being pushed off the road by 70% empty, 90% inefficient motor vehicles. This isn't a good trend and we should take every opportunity to emphasize how cycling has a right and a reason to share the road. Rights are like muscles, if you don't give them attention and use them you lose them. Nick ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: "Eric Gilliland" <gill(a)waba.org> Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 10:21:35 -0500 National bike groups and bike/ped professionals may not be aware of the disaster potentially poised to happen in Montgomery County, Maryland, a major suburban county located right next to Washington D.C. The county council there is considering a pair of bills that would overhaul the county's "road code" - those laws that define its roadway design standards. The new legislation would essentially mandate narrow lanes in most circumstances, virtually eliminating the concept of a "wide outside lane" or "shared lane" for bikes on new or rebuilt roads. The legislation does not give cyclists any consideration except on roads identified as bike routes in the county master plan. That contradicts established principles framed in AASHTO guidelines and elsewhere (include the ITE CSS guide), that cyclists should be routinely considered during the design of all roads, not just select roads. Moreover, for county roads that are master-planned as "signed shared roadway" bike routes, the legislation allows only one extra foot of lane width. Specifically the legislation calls for lanes to be fixed at 10.5', 11', or 12' wide depending on roadway type (12' for suburban arterials, for example), with an extra foot added for shared roadway bike routes (i.e. 11.5' to 13'). The bills do not define minimums or maximums but instead specify hard widths that would apply regardless of project-specific factors, public input, etc. Waivers may only be granted by the county council itself. The legislation allows shoulders only on limited types of curbless roads and stipulates that they be 2' wide (4' on highways). The bills do however require bike lanes where called for in the master plan, although these are not numerous. Shared use paths would also be built where called for in the master plan. The legislation represents a fundamental paradigm shift that could have far-reaching implications if adopted by other counties and states. The bills were motivated by an admirable desire to reduce pedestrian crossing distances, calm traffic and eliminate impervious surface, and as such it has support from many usual cycling allies. But that makes it no less damaging. It appears to have been partly inspired, somewhat unfaithfully, by the ITE's new draft standard, "Context Sensitive Solutions in Designing Major Urban Thoroughfares for Walkable Communities". That document embraces bike lanes to the near exclusion of other on-road bikeway types. In any case, the Montgomery County legislation sets a dangerous precedent for design standards nationwide. It is all the scarier because it originates in a county that is uaually progressive on bike issues, from people who are usually supportive of cycling. Pedestrian safety is very important, but the proposed legislation seeks to make minor gains in pedestrian safety at an enormous cost to a complete other mode of transportation. Eric Gilliland WABA Jack Cochrane MoBike _______________________________________________ Thunderhead mailing list http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/thunderhead Thunderhead Archive: http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/private/thunderhead [View Less]

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Infrastructure doc and ppt available
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 02 Feb '07

02 Feb '07

Hi everyone, I could be wrong, but I'm under the impression that Greg meant to send some updated infrastructure documents to this email list for review, but unintentionally sent them to his own committee's email list thinking the whole board would receive them. They are pretty large files. You can fetch them here: http://cheat.org/pipermail/bike-infrastructure/attachments/20070202/8a30102… http://cheat.org/pipermail/bike-infrastructure/attachments/20070202/56741c2… Jonathan

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Bike education video for drivers
by director 02 Feb '07

02 Feb '07

Good Morning, Last nite at the meeting I mentioned that I had seen mention of a video for bike education. It was produced for the League of Illinois Bicyclists and it's at this link: http://www.bikelib.org/video/index.htm You can download it from there, or get if from me. The guy I contacted also offered to send it on DVD. I should have it in a few days and I'll keep a copy at Positive Spin. I'll also look at donating a copy to the library like I discussed for the other education videos. Nick

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Links to pictures of bike/ped facilities
by director 01 Feb '07

01 Feb '07

Good evening, These links were in a message from Thunderhead Alliance last week. They show all kinds of categories of facilities and people using them. Hope they're of use... http://www.pedbikeimages.org/ http://www.flickr.com/groups/bicyclefacilities/ Nick Hein

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Re: [Bikeboard] Bikeboard Vision
by director 22 Jan '07

22 Jan '07

Frank, I like it as written. I've had thoughts about condensing it, but I wouldn't want to say anything that would delay approval. I'd like to get on to making it happen. So I guess it's compelling me already! Nick >/All Morgantown residents can enjoy bicycling safely and fearlessly >anywhere, anytime, for any reason. Morgantown residents choose to ride >bicycles for transportation as well as recreation. Our state and our >nation recognize Morgantown for the benefits of … [View More]

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Re: [Bikeboard] Bikeboard Vision
by Bill Reger-Nash 22 Jan '07

22 Jan '07

Vision statement looks fine. Keep up the good work. bill WV Walks - 30 minutes or more daily Feel the power of half an hour! Bill Reger-Nash, Ed.D Professor of Community Medicine West Virginia University School of Medicine Morgantown WV 26506-9190 Phone: 304/293-0763 Fax: 304/293-6685 Dept. web page: http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/cmed BRN's web page: http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/cmed/wreger/ >>> Frank Gmeindl <fgmeindl(a)verizon.net> 01/21/07 1:29 PM >>> Bike … [View More]Board Members, Please recall that a Vision statement must be our shared view of the future and must compel us to act. A shared vision enables us to stay focused, to enjoy working together, and to be proud of our accomplishments. At our 2-Nov meeting we brainstormed vision statements. Then, Bill Reger-Nash, Linda Cooper and I offered a summary that the BB did not accept. Using the feedback from that cycle and the original list of ideas, on 1/8/2007, I recommended the following Vision statement: /All Morgantown residents can enjoy bicycling safely and fearlessly anywhere, anytime for any reason. Morgantown residents choose to ride bicycles for transportation as well as recreation. Our state and our nation recognize Morgantown for the benefits of bicycling to our health, our environment, our economy and our quality of life./ Nick Hein, Jim Rye, Greg Good, John Lozier and Jonathan Rosenbaum responded to my request for feedback. Except for the addition of a comma behind the word "anytime", I'm not proposing any changes in reponse to their comments. Following are summaries of their comments and my responses. 1. Greg recommended adding a comma after "anytime". I agree and will make the change. 2. Greg, Jim, and John said the word "fearlessly" was redundant with "safely" while Nick suggested emphasizing "fearlessly". When we gathered vision statement inputs at our 2-Nov meeting, Sonitt's input explicitly included "feels safe to ride". Making cycling safe is a necessary but insufficient step to increasing cycling. Based on authoritative info (Forrester, John, /Effective Cycling/), fear is the main factor that discourages people from cycling. If we succeed at making cycling safe but don't eliminate fear, e.g. through education, we will probably not realize our vision for all Morgantown residents. Unless we want to argue further to delete "fearlessly", I will retain it. 3. John said the word "All" was superfluous. Marilyn's input at our 2-Nov meeting explicitly included "all citizens". I agree that one could argue that "Morgantowners" includes all residents but one could also argue that it doesn't. For example, consider, "Morgantowners choose to have parades on Friday evenings". I think we'd agree that this is true but it does not include all Morgantowners. I believe that including the word "All" in our vision statement says that if cycling is unsafe for anyone in the city, or if there are places in the city that you can't get to by bike, our job is not done. Therefore, unless there is further argument to delete it, I will retain "All". 4. John said, "The entire second sentence repeats much of the first, merely to detail 'any reason'". When we gathered vision statement inputs at our 2-Nov meeting, Jim's, Betsy's, Bill's, Sonitt's, and Nick's ideas all explicitly included the distinction of transporation and recreation. I believe deleting the second sentence loses their input. Unless we want to continue to argue to delete the second sentence, I will retain it. 5. John recommended replacing "All Morgantown residents can enjoy" with "Morgantowners choose to". Before I make that change, I need to hear from other members. If I accept John's argument that "All" is superfluous, then it follows that "Morgantowners" is synonymous with "All Morgantown residents". Then, to say, "Morgantowners choose to" would be equivalent to saying that "All Morgantown residents choose to". But, hey, I'm for everyone in Morgantown choosing to ride a bike rather than drive a motor vehicle and I can even visualize that. With regard to "choose" versus "can enjoy", when we gathered vision statement inputs on 2-Nov, Bruce's input explicitly included "enjoyment", and Nick's and Bill's inputs explicitly included "fun". 6. John said "the third sentence dwells on glory-seeking (recognition), a new and unnecessary concept". Jim responded that it adds to the importance of what we are about. It is also similar to what Jim proposed at our 2-Nov meeting although his input didn't say anything about national and state recognition. I added the recognition clause as a hook into the Traffic Commission and the City Council. Before I eliminate the last sentence, I need more input from the Board. 7. Jonathan suggested adding the sentence, "We are a people using our own power for a cooler planet." My reading is that the Board would not support lengthening the vision statement. Unless anybody wants to argue for adding a sentence, I will not add it. So, following is a proposed vision statement with the only change from that above being the addition of a comma: /All Morgantown residents can enjoy bicycling safely and fearlessly anywhere, anytime, for any reason. Morgantown residents choose to ride bicycles for transportation as well as recreation. Our state and our nation recognize Morgantown for the benefits of bicycling to our health, our environment, our economy and our quality of life./ Perhaps I'm steamrolling on this. I'm trying to bring it to closure. However, if this vision statement is not clear and if it doesn't compel you to act to realize it, then it is a failure. If any one of us feels that "This is Frank's vision statement and not mine", it is a failure. If this is what you think, please reply to this message, either to the whole Bike Board or to me personally. I will continue shaping this until it is clear and every member of the Board, including the 8 members who have been silent, adopts it as his or her own. Or, I will turn it over to anyone who thinks they can do it better. Please reply. Frank [View Less]

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