cainmark

Reposted from http://hsvbike.com

Please consider signing this petition to have the City of Huntsville adopt the Complete Streets Policy. As you may or may not know Huntsville is the 2nd most deadly city in Alabama for pedestrians. Lets make the streets here safe for all!! http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/adopt-complete-streets-policy-in-city-of-huntsville-alabama

The streets of our cities and towns are an important part of the livability of our communities. They ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams.
Now, in communities across the country, a movement is growing to complete the streets. States, cities and towns are asking their planners and engineers to build road networks that are safer, more livable, and welcoming to everyone.
Instituting a complete streets policy ensures that transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate the entire roadway with all users in mind - including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.
more info can be found here http://www.completestreets.org

BASC, The Huntsville Bike committee, has these pdf graphics available of the swell bike route map that's in bike shops and other public areas.

http://hsvbike.com/?page_id=544

As a bike commuter, I greatly appreciate this work, something I could have used back in 1994 when I committed to bike commuting full time after skateboarding and bicycling when my car at the time would often be broken down due to planned obsolescence.

Pick one up even if you're not a bike commuter because it has instructions on bicyclists right to the road and how auto operators should behave in conjunction with them, and beyond that, it's actually a really good map of the city.

The link for my stop-motion animation of my bicycle through different places in Huntsville, Alabama:

http://www.archive.org/details/Jr_20091024_2x1Hsv


If the embeddable vid comes up, this is where I will place it.



I was pretty happy it got 3rd in applause out of 18 entries in the Alabama Filmmaker's Co-op 5th Annual Rocket City Short Film Festival.

It can't see me, it can't see me.

Then I'll get it!

Mayors Ride
May 17th 1:30 pm
Kids Fountain at 315 Fountain Circle

http://hsvbike.com/?p=235

http://hsvbike.com/

http://www.alabike.org/events/MayorsRide2009.pdf


If anyone wants to post this to the Huntsville community, that'd be swell.

Mayors Ride
May 17th 1:30 pm
Kids Fountain at 315 Fountain Circle

http://hsvbike.com/?p=235

http://hsvbike.com/

http://www.alabike.org/events/MayorsRide2009.pdf


If anyone wants to post this to the Huntsville community, that'd be swell.

I haven't talked about this because I never knew the whole story. I still don't, so keep in mind these are my opinions, okay?

I decided to do some investigation myself. I went by the intersection of Wynn and Technology Dr. the other day. I went all four ways by car first, then all four ways later by bicycle. There is no way that bicyclist should have been killed in that collision if she was bicycling legally and safely on the road like she was supposed to. The person driving had to have been not only been going quite a bit over the speed limit for that hill to cause any visibility problems, and had to have not been paying any attention to the road at all to not slow down and brake properly, even if the cyclist actually "swerved" (very doubtful) in front of them. Clear cut case of criminal negligence, if not manslaughter, to me, if the bicyclist was biking legally and not wildly and badly (and I'm pretty sure she wasn't from other accounts of how she bicycled). Accidents are unavoidable. This was completely avoidable. It was a collision that killed a bicyclist for no damn reason other than someone being in a hurry and not paying attention.

So, please, slow down, pay attention and ask yourselves what you're in such a hurry for? Leave just a little bit earlier and drive safer. Please.

I was about to post more, but the last paragraph of this post summed up what I was going to write:

http://ping.fm/WxibW

http://ping.fm/iSRbd

I pretty much have to disagree with the police on their conclusions on this. As anyone who know me knows, we've had disagreements before.

These are one day behind. I don't know why.

• 19:45 Only 16 miles instead of the 20 I planned pleasure biking today. Just ran out of time and had to get home from a later start than planned. #

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These are one day behind. I don't know why.

• 15:30 READ:Chris Anderson, Jared Diamond, John Forester, Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Hart, Naomi Klein, Steven Levitt, Bill Moyers, Eric S. Raymond. #
• 21:46 @Ohmu, all non-fiction authors I believe everyone should read works by. Hope Thai Garden food was as yummy as ours was! #

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These are one day behind. I don't know why.

• 17:03 Enjoying that a Biology professor thought the brain covering on my bicycle helmet is really neat. #

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These are one day behind. I don't know why.

• 08:52 Today (May 15th,2008) is Bike-to-Work Day. If you have a bike and can manage it, try it. #
• 12:02 Reading about corrupt politics in Alabama. Most of it commited by Karl Rove and his horrible prosecutors. #

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"Monday, May 12 - Friday, May 16: Bike-to-Work/Bike-to-School Week."

http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bikemonth/

Good post at boingboing on why you should obey traffic laws and always be aware of what's going on around you.

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/27/brilliant-cycling-aw.html#comments

This is a link to an old post, but after re-reading it, I still stand by it.

http://cainmark.livejournal.com/81888.html

So driving my bicycle home in the cold rain last night was better than I thought it would be as the hard headwinds had finally died down.

I get home and Devon's home already (gone home sick from work) and she says, "What happened to your knees?"

I look down and my knees are covered with soap suds.

The only thing we could figure was that the jeans didn't rinse off enough in the last load of laundry. I said we could save money on laundry washing and drying if I just planned on covering my clothes in laundry detergent and drive my bicycle in the rain.

Amazingly, she thought that was a bad idea.

It's snowing!

(In Huntsville, Alabama)

It's so much better to bicycle home in than sleet!

I biked into work today and it was pleasant with a nice cool breeze and I wasn't even sweating when I got here. Yay!