Sometimes a Bike is too Quick

 Recently, I had cause to stroll around Aberdeen, Washington. Normally, I ride my bike or in a car when I visit Aberdeen. Walking, however, showed me many items I would miss when on my bike.

Old and Tired Aberdeen

Seen while walking in an Aberdeen Alley

Gray's Harbor County, and Aberdeen, are some of the poorer areas of Washington State. Aberdeen bills itself as "the Lumber Capital of the World," but that really means its heyday was a century ago. Less well known is that Aberdeen was also home, back in the day, to perhaps the worst serial killer in US history, Billy Gohl. Between about 1902 and 1910, Billy may have killed over 100 people. His memory is immortalized in Aberdeen only through a bar/grill named "Billy's." His name does not appear on the walk of fame, described below.

Aberdeen Walk of Fame

Doug Osheroff, Nobel Laureate born in Aberdeen

The first star presented for your consideration is that of Doug Osheroff, a Nobel Physics winner that was born and raised in Aberdeen. As with Kurt Cobain, he achieved his fame elsewhere.

John Madden played football for a year at the local community college

I was surprised to see John Madden (of NFL fame) on the Aberdeen walk. John wasn't born or commonly associated with Aberdeen. However, as one discovers from Wikipedia, he played football for Aberdeen's Gray's Harbor College in 1956

There were many other stars on the Aberdeen sidewalks, some names more familiar and some less.

Aberdeen even has a Major League Baseball Player

For any loyal reader not familiar with Vean Gregg, he is a member of the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame. The PCL is a minor-league, but Gregg also played well in the Major Leagues. According to Wikipedia, "Gregg's major league career record is 92–63 with a lifetime 2.70 ERA in 1,393 innings pitched and 720 strikeouts. He was the only pitcher in the 20th century to win 20 games or more in his first three seasons." While Gregg was born in Chehalis, he lived in Aberdeen after he retired from baseball.

I'd have seen none of these items on my bike or from the seat of a car.

Flag Follies in Ocean Shores

We're Nearly as "Hip" as Seattle Here in Ocean Shores!

Apparently, one of the new trends in street crossings are flags. I’ve seen a few in Seattle popping up, and now we’ve got flags in Ocean Shores. They’re at the very same roundabout I’ve written about here and here.

Flags Piling Up

The idea of these flags is that pedestrians will take them and wave them in order to avoid getting run over by careless motorists. In that regard, they are a low cost alternative to various beg button systems and they’re probably effective for pedestrians, crossing from either the first or second photo. I’m not sure what a pedestrian is supposed to do when coming upon a sign (black letters on a white background being “regulatory”) like that in the third photo. Fortunately, most pedestrians (and motorists) are blissfully unaware of the yellow versus white background rules that cycling advocates blather about interminably.

The flags, however, are a bit problematic for cyclists. If you’ll recall from my FIRST OS roundabout post, their bike lane directs unaware cyclists to ride on the sidewalk (possibly illegally), where they’re then expected to cross across four lanes of roundabout traffic, back on to the sidewalk at LEAST once, before getting dumped back into another bike lane or onto a street without any guidance at all. Apparently, the traffic people did not realize this is FAR more dangerous than simply having cyclists operate as traffic through the roundabout since even a SLOW cyclist is going twice as fast as any pedestrian. I’m also not sure how they figured how a passing cyclist was supposed to grab a “take it to make it” flag as he/she passed by in a situation where he/she was at FAR greater risk than any pedestrian.

This was brought to the front of my mind yesterday as I saw a four seat, four wheel rental pedal car first go the wrong way down the street and then blissfully go through two successive crosswalks. If the peoples’ eyes driving the pedalcar were any guide, they didn’t look at either crosswalk. Can you say “accident waiting to happen?”

 Myself, I’ll continue to ignore the dimbulb attempts at directing me to do stupid things on my bike until/unless they come up with something that actually does anything more than check off some “complete streets” fantasy that comes from behind a windshield. In the defense of the traffic engineers, however, the flags probably DO help pedestrians better than doing nothing, though I’ve not heard of anybody actually getting hurt at the roundabout. Perhaps a couple of pedestrians got scared by tourists that did not understand how the roundabout works?

Lonely Flagless Stand With Sign Advising "Take it to Make It" - Is This a Serious Danger?

Same Rules, Same Roads, Different Outcomes

I’ve recently seen a couple of articles, such as HERE, where motoring writers tell cyclists that they are not allowed to pass a stopped school bus. You see, they figure that “bicycles shall follow the same rules” precludes such an action. However, while the roads and rules may be the same, such writing forgets that becoming a pedestrian (no longer driving a vehicle) is an option for a cyclist that isn’t readily available to someone driving a 4000 lb car. The motoring writers and their motoring police advisers forget that you are not required to RIDE a bike in such a situation. Sometimes these are the same people that advise cyclists to get off their bikes and push a crosswalk “beg button” when they can’t (don’t know how, mostly) to get an induction or camera-controlled traffic light to change.

Even John Forester, a great advocate of operating bicycles as vehicles, recognizes differences in his “Effective Cycling” book when he notes that even the most militant motorists don’t claim that cars should be able to universally drive cross country through local parks. Not even the ones that claim bicycles ought to be required to obtain unavailable insurance or unavailable cycling licenses.

While I generally agree about the principle of “same rules,” the dramatically increased danger that motor vehicles present to other road users compared to bicycles, suggests that some rules intended for motor vehicle control might be inappropriate when applied to bikes. I do not opine on what these might be in this post. THIS post ought to provide food for thought about how bicycles DIFFER from cars in the ways they operate and comply with identical laws.

Just this morning, I stopped at an unmarked crosswalk to yield a pedestrian his right of way to the unmarked crosswalk. He seemed momentarily confused before crossing. Perhaps he hadn’t got the concept that a bike might stop to let him cross before. Definitely, this was a different response than it would have been if I’d been operating a large SUV. I guess had I been on a motorcycle, we’d have been somewhere in the middle in terms of “same rules relevance.”

PS: In case you wonder why I might go to the trouble to WALK past a stopped school bus rather than just waiting, there’s a story behind it. On my on my v2 commute, there were a couple of locations where large crowd of students and motoring parents (picking the students up or dropping them off) clogged things up at the bus stop. On my v3 commute, it turned out that my route passed by a location at a time where the local school bus often stopped to pick up a wheelchair-bound student. While watching the lift in operation was fascinating a couple of times, I elected NOT to violate the law by riding by when the school bus driver took to attempting to wave me by. Instead, it simply seemed logical to stop, pick up my bike, toss it on my shoulder, and legally jog past. Even stopped motorists seemed to enjoy the show – and my passing the bus on foot obviated their need to pass me at all.

Car Crazy in New Orleans

I'm really not sure how to characterize cycling in New Orleans. Unlike newer southern cities, there's a lot of it going on. It has its fair share of brain-damaged, door zone bike lanes, one of which makes a star appearance in one of this post's videos. The standard of how people ride is generally no better than elsewhere, with wrong-way sidewalk riding abounding, even when bad bike lanes adjoin the sidewalk.

Today, however, I'm going to talk about a small subset of cycling and car culture in New Orleans, namely the French Quarter. The French Quarter was the original part of New Orleans and was mostly built up in the 17th and 18th centuries. After the Americans came around, it expanded greatly, with places like the Garden District.

Sharrows seem to be the fashion statement as you enter the French Quarter. Note that there is car parking on both sides of the street.

One thing that really struck me was the way bicycles were attached to just about anything that made sense, and that cars were parked everywhere. I do not recall, however, a single purpose-built bike rack. What's more, almost all of the car parking was paid parking, even on the street. There were some private lots, and parking there was about $10 for two hours. Doing a little math, with on-street parking costing $1.50 per hour and five or six bikes (average) in a car parking spot, the city would have to charge about a quarter an hour to break even. Can anyone say "bike share?"

There did appear to sort of be a designated bike route of some sort, though I saw no evidence that any of the local cyclists paid any mind to it. Given a sign on the same street, I don't imagine cyclist safety was a high priority in route selection.

Crescent Corridor Sign

In the area around Jackson Square, bicycles were not so welcome. In the Square itself, I'm not sure a person walking a bike would be allowed. Even dogs are forbidden and you might be tasered for feeding a bird.

Despite all this, the French Quarter shows why people ride their bikes everywhere in places like the Netherlands, and why I entitled this post "car crazy in New Orleans." As you may see from the photo below, the purple zone is the French Quarter and there are cars parked all the way along almost every street. What's more, as the videos show, there are cars parked in the traffic lanes of many of the streets.

Four Blocks Stroll from a Parking Garage to the middle of the French Quarter

Now, for notes on the videos. In the first one, shot on Decatur Street on the side with a bike lane, you see a pair of people using the bike lane. While I'm not sure the bike lane does any more than make people feel better about passing on the right, it IS the fastest route along the street. Later in the video, you'll see a guy come the wrong way down the bike lane. Right before he appears, the traffic signals turn red so he's actually riding through a red light on the wrong side of the road. Still, he doesn't appear to be in overly much danger. The first video is 27 seconds long. The light turns red about ten seconds in and the "Gulf Salmon" shows up about 5 seconds later.

In the second video, you can see how the lack of a bike lane distorts things. That skateboarder would have not been allowed had a bike lane been present, and the SUV would not have tried to make a U turn either. BTW, as I recall, someone making a U turn is supposed to yield to all other road users. The second video is 29 seconds long. Originally, the skateboarder was one clip and the SUV was another until I merged them together. You can tell from the music that they were shot one after another.

IMO, this location almost CRIES to be a "nearly motor vehicle free" zone. Sure, delivery trucks need windows to deliver. There are people who have garages on private property who should be accommodated, and parking garages would have to be erected to get all those cars OFF the French Quarter street, but we need to give all those high-falutin' urban planners SOME sort of challenge. Heck, maybe they could put in some streetcars with all those parked cars gone and a bike lane would take on a WHOLE new meaning. How, one might ask, do you protect cyclists from pedestrians? I guess that's one reason they mostly ride slow in Dutch cities...

Looking East along Decatur Street

Looking West along Decatur Street

Slower and Faster Sights

Seagulls Trust People Walking a Lot More Than Those Cycling

I’ve often heard people, when writing about their cycling, exclaim over the things they experience that you simply miss when motoring about. That’s true, though I hear far less talk about the things you miss when you are either going slower (as in walking) or faster (yes, as in motoring about). 

Somehow, I'd Have Missed this Mushroom on a Bike

Back in Ocean Shores, I find myself going for walks much more frequently than I used to do in North Texas. In North Texas, when it is hot, cycling represents a good balance between cooling air and effort that you simply do not get when walking except in the early morning or in the evening. That is not the case in Ocean Shores where a “hot” day has a high temperature of around 70F in the dog days of August. When walking, you see a lot more flora and fauna about. Seagulls, for example, tend to take flight as a bicycle comes near. Similarly, you simply don’t go where mushrooms abound and don’t often notice them when you do. My OS house may have one of the lowest walkability scores I've ever seen, but walking is VERY enjoyable around here. By contrast, the particular locale in the photo below has a "practically perfect" walkability score." Go figure.

This Will NEVER be "Bike Friendly!"

On the other hand, some experiences are pretty much out of reach for those not motoring. “26 miles of driving beach” that is accessible from Long Beach, Washington, is one of those. For those not from Washington, beaches there are considered State Highways and driving them is a common activity. Who says that recreational travel is limited to cyclists? A 26-mile beach is a LONG way to attempt to travel by either bike or by foot. And, of course, motoring about can include watercraft. On such, you see an entirely different view than you would when travelling by ANY sort of shore-based mode.

 

I'm Not Sure I'd Consider Tubing a Form of Transport

 

I Also Don't Think the OSRR Had Transport in Mind...

When You Can't Ride

Fergus

Well, continuing on my quest of getting in one piece before the end of October, I've begun to walk. I seem to have picked up an enthusiastic companion who's now double the size he was in the picture below.

Initial experiments with a bike trailer have been mixed so far...

Potemkin Village

Front Street in Seabrook WA

A "Potemkin Village" is a made-up place intended to fool casual visitors. See Wikipedia. These can appear most anywhere. One such, IMO, is the "village" of Seabrook, Washington. It pitches itself as a "people friendly" location, contrasting itself from where I picked, Ocean Shores. Remember, Ocean Shores is a place with virtually no traffic and where I do most shopping by bike. Hmm. Did I perhaps make a mistake?



Bike Rental!

Golly, Seabrook even has bikes!



I didn't see Anyone in the Rental Tent

Above is the Seabrook bike rental location. While I never actually SAW anybody ride a bike there, I suppose sometimes some do. Certainly, Seabrook highlights their bikes, here.

Still, there's a phony air about the place. Kind of like if a tiny Disneyland had timeshares. This is a people-friendly place that no public transit or shuttle serves and which requires a four-hour drive from major cities. At least in "car-dependent" Ocean Shores, I can take the bus into Aberdeen or even Olympia. What's more, despite the Seabrook bike hype, it did not escape my notice that none of the businesses have bike racks. Not even the little deli that substitutes for groceries.

We spent 25 minutes there. It was plenty of time...




They Hide the Cars Behind the Buildings Mostly

Seabrook in Progress

 

Dropping to Even LOWER Walkability

Current House Ranks Poorly With a "Walkability Score" of 20

I'm reminded of that insurance company commercial in which one of the actors claims "You can't put it on the internet if it isn't true." Shortly thereafter, the same actor walked off with her new boyfriend - a French model.

So too are some of the websites that purport to advise us on how "friendly" various locales are. My current abode, for example, is "car-dependent almost all errands require a car." Well, neglecting bikes, that's not too far off the mark. The closest transit of any kind is seven miles away. The closest store is a Walmart.

However, we spent quite a bit of time considering our next abode and in picking one that would obviate any need to use a car for daily errands. Going to the "walkability site," I was surprised to find it ranking FAR lower than our current house.

If I'm in a rush, the new house is a six minute bike ride from the local grocery and hardware store. The closest bank is another minute beyond. The post office not quite so far. The library and farmer's market will be have that distance. Life is full of tough choices - to keep daily errands close by, it'll be a four mile ride to the community club.

Hence, I'm reminded of the commercial  - "You can't put anything on the Internet that isn't true!"

Anybody Out there Got a "Walkability Score" Less Than 5?



Route to the Store from the New House - AT RUSH HOUR
And Yes, the Local Buses Have  Bike Racks on Them

It Depends

Some of us have been blessed with a surplus of education in our lives. MOST of us that are so blessed, have learned the principle that True/False questions that include "Always" or "Never" are USUALLY "False."

And so it is with cycling. Many are fond of  quoting John Forester as saying "cyclists fare best when they..." and endorse the principle of "always VC." Others take the opposite track and whine for ever more elaborate facilities. Well, as with a lot of things, either can be true sometimes, but not always. Forester, for example, notes that cyclists are welcome to cycle through parks whilst even militant motorists would not endorse the destruction that motoring through same would entail. In his book, he recalls situations in which cyclists are at a distinct disadvantage relative to motorists. In short, the man says, "it depends."

Actually, it depends on ACE. And ACE will be a future post. ACE stands for "Ability, Conditions, Equipment." Strangely, I was never taught about ACE in bicycle school or even in bicycle instructor training.

I've had an occasional correspondence with someone that has formed the impression of "VC GOOD," "Non VC Not so Good." THIS post's purpose is to dispell that notion. Because, regardless of what we might wish, the real answer is "It Depends." While I did not set out to do so, on my ride home from work today, I operated mostly in a totally vehicular fashion, according to vehicular rules. However, I also operated according to pedestrian rules, and even when operating to vehicular rules, I did so differently in different situations.

You might wonder why. Well, it's pretty simple. Circumstances vary. Those of you that also motor understand this very well. Put simply, when driving a Toyota Prius, you don't drive the same way on a quiet street as you do when merging onto a freeway filled with 18 wheelers. And you don't merge the same way onto a freeway filled with Alfa Romeo or Jaguar race cars. I operated to pedestrian rules today simply because it allowed me to get where I wanted to go quicker than waiting in with a bunch of motorists and it didn't cause conflicts to do so. Sometimes that happens. Get over it if you want to be militant - or I'll post a series of photos that'll cause you to say, "well duh!" Heck, I've even been known to ride on sidewalks myself - like that time my chain broke and I had four miles to get home. Sidewalks and "scooters" go together sometimes.

Various circumstances follow - all are from past posts on this blog:

I'll Look at the Detectors and Ride Where I Think is Best
It Depends!

Long Sight Lines and Fast Speeds - I Ride to Be Best Seen
I Don't Ride Here in the Fog - Because It Depends on Me AND My Motorists

Sometimes It Depends on Things Getting Complicated

Sometimes We Get the Luxury of a Boulevard. It All Depends

Sometimes We Have to Make Maneuvers our Motoring Partners Won't Understand

Sometimes, Riding Shoulders is Simply RIGHT - No Conflicts Here
Forester's Book Shows Photos of Cyclists on Shoulders. In Texas, I Routinely See Pickup Trucks on Shoulders

Sometimes, Unlike our Motoring Relatives, We Simply GET OFF THE ROAD!

So, What's the Cycling Rule Here?

As In a Lot of Things, It Depends!

Return of the Death Star

In the waning month of Daylight Savings Time, one of the creepy aspects of my commute was a black, Hummer H2 in the Remington Park Subdivision of Colleyville. After several weeks, seeing it most mornings, I came to think of it as an early 21st Century precursor to the Star Wars "Death Star."

You see, this vehicle was off on the dark side of Remington Parkway, silently waiting, just waiting, but with all of its running lights eerily glowing in the dark. I guess it was probably a mom waiting with her child for the school bus to show up, but it seemed vaguely sinister to me somehow. Not that it ever appeared to threaten me or any other traffic or pedestrian anywhere in the vicinity. It just seemed BAD. Like as in "the dark side."

Surprisingly, when Standard Time arrived, I no longer saw the Hummer parked in its appointed spot. Instead, on a few mornings, I'd see (I'm happy to report) a Jaguar XKR, or, more often, nothing at all. I figured the Hummer/Death Star decided to patrol some other galaxy, or at least another neighborhood. Until this morning, that is. Perhaps the Death Star needed a bit more shortening of the days before it felt it safe to reappear.

This morning, it was there once again, in the dark, complete with its glowing running lights. Seeing it, I resolved to capture it in a photo and so I stopped to pull out my iPhone camera. The intelligence associated with it was apparently disturbed by my stopping, or perhaps was just concerned I felt endangered, because its lights suddenly all winked out. With no flash, the opportunity for a picture was gone and so you see, instead, my impression of what I saw.

One might wonder why it's necessary to drive a child to a bus pickup point, within a subdivision, on a nice, albeit slightly crisp, morning, but maybe there's a good reason. Maybe it's just someone that's gotten a little too used to driving everywhere due to an infrastructure that has neglected the simple pleasures of walking around the neighborhood - and this is very common in subdivisions around here. Myself, walking about in the morning is enjoyable (unless I have a flat tire on my bike). Where people walk, they enjoy things a bit more. Just my personal take. Submitted for y'all's consideration...

Stop and Smell the Roses

Red roses in Keller, Texas, November 3, 2009
No, there were no yellow Texas roses today

I was inspired this morning. Usually, my rides to and from work focus on speed (by my rather meager standards) rather than just getting off the bike and looking (or walking around). Well, at least other than sometimes stopping at Starbucks on the final leg of the trip home.

But I was inspired by a plethora of posts, at BikeSkirt, Let's Go Ride a Bike, and  Lovely Bicycle (strictly alphabetical). So I resolved to find somewhere to stop on the way home and walk around a little bit. I know that getting off a bike and actually walking IS, in theory, possible (actually, if you get a flat, it's more than just theory). Chandra, ChipSeal, and I did it on the BABBLE ride, though I must say that ChipSeal looked a little like a seal attempting mountain climbing.

Anyway, my head filled with possible titles for this post. "Pull Over to the Side of the Road and Walk Away From the Bicycle" was one favorite. "Just Stop Cycling" was another.

Good intentions aside, I quickly concluded this walking stuff was highly overrated compared with making time before sunset. Still, a little influence from the above referenced "stop and look around or go for a walk" posts remained when I saw roses right alongside my route. Yes, roses, in early November. Quite a few of them, as you can see in the photo. I'll bet they've got nothing like this nowadays up in the frozen north!

So, ladies & gentlemen, I might not have actually gotten off the bike and gone for a leisurely walk, but I DID stop. I may be a cycling addict, but redemption might just be possible for us all. Proof that I actually got OFF the bike, if only for an instant, may be found below...

Buddy at rest

PS: Take a good look at Buddy - its next photo will show it stripped down for play action. Cyclocross!

Seven Long Miles

Seven Long Miles and Almost Home
Photograph by Steve

Today, RatTrapPress forwarded the following email:

Hey there... this is dogwoodlane,
I saw where the Alliance for Biking and Walking is having a photo contest in order to build there <sic, I just copied & pasted this> photo galleries and you guys came to mind. The prize is a trip to Tuscany, so you know, worth a shot!
peoplepoweredmovement.org
http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/index.php/site/photo-contest/welcome
cheers, Sally

Based on my experience, here, my first question was whether they're talking Tuscany, as in the province of the COUNTRY Italy or Tuscany, as in a subdivision of
 Italy, Texas. However, I put aside my cynical tendencies to propose the photo at the left. As an engineer, attempting to emulate an artsy fartsy type, I'll title it "Seven Long Miles and Almost Home" and enter it in the "walking" category. It's important for potential bike/walk people to realize that if you start out biking, you pretty almost always have the option to continue by walking, but if you start out by walking and those feet go out, you're SOL.

You can figure it all out by deciphering the following:
Life's slow when the family has left on vacation, you went to downtown Dallas, you didn't bring along any spare tubes or a pump, you have a blow out due to not using "hook bead" rims, and it's too nice a day to call friends to come and collect you - especially since you know they'll give you a hard time the whole way home anyway. Yup, I've got my "walking" entry. Submitted it tonight...

Hopefully, Lizzylou feels better about her batteries. Sometimes our advice is based on dumb stuff we got caught on ourselves!