Bikeboard November 2008

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9 participants
22 discussions

bike rack sources
by Chip Wamsley 13 Nov '08

13 Nov '08

Here is a list of sites of interest with regard to bicycle parking. 1)http://toronto.ca/cycling/postandring.html this site is for the city of Toronto, not a specific manufacturer, but it has lots of good info about racks and all sorts of bike policies. 2)http://www.theparkcatalog.com A manufacturer of all types of park and streetscape items including bike racks. The flare style rack seems to be the best in terms of simple clean design and the lowest price at $77/unit vs similar racks in the $200-$500/unit price range. It also comes in a thermoplastic coating which should maintain its appearance and be kind to bike finishes (the only company I found offering this finish). Highland Products is located in Oklahoma with offices in Boca Raton, FL. 3)http://www.madrax.com Also a maker of bike racks including bike lockers (check out the wedge designs--4units/90 degrees @ $1825/unit). Their other bike racks are available in three finishes: galvanized, powder coat, or stainless. Prices for their 2 bike bollard model BOL450-1 are $189, $239 and $679 for the three respective finishes. Madrax is located in Wisconsin. 4)http://www.bikeparking.com They have an interesting circle design in the usual three finishes, pricing is on their site. The Palmer Group is located in San Francisco. 5)http://www.bikerack.ca/products.html They produce the classic post and ring racks for Toronto. This cast design's ring can be broken and looks to be hard on bike finishes, They are located in Montreal, Canada. Submitted by Chip W.

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Re: [Bikeboard] state wide bike meeting
by Frank Gmeindl 13 Nov '08

13 Nov '08

Kim, If you're trying to identify actions and accomplishments for making the State more bicycle friendly, Morgantown's application for the LAB Bicycle Friendly Community award provides a good summary for Morgantown. The application is available at http://www.morgantown.com/bike-board-documents/BFC%20Application.zip on the City's web site http://www.morgantown.com/. We didn't win the award but it helped us focus our efforts on the 5Es around which the application criteria are organized: Education, Enforcement, Engineering, Encouragement and Evaluation. The attached pdf file is LAB's feedback to our application. Since our BFC application, we have received WVDOH approval to apply Shared Lane Markings (sharrows) and Bicycles May Use Full Lane signs to select Morgantown roadways. The attached file, Chevron_press_release_v003.doc describes these. The City has put $35K in the budget for these this year. Also since our application, the State has given us a WV Transportation Enhancement Program grant for a Morgantown Effective Cycling Education Program. Attached is the final draft of our application that explains the education program. Could you help us with the Social Marketing part? Also at http://www.morgantown.com/bike-board-documents/Accommodating_Bicycles_prese… on the City's website is a Morgantown Bicycle Board presentation, /Accommodating Bicycles/, to the Greater Morgantown Metropolitan Planning Organization that provides a plan and goals for accommodating bicycles in the Morgantown Metropolitan Statistical Area. I know I've pointed you at a lot of stuff. We've been working on this for over two years. Reviewing the attached items might help us hit the ground running when we meet. Frank Gmeindl LCI #1703 /Bicycles fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles/ Kimberly Jo Broughton wrote: > I will! Thank you Frank! > > Frank Gmeindl wrote: >> Kim, >> >> Thanks for thinking of me. Let me know when and where. >> >> Frank >> >> Kimberly Jo Broughton wrote: >>> Hey Frank, >>> Bill Reger-Nahs suggest I touch base with you on a meeting I am >>> working with Bill Robinson to set up regarding the State's next >>> response to the League of American Bicyclists survey that was used >>> to rank states for biking. The report is due in March and we would >>> like to get bike leaders together and catalog the State's activities >>> in regards to the survey. I noticed one item in the report I think >>> you are personally doing and could change a no answer to a yes. >>> >>> Nothing has been set up yet as far as places, dates or times. I >>> just wanted to let you know we are working on organizing it and want >>> to do all we can to make sure you can be there. I would appreciate >>> any feedback that could help with that. >>> Thank you! >>> Kim Broughton >>> PARK manager >>> Adventure Pursuit >>> >>> >> >> > >

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Parking tomorrow
by Frank Gmeindl 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

Bicycle Board Members, This is a reminder that we're meeting tomorrow, Thursday, 13-Nov., 7:30 PM at the Public Safety Center Conference Room (our usual place) to continue developing a bicycle parking plan for downtown. Frank

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Re: [Bikeboard] Barcelona bike-sharing program - NY Times
by Frank Gmeindl 11 Nov '08

11 Nov '08

Good for a Transportation Enhancement Program grant application, I'd say. Who wants to lead the effort? Frank director wrote: > Good evening, > I received this from a friend in Chicago. > > btw I took pictures of the DC system when I was there last month for anyone who's interested. > Nick > > ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- > From: lee ravenscroft <leeravenscroft(a)yahoo.com> > Reply-To: leeravenscroft(a)yahoo.com > Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:11:56 -0800 (PST) > > http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/world/europe/10bike.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bi… > > BARCELONA, Spain — In increasingly green-conscious Europe, there are said to be only two kinds of mayors: those who have a bicycle-sharing program and those who want one. > > Over the last several years, the programs have sprung up and taken off in dozens of cities, on a scale no one had thought possible and in places where bicycling had never been popular. > > The sharing plans include not just Paris’s Vélib’, with its 20,000 bicycles, but also wildly popular programs with thousands of bicycles in major cities like Barcelona and Lyon, France. There are also programs in Pamplona, Spain; Rennes, France; and Düsseldorf, Germany. Even Rome, whose narrow, cobbled streets and chaotic traffic would seem unsuited to pedaling, recently started a small trial program, Roma’n’Bike, which it plans to expand soon. > > For mayors looking to ease congestion and prove their environmental bona fides, bike-sharing has provided a simple solution: for the price of a bus, they invest in a fleet of bicycles, avoiding years of construction and approvals required for a subway. For riders, joining means cut-rate transportation and a chance to contribute to the planet’s well-being. > > The new systems are successful in part because they blanket cities with huge numbers of available bikes, but the real linchpin is technology. Aided by electronic cards and computerized bike stands, riders can pick up and drop off bicycles in seconds at hundreds of locations, their payments deducted from bank accounts. > > “As some cities have done it, others are realizing they can do it, too,” said Paul DeMaio, founder of MetroBike, a bicycle transportation consulting company based in Washington, D.C., that tracks programs worldwide. “There is an incredible trajectory.” > > The huge new European bicycle-sharing networks function less as recreation and more as low-cost alternate public transportation. Most programs (though not Paris’s) exclude tourists and day-trippers. > > Here in Barcelona, streets during rush hour are lined with commuters and errand-goers on the bright red bicycles of Bicing, the city’s program, which began 18 months ago. Bicing offers 6,000 bicycles from 375 stands, which are scattered every few blocks; the bikes seem to be in constant motion. > > “I use it every day to commute; everyone uses it,” said Andre Borao, 44, an entrepreneur in a gray suit with an orange tie, as he prepared to ride home for lunch. “It’s convenient, and I like the perspective of moving through the streets.” > > The expanding program in Barcelona is typical of so-called third-generation programs, which rely heavily on technology. (In its first generation, bike-sharing involved scattering old bikes around the streets, where they could be used for free; second-generation programs accepted coins.) > > Here, a customer buys a yearly membership for about $30 and is issued a smart card that allows the rider to remove a bike from a mechanized dock. The first 30 minutes are free, with a charge of 30 cents per half-hour after that. A bike must be returned to any bike rack in the network within two hours or the card may be deactivated. > > Most programs in Germany and Austria work on a different system; members receive cellphone text messages providing codes to unlock the bikes. > > Copenhagen and Amsterdam have had devoted bicycling commuters for many years. But the new programs have created the greatest transportation revolution in central and southern Europe, where warmer climates allow riders to ride comfortably year-round. The shared bicycles in Barcelona, Lyon and Paris are heavily used, logging about 10 rides a day, according to officials in these cities. > > In North America, issues like insurance liability, a stronger car culture, longer commutes and a preference for wearing helmets have slowed adoption of bicycle-sharing programs. None of the European programs require helmets. Still, Washington and Montreal are experimenting with small projects, and Chicago, Boston and New York are studying options. > > Perhaps the best indication that bicycle-sharing has arrived is this: Shanghai, which 10 years ago was trying to eliminate bicycles from some of its boulevards to make way for cars, opened a pilot bike-sharing stand last month. > > In most European cities, advertisers have been given contracts to set up and maintain bicycle-sharing programs in exchange for the rights to sell advertisements on city-owned structures like bus stations. > > “We provide a turnkey program,” said Martina Schmidt, bike-sharing director of Clear Channel Outdoors, which now runs programs in 13 European cities and recently started its first American program, the one in Washington. “We give the city what they’re looking for, and they give us space to sell.” > > Here in Barcelona, the Bicing program has had its glitches, reflecting, in part, its unexpected popularity. > > On Barcelona’s outskirts, users complain that the program’s racks, each with up to 36 bikes, can run out toward the end of the morning rush hour, leaving customers temporarily stranded. Likewise, docking sites downtown are sometimes full, so riders have to search for parking. > > Car owners complain about the removal of parking spots to accommodate new bike lanes; the city has about 80 miles of lanes, after rapidly expanding the lanes in the past two years. > > Barcelona’s downtown business district is in a geographic bowl, compared with most residential neighborhoods, so while many people want to ride downtown to work, fewer want to ride bikes home. Directed by controllers at a command station, Bicing’s 100 employees use trucks to rebalance the system, taking bikes to where they are needed. > > City officials seem a bit overwhelmed. > > “For the moment, it will not grow anymore,” said Ramón Ferreiro, an official with Bicing. “We now have to consolidate and start working so that maintenance is adequate, and improve the system at all levels.” > > Even with the growing pains, José Monllor, a graduate student, says he now rides to class instead of driving his car. “It stays in the parking lot,” he said of his car. “It’s stupid to drive.” > > The impact of bike-sharing on traffic or emissions is difficult to quantify because converts include people like Mr. Monllor, who would have driven, as well as those who would have taken public transportation. > > Officials in Lyon, one of the first cities to institute a large technology-driven bike program, estimate that bike-sharing has eliminated tons of pollutants since its inception in 2005. But more than that, they say, it has changed the face of the city. > > “The critical mass of bikes on the road has pacified traffic,” said Gilles Vesco, vice mayor in charge of the program in Lyon. “Now, the street belongs to everybody and needs to be better shared. It has become a more convivial public space.” > > > > > > > > > -- > Nick Hein > Director, Positive Spin > Morgantown, WV > ph 304-276-0213 > -- > > > _______________________________________________ > Bikeboard mailing list > Bikeboard(a)cheat.org > http://cheat.org/mailman/listinfo/bikeboard > > >

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Education Grant
by Frank Gmeindl 11 Nov '08

11 Nov '08

Bicycle Board Members, This is a call for the Education Committee members to renew their commitment to the Education Program. It is also a call for any Bicycle Board member to volunteer to become an Education Committee Member to implement the $74K Effective Bicycling Education Program grant that we got. Please reply. First, I want to recognize and thank the people who got us this far. Marilyn, Chip and Don Dickerson worked several evenings creating the recommendations for the Education Program that the Traffic Commission reviewed and approved. Bill Reger-Nash, Greg Good, Chip, Nick and Jeff Mikorski worked through several drafts under deadline pressure to submit the Transportation Enhancement Program grant on time. And now, the fun starts. The next step is to re-organize the Education Committee and to make a plan to do what we promised in the grant application. (Attached) If we are going to involve WVU faculty and staff, we need to have a plan finished this month so that we can engage them before finals and the next semester begins. To be able to reimburse people working on the grant, the City required that the application identify a registered business entity through whom they could pay the reimbursements. You'll see in the grant application an organization chart that shows Positive Spin administering the grant. Last week, Nick and I met with Jeff Mikorski, Assistant City Manager. Following are the notes from that meeting. ******************* On 7-November, Nick Hein and Frank Gmeindl met with Jeff Mikorski to define the accountability relationships between Positive Spin, the Bicycle Board and the City. *Action Items* 1. Nick will obtain a model contract used by other not-for-profit organizations that have worked with governments. 2. Frank and Nick will participate in a 20-Nov. 2:00 pm meeting at the City Manager's office with the WVDOH to review the Scope of Work of the Morgantown Effective Bicycling Education Program. *Conclusions* 1. The City has escrowed $34K that can be used for up-front costs for the Morgantown Effective Bicycling Education Program. 2. Vendors will bill the City Manager directly for work that they do on the Program. For example, if the Dominion Post runs ads, the Dominion Post will bill the City. 3. For work done by entities that are not licensed businesses, Positive Spin will record their expenses and a justification on a monthly invoice that the Bicycle Board will approve and submit to the City Manager. 4. The grant period is 3 years but the funds can be spent in less than 3 years. 5. The City needs a contract with Positive Spin that defines roles and responsibilities of Positive Spin and the City. 6. The sequence of activities that lead up to the contract are: a) organize the Bicycle Board Education Committee; b) Develop detailed project plan; c) Develop and execute contract. 7. Jeff Mikorski can publish materials such as graphics and public service announcements on TV channel 15. Frank /Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles/

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Challenging Car Culture on Campus
by Frank Gmeindl 09 Nov '08

09 Nov '08

Bicycle Board Members, At Don Spencer's request, I'm sending you the following link to an article about how various college campuses are challenging the car culture with bikes: http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_read.asp?id=1081710232008 I find the article interesting because it relates failures as well as ideas for success. Frank

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Traffic Skills 101
by Frank Gmeindl 08 Nov '08

08 Nov '08

Bicycle Board Members, If you haven't completed the League of American Bicyclists' Road I course, I encourage you to take Traffic Skills 101. Attached is information about the course. Most Bicycle Board members have completed the Road I course. In addition to learning how to ride safely and fearlessly, I am confident that they will tell you that they have learned knowledge and skills from the course that are essential to effective and responsible participation on the Bicycle Board. Traffic Skills 101 is LAB's new version of Road I. Frank /Same Roads Same Rights Same Rules /

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Hey guys.... I'd like to get some volunteers to h...
by Derek Springston 07 Nov '08

07 Nov '08

Hey guys.... I'd like to get some volunteers to help out with the GPS mapping of Morgantown's existing bike parking. If you're interested, please contact me and tell me what kind of GPS unit you have. I may be able to direct you to get me files that I can easily work with. If not, at least giving me the coordinates will work. I'll try to find some files or a map for the different wards and perhaps we can divide it up that way??? If anyone has a map of some shapefiles of the different wards, I could definitely use them. I'll look around, too and see if I can locate them. I'll take care of the downtown area hopefully this weekend, so that will be part of our initial pilot project. I encourage you to do it on bike like I'll do, but I won't turn down data if you feel you need to do it by car. Your help would be great! Thanks again. ~Derek Springston _________________________________________________________________ See how Windows® connects the people, information, and fun that are part of your life http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/119463819/direct/01/

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Re: [Bikeboard] Mid-Ohio Valley Critical Mass Ride
by director 05 Nov '08

05 Nov '08

Frank, Kim (author of the letter) was just referred to me by a cycling activist in Charleston. We're in the process of connecting with Parkersburg activists to see how we can coordinate our efforts and resources. At Max's Challenge I was also uncomfortable with police cars escorting us, however I'd be fine with police on bikes doing it and I'm going to recommend it for next year's event. The uphill challenge will feature a different student, planning is now underway if anyone is interested. Nick -------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Frank Gmeindl <fgmeindl(a)verizon.net> Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:23:12 -0500 >Bicycle Board Members, > >This may give us some good ideas although the idea of police escorting >cyclists and stopping motor vehicle traffic kind of rubs me the wrong >way. But, these people are definitely well organized and effective. > >http://www.iplayoutside.com/oPam/communities/1/news_items/68 > >Frank > > >_______________________________________________ >Bikeboard mailing list >Bikeboard(a)cheat.org >http://cheat.org/mailman/listinfo/bikeboard > -- Nick Hein Director, Positive Spin Morgantown, WV ph 304-276-0213 --

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Mid-Ohio Valley Critical Mass Ride
by Frank Gmeindl 05 Nov '08

05 Nov '08

Bicycle Board Members, This may give us some good ideas although the idea of police escorting cyclists and stopping motor vehicle traffic kind of rubs me the wrong way. But, these people are definitely well organized and effective. http://www.iplayoutside.com/oPam/communities/1/news_items/68 Frank

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