Segment #6 Riding in the Rain

It's been raining for months in Austin TX so we are getting in lots of practice.

News:
Kryptonite has new program
LCRA is designing a new trail that has 700 miles of routes
http://www.lcra.org/community/crt_san_saba_county.html

IKEA and Google giving away bikes

Mike Librik on the use of mirrors

Safety Tip: Riding in the rain.

Segment #5 Teaching Bicycle Safety

Items in the news

Rise Above Tour
Bicycle parking at Airports
Lone Star Circle of Life
Jimmy Hudson on Retirement Living TV

Feature

Teaching LAB Road I

Tip

Bicycle mirror use

What’s in this segment of Safe Cycling!

News:

·         Fatal crashes in Louisville, Austin with news article in Tucson about a non-fatal crash.

·         ADA/NMSS working to raise safety level at major charity rides in partnership with LAB

·         Quick release bill in New Jersey is written to ban all bicycle sales with Quick Release hubs unless they have an invention that doesn’t exist

·         Bike rentals in Paris and Lyon are going well with hundreds of bicycles available across both cities.

Feature:

·         Austin Street Smarts Task Force

By P.J. LASSEK Tulsa World Staff Writer http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070602_1_A2_hTheh88311
6/2/2007

·         Street Smarts Task Force: When former Mayor of Austin, TX Bruce Todd took a bicycle ride with his local club, no one knew that it would change the face of bicycle safety in this active city that has recently been awarded the Silver Lever Bicycle Friendly Community award from the League of American Bicyclists. Mayor Todd’s ride was cut short by a still unexplained crash on a country road near Lockhart, TX. Rushed to the emergency room in Austin, he was in a coma for six weeks and took months to get back on a bike. He’s back to riding and back at work at his public relations firm, Bruce Todd Public Affairs. Recognizing that his helmet helped him survive life threatening or debilitating injury with relative minor long-term effects, Mayor Todd campaigned to have the city expand the current under 18 bicycle helmet ordinance to make it a requirement that every cyclist in Austin wear a bicycle helmet.

As you can imagine, this proposal raised a storm of emotions both for and against mandatory bicycle helmet use. After an avalanche of publicity a hearing was held in front of City Council. Starting at 6:30 pm the hearing lasted until after midnight as the 18 proponents were followed by over 50 opponents. The upshot of all the sound and fury was the formation of the Street Smarts Task Force to make recommendations to the City Council about a comprehensive bike safety program.

Note, this task force is really serious about education of the other people that impact bicyclist’s safety. The list that the Education Committee came up with for target audiences for special attention is pretty extensive. There are nine items on the list as follows:

1.       Adult Cyclists: Includes our traditional markets of recreation and transportation riders but should be enhanced to include non-English speaking, those who have lost their drivers licenses and those riders with handicaps.

2.       Educators: Includes teachers in schools and colleges and also health care workers and parents teaching outside of the school system. Requires age appropriate teaching materials for pre-K through Middle School.

3.       Motoring Public: Includes individuals, fleet drivers, driver’s education programs and associations that deal with them.

4.       Civic: Includes city and county governmental personnel including planners, design engineers, public works employees and parks and recreation employees as well as elected officials. Also includes the association that deals with them.

5.       Legal: Includes law enforcement, the court system (judges, district attorneys, parole officers) and the Department of MotorVehicles .

6.       Public Transit: Includes all modes of travel (bus, train, airplane) and associations that deal with them.

7.       Media: Includes all forms of media (print, radio, television and film) and all levels from local to national.

8.       Commercial: Includes small businesses and major corporations and would require materials aimed at commuting which includes discussions of health, fitness and cost benefits

9.       Advocacy: Includes people who are speaking in any venue about bicycling. Would need to provide information for local regional and national issues and suggestions for approaches.

One of the tasks of the subcommittee is set priorities for this list. Remember, the task force is working towards recommendations that can be given to the City Council so some of the above target markets will become low priority. The ninth one, the advocates, are not likely to be a high priority for any government agency.

Safety Tips: This week’s safe cycling tip comes from the League’s Guide to Safe and Enjoyable Cycling. On page 56 it says to Be Visible.

Always wear bright clothing to increase your visibility during the day, and use retro=reflective clothing or gear and proper lights (white in front and red in back)at dawn, dusk, or at night.

Ride predictably where you can be seen. Never ride against traffic even on the sidewalk.

Avoid riding in motorists’ blind spots like into the sun.

That’s the word on bicyclist safety and education for this segment. In the next segment we’ll cover the breaking news in the world of cycling and also spend some time covering the teaching of Road I, the nationally acclaimed bicycle safety program from the League.

Segment #3: The National Bike Ed 07 Conference

There is lots of news in this segment and discussions and interviews with people at the Bike Ed conference and the LCI Seminars that were held the week before.

Here is the list of breakout sessions from the conference:

The uphill and downhill of integrating bicycle safety into public schools
Inclusive bicycling education
Use of interactive video for education and advocacy

Partnering with the National MS Society
Bike Ed in Bike Shops � Better cyclists and customers
Bike Ed for engineers and planning professionals

Sharing best practices � Tucson/Pima County, AZ
Safe Routes to School � Delivering the best program
Teaching the Group Riding Skills Clinic (outside)
Marketplace of ideas

Sharing Best Practices � Washington Area Bicyclist Association
Education as a key to building a Bicycle Friendly Community
Teaching traffic skills basics

Sharing Best Practices � Florida Bicycle Association
Changing with the times � Reaching a new generation of cyclists
Classroom Skills � How to be a better teacher

Bike Ed in the Bike Club
Pedal Pioneers: Overnight bicycle adventures with kids
Teaching Parking Lot Drills (outside)
Marketplace of ideas.

This is a special podcast segment about 26 minutes long.

It includes the 10, actually 11, rules for creating positive change that were presented at the Bike Ed 07 conference in Austin, TX by Texas State Senator Kirk Watson.

Ten Rules for Creating Positive Change

Taken from a speech by Texas State Senator Kirk Watson delivered at the Bike Ed �07 Conference on June 16, 2007. Senator Watson is the former Mayor of Austin, TX, a cancer survivor and cyclist.

1.       Throw away the labels and think and be willing to hear.

2.       Listen carefully and speak plainly.

3.       You are never going to meet everyone�s requirements for perfection; so don�t even try.

4.       Be biased toward action.

5.       Never forget that hope matters.

6.       Short term focus with a long term vision.

7.       Know your core values, your core assets and be willing to admit your weaknesses.

8.       Avoid the nitpickers, naysayers and know-it-alls.

9.       Create new and different constituencies.

10.   Focus on the positive even with the situation may seem desperate.

11.   Know when to quit.

You will enjoy this sage advice from a good ol' boy from Texas. Please excuse the tonal quality, it was recorded with an Olympus handheld digital recorder on a table some distance away from the speaker.