burn fat, not oil
think globally, bike locally
i heart hills
Showing posts with label biking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biking. Show all posts
Thursday, May 15, 2008
burn fat not oil
Bike Pittsburgh has a collection of stickers with great slogans. (Though they're sold out right now.) Here are a few of my favorites:
complete the streets
Complete the Streets is a project whose goal is to create streets designed for pedestrians, cyclists, people with disabilities, and cars - not just speeding cars. This is an amazing concept that I agree with wholeheartedly!
Complete streets improve safety. They reduce crashes through safety improvements. One study found that designing for pedestrian travel by installing raised medians and redesigning intersections and sidewalks reduced pedestrian risk by 28%. Complete streets also improve safety indirectly, by increasing the number of people bicycling and walking. A recently published international study found that as the number and portion of people bicycling and walking increases, deaths and injuries decline.
Complete streets encourage more walking and bicycling. Public health experts are encouraging walking and bicycling as a response to the obesity epidemic, and complete streets can help. One study found that 43 percent of people with safe places to walk within 10 minutes of home met recommended activity levels, while just 27% of those without safe places to walk were active enough. Residents are 65% more likely to walk in a neighborhood with sidewalks. A study in Toronto documented a 23% increase in bicycle traffic after the installation of a bicycle lane .
Complete streets can help ease transportation woes. Streets that provide travel choices can give people the option to avoid traffic jams, and increase the overall capacity of the transportation network. Several smaller cities have adopted complete streets policies as one strategy to increase the overall capacity of their transportation network and reduce congestion. An analysis by the Victoria Transportation Policy Institute found that non-motorized transportation options can replace some vehicle trips, and in urban areas where more people commute by foot or bicycle, people drive fewer miles overall. In Portland, Oregon, a complete streets approach has resulted in a 74 percent increase in bicycle commuting in the 1990s .
Complete streets help children. Streets that provide room for bicycling and walking help children get physical activity and gain independence. More children walk to school where there are sidewalks. And children who have and use safe walking and bicycling routes have a more positive view of their neighborhood. Safe Routes to School programs, gaining in popularity across the country, will benefit from complete streets policies that help turn all routes into safe routes.
Complete Streets are good for air quality. Air quality in our urban areas is poor and linked to increases in asthma and other illnesses. Yet if each resident of an American community of 100,000 replaced one car trip with one bike trip just once a month, it would cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 3,764 tons of per year in the community. Complete streets allow this to happen more easily.
Here are some of the benefits as listed on the Complete the Streets website:
Complete streets make economic sense. A balanced transportation system that includes complete streets can bolster economic growth and stability by providing accessible and efficient connections between residences, schools, parks, public transportation, offices, and retail destinations. Complete streets can reduce transportation costs and travel time while increasing property values and job growth. Research shows that building walkable streets and lowering automobile speeds can improve economic conditions for both residents and business owners, and anecdotal evidence indicates that home values increase on streets that have received complete streets treatments. (Drennen, Cervero, Burden)
Complete streets improve safety. They reduce crashes through safety improvements. One study found that designing for pedestrian travel by installing raised medians and redesigning intersections and sidewalks reduced pedestrian risk by 28%. Complete streets also improve safety indirectly, by increasing the number of people bicycling and walking. A recently published international study found that as the number and portion of people bicycling and walking increases, deaths and injuries decline.
Complete streets encourage more walking and bicycling. Public health experts are encouraging walking and bicycling as a response to the obesity epidemic, and complete streets can help. One study found that 43 percent of people with safe places to walk within 10 minutes of home met recommended activity levels, while just 27% of those without safe places to walk were active enough. Residents are 65% more likely to walk in a neighborhood with sidewalks. A study in Toronto documented a 23% increase in bicycle traffic after the installation of a bicycle lane .
Complete streets can help ease transportation woes. Streets that provide travel choices can give people the option to avoid traffic jams, and increase the overall capacity of the transportation network. Several smaller cities have adopted complete streets policies as one strategy to increase the overall capacity of their transportation network and reduce congestion. An analysis by the Victoria Transportation Policy Institute found that non-motorized transportation options can replace some vehicle trips, and in urban areas where more people commute by foot or bicycle, people drive fewer miles overall. In Portland, Oregon, a complete streets approach has resulted in a 74 percent increase in bicycle commuting in the 1990s .
Complete streets help children. Streets that provide room for bicycling and walking help children get physical activity and gain independence. More children walk to school where there are sidewalks. And children who have and use safe walking and bicycling routes have a more positive view of their neighborhood. Safe Routes to School programs, gaining in popularity across the country, will benefit from complete streets policies that help turn all routes into safe routes.
Complete Streets are good for air quality. Air quality in our urban areas is poor and linked to increases in asthma and other illnesses. Yet if each resident of an American community of 100,000 replaced one car trip with one bike trip just once a month, it would cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 3,764 tons of per year in the community. Complete streets allow this to happen more easily.
I would love to see this complete the streets initiative happening in Lebanon County - it seems particularly suited for Route 22.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
best cities for cycling
One of the other articles that encouraged me to start this was Bicycling magazine's Best Cities for Cycling. I was encouraged to read about cities implementing bike friendly policies, but couldn't help wondering - "what are more rural areas doing?"
Still, its worth checking out the cities that made the list.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
about bike walk run
bike walk run's goal is to promote awareness and safety for biking, walking, and running as forms of alternative transportation and fitness in Lebanon County, PA and surrounding areas.
Some of bike walk run's goals include:
-Promote and educate safe biking, walking, and running habits
-Promote and educate motorists on bike and pedestrian safety and awareness
-Encourage local businesses to support biking and walking by adding bike racks and making parking lots safer for pedestrians
-Lobby local and state government for safer roadways through the addition of wider shoulders, bike lanes, and bike and pedestrian paths
-Lobby for the creation of a Route 22 "greenway" through northern Lebanon County
This blog will be a gathering place for resources and information about biking, walking, and running.
about me
My name is Megan and I have lived in Jonestown, PA for most of my life. This blog has grown out of my love of running and my desire to abandon my car in favor of walking and biking. Unfortunately, I feel that many of the roads in Lebanon County are not safe enough to fully enjoy these activities. I would like to see that change. This blog will help serve as a resource as I (and hopefully others) promote bike and pedestrian awareness and safety in Lebanon County.
I've been a runner since junior high, when I joined the cross country team. I ran cross country and track my entire high school career. I ran only sporadically while in college, but fell back in love with the sport during graduate school. This past fall, I helped coach the Northern Lebanon cross country team, and will be helping again this fall. I'm totally addicted to running and can't imagine my life without it.
I started walking a lot as a method of transportation in graduate school. My apartment was near campus, and so I walked to the studio, to class, and around town. I always enjoyed seeing how many days I could go without getting in my car. Now that I'm back in PA, I've settled into bad habits - driving places that are easily walkable. I'm trying to get back into the hang of walking places whenever I can.
Biking is certainly the area where I feel least comfortable, but that only increases my desire to make the roads around here safer. My limited bike exposure (until recently) included a semester in undergrad where I attempted to bike to class, but got frustrated when Public Safety put notes on my bike saying I wasn't using the "approved lock". This winter, however, I started training for the Mt. Gretna Triathlon, and have since started to see the potential in biking.
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