A device to change lights to green

Most cyclist will have experienced traffic lights that never change until a car comes along. The best solution is often to go to the pedestrian button and press it although this is inconvenient. Many just jump the lights after a couple of minutes waiting, which promotes the idea that the road laws do not apply to bikes. In South Carolina they have changed the law to permit bikes to jump the lights after a 2 minute wait.
The problem is that the inductive sensors at traffic lights are only tripped by vehicles with sufficient mass, which includes cars and trucks but not bikes. Pedal mobility, as usual, was not included in the road concept.
A new invention will allow bikes to carry a switch to change the lights at will. So far the device has been patented but is not yet in production.
Is it legal or is it interfering with traffic signals? This question is yet to be clarified but it is clearly safer to be able to activate the light switch than to risk crossing the road against the lights

'Road Fatalities Map'

The Victorian Road Fatalities Map visualises the daily car-nage caused on the roads and other spaces. The interactive Googlemap is updated daily, visualising the place and mode by which a person's life has been changed or erased. "More than 256 drivers, motorcyclists and pedestrians have already been killed this year..." in Victoria, Australia. The icon and the above stats make it hard to differentiate between push- bikes and CO2 pumping motor bikes. There is no indication how such data gathering is utilised to prevent deaths and injuries in a risk society.

There is a U.S. mash-up 'Safe Roads Maps' , using the Fatality Analysis Reporting System with Google Maps by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Excellence in Rural Safety.

A' flickr' for GPS tracks

Timatio is a web service 'to share your GPS tracks and waypoints'. Whether you are walking (barefoot) , hiking, cycling or sailing, you can put your tracklogs and waypoints in this open source database and share it with whoever you like. The social networking side is still expanding on this alpha site. At the moment Google maps are being used, but later it is planned to incorporate Open Street Maps (traces).
It offers tags, just uploaded trax with countries and users' profiles. At this stage it seems to have a positive bias towards carbon-free mobility and the use of public transport.

Via futurezone.orf.at
Image: Bike Artist via Zeno

Demanding Safer Cycling Conditions

700 cyclist were demanding safer cycling conditions in Melbourne today. A cyclist died there last month, when she was hit by a tour bus. Despite the 'National Ride to Work Day' hype, a lot of urban planning needs to be done on Australian cities and sub-urbia.
Safe, physically separated cycle and walking paths, before all the gadgets of helmets, fluorescent plastic clothing etc. Provide the infrastructure for safe mobility without the stink and life-threatening dangers. Target the mind-set of 'speeding'.

Image: altered 'Time is Money', H.Haluschka,1938 via Zeno

Human Tracks navigating the Earth - Etched in Stone

Updates on human locomotion - our bipedal evolution goes back 345,000 years and more, the oldest ever dated.

Three fossilized trackways of human footprints, discovered by a nameless 'amateur' in 2003 have now been confirmed to be that of Homo heidelbergensis. Possibly the direct predecessor of the Neanderthaler. Their fossilized human trackway was embedded in the volcanic ash of the Roccamonfina volcano in southern Italy. (image) "The track makers had a fully bipedal (two-footed) and free-standing gait and used their arms only for support or to regain balance in very steep areas." They are the oldest known tracks made by fully bipedal humanity . We know, that they used ochre and threw spears around in Schöningen.de. They also lived with European lions, mammoths and Irish elk.

We walked upright for 340,000 years,
but only relied on propelling ourselves by internal combustion for the last 200 years.
The last ride on Peak oil will only be a blink in history.

Engraved footprint (mundoes: Image, image ) by the Eora people, Sydney tell the story of our continuous wandering the Earth. Footprints on rock, whether as fossil or as artifact inform narratives about navigating the planet. The Sydney area has thousands of prehistoric Aboriginal rock engravings (petroglyphs), on soft Hawkesbury sandstone. These cultured/encoded land-scapes are unique. Today, many mounting-bikes mark and crack the the signed Earth in 'protected' National Parks. The engravings, the landscape, the story and bipedal ambiance is for ever consumed.

Images: Rockengravings 'mundoes'/footprints/tracks of the Eora people, Sydney

Bikes for transportation - easy & fast velos

In Sydney, Manly families arrive with their SUVs, unpack the mostly dysfunctional bikes onto pedestrian paths and wonder why it is no fun to cycle. The other version of bike arrives (mostly) on top of the car. The mountain-bike riders are fully clad in plastic uniform, seeking a free gym.

All have in common that it is terribly un-chic to have a bike rack at the back or a basket at the front to carry any goods. People might think, they can not afford a car! That's what the suv is for, driven to the next mall/super-market it is filled with all the bulging plastic bags and driven home, around the corner to bland-burbia. There are many spare 'exercise-bikes' standing around in garages.

In Berlin it seemes normal to take the kids out on a velo-cycle. Do the shopping and carry loads on bikes. A lot of places/shops provide bike racks right in front of their businesses. Businesses deliver on cargo bikes. In Sydney they need a rocket to deliver a bit of dough wrapped in cardboard.

"Amazingly, only about 40 percent of Copenhageners own cars, even though this is the capital city of one of the richest countries in the world. Sure, vehicles are taxed heavily but the reason is simply because we have the infrastructure in place for bicycles and we have a rather good public transport system.
Even 50 percent of the citizens of Berlin do not own a vehicle, for the same reasons. Fifty eight percent of Copenhageners, when polled, say that they ride their bike because it is easy and fast. Only one percent say they do in order to help the environment." LA Times 0908 More on velo bikes there!

Images: Berlin Mitte velos

Magpies swooping

Recently I have been swooped by a couple of Magpies, sometimes with painful results. They seem to have the bicycle exits to my suburb covered. The usual response of the media and the "person on the street" is that the magpies are a menace and behaving somehow irrationally. But they are native fauna, they were here first and play an important role in the ecosystem as well as singing beautifully, and they are trying to protect their habitat in breeding season. They also cause far less damage and injury to cyclists than armoured road users which are tolerated and encouraged. So here are a few tried and tested solutions which do not require the eradication of other species:

• Cover your ears - wear a soft hat which covers your ears under your helmet and sunglasses so the bird can peck where it wants to without causing any harm. This will not appeal to fashion cyclists dressed up in colourful plastic suits but is totally effective.
• With your hat on, think about the pleasure of being accompanied by such a beautiful large bird when cycling.
• Try another helmet colour. I never had this problem until I bought a new shiny-metallic blue helmet. I once observed a magpie chasing off a snake in the bush. They are very responsive to particular shapes and forms. The other day I followed another bike into magpie territory and it ignored the other cyclist but swooped me. They discriminate.
• Beware in particular areas such as magpie habitats which are being disturbed by building sites, or where a lot of children have recently moved in and play on the street. Some kids are unkind to birds. These things make them irritable. In quiet suburban streets, the magpies like to just walk about without feeling the need to swoop on anyone.
• Watch the shadows. Your first warning of a bird approaching can be seen on the ground.
• If all else fails, get off your bike, take off the helmet, and walk out of the magpie's territory. It will leave you alone when you are walking.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge for Bikes

The Sydney Harbour Bridge with train tracks, the bikes of many and of course the first cars.
After the big fossil fuel orgy, large bike tracks will accompany the trains. The absence of noise and pollution from cars will make it enjoyable to cross the harbour.
Image: via the collections of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Flickr

Shared bike-pedestrian paths

The RTA was promoting shared foot-bikepaths as part of bicycle week. Shared ways can get bikes off the roads, thus facilitating traffic for cars, but it should not be mistaken as being of benefit for bicycles, or pedestrians.
When busy cycle paths are shared with pedestrians, it is a disaster for bicycle mobility. We have seen this in Manly where the nicest cycle path in Sydney, along the beach promenade, has been made into a share way. It doesn't work as a bike path anymore. This used to be the only dedicated cycle path in the area.
Similarly, when a busy footpath is made into a share way, the bikes appear to hassle people walking as they can't get anywhere. It ruins the walking space for pedestrians.
Shared facilities only make sense when a path is little used by bikes or walkers. Then it works well.
Promoting shared paths in Manly, Sydney's most visited tourist destination, especially in the most crowded areas, arouses the suspicion of a hidden agenda - to get bikes off the roads. Bad luck for the pedestrians but keep the gas guzzlers rolling.
To achieve positive outcomes for cyclists, they need their own organisation. Just as cars have a roads and motorist association, bikes need a bike-paths and cyclists association. Then the transport planning organisations may become inclined to promote Bike Week as an event for bikes, for dedicated cycle paths, not just to promote pushing bikes onto the footpaths in an attempt to make the dysfunctional motorised traffic flow.

Ploughing Vehicles into Pedestrian's Spaces

Alcoholised learner driver kills one pedestrian and injures another as his car mounts a footpath in Melbourne.
A teenager with three times the permissible alcohol limit was doing 150km/h in a 60 zone. After crashing into a traffic light and tree, the car mounted the footpath (image & here) killing one pedestrian and seriously injuring the other. The surviving pedestrian is suffering from "head injuries, fractures to his leg, and possible fractures to his pelvis." The 19 year old learner driver injured his wrist. >via Southbank crash driver 'drunk and speeding', The Age, 011008
- If nothing effective can be done against speeding and alcoholised drivers, should not the urban territory and its pedestrian paths (and cycle paths) be studded with bars? - Just in case.
Image: Artifacts excluding motorised vehicles from spaces where non-armoured bodies move.

Air Bags for Pedestrians

Finally, the air-bag for pedestrians is out. As the world's urban tanks are arming themselves with more war-like capsules etc, navigation for the unarmoured (human) body becomes a death-defying challenge in the urban environment.
Ploughing into pedestrian groups on their territory occurs more often now. A market niche could develop here, selling 'safety' gadgets to people wishing to move their bodies amongst the petrol-powered shooting objects. At this stage the gadget is intended for frail seniors and rehab.

Image: Pushy motorists Berlin, Mitte

The value of quiet and clean streets

The less driving there is through an anthropogenic environment, the more community and health is established. Traffic fragments community not just physically, but also socially. Motor traffic makes all living beings sick and disconnects them. The roar of traffic is literally eroding the quality of life. Noise, vibration and chemical particle pollution is incompatible with living bodies wanting to mingle in such polluted spaces.

"Growing car dependence is creating an epidemic of deteriorated mental and physical health associated with air and noise pollution, inactivity and road deaths and injuries."

With less carbon-intensive mobility, people perceive spaces as 'homes' in which to 'put down roots'. In a car-obsessed country like Australia, with sub-urban dwellings sprawling over the coasts it might be some time before that 'drive through-feeling' on the 'road to no-where' is replaced by sustainable mobility.
Via The Guardian 190908
Stencil, Frankfurt/Main, de

Pedestrian helmets should be compulsory

If bicycle helmets are compulsory because of the head injuries that cars can cause to cyclists, and not because bikes are themselves dangerous, why are they not compulsory for pedestrians?

Especially child pedestrians are in danger of head injuries from the roo-bars, or bull-bars which are placed on the front of "family cars" at head height for kids. "Head injury is the most common injury type in child pedestrian accidents ".

Let's be consistent. Compulsory helmets for all, always. Why discriminate?

Image: Creativity in public places, Berlin

Bicycle evolution

For some, bicycles are perceived as old technology, like a stage in the development of the car. Deep in their unconscious, motorists believe they have the right to bump off cyclists who are seen as evolutionary losers. Survival of the fittest.
This is of course not true and bikes will outlive the road dinosaurs if their emissions don’t make us all extinct first.
Many cyclists also still think in terms of bikes as they were decades ago. They learnt what they know when they were kids from their dads. A lot of bike riders never blow up their tyres enough and consequently don’t get the full pleasure of rolling along easily. Biking is experienced as hard work.
Bicycle tyres “these days” can be inflated to a high pressure. Read the text on the tyres - mine say they can go up to 100 psi. In the “old days” this would have blown out the tyre or tube or both. Cyclists were warned about using car tyre pumps in garages.
It is very hard to achieve anything like 100 psi with a little hand pump.
I bought a two-hand floor pump with a gauge. A few pumps and the tyres were 80 psi, much harder than they had ever been. The effect was amazing. The ride is slightly more bumpy, but it is so much easier and free from road resistance.
Although a modern bike looks basically the same, almost all of its parts have been through major improvements. Tyres, brakes, gears, lights, frame all require rethinking on the part of users. A fold-up bike is now stable and high-tech. An old-style Holland bike now has some interesting technology including integrated locking, a quality dynamo and halogen lights.

Organic food deliveries by bikes

There are bikes with which to transport one's organic foods. In Florida, Sarasota-based Harvest Cycle provides home and bulk deliveries of organic produce.
It makes no sense to pick up produce with that high-emission urban tank. The red bike fleet (image) belongs to a fast-food no-emission delivery joint in Berlin.
Here in Sydney, it appears normal to use an urban tank to get organic vegetables from shops. The organic delivieries I've seen around here are done by truck, idling while delivering. At the organic markets, they drive right in. But one day...

Safety in numbers

Cycling is safest in places where there are more cyclists. An increase in the number of cyclists does not result in more injuries, but fewer, because cars become more aware of bikes and drive more carefully. The best way to make cycling safer is to promote bike use.
This is independent of infrastructure. More cycle paths may improve the quality of the cycling experience, but attitudes are the main factor in safety. Cyclists must be perceived to have a presence and rights on the roads.
Cycling is not dangerous
Policies which create the impression that bikes are dangerous discourage cycling and reduce the number of bikes on the roads, thereby increasing the danger from cars. Compulsory helmet wearing implies that cycling is dangerous, whereas it is the motor vehicles that cause head injuries to other road users. Cars continue to be fitted with impact devices such as roo-bars (bull-bars) designed to injure pedestrians and cyclists but protect the vehicles. The victims are advised or required to wear helmets.
Obligatory helmet wearing is a danger to cyclists. It gets bikes off the roads. When helmet laws were introduced in Western Australia, bike use fell by 30%, but head injury rates decreased by 13% so the risk of injury per cyclist increased.

Going out
In bicycle-friendly places, urban citizens dress up and go out on bikes to entertainment events such as opera or theatre, often in formal clothing and hats. People go out on bikes without having to wear special protective ‘armour’ to fend off the danger from less responsible road users. If legislation prohibits this, the number of cyclists drops as it has in Australia. Only ‘serious cyclists’ are seen, sporty types, dressed in tight plastic sausage-like skins, and going fast like a wannabe car. Cycling is predominantly racing, independent of other purposes like shopping or going out. Leisurely cycling is unknown.
Images: Konstanz de

Bike technology

Exhibition of new bike technology in Europe