Archive for June 2009
Be Interested in Bicycling
June 5, 2009 | 
Author Why should Federal land managers be interested in bicycling? Bicycling networks and programs
can assist land managers by:
- Reducing transportation-related pollution and impacts on the environment;
- Providing better access to remote/sensitive areas;
- Enhancing the quality of visitor experiences;
- Dispersing visitors away from heavily used developed areas;
- Reducing automobile-related congestion and parking shortages;
- Promoting good health among the participants; and
- Creating a more balanced transportation and recreation network to preserve the landscape for future generations.
Eighty-seven million people bicycle in the United States (Bikes Belong, 2006). The U.S. bicycle industry sold $6.2 billion in bicycles and equipment in 2005 (National Sporting Goods Association, 2005). Every state’s department of transportation has a bicycle and pedestrian coordinator and, as of 2003, 29 of the 50 states had adopted statewide bicycle or bicycle and pedestrian plans (Wilkinson and Chauncey, 2003).
The Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Federal Lands Highways Program (FLHP) recognizes the value of bicycling facilities as important transportation and recreation links to connect gateway communities, visitor centers, campgrounds, trailheads, and other attractions on Federal lands. FLHP partners with agencies such as the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) to plan, design, construct, and rehabilitate highways and bridges on public lands. Though many of the principles and practices in this guide are applicable to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Tribal lands, issues unique to the Tribes are beyond the scope of this guide.
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Bicycling Have All of the Rights and Duties
So to avoid hazardous conditions bicyclists should politely merge left, and ride nearer the center of a vehicle lane until the hazards are past — just as any other driver would do. Some may think this unsafe for bicyclists, but this is normal practice for all slow drivers: drive to the right when it’s safe, but use a full lane when needed. The law is the same for bicyclists precisely because this is the best and safest way to operate a bicycle in traffic. As one police chief says, “It’s just common sense and standard traffic rules.”
This is called Cooperative Cycling (also known as Vehicular Cycling and Bicycle Driving). It is the only national standard for safe bicycling that is based upon using all the standard traffic rules to politely cooperate with other drivers. There is extensive science to support it: the decades of overall traffic-safety studies, plus studies of common bicycle and car/bike crashes, and studies of how the most-experienced cyclists log thousands of miles this way in traffic, year after year, yet have 80% fewer accidents than untrained cyclists.
Of course, there is much more to it. Cooperative Cyclists ride in a straight line along with traffic, and move sideways by politely merging; exactly the same way other drivers change lanes. They create a safe-space zone around the bicycle by riding about 4 ft. away from parked cars, curbs, or hazards. They merge, yield, and change lanes just like other drivers. They always use lights at night. They avoid getting squeezed in narrow lanes or when hazards are ahead by politely merging left, and riding near the center of a vehicle lane until the hazard is past.
Cyclist education is the key to cyclist safety. Everyone operates in traffic throughout their lives: children walk and ride on sidewalks (with cross traffic at driveways), cross the streets, and then bicycle on neighborhood roads. Later they bike in traffic, and then start driving.