andy reagan only the interesting stuff

Letter to representatives

How I start many posts, with the apology for lacks of posts, begins this as well. I still need to write about a lot of things, but here's a letter that I just sent to my representatives on behalf of peopleforbikes.org.

"The design of our built environment has a profound effect on our lives. Livable communities, those that support walking and biking as means of transportation, are healthier and more enjoyable places to live. It is a changes that we make before we are forced to make them that are the most difficult, and before we are forced to move ourselves more healthily and sustainably this is a decision that still has benefits today.

Please support continuing, dedicated funding for bicycling and walking programs in the next federal transportation bill.

These cost-effective investments are important to our community, our state, our nation and me. They cost less than 1.5 percent of annual federal transportation spending but fund 12 percent of all trips that Americans make.

Last year Americans made more than four billion bicycle trips. A record number were commutes to work and other short trips that would have otherwise been made by car. This significant shift to biking and walking not only reduces road congestion and air pollution, it promotes active lifestyles that make Americans healthier and saves governments money on road and parking construction and repairs.

Bike and pedestrian projects and programs funded by Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School, and Recreational Trails provide tremendous bang for each buck. In 2010, federal money supported more than 3,000 of them. These same dollars would build no more than 20 miles of new multi-lane highway in a single location. Bike projects are also particularly good for creating jobs.

Federal support is making bicycling and walking safer and providing Americans with essential transportation choices. But we still have far to go. We must not abandon this commitment now.

I urge you to contact your Transportation or Environment and Public Works Committee leaders to let them know that you support continuing, dedicated funding for biking and walking. Please protect the biking and walking components of Transportation Enhancements, as well as the Safe Routes to School, and Recreational Trails programs.

Thanks for standing up for me on this important issue.

Sincerely,

Andy Reagan"

Bicycle Safety

Since seeing the TED Talk by Mikael Colville-Anderson the case to not wear a helmet while riding a bicycle, I've searched the interwebs far and wide, devouring anti-car sentiments and governmental statistics.  Watch this first.

There is so much information out there, I can't really think of a great way to present it, so rather than rattle off some statistics...I've linked some of what I found to be the best information below.

Bicycle Almanac: Statistics about Safety, Fatalities, & Injuries

"There is no way to be alive and not take risks." De Clarke

Fear of Cycling 03 - Helmet Promotion Campaigns Mikael Colville-Anderson

There are a lot of takeaways.  Without getting too "radical" and suggesting that we take a rational look at car culture (which is killing 43,000 and costing $436 billion annually, promoting a sedentary lifestyle, paving the area of ohio and indiana combined in the past 30 years, and each American consuming/burning 435 gallon of oil/yr)...rail is by far the safest way to travel.  Bicycling can be made to look more dangerous than driving, or safer.  But I think a point is missed.  It's not that the biking is dangerous, it is that autos are dangerous to cyclists as well as themselves, other motorists, and people walking.  I'm not sure I like the dehumanizing term "pedestrians."  Safety aside, biking is the clear winner for health, for sustainability, and for livable cities (50% of the surface area of most cities is paved, combined parking for each car at 2500sq.ft./car).

That's all I've got for now, and certainly I am very hypocritical in denouncing car culture here, and driving home.  My excuse: weather? daylight? Doesn't matter really.  But I am trying to bike more miles than drive this year...and hey, that's a start.  With plentiful, cheap oil...living in a built environment designed from the road up for automobiles...it's tough to fight back or opt out of this system.  And I don't really plan on it, it's beyond my control.  Closing thoughts...I'll bike or walk whenever I can since it is good for me and is not unreasonably unsafe, and I'll have to let some of the information process.  Will I go "car-free"? Someday, when I can live near I work.  Heck, I already do that at college.  One of my requirements for a house was biking distance, and it works.