Posts about Wisconsin

Bicycling

Weekend video: How bike shops encourage bicycling

by David Alpert   •   July 31, 2011 12:18 pm

Many factors affect whether people bicycle, from access to bikes, to topography, to bike lanes, to parking and showers at work. One other important yet less often discussed factor is access to bike shops.

In this video, Milwaukee's Keith Holt discusses how bike shops, especially in low-income communities and communities of color, can help children and adults start bicycling and then make it a regular activity.

Bicycling

Transportation across the nation: from fantasy to reality

by David Alpert   •   October 9, 2008 12:19 pm

Boston's big blank Boylston wall: The Globe's Alex Beam criticizes Boston's new Mandarin Oriental, whose long, flat facade lacks cafes or stores and (at least in Beam's opinion) looms too darkly over the street.

The best Boston fantasy map yet: Vanshnookenraggen has a new and really nice looking future MBTA map combining commuter, heavy and light rail.

More free bikes: A Wisconsin college is offering free bikes to students who don't bring a car. (I still ride the bike I got for free during college while interning at Microsoft.) WashCycle suggests DC schools take a page from this idea and contribute to SmartBike kiosks on their campuses.

Less free parking: New York is implementing performance parking in Greenwich Village and on a segment of Brooklyn's Kings Highway.

Pro-bike, pro-pedestrian California politicians: The California legislature recently passed two important pieces of legislation: a Complete Streets Act, requiring local transportation plans to "meet the needs of ... pedestrians, bicyclists, users of public transit, motorists, children, the elderly, and the disabled," and Fair Share for Safety, "to ensure that the needs of bicyclists and pedestrians are addressed in the development of its safety programs."

Bicycling

Police, prosecutors in Wisconsin town say cyclists have no right to the road

by David Alpert   •   October 3, 2008 10:04 am

The bailout bill that recently passed the Senate contains a host of little tax provisions. One of them extends the commuter tax benefit to bicycling. Qualified benefits include:

the purchase of a bicycle and bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment.

Bicycle commuters in at least one Wisconsin town might have a tough time feeling safe while using their tax benefit. When Milwaukee-area cyclist Jeff Frings reported a driver almost running him off the road, police in Brookfield, Wisconsin told him he had "no right to be in an active traffic lane if [he's] not going the speed limit." Shockingly, the town prosecutor actually issued a legal opinion backing them up. (Local attorneys and Milwaukee police agree Brookfield is absolutely wrong.)

After a run-in with a road raging driver who threatened him bodily harm when he was riding his bicycle, Frings attached a camera to his bicycle helmet, and has captured hundreds of clips of drivers passing far too close, sometimes in ignorance, sometimes to "teach him a lesson" that he shouldn't be on their road. Some police departments have issued tickets after looking at his videos; Brookfield is the sad exception.

Sadly, Milwaukee's Fox 6 News doesn't make it possible to embed or even link directly to the video; you can see it by going here and scrolling to "Dead Right (9-30-08)".

Tip: Jeff Peel.

Roads

Wisconsin man protests gas prices by biking

by David Alpert   •   May 17, 2008 10:07 am

This is a great way to deal with high gas prices: not drive. (Much, much better than the truckers who decided to drive around the Capitol, wasting expensive gas). From the AP via Consumerist:

"The goal is to not use one drop of gas for 31 days," LaFave said, calling it his personal stand against the oil companies.

Now LaFave, 31, is riding his bicycle or walking everywhere he goes. He won't even let friends pick him up unless they already planned on being in the neighborhood.

LaFave fills out a chart each day listing how many miles he bikes, the destination and the gas price that day, among other things. He plans to compute his savings and donate that amount to a charity that provides food to children in Africa.

Despite the Consumerist commenters cheering "way to send a message to the oil companies," and whether LaFave is protesting or just adapting, this isn't a boycott. It's consumers responding to high prices by shifting behavior. When gas prices stay high, which they surely will, LaFave can keep on biking and convince friends to do the same. And that's great.