No Duh! Aussie study finds drivers at fault 87% of conflicts with bicyclists

I got wind of this story from Streetsblog's Daily Headlines:

From a site called Bicycle Radar comes the story "Drivers at fault in majority of cycling accidents".
(Read the story first before continuing here.)

As a cyclist who takes my responsibilities as the operator of a vehicle very seriously, I find the results of this report to be right on the money with the reality I see on the streets here in New Jersey. Even when following the letter of the law to my best abilities, I constantly have issues with motorists. Dangerous passing including passing too close, passing on blind turns and passing on narrow roads with oncoming traffic make up the vast majority of issues I have with motorists. Still, such incidents add up very quickly on a 2 hr, 40 mile ride. It's not uncommon for me to have up to 10 such uncomfortable incidents on a ride of such length on roads with very little traffic. I've even had three incidents in the past 14 months where I followed my LCI training, took the lane and tried to waved off the overtaking vehicle on a blind turn or rise, only to have the vehicle ignore my actions go, for the pass and nearly cause a head-on collision with the on coming car. What else can one do to proactively defend one's self on the road!

For those of you interested in more here's the link the abstract of the original study called "Naturalistic Cycling Study: Identifying risk factors for on-road commuter cyclists."

Morristown Planning Board to discuss bike plan addendum

I caught this from Kendra on Morristown Pedal Pushers:

Tomorrow December 2nd, the Morristown Planning Board will be discussing an addendum to their bicycle plan. This addendum gives some actual proposals for street improvements to aid cyclists and where those improvements should go. A copy of the Morristown Bicycle Plan Addendum can be found here.

My quick, ten minute review of the plan seems to indicate that the consultant has come up with some good ideas to improve cycling around the town. Morristown is full of wide multi-lane roads, many of which seem ridiculously overbuilt for the traffic that they handle and are also engineered for high traffic speeds (Lafeyette and Madison Avenues are perfect emamples). Others are really busy much of the time, like South St and Speedwell Ave and would seem to pose more difficulty to accommodate both cyclists and the high motor-vehicle traffic volume. Oddly enough this addendum seems to find solutions at this time for the narrow roads with higher traffic volumes than the overbuilt ones. This isn't at all bad since the busy roads also happen to be in areas that seem to have more bicycle traffic and/or take local cyclists to places in town that they need or want to go.

I must admit however that I am concerned about the proposed use of "Sharrows" on Speedwell and Sussex Avenues shown on page 43 of the document. The image of the intersection seems to place the Sharrows dab-smack in the door zone of parked cars. If they propose to use "Bicycles May Use Full Lane" signs then the Sharrows should be placed in the center of the lanes or at least out of the doorzone. Still, this might be a detail better clarified in the text and I do again confess to having only spent little more than 10 or 15 minutes reviewing the plan.

What was really interesting was the crash analysis. A high percentage of crashes seemed to have been caused by cyclists riding on the sidewalk and when using the crosswalks. This seems to fully support those who espouse Effective Cycling techniques and who say that riding a bike on the sidewalk is a very dangerous.

Again, if you live in Morristown or in the area, make sure you show your support of the plan but also don't be afraid to bring up your concerns. Just make sure you do so politely and in a way that won't result in a scuttling of the entire proposal since there really seems to be some really, really good stuff in this plan.

Bicyclist Killed By Open Truck Door In Woodbury Heights, NJ

The following was originally written by John Boyle and posted on the Greater Philadelphia Bicycle News. It is reprinted here with the permission of our friends at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

A report in the Gloucester County Times describes the death of a man who according to the article "crashed his bicycle into the open door of a truck parked on the shoulder of Evergreen Avenue in Woodbury Heights.

The victim identified as 57 Year Old George E Schilling Jr was taken to Underwood-Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The crash occurred on Friday November 26th at 6:05PM, well after dark and Police describe the lighting in the area as poor.

Our condolences go out to Mr. Schilling's Family.



View Bicyclists Crashes 2008-2010 NJ and SE PA in a larger map

Registration For the NJBikeWalk Summit Is Now Open

The NJ Bike and Walk Coalition, has opened registration for the NJ BikeWalk Summit that will be held on February 26th, 8AM at the Masonic Temple, 100 Barracks Street in Trenton.

You can register online, or you can send your check for $45 ($25 for current members of NJBWC), made out to "NJBC", to:

New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition
P.O. Box 843
Mahwah, NJ 07430

The price of admission includes lunch - for more details please see NJBWC's current newsletter.

Movie: "Ride the Divide" comes to Lambertville

This message comes to WalkBikeJersey from the good folks at the Princeton Freewheelers:

Friday & Saturday, December 3rd & 4th, in Lambertville at the old Acme building:

RIDE THE DIVIDE Plus, Meet-the-Executive-Producer/Cyclist, Mike Dion: at post-film Q & A or at our Saturday Night Cyclist’s Reception at Chimney Hill Inn An award-winning feature film about the world's toughest mountain bike race, which traverses over 2700 miles along the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains. The film weaves the story of three characters' experiences with immense mountain beauty and small-town culture as they attempt to pedal from Banff, Canada to a small, dusty crossing on the Mexican border. WATCH A TRAILER! Cycling-related merchandise will be sold at the event: 25% of proceeds after cost will benefit the Young Survival Coalition http://www.youngsurvival.org/, young women facing breast cancer together and 75% will benefit the ACME Screening Room film program.

Friday, December 3rd 7:00pm Film, Plus Meet-the-Executive Producer, Mike Dion / post-film Q&A 9:00pm Film Only FRIDAY TICKETS: $10 in advance / $15 at door Saturday, December 4th 7:30pm 9:00pm Film, Plus ... Meet-the-Executive Producer Reception @ Chimney Hill Inn, 207 Goat Hill Road, Lambertville, NJ 9:00pm Film Only SATURDAY TICKETS: Film & Exec Producer Reception: $25 in advance / $30 at door Film Only: $10 in advance / $15 at door Exec Producer/Pros Reception Only: $20 in advance / $25 at door CLICK TO BUY ADVANCE TICKETS

Newark to build New Jersey's first protected bicycle lane; West Windsor state's first Woonerf

I hate getting scooped but then again its great that there are so many people in New Jersey concerned about bicycle and pedestrian issues and are willing to spend the time writing about it.

NJ Future's blog Garden State Smart Growth has this great write-up about a proposal for a protected bike lane in Newark's Forest Hill Neighborhood. I snagged the image off their blog of the proposed improvements from the City and Sam Schwartz Engineering to whet your appetite to read and inquire further. Cyclists, take a close look at the proposed intersection improvements. What do you think?

Further down the Northeast Corridor, Jerry Foster at the West Windsor Bike/Ped Alliance writes today about a possible "woonerf" in the proposed transit village at Princeton Junction. Very interesting stuff. If you don't know about woonerfs read Jerry's quick description or follow his links to the more in-depth discussions.

Show DRPA That You Support The Ben Franklin Bridge Walkway Ramp Project

The following was originally written by John Boyle and posted on the Greater Philadelphia Bicycle News. It is reprinted here with the permission of our friends at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

The days of cursing the three flights of stairs on the Ben Franklin Bridge Walkway could soon be over, but we need to your help to make that a reality.

The Delaware River Port Authority will be presenting their 2011 Capital Program at the Wednesday December 1st Board Meeting. DRPA CEO John Mattheussen has been quoted in the Camden Courier Post and the >Philadelphia Inquirer that he will ask the DRPA Board to include $100,000 to begin designing the walkway ramp in time to construct the walkway in 2012.

We do not know if CEO Mattheussen's verbal promise means that the money for design is included in the final budget. We want to make sure that DRPA Board members hear that there is strong public support for starting the design work in 2011. Please come to the Dec. 1 meeting to speak at the public comment period about why you want the walkway design to begin in 2011.


View Larger Map

One Port Center is across from the Camden Children's Garden on the Camden Waterfront.