Dellphinus

https://www.capwiz.com/lab/issues/ale...423866&type=AN

Action alert from the League of American Bicyclists

BluesDawg

Sent mine earlier.

DEK

Got the email from them and responded. Forwarded to my wife and best friend to help out.

NOS88

Done.

cplager

Note dropped.

Garfield Cat

What do you know about this League of American Bicyclists

BluesDawg

https://www.bikeleague.org/about/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_...can_Bicyclists

Top bicycling advocacy organization in the USA. Been around a long time. Previously known as League of American Wheelmen. Led the Good Roads Movement. Holds the annual National Bike Summit in DC.

Cyclist0094

Ditto. But I sure miss the GEAR rally they held for many years. I had some great times at those!

NOS88

+1 The one in Geneseo, NY stands out in my mind as one of the best.

But not to hijack the thread.... Folks, IMO it's worth the 60 seconds it takes to do this.

Louis

Done.

Looigi

It's a two edged sword. Focus on increasing cyclist safety could lead to mandatory safety equipment laws, restrictions on certain roads, riding only in authorized bike lanes, etc... What I'd like it to lead to is increased road user awareness programs...but it seems advocates and bureaucrats are more interested in spending millions on a few bike paths benefiting only a small population of local riders than on training and awareness programs which would benefit all riders everywhere. Minimum passing distance laws and door zone laws are good goals, but will have virtually no effect without associated education and continuing awareness programs, IMO.

CrankyFranky

Thanks Dellphinus!
One interesting factoid about the L.A.B. is that in it's previous incarnation as the League of American Wheelmen, they lobbied for improved road conditions BEFORE automobiles were common on the roads.

CrankyFranky

Are you arguing that this is a bad idea? I think that it would be easy enough to incorporate such concerns as yours into the text of the email to Lahood. Then, follow up with a letter to your state DOT and local officials, who determine how the federal dollars for transportation get spent. Isn't this better than doing nothing?

Garfield Cat

According to the League's tax filing disclosure as a charitable organization (IRS), the "Wheelmen" is its official name and the LAB is its "Doing Business As" name (DBA). It has 17 board members and only 1 is a full time paid position.

LAB spends lots of money on wages and benefits (large staff). But maybe that's what's necessary to be the type of advocacy it is.

tcs

Does LaHood still show up to the office?

https://www.labreform.org/

El Segundo

Done, thanks for the heads up.

skilsaw

I'm in a relatively bike friendly city.
I don't want more laws governing bicycles.
I want better laws governing motor vehicles, and more enforcement.

NOS88

As I read the information in the link provided, I saw nothing indicating "laws governing bicycles". But, being in Victoria, it probably isn't all that relevant to your situation.

Latif

Done, thanks for the heads up.

Garfield Cat

This LAB reform organization. Seems like trouble has been brewing with the League. You should start a new thread.

Road Fan

Anybody have a source for the road fatalities stat that is in the LAB clipping? Some cursory searching onNHTSA Office of Collision Avoidance research has not found anything.

Road Fan

Ok, kept looking and I found some published NHTSA info - 16% is about right. Pedestrian fatalities plus pedalcyclist (that's what NHTSA calls us) fatalities are about 4700 per year, and total traffic fatalities are about 32,000 per year. It's from "Review of Studies on Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety, 1991-2007" DOT HS 811 614 (the report number). On the downside for cyclists, the fatality percentage is about (620/32,000) = 1.9%. That small fraction may result in federal dollars being put into pedestrian collision fatality reduction and not into cyclist collision fatality reductions.

I hate to see this turn into an A&S post, but as long as it's here, it's worthwhile to become aware of what the US DOT is already doing. There's a government webpage devoted to this already: https://www.nhtsa.gov/Bicycles. URL it directly or go to www.nhtsa.gov, click "Driving Safety" at the top of the page, and choose from a range of topics (including bicycles and pedestrians) on the vertical menu on the left.

If you want to read actual research studies on pedestrian and pedalcyclist crashes, injury levels, and work on countermeasures, go to https://www.nhtsa.gov/Research/Crash+...l+Publications, a site where you can download actual research reports. You can also find up-to-date released research on other current topics, like collision avoidance (my area), vehicle-to-vehicle (V-V or V2V) systems, vehicle-to-infrastructure (V-I or V2I) systems, and distracted driving. Some of these are real snoozers, and others are page-turners.

LAB is correct, the proportion of ped/cyc fatalities is rising. Part of this is because of these other vehicular countermeasures (other than V-V and V-I) that are described in the research are actually reducing motor vehicle fatalities, a 25% reduction over about the past 15 years. Part of it is because more cars are hitting bikes and walkers with disproportionately deadly effect, perhaps to increased distracted driving.

Being an industry participant and proponent of V-V and V-I, and collision avoidance technologies before that, I think federally-sponsored work on such vehicle equipment should address effective pedestrian and pedalcyclist warning systems. Some work is going on regarding walkers, but little of it also addresses bicycle users, at least the adult kind.

But 16% fatality is more than was shown for some of the vehicle crashes for which there was funded research perhaps 15 years ago. It may explain why there has already been funded work on pedestrian crashes, but it does indicate a funding imbalance.