Ghost Bike

A few images from last weekend. The bicycle was assembled from parts donated by fellow cyclists. It was carefully assembled and painted on Saturday, then placed on-site late Saturday night. Zac Gibson's name is written across the top tube.

A Death in Springfield

In Springfield last weekend a young man was killed on his bicycle when he was stuck by a car. I don't have much to say about this. It's a terrible tragedy, and I can't even begin to imagine the pain that his loved ones are feeling.

After reading the story linked above, I made the mistake of scrolling down to read the comments. And that's where I found a couple of commenters using the article (in which the victim's name was released, no less) as a sounding board to advocate for bicycles to be on the sidewalks where they belong.

Here's Kelli Jones Hodges, showing her keen intellect and insight on bicycle safety:

Nothing to do with the accident indeed. I particularly enjoyed that this dumbass comment received a 'Like' from some other idiot.

And Kelli was followed a few hours later by Laura Stitt with this gem:

See what Laura does there? She doesn't come right out and blame the victim. Instead she indicates that the motorist's only fault was leaving the scene. That's just disgusting.

I was glad to see other commenters noting that bicycles are much safer on the roadways acting predictably as a part of traffic than they are on the sidewalk. But even so, the above comments are prime examples of some pretty disgraceful shit.

Respect: Don't expect to get it

I'm a regular reader of Bike Snob NYC. And by 'regular' I mean daily. It's been quite some time since I've missed on of his installments. The content doesn't always thrill me, since it's sometimes pretty NYC-specific, but his blog is hilarious and profoundly enjoyable. Every once in a while, BSNYC moves away from his usual cutting sarcasm and into the realm of all out railing. This is what happened earlier this week in a post titled 'Shafted Again'. I recommend giving it a once-over.

A couple of my favorite passages include this gem:

It's impossible, and in fact downright stupid, to "obey the letter of the law" on your bicycle when you find yourself in a situation where the streets and the laws are designed specifically for cars, which describes most of the United States.  Moreover, it's gone way, way past the point where cyclists should need to prove to the very people who are fucking us (that's drivers and police officers) that we "deserve respect."  We deserve respect for being human, and it ends there. 

And also this one:

When I'm in Midtown or some other place where I'm "sharing the road" (that's cute) and thousands of two-ton 350 horsepower motor vehicles are bearing down on me because they're driven by people whose only priority is getting to the Midtown Tunnel or the 59th Street bridge as quickly as possible, you can be damn well sure I'll do whatever the hell I need to do in order to get a head start on these homicidal mutherfuckers, and that includes running the light if I deem it safer to do so.

I agree. As far as cyclists go, I'm a pretty safe and law-abiding road user. But I've run my share of red lights (oftentimes a stop light won't change for a bicycle - more on this another time), and damn straight I'm going to do what I need to do to keep breathing and get home safe to my family.

I also thought it was an interesting coincidence that the above BSNYC post was followed the next day by this post from Andy Cline over at Carbon Trace. I was particularly struck by this observation:

...no street/road user has any right to expect to go any particular place at any particular speed in any particular amount of time. To believe that one does have the right to go any particular place at any particular speed in any particular amount of time is, at a minimum, discourteous. (The adjective I prefer here is “totally freaking outrageous,” but I understand I must be “reasonable.”)

The adjective I would prefer here is "fucking stupid, immature, and sociopathic." But that's just me.

I did a little math while I was riding home from work the other day. Some jackass in a Lexus passed me with oncoming traffic on a narrow, two lane street. When I realized what was happening, I hugged the curb. Even so, he was probably within 8-10 inches of me. He had been behind me for about half a block - call it 10 seconds at most. The posted speed limit was around 30 mph, and I was probably pedaling along at about 10. That means I delayed him by approximately 6 seconds. If he lives here in town, his total one-way commute time is probably around 15 minutes, give or take. That means I added a whopping 0.67% onto that ass clown's commute. If he had waited just a few more seconds to pass when there was no oncoming traffic, that would've been an additional 0.2%-ish.

But nevermind. Those extra 2-3 seconds are way more important than a little human fucking decency.

Thoughts on One Year of Bicycling in Springfield

Last month, we celebrated one full year of Springfield residency. It's a little shocking to think that it's been over a year since we moved to this area. The occasion has given me a chance to look back on the last year and make some observations on bicycling in Springfield - particularly as compared to bicycling in Columbia.

First of all, a note about my expectations about moving to town: Columbia is very bike-friendly. My assumption was that Springfield would be notably less so. I anticipated regular encounters with careless or inattentive motorists. And more worryingly, I had prepared myself for more frequent encounters with malicious drivers. It's also worth mentioning that our cycling habits in both communities were very similar. In both Columbia and Springfield, we lived in the central area of town with very short commutes to work, and we spent most of our free time downtown.

As far as infrastructure is concerned, it seems like Springfield has fewer bike lanes. However, I'm not totally convinced that this is a negative, as drivers in Springfield seem more accustomed to sharing the road with cyclists. There are definitely more streets and roads in Springfield that I avoid at all costs because they are just plain scary. Glenstone, National, and Battlefield are good examples. These are high-speed roadways with little-to-no additional space for bicyclists to join traffic safely. This is not really all that surprising, as Springfield is over twice the size of Columbia. And these streets are generally pretty easy to avoid.

What I miss most about bicycling in Columbia is the MKT trail, which made getting from downtown to the southwest areas of town (or vice versa) fast, easy, safe, and enjoyable. In Springfield, we have the Ozark Greenways. Like the MKT, the Greenways are great for recreational riding. We've had fun weekend rides on the Frisco Highline and Galloway trails. Where the Greenways fall short is their convenience for commuting. For a while I was using the Jordan Creek Greenway to commute to work, but found that the distance I had to travel out of my way to get on the trail negated the time I saved by skipping a single stop light at Kimbrough. For those living on the south side of town, I'm sure the South Creek Greenway is a convenient commuting option, but we spend very little time on that side of the city. The rest of the Greenways seem to be meant more for recreation than commuting, which is a bummer for commuters like me.

My biggest concern about bicycling in Springfield was the motorists. On this front, I've been pleasantly surprised. While I've had a few incidents involving drivers who had their heads up their asses, this is just part of life, and I've been guilty of inattentiveness while at the wheel myself. On the other hand, I had encounters with malicious drivers - motorists who honked, yelled, threw things, or tried to run me off the road - several times a year during my time in Columbia. But so far, I haven't had a single incident in which a motorist was purposefully dangerous or rude while bicycling in Springfield.

I guess you could say I haven't been impressed with my experiences with bicycling in Springfield, but I definitely haven't been disappointed. And there are some very passionate, smart, and dedicated advocates in Springfield, who are backed by strong organizations like Ozark Greenways, Healthy Living Alliance, SpringBike, and others. Expect bicycling infrastructure and education to continue to evolve, with the Springfield community becoming more and more bicycle-friendly.