StVZO? German Bicycle Requirements Make Sense

Click the image to go to the ADFC, General German Bicycle Club, website (in German)

In Germany, the road traffic permit regulations, Straßenverkehrszulassungsordnung (abbreviated StVZO) dictate the requirements for bicycles. Every bike on public ways, for kids or grownups, is supposed to fulfill these rules, and most bikes are sold with the required accessories already in place. You can buy a bike without everything, and some people ride bikes that don't conform, but in the event of an accident they are likely to be found at least partly responsible. This can get to be very expensive. Most people just follow the rules.

But in addition to the legal aspects of it, the StVZO makes sense. It regulates bicycles as traffic participants, not as pedestrians, and makes bicycling safer for everyone. (The latest StVZO just went into effect April 1, 2013 and declares for the first time that bicycles should follow vehicular traffic rules and lights, not pedestrian ones).  By standardizing these features of bikes, pedestrians and drivers know what to look for and cyclists are assured some safety features on every bike. Here are the technical requirements listed in the image above (sources include ADFC and Wikipedia):

• Brakes  Bikes must have two brakes that are independent from one another. (Switzerland requires them to be one on the front wheel, one on the back).
• Bell Bikes must be provided with at least one brightly toned bell. Other devices to alert others with sound, like horns or bike wheel bells that spin on the tire, Radlaufglocken, are not permitted. If you hear a bike bell you know without looking that it is a bike. (Austria permits horns and, like Switzerland, makes an exception for lightweight racing bikes)
• Lighting  A white headlight and a red rear light are required and must be ready for use at any time. The headlight and rear light must be turned on with a single switch. They must be able to be powered by a dynamo backup, though they can use batteries in addition (as a standlight for example). One additional battery powered rear light may be added at the most; further battery powered lamps are not permitted, including blinking ones or ones on the helmet or body. Racing bikes (in Switzerland 700c x 23 or thinner) up to 11 kg weight (24.25 lbs or 12 kg/26.45 lbs in Austria and Switzerland) are not required to have the dynamo lighting, but may use removable battery powered lights. These lights must be carried at all times. All lighting needs an approval stamp from the German department of transportation in Flensburg - see the image at top or your own B&M LED lamps. Incidentally, the lights that are permitted don't have a setting for blinking. All lights stay on when switched on so that other traffic participants can judge distances well, something that is harder with a blinking light.

• Reflectors  A red reflector not higher than 600 mm above the roadway at its highest point and a large rear reflector marked with a "Z" must be mounted on the rear. A white reflector must be mounted facing forward, and yellow reflectors must be mounted on the pedals and on the spokes. The yellow spoke reflectors, 2 per wheel, may be replaced by tires spokes or rims with sidewall reflectors. Why the "Z?" I guess it is the approval symbol for this kind of reflector. The rear light and one reflector can be built into the same thing; the other one is separate. 
• Carrying Capacity  According to DIN EN 14764 bikes must be built to hold 100 kg, including the weight of the bike itself, clothing and luggage, and weight of the rider, but many bikes are made stronger than required. Riders weighing over 80 kg are therefore encouraged to seek a bike explicitly marked with a higher maximum capacity. 
• Fenders, Chainguard, a Lock, and a Rack  These are not actually required by the StVZO but have become expected on most bikes. Switzerland does require some of these. Standlights, the dynamo lights that stay lit for a while after you stop at an intersection, were going to be added to the 2013 requirements but didn't make the cut. I expect they will be required soon, and perhaps hub dynamos will completely replace tire dynamos in the regulations as well due to their better wet weather reliability.  The ADFC bicycle club, when rating bicycles, takes a point off for cafe locks (wheel locks).

Have a look at the StVZO compliant children's bike we just found at the used bike store.

Bikes and Peds Vs. Cars - Data from New York

The New York Times just ran a story this morning about a study of traffic related injuries done at NYU Langone Medical Center, Vulnerable roadway users struck by motor vehicles at the center of the safest, large US city, Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery: April 2013 - Volume 74 - Issue 4 - p 1138–1145. 

NYT article link: Study Details Injuries To Pedestrians And Cyclists In New York City  

Though it is behind the NYT paywall, the whole article is worth a look, as is the photo of a taxi picking up a passenger in the painted bike lane while a cyclist has to circle out into busy traffic to avoid it. That happens all the time.

They found that 40 percent of cyclists injured between December 2008 and June 2011 were hit by taxis, and over 80% of those injured were riding with traffic flow properly. The times of day when food delivery bicycles are underway were the most dangerous for cyclists. In our experience, the food delivery electric moped bikes in New York often ride haphazardly, they are frequently poorly lit, and they are everywhere — but not only traffic scofflaws were injured.

Most pedestrians injured on the street were crossing correctly at a crosswalk with their signal, and 6% were actually on the sidewalk! 

New York's transportation planners are apparently working to incorporate the findings of the new study into future traffic designs, including pedestrian plazas, bicycle lanes and traffic calming measures. Infrastructure there will be designed to separate and protect more vulnerable road users. 

There is no similar study we are aware of in Chicago, but taxi drivers here don't seem to be any more careful than their counterparts in the Big Apple, and traffic related injuries remain common here, too.

We also read this week that schoolchildren did a 'Bikeability Assessment' in Springfield MA which will be used to help design better traffic infrastructure there. 

Are there similar efforts underway in Chicago? What information could help designers make Chicago's streets safer?

Teaching Children About Dooring

New York street sign

Street riding with younger riders either on, in, or alongside a bike has many complications in Chicago. One of the most unpredictable yet frequent hazards is dooring. This is what happens when you or your child are riding along minding your own business and suddenly a car door flies open right in front of you, illegally opened by someone who didn't look first. The bike hits the door, you can sail over, and a lot of unnecessary damage is done.

Though it seems easy to stay out of the "door zone" to single riders, it's harder when you are responsible for a group of people of different sizes. Often the streets in Chicago are pockmarked with potholes, ruts, and work being done at the edges. These obstacles force us all as cyclists to move much closer to parked cars than we wish to ride. Also, staying far from where a door might hit you can be tricky when cars, or buses in particular, crowd riders into the edges of the lane and right into the door zone. Most safety guides recommend riding on the traffic side of a bike lane because of this.

Specifically teaching young street riders about dooring is essential to safe riding and the development of lifelong cycling skills in any American city right now. We teach our kids and kids on our bike trains about dooring from two perspectives: awareness of the mechanics of being doored, and the good riding skills that can lower chances of being doored.

Awareness of dooring

The Bear's Bicycle by Emilie Warren McLeod, Little, Brown, NY 1975

Our beloved book The Bear's Bicycle is our first step. When our kids were small we read the book and paid close attention to the page where the bear plows himself into an open car door. Sounds silly and the picture is funny but it is a great first step for balance bikers to begin thinking about doors. The bear is actually in the awful position, squashed by the door toward the traffic lane, that most riders are in when a door impacts a bike. Good to know. We look at it with our older kids too. Get a copy for yourself. 

The second step is to take the kids out on their bikes on our street during the quietest time of the day and open our own parked car doors to measure how far away from a car its doors will typically swing out. Two-door models are worst since the doors are longer. Truck doors are up high. Kids notice right away that the door zone is coincidentally just in the usual place where they ride to avoid traffic.

Showing children that they are less visible can reinforce to them that they need to be proactive with their own skills to ride as safely as possible on the street. We invite the kids to get in the car and try to see their brother "riding" behind them in the rear or side mirror. 

Now that they understand what the hazards actually are, we move on to ways to avoid them.

Skills to enhance safety from dooring, for kids and grownups who carry them

We practice riding a few feet out into the street, far enough not to be hit by opening doors. This is further into the main travel lane and closer to the moving traffic, which might be uncomfortable, but it's probably safer. 

We try to keep kids on their own bikes just in front of a grownup and a little to the right, so we can keep up the safe riding patter: "hey, that red car just pulled in, do you think the driver is going to get out?" "Ease on back to your left, OK? - you're in the door zone..."

Riding in the campus. Practice makes permanent.

We practice getting on our bikes on our own very quiet street and nearby university campuses and parks to test out ways to stay out of the door zone. Single file, traffic side of lane, etc.

Next, especially on our early morning rides and bike trains, we remind the kids that morning is a time when many people are sitting in their cars listening to the radio or drinking coffee. It's amazing how many people are just sitting in their cars. These people often open their doors without thinking. We practice looking ahead while riding to anticipate opening doors. We try to notice if a car has its lights on or just shut them off, if it has exhaust coming out, if the windows are steamed up or open at all, if a reflection of the driver's face is visible in the side mirror, or if it is a time of day when people sit in cars on our usual routes. These cars have people in them and their door might open soon.

We try to choose routes with less car parking and quieter traffic. For us this includes using Fulton and Hubbard streets - the packing district - as there are few cars parked on these routes when we use them to commute from school in the afternoons. The truck drivers there can typically see our kids better than the usual SUV or minivan driver on residential routes.

We try to ride a little slower ourselves, too, so if something surprising happens we have more reaction time to avoid it or brake. We try not to let cars "pace" us - hovering just behind and not passing. That would be the car that would hit you if you fell, and they distract you from the car door just ahead. Stop and let them by. We keep our brakes maintained well (especially the front ones that do nearly all the work). Sometimes we even move back onto the sidewalk with our kids, especially when a lane doesn't leave enough room to safely pass parked cars and avoid moving traffic at the same time. The kids' bikes have bright lights and we make sure they keep them on whenever they are riding, day or night, to improve their visibility. 

Streets with lots of car lurkers demand extra awareness. For example, Wood is fairly quiet and is a direct route for us, but it has lots of people hanging in their cars in the morning.  The kids try to glance ahead to scan for passengers in their cars to anticipate, ring their bells and move out of the door zone.

Could be doored by a cab on the left
or a parked lurker on the right...
Well designed bike lanes could make this safer.
(so could the kid keeping his lights on!)

Bike Lanes
Lastly we teach that bike lanes — even those with colors or extra striping — do not encourage drivers to behave differently, and that kids must use their skills and smarts to ride as defensively as possible. Even the newest Chicago lanes don't adequately address the problem. Car doors next to the new Dearborn lane easily extend into the bike path, for example. There's no substitute for teaching kids to use their skills and protect themselves. It enhances their ability to take good care of themselves on their own bikes.

The bicycle lanes that are now being installed in Chicago don't completely ignore the issue, though. Several are located on the left of the one-way roads, like many in New York, because while every car contains a driver who sooner or later opens a door, not as many contain passengers. Bicyclists are therefore less likely to be doored while riding on the left. 

Here is an interesting curbed lane we found
in a small business/residential part of Toronto

And many new Chicago lanes have a small painted buffer between them and traffic or parked cars that can give you a little extra space if anybody sees them. The lanes built between the curb and parked cars also address this to some extent because if someone opened a door into the bike traffic lane the rider would be deflected onto the sidewalk, not into traffic. However, cars basically ignore paint and we teach our kids to ride with this in mind. Car permeable protected lanes - the only kind here in Chicago - are only partially protected.  We teach our kids to stay aware of this on these lanes too.

Future lanes could be designed to support safety from dooring for children and all other riders. The two types of vehicle should be well separated, with different paths and signal systems, with impenetrable barriers like concrete or steel to keep cars out of bike space. This has been the only workable solution for pedestrians for years - they get at least a curb. Although even curbs and traffic signals don't always keep cars off the sidewalks, they are a minimum place to start. Bikes should have the same safety as pedestrians. As an added benefit, separated lane systems give car drivers one fewer thing to worry about, too.

We are lucky in Chicago to have a support system for riders who get doored or are involved in a collision. There is an extremely helpful crash hotline run by Active Transportation Alliance at 312-869-HELP (4357), and several law offices in town specialize in bicycle related issues - call the hotline, or look on the Chainlink links page for some of them.

Recall on Yuba Mundo V4 bikes

From the CPSC Website, Mar 20 2013: 

It seems that if you call them Yuba will install a wheel guard to keep people from  getting their feet caught in the rear wheel. Protect your kids' toes!

http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2013/Yuba-Bicycles-Recalls-Mundo-Cargo-Bikes/

Women Bike (Your City Here)

Yesterday we held our first Women Bike Chicago women's bike conference. Our conference yesterday was plenty of work but well worth it. It was also incredibly fun, building fellowship and encouraging new women riders.  Find great pictures of the day on our Women Bike Chicago group blog.

My last post about getting the summit up and organized had helpful information to get started. I hope that post and this one can be a useful springboard for you to create your own women's bike gathering of any size in your own community.  If women riders are the key to creating more riders we need each other to turn the wheels. The best place to start them turning is together in our own backyards.

The genesis of our day was the community we already have as women transportation cyclists here in our city.  Chicago has an online cycling forum called the Chainlink that connects cyclists across the city. There are over nine thousand members. Also, we have robust Kidical Mass, Critical Mass and Critical Lass rides going monthly. We also benefit from a strong community of long term tenacious women cycling advocates ready to help out with younger women riders eager to make change.

You may have less of this going on in your corner so you would rearrange your women's event to encourage what you see missing for women around you.  Your community will probably be very different from ours and your organizers will find their own purposes and develop the special things that will drive your presentations and activites. We started small but mighty and the Women Bike Chicago conference took on a life of its own.  If we can do it so can you!

Feel free to steal what might work from our day below as you build your own.  For more inspiration, our organization has also found a wealth of information from the Washington Area Bicycle Association's Women and Bikes initiatives.



Activities and Presentations to take away from Women Bike Chicago


The Bike Testing/Woman Mechanic/ Skills Corral

We did not want our day to be only about visiting with women that know and see each other all the time and who are strong riders already. We wanted to use the power of our fellowship to help other Chicago women ride.  Our location this year seemed small enough to reach each of our attendees personally and allowed us to have a safe calm outdoor space for women to try out bikes we all brought to let other women try out. Attendees could check them all out and see what felt comfortable to ride. We called it the bike corral. Each of us brought one or two different kinds of bikes — step throughs, cruisers, old Schwinns, kid carrying set-ups etc.  Like a bike test potluck.

Women mechanics from both West Town Bikes and the Cal Sag youth bike club shared basic maintenance advice at the corral too. Alta Bike Share brought one of the prototype bikes for Chicago's soon-to-be bike share and let us all ride it around.

Lastly we had certified cycling instructors on hand to help teach basic bicycling and city specific riding skills. Most women stuck to the testing and mechanics though.

Ride Buddies and Quieter Route Maps
Indoors, we had a registration table, coffee, two presentation rooms and a kids' area. In our hall between the registration table and the coffee, Julie hung maps of the city and brought colored dots coded to each area to stick onto attendee name tags. The colors let any woman know which other attendees ride in her area and facilitated an ersatz ride buddy meet-up at the conference. The dots got snapped up immediately and plenty of women found potential ride buddies.  Some women dotted their tags with a mix of colors since so many of us ride throughout the city.

The maps were also marked with less trafficked alternate routes to busy streets. This way attendees could find a quieter commute if they wanted one. Attendees wrote on the map where they wanted a less car trafficked ride and others highlighted their favorite quieter streets on the map.

Our Unique Presentations
The three national women's bike forums we researched had their own unique presentations. As we wanted to reach out beyond the existing cycling community, our forum reflected the idea that many of those coming to our day might need a fresh look at what the rest of us are used to doing every day already. We organized seating so questions were easy to ask, since we imagined they would be a big part of how the presentations worked.


Here is a list of our presentations:

Getting Back Out on the Bike at Any Age

Our keynote was given by Lisa — an amazing Chcago rider who spoke about her own experience returning to riding last year after decades off her bike. She made clear that every women in the room could too, if she could!  Our attendance really reflected Lisa's experience. The majority of our attendees were women from age 55 to 80 who wanted to get back out and ride for transportation. 

Practical Advice for Using Your Bike To Commute In Chicago

This presentation included using the bike not only on the streets but as a multi-modal tool with trains and buses. Given by Anne, a total expert who is also funny and compassionate.

Dressing for Comfort and Work Realities
Nuts and bolts advice for dressing for the work commute with comfort and work practicality from Julie and Cynthia, who are professional women well-versed in riding to work in all kinds of unfriendly weather and serious traffic.

Women Owned Bike Shop Owners Demystify the Bike Shop Visit for Women
Shop owner Justyna answered questions and gave advice for getting the most out of a bike shop visit including clues to knowing if a shop is friendly to women.

A Family Biking Sit Down
A roundtable with bike moms visiting with other wanting-to-bike moms to answer practical questions. Kids climbing all over were included.


Good luck creating your own Women's Bike gathering in your own town or city.  Reach out to me here at Chicargobike or to us all at Women Bike Chicago if you think we might be able to provide any encouragement or information from our own experience. Happy planning!

Latest bike hazard statistics available

The latest Insurance Institute for Highway Safety statistics about bikes are available: http://www.iihs.org/research/fatality.aspx?topicName=Bicycles&year=2011. 

(edit 3/2014: now all these fatality fact sheets are under http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/pedestrians-and-bicyclists/fatalityfacts/bicycles) 

Riskiest riding seems to involve men over 20 years of age, riding at dusk, urban areas, being drunk, or riding without a helmet. So the impression you get of who is a dangerous rider when you're out on Milwaukee Ave seems to be accurate. Notice that although the demographics of riders have changed a lot over time, the absolute overall fatalities have remained relatively constant. Are there more riders total now than in the 1970s and 1980s? Was there a group of especially unsafe boys growing up in the mid-1970s who are still getting into accidents? Interesting statistics.  

Mayors Make It Happen

I was reading the Guardian Bike Blog today about London Mayor Boris Johnson's huge plans to create everyday cyclists- to create "delycrafication"  through the creation of new cycling superhighways and enhanced quiet cycling routes through smaller friendly streets.

Click the picture to get to the Guardian blog article

In addition to the announcement by the mayor himself the Guardian has a great column by Bella Bathhurst about being a  brave London city cyclist or wanting to be one in London.  The column here carries a link to Boris Johnson's announcement.   I especially liked a comment she makes near the end of her piece that despite changes in London's infrastructure what potential riders need is a good mentor who already rides to help learn to navigate her city's streets. This rang true to me as well, as I feel the same in Chicago.

Two other things struck me — that our own mayor speaks out so often of the same de-lycra-fied riders and has the same drive to create better spaces and draw out everyday riders — and that he is also a Mayor.  I could not help but think also of Mayor Bloomberg and his commissioner Sadik-Khan.  It's the Mayors - they seem to be the ones making new lanes happen and growing ridership!  Why is it the Mayors who have the courage and the insight into how transportation needs to evolve to include cyclists in their cities?

Tom's Cargo Bikes — another option!

http://www.tomscargobikes.com

Today at the Chicago Bike Swap one of us met Tom Labonty, a cargo bike builder from Portland, Oregon, who was in town to personally deliver a Creamsicle bike (which I think is the one in this picture cribbed shamelessly off his website). He and the new owner told me about the bike, which Amtrak had unfortunately delayed, made from most of a women's 26 inch frame and the front parts of a child's 20 inch bike. He uses sheet metal for some of the boxes he makes; I think this is one of them.  They are all different.  Unfortunately, since the bike was stuck in Amtrakland I was unable to ride it around, but I was told its handling was as good as some of the other cargo bikes that were shown at the Bike Swap.

Looking at the pictures, it seems to be a cruiser frame in back with a mountain bike derailer on it, making for maybe 7 or 8 gears, a similar choice to the back of our Haley trike. There are no fenders or lights or back rack, and the chainguard is partial, but all those features can easily be added, changed, customized, or put off til later. The box and the kickstand look to be well thought out and durable from the pictures.

He builds each bike according to what is available or what the customer is looking for - look at his website to see some of the amazing creations he has put together, including cargo bikes, themed bikes, advertising or promotional bikes, and the occasional bike shaped sign. In our brief conversation he repeated what his website points out — that these are simple bikes that inexpensively do what they need to — but he clearly takes a craftsman's pride in making everything himself and not outsourcing a mass produced model to someone else. And it looks like customers are able to provide their own favorite bikes to build from, so if the derailer gears or something else bother you on this bike, you could order one made from an internal hub donor bike or ask for a different geometry as you wish. He noted that all his bikes ride slightly differently, but he has a good understanding now of how to bend the steering linkage and plan the angles so the bikes don't steer badly when they're finished.

In the world of cargo bikes there are very fancy rides, custom made without many compromises by small manufacturers, pricy but mass-produced utilitarian indestructible Dutch models, inexpensive Asian imports, and there is a niche for inexpensive, custom US-made bikes like these. It is easy to talk to Tom about his bikes and you might find just what you are looking for, especially if you have a special idea in mind. I enjoyed meeting him, hope he has a great visit to Chicago, and if I'm lucky I'll run into the new owner again for a spin on the bike itself.

Bike Swap Today

logo stolen from Chicago Bike Swap website

The Chicago Bike Swap is HAPPENING TODAY! Quick, take all your money out of the bank (IN CASH- many vendors are normal people and don't take credit cards) and go have a look what you can buy with it. Who wants to pay the gas bill?  Bring a big pannier to carry your treasures home. And a good lock for your bike if you're leaving it on the street while you are inside.

It costs $10 to get in for regular people, $5 for Active Transportation members or UIC i-card holders, but you're likely to make it back on your first impulse buy. This year it's in a NEW place - the UIC athletic department at 901 W Roosevelt near Halsted.

In past years, there have been really good deals on oddball things you didn't know you needed, like formerly-$200 lightweight 2005 model stem extenders or something for $5, and pretty good deals on great things everybody needs like hardly used Continental tires, 10 for $20, or Brooks leather saddles for the same price as a Wal-Mart model. I have no idea what exactly will be there this year but that's a start. Many people sell bike parts, reflectors, buttons, memberships in bike clubs, rain gear etc., and there will be many many bikes to try out, ride and maybe buy. Shops and private owners bring bikes to sell that are often interesting in some way.

There will be a collection of CARGO BIKES to try out, possibly some for sale but many that you can compare, probably most of which you can read about on our site here. Presentations and demos are planned as well, with Bike Polo, the bike-dancing Racketeers, discussions about taking kids on bikes, and more.

The whole event is planned by and benefits Chicago Bike Winter and Active Transportation Alliance.

There is food there and in the nearby area, but it's a quick bike ride to Chinatown or Pilsen or Little Italy-America or Greektown if the mood strikes you. (And if you'll be back in the neighborhood on Sunday the Maxwell Street Market will be taking place, the best place for Mexican street food and trinkets. But not today. ) So we'll be looking for you there - we'll be the ones carrying armloads of something like $2 reflector generator hub titanium rim tape . . .

Grow Your Own Local Women's BIke Summit (or come to Women Bike Chicago)

As you might have heard, building on the women's cycling forums in the winter and fall of last year The League of American Bicyclists is hosting a third all out National Women's Bike Conference tomorrow in Washington D.C. This is of course completely exciting news. But...  If for you, as for many cycling parents, this is not the optimum time for you to be traveling to D.C., don't despair!

Click here for what I found to be one of the best aspects of the page about the fall forum. That's right... a link to the Women's Cycling Project, with a how-to-grow-your-own-local-forum guide. I just love it. Er, loved it.

I think the whole idea of growing your own local forum taps right into the power that many cycling women, parents and otherwise, have found through their local connections.  Many of my favorite Chicago women attended the forum last September, presenting and attending the forum in California which was very exciting.

 A small federation of local Chicago women riders has been plotting away this winter on our own local women's forum and what we have cooked up is Women Bike Chicago- A day of Dialogue and Demonstrations.  To be held at the University of Illinois at Chicago the 23rd of March from 9am to 1pm. Coming up very soon. Please grab a women friend (or three) interested in learning to get out on two wheels and come.  Email us at wbikechi@gmail.com to get our Eventbrite link and register.

  Our space at the University is not huge so we have room for  70 women to pre-register and come.  Inside will be a handful of sessions, a short keynote, coffee, refreshments and a place to try and meet to chat with other women about bikes. Please come and bring a wanting-to-ride friend along.

An unoffical program of sessions so far includes information on getting back on a bike over 50, using bicycles to create community, practical tips for dressing to ride to work or anywhere, and how to make the most of a trip to the bike store from women shop owners.  In the halls, we will have a chance to meet up and talk with women city riders about finding quieter routes to some of your favorite places to ride.

Outside, there will be bikes to test and hands-on city riding demos.  Experienced women riders will  coach ladies who wish to learn about using a bike as transportation in Chicago techniques and skills key to starting out in our city on two wheels. We can help you figure out the right size of bike you should be riding too. West Town Bikes and some of the Cal Sag program will be on hand to teach basic maintenance.

Afterwards, we would all like to have a celebratory meet-up at Simone's in Pilsen, just a short ride south.

How did we grow our own small forum and how can you grow yours?

The link to the Women's Cycling Project guide is very helpful and our progress followed much of their outline. Without the fashion show.

Getting Started

First, we met as a very small handful of riders to see what we might want to have and how much energy we could pour into it. How big, and what-do-we-miss-here that we felt women could bring to each other in a Chicago-focused Women's Forum. We felt that women of all ages are sometimes left out of images and left out of any idea of them as riders. Women over 50, trans and younger riders are not always clearly represented at forums. We hoped to have women speakers of all ages and cultures here in Chicago.

Timing

We brainstormed what time of year is getting close to when it's warmer to ride but still when weekends are not filling up with springtime fun. In Chicago we figured that would be... late March.

Location

Finding a solid location took time as we knew that a hands-on area would be really important. One of our main goals with the confab is to help women take the lead to try growing their trips around the city even just by a small bit.  The University of Illinois offered us generously a small set of locations that we checked out and tried to match with our goals- a place to ride, space for kid care and enough room to meet.  Other options were Park District field houses or other small cultural non profits with goals similar to our small forum.


 Publicity

Our publicity is just emerging. We have a twitter feed@wbechi and blog at http://womenbikechi.blogspot.com  and are on the Chainlink which is a huge platform for the Chicago cycling community.  With the kind help of Active Transportation Alliance we will be publishing fliers to post around the city in places, not only where current women riders go but also where potential women riders may be.

As we struggled to find a good location we drew in more help and began to brainstorm about some sessions and deeper goals. Women Bike Chicago falls shortly after the annual Bike Swap and we hoped to take a fresh tack with our sessions to create something unique to Chicago women, both potential and already-riders, and we reached out for volunteers to help with the demos and riding opportunities.

Sewing the last weeks together

We are now sewing together the last weeks before Women Bike Chicago happens and we need you to help, volunteer, come and be part of the day please!  You can reach us at wbikechi@gmail.com. Chicargobike will carry updates as the program of sessions becomes official and we get close to the actual date. Please stay posted to progress on our little forum and let us know if you create your own!

New Year on the New Dearborn Bike Lane

We have been ringing in the New Year playing with our exciting new present from CDOT and Mayor Emanuel, the newly opened two-way Dearborn protected bike lane.  Considering the huge heralding the lane received we wanted to take our time and ride the lane a number of times under mixed conditions with the kids, collecting experience with it before writing this post.  If you missed the fanfare, the lane is located right in the central business district of the Loop, two-way between Dearborn Station in Printers Row and across the river to Kinzie St, then it continues in its old form unprotected and northerly-only above that. Dearborn car traffic is one way going north for most of the route.

Two of us happened to be at the opening and it's possible our small guy was the first kid to roll down the lane after his mom high fived the Mayor himself.  It was either touching or irksome to listen to Mayor Emanuel speak at the dedication ceremony about wanting children to have the freedom to ride to school in Chicago. If we are going to hype kids riding to school we need to actually make lanes they can use. So let's cut to the chase. How does this exciting addition to the Loop work for kids and families? Remember, we are not reviewing the lane for strong, experienced, grown-up city riders, as there are plenty of those reviews out already.

Applying our trusty new yardstick for family friendly bike lanes, is the new Dearborn two-way lane...

Protected enough?      

Likely to leave you hanging?      

Connected to useful destinations?

Protected enough?

Safe bike lanes have to be protected enough for an 8 year old to ride them safely.

The Dearborn Lane's somewhat blocked to car traffic, but it's still pretty easy for cars to enter, unfortunately. And to park on, which they do.  It's protected by plastic bollards, not by concrete, or tree planters, or other car-impermeable barriers, and there is no central post at the ends of the blocks to keep drivers out. Look around the Federal Buildings or Daley Plaza to see how this might be done differently.
The more permeable nature of the plastic bollard style lane requires parents to be watchful as they ride the lane with kids on their bike or accompany children on their own bikes.  It 's wise to remind kids that though the barriers give a far far more protected feeling -- especially to children accustomed to city riding -- they need to be watchful as well.

For example, on our ride a couple of days ago, a taxi was waiting in the bike lane for a fare and some other guy had simply left his car there. He came out just after this picture was taken and drove off in the bike lane. The taxi guy moved too after we explained the bike lane concept - he was nice but the lane was confusing him. Will this improve as drivers get more familiar with the lanes? Whether this improves or is just a small permanent wrinkle in using the lane, children need to be aware they need to deploy plenty of caution when pulling around any parked cars to continue on the lane. Other cars possibly moving on or out of the lane cannot see smaller young riders negotiating parked cars.  

Riders can still be 'doored' while riding the new lane. While we were on it last week a woman opened her car door into it  -- it's protected a bit by the buffer strip, but her door would have hit a rider going northbound.  Being mindful of these issues makes for a much safer family ride, especially traveling northbound.

The bike traffic lights are a huge benefit for young riders, pacing them and helping teach traffic rules, especially if all traffic follows the signals. And the bidirectional lane design is great.  It should always be clear on a good lane how to get back, and this one makes it obvious. One of New York's best lanes, on Broadway, has this problem since it's one-way. We have been wondering why every lane is not bidirectional like this new one on Dearborn.

     Summary: Protected-ish.

No infrastructure installed
yet over the Dearborn Bridge.

Likely to leave you hanging?
Safe bike lanes link safely to other good bike routes without spitting young riders or their families out into car traffic when the protected area ends.

The Dearborn Lane isn't completely an island. It does connect a lot of downtown.  We rate it right now as more of an archipelago, though, a series of loosely connected islands, hard to reach for less city experienced family riders.

Though the lane makes a huge part of the Loop itself accessible, we have had to carefully mix sidewalk and off-main-route traveling to get to the actual lane. The other bike lanes that cross Dearborn all along its route are just painted, unprotected lanes in the midst of intense city traffic. We use them sometimes with our kids on our bikes when we have to, but we don't at all recommend them to other family riders or to kids on their own bikes.

At the north end of the new lane riders can't get to or from the existing protected bike lane on Kinzie without riding through nearly 3 blocks of no-bike-lane, sharrows only, downtown traffic. At the south end there isn't much infrastructure waiting for them either.

Importantly, the bridge over the Chicago river is not bollarded or plated at all yet.  (Riding an unplated bridge with children, whether on your bike or their own, is totally unwise. Kathy Schubert probably doesn't do it with Suzy Schnauzer on her bike either.)  We understand the plates are coming, but they don't exist yet. Currently we move right off of the street onto the sidewalk at the intersection of Wacker and Dearborn before crossing at the light moving northbound, continuing on the sidewalk of the bridge.

Our usual routes to the lane have involved the sidewalk from Harrison and UIC to the south section in Printers Row,  a sidewalk mix from the River Walk at Wacker, or the Kinzie lane to the Merchandise Mart, walking the bikes on the sidewalk 3 blocks to Dearborn, then after riding a block or two getting off again and walking over the unplated Dearborn bridge before continuing south riding the lane.

With your children along, you need to figure out a safe way to it and away from it, whether to the museums or just to the small streets toward your neighborhood, and these options are not yet in place.  We will be very excited to update this post in the future as these hoped-for protected networks emerge.

     Summary: Archipelago of loosely linked islands

Christkindlmarkt at Daley Plaza this year

Connecting useful destinations?
Good bike lanes go somewhere useful, connecting destinations that families want to get to.

How can families in the Loop best use this lane? Well, it gives a good north-south corridor through the main part of the Loop, it's only two blocks to the Art Institute, it's close to the quiet streets that lead to South Loop, and it's near Daley Plaza. It goes by Jones College Prep, right by the Chagall wall and the Calder sculpture, and connects the Post Office, Library, bookstores, and some of our favorite cafes, including the Intelligentsia at the Monadnock building. It gives us a second route, much better that our old one, connecting Harrison Street to the center of the city.  Though it does not go near the other attractions in town like the Museum Campus, it misses the Mag Mile, the Lake Front Path, and offers only a fair connection to Union Station, its connections are awesome. 

With a larger number of protected connecting routes it would be even more useful to inexperienced family riders.

     Summary: Jackpot!

Fazit:
If the safety and connection issues develop into cleaner connections the Dearborn lane is close to a veritable feast of good destinations and could become a really usable route for families as the larger network grows in Chicago.

Our rating:

Protected-ish safety level 

Archipelago but not a total island 

rich with great destinations, Jackpot!

We'll be on the new lane a lot. And as more miles are added to the Chicago bike lane network, with improved lanes to link residential neighborhoods, the lake and the museum campus, this new Dearborn lane will become a bigger and bigger asset for family riders.  The increased visibility of family and independent child riders in the heart of Chicago on the Dearborn lane would be a powerful message of how good bike lanes can empower riders and instigate change. We hope that the Dearborn lane heralds the hope of a new beginning.

The challenges of a relatively car permeable protected lane like this one are not hard for our family to overcome, but less experienced family riders, especially those with children on their own bikes, may find their first few rides to and from the lane itself too intimidating to continue trying.  Which bring us back to our usual mantra. The challenge for our city is not funding or political will -- from our perspective, the main hurdle to more families riding in Chicago is lane design.

Our Mayor, or the Commissioner of Transportation, or CDOT's designers seem taken by the plastic bollard style infrastructure. This model leaves lanes too open, though, so cars can infringe on riders. Traffic is the main barrier that prevents kids and non-bike-enthusiast adults from riding happily. If our Mayor is as competitive as he believes he is, he needs to take a ride on a concrete protected lane in New York or Minneapolis and see what else is out there.

Other North American cities are incorporating concrete into their lane designs, which makes riding safer and feel more comfortable. Their ridership is rising more rapidly. We hope the City's designers look again at alternatives to the plastic bollards. Chicago put planters in the middle of the main streets before, so why not now?  We are lucky to have funding and political will -- Mr. Mayor, thank you for this new lane, now bring on the concrete trucks!

Bike Picture Books For Quiet Winter Days Again

We have a little side bar that lists our favorite books for the smallest cyclists but often new readers have not found them yet. Here again, admittedly for the second winter season, are our favorite picture books brimming with stories and pictures of bikes. We haven't found good new books but the old ones are still worth a look!
On this rainy quiet Saturday here in Chicago we wish everyone time to sit down together with a good book. 

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011 

Winter Gift Books for the Small Cyclists in Your Life 

As we've mentioned often reading about or just meeting pictures of riders in children's books can be a fun way to share bikes with your smallest soon to be riders. We've talked about many of our favorites this year but want to mention them again since the season for sharing books as gifts for special friends and loved ones has begun. Here is a big mix of our reviews from the year. 

 

Always at the top is the terrific Bear's Bicycle.

The Bear’s Bicycle by Emilie Warren McLeod and illustrated by David McPhail is an absolute favorite. It is a wonderful book about biking from 1975 that is actually very current. It covers everything from making turns and checking tires to not getting doored, as a young boy (a clever rider) and his brought-to-life teddy bear (rather reckless) go off on their daily ride. Perfect for the learning rider, it says it all with sly humor and clever pictures. My kids crack up at the Bear’s cycling antics every time.  Though it’s pre-helmet era, the boy’s puffy cap looks suspiciously like a chic Yakkay hat helmet. 

 

You can probably find it at the library or order it from your trusty neighborhood book store — like Sandmeyer’s or Women and Children First.  (link to this book here)Usually there is plenty to watch on our wintery city rides, be it a new building going up or the perennial hit — some gigantic machinery next to a huge hole getting dug in the road. More than buildings grows in Chicago, and a nice trip game we play is to spy winter trees we pass on a ride and identify them from their shapes. Carole Gerber’s Winter Trees was our original inspiration for this game. A book perfect for the younger rider, Leslie Evans’s sweet linoleum block, watercolor and collage illustrations bring the shapes of winter trees to life. They especially piqued my middle guy’s curiosity about which trees we passed on our daily rides. It’s a nice counterpoint to the bulldozers and street cleaning machines! I like that Winter Trees gently describes the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees and gives tactile clues for telling seven different trees apart — a good number for the budding arborist to remember. 

Anatole by Eve Titus with pictures by Paul Galdone is a stealth bike book. It was the Caldecott Medal winner for 1956 and stands the test of time with beautiful line drawings washed with blues, red and black.  Anatole is a Parisian mouse searching for a way to take care of his growing family.  It just so happens that he and his mouse friends use their bikes to get everywhere. Their classic bicycles are sprinkled throughout  the book with cool bright front lights and bells on the handlebars. It's especially good for kids that like cheese.... 

Along A Long Road is a brand new book by New Yorker cartoonist Frank Viva. Our guys love the dynamic drawings that tell the story of a long fast ride through towns, tunnels over bridges. They don't pay so much attention to the words. Making up their own stories for where the rider is going and about the curious pregnant lady and her son who appear and disappear seems to be more fun. Just in case you are a stickler, the rider is not wearing a helmet...  but we love looking at the pictures in this book anyway. 

New Red Bike a new book by James E. Ransome is all about the story and pictures. Tom's new bike is beautiful and the swooping ride he takes to visit his friend Sam is a favorite especially with our youngest.The older guys have a running debate about Tom and Sam's friendship which takes a turn when Sam steals Toms bike and disappears.  Should Tom hang out with Sam anymore or should he just ride that terrific red bike off into the sunset? You'll have to choose your own side.

 Wheels of Change is a light hearted trip, for any age reader, through the blasting meteor landing of bikes in the lives of women at the turn of the last century.  Cycling changed everything from how women went out to what they wore.  Sue Macy's well researched book talks about why women first took to the road, then learned to race; and it addresses how the bloomer controversy shook the nation. Bloomers were more World Naked Bike Ride than Tweed Ride for the people of that era. I didn't know that at one time women actually cycled on bikes with both pedals on the same side of the bike. Great pictures of amazing bikes and bold women fill the pages.  

Elsa von Blumen looking great and going really fast! She's just one of the
many interesting women rolling through Wheels of Change by Sue Macy.

Tillie the Terrible Swede 

by Sue Staufacher and illustrated by Sarah Mc Menemy is a terrific kid's book about Tillie Anderson, the Swedish transplant to Chicago who took the 1890s bicycle track by storm. She eventually set four track speed records and became champion of the world. Our guys love the bright clear illustrations and solid story. Tillie stands up to family and friends who discourage her. She builds her own strength and rides on. She even finds love with the friend who turns her on to racing, and then totally supports her rise to the top. 

 

Spoiler alert: The only downside to either of these books are the last pages where cycling fades to the car. Even our dear Tillie turns to the motor car on the last pages. Hey, you could always glue those two closed!In Chicago Tillie is a staple at the gift shop at the Swedish American Museum and at Women and Children First.  

 

Jonathan London's Froggy Rides a Bike is a last read that we came across this fall. It's good for kids who love the Froggy series. All about Froggy getting his new bike but struggling to get going  on two wheels. Bring on the pedal bikes!
We hope you find a book here to delight a small cyclist in your life. What could be as fun as bikes -- well really besides something delicious to eat maybe it's got to be books.

What makes a bike lane good?

After news of a handful of heartbreaking cycling accidents here in Chicago, a little pneumonia (but still plenty of riding), we have been thinking a lot about what is it to be a family rider here in Chicago.  The city now promises huge changes and brings a new rush of lanes and plenty of boasting about how many miles they are building.

Family riders, the older and the not bold have a different need for what makes a bike lane safe and usable than a hypothetical 22-38 year old male strong rider. Attracting this huge segment of bike traveler - people like us - is the constant mantra of the major cycling organizations in the country— including in Chicago. It follows that lanes which comfortably accommodate the largest swath of potential riders are the best long term investment for our city.  Good lanes speak for themselves. They get used without fanfare all over the United States.

In honor of the debut of the Dearborn Lane tomorrow here is our own yardstick from a family rider perspective for measuring the new lanes erupting in Chicago. It just so happens that we really do have riders in the family from 8-80!

Is the new lane...
     Protected enough?
     Likely to leave you hanging?
     Connecting useful destinations?

Protected?
A protected lane should be so protected from other traffic (and car doors) that your 8 year old nephew can ride it with you and tell you all about Star Wars without making you nervous. In other American cities (except e.g. Washington DC) and in other countries, this usually involves concrete. A concrete wall, car-proof barrier, or at least a curb keeps the teenage texting driver away from your kid, and vice versa. This is much better than a little plastic bat or simple paint as generally used in Chicago. Trees or planters or steel barriers are also strong enough to protect lanes.
Here in Chicago the gold standard protected lane is the Lakefront Path, which is separated by an entire park from traffic along much of its length.
A truly protected lane is also durable enough to last for years without much upkeep. If the bike lane is divided from the other traffic with concrete Jersey highway barriers it'll last a lot longer, be safer and be cheaper than one divided by paint or plastic bats, even without upkeep. You can't see paint under dust and snow or after it's worn away. You can see concrete.
Summary: Lanes get full marks if drivers can't drive into the lane; plastic bats and bollards are, um, protected-ish? Paint is just, well, paint.

Won't leave you hanging?
If Grandma and Junior are headed off to school on the bike lane and it only goes halfway before stopping and spilling them out into car traffic, like (among many examples) Kinzie at Wells, the lane doesn't make riding easier; it increases their chance of scaring them off their bikes. Lanes have to go the whole way somewhere without stranding riders in the middle of nowhere. A lane that is hard to get on and hard to get off is not helpful.
Summary: No good lane is an island.

Connecting useful destinations?
If a lane doesn't go near where normal casual family riders need to ride, it isn't that useful. A lane on Elston is nice but few families can use it to go anywhere efficiently. Why not put car traffic back on Elston and block off half of Milwaukee for bikes instead? Schools and shopping and train stations and so on should all be linked by the bike path network, not just factories and empty lots.
Summary: Simple routes to popular places.


All we wanted for the holidays was a nice bike lane in the Loop. We can't wait to try out Dearborn tomorrow and see what is in the box!