Month: May 2019

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The BEST Resource For Bike Safety

Summer is almost here. Asbury Park has been implementing some much-needed bike infrastructure. But the danger remains all too real for people riding bikes as long as there are cars on the roads. This great site offers real ways to NOT GET HIT BY A CAR.

This page shows you real ways you can get hit and real ways to avoid them. This is a far cry from normal bicycle safety guides, which usually tell you little more than to wear your helmet and to follow the law.  But consider this for a moment: Wearing a helmet will do absolutely nothing to prevent you from getting hit by a car.  Sure, helmets might help you if you get hit, but your #1 goal should be to avoid getting hit in the first place.  Plenty of cyclists are killed by cars even though they were wearing helmets.  Ironically, if they had ridden without helmets, yet followed the advice on this page, they might still be alive today.  Don’t fall for the myth that wearing a helmet is the first and last word in biking safety.  In truth, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  It’s better to not get hit. That’s what real bicycle safety is about.

Learn How Not To Get Hit By A Car

 

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A Pool Noodle As A Bike Safety Hack?

The bike noodle hack has been around for a long time. Yes, it’s clever. But the sad fact is that the onus for safety is on the bike rider, rather than on drivers of motor vehicles, who kill thousands of people waking and riding biked every year in the US, and on engineers and planners, who should be designing streets and roads that are safe for the most vulnerable users: people on bikes and walking.  Let’s talk about how  NOT TO GET HIT  by a car.

Why every cyclist needs a pool noodle

By Annalisa van den Bergh 

The hard truth is that bicycles are still largely seen as a nuisance on the road. We’re on the margins—literally. Cyclists are reminded of this every time we get skimmed by a car. According to the World Health Organization, over half of international traffic deaths involve vulnerable road users such as cyclists. And because Americans are among the least avid cyclists in the world, they’re among the most likely to get killed by a car.

Read the story:

https://qz.com/1620913/the-best-cycling-hack-is-a-pool-noodle/?fbclid=IwAR3ohKgA6PyS3jjvI8g5LPiyoRnDeyjyJxbjwCSyENmT_070cFw-8eYJAvg

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Parking Problems Everywhere

The issues of parking in Australia are the same as those in the US. Comforting to know that we’re not alone struggling with this, and in every city with the same problem, it all comes down to #toomanycars. There’s tension between the auto industry desperately trying to keep cars on the roads, engineers who persist in designing roads for cars, and the oil and gas industries vs environmentalists who have been letting us know that emissions are killing the planet, and urban planners who realize that streets should be designed as places for people and that #slowthecars will save thousands of lives each year. Cities designed with alternative transportation options are more livable – healthier and safer.

OF ALL THE PROBLEMS OUR CITIES NEED TO FIX, LACK OF CAR PARKING ISN’T ONE OF THEM

“…cars dominate our cities, supported by decades of unbalanced planning decisions favouring space for cars over other land uses or forms of transport. “

Car parking is such a pervasive feature of our cities that we have become blind to how much space it takes up. 

“Finally, providing more housing options without rigidly attached parking spaces will encourage people who don’t actually need to drive to choose to drive less or switch to other forms of transport.”

Read more…

https://theconversation.com/of-all-the-problems-our-cities-need-to-fix-lack-of-car-parking-isnt-one-of-them-116179

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Rx BIKES

Asbury Park has a successful bike share program. We hope that it’s going to be used even more in every neighborhood in the city as a viable option for alternative transportation. It may be possible that even more people can be encouraged to use bike share if it’s prescribed as a health benefit, and if the bike share cost is waived. In countries all over the world bikes are an important mode of transportation, and the health benefits in those countries are measurable. Doctors in NJ are prescribing gym memberships and wellness programs and fees are reduced or waived, so could doctors in our area begin to utilize bike share as a health prescription?

 

Take Two Bike Rides and Call Me in the Morning: Cycling as Doctor’s Orders

By Palko Karasz May 10, 2019

London’s bike-rental program has proved popular. Now, patients at two medical centers in Cardiff, Wales, will be offered six-month subscriptions to a bike-rental service, with free rides of up to 30 minutes.
LONDON — A new program in Wales will allow family doctors to offer patients an unusual prescription for better health: bicycles.

“…six-month subscriptions to a bike-rental service that allows them to make unlimited free rides of up to 30 minutes at a time, and officials hope to expand the program.

“For the first phase of the pilot, we want to make sure the scheme works as intended and is easy to use for patients and their health professionals…”

Read and ride:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/10/world/europe/uk-prescription-bikes.html