Dutch Bicycle Signal with Through Arrow - Clarifying Intent of Traffic Control - Den Haag, Netherlands

 In discussing bicycle signals with fellow transportation engineers, I am consistently asked what the green indication is intended to mean to a person on a bicycle. I am perplexed at this question because I believe that one could ask the same question for a circular green indication that is used for all traffic. With a circular green, it does not mean you should turn left (in your motor vehicle) from the right most lane of traffic.

That was exactly what a recent discussion inquired about. I hadn't ever considered whether a bicycle signal indication would given a person on a bicycle the clue that they could turn left from the bicycle lane across vehicular through lanes, essentially stopping all traffic in favor of the traffic in the bicycle lane. In our nine bicycle traffic signals in Portland, only a few of them are for the bicycle lane where there would be an opportunity to make a left turn across several lanes of through traffic, but I don't think that's a logical conclusion for a cyclist to make when there are other adjacent traffic signal displays or through arrows in adjacent lanes.

The pictures in this post show an example in Den Haag where some clarification was deemed necessary of the intent of the traffic signal and there was a need to provide clarity related to the bicycle signal was intended to control through traffic (note the small through arrow in the larger signal head at left. As you can see in the photo, the red pavement curves to the right, but this traffic signal is intended to control the through movement.  

The Portland UGB Trail: A Concept for Building the Region's Bike Network

A regional trail outside of Delft features excellent wayfinding.

I have often said that there is a lot that we can learn from the Dutch. The fact that they have 35% of their trips made by the bicycle is by design, not an accident. I spent the last summer learning with the PSU students about this when we explored the seven communities throughout the 2-week program. There was a lot about land use planning and facility construction that were part of our daily field trips that I am sure I never captured via my blog. This foundation of knowledge is serving me well as I think about the future of the Portland region's trail network.

On a bike ride this afternoon, I found the Gresham-Fairview Trail. I have passed the spot on the Springwater several times, but never explored the link it makes north to Fairview. I recall biking on the Springwater a year or so ago and someone from the City was doing a study of the corridor and a survey of the potential users. Apparently, the trail was opened last year with Blumenauer cutting the ribbon. At the time, when I rode past the surveyor they hadn't yet finished the bridge that would connect the Springwater to the new portions of the trail (the following link has a summary of the project in a text box next to a larger story about Gresham and wayfinding signs). The survey was mostly about use of the Springwater and origin-destinations of users of the Trail. I wasn't aware of the context the time. I must have missed the BikePortland coverage that can be found here.

The trail is a wonderful connection in East Portland. It connects several neighborhoods and is a major spine for the off-street network. The trail may be underused (compared to the Springwater), and it is something that seems easy to overlook because it is managed by the City of Gresham. This is something that Metro's Intertwine could help with, but I digress. It is in a great spot parallel to the I-205 path. The trail doesn't seem to have a good north end connection yet. That will come in Sections D & E as described in the Trail Master Plan.  It may sound like a complaint but often our projects only go so far and there's no common way to designate the end of a trail or a transition from the higher order facility to a shared experience. I found a Ride Report from the Tandem club that similarly critiqued the signage at the  northern end of the trail (I wasn't clear I was at the end) and the crossing of the light rail tracks (I actually got off the trail due to a missed sign) .

So the operative question is how do we build more of these sorts of facilities. It looked like they cobbled together federal, state, and City sources over ten years to get this done. The good news is Metro is active in this and have great staff working on the effort. There are a lot of good projects that have been completed, and the 40-mile loop is one of my favorites.

There's a host of complaints one could make about this. The most important one is why does it take so long? The easy answer, and this is largely speculation, is that we don't own the land, money is scarce (we've spent the bond money on larger natural areas as opposed to trails), an no one is jumping to give us that land like in the Lake Oswego Streetcar case. For this reason, I would focus some of the efforts on communities that are not yet built up.

Outside Portland's Urban Growth Boundary (UGB), the land is undeveloped because our forefathers had the vision to use land use laws to limit sprawl and restrict their use. The concept, inspired by my bike ride, is this:

For lands outside the UGB, or on the boundary itself, the local jurisdiction and Metro should team up to buy right of way to create/preserve a trail facility that would further build the regional network. The land would either be donated by the property owners and valued at the urban price point (assuming it is exempted and brought into the UGB) or Metro could use its Regional Trails resources to purchase the land at 10% above rural prices to provide the landowner some relief to the costs associated with the land use laws.

What about essential nexus?
There is the Dolan vs. The City of Tigard case that put limits on what the public agency could require from a citizen or development, but it seems like this would eliminate that because the compensation would be part of my concept.

Regional trails can serve as linear parks.
The rural equivalent of Portland's Sunday Parkways!

In the Netherlands, there are a lot of great examples of this sort of trail development in the rural environment. I found in talking to folks that some of these are used for longer commutes. They are not all trails and some of them are cyclepaths or one way roads that allow for some passing by vehicles. These facilities stretch throughout the country and there are excellent maps to show you where you are and the direction you're headed.

The system was a little disorienting at first, but if you had a smart phone and a GPS the system would give you instant access outside of the urban area that we would get if we did something similar to my concept above.

Offering a New Transportation Engineering Perspective on Cycling Facilities: A Response to John Forester's Letter in ITE Journal

To the Editor:

In John Forester’s letter to the editor critiquing “Physically Separated Bikeways: A Game Changer for Bicycle Mode Split” (vol. 81, no. 4), he takes credit, as he has elsewhere[i], for alerting the engineering community to the supposed danger of bikeways that are physically separated from adjacent traffic. His objection is based primarily on his advocacy for a style of bicycling effective under what most people consider the worst of conditions: a roadway shared by bicycles and high volumes of fast motor vehicles. So-called “vehicular cycling”—essentially operating a bicycle as if it were a motor vehicle—allows the small minority of people willing to operate in such environments a safe way to ride. While Forester deserves credit for developing such a style, better alternatives are now and have long been available.

There is a growing consensus among transportation professionals and decision makers that direct their work that it is the diametrically opposite of Forester’s antiseparation doctrine that results in increasing numbers of people bicycling. Creating as much separation as possible between people riding bicycles from high volumes of motor vehicle traffic improves the safety and comfort of all road users. There is substantial and growing evidence to support these views based on the recent experiences with cycle tracks in Montreal, Canada, Portland, OR, New York, Long Beach, CA, and Washington, DC that are not merely anecdotal, but are being confirmed by emerging research. A 2010 study of Montreal’s bikeways found, not surprisingly, that they were significantly safer than riding in mixed traffic, as well as enormously popular[ii]. New York City reports similar results. Research suggests that the cycle tracks in Portland, OR increased cyclist perceptions of safety (particularly those of women)[iii], a necessary step toward expanding the use of bicycles across a broader cross-section of society. Of course, European cities have long known about these benefits of cycle tracks and comparative research has shown that European countries with cycle tracks had far lower bicycling fatality rates than America[iv].


Unfortunately, Forester’s statements reflect more a personal philosophy about the appropriate relationship of bicycling to driving than they do a reasoned understanding of current research and emerging trends. Stating that “[bicyclists] acting subservient to motorists” is an “indignity”, phrasing such as “cyclist-inferiority cycling” and discussion about how people riding bicycles are “disenfranchised” from riding on the public roadways by cycle tracks, are about as relevant to this discussion as is the 35-year old study Forester cites as the basis for his critique. He was also opposed to building rail-trails in the 1980s and 1990s for these same reasons, which have proven to be groundless.

The fact is that transportation policies are advancing to support increased bicycle transportation; a growing number of jurisdictions and the professionals that serve them are finding ways to accommodate that desired growth and are achieving success in doing so. With better alternatives now available, willingly planned for and successfully implemented in cities across the country, relying on vehicular cycling—and thus relegating bicycling to only those few willing to ride in such environments—would represent a failure both of policy and engineering. The growing movement to create cycle tracks in American cities is being facilitated by the engineering community’s recognition that separated bikeways can be safe, convenient, and attractive. The 2010 publication of the Bikeway Design Guide by the National Association of City Transportation Officials offers the first national guidance on separated bikeways such as cycle tracks. We hope that many other positive steps follow.

Signed,

Robert Burchfield, P.E., City Traffic Engineer, Portland, OR

Susan Clippinger, Director, Traffic, Parking and Transportation Department, City of Cambridge, MA

Michael Gardner-Sweeney, Traffic Engineer for the City of Boulder, CO

Brian Kemper, P.E., Acting City Traffic Engineer & Signal Operations Manager, Seattle Department of Transportation

Peter Koonce, P.E., Manager, Signals and Street Lighting Section, Bureau of Transportation, Portland, OR
Dennis Leach, Director of Transportation, Arlington County, VA

Andy Lutz, P.E., Chief Engineer, City of Indianapolis, IN

Susanne Rasmussen, Community Development Department, Environment and Transportation Planning Division, City of Cambridge, MA

Bridget Smith, P.E., Deputy Director, Livable Streets, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency

Wayne Wentz, P.E., Director Transportation Engineering, Arlington County, VA

John Yonan, P.E., Deputy Commissioner/Chief Engineer, Chicago Department of Transportation, Division of Engineering

Paul Zykofsky, AICP, Associate Director, Local Government Commission, Sacramento, CA

Mia Birk, President, Alta Planning + Design

John LaPlante, P.E., PTOE, Director of Traffic Engineering, T.Y. Lin International

Rock Miller, P.E., Principal, Stantec Consulting

David Parisi, P.E., Parisi & Associates

Jamie Parks, AICP, Kittelson & Associates

Todd A. Peterson, P.E., PTOE, Senior Transportation Engineer, Parsons Brinckerhoff

Matthew  Ridgway, AICP, PTP, Principal, Fehr & Peers

William Schultheiss, P.E., Senior Engineer, Toole Design Group

Andy Clarke, President, League of American Bicyclists

Dan Burden, Executive Director, Walkable and Livable Communities Institute

Keith Laughlin, President, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

Barbara McCann, Executive Director, Complete Streets Coalition

Randy Neufeld, SRAM Cycling Fund

Gil Penalosa, MBA, Executive Director, 8-80s Cities

Jennifer Dill, Professor, Portland State University, Portland, OR

Peter Furth, Professor, Northeastern University

Ian Lockwood, P.E., Loeb Fellow, Harvard University

Chris Monsere, P.E. Professor, Portland State University, Portland, OR

John Pucher, Professor, Rutgers University

Roger Geller, Bicycle Coordinator, Portland, OR

Zaki Mustafa, Chief of Field Operations, City of Los Angeles, CA

---

[i] Forester, J., 2001. “The bikeway controversy.” Transportation Quarterly 55(2): 7-17.

[ii] Lusk, A.C., P.G. Furth, et al. 2011. “Risk of injury for bicycling on cycle tracks versus in the street.” Injury Prevention 17: 131-135.

[iii] Monsere, C., N. McNeil, J. Dill. “Multi-User Perspectives on Separated, On-Street Bicycle Infrastructure” Paper 12-1753, Accepted for presentation at the 9th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 2012.

[iv] Pucher, J. and L. Dijkstra, 2000. “Making walking and cycling safer: lessons from Europe.” Transportation Quarterly 54(3): 25-50.

Turning Vehicles Yield to Bicycles Dynamic Sign



The City of Portland installed a dynamic warning sign at NE Grand and Couch in Portland during the past week. The intent was to clarify the traffic control at the intersection and to warn motorists of an approaching cyclist.

Inductive loop detection is located upstream from the traffic signal by 200 feet. We have second  detector in the bike lane approximately 60 feet downstream is used to identify and confirm that all people on bicycles are approaching the signal.

The active sign is behind the no turn on red sign and the advance ctop here on red sign.

50' from the intersection you can see the bike box and the active warning sign. The arrow in the bike lane advances.

A close up of the sign shows the information. This is the same message as the MUTCD sign with the exception of the bike lane and the bicycle (the MUTCD sign is only for pedestrians). The sign is the same size as the signal head (3' x 3')

UPDATED: Video that shows the animation of the sign prior to deployment. 

 

Traffic Engineers Dismissing Cycletracks

I am working on a response to this letter to the Editor posted in the October 2011 ITE Journal. This article doesn't help improve the perspective that engineers just want to move cars. To place all Amercian cities (or more to the point, streets) in the same class of homogeneous urban places is damaging. The new millennium has resulted in increased awareness that reducing trip distances is as important an initiative as any that a transportation professional should be engaged in to insure the sustainability of our communities and the vitality of our urban areas. These efforts are placing increasing importance on cycling trips where relatively short trips reduce the need for speed and make accessibility a priority.

UPDATE: Bikeportland.org linked to this debate between Pucher and Forester that is worth considering.

Running Red Lights on Your Bicycle

Compliance at this signal is easy because the cycle length is very short.

UPDATED: October 28, 2011 - I had a similar experience (see video below from Joseph Rose) with a person on a bike this week as I was riding down SW Broadway southbound from the City Maintenance Shop to the Portland Building. The signal in question follows most of the signal timing principles in the Dutch CROW Manual (traffic is progressed slowly on the street, the cycle length is short, etc). Yet, the person in front of me decided to start about four seconds before the green expired on the side street. I can appreciate the argument that when the traffic signal makes me wait for more than a minute than it either

• a) isn't detecting me, or 
• b) isn't meant or designed for me and the person chooses to run the red. 

I can accept poor compliance where either of these cases are the norm. I didn't always obey signals before I became the manager of the traffic signals in Portland. Yet when we're making the signals work for bikes and the signals are changing so promptly... as an experienced cyclist, hopefully you are aware of this, and if you know it doesn't cost you much time to comply with the signal, please do. It's a good opportunity to move acceptance in the public forward, making it look like something any normal law abiding citizen would. do.

The blog post by Joseph Rose has a number of interesting comments and BikePortland posted about it too.

The problem with poor compliance is that I believe it may hold acceptance of bike infrastructure back in terms of acceptance at the national level. If I measure a bicycle compliance rate significantly lower than a motor vehicle, will that result in less acceptance by transportation engineers. I can sympathize with Mia Birk's perspective on stop signs, but I don't feel as comfortable with the same concept with traffic signals. It could be something I am too close to, but having worked with the Police surrounding safety and enforcement issues, it seems like improving compliance would lead to greater legitimacy throughout the community.


ORIGINAL POST: I am going to need some time to think about this before I write anything about it.

Pas Pa Blinde Vinkler: Watch the Blind Spot

Looking for a few examples of a Watch the Blind Spot Caution sign and came across the following on the Google machine today.....

Danish Description with nice graphic
http://www.trygtransport.dk/Default.aspx?MenuID=189
Anti-Dooring Campaign
http://www.keirinberlin.de/?p=469
Campaign for Blind Spot awareness.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/08/no-excuses-for-truck-blind-spots.php

12th Avenue Overcrossing on Mayor's Blog

By taking the time to understand the situation on the ground, the project team crafted a proposal that balances a variety of functional demands and results in an all-around improved situation for trucks, autos, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
Mayor Adams weighed in on the project, saying, “This is the type of project I expect to see more of in Portland. We identified areas that needed improvement, tested the proposed changes, used fact-based analyses to make improvements, and came up with a solution that works better for trucks, helps out two important manufacturing companies in the city, and makes the street safer for bicyclists and pedestrians going to school.”

New York City Bike Lane and Mixing Zone (Left Turn)

The following photos show the striping for the left side bike lane where there is on-street parking that is removed to make room for an exclusive left turn lane. To maintain as much parking as possible the amount of length for the left turn lane is kept to a minimum. The vehicles are presented with the teeth to indicate yield on entry. The green bike lane marking is dropped at this same point to indicate shared space with the traffic and sharrows are used in this space.

The second photos shows the Turning Vehicles Yield to Bicycles sign, which is in the MUTCD specifically for pedestrians, but it makes sense to call out bicycle traffic at this location because you have a left turn lane that conflicts with the left side bike lane.

The farside of the intersection is where I think NYC has offered the greatest innovation. The provision of the curbing for a pedestrian refuge presents an opportunity for yielding between the person on a bicycle and reducing the amount of time (potentially) that is necessary for the pedestrian clearance. To reduce the total time for the intersection, you'd have to do something on the nearside.

Vancouver BC Bicycle Left Turn from the Right

We have been studying an application like this in Portland associated with the Portland to Milwaukie Light Rail line. The application in Vancouver was on Burard where there is a heavy amount of traffic denstined to the bridge. In this case, it appears that they want to separate the heavy traffic destined for the bridge with those that desire to make a left turn across two lanes of traffic. To facilitate the maneuver, they provide space in the top of the T of the intersection to get out of the through bike lane and complete the turn on the next signal phase. A brilliant solution to a problem, essentially a jughandle where a right turn is made to make the left.

NE 12th Avenue: The Capacity of Two Approach Lanes at a Signal (4 vs. 3 Lanes)

The 12th Avenue Bridge is an overcrossing of I-84 in NE Portland. The history around the delineators on the bridge are part of the study the City completed to determine if there was sufficient capacity at the traffic signals to warrant restriping the existing four lanes on the bridge to three lanes that would accomodate space for a bike lane in the northbound direction of the bridge. The study was documented by BikePortland here and the final resolution was reported just this week after I gave an update on our performance reporting.

The Signals, Street Lighting, & ITS Division worked hard to synchronize the timing so that the capacity of the facility was maximized. We had an intern drive the corridor over 40 times to measure the before and after during the evening peak hours of traffic and more throughout the day to determine the morning and noon time conditions. All in all, it was a successful project for the City balancing the needs of all users with the interest in having the facility be safer for everyone.

Bicycle Commute Challenge Day 21 - Number of Miles to Date

Here's the summary of the Bike Commute Challenge. I also rode a century this month, so I had a great month!

Congratulations to us all: PBOT downtown offices registered its highest Bike Commute Challenge rate ever: 27.5%!

I.          Team PBOT Downtown Highlights:

·         PBOT Downtown increased its bike commute rate by 35% over last year.

·         PBOT Downtown came in 2^nd place in the Public Agency 100 -499 employees category (BPS was first w/ 36.6%)

·         PBOT Downtown repelled a challenge from the Director of PDC (17.9% commute rate).

·         Downtown PBOT beat BES (23.4%) for the first time.

·         Our 93 riders logged 1,208 bike trips, riding 10,623 miles.

·         Twenty-one (21) new PBOT riders logged bike trips. These first-timers had an amazing 55% bike commute rate!

·         Twenty-two (22) PBOT riders had perfect (100%) bike commute rates.

II.          AWARD Winners

• PBOT Most Valuable Player:   Anne Hogan.
  • Anne was the Division Captain for Signals and Street Lighting, which had four new riders. Anne was also a new rider and biked 90% of the time. Anne will have personal use of Jeff Smith’s portable refrigerator for one week. Enjoy!
• Bike to Japan Award:  Rob Burchfield
  • Rob (as he noted, at a spry 54) traversed the hills of Washington County to continue his long-distance dominance.

Rob Burchfield	330 miles
Truc Nguyen	315 miles
Peter Koonce	303 miles

• Kong Award for Division with Highest Commute Rate:  Transportation Options. Here are the leading divisions:

Division	BCC Commute Rate
Transportation Options	74.00
Transportation Planning	55.43
Project Management	42.87
Signals and Streetlighting	42.75

Bicycle Commute Challenge - Day 19 Introducing Your Friends to Cycling and the Services Offered.

It was great to see the multitude of new people exposed to cycling associated with the Bicycle Commute Challenge. I was responsible for four cyclists that hadn't been commuting regularly. I am very proud of them and it will be interesting to see if they continue on as the weather turns and the days become shorter. It makes me wonder why bikes don't just come with lights. Some of the "Dutch" bikes have those features, but it's one more barrier to getting on your bike in the morning and of course lights are important for safety.  One of the best programs to that end is the "Get Lit" program. It's another smart program put out there Portland volunteers that are motivated with the goal of getting more people on their bikes and getting them there safely.

Bicycle Commute Challenge Day 16 - Use a Golf Course for Bike Paths, maybe Cyclocross

I was biking through Olympic Park and the nearby golf course tonight in Montreal.

The City has done a good job of making good use of the golf course beyond chasing a little white ball throughout the course. On the golf course cart paths, there was a little yellow stripe, which coverted the singular use facility to one that could be used by cyclists, rollerbladers, anyone. There is an adjacent path for walking, similar to what you would see in rural conditions in Europe.

Golf courses are nice amenities to the community, but they are underutilized in the winter time. Wouldn't this be a perfect time to use them as cycling facilities, specifically for cyclocross?

I started thinking a bit about the economics of this and how much golf courses cost to maintain and how you might make the transition to a more multiuse facility. This got me thinking that why wouldn't the City of Portland rent them out in November and December taking care not to disturb the conditions of the facilities, but also finding a way to create paths that are used by the community.

In fact, I didn't see any golfers out there at 6 PM, presumably because it was getting a little dark and that wouldn't have been the best time to start a round. There were a wide variety of users, fitness classes (several different boot camps), Tai Chi, cycling clubs, and rollerbladers. At first, I wondered about the risk of the golf balls, but that seems fairly remote in a lot of ways.

Bicycle Commute Challenge Day 15 - Biking in a New City, Be a Tourist, Learn about Transportation: Montreal

I am in Montreal and I have been taken by this City. It's a great cycling City, clearly earning the title of Best Cycling City in North America. The recent ranking by Copenhagenize.com doesn't do this City justice, putting Montreal just two points ahead of Portland.

There are several elements that make Montreal superior to Portland. The first is 2-way cycletracks. They have a comprehensive system that is very comfortable to ride on. The only criticism I can offer is that they are a little narrow and don't offer sufficient width to ride side by side with a companion like you can in the best cycling cities.

There was also some seasonal lanes that were signed to operate from April 1 to November 15th. These were areas that seemed to be where they were trading off parking closer to homes for the bike lanes, which makes for a reasonable compromise if it is below freezing temperatures and it's the only way to get community support.

The treatments at intersections were very diverse and they have been at it a lot longer than I have. The use of sharrows was prolific in intersections, they must have a healthy striping budget for keeping these maintained. They use some bike signals, but they rely a lot on simple green indications, at the opposite direction on the cycletrack (on a one way street).


They have done a fantastic job with construction rerouting and I had a chance to see that on several occassions because there is a lot of changes happening in the City. There's a lot of work near the University.

Bicycle Commute Challenge Day 14 - Biking in the Dark, with Luggage



Biking in the Maas tunnel (Rotterdam) is like the view I had this morning.



The darker days are upon us, especially when you leave the house at 5 AM. I had to leave this early to get to the airport for a trip to Montreal as I am an invited speaker at McGill University. I thought twice about commuting by bike with my luggage, but when I thought about it, I packed lighter, had a bag that I could wear on my back and realized I wasn't keeping to the spirit of the Bicycle Commute Challenge if I didn't try something new.



There was another trip when I was considering biking to PDX, but I decided against it because it seems like a bad idea to get sopping wet and then board a plane close to others that won't appreciate a neighbor dripping on them.

The trip to Montreal will provide some great ideas for my work. I am speaking as a guest of the Transportation Research at McGill Group. They have done a wide variety of work and have a history as one of the premeire universities in Canada and North America for that matter.

Montreal has been long mentioned among the most beautiful cities in North America and they have done some great work with bike signals and are very progressive with transportation policy. They recently reduced their speed limits on residential facilities from 50 km/hr to 40 km/hr (sound familiar?) and have a fabulous transportation plan. Montreal was recently named one of the most bike friendly cities (#8) on the planet by Copenhagenize, and they have bikesharing company Bixi as a hometown industry (much like we have Alta).

I am meeting with City officials to discuss the various investments they have made in the transportation sysytem, seeking ways to be more freight friendly at the same time while we invest in our bicycle network.

I also just learned about a meeting with representatives from Velo Quebec, their version of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance or the Dutch Cycling Federation.

I am especially interested in my host's recent research, Ahmed El-Geneidy's recent research on transit operations and cycling. He did some great work while at Portland State University and it will be nice to catch up with him on his recent efforts.

Bicycle Commute Challenge Day 13 - Creating Community

This morning as I was leaving the house, I saw a cyclist roll on by. I am sort of like the proverbial lawyer chasing an ambulance (no offense to my friends who are in the biz) or dog chasing squirrels when it comes to people that are coming by the house. We're fortunate to be on a street that gets fairly low amounts of traffic and being a transportation professional, it is fun to see who is using the street.

dlowe93: David Lowe-Rogstad's morning inspiration.

This morning as I was preparing to pull the bike off the porch, a friend had just finished a quick trip to the park to work on some cyclocross skills. He was taking advantage of the change in season to get prepared for the rain. It was nice to see him and chat about a project we're working on. He's a brilliant guy that makes creativity look easy. It's fun to be in a neighborhood, a few doors down from people like that.

One of the great things about cycling is that it has it's own community and it gets you out in the neighborhood more so than if you were driving your car down the street with the windows rolled up, listening to music. Yet, it's not as good as walking because, if you're in the back of the house, you can't make it to the window in time to see the world go by.

Bicycle Commute Challenge - Day 11

Team Signals and Street Lighting is topping the list of frequent riders. I am very proud of our group halfway through the Challenge!

What's really great is that a few of our staff were not riding before this month, so it is great to see so many miles being logged that we end up doing better than ever. The weather looks like it will hold up for this week, so with any luck we will sail into October with a new group of riders ready to support the bikeconomy by buying rain gear.

I know of three people that are brand new to the ride and I am hoping to get at least one more before the end. If only SW Barbur were a little less dangerous, a little more flat!

Bike Commute Challenge Standings

As of Monday, Sept. 19^th 15:00 hours - “If you don’t log ‘em  I can’t count ‘em”

Ø      Tuesday Sept 20^th, noon-  1 pm  in the Broadway Room: Bike Stuff Swap – deals! deals! deals!

PBoT Downtown Total:  539 trips / 4,884 miles

Most Miles:

§         Peter Koonce (197)

§         Rob Burchfield  (195)

§         Jeff Smith (150)

§         Kate Petak (143) - SSL INTERN

§         David O’Longaigh (132)

§         Abra McNair (126)

§         Raphael Haou (124)

§         Anne Hogan (122) - SSL NEW RIDER (was previously)

Most Trips (round trip = 1):

§         Kate Petak (13)

§         Linda Ginenthal (13)

§         Peter Koonce (12)

§         Jeff Smith (12)

§         Anne Hogan (12)

§         Denver Igarta (12)

§         Noberto Adre (12)

§         Winston Sandino (12)

§         Bill Beamer (11.5)

100% Club(all work trips by bike):
Kate Petak (SSL), Anne Hogan (SSL) , Denver Igarta, Noberto Adre (SSL), Kirk McEwen, Chris Vigliotta, Timo Forsberg,  Debbie Meisinger, Dave Hatch (SSL), Jon Bates (SSL BOM) ,  Steve Hoyt-McBeth,  Taylor Sutton, Ryan Mace, Andrew Pelsma, Jeff Smith