Advocacy & Safety - What have you done to improve your bicycle route?

A few days back I got tired of waiting for "someone" to do some work on the bicycle route I take to work each day. So, after having tried phoning officials several times, I decided to take my cutting tool in my pannier. I stopped and cut a few critical blackberry vines, ones that were overgrowing the trail.

The next day, I stopped and cut a few more on my way to work. On my way home, I wasn't near my path but on a street that had a sidewalk beside a creek with a lot of vegitation and many overgrowing blackberry vines. I made a mental note of the sidewalk, and was about to continue on when two kids came down the sidewalk on their small bicycles. They were going against the traffic flow of the road, but on the sidewalk. That's legal here, and is much preferable to them crossing 4 lanes of traffic and a middle island to get to the bicycle lane on the other side. But, they had to zig very far toward the road to avoid the blackberries.

I saw that and stopped, parked my bicycle on the sidewalk, and walked back toward where the kids had stopped. They were still about 30 feet from me, when I came to the offending blackberries. I didn't say anything, but showed them the shears, and went to work. It took 15 or so minutes to cut the vines away from the sidewalk, scoot them to the edge far from the road, and declare victory. I had just trimmed them, and more work needed to be done soon, but it felt good. I had several cars go by and honk too.

The next day, riding to work, I saw that a crew was out finishing the job I had started, cutting the blackberries far away from the sidewalk. Apparently, someone with some authority had seen what I had done, and ordered the crew there the next morning. That made me feel really good.

So my question is this, what have you done to better your bicycling route, the kid's path, their riding, helped someone out, or simply increased the awareness that we're not all fanatics who won't help a situation? Please post your work below mine, and we can build a database of ideas for others.

John

Doing some serious lane-claiming in that 3km section of the Esplanade south of Cavill Mall in Surfers Paradise seems to have trained a few of the drivers around here. As far as I'm concerned, that makes a far bigger difference than any path or lane ever could.

Not a bike route, but :
The large supermarket, 5mins drive or 5mins walk from my office made some "improvements", including building a McDonalds over a really great blackberry patch, and fencing off pedestrian access to the side, requiring walkers to go around the car park to the car entrance (added 10min walk).

Some enterprising person cut a large hole in the fence and cut a walkway down a bank of earth. The supermarket put the fence up again, but it was cut down. After about 5 repairs, the supermarket has given up trying and now accepts that walkers prefer a 30yd walk from the trail to the door to a long detour.

Some riders drive a bit onto the bike lane to help blow sand and debris off of them. I think it helps. Sand is a problem being so close to the beach.

Many of us on the Cincinnati Cycling Club go out on "trash" rides to clean up trash on some of the routes we ride. We usually do this a few times a year.

Wow, can't say that I have ever done anything on such a large-proactive scale....but I have moved some debris from the road (such as bricks, 2x4s, wooden pallets) that would have caused some hazard to other cyclists rather than just go around the debris.

I once wasn't watching the road (I looked down to see what was rubbing on my front derailleur) and hit a bump. One hand slipped off the hb but I was still able to maintain control with the other. I looked back to see what it was and I was shocked to see that I had hit the leg of a table! The rest of the table was further off the road on the grass. I stopped so I could fix the front flat and true the wheel. Needless to say, I then moved the table leg off of the road.

We have some great trails where I live and one thing that I have been doing is I have a little hand broom that fits in my pouch and when ever I see glass I try and sweep it off the path. I guess any little bit helps and a couple other bikers have caught on also.

I was trying to answer this post yesterday, when suddenly the power surged and went off, so here it goes again:

Many years ago, my route included a shortcut through a municipal cemetary. Not only did this shortcut save me about 1 mile of riding, but it also avoided a really nasty intersection. since the side gates of this cemetary faced the front entrance of a major teaching hospital, several dozen cyclists also used this shortcut every day, in all kinds of weather.

Of course, this was too good to last. Cars could also use these gates, so the city decided to limit the hours of the opening to between 9 and 3, m-f. This usually didn't pose too much of a problem to me, but many cyclists were quite irate, and people actually took cheater bars to bend the edges of the metal gates, in order to get through.

well, after a while, the cemetary staff stared to 'forget' to open the gates. The old built-in locks had been smashed several times, so now they just chained the gates closed. After the third time in 2 weeks of going through the cemetary at 10a.m. and finding the gates locked, I decided to take action.

Three days later, I went through the cemetary at my usual 9:50, and found the chain still securely attached. Out came my large-sized bolt cutters, the ones that I'd been riding with for 3 days. The chain was too big to break, but the weasley $5 lock wasn't. Broke the lock, unwrapped the chain, and rode off with it, too!

One week later, another chain was around the gate. Bolt cutters to the rescue once again. Bye-bye lock and chain. I had to do this twice more, before they finally decided to put a pedestrian gate in, next to the gate. It's still there today, and they unlock it at 5 a.m., and don't lock it until 10 p.m.

When the City of San Diego restriped a section of Sorrento Valley Parkway from two lanes with wide shoulders to four narrow 45mph lanes without shoulders, I incited the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition to raise a massive protest, the result of which was the restriping of the road to two lanes, plus a generous bike lane on each side.

As the Rainman can attest, a cyclist has to cross a high-speed free right turn to enter the Rose Canyon bikeway from the UCSD campus, via southbound Gilman Drive. It is still far from perfect, but this used to be a far deadlier two-lane free right turn! Once again, SDCBC made a difference.

When the City of San Diego restriped a section of Sorrento Valley Parkway from two lanes with wide shoulders to four narrow 45mph lanes without shoulders, I incited the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition to raise a massive protest, the result of which was the restriping of the road to two lanes, plus a generous bike lane on each side.


Now, this is the way to create positive change for the cycling community. I'm assuming that there was no CM style tactics used, right?

Originally posted by Dave Stohler
Now, this is the way to create positive change for the cycling community. I'm assuming that there was no CM style tactics used, right?

The only CM traffic in this case was in the form of email. The San Diego County Bicycle Coalition is large, well-connected, tactfully outspoken, and (often) very effective. We advocate lawful vehiclular cycling and demand safe, convenient accommodations for all road users.

Last year I used the saw on my Swiss Army knife to take out a few low branches on a bike path near my work. Unfortunately the Swiss Army knife doesnt have a tool to take out bumps in the asphalt caused by tree roots passing under the path.

Chaztrip said

We have some great trails where I live and one thing that I have been doing is I have a little hand broom that fits in my pouch and when ever I see glass I try and sweep it off the path. I guess any little bit helps and a couple other bikers have caught on also.

Earlier this week, someone threw a green glass bottle on the road near the entrance to my bike trail. The splintered glass was scattered over the bike path, the side walk, and the roadway. I stopped and walked my bike through these glass bits for two days, then used Chaztrip's suggestion and took the handle off a broom. I put the broom head and a dust pan in my panier, and spent about ten minutes cleaning the glass off my path and the side walk. I put the broken glass into two plastic bags from shopping, tied them together, and threw them away when I got to work. This evening, I noticed several bicyclists using the path too, so it helped a number of people. Thanks, Chaztrip, for the suggestion.

John

Need to ride on a dangerous arterial either because it's the only route or the most convenient route to your destination? You say the city won't provide a bike lane? Make a bicycle or bicyclist stencil like they use to mark bike lanes and trails, get some surveyor's spray paint that works with the can held upside down, and paint your own bike lane/shared lane stencils in the street on the pavement. If you paint the stencil in the middle of the lane between the two auto wheel tracks, it should last a pretty long time. Worried about being caught doing this? Get yourself an orange hardhat and a reflective vest, just like the local transportation department employees wear, and a few small orange cones. You'll look quite official and no one will question what you're up to. This works for traffic calming on local streets too. Happy painting!

there is a middle-aged man in my area who rides a recumbent with a broom holder under the seat. I often see him stopped on roads, MUT's, etc., sweeping glass off the path.

i drive with a broom and clean away the gravel away from our turns. the gravel is especially bad in construction zones and after hard rains.

Back when I was commuting to work, we had a section of railroad track that was not completely paved over as it crossed one of the main streets on base. (The rail system was no longer in use). The exposed part stuck out from the curb at a 45 degree angle, and had a 4 inch wide gap on either side of the track, extending away from the curb for about 18 inches. If you hit it right it would suck a front wheel into it, and you'd do a endo. I called a few places, but I kept getting the "not our department" shuffle. Then I submitted a safety form to the Base Safety Office. It was paved over within 24 hours!

All of us need to take Pointyhead's post to heart. Individual ruts, cuts, drains, potholes, and other road defects can generally be remedied quickly and cheaply, with a huge, cost-effective payoff in our safety. Get to know your local jurrisdiction's road maintenance supervisor and traffic engineer and report problems as you encounter them.

I may lack the guts to act on it, but I really liked Randya's suggestion, as well! Locally, we have a wide right-turn-only lane which becomes a freeway onramp. I have repeatedly asked traffic engineering to carve a bike lane out of its leftmost edge, so that I would not have to take the rightmost through lane, which is my current practice. Since many clueless cyclists hug the curb and set themselves up to be right-hooked at the freeway onramp, motorists are sometimes surprised when an effective cyclist takes an appropriate position on the road. This is one context in which a properly designed bike lane, located between the through lanes and the right-turn-only lane, would provide needed education for bicyclists and motorists.