Accident Close to Home

On Tuesday last week, one of our own, Jo-Anne Wyndham, was badly injured when a car struck her on her bicycle. Here is her story, from an email (reproduced with permission):

I was right hooked by a car turning right into a gas station... . The driver passed me with my 2 rear blinkys on, much reflective clothing and bike shoes and a very bright front blinky all visible and turned right into the gas station right in front of me. I tried but couldn't stop or steer out of the way so she hit me with her front fender, I rolled off the fender and hit the ground... .

Although she did not even bother to approach me to find out if I was OK, there were 8 amazing bystanders who took great care of me. One held my head/neck still for about 10 minutes as he was concerned about a neck injury (and he was right). Another brought me a blanket. One called 911. Another called a friend of mine to come down to be with me. The rest formed a human chain and wouldn't allow any cars to enter the driveway where I was lying. They were amazing and the worst part is that I can't thank them because I don't know who they are. I learned the meaning of paying it forward, as this is exactly what I do for others and now a group of people did it for me! I was so touched by their caring! 

So far the accident report only reflected the driver's point of view and I'm now trying to locate the cop from Boston District 5 to give my side of the incident.

My injuries include 3 ruptured cervical disks, central spinal cord contusion and a concussion. My helmet saved my life or at least saved me from a major brain trauma! I am now going to become a great advocate of helmet use and have called everyone I know who cycles without a helmet and pleaded with them to wear one. My son actually told me that as soon as he heard about my accident and the fact that I'm still alive pushed him to start wearing that "nice helmet" I bought him. I'm so glad!

I am out of work until further notice (at least until September 13th). I may need spinal fusion surgery if the neurogenic pain from one of the ruptured disks that is sitting on my spinal cord and likely causing the pain in my hands and arms (neurogenic pain is worse than labor pain, and I never thought I would say that anything was worse than labor pain!). I will continue to try conservative medical treatment and see if that helps at all, but I can tell you that if this pain continues, I will agree to the surgery.

If anyone wonders why bicyclists sometimes feel persecuted, perhaps this story explains why. How did the driver not see a cyclist with bright clothing, reflectors, and lights? Why did the driver fail to check on the victim of her poor driving? Why did the policeman who responded to the accident not interview the victim either at the scene or later in the hospital? How often do we hear about this kind of negligence in car-to-car accidents? It just confirms a perception that road-culture is predominantly anti-bicycle. Then again, there were all those helpful bystanders: clearly, road-culture is mixed, and we can depend on some people for genuine, selfless support. Perhaps those are the same people who slow as they pass me, who wait for me to cross an intersection before turning, and who wave at me to take a turn.

I hope her recovery is quick, (she's fit and in good spirits, which helps), and in the longer run, I hope  her legal case (she has secured Andrew Fischer, a lawyer specializing in bike injury cases) convinces more drivers and police to behave as if bicyclists have a place on the roads.

In the meantime, be careful out there. Clearly, this isn't Amsterdam. Yet.

Stuck on Parking

What's becoming more and more clear to this novice activist is that any local changes to roadways and road use pretty much require changes in the procedures of governance. Bike Newton (along with Newton BikePed) has been diligently working on convincing various elected and appointed officials that we need changes on our roads to make them safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. At a recent Bike Newton meeting, frustration surfaced: it seems as if we've convinced, if not everyone, at least a lot of critical people. The mayor assures us we have his support, several Aldermen are supporting us in every way they can muster, and even the head of DPW wants changes (as he should, since he frequently bikes to work!).

But all this activity and support seems to result in very little action. We now have a short stretch of bike lane on Beacon Street at B.C., and a few short snippets in the neighborhood of city hall, and some promises (but little else) for more. If there's all this support, what keeps things from happening? The "way it's done," is what we keep hearing. How is it done? You'd think the head of the DPW could direct his employees to have a design proposed, get some input from community groups, and revise and execute it. You'd think. Or you'd think the mayor could say, "Let it be so." You'd think.

The sticky business that slows everything down seems to be parking: anything that involves parking--or more specifically, reducing the amount of on-street parking--triggers a visit to Traffic Council, an Aldermanic Committee designed to halt projects long enough for concerned citizens to derail them. The process has a veneer of democracy: why shouldn't potentially affected citizens have a voice in the process? If I'm going to be prohibited from parking on the street in front of my house, shouldn't my voice have a place in the decision process? Answer: Yes, but.

But nobody's voice, mine included, should gum up the process so thoroughly that every effort to change the status quo requires a Herculean effort. The short-run solution is to flow around these barriers with compromise. We can't have a through-bike lane because of parking? Alright. There are alternatives, such as sharrows or, as Newton Streets and Sidewalks has suggested, bike lanes marked with dotted lines, or as Brookline has done on Beacon Street, bike lanes alternating with "Share the Road" signage.

The longer-term solution, though, involves changes in the paths of these proposals. They really don't belong in Aldermanic Committees. They belong in the DPW, which has the skill set for evaluating roadway designs, and under the Mayor's office, which has the charter for public safety. There should of course be some kind of provision for citizen input, but it shouldn't be designed primarily to collect objections and wield tacit veto power. Can we ever get unstuck from parking? Can Newton move forward?

Bikers subsidize drivers

Not only do we need more bikes for the environment, we need more bikes to balance local budgets! Taxes borne by drivers (fuel, registration, etc.) support highways. The cost of driving on local streets is mostly borne by non-driving-related taxes: sales taxes, property taxes. We're all sharing the cost, even those of us who drive less or not at all. Roads cost about 28 cents per mile of car driving. Bikes? Not quite a penny a mile.

To balance the road budget, we need 12 people commuting by bicycle for each person who commutes by car.

 For more details, follow the link to Grist.

Crowd Sourcing Bike Lane Rankings

Newton has less than 0.2% of its roads marked with bike lanes. Boston has almost 4% marked with bike lanes. What about your town? Let's create an annual metro Boston town ranking, see who is doing best, and which towns need to get their acts together. Kind of like college rankings.

Contact your town transportation department or bike group to find out how many miles of bike lane you have, and post it in a comment here (with attribution, preferably). If you are especially motivated, look up your town's total roadway mileage here and express your number as a percentage of either centerline miles (that is, just the length of the total roadway), or lane miles (roadways multplied by number of lanes in the roadways).

Get Your Groove On!

Get a finger-snapping, foot-tapping earful of the mellow sounds of the Nate Aronow Nextet with their brand new number, "Bikin' the Bike"!

 

Ride your bike to the Newton Farmer's Market

Tired of the tuesday afternoon gridlock on Beacon Street? Bike Newton will be providing free valet parking for bicyclist shoppers at Newton Farmer's Market at Cold Spring Park tomorrow from 1:30 to 6:00 pm. Don't forget a backpack to hold your veggies, and of course your helmet.

If successful, bike valet parking will be extended to the friday market in Nonantum. We may even arrange for delivery of produce by bike.

Bicycle Friendly Summer Reading

I've been offline lately while I learn to be a reference librarian. One of my assignments was to create an annotated bibliography - a list of sources with descriptions.

Perfect opportunity for a bike-friendly bibliography! And here it is: 31 sources (web pages, federal, state, and local documents, and studies in peer-reviewed journals) to help Newton become more bike-friendly.

Most of the resources are available online: all you have to do is cut and paste the url from the bibliographic entry. Not quite as straightforward as just clicking on a link, I know, but we'll get there this fall.

Enjoy, and pass along to anyone who may find it relevant or interesting. It's tailored to Newton, but many of the resources would be just as relevant to any Massachusetts community trying to become Bicycle Friendly.