Thanks to the generosity of the producers of the film, the Rhode Island Bicycle Coalition is hosting a second showing after a sellout at the premiere of the movie Bicycle Dreams. The showing will be Wednesday Feb. 22, 2012, 6:30PM at the Cable Car Cinema.

Bicycle Dreams documents the extreme hardship endured by teams of cyclists competing in the annual non-stop Race Across America bicycle race.

To purchase advance tickets, order online (make sure you select the Providence showing).

The Cable Car Cinema & Café is located at 204 South Main St. in Providence.

From the press release:

Bicycle Dreams, the award-winning feature-length documentary about the Race Across America(RAAM), after a sell out at its premiere on Feb 2 in Providence will be shown again at the Cable Car Cinema & Cafe on Wednesday, February 22 at 6:30 p.m. as part of the film’s ongoing nationwide winter tour. The screening is presented as a benefit for the Rhode Island Bicycle Coalition.

The film, which has won numerous awards at film festivals all over the world, “is an up-close look at what RAAM riders go through,” says Stephen Auerbach, the director and producer of Bicycle Dreams. “They deal with searing desert heat, agonizing mountain climbs, and endless stretches of open road. And they do it all while battling extreme exhaustion and sleep deprivation. It’s a great subject for a film.”

You can read the full Press Release.

Unfortunately, by a vote of 27 to 29, the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee just moments ago voted down the bipartisan Petri/Johnson/Lipinski amendment that would have fixed many of the deficiencies in the House transportation bill, particularly as they relate to the Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School programs.

Rhode Island doesn’t have a representative on Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee, but you can see how other state legislators voted.  There is still work to be done.  If you have yet to contact our representatives, please do so and let them know that alternative transportation matters!  We need to keep the pressure on.

cut every reference to bicycling and walking out of the federal transportation policy!

Clearly this shows how important some of our current legislators feel alternative modes of transportation are.  If this bill is allowed to pass in its current form, it would mean:

• Destroys Transportation Enhancements by making the program optional
• Repeals the Safe Routes to School program, reversing years of progress in creating safe ways for kids to walk and ride bicycles to school
• Allows states to build bridges without safe access for pedestrians and bicycles
• Eliminates bicycle and pedestrian coordinators in state DOTs
• Eliminates language that insures that rumble strips “do not adversely affect the safety or mobility of bicyclists, pedestrians or the disabled”

There is a shimmer of hope though

Representative Petri (R-WI) will stand up for bicycling and walking by offering an amendment that restores dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School. Mr. Petri can only be successful if everyone with a stake in safe sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways contacts their Representative on the Transportation Committee again today to urge them to vote YES on the Petri amendment!

Please voice your opinion.  It only takes a few moments to fill out the online form.

Thanks to the generosity of the producers of the film, the Rhode Island Bicycle Coalition is hosting a screening of the movie Bicycle Dreams. The showing will be Thursday Feb. 2, 2012, 6:30PM at the Cable Car Cinema.

Bicycle Dreams documents the extreme hardship endured by teams of cyclists competing in the annual non-stop Race Across America bicycle race.

To purchase advance tickets, order online (make sure you select the Providence showing).

The Cable Car Cinema & Café is located at 204 South Main St. in Providence.

From the press release:

Bicycle Dreams, the award-winning feature-length documentary about the Race Across America(RAAM), will premiere in Providence at the Cable Car Cinema & Cafe on Thursday, February 2 at 6:30 p.m. as part of the film’s ongoing nationwide winter tour. The screening is presented as a benefit for the Rhode Island Bicycle Coalition.

The film, which has won numerous awards at film festivals all over the world, “is an up-close look at what RAAM riders go through,” says Stephen Auerbach, the director and producer of Bicycle Dreams. “They deal with searing desert heat, agonizing mountain climbs, and endless stretches of open road. And they do it all while battling extreme exhaustion and sleep deprivation. It’s a great subject for a film.”

You can read the full Press Release.

On the agenda for this month’s meeting:

• Bike Month/BikeToWork Day Planning Kick Off (volunteers needed)
• Bicycle Dreams Movie Event (volunteers needed)
• Commuter Guide Project Update
• Membership Update
• State Legislation Update

We will have time at the end of the meeting for other topics of interest to those present.

The Elmwood Neighborhood Association has sent out a notice of an upcoming public planning meeting to discuss the remainder of the Elmwood repaving project.  For more information about the recent activities and some commentary on the current status, be sure to click the “more” link.

Planning meeting for Elmwood Ave

with RIDOT Director Lewis and Senator Pichardo

Tuesday, December 20, 6:00 to 8:00 pm

Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 6:00 to 8:00 pm
St Paul’s Church Auditorium
445 Elmwood Ave
Enter the Auditorium on Carter St. (Parking is across the street.)

This is your opportunity to discuss the development of Elmwood Ave with RIDOT Director Lewis before contract bids this winter and Elmwood Ave development as early as spring. Please come. Invite your neighbors and colleagues.Please RSVP to Karen Hlynsky, Elmwood Neighborhood Association: (401) 941-8249 or karen_ena@earthlink.net

History

RIBIKE representatives have been participating and monitoring the Elmwood Avenue repaving project since early 2010 when CommunityWorksRI first held a public meeting to gather neighborhood input into what was important for residents to have changed, improved or kept the same when RIDOT executed the project to repave.  Out of those meetings, it was concluded that improved pedestrian safety for crossing the street, especially in the area of Knight Memorial Library, Gilbert Stuart Middle School, Alfred Lima Elementary School, West End Community Center and Bucklin Park.  The community also expressed interest in including bicycle accommodations in or along the street to provide more comfortable, safe and convenient access to Roger Williams Park and other destinations.

Over the past year RIDOT has executed contracts for preliminary work along the street, extending from Cadillac Drive to Service Road 7, a distance of 2.12 miles.  So far, new traffic control lights with pedestrian crossing signals have been installed, temporary ADA compliant ramps have been constructed, the pedestrian activated HAWK signal has replaced a trafffic light at Daboll Street.  Also already completed is a restriping of the roadway to change the travel lanes north of Congress Ave from two each direction, to one each direction with a center turning lane.

The next phase of the project will see the entire street milled and repaved, new sidewalks installed, permanent ADA compliant crossings installed, new street trees, signage, and rebuilding the median on the section of roadway that is still 4 lanes (south of Congress Ave).

RIDOT published these “90%” plans to interested parties in late summer, which created some concern among residents, as very few changes seemed to have been made to address the goal of increasing the ease and safety of crossing Elmwood.  A formal request to study the possibility of including bike lanes within the roadway was made, as well as a request for a study of pedestrian crossing activity near the aforementioned community resources, all principally on the west side of Elmwood with a large residential area served on the east by these amenities.

RIDOT responded that after study, bicycle lanes could not be included within the footprint of the roadway along its length without removing parking.  RIDOT instead intends to use shared lane arrows along the length of the street.

In November, in response to RIDOT’s statements on current project status and design plans, the Elmwood Neighborhood Association conducted a walk-through and examination of the 90% plans available at that time.  Senator Pichardo attended, and was asked to speak with Director Lewis to address the neighborhoods desire for a street that supports the community’s needs.   During the walk-through, attention was paid to the area around Knight Library, with suggestions that additional signalized crossings be installed to assist with access to community resources, as well as an examination of the areas of Elmwood that had underutilized on-street parking areas due to a lack of businesses, or abundance of off-street parking.

Other items noted were the widening and addition of lanes at some major intersections, that immediately reduced to single lanes that compromised the ability to have through bike lanes, the seemingly excessive width of the travel and center turning lanes along that segment, and the possibility of removing the median, allowing for eliminating a possibly unnecessary northbound lane in section south of Congress Ave, allowing the remaining lanes to be re-positioned and the eliminated lane split to provide a 5′ bike lane on either side of the roadway.

Commentary

In a recent conversation with a city representative, when mentioning that eliminating parking along portions of Elmwood could allow for the inclusion of bike lanes, I was told that it was politically unlikely to be possible to do this because to the linking of parking to city revenues.  I’m not sure this is valid, since as I recall, Elmwood is generally not a metered street.  The other issue with this is that in some areas, a new parking lane has been created under the new striping plan, most notably along the cemetery.

In the same conversation, it was indicated that elimination of median had occurred in the Route 10 area under a previous project and the neighbors afterwards felt that the ease of crossing the street had been negatively impacted, so there was no desire to remove the median in this case.   It was the opinion of those performing the walk-through that the four-foot wide median was insufficient as a pedestrian refuge area, and did not adequately serve those with strollers and wheelchairs in crossing, since it isn’t designed as a sheltered refuge.

There are sections of Elmwood where on-street parking is absolutely critical to the success of the businesses nearby, especially in the several blocks north and south of Potters Ave with its high density of shops without off-street parking, however, with  most of the rest of the street having businesses with off-street parking provided, it would seem that one parking lane on one side of the street could be taken, combined with narrowing the travel lanes from 12-feet to 11, and the median from 15 to 14, to make up the space required to add a 5-foot wide bike lane in each direction either adjacent to the curb or the parking lane, where present.  Sharrows should only be used in areas of transition, or where conditions really do not permit dedicated lanes, and should connect these facilities, not be the facility.

As many have pointed out, if the parking lanes are under used, they will (and likely already are) being used be default as bike lanes, so why do anything.   My response is that Elmwood is on the city’s transportation plan as a bicycle route, and has signage indicating this.  The city, and state should be stepping up their commitment to their plans by taking this opportunity within money already allocated to design the street correctly now, for the next 50 years, as finding money to mill the stripes and repaint the lanes later will incur further expense and delays.

Below are photos taken during a ride down the lanes over the last couple of weeks with the final striping and stencils in place.  Other amenities along the street are signs at the intersections indicating that bicycles should be placed on a not yet present line in the line at intersections.  Presumably these will line up with the induction loop sensors that have been installed in the lane.

While the lane is short and not particularly connected to any other bicycle specific amenities at this time, I would expect that with the pending project to revise the city’s bike plan, the Broadway bike lane will become an integral part of that network.

From observation, east bound drivers on Broadway coming from Olneyville and Route 6 aren’t entirely comfortable with the new striping and the appropriate route/lane shift to get into the right turn only lane onto Barton Street. At this location, the bike lane beings and is striped at an angle from the curb to occupy a position between the straight and turn only lanes (see photo below).  On the 3 occassions I’ve traveled through, I’ve seen cars stay to the left of the bike lane and then change lanes across the bike lane to make the right turn as they near the light rather than changing lanes through the “dashed lines”.

The lanes aren’t perfect, appearing to be approximately 4 feet wide, located adjacent to a parking lane.  This leaves it possible for a person leaving a vehicle to endanger a rider by opening their door into the lane.  Given the narrowness of the street and other travel lanes, a wider bike lane or a striped buffer would not fit into the footprint of the street, however, so it’s difficult to see how the street design could have been much different.

There are one locations where the lane disappears on the East bound track, leaving the rider with a sharrow in the straight lane between Bainbridge Ave and Tobey St.  At this location a left-turn only lane is present, and straight traffic is shifted to the right, causing the auto and bike lane to merge for the block.  The lane resumes immediately after the Tobey Street intersection. The lane also ends without warning or accommodation at Ringgold Street with no lane markings or sharrows for the last block to Dean St, where the new paving ends.  The street configuration doesn’t appear to have changed for this block, with no dedicated turn lanes add yet, making it not obvious why the lane ends at that location.

West bound the situation is similar, with the lane ending at Harkness St. to accommodate a right turn-only lane onto Tobey.  Sharrows are placed in the straight through travel lane.  The bike lane doesn’t resume until Bainbridge St., and finally ending at Barton St.  West bound also has one extra hazard, not present in the opposite direction, manhole covers that are frequently set an inch or so below the level of the paving.  There seems to be one in every intersection, and several extras.

Discussions and additional photos can be found on posts at Greater City:Providence and CarFreePVD.

Brian installs lights for a stylish rider

On Tuesday, November 1st, 2011, volunteers for RIBIKE, for the second year running, spread out to 3 locations across the City of Providence to equip bicycles with front and rear blinky lights.  By partnering with Legend Bicycles and Planet Bike, we were able to get 100 front and rear blinky safety lights to be installed at no charge.  Legend Bicycles covered the cost of  purchasing the lights from Planet Bike at wholesale prices.  As we’ve all seen, many riders are riding at night at night without this very important piece of safety equipment.

Starting around 5PM, volunteers on Broadway, Brook Street and North Main Street flagged down passing riders without lights and installed nearly 100 light sets in approximately, finishing at around 7:30.  Some passersby went home to retrieve their bikes for this once a year opportunity.  One volunteer at the North Main station received a text from a friend with a tip to head to Broadway and Ringgold to get a free set of bike lights.

RIBIKE thanks its partners for this event, Planet Bike, which donates 25% of its profits to bicycle advocacy, Legend Bicycle, and especially Jack Madden, for continue support and organization of this event, and Recycle-A-Bike volunteers for helping on the night of the event.

We also thank everyone who stopped and increased their night time riding safety by listening to crazy people shouting “free lights” on the side of a street for us to install the lights.

Below are some images taken during the event.

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Unfortunately, it appears that East Providence is concurrently ripping up the portion of Veteran’s Parkway near where the end of the pipe will come out.  They have the road closed down to a single lane, just wide enough for cars to pass through, one side at a time.  If you are planning to ride through this section, it’s a perfect time to TAKE THE LANE.  As a cyclists, you have ever right to do so and this is the safest way to pass through a one lane section like this.  Ride in such a way that cars can not squeeze by you.  The section is short, assert yourself and most importantly ensure you keep yourself safe.

If you are nervous about riding through the detour, we have a few people who are willing to ride with you, at your pace.  If you contact us, we will put you in touch with someone to ride with and you can arrange a time and location to meet.

For those who don’t know George Redman, you should.  He is considered the “father” of the East Bay Bike Path.  Without his never-ending advocacy, it’s likely the EBBP may never have become a reality.  It would be great to gather a large cycling audience at this event to honor someone who’s work has had a major impact on cycling in RI.