European Cycling Federation report about motor vehicles

See https://ecf.com/what-we-do/road-safety/motor-vehicle-regulation-safer-cycling

Generally good stuff.

I like the call for automatic emergency braking. This will prevent rear-end collisions, and can potentially eliminate the right hook — though not the screened left cross. Automated speed control with an override for emergencies is also practical. The skeptcism about C-ITS (connected vehicles) is in my opinion warranted. It is too complicated to be reliable and there are also the issues of expense, need of bicyclists and pedestrians to carry equipment, and civil liberties.

I also like their specification that side underrun protection should stop pedestrians or cyclists from being caught in or because if the guard. Most side guards I’ve seen of this in the USA are window dressing — see https://john-s-allen.com/blog/?p=5448

But their statement that cycling fatalities and serious injuries have decreased is at odd with the graphs. What is correct? What are the causative factors? What kinds of crashes?

They don’t say anything about the trend toward e-bikes.

The following is good, in the report:

In the EU the developmental pattern seems to be that vehicles will become more and more automated bringing the technologies step by step into new high end vehicles (AEB, parking assist etc.) with, over time, driving tasks being further and further eliminated from the driving task until eventually full automation is achieved. The US seems to be moving in a different way with companies not traditionally involved in vehicles looking at current testing of fully autonomous vehicles (Google car etc.) using sensing camera/lidar/radar systems and almost willing the driverless car into life through repeated use on the road.

The report protests against bicyclist’s being pushed out of the way to make room for motor vehicles and mentions “good cycling Infrastructure” repeatedly but doesn’t say what that is, or how the advent of e-bikes, automated crash prevention and autonomous vehicles will change that. Clearly, it will, but how?

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Van rental

I’m used to driving a small sedan, but this past weekend, my son and I volunteered at the rest stop for a bicycle club century ride and rented a large cargo van (Ford 250Z) to transport supplies.

Ford F250 Z cargo van

Ford F250 Z cargo van

Safety feature: back-up camera with lines that curved as I steered indicating the path of the vehicle — display in the center mirror. (Also, the van did have windows in the back doors and the load was low enough that it didn’t obscure them.) But I didn’t know about the camera until another club member who had rented such a van last year told me about it.

Danger features: no side windows behind the driver’s seat, and neither the camera nor the convex blindspot mirrors under the main side mirrors offered a view directly to the sides. I had to back out into a street blindly on one occasion. At the time, I was alone in the van, so my son couldn’t spot for me. (There might possibly have been another camera at the right side, but I didn’t know. There was room in the mirror for a second display.)

When changing lanes, I am used to checking for traffic in blindspots by turning my head, and there were a few times I forgot to look into the convex mirrors. Huge danger feature: open cargo compartment behind the driver’s and passenger’s seats, minimal tie-downs but no tie-down straps, and no partition to prevent the load from flying forward and beheading the driver and passenger in the event of a collision.

Many kinds of optional and custom interiors are, I’m sure, available for this model of van but the one I rented, fresh from the factory with a completely bare unimproved interior, really ought not to be street legal.

Oh, and I have noticed on this vehicle and almost all other newer vehicles, the front turn signals are way over at the side, out of view of anyone about to cross in front from the other side. (See photo.) How the hell can this be legal?

Where is Ralph Nader now that we still need him?

And, the rental agency handed me the keys without giving me any instruction. Fortunately, I had no crashes and my son and I are unscathed.

Posted in Bicycling | 2 Comments

Another embarrassing Dutch bicycle education video

Here’s a video from the Dutch cycling Embassy, a promotion. Dutch education teaches children how to follow Dutch rules. It doesn’t teach them basics of bike handling or safety in traffic. The teacher makes an empty claim that it does, and the video, presented as a promotion, is an embarrassment. The video is short enough that I took my time to look right through it and comment. Almost every clip of students riding is an example of bad practice.

If cycling were being taught according to the same principles as with other skills-based activities such as swimming, ball sports or boating, then skills would be at the core of the instruction. But again, this is rules instruction. And even so, the students break many basic rules, for example turning left from the right side of the road without looking back in time to negotiate with an overtaking motorist or cyclist.

The video is of lots of short clips, some so short you can hardly see what is happening. You will have to stop the motion or look repeatedly to see some of the things I describe below. Cheerful music plays for most of the video except when teachers are making promotional statements: one more way that the video identifies itself as having everything to do with promotion.

Times here are backward because Facebook shows you the amount of time left rather than the amount of time elapsed. Yay Facebook, another subtle manipulation to keep you on the page. (A reader has indicated that clicking on the time display changes it to time elapsed — a hidden feature.)

-2:04 Kid is riding bicycle with the saddle way too low.

-1:49 Children are standing over their bicycles, in front of the saddle, which is good, but the pedals on which their feet rest are in the down position. They would have either to raise the pedal or, if that is not possible (coaster brake) switch feet or shuffle start.

-1:43 Same kid rides too close to the back of a right-angle-parked car. It could back out, or someone could walk around past its far side.

-1:42 He rides in the door zone of a parallel-parked car.

-1:39 Girl is riding with saddle so low that she is pedaling on the heels of her feet.

-1:35 Girl weaves right before a cross street, then goes straight.

-1:31 Girl turns left from the right side of the road — but she is signaling, and that will make it safe! We don’t see her do a shoulder check.

-1:29 Girl rides deep in the door zone on a narrow street with motor traffic. If the door of the SUV with dark windows opened, she would strike the door and/or be thrown into the path of an approaching car.

-1:26 Boy signals a right turn while turning rather than before turning, turns and continues edge riding.

-1:16 Girl turns left from the right side of the street. She does a shoulder check, but too late to negotiate if there is a vehicle approaching (There isn’t. There isn’t any moving motor vehicle behind a cyclist in any of these clips, other than maybe the one with the video camera in staged shots). She signals while turning rather than before turning, which would indicate her intention. A scorer is sitting by the side of the road.

-1:05 Teacher: “The traffic exam tests whether children are able safely to participate in traffic” — so, evidently, the children have already taken the course.

-1:00 “They’ve just done the national theoretical exam.”

-0:56 Child is stopped sitting on the saddle, which is too low, I can tell just by looking at her feet.

-0.54 Student is being scored by teacher using a clipboard, while riding in the door zone. Does the student get a deduction on the score?

-0:51 Boy rides over a speed bump without posting.

-0.49 Girl dismounts by jumping off to the side of the bicycle. Does she know another way? This is the fastest way and there is no other traffic here, but it is inappropriate for a traffic stop.

-0:26 Kid is riding in the door zone, fast. Were any points deducted from his score on the exam? He does look over his shoulder before merging left, probably to turn left (clip is cut at this point) but as he is in the door zone, he can’t really afford not to pay attention to the door ahead.

-0:21 Student is riding close to the back of a row of right-angle parked cars and then over a speed bump without posting. Clip abruptly ends when he is on top of the speed bump.

-0:13 Girls ride over a speed bump, closer one without posting. Nobody ever demonstrated that? She hasn’t picked it up by watching other cyclists including the one right in front of her?

-0:09 Girls mount their bicycles awkwardly. This clip is cut off before they even get moving.

-0:05 — a chicane, painted dark and not reflectorized, another view of what was shown at -0:49. Cyclist must dismount to pass through. Such chicanes are beginning to be seen in North America now too. The purpose here in the Netherlands is apparently to prevent motorcyclists from passing, but bicycles with trailers, tandems, adult tricycles also can’t. The purpose in the USA and Canada is to force cyclists on paths to dismount before intersections.

Also see my other post about the skills of adult Dutch cyclists.

Posted in Bicycling | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Grade crossing

Shining Sea path, Falmouth, Massachusetts, northbound at Ter Heun Road.

(You may click on “Vimeo” at the right below the image to get a larger view)

shining-sea-terheun from John Allen on Vimeo.

So, let me ask you: how many bicyclists are going to go to the left of the fence into the oncoming lane of the path and ride across, and how many are going to ride up to the fence on the right, dismount as the sign instructs them to — no other way to make that tight corner — and manage to be paying attention to traffic coming from 9 different locations?

  • sidewalk, both directions;
  • street from the left, in two lanes, one of which can hide traffic in the other;
  • street, from the right, coming straight across the intersection, also turning right and left from Jones Road;
  • path, coming across from the far side of the street;
  • path, bicyclists who went around on the left side of the fence.

The underlying concept is “we will make bicyclists into pedestrians, walking is safer than riding” but:

  • For a competent bicyclist, this isn’t a great place to cross, but riding is safer, because it is faster, everything you need to yield to is in your forward field of view, and you can get across before the street traffic changes.
  • For a novice or child bicyclist or a pedestrian, this isn’t a safe place to cross, end of story.

Nobody planning from the git-go would ever install a crosswalk this close to an intersection — a signalized intersection yet — instead of at the intersection. This is an example of an accretion, starting with the rail line, constructed in 1872 when when road traffic wasn’t what it is now. Motorists can’t reliably be expected to yield here. Where a rail trail crosses a busy street near an intersection, a grade separation is warranted but there wasn’t enough funding to pay for that and so we get this. Doubtless, there have been crashes and this an attempt to prevent them. It is a grade crossing that doesn’t make the grade!

Posted in Bicycling | 2 Comments

Trying out a V Bike

In late 2017, several V-Bike dockless bike share bicycles appeared on Carter Street opposite the commuter rail station in downtown Waltham, Massachusetts. Soon the bicycles were gone from Carter Street, but one sat in front of a house on Pearl Street for several months. I noticed it repeatedly as I rode between my home and downtown Waltham.

Abandoned V-Bike

Abandoned V-Bike, August 26, 2018

After the bicycle had sat unused for months, the rechargeable battery of its lock would be dead, so the bicycle couldn’t be unlocked and the company couldn’t find it with GPS. I checked with neighbors and brought the bicycle home expecting that I could help the company recover it. I e-mailed the company — which replied that I could keep the bicycle or throw it out. V-Bikes had pulled its business out of the Boston area and had no way to retrieve this bicycle. So, I actually came to own this bicycle legit. I removed the lock. That was laughably easy, and did not involve breaking anything. I  tried the bicycle out.

Observations: The headlight worked fine, powered by the generator which also served to charge the battery, but the taillight apparently was powered by a solar cell and never lit up. Fenders were vestigial. The bicycle weighed 50 pounds with the cast aluminum wheels and thick aluminum tubing, and had a bumpy ride with airless tires, but those were minor issues compared with the way-high handlebars, non-adjustable low saddle and single, very high gear. Unlike other bike-share bicycles which I have tried, this one was almost unridable.

Non-adjustable saddle, solar-powered taillight on vestigial rear fender.

Non-adjustable saddle, solar-powered taillight on vestigial rear fender.

The bicycle had some interesting features: a single front fork blade on the left, and single chainstay on the right, enclosing a shaft drive; no seatstay.

Chainstay enclosing driveshaft

Chainstay enclosing driveshaft

Front and rear brakes were band brakes — see article on sheldonbrown.com for a description. A band brake should not be used on a front wheel due to its self-actuation, which can cause it to lock up. The degree of self-actuation is highly sensitive to the friction between brake band and brake drum, which can increase due to rust.

Front wheel with band brake

Front wheel of V Bike with band brake

A twist grip on the handlebar usually operates a shifter, but this one rang a bell.

V Bike handlebars with bell

V Bike handlebars with bell

While bike-share bicycles, including this one, use a lot of unconventional parts so they can’t be removed and re-used, this bicycle had conventional quill pedals which could accept toe clips and straps.

The charity organization Bikes Not Bombs was happy to take the bike as a donation — I figured that they could figure out a use for it, modifying it if needed, if anyone could!

Posted in Bicycling | 5 Comments

Dutch bike handling skills

What do Dutch cyclists learn  about bike handling in their vaunted public-school bicycling courses? Evidently not much. In the video here

(auch hier auf Deutsch), I don’t see even one cyclist who has learned how to stop and restart efficiently and safely. Many hop forward off the saddle. Others tiptoe with one foot on the ground while remaining seated. This is practical with a low saddle, but the saddle on most bicycles shown is too high to make this very stable. Gears are not used efficiently for acceleration, if a bicycle has them at all. I don’t see a single example of the pedal-step technique which is taught in League of American Bicyclist and CyclingSavvy courses.

0.09 kid is sitting on the saddle at a stop with both feet dangling, then hops off.

0:25, cyclist hops off with both feet, then reaches out to push the button on the pole.

0:32: one bicyclist hops forward, the other awkwardly remains sitting on the saddle tiptoeing with one foot to keep the bicycle upright.

1:19 a cyclist is using a pole for balance while remaining seated and tiptoeing.

1:41 A cyclist is seated on the saddle, one foot on the forward pedal near the bottom of the stroke, unable to apply power to restart efficiently, and the other foot on a curb, then finally pulls the pedal up when he has finished rearranging things in his bag.

2:27 A cyclist remains seated with both feet on the pedals, using a pole with a pushbutton for balance. This is actually efficient if you have a pole, or an assistant at a velodrome, to hold you upright. But 2:44, the cyclist starts out in a very high gear. This appears to be the only gear the bicycle has. A single-speed should be geared lower.

3:00 another pole-balancing act and the bicycle has derailleur gears but the cyclist isn’t using them effectively — starts in a middle gear, then appears actually to shift down as he speeds up.

3:15 A crowd of cyclists is waiting and not one is poised to restart efficiently. They start out awkwardly and slowly. The clip cuts off just as another cyclist is about to cut across at speed in front of them, having ignored a traffic signal and riding the wrong way. This is the only bicyclist in the video who displays a bike-handling skill: efficient pedaling. But the Netherlands does not support faster urban cycling either with infastructure or with education, and when this is so, faster cyclists tend to become outlaws.

3:50 cyclist is off the saddle but she put the wrong foot on the ground when she stopped, and doesn’t turn the cranks backward to starting position.

Also see my post commenting on a video promoting Dutch bicycling education for 5th-grade elementary-school students.

Posted in Bicycling | 13 Comments

Jacob-uptown response

I know of a John Allen who is the Vatican correspondent for CNN and National Public Radio and another who has recently taken over from General Petraeus in Afghanistan, but I’m the only John Allen I know of who actively discusses issues of bicycling policy. So I’m quite sure I’m the one you think I am.

But this really burns me:

“The name John Allen is synonymous with a person who advocates against all bicycling facilities.”

Where did you get that idea, please? Did you check out other things I have written, or is your statement hearsay, and if so, from whom, please?

Please check out these URLs. There are others I could point to:

www.masspaths.org/bikeways/facguide/

I was the primary author of that report, which cataloged and described existing and potential bicycle facilities throughout Massachusetts and which was important in preparing the Massachusetts Bicycle Plan..

www.masspaths.net/bikeways/metrowest/

I was the sole author of that report, which strongly advocates for rail trails, shortcut paths and paths on aqueduct corridors..

john-s-allen.com/blog/?p=2086

I defend neighborhood traffic circles.

john-s-allen.com/galleries/NYC/9thAve/

I am analytical, not disparaging, of the 9th Avenue bikeway.

Now, you ask me to have an honest debate. Gee, but isn’t that what I was doing! Just what is dishonest, or for that matter, dogmatic, about anything I have said, please? How do you define “VC dogma”? Please? What do you think I actually believe?

In fact, as the documents I cited, and many others show, I defend and support bicycle facilities which improve bicycling conditions, as I see them. On the other hand, I do not indiscriminately support all bicycle facilities, or claims which are made for them which are in conflict with the laws of physics —

— for example, that a barrier that slows the right side of a car will steer it to the left. Elementary physics says that the car will steer to the right.

— or which make unsupportable assumptions about traffic flow and capacity, such as that a bikeway wide enough for one line of bicycle traffic is going to work smoothly for bicyclists who travel at preferred speeds ranging from 8 to 25 miles per hour.

— or which contradict the results of decades of safety research, both in the USA and in Europe.

I have indeed ridden a bicycle in NYC, and you may be surprised to know that I think that the 9th Avenue bikeway works pretty well though I don’t think nearly so much of the one on Grand Street, and even less of the one on Broadway, which was totally overrun by pedestrians when I rode it. The Brooklyn Bridge promenade, while far from perfect, is about as good as could be achieved given the limitations of the 125 year old bridge design; the Manhattan Bridge, much better once the City corrected the bumps at expansion joints, and the Williamsburg Bridge, better yet.

You make the point that safety improves with the numbers of bicyclists. I think that is generally true, though it is due to many factors, not only increased motorist awareness but also, importantly, greater cyclist experience. I don’t think that it excuses inferior design and construction. I have written about safety in numbers too:

john-s-allen.com/blog/?p=1621

I agree with you about the poor conduct of New York motorists. I have a Grand Street video in which I point out issues with the bikeway, and also with riding on the part of Grand Street which does not have a bikeway. I don’t think that this particular bikeway is very satisfactory, with the average travel speed around 5.5 mph, and repeated blockages by cross traffic, pedestrians and a construction project. Neither do I think that the part of Grand Street without a bikeway is very satisfactory, with some disturbing examples of motorist intimidation. Is this “VC dogma”?

vimeo.com/26520930

At the end of the video, I ask what might work to make cycling in New York better. Clearly, more is needed than either the bikeway scheme or the shared-lane scheme shown in that video achieves.

I must ask: are you willing to engage in a discussion of how such improvements might be achieved, or do you want to dismiss me as a dogmatist, while making blanket statements in support of facilities which are of such widely varying quality that some of them don’t serve bicyclists well at all?

If it’s the former, I’m more than willing to continue the discussion.

Posted in Bicycling | Leave a comment

A Dutch cyclist comments on Amsterdam vs. Vancouver

https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2019/05/06/Cycling-Vancouver-Vs-Amsterdam/

Also be sure to read the comments. You have to click to agree to be good before they appear.

Posted in Bicycling | Leave a comment

Massachusetts traffic law, the nation’s most disorganized and confusing

A major revision of Massachusetts traffic law has been overdue for decades.  It is the most disorganized and unreadable body of traffic law of any state and the only one not based on the Uniform Vehicle Code. In preparing comments on bills currently before the Massachusetts state legislature, I was able to deepen my understanding of how this came about, and how it works, or doesn’t. So, now, I’ll share what I discovered with you.

I’ve long known there to be major gaps in the rules for driving in the General Laws, but now I have a better understanding. The main body of rules for driving is not in the laws at all. It elsewhere, actually in very many places elsewhere, as I found out. Massachusetts statutes consist of a skeleton of antiquated traffic law overlaid with a patchwork of fix-up provisions, and with huge gaps where the main body of rules should be.

Chapter 89, section 3 of the Massachusetts General Laws, dating from 1821, requires a horse pulling a sleigh to be equipped with three or more  bells. Please keep that in mind, all you people driving horsedrawn sleighs on the roads of Massachusetts, but be warned, the going isn’t very good for a sleigh, because the roads are now plowed. The bill enacting the sleigh bell provision is the first in my summary here. The 1821 legislation also established that traffic should keep to the right, everywhere in Massachusetts. So far, so good with that.

But as to rules for driving on modern roads, there are huge gaps in the General Laws. For example, there is no provision indicating what a driver is to do at a traffic signal other than the fix-up rule for a legal turn on red, see Chapter 89, section 8 – https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter89/Section8. If you search the entire body of statutes, you won’t find any underlying rule. The “turn on red” rule was added in 1980,when it was mandated by the Federal Government, under the threat of withholding highway funding — see history here.

Chapter 90, Section 7B is another fix-up example. It describes requirements for and around school buses in a paragraph 1523 words long – and this is a section which S7, the Governor’s bill currently in the Legislature, would revise. The revision would be lost in a mass of text:

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter90/Section7B

Where is the main body of traffic law?

Let’s take a closer look at the questions about  traffic signals, to discover how the rules are split up between the General Laws, regulations and municipal ordinances:

There are explicit rules for drivers at traffic signals in Chapter 720 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations, 9.06 (10) – https://www.mass.gov/doc/720-cmr-9-driving-on-state-highways/download but these apply only on state highways. And, whether a numbered highway is a state highway depends on property rights. That is the reason for the signs, “state highway ends.”  Not only the jurisdiction changes where these signs are posted:  also the rules.

Code of Massachusetts Regulations 350 includes traffic rules, including an abbreviated one for traffic signals, for DCR parkways: https://www.mass.gov/doc/350-cmr-4-traffic-rules/download . There are probably similar rules for authorities such as Massport.

So, where are the rules that apply on streets and roads which are not state highways, or DCR parkways, or managed by authorities?

Basic traffic rules elsewhere are established in ordinances that must be enacted separately by the governments of the 351 cities and towns. Ordinances for Waltham, where I live, include wording on traffic signals similar but not identical to that in CMR 9.09 (10).

https://www.city.waltham.ma.us/sites/walthamma/files/pages/rules_-_regulations_2017.pdf

I do not have time to review the ordinances of the other 350 cities and towns.

Another example: There is a very good definition of “bicycle” in the rules for state highways, CMR 720 9.01. There is no definition of “bicycle” whatever in the General Laws. There is a poor and different definition in the Waltham city ordinances.

This is nuts.

My friend Paul Schimek reports in a comment on a Facebook post, that

Technically, rules … are supposed to conform with the state’s model municipal traffic code, but no one seems to enforce this:

“any rule, regulation, order, ordinance or by-law of a city or town hereafter made or promulgated relative to or in connection with the erection or maintenance of signs, traffic control signals, traffic devices, school zones, parking meters or markings on any way within its control shall take effect without department approval provided such signs, traffic control signals, traffic devices, parking meters, school zones or markings are in conformance with the department’s current manual on uniform traffic control devices and the department’s sample regulation for a standard municipal traffic code.”
https://malegislature.gov/…/TitleXIV/Chapter85/Section2

Ch. 85 Sec. 2 lists some important things (at least important according to MassDOT) that require prior approval, but everything else must conform but there is no pre-approval required, and in practice there are a TON of non-conforming local laws, including the meaning of traffic signals!

Chapter 85, section 2 is another huge block of text, too.

I couldn’t find the municipal traffic code online with a Google search. I asked Paul, and he pointed me to the appendices of the Massachusetts Amendments to the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Quote from the host page for that PDF document:

The standards in this manual apply to any and all streets and highways regardless of type or class.

MassDOT will assist municipalities regarding the proper use of the MUTCD and the Massachusetts Amendments, upon request.

A driver or police officer should not have to review multiple documents for rules which apply to something as common and universal as traffic signals or the definition of a bicycle. Traffic laws should be uniform throughout the Commonwealth and addressed comprehensively in the General Laws. Municipal traffic ordinances should address only  issues which are unique to a community, an authority or the DCR, such as parking locations and path usage.

Revision of the traffic law to accommodate new developments will be much smoother if the laws are properly organized in the first place. Micromobility devices raise new issues, and more issues are going to occur with the advent of automated crash avoidance and fully autonomous vehicles.

The process of revision begins, or at least could be seeded, by a provision in Section 31 of the Governor’s bill, S7. S7 promises to generate a review process – even though only temporarily and for a limited scope of review.

Also: here’s a link to excerpts from a letter from Ed Kearney, of the National Committee for Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances, describing issues he had with Massachusetts law  back in 1983. Not much basic has changed. I am not sure whether Kearney was aware of the rules in the city and town ordinances. He did not mention them. It appears that he was confused, and he was a traffic-law guru!

Posted in Laws | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Citi Bike and Lyft recall

Citi Bike (New York City’s bike share system), also other bike share systems and the Lyft ride-share company, are recalling hundreds of electrically-assisted bicycles as of April 16, 2019, see this blog post. The brakes shown in the photo here are recognizable as Shimano Rollerbrakes, which rely on internal grease lubrication for normal performance. (Click to enlarge the image.)

An electric Citi Bike

An electric Citi Bike

These are drum brakes, but the brake shoe-brake drum interface is bathed in grease like that of a coaster brake. If the grease dries out or burns off, friction increases and the brake easily locks up. Details about Rollerbrakes: https://sheldonbrown.com/rollerbrakes.html. A rental bicycle left outdoors and untended could develop this problem and as a rental bicycle has multiple users, a user is not aware of the problem’s increasing over time.

The description as “touchy,” however, is nontechnical and may also describe brakes that would work for someone who knows how to use them. The problem is then in marketing bicycling as child’s play to, in the commonly used expression, people of all ages and abilities – as these are adult-size bicycles, to adults who learned everything they know about bicycling in kindergarten, by companies which turn a blind eye to that problem or are naively unaware of it.

In that case, the marketing plan is deficient. But what I expect to be done if that is the problem is to weaken the front brake, and then crashes will occur instead due to the inability to slow or stop in as short a distance. Photo source: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/…/Citi_Bike_Electric_10.0.jpg

Here is a comment in the sheldonbrown.com article from mechanic Jeff Bertolet:

The life cycle of a brake goes something like this: add small amount of grease (pea size amount) in addition to factory grease when installing a new brake. After some months, the grease is washed away by rain. The brake is now dry and has poor or nonexistent modulation which locks the wheel with the slightest pressure on the lever. A normal consumer would regrease the brake immediately at this point, but our bikes [bike-share fleet bikes] can go a few weeks between being checked by staff. If it is being ridden dry for weeks, the drum and/or shoes are damaged beyond repair. Regreasing at this point can bring the brake modulation back to normal levels temporarily, but the brake will lose all stopping power within a few weeks or months depending on how much it is ridden.

Posted in Bicycling, Bike share programs, brakes, Equipment | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments