John S. Allen's Bicycle Blog

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

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.

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!

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, 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.

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

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 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

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!

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.

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.

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.