The Monday Roundup: Where to put your bike bell and more

Is your bike bell in the right spot? Maybe not.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Your summer of bike fun is far from done, but most of it from now on will involve more fabric. In the meantime, here’s some of the bike news that caught our eyes this week:

— Last month we assessed an interesting takedown of separated bikeways by Bicycle Quarterly’s Jan Heine, and last week we highlighted some infographics that recommend when to use different types of bike infrastructure. As several readers noted, Heine recently shared his own data-driven post on the subject of using different bikeways in different contexts.

— In the Wall Street Journal, Jason Gay has some implicit advice for his now-notorious colleague Dorothy Rabinowitz: “Just get on a bike. Then it all makes sense. It really does.”

— And if you can’t get enough of the WSJ’s bike-hating Rabinowitz, she returned to video on Friday to “respond” to “the Bike Lobby.”

— Why is your bike bell way over there? Sugru has a guide on how to attach it to your brake lever instead.

— In an editorial about the Bicycle Transportation Alliance‘s new Blueprint for World-Class Bicycling, the Oregonian’s editorial board calls neighborhood greenways “smart, simple and proven” but pooh-poohs “turning the Tualatin-Valley Highway and Southeast Foster Road into fabulous, welcoming bike routes.” Dedicated bikeways are “intriguing and plausible” but “hard to carry off,” they say.

— Classic case of good news/bad news: Oregon is one of just 12 states with more deaths from guns than cars.

— In Chicago, the rate by which people on bikes stop for red lights “has improved by 161 percent since cyclist-specific traffic signals, which glow with the image of a bike on the lens, were installed on Dearborn in December.” The compliance rate, in other words, is up from 31 percent to 81 percent.

If you come across an important or fun bike story, send it in or Tweet @BikePortland and we’ll consider featuring it here next Monday.

Michael Andersen (Contributor)

Michael Andersen (Contributor)

Michael Andersen was news editor of BikePortland.org from 2013 to 2016 and still pops up occasionally.

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Todd Boulanger
Todd Boulanger
10 years ago

The traffic safety news from Chicago is important (if the trend continues over time) and reaffirms one of the important findings from my studies in the Netherlands, if that bicyclists behave like traffic if you treat them like traffic….that is if you provide them will all of the infrastructural tools and a continuous logical safe network then they will operate as such vs. doing things that seem unsafe or unexpected by motorists.

spare_wheel
spare_wheel
10 years ago
Reply to  Todd Boulanger

I’ve always observed quite a bit of traffic signal anarchy during my visits to Holland. I suspect that some level of unpredictability is actually helpful for safety.

Soviet of Washington
Soviet of Washington
10 years ago

Maybe Todd. But in the past week, I’ve had not 1, not 2, but 3 separate instances where I’ve been slowing for a stop sign on McGillivray or Tech Ctr Drive only to be overtaken by another rider who doesn’t even touch their levers as they blow by me and through the intersection at 20+ mph.

lonngone
lonngone
10 years ago

Why waste the money on play-do glue stuff, and ruin a bell at the same time?
Attach your Incredibell inverted, and tucked in tightly next to your right hand grip, swivel the striker into place so your thumb can operate it, and away you go…:)
Using your thumb to strike the hammer, allows you to control your speed modulation with just one finger on the brake, and at the same time free’s your left hand to signal others, as it should be doing.
The added bonus is your bell will also be protected from getting smacked around… you also don’t create a worthless one use item out of it this way.

BikeEverywhere
BikeEverywhere
10 years ago
Reply to  lonngone

I’m thinking you really need to try some Sugru. It’s a hopelessly addictive substance that will have you dreaming of new ways to use it. Resistance is futile…

longgone
longgone
10 years ago
Reply to  BikeEverywhere

ok,ok,ok…you guys are pro’bly right… I will get some and give it a whirl!

dwainedibbly
dwainedibbly
10 years ago

Sugru is great stuff. I use it all the time. They expanded the color options in the past year or so, so now all of the primary colors are covered & you can mix it to get any color you want. I have a row of Lego blocks Sugrued (is that a word?) to the top of my monitor. I then Sugrued various cables (iPod, camera USB, memory card reader, etc) to more Lego blocks, which I can then attache to the Legos on top of my monitor, so I never have to hunt around the desk for a cable when I need it. (No, I don’t have small kids in the house.) Eye-Hand Supply (Hand-Eye Supply?) in Chinatown has Sugru if you want to buy locally.

Where to mount a bell? In the late 70s or early 80s Gainesville, FL passed a mandatory bike bell law (since repealed). I mounted my bell on the left chainstay, where I could ring it with my left heal by backpedaling slightly while turning rotating my foot slightly. It kept the bell off the handlebars and was not only technically legal but also worked fairly well while allowing both hands to keep firm grips on the handlebars.

longgone
longgone
10 years ago
Reply to  dwainedibbly

Hey dwdy,..Your chainstay/bell idea is gonna have me moving to the garage and fire up the torch soon.. thanks. 🙂

AndyC of Linnton
AndyC of Linnton
10 years ago
Reply to  dwainedibbly

dwainedibbly: Whoa, that bell idea is fantastic! It’ll have me thinking all night as well.

dwainedibbly
dwainedibbly
10 years ago

Thanks, longgone & AndyC. I used an old-school metal bell with a metal “thumb lever”, the type that has some sort of internal mechanism that makes the bell ring multiple times per push of the lever. I doubt that the newer type with the simple spring-mounted lever (like in the Sugru article) would work very well.

Pete
Pete
10 years ago

Gay’s editorial makes some good points, but of course he had to go THERE – and by that I mean stop lights. Just like the interview I saw on San Fran news the other night with the Exec Director of SF Bike Coalition… of course the interviewer has to say “well I’ve seen SO many bicyclists running red lights…” Why does it ALWAYS come to this?? I’ve started caring so much less about running red lights (and “amber gambling”, a term I recently learned from a colleague in the UK). I just don’t get how so many people can shut their ears to so many valid points and singularly focus on this (non-) issue.

Along the same lines, did you happen to catch John Stewart’s “The Daily Show” coverage of the NY Citi Bike issue? Check it out on the June 6th episode online (couldn’t easily see how to post the link, sorry).

Slow Joe Crow
Slow Joe Crow
10 years ago

If you want a bell on your brake lever you can just buy a Tektro 535 brake lever with bell built right in. http://tektro.com/_english/01_products/01_prodetail.php?pid=166&sortname=Recreation&sort=2&fid=5
I have seen these on Novara city bikes among others.

wsbob
wsbob
10 years ago

Oregonian editorial about the BTA’s ‘Blueprint for World Class Bicycling’ actually recommend improving TV Hwy and Foster Rd with the objective of their becoming “…fabulous, welcoming bike routes.” ? I’ve looked over the BTA’s webpage for the objectives, but not the full blueprint. From what’s written on the webpage, I’m not inclined to think BTA made any such suggestion with regard to those roads. If anyone here knows different, say so.

I do recall BTA suggesting that bits and pieces of TV Hwy’s existing bike lanes be connected where there are gaps. That’s a good idea. Doing so won’t make the TV Hwy bike lanes ‘fabulous and welcoming’ to ride on, but they would help to make the road at least usable by means other than motor vehicle, for easier access of businesses on TV Hwy.