FABB Blog

 

Bike Lawyer Bruce Deming Competes in 24 Hour Solo World Championships

Bike Lawyer Bruce Deming

We were talking to bike lawyer Bruce Deming recently and he casually mentioned that he had just returned from participating in the 24 Hour Solo World Championships in Italy June 2 & 3. Bruce placed 2nd in his age category, Mens 60-64. Congratulations Bruce!

You will recall that the former program manager for Bike Arlington, Chris Eatough, holds the record for winning six 24-hour solo world championships, an amazing accomplishment. Chris also won two 24-hour solo NORBA national championships. It's hard to imagine what it must take to compete in such a race.

In 2013 Bruce attended a monthly FABB meeting to discuss his work and his book Surviving the Crash: Your Rights in a Bike Accident. See our other coverage of Bruce in previous blog posts.

Recently Bruce worked with WABA to support their contributory negligence campaign, providing pro-bono legal assistance. For that work he received WABA's Vision Zero Award in 2015. Virginia is now only one of four states with contributory negligence laws. We think it's time for a change.

Labels: 24 hour solo world championships, bruce deming

posted by Bruce Wright at 4:01 PM permalink

 

Book launch party for Arlington bike attorney Bruce Deming's new book

Surviving the Crash: Your Legal Rights in a Bicycle Accident is the title of a new book by attorney Bruce Deming. There will be a launch party tomorrow night, October 22, at Mad Rose Tavern in Clarendon. From the online registration site:

Labels: bruce deming

posted by Bruce Wright at 12:53 PM permalink

 

Bike lawyer Bruce Deming to speak at FABB monthly meeting on Wed.

At the FABB monthly meeting on Wednesday Bike Lawyer Bruce Deming will discuss his book Surviving the Crash: Your Rights in a Bike Accident. He will also answer questions on cyclists' rights. The meeting is at 7:30pm at Patrick Henry Library in Vienna. We'll also get an overview of bike activities in the county by the county bike coordinator. posted by Bruce Wright at 10:00 AM permalink

 

Regional Call to Action Published: Updated 11/11/11

Shane Farthing, Executive Director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, officially released the Regional Call to Action report yesterday at the Call to Action Summit. The report was based on the over 1,000 suggestions from 200 cyclists, gathered at local meetings hosted by WABA during the past month.

The primary message was that bicycling needs to be a viable, functional transportation choice for the 60% of area residents who are interested in cycling but concerned about the perceived dangers of bicycling. "They would ride if they felt safer on the roadways—if cars were slower and less frequent, and if there were more quiet streets with few cars and paths without any cars at all."

In order to create conditions for encouraging those interested but concerned cyclists, we all need to work toward this goal; advocates and bike advisory groups, local bike shops, recreational and competitive organizations, and WABA leading the way as the regional advocacy organization. WABA has paid staff who can help make this happen. FABB serves as WABA's volunteer advocates on the ground in Fairfax and we need everyone's help.

The best way to help in Fairfax is to get involved in planning for the future of bicycling in the county. The bicycle master plan is currently being developed by the county. Meetings are being held to gather cyclist input. This is the detailed information needed to develop a list of projects and activities that will help make bicycling a functional transportation choice in Fairfax. The next meeting is for the Mt. Vernon area on Thursday Nov. 176.

Other highlights from the Summit included a very good presentation by local attorney Bruce Deming, "Crashed! Your Legal Rights In A Bicycle Accident." Bruce covered what cyclists should do if they're involved in a crash. He stressed the importance of having a witness to the crash. Without that, it's going to be your word vs. that of the motorist. Find out if a ticket was issued to the motorist and if so, follow the case.

Be aware that anything you say about the crash and your actions can be used in court. Since Virginia, Maryland, and DC are all contributory negligence states, if you admit to any negligence, however minor, it can result in the case being dismissed if it is tried in court. If you need an attorney, look for someone with experience working with bicyclists. WABA maintains a list of bicycle attorneys.

Gina Arlotto, WABA Safe Routes to School Network Coordinator, discussed Tools for Planning Healthy Communities. She discussed the Safe Routes to School program and Health Impact Assessments (HIA) as possible tools. "HIA is used to evaluate objectively the potential health effects of a project or policy before it is built or implemented." Gina has been a tremendous asset in Fairfax, helping FABB and others as we work with Fairfax schools to encourage more kids to walk and bike to school. See the Fairfax SRTS Facebook page for more info.

One statement that summed up her discussion is that people should not only live in a place but they should be able to thrive. Bicycling allows people to get around in a healthy, low cost way. A good resource on the topic is Making Healthy Places: "There is a pressing need to create healthy places and to reduce the health threats inherent in places already built."

Former WABA Executive Director Eric Gilliland gave an overview of the first year of Capital Bikeshare. He is now General Manager, of Capital Bikeshare (CaBi). CaBi now has 19,000 annual and monthly members. Over 1,000,000 trips were taken in the first year. Most of those trips were less than 20 minutes in duration (there is no additional charge for trips under 30 minutes).

We asked Eric about the possibility of having CaBi in a suburban location like Reston. He said it depends on the situation such as the density of population, type of destinations, proximity to transit, etc. Charlie  Denney, Senior Associate of Alta Planning & Design, said that 20 stations with 200 bikes is a rough guess at the critical mass needed for a small system.

Professor Ralph Buehler and Masters Candidate Darren Buck, of Virginia Tech Alexandria Center presented interesting research on CaBi use and bicycling in the DC Metro area in general. Their research will be presented at the Transportation Research Board meeting in January. An interesting but not surprising finding of Darren's was that proximity to bike lanes has a significant impact on use of CaBi in an area. The results of an extensive survey of CaBi users will be available in December.

Professor Buehler gave preliminary results of his work on bike commuting in the Metro area. He noted that in DC, bike commuting comprises a much higher promotion of bike trips that in other places. He also showed that where there are more bike trips per person, the rate of bike fatalities is lower than where there are fewer bike trips per person, with Fairfax Co. having the highest fatality rate in the region.

WMATA panel

WMATA staff Nat Bottigheimer (Assistant General Manager), Patrick Schmitt (Parking Manager), Kristin Haldeman (Manager of Access Planning & Policy Analysis) discussed advances WMATA is making in providing better access to, and parking at WMATA facilities. WMATA expects to need 30,000-40,000 new parking spaces in the future at a cost of $20,000-25,000 per structured parking space. If some of those patrons rode bikes or walked, significant savings could be realized.

Forty five percent of those who park live within 3 miles. Currently 33% of their patrons walk to the station, 29% park, and 1% bike. One major change at WMATA is that bike parking, both lockers and racks, is now managed by the Parking office. As we noted earlier, a Bike & Ride facility is under construction at College Park Silver Spring and one is planned at Franconia-Springfield.

Local bike industry panel

The final panel consisted of local bike industry reps discussing the importance of bike advocacy to their business. They know that if more of those 60% interested but concerned cyclists were riding, they would sell more bikes and we'd live in a better place. It was mentioned that we need to get other businesses that support bicycling and healthy communities to get involved. When they are in the room, politicians listen. Without their help, it will be a much harder struggle making the DC Metro area a more bike-friendly place.

One added benefit of attending the conference was the spectacular view of Georgetown and DC from atop the Waterview Conference Center, including being able to watch the interactions of trail users and other traffic at the Custis Trail/Lynn St intersection.

Update: WABA has posted their summary of the Call to Action Summit and the final version of the Call to Action report.

Labels: bike summit, regional call to action, waba

posted by Bruce Wright at 10:20 AM permalink

 

WABA Fairfax Meeting report

About 15 people attended the meeting last night hosted by WABA to discuss bicycling in Fairfax. WABA is preparing a Regional Call to Action that will be unveiled at the Call to Action Summit to be held on November 3.

Several good ideas emerged in the comments from the group. One common theme was the need for better education; of cyclists of all ages, motorists, and police. There are a lot of misconceptions about where cyclists should ride and how they should behave on the road. Residents have very few opportunities to get good bicycle safety education. It needs to be taught in the schools and the county could sponsor adult bike skills classes. Another way to spread this information is to include it in high school drivers ed courses, the VA drivers manual, and on DMV driver's license test.

As you would expect, most people stated that we need more bike facilities; bike lanes, wider outside lanes, well-maintained paved trails, and better bike parking. On four-lane roads Charlie Strunk, the county bike coordinator, said that VDOT has recently agreed to narrow the inside lane on some roads and increase the width of the outside lane, giving more room for bicyclists.

Fairfax should hold fun, community bike rides. We also discussed the possibility of holding a "civlovia" type event where a major road is closed to motorized traffic and bicyclists, pedestrians, runners, etc. can enjoy these public spaces for a change.

All of the ideas were recorded by WABA volunteers and will be used as input to the Regional Call to Action. Thanks to Greg Billing of WABA who facilitated the discussion, and to the other WABA volunteers.

More details about the November 3 Summit were released by WABA yesterday in their blog post Nov. 3rd Call to Action Summit’s Speakers:

• 9:45 am – Tools for Planning Healthy Communities - Gina Arlotto (WABA’s Safe Routes to School Network Coordinator)
• 10:15 am – Crashed! Your Legal Rights In A Bicycle Accident – Bruce Deming, Lawyer
• 11:00 am – Panel: Regional Bikesharing – Speakers TBA
• 12:00 pm – Lunch Break (1 1/2 hour)
• 1:30pm – Panel: Planning Bicycle & Pedestrian Access to Metro – Nat Bottigheimer (WMATA Assistant General Manager), Patrick Schmitt (WMATA Parking Manager), Kristin Haldeman (WMATA Manager of Access Planning & Policy Analysis), Justin Antos (WMATA Transportation Analyst)
• 2:30 – Panel: The Role of Bicycle Businesses in Advocacy – Jakob Wolf-Barnett (Chief Operating Officer, Revolutions Cycles), Erik Kugler (Owner, BicycleSPACE), Stephen Marks (Managing Partner, Bike the Sites), Debora Hardng (CEO, City Bikes), Anne Mader (Owner, The Bike Lane)
• 3:30 pm - WABA’s Presentation of Regional Call to Action

Labels: bicycle master plan, call to action, Fairfax County, waba

posted by Bruce Wright at 9:22 AM permalink

 

WABA's Call to Action Summit on Thursday

It appears that it's not too late to register for WABA's Call to Action Summit to be held this Thursday from 8:30-4:30:

Labels: regional call to action, waba

posted by Bruce Wright at 3:07 PM permalink