[*BCM*] Bike Share program

[Turil]

Sharrows are the best "bike infrastructure" for your money.  Far, far
better than segregated lanes.

But regardless of whether you have marks on the roads or just simple
roads, people need to be educated to the rules of the road, and if
they are, they will be as safe as possible.  Without education, no
amount of "infrastructure" will help.  People can't possibly make good
decisions about how to behave in traffic if they don't know what the
standards are (rights and responsibilities).

In other words, if you know the laws and the standards (often in
opposition to one another!) then Boston is extremely safe to bike
around.  I'd rather bike in Boston than pretty much anywhere else,
including "bicycle friendly" Portland, Oregon with it's really
anti-bicyclist infrastructure (aiming to keep bicyclists out of the
roads).

So hopefully the rental program will include educational materials for
bicyclists, as well as promoting the laws to all other forms of
traffic (pedestrian, motorist, T, etc.) so that people can travel
safely with each other.

I'd love to see a simple promotion from Boston that said something
like everyone belongs on the roads in Boston, and for you to be safe,
whether you are driving a motor vehicle or human powered vehicle, are
on foot, or are using any other form of transportation on the roads,
please remember the top 5 most important rules of the road: generally
stay to the right unless passing or making a left turn, yield to any
vehicle or person already in front of you, travel at speeds low enough
that you can stop before hitting anything, obey traffic signs and
lights  while you are traveling on the road, and slow down or stop
whenever there are other individuals on or near the road and whenever
you have any difficulty traveling at your peak awareness.

Or something like that...

Peace, Love, and Bicycles,
Turil

On 4/29/11, Eric A Stratton <eric.alexander.stratton at gmail.com> wrote:
> Greg,
>
> While I certainly wouldn't object to more cycling infrastructure, I think
> that the bike share program can help us get there. The more cyclists on the
> road, the more accustomed motorists will become to seeing them. Ideally the
> bike sharing program will help us (cyclists) be EVERYWHERE. In doing so the
> demand for infrastructure will grow. With all of these bikes on the road,
> another result I'd look forward to is that traffic will hopefully  have to
> slow down, increasing the safety for everyone (cyclists, pedestrians, other
> motorists). Again, while I welcome bike infrastructure, I think the bike
> share program will help us make the argument for it.
>
> -E
>
>
>
> On Apr 29, 2011, at 9:11 AM, Greg Jenkins wrote:
>
>> Hey Tom,
>> I think it would be a wonderful program. My only concern is that, as
>> Boston stands now, it's not a very bike friendly city. Unless more bike
>> lanes are put in I'm not sure a whole lot of people would feel safe enough
>> riding them around to use the shared bikes. I'd hate to see the progam
>> implimented and then fail over something as simple as a lack of safe
>> riding space.
>>
>> Greg
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 12:42 PM, <thom3 at aol.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi I am writing an article on the bike share program and was interested in
>> hearing what some of you thought about the program.
>>
>> Please contact me directly as I am sure those on this list will prefer not
>> to get out back and forth,
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Tom
>>
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