Car-free

Takin’ it to the streets – without a car

From Tallahassee.com

By Mari-Jo Lewis-Wilkinson

September 22 is World Car-Free Day.  It is an opportunity to give up your car for a day by walking, bicycling, or taking public transportation and observe Tallahassee from a different perspective other than through a car windshield. Here are a few ideas.

Whether walking or bicycling, the old adage, “Safety in Numbers,” rings true. So how about a group walk early that evening to remind drivers there are pedestrians out there on the sidewalks?  Florida is second in the nation in pedestrian fatalities. But studies have shown pedestrian crashes and fatalities decrease where there is a heavy pedestrian presence.  Gather several neighbors for a short walk to a local park, shop, or restaurant, or just around the neighborhood. Fresh air, friendly conversation, and a fun way to welcome the fall season.

Or maybe you want to form or join a neighborhood “bike bus” that day — a group of kids biking en masse to school.  Check out this video about Portland, Oregon’s “Bike Bus for Earth Day.” You’ll wish you hadn’t spent so many hours of your life sitting in the student drop-off lane. https://youtu.be/XNRnKXd9sHE

If you like that idea, consider emulating bigger cities like Chicago that have a monthly “Critical Mass” bicycle ride — hundreds of bicyclists non-confrontationally and cheerfully sharing the road with drivers in a leisurely evening ride through downtown streets.

Photo by Gotrax on Unsplash

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7 L.A. cyclists share how to go car-free, ride safely and have fun

From LATimes.com

By Jonah Valdez

At its best, biking in L.A. is a cost-effective, climate-friendly means of transportation, leisure and exercise. Yet at its worst, biking in L.A. remains a dangerous errand of twisting through an incomplete network of fading white paint, miles of unprotected bike lanes that vanish into thoroughfares where cyclists compete with cars moving at high speeds.

“The concern is very simple,” bike activist Michael Schneider said. “People feel like they’re gonna die if they bike in L.A.”

Over the past five years, 96 cyclists have been killed on Los Angeles roads, an average of 18 a year, according to LAPD data. So far this year, six have died, including Andrew Jelmert, a 77-year-old real estate agent struck by a driver in Griffith Park in April, and days later, Leonidas Accip Serech who was killed in a hit-and-run crash in Koreatown. That same week, a third cyclist, John Hermoso, was killed while riding near Santa Clarita, outside Los Angeles city limits.

And yet a hardy 3% of L.A. residents, about 120,000 people, through wit, will, joy or necessity, carve out their daily commutes and other trips on two wheels.

Michael Runnels, an assistant professor of business law at Cal State L.A., speeds down Griffith Park hills, catching glimpses of the sun rising over the city. Lena Williams, a community organizer, slows down to take in the murals of South L.A. that reflect their experience as a Black queer person. Through thin rubber tires, cyclists feel the city’s inequality, gliding between neighborhoods with smooth pavement and those whose roads are riddled with potholes.

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

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