Petition: STOP waiving bicycle parking, update the UDC to APBP-compliant

Please sign this PETITION

Enough is enough. Bicyclists are doing their part to reduce auto dependency, reduce emissions and clean up the environment. Providing a bike rack is the least that a business can do to encourage more folks to leave the car home. It is cost effective and easy to install, yet requiring one with a certificate of occupancy still isn't enough to guarantee it will happen.

It is rare or never that a place of business in Delaware provides secure bike parking on its own, and riders are left in search of anything they can find that will take a lock and hold a bike upright. Often times we see multiple bikes scattered about the front of a fast food or grocery store, or other retail outlet. In nearly every case, a tree or sign post becomes the only choice. This is why advocates fought hard and won provisions in New Castle County's Unified Development Code that make bicycle parking mandatory with all new and reconstructed buildings. It is but one reason that Delaware is recognized as a Bicycle-Friendly State, among many others won in past decades. So why is this allowed to slide? Help put an end to routine bicycle parking waivers today by signing the petition above.

Secure bicycle parking is not rocket science, but few business owners are bicyclists so "a rack is a rack". Therefore, the end result - if the code is enforced - is usually a wheelbender. This is why we need the code changed and routinely enforced. As with the model pictured above, a rack must have both wheel and frame support, or two points of frame contact that allows locking the frame and front wheel together.

The classic "wheelbender" or "toast rack", as it's often called. Note how no one is actually in the rack, because the only thing holding the bike upright is the front or rear wheel. If your bike topples or is pushed over, it can destroy the wheel.

Check in with our Bicycle Parking category to learn more about this critical aspect of bicycle advocacy.

NCC secure bicycle parking campaign canceled

After a month posted on line, and circulating among social media outlets that were expected to show interest, our campaign for New Castle County bicycle parking reform and enforcement is being canceled. The number of signatories jumped to 14 shortly after introduction, and hasn't increased since. To even begin tackling an issue that involves changing a law or policy, this lack of interest can only hurt the effort.

To compare, let's take a look at all recent petitions that were started by 1st State Bikes, or started by others and supported through our blog and social media connections:

1. Extending trail hours beyond dawn to dusk (1,158)
2. Newark-Wilmington on road bicycle route (237)
3. Bicycles on Roadway warning signs (33)
4. New Castle County bicycle parking enforcement (14)

Petition 1, we have not been told of any progress. 2 & 3 are moving forward. Support for 3 is also weak, but we are fortunate that DelDOT Traffic is a willing partner with advocates and recognizes the need regardless of the numbers.

Stay tuned for more advocacy projects in 2015 that will need your support, and participate with us in spreading the word. 1st State Bikes is an all volunteer committee with no formal membership and no budget to back our efforts. Without the support of the LAB and Bike Delaware for road bicycling advocacy, we can only rely on our followers to step up and make the difference. Donating a few minutes of your time for a zero-commitment, easy to sign petition really isn't asking much.

Is this what we really want for South Main Street?

This footage was gathered over a weeklong period from four 24-hour Super WaWas with gas pumps in Pottstown, West Chester, Center Square, and Schwenksville PA. The video shows motorist's confusion coming in and out of the parking lots, congested side streets, and near-constant backups at traffic lights and stop signs. This congestion and erratic driving - and the accidents that come as a result - have been dubbed the “WaWa Effect” in an article by The News Journal about traffic studies being conducted by the University of Delaware as part of a larger, ongoing project for the Delaware Department of Transportation. The study suggests an increase in new traffic patterns and erratic driving around convenience stores like WaWa, citing U-turns, running red lights, and increased accidents as a result of the influx of traffic coming and going.

Typically, engineers will claim that the proposed Super WaWa will operate largely on existing traffic patterns, drawing minimal new congestion to the areas and residential streets that surround the site. This is false, given induced demand from a greater area - which the pumps are designed to do. They also fail to address the heavy truck traffic that is expected to frequent the store for deliveries and fuel, especially during night and early morning hours.

This increase in traffic is one of the main reasons more than 1,000 residents and business owners rallied to oppose a new Super WaWa in the Borough of Conshohocken, PA. More than seven hundred letters and petition signatures were mailed to Borough Council expressing the community’s opposition to the zoning text amendment WaWa submitted for a 24-hour diesel fuel Super WaWa. Read this update on how they prevailed.

It appears we are in for a similar battle to keep Newark's downtown as a walkable, bikeable, livable community. WaWa wants to build a major gas pump facility on South Main Street, at the intersection of Apple Road, across from the Municipal Building. As in Conshohocken, we can expect a fight to the bitter end - all in the name of profiteering - against residents who are justifiably opposed.

The Super WaWa on Route 273 and Marrows Road is anything but a "neighborhood store", regardless of what its PR Dept claims. With the help of the Newark Bicycle Committee, advocates even had to enforce ADA sidewalk compliance, and a city ordinance calling for bike parking - which resulted in a useless wheelbender.

Those on foot or bike are seldom seen around these mega-pump stores, because they are a safety nightmare. Wally Hertler, however, tries for a quick fill-up at a shuttered Citgo station in Cochranville PA a few years ago.

The Last Post (for now)

1st State BIKES was started by the need for on-road safety and advocacy in Delaware, and to support the Delaware Bicycle Council. In doing so, it filled an obvious void left by Bike Delaware, the State's League of American Bicyclists supported bicycling advocacy organization. In nearly two years, 400 articles were written or cross-posted, that run the gamut of bicycle advocacy as described in the LAB's 5 Es. These included Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluation, mostly as they pertain to riding on our public roads. Missing from LAB's equation, however, is a 6th "E" that was somehow forgotten: Equality. As described by the American Bicyclist Education Association, it stands for the following:

Equal Level of Service is a critical part
of bicycle advocacy.

• Uniformity: Ensuring uniform laws throughout a state to protect against access, movement, and equipment ordinances that discriminate against cyclists.
• Access: Affirming the legal rights of bicyclists to use all highways, and all parts and features of those highways, particularly the roadway itself (i.e. the part designated for driving of vehicles, excluding shoulders, sidewalks, etc.), except possibly for controlled access freeways for which sound and reasonable alternatives are available.
• Movement: Affirming that the default behavior for motorists, lane control on laned roadways, is also the default behavior for bicyclists. This means no bicyclist (class) specific movement rules that prohibit lane control or restrict turning movements or the use of turn lanes. Also unacceptable are any laws that prevent cyclists from making the same movements as other drivers or subject them to more restrictive lane usage rules than other drivers. This equal legal roadway movement status does not prevent or inhibit bicyclists from using special facilities, which serve as options for bicycle travel.
• Equipment: Ensuring that minimum bike propulsion, fit, braking and lighting requirements are adequate for effective operation and precluding restrictions unrelated to safety or effective operation.

Due to our high percentage of arterial roads, however, equality is not always safe, easy, or desirable. Geographically, only a small percentage of Delaware is truly urbanized or early 20th century suburban where bicycle driving (aka "vehicular cycling") can be effective. For those wishing to ride away from the road for transportation, very few rail trail or other right of way (row) possibilities exist. As a result, shoulder and bike lane riding with high speed traffic is very common here compared to many other States. It is for this reason that we have advocated for well designed infrastructure treatments that define a bicyclist's safest position on the roadway, especially leading up to and through intersections. We also worked with DelDOT to improve our warning signs for bicyclists, and offered to help with the targeted removal of generic (symbol only) signs over time. Known in the manuals as the W11-1, this sign is no longer applicable in most locations, since Bike Delaware campaigned to eliminate "Share the Road" from DelDOT's manuals based on a technicality. Another notable success was bicycle-friendly rumble strips - not only in Delaware, but in Maryland as well (though in recent applications, some important specs have been ignored, hence the need for continued advocacy).

Jennifer Wallace stresses the importance of non-profit accountability
during the 2015 Delaware Environmental Summit in Dover. Transparency
is a foreign concept to some bicycling organizations in Delaware,
including co-ops.

With the LAB refusing to help our cause, having stated as much in writing, we have little choice but to accept the fact that separated infrastructure (sidepaths and off-alignment trails) is the first choice among Delaware's bicyclists. As a result, riding for transportation and recreation in the built environment - at least for those that appreciate leaving from home - will remain a huge uphill battle. Bicyclists are a virtual no-show for even the simplest of action items that could positively impact bicycle-friendliness in the 1st State. They seldom show up at DelDOT public workshops, or sign petitions regardless of how well publicized. Progress will be difficult, as long as Delaware's bicycling community - including its cooperatives and mountain bicyclists - refuse to unite in a single front that works together for its own common good.

There needs to be one large tent that all of us can work under, as seen in other bicycle-friendly States. The approach needs to be holistic, and all-inclusive. Unfortunately, even Delaware's most committed road bicyclists are content to follow the lead of an organization with a very small tent - akin to a Chinese cocktail umbrella - that lobbies exclusively for separated facilities. In doing so, they are undermining the efforts of those that do advocate for on-road safety and infrastructure. Further, the State's recreational clubs continue with monetary support of said organization, despite the lack of an annual report, and the lowest level of transparency and accountability for a non-profit. No one even questions the acceptance of charitable donations collected on behalf of the Phillip Bishop tragedy, and why at least some of it wasn't allocated for PSA campaigns like this one.

Here is a sampling of the issues, where said organization (Bike Delaware) has damaged the cause of road bicycling:

• Absent on anything to do with the Vulnerable Road Users Law. Never supported the Delaware Bicycle Council on matters of legislation, i.e. Refused to "babysit" the 3' passing law by attending its hearing, and only agreed with it in principle.
• Hijacked the LAB's Bicycle Friendly State's year to year rankings, providing instead what appeared a linear climb to the top for Delaware. Has everyone believing that our Top 5 ranking is based almost exclusively on pathway funding, when in fact it was also due to State legislation and policy changes/additions that address bicycle safety (the work of others).
• Undermined a bus PSA banner that read "Same Roads, Same Rules, Same Rights", to where DelDOT replaced it with "Safety Begins With Sharing".
• In a negative letter giving borderline support, the E.D. almost undermined AASHTO standard bike lanes on Rt.13 in Dover, which have since improved the safety of hundreds of commuters including migrant workers along the corridor.
• Did not support a joint survey with RideShare Delaware, aimed at the users of the Rt.13 bike lanes, to find out whether or not they felt safer as a result.
• Publicly stated that bike pocket lanes are "human meat grinders".
• Despite initial support, and DelDOT's requesting it, the E.D. steadfastly maintained that SB-120 (a law to provide legal protections for bicyclists using a dedicated right turn-only lane as a continuation of a bike lane) wasn't necessary.
• Pushed for the removal of our widespread (on most major roads) Share the Road signs, but did not support the efforts of others to redesign and replace them with something better (i.e. Bicycles "In Lane").
• Has never once supported the application of Complete Streets during a Pave & Rehab project. Unfortunately, most often, these are the only chance we have at improvements.
• Did not support an on-line petition for the enforcement of bicycle parking ordinances in New Castle County, given how often they are waived.
• Did not support an on-line petition for the creation of an on-road Wilmington to Newark marked route, one that DelDOT would watch for enhanced safety improvements.
• Never rallies attention to DelDOT public workshops unless it's for a separated facility or pathways project. It was the work of other advocates that drew attention to and won bicycle accommodations through Delaware's first "Diverging Diamond" Rt.1 overpass on Rt.72, coming next year.
• Does little to memorialize bicycling fatalities, unless it benefits their agenda or bottom line. Did nothing to rally bicyclists to attend the Eloy Sandoval and Phillip Bishop vehicular manslaughter hearings, despite the proven advantages of doing so. For the latter, a Bike Delaware board member did attend and actually said that "it could've been any one of us" when referring to the defendant's horrific crime.

As of April 1, 2015 1st State Bikes is discontinued. We urge those of you that are following us until now (if you support road bicycling safety) to rethink your membership with the League of American Bicyclists, and instead support the American Bicyclists Education Association. This is an organization that, much to the chagrin of the LAB, is trying to address the needs of today's bicyclists in the built environment (an environment that won't be changing much for most Americans, for many generations to come) in the form of education, enforcement, and correctly designed infrastructure. This blog, as you see it now, will remain on-line indefinitely as an archive for those who might stumble upon it for the first time, and wish to read about our former projects and/or progress.

Pedestrian Channelizing Islands, aka "Pork Chops", are an ongoing problem in Delaware. In 2009, DelDOT committed in writing to maintain 5 feet of offset for bike lanes through intersections and side streets. This requirement is also in their Bicycle Policy. In the May 2013 picture above, a bicyclist is unnecessarily forced out into the lane of high speed traffic to continue in a bike lane. Without continued oversight, guidelines such as these will continue to be ignored or forgotten.

The future? Delaware bicyclists show overwhelming support for facilities that remove them from public roads, and thus, sacrifices their legal rights as vehicles. As very few actually use these facilities, they fall into serious disrepair, and are left to abandonment by DelDOT or adjacent landowners who are supposedly responsible for their maintenance.