Cycling Tips & Stories

According to a Provo (UT) Daily Herald article, a study of over 10,000 Atlanta area residents found that for every 30 minutes more time residents spent in an automobile each day, there was a 3 percent higher chance of being obese.

The survey also found that people who lived within walking distance of shops -- less than a half mile -- were 7 percent less likely to be obese than their counterparts who had to drive.

"The more driving you do means you're going to weigh more -- the more walking means you're going to weigh less," said Lawrence Frank, associate professor at the University of British Columbia who oversaw the study when he worked at Georgia Tech.

That much seems obvious, but researchers were surprised to discover that how much time a person spent driving had a greater impact on whether a person was obese than other factors such as income, education, gender or ethnicity.

permanent link to article: "More driving equals more obese"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/31/2004 11:12:00 AM |comment on this article

An article in Injury Prevention highlights a problem with driver speed around pedestrians and particularly children.

Driver's speed was measured and then, soon afterwards, drivers were asked to estimate their own speeds.

In circumstances with no pedestrians around, measured speed was 35 MPH and drivers' own estimate of the speed was 35 MPH

When children were near the roadway waiting to cross, measured speed was 33 MPH and the drivers' speed estimate 21 MPH.

In short, drivers thought they were slowing down dramatically for the children, when in fact they were barely slowing at all.

The authors come to this conclusion:

[D]rivers make inadequate speed adjustments in the presence of children, despite probably believing they do so. Establishing specific rules about appropriate speeds around children and highlighting to drivers the discrepancy between their attitudes and behaviour are two intervention strategies suggested.

The Missouri Bicycle Federation has been among the groups lobbying for "specific rules about appropriate speed around children", pedestrians, and bicyclists in Missouri. In particular, the legislation supported before the Missouri General Assembly for the past two years by MoBikeFed in cooperation with the Missouri state PTA and the motorcycle advocacy groups Friends of Road Riders and the American Motorcyclist Association, provides for a statewide uniform school zone speed limit of 20 MPH.

MoBikeFed's legislation passed the Missouri Senate this year and reach the House calendar during the last week of the session, but did not come to a vote in the House. permanent link to article: "Drivers think they drive slower around children but really don't"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/22/2004 07:21:00 PM |comment on this article

Kansas City InfoZine's Richard Greene, who participated in the Kansas City Ride of Silence, wrote a long article in infoZine about the ride and the thoughts it brought him:

We converged on Brookside for the seven o'clock start. Friends meeting up and new acquaintances being met. Some had known, been friends with or rode with people that had been killed. Some had been injured themselves while riding a bicycle. . . .

I'm heading out right now for a bike ride after this is posted. If you're a motorist, please give me that extra foot or two as you pass. I promise to let you know if I intend to stop or turn. Lets' both be extra careful and lookout for those pedestrians.

The Ride of Silence was May 19th in over 50 locations across the U.S. and Canada, including four locations in Missouri. In Dallas, where the Ride originated in 2003, over 2500 bicyclists participated this year. The Dallas News had a substantial article about the Ride:

When Garland's Chris Phelan organized the Ride of Silence last year, safety advocacy wasn't his inspiration. Instead, he simply wanted to honor the memory of friend Larry Schwartz, who died in May 2003 after his head hit a school bus mirror while he was riding.

Mr. Phelan sent a few e-mails after Mr. Schwartz's funeral and, less than two weeks later, more than 1,000 riders showed up at White Rock Lake.

permanent link to article: "Kansas City's Ride of Silence in infoZine"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/20/2004 10:24:00 PM |comment on this article

Today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a long and interesting article about TrailNet's family bike rides and the Vanderheyden family, who often ride in them:

For the Vanderheyden family, quality family time isn't about the explosive booms and bangs of surround-sound home theater or cacophonic video games.

Most often, it's the whir of thin tires on country asphalt, the rustle of summer wind in their ears and the camaraderie of hundreds of other cyclists enjoying nature. . . .

TrailNet is one of the forces working to make the St. Louis area a better place to bicycle:

Trailnet works with local and Metro East politicians and parks divisions from the city of St. Louis and St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson and Metro East counties to add bike lanes, create and expand trails around parks, and post "Share the Road" signs to increase driver awareness of cyclists. The City of St. Louis has 10 miles of dedicated bike lanes, and in the Metro East area, 20 miles of bike lanes are available for riders.

"The city is actually leading the region in paved bike lanes" on roads, said Curtis. In addition, "Madison County has the most incredible system of trails, probably in the country. I think people aren't aware of the incredibly great Madison County trails."

permanent link to article: ""
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/20/2004 10:14:00 PM |comment on this article

According to a recent article in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, reported by ReutersHealth, as little as three hours per week of exercise helped overweight teens have better arterty health and greatly reduce a condition known to lead to hardened arteries later in life:

Green's team focused on flow-mediated dilation, which measures how well the endothelium, the lining of the blood vessel, acts to keep blood moving by widening the vessel. . . .

For 8 weeks, participants completed three 1-hour sessions of aerobic activity and weight training.

At the start of the study, obese adolescents had impaired endothelial function compared with their lean peers. But blood vessel function had improved significantly by the end of the exercise program. . . .

"We believe, on the basis of this and other studies we have performed, that exercise has a direct and beneficial effect on artery health, as well as the indirect but beneficial effect exercise possibly has through decreasing blood lipid levels, blood sugar and blood pressure," Green said.

Although the teens had better artery health and several other healthy developments, their overall weight did not change. "But they did experience healthy changes in their body composition, including increased muscle mass. They also experienced a decrease in fat around the abdomen. This type of fat is strongly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease."

This is a strong indication that the value of exercise goes beyond simple weight reduction, and whether or not exercise leads to weight reduction, it is still valuable and leads to better health. permanent link to article: "3 hours of exercise a week helps artery health"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/19/2004 10:17:00 AM |comment on this article

A September 2003 article in Injury Prevention carefully lays out a number of different sets of data that show that increased bicycling and increased walking in a community lead to a lower risk of crashes with motor vehicles for walkers and cyclists. The results are quite dramatically:

An individual’s risk while walking in a community with twice as much walking [or twice as much bicycling] will reduce to 66%. . . . Accordingly, policies that increase the numbers of people walking and bicycling appear to be an effective route to improving the safety of people walking and bicycling.

permanent link to article: "Increased bicycling dramatically reduces risk of injury"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/19/2004 08:50:00 AM |comment on this article

According to a research reported in a Kansas City Star article, exercise has a big effect on cancer patients:

Staying active has long been thought to lower the risk of getting cancer, but a new report says it may also be an important prescription for recovery.

The study, released Monday, found that women who exercised after breast cancer reduced their chance of dying from the disease by one-quarter to one-half, depending on how active they were. . . .

Most of the women walked for exercise. Those who put in one to three hours a week at a leisurely 3 mph lowered their risk of dying from breast cancer by one-quarter, compared with the most sedentary women. Those who walked between three and eight hours a week cut their risk in half.

permanent link to article: "Exercise boosts cancer survival rate"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/18/2004 06:44:00 AM |comment on this article

You saved my life. That doctor said I had a damnable disease. Said not to get hot. “You can’t be active,” he said. I cried a lot. That diagnosis put me in a panic. How could I take care of my family as an invalid? I quit doing most everything that brought me joy. I still taught my classes. I still went to church. But I was hurting. And hollow inside.

Gus Bonders forced you on me. He said I would learn to love you.

Read the rest of Ed Chasteen's article "Talking to My Bicycle" on HateBusters.com. permanent link to article: "Talking to my bicycle . . ."
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/17/2004 10:05:00 PM |comment on this article

The Kansas City Star has an article about the growing problem of sedentary youngsters, and what can be done about the problem:

American kids have become notorious for their sedentary ways. According to a survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 62 percent of children 9 to 13 engage in no organized physical activity outside school, and 23 percent of children in that age bracket engage in no free-time physical activity at all. . . .

“Children start out their lives physically active,” said George Graham, a professor of kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University who studies children and activity. “In upper elementary school they become less active. That's when we see kids become obese. From ages 12 to 18, there's a pretty clear increase in overweight and decrease in physical activity.”

permanent link to article: "Getting kids of the couch . . ."
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/17/2004 05:19:00 PM |comment on this article

Just in time for National Bike to Work Week, a Reuters article summarizes research showing that even a little exercise by employees saves big bucks on health care costs:

Companies can save millions in health-care costs simply by encouraging their employees to exercise a little bit, researchers reported on Friday.

They said obese employees have higher health-care costs, but lowered those expenses by exercising just a couple of times a week - without even losing any weight. . . .

Of the whole group of workers, about 30 percent were of normal weight, 45 percent were overweight, and 25 percent were obese. Annual health-care costs averaged $2,200 for normal weight, $2,400 for the overweight, and $2,700 for obese employees.

But among workers who did no exercise, health-care costs went up by at least $100 a year, and were $3,000 a year for obese employees who were sedentary.

But adding two or more days of light exercise - at least 20 minutes of exercise or work hard enough to increase heart rate and breathing - lowered costs by on average $500 per employee a year, the researchers found.

The study is in the May 2004 issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. permanent link to article: "Employees who exercise save employers money"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/15/2004 10:54:00 PM |comment on this article

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Gail Pennington lists the worst and the best of local TV's sweeps month fodder. Among the best was Fox2's coverage of how bad driving makes walking and bicycling more dangerous:

Aaron's story is an extreme example of a problem St. Louis cyclists say is very common: a lack of respect from drivers, who, by law, are required to share the road with cyclists. "I’ve been hit before by cars. I've had guys curse at me, throw cigarettes at me. I had a guy try to run me off the road out of wild horse creek with his car. Didn't like me riding on the shoulder and tried to push me off. There was a cyclist who was actually threatened with a knife by a motorist."

Recently, a few local cyclists became so frustrated with their treatment by motorists, they placed mangled bikes painted white at 15 intersections where riders have been hit as a sign of protest. Bob Foster, Bicycle Federation, "We've built St. Louis to where it is spread out and since the 70's subdivisions and regions have been built without bicyclists and pedestrians in mind." And that, he says, forces cyclists to ride in traffic, frustrating some drivers. "It's kinda hard. They are moving into our lane." "They should keep their bicycles off the road. That's for cars." . . .
As we head for record gas prices and deal with an epidemic of obesity, cycling is offered up as an alternative to both. But in St. Louis, it can sometimes be a vicious cycle. The East West Gateway Coordinating Council is studying ways to make St. Louis more bike friendly, however, proposed state legislation designed to get tougher with drivers who endanger cyclists was gutted in both the house and the senate.

permanent link to article: "St. Louis Fox2 news story on bicycling make best of sweeps month list"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/15/2004 10:33:00 PM |comment on this article

For National Bike Month, a bit of Ivan Illich's essay, "Energy and Equity" (excerpt here; full text here):

Bicycles let people move with greater speed without taking up significant amounts of scarce space, energy, or time. They can spend fewer hours on each mile and still travel more miles in a year. They can get the benefit of technological breakthroughs without putting undue claims on the schedules, energy, or space of others. They become masters of their own movements without blocking those of their fellows.Their new tool creates only those demands which it can also satisfy. Every increase in motorized speed creates new demands on space and time. The use of the bicycle is self-limiting. It allows people to create a new relationship between their life-space and their life-time, between their territory and the pulse of their being, without destroying their inherited balance.

permanent link to article: "In praise of the bicycle . . ."
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/15/2004 09:24:00 PM |comment on this article

Need a little more encouragement to get out on your bike and work off a few more pounds?

Wired Magazine has a fascinating article summarizing recent research into how excess fat changes our bodies, hurting and, in some cases, ultimately killing us:

Research into the biology of fat is turning up some surprising new insights about how obesity kills. The weight of the evidence: It's the toxic mischief of the flesh itself.

Experts have realized for decades that large people die young, and the explanation long seemed obvious. Carrying around all those extra pounds must put a deadly strain on the heart and other organs.

Obvious but wrong, it turns out.

permanent link to article: "How does fat hurt you?"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/12/2004 01:45:00 PM |comment on this article

Record-high price of gas in Missouri got you down? No relief in sight?

How about taking a bike ride to replace that expensive car trip?

Trips less than three miles long give the worst gas mileage (stop-and-go driving on a cold engine), are the most polluting (because it takes a while for your car's catalytic converter to warm up and fully kick in), and hardest on your car's engine.

By coincidence, such short trips are easiest to replace with bicycling or walking. One way to go about making the switch is this:

1. Pick a common destination within an easy walk/ride of your home--school, church, store, library, park, post office, bank, friend's house, etc.
   
2. Figure out a route to get there safely and comfortably by foot or on bike.
   
3. Try out the route a few times just for fun.
   
4. Once you've got the route worked out, make a commitment to yourself to always walk/ride on trips to that destination.
   
5. Repeat with other common destinations near your home.

Before you know it, you'll have walking/cycling worked into the routine of your daily life.

Tips:

• If you find yourself making trips at dusk/dawn or in the dark, invest in lights (both front and rear lights are needed for bicycling at night)
  
• If you need to carry items (shopping) investigate racks/panniers or bicycle trailers. Many bicycle trailers convert into jogging strollers/carts which are very useful for shopping by bicycle or on foot. Panniers and bicycle trailers are really quite inexpensive, especially when compared to cost of the motor vehicles they (partially) replace.

The time difference between driving and cycling for such short trips is really astonishingly small. For instance, it takes me 5 minutes to drive to my son's school (about a mile away), 7 minutes to bicycle, and about 14 minutes to walk.

Related links:

• Read about Simon Baddeley's adventures in learning to use his car less and his feet more.
  
• Read about Jennifer Mann's daily bicycle commute.
  
• Ceej's bike commuting page (lots of tips and ideas).
  
• Join Kansas City's Bicycle Commuter Challenge (May 2004).
  
• Participate in St. Louis's Bikers Wanted Challenge.

permanent link to article: "Beat the high price of gas . . ."
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/11/2004 08:54:00 PM |comment on this article

Ever wondered why they call it an 'obesity epidemic'? Take a look at this set of maps and wonder no longer . . . permanent link to article: "Growing U.S. obesity problem shown graphically"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/11/2004 07:53:00 PM |comment on this article

Young St. Louis has an article about young cyclists Amanda and Alex Vanderheyden:

Amanda and Alex Vanderheyden spend a lot of their summers on their bikes. And they've got a new list of Kids Ride "fun" routes for them to follow throughout metro St. Louis.

Thirteen-year-old Amanda and 10-year-old Alex took their first ride of the season last month. The family took a Spring Chicken's Ride in Illinois on Sunday, April 18.

Like a lot of their rides, this one ended with a special social event. This time, riders could end up at the Chicken's Restaurant in St. Libory, Ill., for a hearty buffet lunch or brunch.

The article also includes a complete list of TrailNet's St. Louis-area Kids Rides for 2004. permanent link to article: "Kids bike in St. Louis"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/09/2004 07:20:00 AM |comment on this article

According to a KCStar story, "The Triplets of Belleville", "the story of a kindly old woman on the trail of her taciturn grandson, a Tour de France cyclist abducted by mobsters" is now available on DVD. permanent link to article: ""The Triplets of Belleville" available on DVD"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/08/2004 02:13:00 PM |comment on this article

Today's KCStar has an article on long distance cyclist and author Barbara Bartocci of Overland Park:

Moved by these stories, Bartocci found a calling: To coach people on how they can combine fitness and spirituality in a way that improves both. She wrote a book, Meditation in Motion, and she speaks to groups on the topic.

Exercise and meditation, each by itself, can inspire people to reach goals, to find more in themselves than they knew they had, Bartocci said, and combining the two multiplies the effects. . . .

Bartocci discovered long-distance cycling about a decade ago, and her achievements have sometimes surprised her. On a weeklong, 500-mile organized ride across Iowa, she persevered through 94-degree heat and 30-mph headwinds to complete the day's 76 miles, even though a third of the riders gave up that day. She was on her bike for 12 hours. Veterans of the ride told her it was the toughest day they'd ever endured.

"There is always so much more in us than we are aware of," she said. "And there's a spiritual dimension to that."

Bartocci has written a book about her experiences, Meditation in Motion. permanent link to article: "Meditation in Motion"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/08/2004 02:07:00 PM |comment on this article

According to a KCStar article:

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry took a spill from his bicycle while riding Sunday afternoon but was not injured, a campaign official said.

Kerry was riding with Secret Service agents through Concord, about 18 miles north of Boston, when his bike hit a patch of sand and he fell, campaign officials said.

The fall was covered by newspapers across the country . . . if only I could get that kind of attention when whenever I go for a little ride and come home with a boo-boo on my leg . . . permanent link to article: "Presidential candidate takes a fall on bike & makes national headlines"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/05/2004 11:52:00 AM |comment on this article

Yuri Gitman's MagicBike provides a mobile wi-fi hotspot for others to connect to the internet. According to a TechTV story:

. . . it's a full-fledged wireless Internet hotspot on wheels.

It spreads free access to the Net wherever it rides. . . .

The Brooklyn-based wireless artist and educator created the bike when he decided there wasn't enough wireless Internet access to go around.

permanent link to article: "Wi-fi internet access hotspot on a bicycle"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/05/2004 11:28:00 AM |comment on this article

Check out the Behemoth:

For 11 years, I dedicated all available resources to the pursuit of high-tech nomadness -- a freewheeling lifestyle aboard a compuiterized recumbent bicycle . . .

Read the rest of the story on the Behemoth web site. permanent link to article: "The Behemoth . . ."
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/05/2004 10:27:00 AM |comment on this article

BikeKatyTrail.com has all the resources you need to plan a Katy Trail ride:

• Maps
  
• Listing of businesses and services
  
• Events on and near the trail
  
• Comments from other riders
  
• An email discussion list

The private BikeKatyTrail.com site is a good complement to the official state Katy Trail site, KatyTrailStatePark.com permanent link to article: "Planning your next Katy Trail trip?"
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/04/2004 10:29:00 AM |comment on this article

Just in time for Bike to Work Week, it turns out that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is a die-hard bicycle commuter whose Volvo sits rusting in his yard, unused. His bicycling even figured in a nefarious plot, fortunately never brought to fruition, to "bork" Breyer during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing . . .
permanent link to article: "Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is a bicycle commuter . . ."
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/01/2004 10:54:00 PM |comment on this article

The Calvin & Hobbes comic strip weighs in on a traffic safety slogan . . . permanent link to article: "Calvin & Hobbes--"Bicycle Safety Slogan""
posted by Brent Hugh at 5/01/2004 02:23:00 PM |comment on this article