I forgot to mention that Beechmont Ave hill in Mt Washington was also repaved and re-striped. Uphill has a dedicated bike lane where as downhill looks like it will have a shared lane going downhill. Again, just done last week and striping is not complete.

there are some pics on the Queen City Bike page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151024863233697.424758.130127393696&type=3

Not to be a jerk, but I took this photo in Malibu, CA last month:

 

They're getting it done out there in Cali without bike lanes.  This is a road a lot busier than Columbia Parkway and there are bikes galore on it.  It's THE ONLY road, unlike Eastern/Riverside, which was bypassed by Columbia Parkway back in 1937.  No, I'm not opposed to these bike lanes at all, just saying here that if you want to really be free on a bike you have to get comfortable biking on busy streets with no bike lanes. 

 

I will say what I hate most in downtown & OTR is the number of cyclists who take the sidewalk. When I'm in my lane & some other person is riding on the sidewalk near by the driver behind me thinks, "wth, why can't he ride on the sidewalk too!" and it sets a bad example.

Jake, nobody but the hard-core types will ride on that sort of road, you know that.  Bike lanes, side paths, etc. are not about the hard-core types, who make up a very small portion of the population.  It's nice that California has more cyclists, hard-core and otherwise, but this isn't a one size fits all proposition here.  Nearly all your cycling posts have a "if I or someone else can do this, then everyone can" mentality which is seriously divorced from reality. 

Deriding bikers who would prefer to ride in bike lanes is silly. Biking meccas such as San Francisco and Amsterdam have serious bike lane infrastructure and I am sure many of those who support and utilize the lanes and paths consider themselves "free" and "authentic" bikers. True, if one wants to free on a bike then one has to learn to ride with traffic, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't seek better and more bike lanes. I ride on Eastern ave. occasionally and am looking forward to the day when I don't have to squeeze between cars going 40-50mph on one side and parked cars on the other. I ride downtown often and deal with the traffic but I would WELCOME bike lanes.

Also, considering the city of Long Beach, for example, has 60 miles of off road cycle infrastructure & 90 miles of bike lanes, I think Californians still like their secure bike infrastructure. I will go back to my point about downtown cycling however, that cyclists riding on the vine street sidewalk HURT the cause by telling drivers cyclists don't have to be in the road. When it comes to downtown and OTR cycling, cyclists SHOULD grow up and take the road. Any long distance routes (East End to Downtown) or high speed roads (Gilbert) should have infrastructure however. 

I do think the lanes give people a false sense of security and sets them up for being doored and/or hit by people pulling out of driveways or cross-streets.  The sense of security also means people bike a little faster which slows reaction times.  Also, most bike lanes aren't wide enough to allow people to ride in them outside the "door zone", meaning you have to hug the stripe the whole time. 

 

 

>Nearly all your cycling posts have a "if I or someone else can do this, then everyone can" mentality which is seriously divorced from reality. 

 

I think people are capable of much more than they think they are, and if I as someone who is no athlete can bike these roads and have never gotten hit, come close to getting hit, or fallen, then I think most people defnitely can. 

^But at the same time, I think that when bike lanes are commonplace, motorists expect that they might be sharing the rode with bikes, even on roads that happen to not have a bike lane.  I'd argue that in the picture you posted above, the bikers are safer than they would be on Columbia Parkway, simply because the drivers are more accustomed to looking for bikes. 

 

Similarly, drivers in Cincinnati often don't pay attention to marked crosswalks, because there aren't many of them and they haven't been around very long, whereas in other cities, drivers stop if they see a pedestrian anywhere near that crosswalk.

I think people are capable of much more than they think they are, and if I as someone who is no athlete can bike these roads and have never gotten hit, come close to getting hit, or fallen, then I think most people defnitely can. 

 

Capable maybe, but capable is not the same as willing.  Nearly everyone is capable of riding in the streets, but they don't, because it's frightening and unpleasant. 

>whereas in other cities, drivers stop if they see a pedestrian anywhere near that crosswalk.

 

I remember from when I lived in Massachusetts that cars were required to stop when people entered a crosswalk.  Many of these crosswalks were mid-block, without a light. 

 

>because it's frightening and unpleasant.

 

I don't think that it is, that's never even crossed my mind. 

 

 

>because it's frightening and unpleasant.

 

I don't think that it is, that's never even crossed my mind. 

 

 

Exactly, you don't get it.  Most people are terrified of riding their bikes in traffic, thus they won't do it.  That's why countries like Denmark and the Netherlands can get close to 50% of trips done by bike.  Because they have all sorts of separate side paths and bike-only paths and calmed residential streets then grandma and the kids and trendy women in skirts can ride comfortably.  When cyclists' only option is to ride with the rest of traffic then you get 1-2% of trips done by bike and only by the mostly fearless spandex crowd.  If everyone was like you then we wouldn't need separate bike routes because everyone would be fine riding in mixed traffic, but they aren't, so they don't.  Why is this so difficult to understand? 

>whereas in other cities, drivers stop if they see a pedestrian anywhere near that crosswalk.

 

I remember from when I lived in Massachusetts that cars were required to stop when people entered a crosswalk.  Many of these crosswalks were mid-block, without a light. 

 

Aren't cars always supposed to yield to pedestrians? Don't pedestrians have the right of way? I was just talking to someone about mid-blog crosswalks. There are a couple in Cincinnati but it would be really nice to see more.

 

 

 

>because it's frightening and unpleasant.

 

I don't think that it is, that's never even crossed my mind. 

 

 

Exactly, you don't get it.  Most people are terrified of riding their bikes in traffic, thus they won't do it.  That's why countries like Denmark and the Netherlands can get close to 50% of trips done by bike.  Because they have all sorts of separate side paths and bike-only paths and calmed residential streets then grandma and the kids and trendy women in skirts can ride comfortably.  When cyclists' only option is to ride with the rest of traffic then you get 1-2% of trips done by bike and only by the mostly fearless spandex crowd.  If everyone was like you then we wouldn't need separate bike routes because everyone would be fine riding in mixed traffic, but they aren't, so they don't.  Why is this so difficult to understand? 

 

jjakucyk has a point. I tend to think bikes deserve more of their own separate infrastructure.

My point is that there can't be bike lanes everywhere, especially in downtowns like ours.  And when bike lanes do proliferate, it insinuates that biking on streets without them is terribly unsafe (similarly, the proliferation of bike helmets insinuates that riding without them and riding a bicyle, generally, is unsafe).  Ironically, downtowns are just about the safest places to bike because cars travel much slower and drivers expect surprises.

 

 

I certainly agree with you about downtowns being very safe places to ride, at least where the streets are manageably narrow (like 4 lanes and under).  Residential side streets as well are pretty safe and easy.  It's the arterial streets where speeds are higher and cross streets are mostly subordinated where it gets much more difficult.  These are, unfortunately, the only viable options for through travel in many circumstances, and they're the ones that need some further accommodation for other modes of travel.  There's some low-hanging fruit here that's ripe to be picked.  Victory Parkway for instance is a good route for cyclists, but its major drawback is that it dumps you onto Reading in Paddock Hills.  That's four narrow lanes with heavy volume and rather high speeds until you can bail out at Ross/Tennessee.  The S-curve on Erie is another place, and the City is working to address that.  The street section itself doesn't change throughout the curve, but the lane striping is all over the place with some median striping, curb parking coming in and out, turn lanes appearing, etc.  That's way too much unpredictability for a place with restricted vertical and horizontal visibility.  The City's implementation of climbing lanes for bikes on Mitchell and Beechmont are laudable for being realistic and you could say efficient.  If they can get a meaningful connection to the Lunken/Armleder trails and Beechmont that would help immensely, as there's currently no way to get to the climb without also riding across the levee, something which is wholly unpleasant and quite dangerous with the Wilmer and OH-32 ramps merging on and off. 

I used to be a fan of separated bike paths and bike lanes, but I am generally not anymore. Instead, I favor streets that are safe for bicycling.

 

When I visited Germany, I noticed the very sophisticated design of just about everything. Germany has an excellent transit system, including high-speed rail, local commuter rail, streetcars, an occasional people-mover of one form or another, all very well connected. Their pedestrian facilities including traffic signals are well designed. They have excellent motorways and waterways. Needless to say, people use all of those facillities. When my buddy and I first stepped into the street, we saw a woman in a business dress riding a bicycle. My buddy said, "Wow, look at that!" I said, "Bicycling is normal here." At the train station was a covered parking lot that held hundreds of bicycles.

 

There was only one thing I noticed that didn't seem to work in Germany. The special bicycle routes were basicly ignored. There was a lot of heavy design for bicycles, with marked paths that wove around, sometimes sharing space with cars, and sometimes on the sidewalk. Bicyclists generally rode in the streets as if they were cars and ignored the marked bike paths. 

 

In my humble opinion, the thing that would help the most in Cincinnati is a way to cross I-75 by bicycle. There are only 36 crossings between downtown all the way to Butler County, and 18 of those crossings are part of interchanges. Getting through an interchange by bicycle is in my opinion the highest safety risk for bicycles. Think of crossing under I-75 on Mitchel, for example. All interchanges could use some improvement, for that matter.

 

I used to use the pedstrian crossing near Cincinnati State. Sadly, it's been torn down. I would support construction of more crossings of I-75, both for cars and bicycles.

I-75 is certainly difficult, especially at Mitchell, but I think the rail yards near downtown are even worse.  8th and Gest are fine, but the Western Hills Viaduct and Hopple Street aren't.  That leaves a 3+ mile barrier until you get to Millcreek Road in South Cumminsville.  The other problem is where do you go then?  The hillsides to the west are quite steep and the few streets that climb them are curvy, narrow, and very unfriendly to bikes.  US-50 is the only flat (mostly) route, but it doesn't really go anywhere or connect to any easier climbs.  It's certainly interesting how there's virtually no good cycling routes on the west side compared to the east side or northern Kentucky. 

The hills are our friends.  I first climbed the Colerain Ave. hill when I was 13.  It was surprisingly easy and that opened me up to biking anywhere in this area.  The steepest climbs in the city are Lehman, 10th? St. in Bellevue, KY, and the bottom section of Monastery.  The absolute steepest 300 vertical foot climb I'm aware of in the area is about 10 miles south of downtown off of Decoursey Pike near the railroad tunnel.  Can't remember the name of the street but it's a steady 20% grade. 

Steep is nothing with a bicycle lift

 

Bicycle Lift "Steep is nothing" -Panasonic ecoideasnet

I first climbed the Colerain Ave. hill when I was 13. 

 

Same here. Colerain is not too bad because the grade is consistent, traffic is low, the road is wide, there are no parked cars (except at the very bottom, soon to be changing), there are few driveways or cross streets, and visibility is good.

Bicyclist struck, killed in East End

 

EAST END — A bicyclist who was struck and critically injured at Kellogg and Wilmer avenues near Lunken Airport died this morning at University Hospital, according to Cincinnati police.

 

The man suffered fatal head injuries when he was hit at about 6:15 a.m., reports state.

 

Police are having difficulty identifying the bicyclist. He was not carrying identification, reports state. Wilmer Avenue at Lunken Park Drive has been shut down until further notice.

 

There is a bike path in the area where the crash occurred, but police have not said yet today where the bicyclist was when he was struck.

 

Cont

so terribly sad.

The circumstances surrounding this accident are pretty odd.  The area up where Wilmer hits Beechmont is pretty bad for biking but this part is relatively flat and straight.  I wonder if the driver assumed the bike was on the bike path.

This is heartbreaking. I see the car has handicap plates. I wonder if they were visually imparied.

 

Andy, the cyclist, was wearing a helmet too. RIP

People need to be careful watching out for bikers

 

Andrew Gast was out on his daily bike ride when he was hit and killed early Tuesday, his family said today.

 

The 27-year-old was an investment management and trust asset manager at Fifth Third Bank’s headquarters downtown and just moved to a Main Street apartment from West Chester Township in March to be closer to his job and to enjoy urban life.

 

“He loved to bicycle,” said his father, Richard Gast, 57, of North Ridgeville, which is west of Cleveland. “He walked to work and loved to bike ride. He was very energetic. He could have lived outside the city but he enjoyed the downtown lifestyle.”

 

Cont

Sounds like an urbanist. Wonder if he ever visited UO. (Heck, he could be a regular.)

The circumstances surrounding this accident are pretty odd.  The area up where Wilmer hits Beechmont is pretty bad for biking but this part is relatively flat and straight.  I wonder if the driver assumed the bike was on the bike path.

 

Did that accident happen around 6AM? It is still dark outside.

I ride around at night all the time.  In a way it's safer because you can see headlights and you ride even more defensively than during the day.  Also, because there is less ambient noise, you can hear cars more easily.

^^^^not gonna read the comments, I'm sure it's all 'blame the victim' BS

^^Was looking around this AM, there's some predawn light

People have a tendency to move towards light/movement, the driver might have seen reflectors, especially pedal reflectors, not known what he was looking at & veered towards the cyclist.

Sad. He moved from West Chester to Downtown to be closer to work.  Folks we lost one of our own that loved urban living.

Any idea where on Main? According to our mailbox, there's a 'Gist' in our building - could it be a typo?

So is the driver going to face charges for this? Seems like manslaughter unless I am missing something. 

Well some woman hit a guy on a motorcycle from behind on I-75 a few weeks ago. She fled the scene. She's facing 2+ years. If she didn't she would be facing 6 months.

Any idea where on Main? According to our mailbox, there's a 'Gist' in our building - could it be a typo?

 

I was part of the memorial ride with CCC on Tuesday night.  We left from Oakley Cycles, rode to the scene of the accident, then in along Riverside, up Main to just above Liberty, then back to Oakley via Gilbert, Eden Park, and Madison.

 

The ride organizer (Frank Henson of Queen City Bike) said he believed Andrew lived on Main just above Liberty, where E. McMicken branches off.  We paused for a few moments outside the building thought to be Andrew's.

 

At the time, I didn't know he was married.  A bit morbid feeling now, but if anyone was home I think it would have been a nice tribute to see outside the building.

 

The guy was 27 and married - probably less than five years.  Just starting out, living like most of us aspire to.  Hits close to home.

I knew Andrew and had some great times with him over the years. He lived where was stated above - on Main. He worked at 5/3 and loved to bike. Someone I know who lives in OTR befriended him this spring and they went to Neon's and MOTR and Andy said, "I want to live here" - that's when he moved to OTR. He was a very genuine guy with a great heart. Losing him is really difficult. It still shocks me. Keep his family in your prayers.

 

Here is an online obituary/tribute page:

http://tributes.com/show/Andrew-Richard-Gast-94353431

 

RIP

I've been amazed and touched by the unity and care that I've seen out of the Cincinnati bicycling community this week

 

http://www.blogotr.com/otr/riding-to-remember-andrew-gast/

Another one:

 

http://www.local12.com/news/local/story/Metro-Bus-Hit-and-Kills-Bicyclist-in-Bond-Hill/JBPvP5L-00SakyNgIym7LA.cspx?rss=30

 

Second in two weeks.  So far, this one sounds like the cyclist may have been at fault, but this summer has not been a good one.

 

I learned of this after finishing my own commute to work.

I heard he didn't have lights, wasn't wearing a helmet & was almost certainly at fault. Just rumors though, hoping to confirm

Enquirer up to it again, just had to throw in some info about bike paths:

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120911/NEWS/309110040/Bicyclist-killed-Metro-bus-accident

 

Someone calls the authors out in the comments, and she's right - there's no need to mention whether or not there are bike paths or bike lanes or sharrows or anything.  To present it offhand like this adds fuel to the "no bike path = cycling is dangerous" fire.  The subliminal take-away from that throwaway sentence is that streets are for cars, bike paths are for cyclists.

I am watching intently to see the cycling community's reaction to this. Everyone was quick to show support for the white yuppie who got mowed down. What will be the reaction concerning the older black dude?

I am watching intently to see the cycling community's reaction to this. Everyone was quick to show support for the white yuppie who got mowed down. What will be the reaction concerning the older black dude?

 

Initial reports were that he appeared to be at fault and another poster here noted he may have been poorly dressed for nighttime biking (and without a helmet).  I wouldn't pull out a race card yet until a bit more is known.

 

"Witnesses told police the bicyclist, 59-year-old Ronald Richardson, attempted to cut in front of the bus and that's when the bus struck and killed the bicyclist."

http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/local_news/police-metro-bus-hits-kills-bicyclist-in-bond-hill#ixzz26GxGaeMy

 

 

They are still investigating whether the driver who killed Gast was at fault, as far as I know. I'm not sure whether fault is a big factor in the reaction. FWIW, I don't think race is a direct factor, either. If there were a black yuppie cyclist suffering Gast's fate, I think the reaction would have been about the same as it was for Gast.

 

Still, I think the contrast between reactions will show that all cyclists are not seen equally by the cycling community, though the data could be muddled by factors such as an absence of bike lights.

Let's not kid ourselves: a yuppie on a nice bike is a "cyclist" whereas a poor dude on a yard sale bike is a poor dude on a yard sale bike. 

One of the best things about cycling is it is an equitable mode of transit: anyone can be a cyclist. Any able-bodied person, anyway. Cycling advocates will inevitably fail their mission if they don't recognize and value this in their advocacy.

A cyclist is the same as saying a golfer or a swimmer. Do I ride my bike? Yes. Do I golf? Yes. Am I a golfer? No. Am I a cyclist, no. I don't have fancy gear, I don't do it for sport or play 18 holes weekly and know what my handicap is. I just randomly play with the guys & have a few beers from time to time.  I ride my bike around downtown OTR & NKY and maybe once in a while to Eden park or up Clifton. I ride a bike, that doesn't make me a cyclist.

 

Frank Henson is a cyclist. The guy riding on the sidewalk yesterday who yelled at me to get out of the way even though he should have been in the street was not a cyclist. It's not a racially charged term. Dont start stuff by bringing race into it. It's the same as any sport.

No. Being a cyclist is more akin to being a motorist.

From the comment section on the Enquirer article:

 

Cincinnati Cycle Club

At this time, we are hoping to have a Ghost Bike Installation NEXT TUESDAY, September 18th. Due to the decreased daylight, (there will be 20 minutes less than 2 weeks ago), there will be a ceremony, but not a Ghost Ride.

 

At the installation, CCC and QCB will announce a FREE BLINKIE and REFLECTOR program.

 

The Cincinnati Cycle Club will be providing a donation to QCB. QCB is a 501 c3 organization and we will have donation info.

 

One feature of this program will be that we hope to have CCC and QCB and Mobo and any other bike organization actually INSTALL the blinkies on individual bikes. Just giving folks a blinkie does no good, if the folks just leave them in their bike bag.

 

More details soon John Chester

Reply · 11 · Like · Follow Post · 2 hours ago

 

Glad they are doing this.

 

At the installation, CCC and QCB will announce a FREE BLINKIE and REFLECTOR program.

 

...this sounds a bit like whats going down in LA:

 

City of Lights

 

What is City of Lights?

The objective of City of Lights is to educate, empower and advocate for low-income bicyclists of color and create social justice in the environmental and bicycle advocacy movements. We have given out bike lights and safety vests at the CARECEN  and IDEPSCA centers since April 2009.  We helped create the BiciDigna bike repair space, a partnership between LACBC, IDEPSCA, and the Bicycle Kitchen since January 2010. Additionally, we have served over 600+ low-income cyclists and continue to do safety, maintenance, and legal rights workshops, under the popular education philosophy that anyone can be empowered to teach others anything. We fill the gap of the lack of representation of low-income cyclists of color in the bicycle advocacy movement.

 

 

 

 

 

I met the City of Lights people...the ones who were doing the repair shop...at the US Social Forum and their presentation is what got me interested in cycling as a form of transportation....

 

I think the issue of bike safety and interaction of bikes w. cars & pedestrians (Im a ped, too), is an issue that crosses class & race lines....

 

Incidentally they recently had a bike death here in suburban Dayton, on SR 444 in or near Fairborn/Wright-Patterson AFB. 

I can't find discussion of it through search, so I will just ask here.

 

Is the J-Ride pedicab company still in operation in Cincinnati? Their Facebook site has some semi-recent updates, but their website is down.

 

https://www.facebook.com/Jrides

http://www.j-rides.com