Don't Go to Kentucky on a Bike. Ever.

Today was a day for very strong feelings.  You know those feelings that make you want to pull someone out of the cab of their vehicle and orally extract their spine?  Those feelings.  Before I get to those, I'm going to breathe and think happy thoughts.  It's difficult really.  Once you've tasted fear, the follow on anger, and then spend hours planning for the demise of an entire state's bicycle tourism industry, its quite a process to take yourself back to those happy thoughts.

Happy thought.  I had an excellent ride from Santa Claus, Indiana to Clarksville, Indiana on my first day back on the bike.  Despite the inclusion of some state routes, the traffic on Labor Day was low and the drivers were great.  The Corydon Ridge Road was a treasure of low stress and beautiful to boot.  It was a scorcher, so took a nap in a park / barn / shelter with a pile of ice on my chest.  Explanation.  A Labor Day picnic had just wrapped up and they left a cooler worth of ice on the lawn near the shelter.  As you may have ascertained from my previous post, my tire had acquired a bit of attitude.  I noticed the tire flaw after my brain reached operational temperatures.

Found some excellent graffiti art in Louisville.

Louisville, KY was a successful pit-stop for a tire.  I grabbed a top notch Schwalbe Marathon Supreme from Parkside Bikes along with a couple of backup spokes.  In Santa Claus, my dad hooked me up with the Stein Mini Cassette Tool so I can change rear wheel spokes on the fly without heavy shop tools.  That is a key tour tool.  I caught dinner at a trendy downtown breakfast joint, Wild Eggs, over priced but tasty.  On my way out of town, I wandered around and found all sorts of interesting bicycle infrastructure improvements.  Louisville has earned it's Bronze Bicycle Friendly status.  The locals I talked to said there have been massive improvements in the last five years.

A wide bike lane (not parking) with a striped buffer.

There were bike lanes next to parallel parked cars with a marked "door zone" to keep folks out of it.  I recommended a similar treatment to Hartford's DPW for the new Wethersfield Ave. bike lanes, but... It takes a while to bring the barge around.  Note the reference to barges.  I've been riding along the Ohio River.  Lots of barges.  Barges and steam boats are super neat.  While leaving Louisville, on the Indiana side, I caught the Howard Steam Boat Museum in Jeffersonville, Indiana.  A required visit for someone on a bicycle ride starting in Hartford, Connecticut - home to Mark Twain.

And a bike lane on a one way street with a painted buffer to denote the "door zone"!

Of note, the Louisville Norton Hospital (take notes Hartford Hospital) had a street level cafe, bike parking near entrances, bike lanes, and "Sharrows" in their area.  It totally makes sense for an urban health care campus, surrounded by dense residential districts, to pay some mind to creating outward facing aspects of their business.  Everybody wins, more feet on the street, more money in the business, and you create a neighborhood that a percentage of your employees will be interested to live in.  First - let's make the Bone and Joint Institute less of a sterile, suburban-style medical office building.  Second - add standard sidewalk mounted bike parking in convenient areas around the other Hartford Hospital buildings.

Downtown hospital with a coffee shop, outdoor seating, and a bike rack!

Going from Madison, Indiana to Cincinnati, Ohio I happened to overlap with another bike tourist, Conner.  We suffered the slings and arrows of Kentucky as a pair.   We got an early start and it was a beautiful ride until the gravel trucks showed up.

Conner's rig.  A fully loaded Surly Cross Check

And now back to the less productive, but more gratifying portion of this article.  Why you shouldn't ride a bike in Kentucky (aside from Louisville).  

• The Kentucky DOT has a pretty awful standard for putting tiny shoulders on state highways, and then putting rumble strips on the 12" of available shoulder.  If a cyclist doesn't want to vibrate to pieces, they are riding in the traffic lane.  Not the most fun with 55 mph trucks and a lot of blind corners.
• It looks like the state of Kentucky doesn't have a three foot passing law.  The League of American Bicyclists ranks them at 49th for bike friendliness.  The only state worse was Alabama!  Ha.  Good company.
• Gravel trucks.  We were purposefully close called by four or five of these wonderful vehicles.  They were talking via CB radio and sadistically entertained themselves by risking our lives.  
• More "Get off the road!" hollering in one day riding in Kentucky that three weeks combined cross country riding.
• Folks may call the sheriff on you for simply riding a bike.  It happened to us.  The sheriff drove by, stopped, waved us over and said someone had called us in.  His review noted that we were riding perfectly legally and he wished us a good day and safe riding.
• Rolling coal.  It happens in Kentucky.  Yup.  You thought it was just a redneck internet meme.
• And Confederate flags - I hate those things.  They are an indicator of an either insensitive or under educated resident.  There are a lot of these in Kentucky.

Cincy - Finally getting out of Kentucky.  A most welcome view.

For further reading enjoyment.  My open letter to the Kentucky DOT.

***********************************

Lynn (Lynn.Soporowski@ky.gov),

I'm doing a cross country bicycle tour, and blogging about it.  Kentucky by far has been the worst state for my safety.  Riding from Madison, Indiana to Florence, Kentucky was awful.  We rode primarily along routes 42 and 127, since the region is rather hilly and there weren't alternate routes.  

Questions:

• Is it a design standard to put very narrow shoulders on the side of state routes, and then put a rumble strip on the entire narrow shoulder?  That makes the shoulder useless for cyclists.
• Does Kentucky have a 3 foot passing law?  Many states do, and couple that with an education campaign.
• I stopped into Louisville for a short visit.  They seem to be getting it right for Complete Streets and safe street design, they were recently awarded Bicycle Friendly Community Recognition by the League of American Bicyclists.  On the other hand, the state of Kentucky is ranked 49th.  Wow.  That's awful.

A bit of venting here, but after being purposefully passed within inches by multiple gravel trucks on route 42, I'm particularly irritated by my time spent in your fine state.  The truck drivers were communicating by CB and thought it was sadistically funny to put my life at risk.    For some reason it was particularly the "gravel trucks".  We had no issues with the tractor trailer drivers, who gave us ample room when passing.  Aside from the gravel trucks, a couple of individuals in personal diesel trucks "rolled coal" when passing, at least that's what I think it's called.  A healthy helping of diesel particulate is a great way to win over Kentucky fans.  

While we were stopped at a CVS on Route 127 another gravel truck, these guys are winners, came to a locked up screeching stop and just missed a school bus full of children at the stoplight.  Not sure who the major sand and gravel yards are hiring for drivers, but it seemed to an outsider that the entire fleet of drivers is due for a safety review and training - and firing the bad apples.

Earlier in the day someone called the county sheriff and reported cyclists operating recklessly.  Seriously.  The sheriff came out and noted that we were riding in a perfectly legal and responsible fashion.  I'm a certified bicycle safety instructor and regularly teach classes on how to safely and courteously ride with traffic.  I'm glad the sheriff knew what he was doing, but bothered that residents of Kentucky found it illegal that we were riding bicycles.  Sprinkle in more, "Get off the road!," yells from vehicles in one day than I've gotten in three weeks of riding, and Kentucky has far and away earned it's 2nd to last ranking.

I know it's difficult to work on bicycle and pedestrian design issues within a DOT that seems focused on highways, trucks, and cars - but other states are doing it.  Kentucky is far behind the other states that I've ridden through for both infrastructure design for safety, laws on the books for vulnerable users, and personal interactions for vulnerable road users.  I wasn't surprised to see very few pedestrians or cyclists.  

I'm planning to ride the rest of the Ohio River Valley this week, but will be avoiding the KY side - and spending my money in Ohio.  I'm also composing an article for my blog that shreds Kentucky, highlights the 49th League ranking, and recommends skipping the state entirely when considering vacations or cross country bicycle tours.

Thanks for your consideration of this note.

Tony Cherolis

*************************************************************

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Bro'd Rage: My ugly encounter with a dangerous young driver. PART III- Brospotting, follow up, and support

This is the truck.

Only 1 of 4 wheels remain on the driveway, so your highest possible grade would be 25%. You definitely failed, dude.

Whilst traversing campus on my Wednesday lunch break, I caught a glimpse of a familiar sight: the nose of a green Toyota Tundra with New Jersey plates. It was driverless and parked this time around, thus thankfully not split seconds from hitting me head-on, so I walked over to have a look. It was clear that: 1) This was definitely the truck from last Friday's run-in. and 2) It had been parked by a person severely deficient in the finer points of parallel parking. The truck was where the people are supposed to go.

What? No truck nuts?

As I made my way around the truck to snap a few pictures, a young man approached and got into the driver seat. In our short, seconds-long conversation, he said it was his truck, that he was not on campus on Friday, and that his roommates borrow the truck. It's not my job to grill the guy, but I recommended that he get in touch and cooperate with Campus Safety and the Hartford Police ASAP. He seemed genuinely surprised to hear of the Friday incident. If I give the benefit of the doubt that this is true, then that means that the college administration had not contacted him five days after the incident. If it's not true, he's an accomplished liar. Either way, somebody's BSing me, and I don't appreciate that one bit.

Schleppi said this photo looked like a "TMZ shot"

 In the meantime, I had gotten nothing meaningful in the manner of updates as to progress being made by Campus Safety and the Dean of Students office. Either nothing was happening, or I was not being updated in a timely fashion. I got a few more updates and clarifications on Friday, but only after I had sent out a rather exasperated Thursday afternoon email that pulled no punches. Not long after my Bro-spotting lunchbreak, I did receive an invitation to speak with the Campus Life office, which I will do early this coming week.

As much of a drag and a timesuck as this incident has been over the past week, it has brought out the best in a lot of people. A number of Trinity staff and faculty approached me with encouraging words and, fairly often, a personal story of a student whose misdeeds went unpunished. Trinity Professor Jack Dougherty composed and circulated a letter of support which was co-signed by Dario and other bike riding Trinity faculty and staff members. All of the above lifted my spirits and reminded me that I work with some truly excellent people (and that they are by no means in short supply.) I still believe that positive outcomes and change can come from this ugly encounter.

My work week ended on a high note. The weather was beautiful, the day was full of unexpected delights, like a dogs and (Tastease!) donuts gathering on a nearby quadrangle late in the morning, an impromptu Spanish guitar and percussion jam outside of the Austin Arts Center, and a successful opening at the Broad Street Gallery. This Saturday Hartford will be filled with Samba, films, friends, and one of the best parties for one of the shortest sporting events of the year. In between that, I have some bikes to repair and ride. It will be nice to get back to that.

Lucy in the Quad With Donuts

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Bro'd Rage: My ugly encounter with a dangerous young driver. PART II- making contact

In Bro'd Rage Part I, I left off with my trip to Hartford Police Department HQ to file a report. I later sat down and wrote a detailed description of the incident, a version of which became yesterday's post, and more detailed, names-naming version of which I emailed to a selection of HPD and College officials first thing on Monday.  On that morning's commute, I had noticed a few security cameras along Summit Street where the  took place, so I asked to see the archived camera footage for the appropriate time period.

If Big Brother is watching, he oughta help a small brother out once in a while, amiright?

I heard back from both Campus Safety and an HPD officer the same day. I visited CS headquarters and saw footage of the Green Toyota Tundra turning right from a campus parking lot and heading northbound on the wrong side of the street. It then disappears from camera view, followed a few seconds later by me pedaling southbound. Less than a minute later, the Tundra reappears, heading southbound at a high rate of speed. A different camera captured the moments where the truck pulls up even with, then in front of me, its brake lights ablaze as I veer toward the left. This not only validated my report, it actually made things look a bit worse than I had thought. I was told they would share this with the HPD and with the Dean of Students Office for review.

This was encouraging, not only because it seemed like Campus Safety was being much more proactive and transparent than before, but also because this was verifiable proof of my account of the incident. In addition, it occurred to me that this video would be great to incorporate into the next Traffic Skills 101 class I'm co-teaching with Tony. I asked for a copy of the video, but was told (not at all surprisingly), "...it's the policy of the institution to only release our reports and video to the administration."
So much for transparency.

Later on Tuesday, I took a look at The Trinity Campus Safety Daily Crime Log for the Friday of the incident, which was posted sometime Tuesday afternoon. This above screen shot, taken at that time, shows my disappointing discovery. There is no mention of this incident, despite my having reported it to Campus Safety and followed up with them multiple times since then. It appears that I am officially less important than two computer monitors and a cell phone. My brief flirtation with optimism for the college's administration's response was fading away rapidly.

More developments as they come in Bro'd Rage Part III
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Bro'd Rage! My ugly encounter with a dangerous young driver. PART I - The Incident

The Trinity Admissions Gate: area of my initial encounter with the wrong-way driver.

Last Friday morning, I was commuting to my job at Trinity College here in Hartford, riding my Yuba southbound along Summit Street as usual. Suddenly, I was startled to see that a dark green Toyota pickup truck had completely crossed the double yellow line and was heading northbound, directly at me, in my southbound lane. I yelled, "YO!!!" as loudly as I could to alert the driver of the truck whilst swerving to avoid a head-on collision. Collision avoided, I continued southbound on Summit, a good sight more shaken and annoyed than I had been moments earlier.

Trinity's Hamlin and Mather Halls overlook the scene of the verbal abuse and brake-check

I continued southbound toward the south side of campus and my office. Just south of the College Terrace intersection, I was startled anew to see the pickup roar up by my left side. The driver of the truck, a white male around 20, shook his middle finger and screamed obscenities (unintelligible but for the many F-Bombs) before pulling ahead of me, swerving toward the right and slamming on the brakes. I veered left, avoiding another potential collision, pedaled hard and caught up enough to get the license plate number and a better look at the truck. Having apparently turned around specifically to harass and threaten me with the truck, the enraged bro sped off heading southbound.

I immediately called the Hartford Police Department to report this incident upon arriving at my office. An HPD officer meet me a bit later at Trinity's Broad Street Gallery, where Studio Arts majors' Senior Thesis shows were being critiqued (I work in the art department). I stepped out of the Gallery and gave him my account of the incident. At this time, a Campus Safety officer was driving by on Broad Street, and the HPD officer motioned him over. He parked and joined us, I repeated my story and description, and shortly thereafter rejoined my colleagues in the gallery so as not to miss any more of the critiques. Both officers seemed friendly and efficient.

I called Campus Safety after lunch to follow up on the case and was told that HPD did not file a report, opting instead to let Campus Safety "handle it" based on the truck's description (NJ plates and a Trinity decal) making it likely the truck's driver was a student. The CS officer I had originally spoken with said that the truck had not been registered with the college (which is required), so they didn't know whose it was.

I was outraged. It was pretty clear to me at this point that this case would go nowhere if I didn't pursue the matter. My report of a Class D Felony was poised to go nowhere fast, and there aren't enough "Oh, Hell No"s in the world to describe how willing I was to accept that. Unfortunately, I had a wake to attend on Friday afternoon (this was kind of a lousy day), so I was unable to follow up until the weekend.

On Sunday afternoon, I spoke with an officer at the Hartford Public Safety complex on High Street and filed a report. Now I had a case number and a List of things to do first thing on Monday. I let you know how that went soon in Bro'd Rage Part II

NOTES:
This incident took place at approximately 9:45 AM on Summit Street in Hartford.
Dark Green Toyota Tundra extended cab pickup truck with a Trinity College decal on the rear window of the cab. White male driver, approx. 20 Y.O. New Jersey registration M91-CXN 
If you have any information to share, call the Hartford Police Department and reference Case# 14-13179

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Painting with a Broad Brush: New Bike Lanes and Hartford's First Bike Boxes on Broad Street

 

Broad and Farmington today

 The Broad Street Problem
 

Broad Street looking northward

Broad Street has a well-earned reputation as a terrifying route for bicyclists and pedestrians alike. The lack of bike lanes and the I-84 on-ramp have made it especially dangerous for northbound bicyclists faced with both an uphill climb and high-risk spot for right-hook crashes at the highway entrance. Late this past summer, some City of Hartford DPW, CT DOT, and neighborhood people met to discuss ways to make this area safer for bicyclists and I came away with cautiously optimistic thoughts. I'll admit I was among those worried about the future of those improvements when then-DPW director Kevin Burnham resigned shortly thereafter, but October saw the first visible sign that progress was continuing as the heavily-damaged pavement at the southwestern entrance to Bushnell Park was patched. With the painting of these new bike lanes, another phase of these improvements goes into service less than three months after they were discussed, and we are reminded that city, state, and citizens can actually communicate efficiently and make good things happen. There are good people at the DOT. They just need more of them.

Broad and Capitol today

First Observations

You're...

This Saturday morning was my first chance to walk this length of Broad in daylight. During my 20-minute walkaround, approximately 2/3 of the motorists I observed used the proper lanes and stopped short of the bike boxes. The rest pulled right up to, or into, the crosswalk. The northbound right-turners were the worst, with about 1/3 of them driving up in the straight lane before cutting through the bike lane and a One southbound driver cut their left turn so short that they actually drove across all of the northbound lanes, including the bike lane, as they made their hasty way to the interstate. The sidewalks are improved, but the crosswalk at the I-84 on-ramp still feels like a dicey place to be a pedestrian.

doing...

it...

wrong!!!

It can get better

These bike lanes and boxes are slated to be painted green-- the first such painted bike zones in Hartford. This is bound to increase visibility when it happens. Something that was discussed with Mr. Burnham was the installation of recessed flush-mount (snowplow compatible) reflectors in the pavement along the borders of the bike lane. I think these and some limited-but-deftly-placed rumble strip milling would make the defined lanes harder to ignore in that crucial northbound stretch of bike lane. Hopefully, some lane-identifying street signs will go up as well. Education and enforcement will be important ways to further motorist awareness, but I've been watching how people drive in this spot for over a decade, and this will never be my first choice for a northbound trip. The hard truth is that this (and any) interstate on-ramp will always be a dangerous spot.


The Glitch: I've seen the lights go out on Broad Street

The dark side of this news, literally, is that the street lights on this stretch of Broad don't work yet. Workers were feeding wires on site Saturday morning, and one of them said that DOT and CL&P people are meeting early this coming week to sort out some unnamed design problem that is apparently to blame. Best guess I got on-site was maybe another week to get the lights working, meaning pedestrian commuters diverted from the now-barricaded Flower Street will have to pick their way through another week of darkness after work.

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Three Rules for Maine Drivers

Formulated these guidelines for Maine drivers while recently touring through that fine state.

1)  Things are really far apart so drive your truck as fast as you can.

2)  Don't slow down for anything as that would violate rule #1.  For example, obstacles such as tractors or bicycles shall be passed at full speed.

3)   When passing a slower moving vehicle on a two lane road, give them the full lane because that's the kind of nice guy you are, but try to time the pass for a sharp corner or blind hill.   Pay no mind to approaching traffic, and remember rules #1 and #2.

Once you've mastered these three simple rules you're an honorary Maine'r.

Extra Credit:  A true bred Maine'r will toot the horn from about half a mile back to let you know they are approaching at full speed.

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