Milwaukee may see 300 rental bikes
By TOM HELD of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, July 22, 2007

The bicycling buzz along the Champs-Élysées these days is being generated by leisurely commuters and not speeding racers.

On Sunday, Paris unveiled its new communal bike program: 10,600 two-wheeled modes of self-propelled transportation for rent at 750 self-service stations.

By the end of the year, Parisians will have access to 20,600 rental bikes at 1,500 stations, according to a story in The New York Times.

Milwaukeeans may not be on the same lap with most of European culture, but in this instance, the gap may be closing.

The city has applied to receive $752,000 in federal transportation funds to launch its own bicycle rental program, on a smaller scale, in 2009. The city's share of the $940,000 total price tag would be $188,000.

For that outlay, planners figure they could put 300 bikes at stations in the more-populated areas of Beer Town.

The goal is to give people an alternative mode of transportation for short trips, and to reduce auto congestion and emissions.

"For some people, five or six blocks is too far to walk, and we do have pretty good parking availability in Milwaukee, so people drive," said Dave Schlabowske, the city's pedestrian and bicycle coordinator.

"If we have these bikes available, and these are very easy bikes to use, then the person who needs to go six blocks on their lunch hour, maybe down to the lakefront, has an alternative."

Schlabowske wrote the grant proposal, which is similar to pilot projects being explored in Portland, Ore., and Chicago.

The key, he said, will be to put the stations at the right locations, where the bikes would get the most use.
As for the drawbacks: It is a European idea, which always seems to raise skepticism.

And Milwaukee's population density and traffic congestion don't come close to that of Paris or Lyon, the French cities now giving the rental wheels a spin.

On the plus side, even at $940,000, putting downtown travelers on two wheels would be monumentally cheaper than putting them on rails.

The city should receive word on the grant application either late this year or early in 2008, according to City Engineer Jeff Polenske.

New Web Site Promotes Walking and Bicycling to School

Safe Routes to School Nation Partnership launched a new website, www.saferoutespartnership.org, as a resource for schools, parents, local and state governments and bicycle advocacy groups to encourage more kids to walk or bike to school.

The site is is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Bikes Belong Coalition. The $612 million federal Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program provides funding to support education and enforcement programs and to help communities improve infrastructure such as building sidewalks and bike paths.

“We created this Web site to help people take action now to bring SRTS programs to their communities,” said SRTS National Partnership Director Deb Hubsmith. “The potential benefits of SRTS programs include healthier children, reduced congestion around schools, less pollution, and safer streets.

Other features of the new site include an interactive U.S. map that allows users to access pages for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, a robust search function, updated national SRTS news, in-depth policy pages, event listings, resources and a submit-a-story form.

As Eau Claire and Altoona are the beneficiaries of this grant money, these resources are welcome tools for improving the journey to school in the Chippewa Valley. If you have a child in elementary school, ask your school principal about the Safe Routes to School Program and see if you can get involved.

Operation Duck: Pedestrians get help crossing busy streets
Kristin Czubkowski — CAPITAL TIMES – MADISON, 7/25/2007

Traffic safety team officer Derrick Jones and traffic team members await drivers who do not stop for people in crosswalks for pedestrian law enforcement.
"Get ready," Derrick Jones said to the uniformed police officer standing behind a tree with a radar gun. "This guy's not going to stop -- I can tell." He took a step off the curb, and started steadily walking between the bright white crosswalk lines on Midvale Boulevard at the main entrance to Hilldale Shopping Center.

That van did end up stopping to let Jones cross, but the traffic officer was right on plenty of other vehicles during an undercover police operation called "Operation Duck" staged Tuesday afternoon by Madison Police's Traffic Enforcement Safety Team.

The operation, which was organized by Sgt. John Radovan of TEST, used a plainclothes officer, also known as the "duck," to pose as a pedestrian trying to cross the street at the intersection, which does not have a stop sign or traffic light. Uniformed officers in cars and motorcycles waited in the wings to follow and pull over any offending vehicles.

The goal of the operation, Radovan said, was to promote driver awareness that pedestrians have the right of way in uncontrolled intersections. He said this particular intersection was chosen because it has been the subject of many citizen complaints.

"With the addition of all the senior housing, and just all the housing in general around here, we've received a lot of complaints about vehicles not yielding to pedestrians, so this was one of our prime spots," he said. "There's several others around the city that we get a lot of complaints about."

Radovan said he organized this traffic operation as well as one last week after a long break in conducting similar operations. These types of operations have not been used for three or four years, he said, because drivers complained about being set up by police.

"At the time, we received a lot of complaints about it because some feel it's a form of entrapment, and I mean, that's a fair argument to make," he said. Radovan and his colleagues at TEST decided to start the undercover operation again this year because the Hilldale intersection results in a lot of complaints even though relatively few pedestrians -- about one per hour -- cross at it. Using a police officer posing as a pedestrian, he said, made it more efficient.

"We're starting it up again because we feel it's a very important issue, and it's really the only efficient way we can deal with it."
To make it more fair for drivers this time around, Radovan said police officers increased the distance at which Jones could step off the curb. While in past operations, the undercover "duck" would give vehicles 180 feet to stop, Radovan said police this time used improved calculations including vehicle speed, pavement conditions and tire conditions to give drivers what he called a "generous" 198 feet to slow down and stop for Jones. An orange cone was positioned at 198 feet from each direction.

In more high-traffic areas such as downtown, Radovan said police officers would generally just do enforcement rather than staging an operation.

How does one get to be the "duck" in such an operation?

"In this case, it probably was the short straw," said Lt. Stephanie Bradley Wilson, who also works for TEST. Ironically, Jones was on restricted duty for an injury, she said, meaning that he was not allowed to drive for the police force and thus became a target for the undercover assignment.

Jones took to the assignment well, occasionally shouting out remarks to reporters or fellow officers or singing under his breath as he calmly crossed the road.

"I knew they had some undercover assignments, but being a duck' was not one I expected to be," he said later, laughing.
Despite a few close calls, though, Jones said being the "duck" for the operation was not as frightening as it might have seemed.

"I can usually tell when they're not going to stop, so I'll maybe slow down and let them get past," he said. "So it's not too bad, but you always wonder when you've got two tons of metal coming at you at 40 miles per hour."

Jones said he hopes the operation sends a message out to drivers, whether from the news or from the people who have been pulled over, that Madison police are serious about this issue.

According to Police Department spokesman Joel DeSpain, police officers issued seven citations Tuesday afternoon for failing to yield to a pedestrian in an uncontrolled intersection, which carries a $140.50 fine and four points on a driving record. During the earlier operation, Jones said about 10 people were pulled over and given warnings but no tickets.

The Bicycling Paradox: Fit Doesn’t Have to Mean Thin
From the New York Times, July 17, 2007
By GINA KOLATA

Andy Hampsten, the former pro cyclist, the only American ever to win the Tour of Italy, the first American ever to win the grueling Alpe d’Huez stage of the Tour de France, does his best to discourage casual riders from signing up for the cycling trips he leads in Tuscany.

“All of our trips are designed to satisfy experienced riders,” Mr. Hampsten writes on his Web site. To train, he suggests, “you should ride at least 100 miles a week for at least 6 to 10 weeks” on routes with “as many hills as you can find.”

So I had an image of what our fellow cyclists would look like when my husband, son and I arrived in Castagneto Carducci for a cycling vacation. They would look like Mr. Hampsten, who at age 45 remains boyishly thin and agile, bouncing with energy.
I was wrong.

For the most part, our group consisted of ordinary-looking, mostly middle-age men and a few middle-age women.
These were serious cyclists. One of them was Bob Eastaugh, a 63-year-old justice on the Alaska Supreme Court who said he rode mostly to stay in shape for his true passion, downhill ski racing.

And our trip was challenging. The longest hill was 15 miles, the steepest had a 15 percent grade, the longest one-day ride was 90 miles, and the terrain was never, ever flat. It is hard to imagine that a group of middle-age adults could have handled an equivalently difficult 10 days of running. What, I wondered, made bicycling different?

It turns out that others, too, have been struck by the paradox of bicycling fitness.

“When I first got into cycling, I would see cyclists and say, ‘O.K., that’s not what I perceive a cyclist to be,’ ” said Michael Berry, an exercise physiologist at Wake Forest University. Dr. Berry had been a competitive runner, and he thought good cyclists would look like good runners — rail-thin and young.

But, Dr. Berry added, “I quickly learned that when I was riding with someone with a 36-inch waist, I could be looking at the back of their waist when they rode away from me.”

He came to realize, he said, that cycling is a lot more forgiving of body type and age than running. The best cyclists going up hills are those with the best weight-to-strength ratio, which generally means being thin and strong. But heavier cyclists go faster downhill. And being light does not help much on flat roads.

James Hagberg, a kinesiology professor at the University of Maryland, explains that the difference between running on a flat road and cycling on a flat road has to do with the movement of the athlete’s center of gravity.

“In running, when you see someone who is obviously overweight, they will be in trouble,” Dr. Hagberg said. “The more you weigh, the more the center of gravity moves and the more energy it costs. But in cycling, there are different aerodynamics — your center of gravity is not moving up and down.”

The difference between cycling and running is like the difference between moving forward on a pogo stick and rolling along on wheels. And that is why Robert Fitts, an exercise physiologist at Marquette University who was a competitive runner, once said good runners run so smoothly they can almost balance an apple on their heads.

Even Mr. Hampsten has been surprised by the cycling paradox. He recalls a woman from San Diego who went on one of his trips. “She was quite overweight,” he said, and even though she claimed to be an experienced cyclist, he worried that she would have trouble keeping up with the group. He was wrong.

“She rode so well,” Mr. Hampsten said. “Her cadence was very efficient. I was just amazed and delighted.”

As for the effects of aging, serious recreational cyclists do slow down, but they are not penalized as much as runners by the passing of years, Dr. Hagberg said. It’s because cycling, while grueling, is not as demanding as running.

“The best example of that, in a bizarre way, is the Tour de France,” Dr. Hagberg said. “What runner could go out six hours a day for three weeks and not be totally trashed after a day or two? That’s a microcosm of the aging issue.”

Still, even the best serious recreational cyclist is almost a different species from a professional rider. How much faster, our touring group asked Mr. Hampsten, would a professional rider go up that 15 percent grade during a race? About twice as fast as the fastest in our group, he replied.

And how about recovery after racing? Mr. Hampsten used to compete in 100 races a year, including the Tour de France, and he would recover by going for a long, relaxed ride. It sometimes took him three hours of cycling to warm up after a hard race. Then he’d continue for another two hours.

But recovery does become a limiting factor for professional cyclists, Mr. Hampsten said. It’s why most professional riders can no longer win long, multiday races after age 32.

“It’s almost eerie that at 32 years, you stop winning,” Mr. Hampsten said. “The endurance seems to stay, but recuperation doesn’t come around.”
When Mr. Hampsten retired, he was 34, “and I hadn’t won a race in two years.”

Now, he estimates, he is 80 percent as fit as he used to be.

But 80 percent for Andy Hampsten is still impressive. As soon as our cycling tour ended, he headed out on a fast ride that included a long hill to the town of Suvereto, taking a road with 187 switchback turns.

“It is my favorite road to ride,” he said.

LOADING YOUR BIKE

UNLOADING YOUR BIKE

Milwaukee may see 300 rental bikes
By TOM HELD of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, July 22, 2007

Operation Duck: Pedestrians get help crossing busy streets
Kristin Czubkowski — CAPITAL TIMES – MADISON, 7/25/2007

Andy Hampsten, the former pro cyclist, the only American ever to win the Tour of Italy, the first American ever to win the grueling Alpe d’Huez stage of the Tour de France, does his best to discourage casual riders from signing up for the cycling trips he leads in Tuscany.

“All of our trips are designed to satisfy experienced riders,” Mr. Hampsten writes on his Web site. To train, he suggests, “you should ride at least 100 miles a week for at least 6 to 10 weeks” on routes with “as many hills as you can find.”

So I had an image of what our fellow cyclists would look like when my husband, son and I arrived in Castagneto Carducci for a cycling vacation. They would look like Mr. Hampsten, who at age 45 remains boyishly thin and agile, bouncing with energy.
I was wrong. (more)

Milwaukee may see 300 rental bikes
By TOM HELD of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, July 22, 2007

Operation Duck: Pedestrians get help crossing busy streets
Kristin Czubkowski — CAPITAL TIMES – MADISON, 7/25/2007

Andy Hampsten, the former pro cyclist, the only American ever to win the Tour of Italy, the first American ever to win the grueling Alpe d’Huez stage of the Tour de France, does his best to discourage casual riders from signing up for the cycling trips he leads in Tuscany.

“All of our trips are designed to satisfy experienced riders,” Mr. Hampsten writes on his Web site. To train, he suggests, “you should ride at least 100 miles a week for at least 6 to 10 weeks” on routes with “as many hills as you can find.”

So I had an image of what our fellow cyclists would look like when my husband, son and I arrived in Castagneto Carducci for a cycling vacation. They would look like Mr. Hampsten, who at age 45 remains boyishly thin and agile, bouncing with energy.
I was wrong.

It turns out that others, too, have been struck by the paradox of bicycling fitness.

But, Dr. Berry added, “I quickly learned that when I was riding with someone with a 36-inch waist, I could be looking at the back of their waist when they rode away from me.”

James Hagberg, a kinesiology professor at the University of Maryland, explains that the difference between running on a flat road and cycling on a flat road has to do with the movement of the athlete’s center of gravity.

“She rode so well,” Mr. Hampsten said. “Her cadence was very efficient. I was just amazed and delighted.”

As for the effects of aging, serious recreational cyclists do slow down, but they are not penalized as much as runners by the passing of years, Dr. Hagberg said. It’s because cycling, while grueling, is not as demanding as running.

“The best example of that, in a bizarre way, is the Tour de France,” Dr. Hagberg said. “What runner could go out six hours a day for three weeks and not be totally trashed after a day or two? That’s a microcosm of the aging issue.”

Still, even the best serious recreational cyclist is almost a different species from a professional rider. How much faster, our touring group asked Mr. Hampsten, would a professional rider go up that 15 percent grade during a race? About twice as fast as the fastest in our group, he replied.

And how about recovery after racing? Mr. Hampsten used to compete in 100 races a year, including the Tour de France, and he would recover by going for a long, relaxed ride. It sometimes took him three hours of cycling to warm up after a hard race. Then he’d continue for another two hours.

But recovery does become a limiting factor for professional cyclists, Mr. Hampsten said. It’s why most professional riders can no longer win long, multiday races after age 32.

“It’s almost eerie that at 32 years, you stop winning,” Mr. Hampsten said. “The endurance seems to stay, but recuperation doesn’t come around.”
When Mr. Hampsten retired, he was 34, “and I hadn’t won a race in two years.”

Now, he estimates, he is 80 percent as fit as he used to be.

But 80 percent for Andy Hampsten is still impressive. As soon as our cycling tour ended, he headed out on a fast ride that included a long hill to the town of Suvereto, taking a road with 187 switchback turns.

“It is my favorite road to ride,” he said.

LOADING YOUR BIKE

UNLOADING YOUR BIKE

Milwaukee may see 300 rental bikes By TOM HELD of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, July 22, 2007

Operation Duck: Pedestrians get help crossing busy streets Kristin Czubkowski — CAPITAL TIMES – MADISON, 7/25/2007

Andy Hampsten, the former pro cyclist, the only American ever to win the Tour of Italy, the first American ever to win the grueling Alpe d’Huez stage of the Tour de France, does his best to discourage casual riders from signing up for the cycling trips he leads in Tuscany.

“All of our trips are designed to satisfy experienced riders,” Mr. Hampsten writes on his Web site. To train, he suggests, “you should ride at least 100 miles a week for at least 6 to 10 weeks” on routes with “as many hills as you can find.”

So I had an image of what our fellow cyclists would look like when my husband, son and I arrived in Castagneto Carducci for a cycling vacation. They would look like Mr. Hampsten, who at age 45 remains boyishly thin and agile, bouncing with energy. I was wrong. (more)

Milwaukee may see 300 rental bikes By TOM HELD of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, July 22, 2007

Operation Duck: Pedestrians get help crossing busy streets Kristin Czubkowski — CAPITAL TIMES – MADISON, 7/25/2007

Andy Hampsten, the former pro cyclist, the only American ever to win the Tour of Italy, the first American ever to win the grueling Alpe d’Huez stage of the Tour de France, does his best to discourage casual riders from signing up for the cycling trips he leads in Tuscany.

“All of our trips are designed to satisfy experienced riders,” Mr. Hampsten writes on his Web site. To train, he suggests, “you should ride at least 100 miles a week for at least 6 to 10 weeks” on routes with “as many hills as you can find.”

So I had an image of what our fellow cyclists would look like when my husband, son and I arrived in Castagneto Carducci for a cycling vacation. They would look like Mr. Hampsten, who at age 45 remains boyishly thin and agile, bouncing with energy. I was wrong.

It turns out that others, too, have been struck by the paradox of bicycling fitness.

But, Dr. Berry added, “I quickly learned that when I was riding with someone with a 36-inch waist, I could be looking at the back of their waist when they rode away from me.”

James Hagberg, a kinesiology professor at the University of Maryland, explains that the difference between running on a flat road and cycling on a flat road has to do with the movement of the athlete’s center of gravity.

“She rode so well,” Mr. Hampsten said. “Her cadence was very efficient. I was just amazed and delighted.”

As for the effects of aging, serious recreational cyclists do slow down, but they are not penalized as much as runners by the passing of years, Dr. Hagberg said. It’s because cycling, while grueling, is not as demanding as running.

“The best example of that, in a bizarre way, is the Tour de France,” Dr. Hagberg said. “What runner could go out six hours a day for three weeks and not be totally trashed after a day or two? That’s a microcosm of the aging issue.”

Still, even the best serious recreational cyclist is almost a different species from a professional rider. How much faster, our touring group asked Mr. Hampsten, would a professional rider go up that 15 percent grade during a race? About twice as fast as the fastest in our group, he replied.

And how about recovery after racing? Mr. Hampsten used to compete in 100 races a year, including the Tour de France, and he would recover by going for a long, relaxed ride. It sometimes took him three hours of cycling to warm up after a hard race. Then he’d continue for another two hours.

But recovery does become a limiting factor for professional cyclists, Mr. Hampsten said. It’s why most professional riders can no longer win long, multiday races after age 32.

“It’s almost eerie that at 32 years, you stop winning,” Mr. Hampsten said. “The endurance seems to stay, but recuperation doesn’t come around.” When Mr. Hampsten retired, he was 34, “and I hadn’t won a race in two years.”

Now, he estimates, he is 80 percent as fit as he used to be.

But 80 percent for Andy Hampsten is still impressive. As soon as our cycling tour ended, he headed out on a fast ride that included a long hill to the town of Suvereto, taking a road with 187 switchback turns.

“It is my favorite road to ride,” he said.

Milwaukee may see 300 rental bikes
By TOM HELD of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, July 22, 2007

Operation Duck: Pedestrians get help crossing busy streets
Kristin Czubkowski — CAPITAL TIMES – MADISON, 7/25/2007

So I had an image of what our fellow cyclists would look like when my husband, son and I arrived in Castagneto Carducci for a cycling vacation. They would look like Mr. Hampsten, who at age 45 remains boyishly thin and agile, bouncing with energy.
I was wrong. (more)

Milwaukee may see 300 rental bikes
By TOM HELD of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, July 22, 2007

Operation Duck: Pedestrians get help crossing busy streets
Kristin Czubkowski — CAPITAL TIMES – MADISON, 7/25/2007

So I had an image of what our fellow cyclists would look like when my husband, son and I arrived in Castagneto Carducci for a cycling vacation. They would look like Mr. Hampsten, who at age 45 remains boyishly thin and agile, bouncing with energy.
I was wrong.

“It’s almost eerie that at 32 years, you stop winning,” Mr. Hampsten said. “The endurance seems to stay, but recuperation doesn’t come around.”
When Mr. Hampsten retired, he was 34, “and I hadn’t won a race in two years.”