One Street News

September 2013

Vol. 6, Issue 6

  1. Bike Shift Lever Live on Kickstarter!
  2. Resources – NACTO Streets Guide
  3. Hot Topics – Ending Share the Road

Bike Shift Lever Live on Kickstarter!

Our Bike Shift Lever is finally live on Kickstarter.com! That means the countdown for raising funds has begun. Time runs out on Halloween, October 31st, to raise the funds we need to start production. Kickstarter operates on an all-or-nothing basis, so unless we reach our funding goal, we won’t receive a penny. Please go to our Bike Shift Lever page on Kickstarter.com (if the link doesn’t work, just go to Kickstarter.com and search “Bike Shift Lever”) and pledge today.

In case you’ve missed the earlier news stories, this shifter is designed with just six common parts so that anybody can repair it or even make it themselves. It also works on both the left and right sides and is compatible with all gear ranges. We designed it in response to countless complaints from organizations around the world who can no longer find durable, affordable shift levers to repair bikes. Learn all about it on our Kickstarter page.

Resources – NACTO Streets Guide

The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) has been making ripples in the transportation sector, especially regarding innovative designs for bicyclists and pedestrians; innovative, anyway, for the United States. Most recently their new Urban Street Design Guide incorporates their recommended bike/ped designs into whole street corridor designs. It’s definitely worth a look, considering that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has given it the thumbs up. Not bad for the U.S.

Hot Topics – Ending Share the Road

Over the past ten years or so, the concept of sharing the road gained surprising support throughout North America as a tactic for bicycle advocacy. Whole programs and even whole organizations were named “Share the Road.” Stickers, T-shirts and tattoos proclaiming the slogan appeared throughout the continent. Departments of transportation readily agreed to erect official signs that told road users to share the road.

The level of enthusiasm for such a vague command as share seemed a bit overzealous, but perhaps the ideal we all learned in our first years of school was more enticing than the way it has played out. Reports from some communities after erecting such signs and launching Share the Road campaigns have been less than ideal. Some claim that drivers use the slogan to further harass cyclists. Others note that few drivers and even cyclists understand what the slogan is asking them to do.

One bicycle advocacy organization, Bike Delaware, is pulling the plug on their state’s campaign, asking their department of transportation to remove all such signs and propaganda. Read about their findings and recommendations in their letter to their Chief Traffic Engineer calling to End “Share the Road.”