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<a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/men/article5726827.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=796841">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/men/article5726827.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=796841</a><br>
<div class="float-left position-relative margin-top-minus-22"><span class="small">
>From </span><span class="byline">The Sunday Times</span></div>
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February 15, 2009</div>
<h1 class="heading">Don’t stop me now, it’ll waste energy</h1>
<h2 class="sub-heading padding-top-5 padding-bottom-15">Cycle Guy</h2>
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<div id="main-article"><div class="article-author"><!-- Print Author name from By Line associated with the article --><span class="small"></span><span class="byline">
Richard Caseby
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Why is it a universal truth that cyclists hate losing momentum? If we were
walking, we’d be happy to stop and then start strolling again. But put us on
a bike and we’re crazy mustangs.
</p><p>
I guess it’s because we know instinctively that it’s harder work picking up
speed again on a bike than when walking. But exactly how much harder is it?
The answer from Chris Juden, technical officer of the Cyclists’ Touring
Club, is a revelation.
</p><p>
Well, riding a bike at a steady pace takes as much energy as walking at a
quarter of that speed. So cycling at 12mph is the same as walking at 3mph.
Which explains why most people are as happy to cycle four miles to work as
they are to walk one. Cycling at this speed on an uninterrupted four-mile
journey, lasting 20 minutes, would result in a total energy expenditure of
90 kilojoules.
</p><p>
Every time a cyclist or pedestrian stops, they lose kinetic energy and have to
work harder on starting off to accelerate and restore that kinetic energy.
Now — and this is the maths bit — kinetic energy is proportional to mass
multiplied by speed squared. This means to reach a steady cycling speed four
times that of walking, requires a 16-fold increase in energy (plus about 25%
more for the added mass of the bike).
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So here it is: the cyclist has to expend about 20 times as much energy as a
pedestrian to reach his normal journey speed again. This energy could have carried
the cyclist a great deal further had no stop been made. In fact one
stop-start is the equivalent to cycling an extra 100 metres while a
pedestrian can stop-start and expend no more energy than it takes to walk a
couple of steps.
</p><p>
And if you’ve ever wondered why children riding bikes have a natural
disregard for road markings, this might be part of the answer. They also
know that bikes are harder to control at low speed and so will keep going at
all costs.
</p><p>
“This is not a peculiar cussedness of cyclists,” says Juden. “Let anyone ride
a bike and they immediately discover that stopping is a grievous waste of
hard-earned momentum.”
</p><p>
For more information on the Cyclists’ Touring Club, go to <a href="http://www.ctc.org.uk/" target="_blank">www.ctc.org.uk</a> </p></div></div>
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http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/latest/437874<br>
<h1 class="stry_pg_hdln">City panel backs protection from opening of car doors</h1>
<p class="author">
<span class="authr_eml">
<a href="mailto:kristinc@madison.com">Kristin Czubkowski</a>
</span>
—
<span class="stry_tm"><!--Tue., Mar 20, 2007 - 11:17 AM-->2/11/2009 7:15 am</span>
</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">A proposed ordinance that would protect not
only bikers, but also pedestrians and drivers, from carelessly
opened car doors received an endorsement from the city's safety
board Tuesday night.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">The Public Safety Review Board voted
unanimously to recommend the ordinance for approval by the City
Council. It will be taken up by one more committee -- the city's
Pedestrian-Bicycle-Motor Vehicle Commission -- before it goes to
the council for final approval.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">Ald. Robbie Webber, a sponsor of the
ordinance, stressed that the ordinance protects any users of the
road from being hit by a car door. The ordinance calls for a $100
ticket for a motorist opening a vehicle's door unsafely or
interfering with traffic and a $50 ticket for leaving a car door
open longer than necessary.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">"It's really just a question of common
sense," she said. "People thought it was on the books already."</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">There is currently an effort at the state
level to pass a similar law, which would likely supersede a local
ordinance, but Webber said she was encouraged by state Rep. Sondy
Pope-Roberts, D-Middleton, to pass a local ordinance in the
meantime. Many other states have similar laws on the books, with
Ald. Eli Judge calling the car door lesson a "staple" of Illinois
driver's education.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">Capt. Richard Bach said Tuesday the Madison
Police Department is "supportive of any measures" to keep streets
safer, but the proactive enforcement of the ordinance will likely
be difficult, and the ordinance will more likely be used as a tool
in crash investigations.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">Committee member Michael Scott said even that
use would make the ordinance "more than symbolic" by shifting how
insurance companies see these kinds of crashes and how fault is
determined.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">Members of the biking community who attended
the meeting stressed the need for public education beyond citations
in getting the word out to motorists to begin exercising more
caution with car doors.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">"If you get doored, it's not going to help
you to have the law on the books," said Madison resident John
Jacobs.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">There have been incidents of crashes between
car doors and bicyclists resulting in fatalities, particularly when
bicyclists are pushed into traffic by the impact.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">The ordinance was written after an incident
last summer when a bicyclist who was hit by a car door opening and
suffered fractured vertebrae was ticketed for biking too close to a
parked car. State law currently requires that bicyclists remain at
least three feet away from parked cars, but Webber said the state
law is hard to adhere to due to insufficient bike lanes and narrow
roads that bring bicyclists too close to cars.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">"A lot of bicyclists have been bullied into
riding as close to cars as they can, and that's even more true in
big cities," she added.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">The state law will likely be repealed in the
Legislature this year because it does not pertain to any other
users of the road, she added.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">Also at Tuesday's meeting, the board decided
to wait an additional month on another ordinance sponsored by
Webber. The ordinance would eliminate alternate side parking in
Madison except during snow emergencies. Madison residents who park
on the street are currently required to move their vehicles every
day between Nov. 15 and March 15, with odd or even dates matching
the side of the street with odd or even addresses.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">Webber said she introduced the ordinance
after the city increased parking fines between 200 and 300 percent
during snow emergencies, from $20 or $30 up to $60 per violation.
Removing alternate side parking during non-snow emergencies would
allow residents to maintain the current 48-hour rule and give them
a break from potential parking fines when the weather is clear.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">"People have frequently said to me, 'Why am I
moving my car when it hasn't snowed in three weeks and it has been
drizzling?'" she said. "This is wasteful environmentally, it's
wasteful of gas, and it's just plain silly."</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">Streets department staff, who were unable to
attend Tuesday's meeting, have cited the importance of training
people to use alternate side parking rules as one reason to keep
the ordinance as well as the source of revenue the tickets provide
the city. The city currently makes about $400,000 per year on
alternate side parking fines during non-snow emergencies.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">Bach said police were concerned about
eliminating the ordinance for its impact on public safety and the
current city routine for checking winter parking. He pointed out
that snow emergencies only come into effect with more than three
inches of snow, and eliminating alternate side parking could result
in a buildup of snow that the Streets Division would not be able to
plow effectively.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">"Our concern is that if we don't have the
alternate side parking where (the Streets Division) can routinely
plow the streets, the streets will begin to narrow," he said. "The
issue there is to the keep the streets clear enough to get fire
trucks and emergency vehicles" through them.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">The city also currently hires 11 hourly
employees each winter to administer the alternate side parking
fines, and those employees also help during snow emergencies by
doing preparation work for towing cars.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">Without the ordinance, those employees would
likely not be hired, and the Parking Utility would need to pay its
full-time workers significant overtime to do the work. Even with
overtime, lower staffing may require snow emergencies extended past
the day or two they currently operate and may take away from
regular parking enforcement during snow emergencies, parking
officer Stephanie Niesen said.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">Webber said that keeping the ordinance for
the revenue it provides would be poor public policy and that more
public education and increasing snow emergency parking fines even
further would provide better compliance than "training" people to
use the rules for four months each year.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">"When you need to plow, fine people as much
as you need," she said.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">Board members delayed the vote one month to
ensure that the Streets Division had a representative there and
requested more information from both sides of the debate regarding
what other major cities that see regular snow do to ensure cleared
streets.</p>
<p class="stry_pg_cp">"I just don't feel like we have quite enough
information, and I'd hate to turn this into a simple thumbs up or
thumbs down on what's going to be a very important issue," board
member Michael Scott said.</p><br>
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