Please come out to CP Shuckers to Save Lives on Shore Drive on Thursday, June 3 from 6-10 to support those who have lost their lives and to save lives

You can check out more at the Facebook Event page:

Date: Thursday, June 3, 2010
Time: 6:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: CP Shuckers, Shore Drive

More events are planned to increase awareness to safely share Shore Drive.

Join us May 11th at 1pm at First Landing State Park for SDSI2010 Meeting

From Dave:

Shore Drive Safety Initiative 2010 meeting tomorrow, Tues 11 May at 1 PM to be held at First Landing State Park Visitor's Center. The Visitor's Center is located on the Chesapeake Bay side off of Shore Drive. Take your first left after entering park. The Conference room is located on the left side (south side) of the building past the office's main entrance. You should not be charged an entry fee if you mention that it is for a Shore Drive Community Coalition (SDCC) meeting. This meeting will serve as the initial framework for an action plan and time-line to improve the safety along more of Shore Drive for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. If all interested and concerned parties can combine their efforts towards achieving this goal, much can be accomplished.

I thank you ahead of time for your efforts on behalf of all our residents and visitors.

David Williams
Chairman SDSI 2010

From Pedsafe, Highway Design Handbook for Older Drivers & Pedestrians

See “Pedestrians most at risk”:

Moreover, some older pedestrians have diminished physical and visual abilities that make street crossings more challenging. In recent years, an emphasis has been placed on improving the design criteria used by engineers to ensure that the needs of all users are being met; the Highway Design Handbook for Older Drivers and Pedestrians is one resource.

Highway Design Handbook for Older Drivers and Pedestrians

The proportion of the population over age 65 is growing significantly. Older road users can be expected to have problems driving and as pedestrians, given the known changes in their perceptual, cognitive, and psychomotor performances, presenting many challenges to transportation engineers, who must ensure system safety while increasing operational efficiency.

This Highway Design Handbook for Older Drivers and Pedestrians provides practitioners with a practical information source that links older road user characteristics to highway design, operational, and traffic engineering recommendations by addressing specific roadway features. This Handbook supplements existing standards and guidelines in the areas of highway geometry, operations, and traffic control devices.

Military ID required to enter Fort Story even while cycling

Saw several emails with people being turned away without having Military ID.

"Ride of Silence" DATE: May 19, 2010 TIME: 7:00 pm WHERE: Hundreds of locations world wide

Please remember this as you drive, walk or ride - share the road safely.

Join cyclists worldwide in a silent slow-paced ride (max. 12 mph/20 kph) in honor of those who have been injured or killed while cycling on public roadways.
WHY DOES THIS ORGANIZATION EXIST?

* To HONOR those who have been injured or killed
* To RAISE AWARENESS that we are here
* To ask that we all SHARE THE ROAD

THE RIDE OF SILENCE WILL NOT BE QUIET

On May 19, 2010, at 7:00 PM, the Ride of Silence will begin in North America and roll across the globe. Cyclists will take to the roads in a silent procession to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured while cycling on public roadways. Although cyclists have a legal right to share the road with motorists, the motoring public often isn't aware of these rights, and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves.

In 2003, Chris Phelan organized the first Ride of Silence in Dallas after endurance cyclist Larry Schwartz was hit by the mirror of a passing bus and was killed.
The Ride of Silence is a free ride that asks its cyclists to ride no faster than 12 mph and remain silent during the ride. There are no sponsors and no registration fees. The ride, which is held during National Bike Month, aims to raise the awareness of motorists, police and city officials that cyclists have a legal right to the public roadways. The ride is also a chance to show respect for those who have been killed or injured.
If there is a Ride of Silence in your area, we encourage you to join them. If there is not a ride planned in your area, please consider adding your city to the ever-growing list of sites. For complete information, go to:

Click to go to "Ride of Silence" website

A 6 minute segment on abc affiliate WVEC-13 “Dialogue” program showcases our local May is Bike Month activities and bicycling

The program will air on Sunday, May 9th at 12 noon.

Many thanks to Sharon Oakley with Bike Beat for arranging this great opportunity!

Ride safely,

Bruce

p.s. find all of the Hampton Roads May is Bike Month activities on http://www.facebook.com/VAmayisbikemonth

~Bruce

WVEC covers "Increase Pedestrian Safety on Shore Drive" FB Group

From WVEC.com.
Hat tip from Cheri's post in the "Increase Pedestrian Safety on Shore Drive" FB Group.

"A pedestrian hit at 64.4 km/h (40 mi/h) has an 85 percent chance of being killed; at 48.3 km/h (30 mi/h), the likelihood goes down to 45 percent..."

Some data on pedestrian deaths in urban areas from PedSafe, A Federal Highway Administration program:

Pedestrian crashes occur most frequently in urban areas where pedestrian activity and traffic volumes are greater compared to rural areas...

In recent years, an emphasis has been placed on improving the design criteria used by engineers to ensure that the needs of all users are being met; the Highway Design Handbook for Older Drivers and Pedestrians is one resource...

Speeding is a major contributing factor in crashes of all types. In 2003, speeding was a contributing factor in 31 percent of all fatal crashes. one resource

From the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:

Speed influences the risk of crashes and crash injuries in three basic ways:

* It increases the distance a vehicle travels from the time a driver detects an emergency to the time the driver reacts.
* It increases the distance needed to stop a vehicle once an emergency is perceived.
* It increases the crash energy by the square of the speeds. When impact speed increases from 40 to 60 mph (a 50 percent increase), the energy that needs to be managed increases by 125 percent.

From Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles' Drivers Manual:

According to the Virginia Driver's Manual, cars on dry level pavement stopping distances are from 35mph - 135 ft, from 45mph - 195 ft and from 55mph - 265 ft.

Consider this, virtually all things being equal, driving 35mph from Northampton Blvd to First Landing State Park would take an additional 2.7 minutes.

OPCL has a Facebook Topic entitled "Speed Limit on Shore Drive"

Add to the discussion in Facebook.

Ocean Park Civic League, OPCL, website.

Review of 6 apps that stop cell phone use while driving

From NYTimes David Pogue review:

About half of all teenagers admit to texting while driving, for example, no matter how many statistics and horror stories we pass along to them.

So tech has created solutions:

There’s a new category of cellphone apps made just for this purpose: text blockers like iZup, tXtBlocker, CellSafety and ZoomSafer. When your car is in motion, they lock up your phone so you can’t text, call, e-mail or surf the Web.