It has been a year since we finished.\u00a0 A year since we ran out of road.\u00a0 A year since we rode our bikes into the Atlantic.\u00a0 In this year there were speeches given, blogs written, YouTube videos posted, and support given by cyclists, drivers, celebrities and government officials.<\/p>\n
But as reported by the Fatality Analysis Reporting System :<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov<\/a><\/p>\n In 2008, 716 cyclists were killed on our roads 15 more avoidable deaths than in 2007 despite 104,000,000,000 fewer miles driven.<\/p>\n As drivers we are being more careless than ever regardless of age or experience. \u00a0Much more needs to be done.\u00a0 No one who rides a bike should become a victim. Please ride safe.\u00a0 Be smart.<\/p>\n Cycling versus Cars, a race:<\/p>\n Last May in New York City the bicycle took its eighth straight title<\/a> in\u00a0the annual fastest way to get to work race, beating a taxi-cab by 30 minutes.\u00a0 In Saul Paulo<\/a> Brazil, where commuters spend up to 3 hours a day sitting in traffic (that\u2019s 2 working days a week!) the bike even outdid a helicopter.\u00a0 The bicycle is fastest most efficient way to travel through a congested city.\u00a0 I would wager that a bicycle would outdo nearly all means of travel in most cities around the world.<\/p>\n Cycle commuting is not the, be all end all, but if we\u2019re looking to decongest an overtaxed system of roads it is proving itself an exciting solution.\u00a0 That said, I do love my car, it takes me to incredible places to ride my bike.\u00a0 Most recently to Prince Edward Island, which could be North America\u2019s bicycle Walden or Walden II since we\u2019re thinking so \u201cout of the box\u201d.\u00a0 For starters PEI has 350 kilometers of converted railway known as the Confederation Trail<\/a> set aside for cycling (any non motorized travel) connecting the east point to the north point of the island with a delicious soft brush stone path, ideal for peaceful passage.\u00a0 The island\u2019s paved and unpaved roadways were dotted with courteous drivers, whether I was walking, cycling or driving I never felt threatened.\u00a0 Since PEI is almost a thousand miles away from New York, Portland Maine, was a good spot to stop, rest and go for a ride.\u00a0 The traffic was very respectful, yielding and gracious, traffic I haven\u2019t experienced since the logging trucks on Route 20 out of Newport, Oregon.<\/p>\n Thus proving that drivers are capable of being courteous so why aren\u2019t we always this way?\u00a0 Although we are driving less, when we do get in the car let\u2019s remember to take a deep breath and yield to the other traffic, especially the non-motorized kind.<\/p>\n October 1, 2009<\/p>\n Pearson – New York<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It has been a year since we finished.\u00a0 A year since we ran out of road.\u00a0 A year since we rode our bikes into the Atlantic.\u00a0 In this year there were speeches given, blogs written, YouTube videos posted, and support given by cyclists, drivers, celebrities and government officials. But as reported by the Fatality Analysis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-long-bike-back"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.longbikeback.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.longbikeback.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.longbikeback.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.longbikeback.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.longbikeback.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.longbikeback.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270,"href":"https:\/\/blog.longbikeback.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions\/270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.longbikeback.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.longbikeback.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.longbikeback.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}