Bike-commute day 93—to work

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Ugh! My lungs still clog at the thought of the diesel emissions from the school buses I have to follow each morning. Do school buses get a pass on emissions, or do the school districts just evade action by the EPA and OEPA?

Way back in 2006, the Dayton Business Journal reported on several school districts that benefited from an OEPA program to retrofit 238 school buses to lower-pollution engines. None of the $120,000 was awarded to the Dayton school district. Since then, Dayton was awarded retrofit money several times. Perhaps the buses that serve my neighborhood were overlooked. Or worse: those buses were retrofitted, the exhaust has been reduced up to 80%, and the amount is still offensive to a cyclist waiting behind a bus while kids are boarding.

The transportation department of the Dayton School District offers this information:

The Transportation department is located at 4290 James H. McGee Blvd., Dayton, OH 45427. The Transportation Department provides the community a safe, professional and efficient means to transport eligible students in the Dayton area. We provide transportation for over 15,000 students to and from school, athletic events and field trips. Transportation is also provided for special events as assigned by the district superintendent.
Our school bus fleet travels over 8,000 miles per day and over 1.5 million miles a school year! The transportation department employs over 300 employees, including more than 250 qualified school bus drivers and substitutes. Additionally, there are highly qualified mechanics that maintain our fleet, body shop/metal workers to repair damaged school buses and trained paraprofessionals that ride and assist our special needs students.
The Dayton Public Schools transportation department has received the highest marks for safety and reliability from the annual Ohio State Highway Patrol inspection team. We strive to provide safe and reliable transportation for our students by managing effectively time, resources and personnel.

The school district now advocates a neighborhood school program, in which students are enrolled in a school near where they live. With 22 elementary schools, 6 high schools, 2 special centers, and 2 community schools spread throughout the city, all are an easy bike ride away. So why drive the 8,000 miles each day?

In 2009, the city received a grant of $583,000 to develop a "Safe Routes to Schools" program. The award went to five projects that focused work for Cleveland Elementary, Edison Elementary, Fairview Elementary, Kiser Elementary, and Ruskin Elementary. In support of the program the regional transportation planning agency, MVRPC, developed a well-reasoned plan for implementing similar programs for the entire city—and by example, for the entire Miami Valley. The federal money didn't arrive in Dayton until 2010, as reported by the Dayton Daily News.

I hope that the city and MVRPC continue to write grant proposals and fill applications for broadening the accessibility of schools, shopping, recreation, and places of employment for cyclists and walkers. Let's give those diesel school buses their final destination: the junkyard.


Ever the counting habit affects me. This morning, I counted 17 areas along the bike-commute where walnut alerts are necessary. While counting, I said good morning to some of the regulars: Gary and Amy on their tandem, Gladys, and Gene and his dog Patches. I also saw the group of regulars heading north from their start at the Gazebo. Usually they ride on Wednesdays, and often Bob Pinnell leads the ride. There must have been collusion among the five riders to change the day.

Ride conditions
Temperature: 51 to 57°F at 07:45
Precipitation: none
Winds: calm to 5 mph from the south and east
Clothing: Skinsuit, longsleeve undershirt, ankle socks, open-finger gloves
Bike: Lotus Legend fixed gear
Time: 00:41:14 for 11.93 miles
Heart rate: 138 bpm HRave, 153 bpm HRmax
Bikeway users: 7 cyclists, 4 pedestrians, 1 dog
Playback of the ride

Bike-commute day 29—to gym and home

Hawthorn Hill to Runnymeade

Last Thursday evening, as a prelude to the Miami Valley Cycling Summit, I saw a screening of the documentary Veer at the Neon Movies.The movie takes us through cycling activities in three seasons in Portland, Oregon. Not only events like the ZooBomb [video parts 1, 2, 3] and performance groups like the Sprockettes, but also advocacy for safer cycling laws, managing a reclaimed bicycle exchange, and cycling education programs for kids in the 3rd through 6th grades.

Stoney Hollow

The Dayton area could use similar programs, which can raise awareness of cycling as a means of socializing, of entertainment, and of enhanced safety and access to alternative transportation.

In fact, we already have the beginnings of a reclaimed bicycle exchange at the Life Enrichment Center. This organization refurbishes bikes, paints them bright yellow, and places them for free use in the downtown area. As each yellow bike becomes disabled, a sticker on the bike has contact information for performing any needed repairs.

Walnut Hill to Wyoming

The Complete Streets Initiative is also being developed to reach the public schools with cycling information, as part of the Safe Routes to School program. As of 2009, the Dayton has used 20% of a $583,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation to focus on five schools (Cleveland, Edison, Kiser, Ruskin, and Fairview). The funds built infrastructure for improved safety around the schools: lighting, high-visibility crosswalk striping and signage, bicycle racks, and sidewalk and curb repair. Some of the funds provide safety education and police overtime costs during back-to-school and high-traffic periods.

So, two of the directions have answers or plans in the works. I've been scouring Google Maps in the last few evenings, looking for the areas in the city that have a high point near a low point. The three map segments here are the first results. The red dot indicates the "mountain" and the blue dot the "depression." Over many years of cycling in the Dayton area, I've ridden the Stoney Hollow and Walnut Hill paths.

• The Stoney Hollow route drops 188 feet over 2.1 miles. I remember it as a shaded, cool area that has extremely limited auto use.
• The Walnut Hill route drops 177 feet over 1.0 miles. It would require road closure and police presence to allow any group ride.
• The Hawthorn Hill route drops 136 feet over 0.64 miles. It would also require police presence and street closures.

A performance group similar to the Sprockettes is a long way off. I've imagined that the Dayton version could be a mixed group of men and women, perhaps in gender-fuck costume on minibikes. But the biggest drawback is finding cyclists with a let's-have-fun-with-it mindset and bikes ready for rough use. Perhaps a choreographer would help the group with imaginative incorporation of the bikes with the dance moves. This direction seems pretty far removed from my abilities and interests. —Sorry to bow out at the very beginning.

Ride conditions
Temperature: 76 to 79°F at 17:20
Precipitation: none
Winds: 5 mph from the southwest
Clothing: Skinsuit; ankle socks. Open-finger gloves.
Bike: Trek 850
Time: 01:02:56 for 15.51 miles
Heart rate: 125 bpm average, 140 bpm maximum
Bikeway users: 16 cyclists, 16 pedestrians, 4 dogs
Here is a playback of the ride. 13th Garmin day.