Rumbling

With funds from the American Reinvestment and  Recovery Act and Tiger Grants, rumble strips may be coming to a road near you. The League of American Bicyclists is working with Adventure Cycling and the Alliance for Bicycling and Walking to make sure states follow FHWA guidance to minimize the impact of rumbling strips on cyclists. Adventure Cycling’s Jim Sayer wrote an excellent account of the groups’ meeting with two officials Federal Highways. (It includes this listing of rumble strip practices by state.) Here’s an excerpt from the post:

We emphasized that we were not opposed to rumble strips when properly applied but that the evidence was demonstrating that states and counties were forgetting about the importance of cyclists’ safe use of secondary roads — and the clearguidance provided by many states and the FHWA on how to apply rumbles in a way that respects the needs of all users. The indiscriminate use of rumbles also contradicts the recent directive of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that bicycling and walking should be considered as “equal modes” of transportation to motorized vehicles.

Joe and David were cordial, had clearly done their research, and had given a lot of thought to the subject. They promised to follow up with Administrator Mendez and with us, and thought they could provide some form of information to agencies about the proper use and application of rumbles. They also let us know that they are doing an in-depth update of their technical guidance on rumbles, due out later this summer, and asked for our input.

Read the whole post.

Adventure Cycling’s Ginny Sullivan was kind enough to pass on a very good example of the impact rumble strips can have on bicycling routes. A bicyclist was stuck by a truck in Bryan County, GA. A commenter wrote: “I actually saw the accident occur. The bicyclist was at fault. The cyclist was trying to avoid the divots/ripples on the shoulder/bike lane of the road and in doing so continuously went ONTO THE ROADWAY. This cause the driver of the truck to hit the cyclist.” The quote and this photograph, I believe, speak for themselves.

Photo from Savannahnow.com