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Earthquakes: one more reason to ride your bike
If yesterday’s East Coast earthquake and the subsequent scramble to get home taught us anything, it may be that there is no better vehicle in emergency situations than the bicycle. As traffic in downtown DC was bumper to bumper at 3:00 in the afternoon, bicyclists navigated fairly smoothly through the jammed streets, smiling and waving to each other.
Capital Bikeshare in high demand after East Coast Earthquake, photo by Camera Slayer, Flickr
League Communications Director Meghan Cahill helped several people rent Capital Bikeshare bikes yesterday afternoon. Later, “two Australian tourists came up to me at a traffic light and said ‘Where’d you get that bike, we have to get out of here,’” Cahill said, “I explained where to find a station and what to do. They ran off saying ‘Cheers, mate!’”
Meanwhile, we keep hearing stories about the grueling experiences so many people had getting home.
In all seriousness, walking and biking are often the best modes in unusual situations, including terror attacks, transit strikes, extreme weather, and yes earthquakes. The ability of large numbers of people to evacuate quickly is one of many reasons that non-motorized accommodations are so important on bridges.
In DC, buildings were evacuated after the earthquake. Here is the view of First Street Northwest. Photo by Douglas Graham for Roll Call.
Darren Flusche
League Policy Director
Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.
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August 25th, 2011 at 4:15 am
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August 25th, 2011 at 5:47 am
[...] Earthquakes: one more reason to ride your bike [...]
August 25th, 2011 at 9:21 am
[...] Bikeleague.org Blog » Blog Archive » Earthquakes: one more reason to ride your bike. Eco World Content From Across The Internet. Featured on EcoPressed Study Says Sea Lice [...]
August 25th, 2011 at 3:52 pm
[...] your “Go Bag” should be in the back of your bicycle instead of the trunk of your car. Earthquakes: one more reason to ride your bike As has been demonstrated many times before when disaster strikes most forms of transportation [...]
August 28th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
My experience on my mountain bike in Joplin, MO just moments after the F5 tornado came roaring through can attest to the importance of bicycles in catastrophic events.
September 26th, 2011 at 4:11 am
THere are so many reasons for riding bikes. They are helpful to us in many ways and in many situations.