TheWashCycle

Tour de Links - Sprung

Capitol Hill - My hometown congressman, the always crazy Ted Poe, wants to make the Census Bureau's American Community Survey questions optional, (which undermines the effort somewhat). One of the questions is about how one commutes to work. Also, an argument for why a Republican congress is good for bike advocates (I'm not convinced).

Philadelphia - tweed+folding bike race “Nowhere else will you see a race with people running and unfolding bicycles while wearing a tuxedo jacket and bowtie with shiny disco pants.”

New York - Bike lane opponents n Brooklyn complain that the lanes were added without sufficient community outreach, but "he PPW bike lane was installed after 3 years of open meetings with the local community board. The lane wasn't installed until after CB6 voted to request it be installed by DOT."

Wheeling, WV IL  - "I've had it with these mother f----ing snakes near this mother f---ing bike path!"

Miami - More on Miami's very sexy bike sharing program and its sexy apparal.

San Antonio - The Alamo City becomes the first one in Texas with bikesharing starting March 26th. Also, several cyclists were injured when riding on a San Antonia area trail after "they fell from their bikes when the front tire of the bike fell into a long groove that was left open and unprotected by a county road repair employee while creating an expansion joint on the bridge over the dam."  A judge removed the city from the list of defendants.

Denver - Denver Mayoral candidate James Mejia wants to double the number of B-cycle stations in that town and add helmet rental opportunities.

Long Beach - a prominent CA bike advocate was among those killed in a small plane crash. And a 103-year old cyclist has had to switch to a tricycle. Still, Long Beach wants to make him a poster boy for healthy, active living.

United States - Biking is good for the economy part II, Freeways are expensive.

Portugal - Touring Portugal by bike

Switzerland - Now Cancellera is being accused of using really good ball-bearings (it's all ball-bearings these days). Is that even illegal?

Taiwan - Taiwan wants the world bicycle market to be tariff free.

 

Bleg: NYC bike ride

I'm going to NYC this weekend and have time for a couple hours of biking. We'll be staying in midtown. Anyone have any routes they'd recommend. Trails to check out. Bridges to ride over. Is Roosevelt Island worth going to? etc...

Sunday Night Ride

Busy weekend

• Worst cycling advocate ever? "A 38-year-old Live Oak man on a bicycle threatened a 3-year-old then ran over him in San Lorenzo Park on Wednesday, Santa Cruz police said."
• Weird fatality. Motorcyclist hits cyclist from behind. Motorcyclist dies. 
• Michigan's house passes a law requiring driver's education to include bike laws.
• L.A. works on laws to making harassing a cyclist illegal. This article got a lot of comments.
• An interview with the California policy manager for the Safe Routes to School National Partnership
• A battle for control of Seattle's bike advocacy organization
• How do you visit L.A. for $100 a day? Rent a bike. [DC's Tourism office ought to approach travel writers about visiting DC and using CaBi to get around. I saw six on my (now, unfortunately) weekly ride to the property I manage. One was at the Marine Corps Memorial, which is a fair distance from any station.]
• "20% of bicycle commuters experienced a traumatic event [one that led to an injury] and 5% required medical attention during 1 year of commuting." If road rash or bruised shoulder counts as a traumatic event, that sounds reasonable. I've had two small crashes where I suffered superficial wounds since I started bike commuting.
• Just barely a bike story. A kid who attached an American flag to his bike was told by school officials to take it off. The real mistake - which did not get picked up by the national media - was last May when hispanic students got in trouble for bringing Mexican flags to school on Cinco de Mayo. The school was trying to be consistent. But there is little virtue in being consistently wrong.

Biking to Work in Jakarta

I've been to Jakarta, and I can't imagine riding a bike on the streets there. It was scary enough riding in a taxi or one of the Bejaj that roam the streets. But since the air pollution and congestion are so bad there (and it really is awful) the city is trying to help the bike culture grow. One thing they're doing is banning cars in downtown on every other Sunday.

On those days, Sudirman Street and its circular fountain are lined with bike-repair tents, pop singers and food vendors. Bike-club members in colorful jerseys roam the streets or show off the custom jobs popular among the young and hip - the single-speed "fixies," with color-coordinated wheels and chains, or the chopper-style lowriders.

This is a total reversal, since in 1994 Jakarta banned pedicabs (becak) in downtown, blaming them for causing traffic jams and claiming the work of driving one was demeaning. The tranistion away from bicycles (or ojek sepeda) is not going well.

Jakarta is not the only city in the region with traffic woes. The decline of the bike is a long-standing fact in Asia's hubs, whose residents abandon that healthy, pollution-free habit for the speed and status of a car or motorcycle as incomes rise.

As with any technological change, the shift brings unintended consequences - probable billions in lost productivity, hours a day stolen from leisure time and mounting anger. A heavy rainstorm here last month led to a traffic jam apparently epic even by Jakarta standards. Public interest groups are threatening to sue the government

So it's good to see that there is an official push in the other direction.

In that context, the efforts of Bike to Work Indonesia are certainly uphill. The group counts a few thousand members, but director Tense Manalu estimates that no more than a few hundred brave the capital's streets for their daily commute. She is one of them but acknowledges it can be harrowing.

"Stay to the left, and watch out," she advises about navigating the city's right-hand drive traffic on a bicycle.

Photo by TeeJe

Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail

I'm in the Florida Keys (at Long Key State Park, which I highly recommend. I can reach my hand out of my tent and touch the Atlantic, or the Caribbean or whatever it is. The people in the campsite next to me are driving the Live Ligthly Tour RV) and coming down I could see construction going on on the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail. Where it is in place, it's pretty cool.

Some day, it will be a rideable trail from Homestead to Key West, but as RTC points out.

Bear in mind that this multimillion-dollar project is a complex, long-term undertaking and remains far from complete. Trail sections often begin or end at roadways or bridges with inadequate shoulders, causing potentially dangerous traffic encounters.

I watched the sun set over the Gulf from the 2.2 mile-long Long Key Bridge (pictured, I have my camera, but forgot the cord to download photos). There was no green flash. Maybe tomorrow.

Boxing a Bike

My first piece of advice is not to do it 3 hours before you need to leave for your flight, especially if it's a Sunday and an Easter Sunday at that. [What do you mean Capitol Hill Bikes doesn't open until noon? What do you mean Frager's is closed? Frager's should not be able to be closed. That's like the firestation being closed]. I almost didn't get the handlebars off.

I followed City Bikes instructions which were pretty good.

But from there SWA was pretty easy, even if they did charge me $50 for the oversized box, and it was the last piece of luggage of the plane. Skycap's are the way to go. The Yaris, btw, can carry you AND either another person or a bike in a box, but not both.

So far so good.

Update: Bicycling magazine has some info on traveling with a bike, including best and worst airlines.

Bike Items That Have Little to Nothing to do With DC (10/25/09)

A couple of articles in the NY Times Complaint Box were about bike lanes. Robert Sawyer finds them as an affront to the real New York.

The bike lane — like the streets the mayor and his friends have turned into faux piazzas and yes, even the celebrated High Line — is an insult to those of us whose notion of New York City still includes dark corners and hard surfaces.

And Leah Daskalakis Casner wants non-cyclists to stay out of the West Street bike path (pictured), which I believe has a parallel pedestrian path. Via GGW.

These aren't even really bike articles. Bike champion Rep. Earl Blumenauer was profiled by the NY Times (including a long video interview) as a member of the frustrated left. And he started the Livable Communities Task Force "to improve community livability and Americans’ quality of life."

GGW (via DC Downshift) has more links to stories about the Google Trike. 

Google will drive a Street View trike around no-car areas like parks, university campuses, and even zoos to capture images from those areas. Nominate your favorite locations and Google will run a public poll to pick some.

The NY Times also has a story about business travelers who bike while on assignment (I spent much of a recent summer in Phoenix and kept a bike I bought out there in the hotel). This article actually has something to do with the DC area.

But Eric V. Swanson, program manager for the World Bank, said he had trouble in Europe because the machines at the kiosks could not read his American credit card. “I became frustrated on several occasions,” he said. He was in Paris during the transit strike two years ago and “there were bikes in stands all over the city, and I couldn’t do it.” He ended up walking the three miles to his meeting and back.

A bar in Oak Cliff has an innovative bike parking system.

Streetsfilm on NYC bike lanes.

Next entry here

East Coast Greenway News Sept 2009

• The City of Boston has a great weekend planned for biking in Beantown! September 26-27 will feature the largest weekend cycling event on the east coast. The "Boston Cycling Celebration" will have pro and amateur racing (including top teams like Colavita and Team Type 1, and legendary racer Tina Pic's last pro race) and a post-race concert on Saturday, followed by the "Hub on Wheels" citywide ride and festival on Sunday. Click here for more information.
  • It's your chance to ride along the Charles River with no cars getting in your way, explore the greenways and the shoreline, the neighborhoods and the communities we call home. Last year Mayor Thomas M. Menino joined 4,000 cyclists on a picture perfect Sunday for this ride. With new, improved, and fully-supported 10, 30, or 50 mile routes available, anyone can participate!
• The second East Coast Greenway kiosk in Maryland was installed just south of Monkton on the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail on July 25th.
• A new segment of ECG Historical Coastal Route has been constructed by the Virginia Department of Transportation.  This paved multi-use off-road trail parallels State Route 5 and is part of an ongoing effort to link over 50 miles of trail between Richmond VA and Jamestown Settlement.  The newly completed segment runs seven miles east of Charles City and passes historic plantations and other historic and natural attractions.

12 hour day, chasing a hard deadline post.

Copenhagen's "best city for bicycling" goal

Phoenix cyclists take advantage of bike center

Spainiards View Riding a Bike, Like Riding a Donkey

This is from an NPR story about Spain's ability to produce world class cyclists but not world class cycling cities.

According to the European Union, the average Spaniard bikes just 12 miles a year compared to between 500 and 600 miles for the average Dutchman or Dane. Even the car-loving Germans can manage almost 200 miles a year.

But paradoxically, Spain has the perfect climate for biking. It's a favorite training ground for the world's competitive cyclists, including Lance Armstrong who lived here for several years. You'd be hard pressed to find another country where the people who cycle as a sport are so obsessive about it. Every weekend, the roads outside Madrid are crowded with cyclists clad in their flashy skin-tight suits.

Pressed on why there's very little casual cycling in Spain, 51-year-old Francisco Iyune says you have to be crazy to get on a bike in most Spanish cities.

Look at our culture, he says as he points to the cars and motorcycles racing by. Everyone's in a rush. We cyclists are just in the way.

This is a country that jumped from poverty into headlong economic development in the late '80s and '90s. Spain's newly built infrastructure, combined with a passion for sport, is finally paying off in international medals. But many Spaniards look down on using a bicycle for transport the same way they would see riding a donkey.

It sound's similar to some other Tour de France-champion-producing country I know.

Photo by Dr. Jaus