Pirate On Two Wheels

Danny Macaskill - Industrial Revolutions

2011-08-16T21:30:00.000-06:00

After seeing this video on several bike blogs today, I finally gave in and watched it.

Treat yourself to this.

Cheers!

2011-07-14T06:52:00.000-06:00

Seen on my bike:

In the road, one upright and empty champaign bottle, next to two empty plastic Starbucks cups.

Communication

2011-06-18T20:33:00.000-06:00

Preface!

Part One!

This post, as many of them do, started as a comment on another blog. This particular one was in response to a post by my Internet Friend in Akron, Ohio. Hi, CG!

Part Two!

I've been hacking away at this post for most of the afternoon. (With breaks, naturally. I've had lunch and taken a nap and stuff.) But for the most part, it's a sprawling monstrosity. I'm not going to edit it or make it more concise. I'm just going to allow this to be a sounding off.

Part Three!

My own "shame on you" on-bike communication tools consist of "No!" shaking my head, like the author in the linked post did, and in some situations giving a head-shake/thumbs-down combo. I like to think this combination renders a motorist helpless with guilt.

Communication!

Miscommunication causes the majority of problems that occur person-to-person.

(Actually, all the world's problems result from the fact that there are too many people. But accepting that that is an inevitability, let us continue.)

Humans are expressive, communicative creatures. We communicate so hard. So hard! We speak words, and we assume certain contextual postures and stances while speaking them that also convey messages, and we adopt certain inflections and vocabularies while speaking that add extra layers of meaning to our original message, and our facial expressions—on top of already established body language—can add yet another layer of complexity. And we won't even get into layers of meaning one can achieve though sarcasm, metaphor, mixed words, and other read-between-the-lines stuff.

Point being, communication! Wow, we do it so hard! In so many complicated ways!

Driving in a car makes you inhuman!

The vast majority of vehicular humans are deprived this most essential tie to humanity. Anybody operating a motorized vehicle is experiencing their surroundings—and their fellow human beings—at such velocity, and in such an enclosed—dare I say "caged off?"—environment that they are rendered inexpressive, incommunicative, and perhaps inhuman.

(Tom Vanderbilt writes on this to great effect in his book, Traffic, which I recommend so hard. Even if you just skim through it, there will be much gleaning.)

In a car, you are denied words, eye contact, and body language. You are essentially limited to two forms of expression: turn signals (which are ridiculously lame forms of expression) and horn-honking (which is a hopelessly vague and, sadly, an intrinsically aggressive form of communication).

You can't see your fellow motorist through their suit of car armor. What you can see is usually the rear end of the car in front of you. It is ridiculous. It is dehumanizing. It is infuriating. It is provocative.

It makes you a monster.

It makes you a person who might call a fellow citizen of the road a dirty whore even if that's something wildly out of character for you. It might be something you'd never dream of doing face to face with a person with whom you might enjoy other, more civil, means of communication.

But in a car, you are rendered dumb. You don't have the luxury of other, more humane and civil avenues of communications.

So you end up screaming "Dirty whore" at people.

Because you are left with few alternatives as far as communication goes.

Bullying!

The Internet in general, and Youtube specifically in my experience, is notorious for allowing—perhaps encouraging?—bullying.

Randall Monroe, one of my favorite Internet Culture commentators, once commentated—to great success—on the hateful YouTube comment phenomenon.

In my mind, there is little difference between the false anonymity granted to you as an Internet user and the false anonymity granted to you as a vehicular citizen of the road.

In both scopes, bullying is intolerable, and I will call you out on it.

In both scopes, your anonymity is a false construction.

There have been stories in my local newspaper about cops who have lost their jobs for posting "anonymous" hateful/bigoted comments on local sites. And, in my workplace, when I am considering interviewing applicants, I google your ass.

Internet anonymity isn't what you thought it was.

There have been stories in my feeds about drivers who have been rightfully damned and condemned for plowing into cyclists.

Vehicular anonymity isn't what you thought it was, either.

In Closing

Don't be a dick.

Anywhere.

In your car? On the Internet? Seriously, anywhere? Don't be a dick.

Because anonymity is a falsehood.

You are responsible for your actions. There will be consequences for your actions.

Thumbs Up for Rock and Roll!

2011-06-03T12:40:00.000-06:00

Rain ninja

2011-05-12T07:08:00.000-06:00

It's raining in Denver. Has been for over 24 hours now.

Point being, it's gray and cloudy and wet outside, and visibility is low.

On the way home from driving my partner to work just now, I stopped at an intersection near my house. I had a stop sign and cross traffic did not. I looked each way twice before proceeding, and one more each way as I entered the intersection.

And as I started to clear the intersection, I saw a cyclist pass close by, right behind me, looking at me disapprovingly. I apparently had come close to cutting her off.

I am hyper-aware of cyclists, so I was surprised that I had carefully surveyed the area and had flat out, straight up not seen this one.

She was on an upright bike, probably a cruiser, wrapped up in a large black wool coat, covering herself with a gray umbrella. (If you imagine riding a bike in the rain, you'll realize that you need to hold the umbrella more or less in front of you—blocking your face and covering your head—in order to utilize it.)

No lights. Perfect ninja.

Even with her dark attire, and even hiding behind an umbrella, I might have seen her had she had lights on her bike.

Which is why my bike lights and my automobile lights are on, day and night. There's no reason to ever not have your lights on. All they do is make you more well seen. All they do is increase your chances of not getting hit.

Opposing View Points: Tinted Windows

2011-05-11T06:48:00.000-06:00

In favor: I love tinted windows! I'm a big fat jerk!	Opposed: Tinted window suck. I do not like them on parked cars because I can't see if someone is in there about to open their door and flingsmash me. I do not like them on cars in intersections because I don't know if the driver is looking at me or waving me through.
Where do I stand? I am not a big fat jerk.

Opposing View Points: Bike Lanes

2011-05-10T05:52:00.003-06:00

In favor:
Bike lanes are awesome.

They create a space in which the novice cyclist feels safe. It encourages cycling, and gets more people on the road.

Plus, bike lanes feel fast because you don't have to worry as much about maintaining CONSTANT VIGILANCE regarding the traffic around you.

Opposed:
Bike lanes infantilize a legitimate form of road transportation.

As a cyclist and equal citizen of the road, I am entitled to all the privileges of the road. I don't need to be siphoned off into a special safety lane.

Bike lanes also discourage cycling in the sense that a novice cyclist, used to the bike lane oasis, will not venture out onto new roads, and will feel discouraged from cycling if the trip cannot be made using bike lanes.

Where do I stand?
I'm in favor of them being a resource to the beginning cyclist, but am leery of cyclists becoming dependent on them.

I think bike lanes are good in that they remove an obstacle between the road and a curious cyclist; they serve the valuable function of offering a feeling of security.

I also think that as cyclists gain experience and confidence in the bike lanes, they will venture out onto other roads that don't have bike lanes. And there they will gain vehicular cycling experience.

Bike lanes are like training wheels for grown-ups.

#bikeschool recap 5/5/11

2011-05-09T11:35:00.000-06:00

ala Rob Row's rundown, here is my recap of last week's #bikeschool, which I too missed.

***Q1: In honor of Cinco de Mayo, how would you combine bikes and tacos for the ultimate best day ever? #bikeschool

Surely I didn't just invent this: is there a taco shaped bike bell? A "Taco Bell," if you will?

I did have a Chipotle veggie bowl on Cinco de Mayo, but only because my partner brought me her leftovers. Whatever, it counts. I had guacamole. Cinco de Mayo: observed.
***Q2: It's National Bike Month in the USA, are you doing anything special to acknowledge it this year? ***** #bikeschool

Denver observes Bike Month is June. But I look forward to hearing about everybody else's adventures during May and then having my own in June!

One thing I'm doing right now to get pumped and to get other people interested is cleaning up the bike parking locker where I work.

More on that later.
***Q3: If you could be any other bike rider/cyclist for a day, who would it be, and why? ***** #bikeschool

I'm picturing somebody in board shorts, cruising down to the beach with a six pack in tow.

I'd be that dude.
***Q4: Who has a cycling-related tattoo? Gold star to those who post a photo. ***** #bikeschool

I don't have any tattoos.

I'd like to see somebody get a "Share the road" tramp stamp. How funny would it be to see that peeking out of a cyclist's shorts on the road?
***Q5: When you pass another cyclist on the road, do you nod, wave, shout? What do you do? *****#bikeschool

I smile, nod, and say hello, and try to make the road a friendlier place.

If we're stopped at a light together, I often try to strike up some kind of conversation.

If I'm passing somebody, I shout a warning; I don't have a bell.

I often chastise people for passing me closely without giving a warning. It can be startling!

Opposing View Points: Helmets

2011-05-09T05:41:00.000-06:00

In favor:
Helmets save lives. Plain and simple.

It's like a seat belt. Just wear it, and if something unfortunate happens, you'll be more likely to survive it.

How is there even an argument against wearing helmets?

Opposed:
Your Magic Styrofoam Hat isn't going to save your life if you get hit by a car. What is going to save your life are your riding skills, and awareness of your surroundings.

All of which begs the question of the inherent dangerous nature of bicycling. Cycling is not dangerous. Things like mandatory helmet laws and Bike Safety Month are turn people away from cycling by suggesting that cycling is so dangerous that it requires special equipment and month long awareness campaigns.

Where do I stand?
Somewhere in between. I don't think helmets are Magic Styrofoam Hats. And I wear one 99% of the time. But there are occasions when I want to go for a ride and feel the wind in my hair because it feels good.

Dangers of not taking the lane

2011-05-08T06:57:00.006-06:00

Totally got buzzed by a car today. It was partially my fault because I was being a gutter-hugger by riding too close to the curb instead of asserting myself into the lane.

I knew better, too. It was on a road where I know I have to take the full lane, or I'll be passed way too closely.

I guess I was just day dreaming or something.

That inches-away car sure did bring me back to reality though!

I did the thing I usually do when I get buzzed. I shouted "TOO CLOSE!" and shook my head disapprovingly.

That'll learn 'em!

I still have yet to perfect what I think is an awesome response to stuff like that: the emphatic Thumbs Down. Compared to the Bird it is less inciting and more shaming.

And truth be told, that's exactly what I'm looking to levy upon people who are driving inconsiderately or recklessly or carelessly near me. I don't want to instigate a confrontation. I want to shame and haze the driver so they're aware of their actions.

Sounds of the road

2011-05-07T18:44:00.001-06:00

Here are some sounds I recognize while on the road.

There is a car behind me and—

it is far away and going slow.
it is going way too fast.
it is nearby, about to pass me, and is way too close to me.
it is behind me but isn't making an effort to pass me.

The car that was behind me just turned onto to side street.
There is a bike behind me and it needs some chain lube!
Somebody just honked at me I am about to die. (Seriously, there is no "friendly honk." It's always "I am about to die.")

I glance over my shoulder to get a visual of what's behind me every once in a while, but I rely a lot on my ears while riding.

Wind, snow, and rain make riding especially difficult for me because they limit my hearing.

Just so you know, Denver, it is illegal to ride with headphones on! I met a guy last week who received that ticket.

It's not a bike law, but it's a vehicle law.

And so is wearing your seat belt, so. BE AWARE.

The oblivious masses

2011-05-06T07:00:00.001-06:00

It's spring time and it's nice outside and there are a lot more people on the multi-use trails.

One type of trail-user who emerges in the spring but isn't present in the winter is the trail-user who is totally plugged in: both earbuds in, volume cranked, and totally oblivious to everything going on around them.

I'm having to yell "ON YOUR LEFT" louder and louder to penetrate their cone of silence.

Might need to get a bell.

Fog horn.

Something.

Shine a light on the problem

2011-05-04T18:30:00.000-06:00

I arrived at work this morning after a very pleasant 6.5 mile commute to find our IT guys on site working on the new computers.

This work apparently involved having to go down into the crawlspace to run cables.

One of our technicians asked, naturally, for a flashlight so they could work down there.

Now, we do have a flashlight. Somewhere. But I'll be darned if we could find it!

After several futile moments of searching, I got a bright idea and grabbed the two Cat Eyes off the front of my bike—yes, I have two headlights. Two tail lights too!—turned them on steady and handed them off.

Not that much later, the work was complete, and two different technicians returned each light, each of them holding it out in front of them confusedly and asking, "How do you turn this thing off?"

Quick Tip: Removing your tire

2011-05-03T07:00:00.000-06:00

Quick tip!

If you need to remove your tire, you can use the lever from your quick release skewer.

(Unverified! Word of mouth knowledge from a commuting class I went to last week.)

National Bike Month vs Denver Bike Month

2011-05-01T15:32:00.002-06:00

What's up, bnerds! It's May!

(I just made up the word 'bnerd.' It means bike nerd.)

For most of the nation, May is National Bike Month. Denver however opts-out in May and celebrates Bike Month in June.

There is a reason for that, and there is a bittersweet consequence of that.

The reason is that May is Denver's most precipitous month. Most of it is rain but some of it is snow. Other places are colder, and probably snowier. But that's the reason. Other snowy/cold places act in like. The Wisconsin Bike Fed, for example, promotes Bike To Work Week in early June.

The consequence of not being in sync with the majority of the rest of the nation is that you get to spend a month keeping up with blogs, photos, tweets and more from all over the states as people are biking, going to events, getting together for rides, and generally having an awesome time. It can feel like you're missing out. But you also get to spend a month getting pumped about your local Bike Month seeing how much fun everybody is having! You really start anticipating and looking forward to your own local events.

And you can totally still participate remotely in May events. You can bike to work May 22nd AND June 22nd, you know.

It's really like having whole nother bike month!

Hook Prevention

2011-04-30T12:10:00.000-06:00

So I was riding my bike down the Teenybopper Mallrat route, eastbound, which is more annoying than riding it the other direction because on this side, the south side, the eastbound side, the bike lane is a narrow little strip next to the curb that I barely consider safe to ride in because—

It often doesn't feel like there's enough room for traffic pass comfortably. I mean we're really flirting with the 3-foot passing distance, and
It's seriously right on the curb—in that space where cars usually park and next to which bike lanes usually go—and is often full of garbage, ice, glass, and everything else that gets swept to the side of the road.

Because of those two factors, I often ride in the regular traffic lane. To the dismay of any motorists behind me, I'm sure, but I do try to be mindful of them and pull over out of the way when it's safe so they can pass.

And that's just what I had done for this one car as we both approached Park Avenue. Once we got there, as you can see in the dramatic re-enactment below, the car wanted to turn right but was unable to because there was a little old lady in the crosswalk.

Click thru to google maps

As I approached, I saw that the LOL (little old lady) was going to clear the intersection just in time for the driver—should he not be paying attention to the cyclist (me) coming up behind him—to execute a perfect Right Hook.

Like the kind that took down two Denver police officers a couple weeks ago.

Ultimately, I had no intention of suffering a right hook, so I left the bike lane and merged into the traffic lane proper so he could right-turn away without worrying about me anymore than he would any motor vehicle.

I did it to be nice to him and, mostly, you know, out of self-preservation. But also to be nice.

Which is why I was surprised when he, after I got out of his way, did a hand fling at me in his rear-view mirror.

It wasn't an Incredudignantlous Flingsalute level hand fling, but it was a pretty good "C'MON WHAT THE HECK" fling, and was impressive in its own way since he had the steering wheel in one hand and his cell phone in the other.

So I think he was angry because he had mentally prepared to invest his valuable time in waiting for both a LOL and a Scofflaw Cyclist to pass the intersection before he could turn right, but I denied him that opportunity by not zipping around him.

I failed to live up to his expectations as a scofflaw cyclist, and true, it is frustrating when someone doesn't live up to your expectations. Especially if you're feeling pretty proud of the amount of observation and anticipation that lead you to form these expectations.

By all of which I only mean to say that the dude got a little angry, and I'm okay with that. You're allowed to get angry. You're entitled to your feelings.

But I will always behave the exact same way I did in that scenario, and I will continue to do so even if I know for sure that it will make that dude angry each time. Because I behaved in a way that allowed me to avoid a scenario in which there is a possibility I will get hit by a car.

And I am entitled to the feeling of not getting hit by a car.

Things I have yelled on my bike recently

2011-04-29T12:30:00.000-06:00

Things I have yelled on my bike recently.

Nice turn signal! (Sarcastic)
Nice bike! (Not sarcastic. Said to a kid on a bike on the sidewalk who was watching me very closely.)
Foot doooooown! (Cry of anguish. Didn't want to put my foot down, but had to.)
Did you do yoga?

Disrespect

2011-04-28T20:41:00.000-06:00

Check out this picture I took of a traffic altercation in which I was involved today.

click through for street view

Synopsis:

I was honked at for proceeding through an intersection, when I had a green light.

Details:

I was approaching Colfax and Sherman from the capitol parking lot, which I love riding through because

all the congresspeople's license plate numbers are simply their district numbers and I like looking at those; and
I find it fascinating to note the bumper stickers--and there are many, many!--that our congresspeople choose to put on their cars.

But! I was approaching the intersection from the parking lot, and I noticed the light change in my favor. Scanning the area, I noted there were some pedestrians crossing my path but they were too far away to be of concern, and I noticed there was a queue of cars opposing me waiting to turn left. (Across my path.)

Assessing (note you, having a GREEN LIGHT) an intersection through which it is safe to proceed, I proceeded.

SIDEBAR: As you can see in the photograph above, I was towing a trailer. I had some very large items to deliver downtown, and I had a bulky load of things to bring back from downtown. It required the buggy. I don't know how relevant that actually is. It obviously expanded my length and width until it approximated that of a small automobile.

So, having a green light, I proceed through the intersection.

I'm halfway through it when, BAM! It happens.

Rather, I should say, HONK-ONK-ONK-OOOONK! It happens.

I am horn-blared by a car wanting to turn left.

I was totally surprised and caught off guard.

I looked back at the driver and gave them what I hopped was an adequate Indignantcredulous Flingsalute.

The next car in line had its windows down, and the driver consoled me by calling out their window, "It's alright. You're okay. Keep riding. Okay."

And like that, I was through the intersection, and it was all over.

I had been incomprehensibly, inexplicably disrespected by one motorist; and comforted by another.

Which just goes to prove that "Some are jerks, some are nice, and you can't afford to generalize."

We're all people, you know?

People can hear you on your bike

2011-04-27T18:12:00.002-06:00

The other day I was riding home from work. As I approached an intersection, I saw a young woman in comfortable looking clothing standing on the corner. She had over her shoulder a large canvas bag, peeking out of which was a large rolled up mat.

Assessing her appearance as I approached, I said aloud but to myself, without really realizing it, in kind of a sing-song voice, "Oh, did you do yoga?"

She whipped her head around and watched me with a boggled, surprised, slightly incredulous look on her face as I sailed past.

Sorry, lady.

I'm a talk-to-myself-er and sometimes I forget people can hear me when I'm on my bike.

Made my day: overcoming modal bias

2011-02-12T07:40:00.001-07:00

On the way to work this week, there was a car tailing me for a couple blocks. It was still a little icy out, so I was asserting myself into the lane—where it was dry and rideable—and announcing my intentions so there'd be no misunderstandings = so there'd be no accidents.

I stopped for a light, signaled two left-hand turns, and then when we were at a spot that allowed it safely, I slowed and pulled over into the slush so the car could pass.

The driver rolled down his window and shouted at me, Thanks! before continuing on his way. I don't know why, but it really felt as though he wasn't just thanking me for getting out of his way, but for being so careful and communicative.

I wish I had you're welcomed him, or responded at all really, but it surprised me because motorists are so often just annoyed to be behind cyclists. His response really made my day.

I like to imagine that we were each, to the other, surprisingly good representatives of our modes of transportation.

What I Wore

2011-02-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning it was zero degrees outside when I left for work.

Here's what I wore to stay warm.

From the bottom up!

Feet!

Wool socks from Costco. It feels like every third or fifth trip to Costco, I grab a pack of wool socks. You just can't have too many!
These knitted blue socks that my partner's grandmother made me a long time ago. They add a layer of insulation but mostly I wear them because my boots are way too big and I need some extra padding when I wear them.
My boots. I've had these things since I was a young teenager. My dad brought them home from work one day because one of his coworker's husband died and so now she had all these big shoes, and what was she going do with them! And my dad was like, hey, my kid has big feet. I'll take 'em and give 'em to him. And he did. But these things are enormous even on my size 13s. But they're the best thing I've ever experienced as far as good winter/snow boots go.

Legs!

Tights
Jeans

Torso and arms!

Two long sleeved cotton t-shirts
Cycling jacket. You probably can't see it in the picture, but this jacket is littered with holes and tears. I've worn it daily, year-round, for over three years. It has survived one significant crash and a dozen minor spills. I'm rough on my gear. (Gear ~ body.)

Hands!

This is my problem area.

Smart Wool glove liners
These other gloves

I have yet to find a way to keep my hands warm. I have four or five different pairs of gloves—wool and leather, lined and unlined—that I use in different combinations, all to no avail.

What that means is that I can postpone Hand Freeze by riding with one hand behind my back (and no longer exposed to the wind), but that's not always an option because when it's icy and nasty out, I'm keeping both hands on the bars.

After that, I simply have to stop, get off, and warm my hands in my pits/pants. (Your arm pits and your crotch are two of the warmest parts of your body.)

What I have learned recently, though, is that I can keep my hands approximately 90% warmer by pulling my fingers in and wearing them as mittens. It's so much warmer! And it makes me think that I need to seriously consider some good, actual mittens. Or maybe some of those lobster gloves.

Head!

Two Buffs: one "Original" and one wool.

My Buff, as I've said before, is my all-time, all-purpose favorite cycling accessory. I wear it in warm and cold weather, and don't leave the house without it.

I got a wool one this Christmas, and I really like it. I was surprised by how much longer it is! It hasn't replaced the old one, but I like to keep it on hand. When it's really cold, I usually wear the red one on top of my head, and wear the wool one as a scarf around my neck that I can pull up over my face if I need it.

On one even colder ride last week, I wore a smart wool balaclava under the two buffs, and was plenty warm.

The Halest

2011-02-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

50 Across: Most robust

The answer to the above crossword clue is HALEST. I had never encountered this word prior to this past Tuesday's New York Times crossword.

A crossword clue database lists other clues for this word: Most fit, In the best shape, Most vigorous, Most strapping, Most hearty, Most sound.

Being a fairly competitive fella, I like this word.

The Rules of the Velominati

I recently stumbled across the Velominati, which is a racing oriented site and home of The Rules. I disagree with and willingly break many of these rules.

Some of them are great though. Consider Rule #9.

If you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period.

I have had plenty of opportunities this week to have my behavior defined by Rule #9 and by that crossword puzzle.

Yeah, it's below zero and I'm biking to work: I'm a halesome badass.

Mountain Biking Bill fails on Party Lines

2011-01-31T20:33:00.001-07:00

In which I explore a train of thought that makes me sound profoundly anti-Mountain Bike

Colorado Senate Bill 36 was written to acknowledge the inherent risks of mountain biking, and to limit lawsuits against property owners, equipment renters, etc. over injuries sustained during the activity.

The bill died tonight, having never made it out of committee.

Click thru to denverpost.com

What I find interesting about this bill is that it was a wholly Republican endeavor from start to finish. [1] It was sponsored by a Republican, and the vote on it was strictly down party lines: Republicans for, Democrats against.

This speaks to a suspicion that I have long had. Mountain biking is largely a Republican activity, because Republicans insist on seeing bikes as toys.

One blogger recently wrote about how in her community bikes were considered suitable for kids to play with, but were completely inappropriate for an adult to ride.

There's some kind of mental trigger that produces this mindset, and I don't know what it is. But I think that whatever it is, it's the same thing that causes motorists to get angry at cyclists for being in the road. The other side of the "They think they're entitled to the road" coin has to be "I believe they have no entitlement," which means that to the coin flipper, the cyclist is a kid playing at grown-up games and should be riding bikes on the sidewalk. Or playing hop-scotch in the alley. Or kicking a tin can in a dirt field. The idea that a bike might be used for grown-up reasons—going to work, grocery shopping—is not reasonable, nor even plausible, to this person.

(This coin-flipper is the same person who honked at me twice this week for not riding in the bike lane when it was full of snow and slush and ice and muck.)

To this person, the idea of spending Department Of Transportation money in multi-modal transportation is ridiculous. Because bikes are toys, and who walks anywhere?

"Bikes are toys" is the mantra that allows anti-bike people to embrace mountain biking. In this activity, bikes are safely confined to recreational use far away from cities and roads and traffic.

As proof, I submit the most—the only?—outspokenly anti-bike politician in Colorado, or anywhere else, Dan Maes.

From the transcript at grist.org:

The bike program in and of itself is fine. I'm a biker, I rode the seat off my mountain bike last year myself.

So. Cycling in the city is a UN conspiracy to rob us of our freedoms. But cycling outside the city, in the mountains and in the woods, is peachy-keen and supports family values.

I am not against mountain biking. I find the idea of it appealing. I am simply interested in the apparent mental break that exists in people who are for it, but who are against cycling in the city and who are against infrastructure that supports it.

Because in one case, cyclists are simply kids playing with toys. And in the other, cyclists are humans, people who are just living their lives, doing their jobs, trying to live simply, and to simply live.

[1] One caveat from bicyclecolorado.org

This bill was conceived by past Senator Chris Romer after encountering many liability obstacles in trying to host a mountain bike event.

Romer is a Democrat currently running for Mayor of Denver and who appears to be very fond of the cycling demographic.

Denver Bike Cop Hit By Truck

2011-01-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

Cyclelicious tipped me off this afternoon to the news that a DPD officer was struck by a truck while on bicycle patrol.

Click thru to cyclelicious

I don't see tons of bike cops on Colfax, but I see them there enough to know that it's a thing: bike cops on Colfax. They're there.

I've even observed them perform the highly dubious Sidewalk Ride + Red Light Run combo.

More of the same kind of riding no doubt caused this accident.

The Denver Post—

Denver Police say two officers on bicycles were pedaling west through a crosswalk at the corner of Lafayette Street and Colfax Avenue just before 9 a.m. when the crash happened.

—strongly suggests that they were on the sidewalk and riding against automobile traffic.

9news

The Denver Cruisers claim, as I shared earlier, that uniformed officers can legally ride on the sidewalk while on duty.

And while that may be the case, I think this unfortunate incident proves that it's not a good idea.

Boulder Winter Bike To Work Day

2011-01-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

I signed up to participate in three events/programs this winter to promote, de-mystify, and enjoy cold weather cycling.

BikeDenver's Winter Solstice ride, the successful completion of which is three years in the telling.
Salvagetti's winter Commuter Team, which is a on-going commitment.
And the city of Boulder's Winter Bike To Work Day, for which I was able to register despite the fact that I don't live or work in Boulder.

There are few things better than a good ol' BTWD to get people, who otherwise would not be riding, onto their bikes and onto the road. The inciting qualities of a BTWD are these.

It's a holiday with a clearly defined means of celebration/definition of success. On Halloween you dress up and eat candy, and you win. On New Years Eve, you dress up and drink champagne, and you win. On BTWD, you dress up and ride your bike, and you win.
Breakfast stations. Handouts range from water to Starbucks, and from a banana to breakfast burritos, but it's all free and it's all good.
Other freebies. I've gotten water bottles, blinkie lights, stickers/decals, and cinch sacks.
Group ride! The main attraction of BTWD might be the promise of riding with a large group of people. Denver even organized pelotons, with ride leaders and everything, that struck out at strategic times along strategic commute routes.

A good BTWD in June might bolster enough confidence for me to commute through the rest of the summer and into the fall. But perhaps not enough to carry me through the winter.

The obvious solution? A winter BTWD! An opportunity to talk with other cyclists about routes, maintenance, and clothing. And an opportunity to get out on the roads and realize, hey, this ain't so bad. I might could do this.

Mandatory registration sweeping the nation!

2011-01-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

The year 2011 is barely two weeks old, and is already proving to be quite challenging for cyclists and for personal liberties.

January 4, 2011: the LA Times runs a story about $400 in fines levied against one teenage boy for operating a bicycle without a license.
January 12, 2011: New Jersey Assembleywoman Tucker proposes legislation requiring a $10/year registration for all bicycles and a $100 citation for each offense.
January 13, 2011: Tucker back-pedals and withdraws her proposal.
January 14, 2011: the New York Post runs a story about a legislator from Queens proposing similar registration laws.

And today, the city attorney of Santa Monica is proposing to the city council an ordinance that will require bicycle registration for all residents of Santa Monica at a cost of $4.00 per bike, and which sets the fine for operating a bicycle without a license at $10.00.

Click through to the summary report and full-text of ordinance.

In response, local (to Santa Monica) inter-blogger and pedal-masher Gary has written a letter raising several logistical concerns about redundancies and enforcement that bureaucrats and politicrats will likely find more ponder-worthy than my ideological "bikes are like libraries" flight of fancy.

Click through to Garyridesbikes

Some of my favorite bike personalities—bloggers, photographers, advocates—are in and around LA, so I'm anxious to see the coverage of the meeting and reactions to the outcome.

And as for things on the home front, I'm a little nervous about the spread of this apparent anti-bike brush fire. I would feel confident that bike-friendly Denver, home of the country's first bike share program, would be immune from the craziness if it weren't for two things.

Dan "It's A Plot" Maes is headquartered a stone's throw away in Evergreen and his influence, if felt from New York to LA, is surely felt here in his back yard, and
Even Portland, where cyclists hope they go when they die, is suffering from restrictive bicycle legislation! This proposed law would prohibit, with the threat of a $90 fine, children under the age of 6 being carried on bicycles.

Click through to oregonlive.com story

Basically, I can't take it for granted any longer that this couldn't happen here. I denounce this kind of legislation, and I need to make sure my legislators know this.

The Bike Lane Is Nice To Ride On!

2011-01-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

There doesn't really need to have been a story written. Just look at the picture, and you pretty much know what's going on.

click through to nytimes story

People Holding Signs always stirs in me a certain proud, teary-eyed emotion. You can't be any more honest or true than you are when you stand up and hold up a sign in support of something in which you believe.

Especially when said belief is as simple and pure and innocent as this one is.

I'm eight years old, and this I believe: THE BIKE LANE IS NICE TO RIDE ON!

Bike registration continued: the real source of the problem

2011-01-15T16:02:00.001-07:00

Eric Ulrich, lawmaker from Queens, is "floating the proposal" that all cyclists pay for mandatory bicycle registration.

click through to NYPost.com story

Ulrich is the Republican/New York complement to Cleo Tucker's Democratic/New Jersey anti-bike agenda, proving that Bike Hating is a bi-partisan issue behind which we all can get.

It goes without saying that we are witnessing the beginnings of a movement. A movement no doubt masterminded by the most paranoid, anti-bicycle conspiracy theorist of our time.

Dan Maes. Is Crazy.

Yes, you can almost hear the sound of Dan "Corny" Maes' weird grin all the way up in Evergreen, Colorado. Deep down in the Maes Cave, in the center of a nondescript Evergreen cornfield, Maes is accumulating politicians by the handful and is encouraging them to introduce anti-bike legislation in order to cull the Red Threat.

In the NYPost.com article, both of the city of Denver's stated reasons to register a bike are addressed with varying degrees of bizarritude.

The recovery of a stolen bicycle. Ulrich himself couldn't offer us a way that this law could actually benefit actual cyclists. It was left up to a gentleman named One Biker (aka Audio "Engineer Chvad" Bernhard) to find one.
One biker saw an upside, saying lost or stolen bikes could be identified. "Right now, [recovered] bicycles just get auctioned" by police, said audio engineer Chvad Bernhard, 37.
The identification of an injured cyclist. Okay, so in a weird backhanded kind of way, Ulrich conveys concern for cyclists here. His proposal will help identify cyclists, which cannot at present be done because
many cyclists don't have identification on them if they get into an accident because "they're in Spandex or whatnot."
It is absolutely, entirely true that all cyclists are at all times either in Spandex or in whatnot. Whatnot, in my case = corduroy slacks and a long sleeved cotton t-shirt. But neither my corduroy slacks nor my long sleeved cotton t-shirt prevent me from carrying identification.
Furthermore, look at the picture included in the article.
Does it look like this cyclist is prevented by his whatnot from carrying anything whatsoever?

But none of this is even the interesting part.

The interesting part is this. Both Ulrich and Tucker say their legislation was inspired by frightened, elderly constituents.

In New Jersey:

[Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker (D-Essex)] proposed it after several senior citizens in Belleville and Bloomfield called her to complain about kids on bikes. "They had been knocked down, knocked over and they had no way to register a complaint. They couldn’t identify the person," said Tucker.

In New York:

Ulrich says that many of his constituents are seniors and that "people on bicycles scare the hell out of them. Sometimes they can be an intimidating presence on the city streets."

So what we obviously have here is perception problem. The perception that Evil Mastermind Dan Maes wants us all to believe is that old people are being intimidated and tipped over by cyclists.

In reality, the truth is that old people are slow moving and easily startled, and are better off doing laps around the mall.

Frankly, old people scare the hell out of me. Sometimes, when they wander into the middle of city streets, they can be an intimidating presence.

What I'd like to see is a piece of legislation requiring that old people be registered and stickered at the DMV so I have some way of identifying and reporting them when they wander into traffic.

Freedom of Access: Bicycles, libraries, and mandatory registration

2011-01-15T10:34:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday, a New Jersey lawmaker named Cleopatra Tucker proposed a law requiring bicycle registration, inciting a peloton of protesters, comprising penny-farthings and twelve year olds, into a frenzy of action.

click through to NJ.com

There are five penny farthings in that picture. Five pennies and five farthings. That's four more than I've ever seen in person, and possibly every such bike in New Jersey.

Cleo Tucker must have been overwhelmed by all the big wheels, because the very next day she was back-pedalin' and retractin'.

click through for NJ.com story

At which point the big wheels and the twelve year olds all turned around and went back home.

Arguments in favor of registration are often of the type, "If you're using the roads you ought to be paying for their upkeep." It's hard to argue against that. Fortunately, one doesn't have to, because nearly all cyclists are already paying city and county taxes.

The city of Denver offers—but does not require—bicycle registration for two cited reasons: to assist the police with-

the recovery of a stolen bicycle, and
the identification of an injured cyclist.

I have a hard time imaging a successful outcome in either of those scenarios resulting from having registered your bicycle, but click here to do it anyway.

Some places, like Long Beach, actually do enforce bicycle registration. With $400 fines.

click through to LA Times story

Which is utterly ridiculous.

Mandatory registration, especially as proposed by Cleo Tucker and especially as enforced by Long Beach, is in direct opposition to the idea of freedom of access, which is a major pillar of my personal belief system.

Freedom of access empowers any person to grab one (of whatever it is you have been granted access to) and use it it for what-so-ever-the-hell pleases them.

It's the primary function and purpose of public libraries. The material is there, and the user has access to it. It's up to the user to decide what it means to them and how to use it, how to apply it in a way such that they achieve their vision of success.

Bicycles and libraries serve critical functions—far beyond mere entertainment value—for twelve year olds, homeless adults, and everybody in between. People often need access to these resources and these opportunities in order to thrive.

Libraries and bike kitchens caulk the cracks in the sidewalk of society because libraries are bastions of knowledge and bicycles are instruments of mobility and transportation. People crave and are entitled to knowledge and mobility. They are human rights, and as much as abstractions can want something, they want to be free.

Ultimately, bicycle registration will never work because there will always be people salvaging bikes out of dumpsters to ride to work, or the drug store, or the unemployment office, or the day laborers office, or to the library to work on a resume and apply for a job, and that simply has to be allowed to happen freely and unhindered by the threat of a $400 fine.

Boulder B-Cycle and Google

2011-01-14T16:47:00.001-07:00

B-Cycle announced today that Google donated $25,000 to the soon-to-be-launched Boulder bike share.

click through

The donation will cover roughly half the cost of one docking station, according to a story in the Denver Post.

The cost to install a station is about $45,000 to $65,000, depending on the size of the site and how much work needs to be done, he said.

One thing that stood out to me in this story is that the annual membership in Boulder will be $50, as opposed to the $65 annual Denver membership.

Cost of living difference? Except, it's more expensive to live in Boulder. What gives?

As easy as falling down

2011-01-10T13:43:00.004-07:00

Showering after my morning run, I noticed a nicely colored bruise on my left shin. I couldn't remember banging it on anything, and was ready to just assume from its position that I had just caught a pedal on the backspin at some point, a common enough occurrence that I don't remember each time it happens.

Then I remembered that I fell off my bike last week. It was a real minor spill, but I probably bumped that shin at some point during the tumble.

click through

Falling is Gloria's Valid Concern. An inevitability, really. Especially if you choose to bike through the winter. There are things one can do to minimize the chance of it happening like installing grippy, knobby tires. Maybe letting a few pounds of air out of them to increase surface area. Lowering your seat/center of gravity.

But it'll still happen from time to time. Now, I'd be interested in studying more closely what to do while you're falling. I think falling should be included in bicycle safety courses. Not in Biking 101, necessarily. After all, you don't want to scare any newbies. But maybe in the masters course, invite somebody from the local Clown College to give a guest lecture on how to tumble effectively and safely.

Principles of cushioning. Tuck and roll technique. Clearing the bike frame. That kind of stuff. I feel like there should be 3 - 5 little tips to keep in mind that can prevent you from nursing a banged knee for weeks after a spill.

Modern Family

2011-01-08T14:44:00.006-07:00

So the funniest thing on television right now is Modern Family. I pretty much watch it every week, and I don't even have a TV.

One of the show's subplots this week was about how neither Gloria nor Manny knew how to ride a bike, eliciting from Jay an exasperated, "Two thirds of my family can't do what a billion Chinese do every day!"

There are two good angles on cycling presented here. One is Jay's pre-flight checklist, and the other is Gloria's fear of bicycles. Those are pretty much the two aspects of bicycling for people with little experience with bikes, and for overprotective worriers. Safety and fear.

Laces, mirror, bell!

Jay's bicycle wisdom is that before you start pedaling, you check to see that your shoelaces are tied, that your mirror is adjusted, and that your bell works.

I agree with "laces" in that you need to be sure that you aren't wearing anything that will get sucked into your chain or wheel. I tuck my laces into my shoes and cuff my pants before riding each time. Unless I'm on the Lady's cruiser which has a chain guard. Then I don't worry about it. And, truth be told, not worrying about it is so nice that I've considered putting a chain guard on commuter.

Mirror and bell? I have neither and honestly don't consider them necessary. As far as safety accessories go, I'm all about lights and don't think I can have too many. I turn my lights on, front and back, before every ride, night or day.

The only other thing I do before each ride is give my tires a squeeze to see if they could use a top-up.

So my pre-flight checklist would be Laces, Lights, Tubes!

That's how they GRAB you!

During Luke's cycling lesson, Gloria admitted her fears of cycling were falling down, looking silly, and getting "snatched up!"

Falling down. That happens. I've fallen down a dozen times, mostly during the winter, and it is ... not a fear, but a concern of mine. Valid fear, Gloria. I just put on some grippy tires and try to lower my center of gravity when it's slick out.

Looking silly. Sometimes that happens, too. But it's all perspective. Lycra/Spandex racers and utilitarian commuters look pretty silly to each other. And from the perspective of a nice warm car, all cyclists probably look silly in 20 degree, snowy weather. I don't worry about it.

Getting snatched up! A hilariously unlikely fear, despite Gloria eventually being snatched up by Claire. (Who didn't pedal off before completing a quick "Laces/Mirror/Bell" check.)

One of the real winners of the show was when Gloria dismissed the bicycle, saying "There's no way it should stay up," and Jay in turn dismisses that argument, "There's no reason you should stay upright, either. It just works."

Female anatomy and the physics of riding a bike: it just works!

Sometimes dismounts just happen

2011-01-05T09:16:00.005-07:00

Six days ago, we got our first "for reals" snow of the year, followed by days of thoroughly iced, utterly scary roads.

I was not hardcore enough to bike these roads. I saw other people biking these roads and I celebrated them in passing, thumbs-upping if we caught each others eyes.

Four days later I decided to try out the roads. I mounted up, made it two blocks, turned around, went right back home, and put my bike away. Still not hardcore enough.

Funnily enough, an Internet Cohort of mine successfully completed a ride that same morning, but he did declare it to be scary in the "holy crap" levels.

click through

So this morning I decided to try out the roads again.

And here, in an unsorted list, are some reasons that it was still too soon to brave the roads!

I fell off my bike!

It happened really fast. The road looked clear, but apparently there was a well placed patch of ice that kicked my bike right out from under me. I was instantly put down, gently, on my side on the road, and I think I even continued to pedal air for a second before I realized I was no longer upright, much less no longer on my bike, which lay about a foot to my left.

A truck slid towards me on the ice!

The truck approaching from my right was going slowly and only slid probably six inches, and successfully stopped at its stop sign as I continued through the intersection. Still, I think that's one of the most nerve-wracking things you can see while on a bike.

The bike lanes were full of slush and unrideable!

This was the first time I noticed how badly the city bus tears up the bike lane! At nearly every bus stop, a wide pile of slush and ice had been smeared and frozen across the lane where the bus had pulled back out into traffic.

I eventually settled into a pattern of riding mostly in the traffic lane, and periodically sliding over into the odd patch of clear bike lane to let traffic pass.

Over all, the ride was manageable. I'll probably keep doing it and am glad I'll be able to get some riding in until the next time it snows and freezes. After two or three days in a row, I just get to feeling uncomfortable being boxed into having to use the car.

Solstice Ride 2010

2010-12-22T13:50:00.009-07:00

I have a success to report! I successfully went on the Bike Denver winter solstice ride!

It was cold. Cold enough that before the ride, Scott's face went numb. His thumbs remained relatively un-numbed-up enough though, so he twooshed about it.

Click to view twoosh

I reckon there were about 50 bikes on the ride, which is a good turn out. The ride started in City Park at the zoo, proceeded through Five Points (through, in fact, the five-point 26th/Welton/Washington intersection after which the area is named), down to Union Station. From there to the City & County Building and the state capitol, and then down to Marion & Colfax to the Irish Snug, where we warmed ourselves with some spirits and libations.

50 Furlongs!

Mapping out the ride later, I discovered that it was almost exactly 50 furlongs in length!

I don't really know what that means, but Google says so, so it must be true.

Click through for Facebook gallery

At the City & County building, I was coraled into a photo with the Bike Depot crew. I'm the bearded, leaning one towering in the foreground like some kind of neon yellow discount Christmas tree.

City & County Bldg, courtesy of @ubiquity

If you haven't seen the City & County building, you're missing an impressive display of complete disregard for holiday deference. It's a Christmas building. And not just a secular Christmas building, but a Christ is born Christmas building. That's Santa's barely visible sleigh on the roof, complete with reindeer. That's a nativity scene to the right of the stairs. And that's a workshop full of elves to the left.

Wow.

At this point in the ride, my feet had joined Scott's nose in Can't Feel Ya Land. Fortunately we hurried up 16th Ave to the Snug, where I spent only enough time to warm up over a few beers before returning home, where various mammals awaited their dinner.

And after that, the shortest day/longest night of 2010 was over. Here's to having some daylight in the AM and PM during which to ride!

Fixing of a Prejudiced Light

2010-12-19T09:04:00.005-07:00

The city has been constructin' along E 25th Ave, tearing a thin stripe up out of the middle of the road and then putting it back down again. Looks terribly important and productive..

What I've noticed has happened now, though, is that the light on 25th at Downing now recognizes bicycles! (Sort of.) That intersection is on what my map calls a “neighborhood bike route,” and the light used to not change for bicycles. It was a light on my PABST! (Prejudice And Bias Suck: Totally!) list with a "red" or "High Priority" rating. It's a high priority to have traffic signals on city designated bike routes recognize bicycles. That's obvious, right?

So I would reluctantly, but out of necessity, run the red light there at least once a day during my commute.

But, now! Suddenly I notice that twice it turned green for me! Neither time was there any motor traffic to trigger it. After a few more similar encounters, it became clear that the light is now on a timed cycle. (I watched it keenly from several blocks away as it cycled for no traffic of any kind.) I had hoped that maybe the intersection had been modified to recognize and change for bicycles, but I know that was wishful thinking. I'm unaware of any intersection in Denver that does that. But that is not to say that I don't consider this a victory because I most certainly do.

The change has me abuzz with curiosity. Was this a “one shot” kind of thing, an isolated adjustment unique to that intersection and unlikely to occur elsewhere along other bike routes? Or, and this is what I hope for because this would be really stinking cool, is the city adjusting traffic controls along bike routes to actually recognize—or at least periodically assume the presence of—bikes? ‘cause that’d be awesome.

In any case, I’m stoked about this change at this intersection. One less light I have to run!

Yay, safety.

Good ridin's!

Winter solstice ride

2010-12-08T18:50:00.005-07:00

Bike Denver just announced its Winter Solstice Ride!

I have a bit of a history with this ride.

Rather, I would have a bit of a history had I ever actually gotten to participate in it.

Two years ago

2008 was my first attempt at doing the solstice ride. It was spectacularly cold. The average number of degrees during that day was 13. And then, after that, the sun went down.

I put on four or five shirts, two or three pairs of pants, numerous other accessories, and struck out into the cold. It was about six miles from where I was living in the Highlands to City Park, from where the ride was leaving, and it took me about thirty minutes to cover the distance.

On the way, the laces of my boot got sucked into my cranks and almost threw me off my bike. I executed an emergency stop in the middle of 15th Street, numbed my hands after removing my gloves in order to gain the dexterity needed to untangle myself, and then continued on my way. After, that is, tucking those laces oh so carefully down into the collar of my boot.

I got to the park and to the fountain, where the ride was supposed to begin, only to find ... nothing. I couldn't see any person in any direction. I circled around the park thinking maybe they meant the statue instead of the fountain.

Along the way, I bumped into another cyclist who had also showed up for the ride only to find a lack thereof. He had just moved to Denver from somewhere in Alaska, and seemed comfortable in the cold.

We puttered around the park for a short while longer, and then parted ways, and I returned home, having never spotted the peloton.

Last year

We had moved across town by the time 2009's winter solstice came around. I was mere blocks from City Park instead of miles from it. And it was much warmer. The average temperature that day was 44 degrees! That's 31 more degrees!

I arrived at the fountain in plenty of time. The crowd was still gathering after I got there, so I mingled and gawked and chatted up some other riders. We all climbed up on the edge of the fountain and had our picture taken, shortly after which we started to roll out.

It was at this time I noticed my rear tire was flat. All the way, rim-on-the-ground flat. I considered patching the tube and then playing catch-up, meeting up with the group at some later point in the ride, but there weren't any scheduled stops and I realized I wasn't interested in rolling around Denver by myself searching for a couple dozen people on bikes.

I watched the last of the group roll off, and I pushed my bike home.

This year

This year, my work schedule conflicts with the ride. I was about to resign myself to the fact that I just wasn't going to go and that it was going to be yet another year of not participating, when my Partner and Co-Pilot pointed out to me that my thing is trying and then failing to go on the ride. Not failing to go for a lack of showing up.

And she's right. So if I'm going to fail yet again to go on the winter solstice ride, it will only be after making a valid effort to succeed.

I'm going to arrange to get off early. I'm going to execute a thorough pre-ride checklist to avoid flats and whatevers. And I am going to go on the damn solstice ride this year.

I want you to imagine I said that last part out loud and that I said it with all the determination that Darnielle does in This Year.

IKEA BIEKS

2010-12-08T13:25:00.004-07:00

Yesterday, IKEA gave each one of its 12,400 US employees a new bicycle!

Pretty awesome. And a little bit funny when you remember this past June when the Brooklyn location resisted a bike lane going in by their store.

IKEA dubbed the event the "big reveal," describing how "the truck doors will open, bicycles will be unloaded," and they'll all come unassembled, in flat boxes. But they'll include a small hex wrench for putting them all together!

I wonder how long it will be before the first IKEA bike shows up for sale on craigslist or eBay. Because some of those +12k employees already gots bikes!

Nobody knows how to ride a bike

2010-09-17T17:35:00.007-06:00

My partner has had an especially discouraging bike week. Two cars honked at her, apparently protesting her mere presence on the road. One guy standing outside a bar heckled her with a patronizing "You need to get out of the road, sweetie." And this is all following the enormously frustrating debacle that was the Denver Diamond Dash.

At the end of the week, it seems as though neither motorists nor cyclists know what it means to bike safely and legally in this city.

Which is why it felt nice to see a little love and recognition from the Denver Police Department via twitter today.

Every person riding a bicycle upon a roadway shall be--

Granted all the rights of a vehicle.

Including the right to be on the road, to take the lane when sharing the lane will be unsafe.

Subjected to all the duties of a vehicle

Including the duty of not driving on the sidewalk, of observing stop signs and other traffic signals, of signaling turns.

As I commute, shop, and otherwise live my life, I carefully assert all the rights of a vehicle every day. But I do not always hold myself to all the duties of a vehicle. For example, I never come to a full stop at a stop sign unless I need to in order to avoid colliding with something. If traffic is clear, I might run a stop light.

It's inconsistent. And I should try to correct this. I know.

But it's hard. Because, for example, coming to a full, foot-on-the-ground stop at a stop sign is stupid when it is possible to proceed safely. This fact is recognized by the good state of Idaho. (Yes, what you commonly refer to as a "California Stop" is in reality an "Idaho Stop!")

Plus, there's the example set by our role models, betters, and superiors. This week, on my way to a meeting downtown, I was stopped at a red light at Sherman and Colfax.

While I was wondering how much debt the state might recover if we melted down and sold off that giant golden dome, I noticed a bike cop biking east on Colfax, up the hill, on the sidewalk.

I thought to myself, Huh. Bike cop on the sidewalk. Okay.

And then that bike cop scanned the cross-traffic on Colfax, deemed it sufficiently light, and then ran the red light and crossed the road.

I thought to myself, Huh. Bike cop just ran the red light. Okay.

I remained right where I was and continued to wait for the traffic signal to change before proceeding through the intersection.

Unlike some people.

I judged the officer in question. Hard. And I felt smug for a while about being more lawful than the law. But then I saw this little gem from Denver Cruisers.

[Citation Needed]

I don't know what this claim is based on, or what it is in reference to, but now according to some guy on the internet, Mister Bike Cop was okay to ride on the sidewalk. But not necessarily to run the red light? I'm not sure.

What's a fella to do?

Denver Diamond Dash

2010-09-12T12:21:00.004-06:00

So I had just arrived downtown to meet up with my partner for lunch on the 16th Street Mall. Right away I began noticing people scurrying about in matching green t-shirts that identified them as participants in the Denver Diamond Dash, which I assumed to be yet another urban race/scavenger hunt of some sort. Denver's had a ton of them this summer for some reason and they're usually super good fun.

This one was different though because the participants were on wheels. A few were on rollerblades but the vast majority were on bicycles.

And they were driving like idiots. All of them. Like idiots.

During the lunch I enjoyed outside on the patio of Noodles & Co, and during my rides to and from downtown, I saw probably fifty couples. Here are some of the behaviors they displayed!

Riding on the sidewalk. And not just toodling along like you see some people doing. This event is a race, and they were riding like it, whizzing and careening through the mobs of pedestrians that teem through the mall on a Sunday afternoon.

Please note that riding on the sidewalk is illegal. In fact, it is printed in big letters on the very B-Cycles that were flying down the sidewalk. Do not ride on the sidewalk.

Uber-salmoning. Riding in the street (yay) but against traffic on a one-way street (boo!).

Texting. I passed a girl who was texting on her blackberry while precariously wobbling her bike down the sidewalk. I was able to see her for 5 - 8 seconds and she didn't once lift her eyes away from her device.

Riding on the 16th Street Mall. Granted, it is Sunday, which is arbitrarily the day that one is permitted to ride on the mall. But many of the participants are likely not aware of the distinction or of the rule in the first place.

No helmets. Not one helmet. Not a single helmet. You don't have to wear a helmet, I know, and sometimes I don't. But I'm an educated, confident cyclist. These bozos were begging for a crash, and not one of them was wearing a helmet.

In the interest of total honesty, I did see two people who were following all of the rules of the road. Thank you, those two people.

Now, as we all know, this summer has been widely reported to be the Summer Of Crack Down, during which the police will be ticketing and citing cyclists for all manner of infractions. So I decided to call DPD to see if they had yet handed out any tickets. (Actually, I called DPD because I wanted to complain about the recklessness to somebody and I didn't see a phone number on the Diamond Dash website.)

I called the non-emergency number because, as far as I knew, none of the mad dashers had yet caused any traffic incidents.

The dispatcher didn't really understand what my complaint was, but transferred me to an officer anyway. The officer told me that riding on the sidewalk is allowed during an event.

This left me flabbergasted.

If the event were one during which the sidewalks are closed to pedestrian traffic, then that would reasonable. But that was not the case today. This is a law that exists for obvious safety reasons, and in breaking it the participants of this event were creating obvious safety hazards.

On my way home, I saw two pedestrians tapping along with white safety canes, and I hoped fervently that they make it safely to where ever they were going. Because they certainly aren't going to get any assistance or support from the police department. Not even during the Summer Of Crack Down.

Because there's an event.

Safety issues aside, they were all just so damn visible. There were so many of them, and they were driving so badly, providing so much support for the notion that cyclists are at best inconsiderate goofballs and are at worst reckless scofflaws. Anybody looking for confirmation of that belief had all the support in the world downtown today.

And that's not fair. I'm a careful, considerate, conscientious cyclist. But anybody who encounters me on the road today after driving through downtown this afternoon is likely to identify me as a dangerous idiot.

Mariposa Bike Lanes

2010-08-20T16:05:00.009-06:00

Another ceremonial ribbon cutting for another new bike lane! This one was on Mariposa Street, and was based out of Lincoln Park, which is just a little bit outside my sphere of familiarity: I've only ridden past Lincoln Park once or twice.

A crude map of the area in question.

BikeDenver's announcement of the event.

The ride started just outside Lincoln Park with the ceremonial ribbon cutting.

Note, first of all, the thin red carpet spread across the width of the bike lane. This is BikeDenver.org's all purpose red carpet. It has been rolled out at pretty much every function of theirs I've been to, even if it's just bike parking. It is awesome.

And now, a closer look at who the folks are in the photograph.

Me. Behind the car and outside the frame of the picture.

John Hayden, Denver realtor and member of the mayor's Bicycle Advisory Committee. He was at the ribbon cutting for the MLK bike lanes.

An especially Nordic looking member of the Denver Housing Authority. This picture doesn't do him a lot of justice; he was the size of a small car.

Councilperson Judy Montero, whose write-up of the event can be found here.

Ismael Guerrero, Executive Director of the Denver Housing Authority.

Somebody I thought I recognized, but it turns out now that I don't, but I had already labeled her in the picture, so ... sorry.

The ride itself was pleasant. It showed riders recommended ways to get from Lincoln Park to downtown to the high school to the Light Rail and back to the park, where there were Clif Bars and cupcakes.

I fell in beside a jolly old couple at one point in time to hear the gentleman exclaim that it is easier to bike in Denver than in Asheville, North Carolina! I have visited Asheville and thought it was lovely, so I chatted with him about the area for a moment. He turned out to be Senior City Planner Emily Kreisa's dad, in town for a visit.

If during the course of your job you get to go on a nice, slow bike ride through downtown with your mom and dad, then you've got a pretty sweet job. Well done, Emily. And, your folks are cute. I liked it when your mom was noticing out loud which foot everybody put down when they stopped.

And then towards the end of the ride, a funny thing happened.

The peloton had just come to a four-way stop when this car behind us whipped over across the double yellows and into the opposing lane.

Ironically, he had his left turn blinker on, in full dutiful compliance with the traffic law. While sitting on the wrong side of the road, in flippant disregard of that traffic law. It was obvious that the driver was of two minds when it came to following the rules of the road, and that he couldn't be trusted.

So he was intent on executing a left hand turn, but so were we. The peloton, taking advantage of the right-of-way to which, as law abiding citizens of the road, we were entitled, began its left hand turn. The driver, should he simultaneously execute his turn, would have to continue driving down the English side of the road until he had passed the entire group, at which point he could merge--probably while signally properly--back into the proper lane.

Unfortunately for him, he never got that far. When he initially pulled up to the intersection, he unbeknowingly pulled up alongside the two bike cops who were leading our ride, one of whom immediately shouted a stern and impressively coppy "HEY!" and corralled him.

I rode on, swept down stream by the bike current, and didn't see the conclusion of that interaction. I doubt he was ticketed because I saw the cop again shortly thereafter, but I believe the motorist won't soon be repeating that maneuver!

a-Maes-ing

2010-08-12T08:05:00.000-06:00

Dan Maes. Is Crazy.
Look. Here's the deal.

I didn't write about Candidate Dan's bike gaffe when it happened. Because writers far more talented than I did jump all over that shit.

But I would like to make a few comments on the situation.

How seriously do you take this warning?

As a side-feature of the original Denver Post article, a poll asked "How seriously do you take this warning?" with choices ranging from "Very seriously" to "Not seriously at all".

"Not seriously at all" beat "Very seriously" 54% to 32%. Which is very close to the 50 to 38 by which Hickenlooper is polling ahead of Maes, so I suppose the numbers make sense.

But, no. Seriously? 32% of you think this is something that should be taken very seriously? I have to assume that there were many people selecting this option for comedic value.

Right?

United Communist Nations

A lot of the ridicule from the blogs came in the form of commie jokes and soviet bike posters.

Which is obviously funny.

But inaccurate. Because in the Maesiverse, bikes are not communist. They are United Nationsist. Candidate Dan's statement is that Denver B-Cycle is a "very specific [strategy] that [is] dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to" and that "it could threaten our personal freedoms".

This is an incredibly stupid thing to say for the following reasons.

The program Candidate Dan is referring is ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, of which Denver is a member. It was founded in 1990 at the UN building in New York. ICLEI has benefited from the networking and communications strengths of the UN, but as far as I can tell, this is the only connection between ICLEI and the UN.

The subsequent linking of B-Cycle to ICLEI is a tiny bit of a stretch. I mean, they both share the goal of sustainable growth, so I guess I can understand the suspicion. But B-Cycle disavowed themselves of all allegations.

The assertion that a UN program could threaten our personal freedoms is beyond ridiculous. The UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted over 60 years ago and contains 30 articles compared to the US Bill of Rights's 10 amendments. This organization is champion of human rights.

It is by his own admission an unfounded and random statement! He didn't actually pull it out of his ass; he pulled it out of a portfolio that some woman thrust into his hands and that he had not actually read.

In closing

While this bike situation is the most comical moment of Candidate Dan's campaign, his sincere belief in statements just as wacky, but extraordinarily more frightening, makes him a truly terrifying potential governor.

But that's politics, and this is a bike blog.

Suffice it to say, I'm thankful there's not actually a chance of this wack-a-doo winning office. I welcome anyone and everyone to join me in beginning to laugh him off the stage.

Here's to election season!

double rainbow: what does it mean

2010-08-11T14:22:00.003-06:00

Remember when I found that awesome road? I rode on it again today, straight down the white line. The white was so white, and the black was so black, like only a brand new road can be.

For reasons that are scientific, a rainbow was reflecting off my front rim. It was hovering off to the right, keeping time with me and accompanying my down the road. It was like racing your shadow, but more magical looking. It also made me think of the rainbow cars that the Care Bears drive.

I didn't expect to catch it in this picture, but there it is, looking all awesome and stuff.

And just for ridiculousness's sake, I would like to point out the following. That left foot pictured next to the rainbow? It's mine. And the sandal that that left foot is wearing? It's a Rainbow.

Yeah, that's a double rainbow all the way!

No parking on 16th Street Mall

2010-08-09T11:02:00.004-06:00

So I was at the 16th Street Mall on Sunday, meandering about and engaging in some commerce, when I saw this nice orange cruiser up ahead. I proceeded to ogle it.

I then noticed a bright green paper zip-tied to the handlebar and, curious, went in for a closer look.

Please do not park on the 16th Street Mall

There are over 600 designated bicycle parking racks throughout Downtown, including at each intersection of the Mall. Parking your bicycle at locations such as street lights, trees, railings or other furnishings on the 16th Street Mall is prohibited*, can cause property damage and may limit pedestrian access on this pedestrian-transit street.

Please be aware that bicycles parked along the 16th Street Mall that impede pedestrian or shuttle traffic may be impounded by Denver Police.

Please contact the Downtown Denver Partnership with any questions about bicycling in Downtown Denver at 303.534.6161

* Section 54-575 RMC

I continued to see these notices attached to bikes all along the mall. I had neither seen nor heard of such things before, so I promptly asked the Internet what it was all about. I promptly got a few replies.

The referenced section of the Revised Municipal Code says you can park on the sidewalk in a rack "as to not impede the normal and reasonable movement of pedestrian or other traffic." It doesn't seem to say anywhere that you can't park next to signs or posts, but that definitely appears to be how it's being interpreted here.

The 16th Street Mall must be the most bike restrictive place in Denver. You cannot ride there, but you can on Sundays, but you can never park there.

Chair on Bike

2010-08-08T09:30:00.004-06:00

I'm re-posting this picture, and my comment on it, from Cyclicious.

That old dude is awesome, obviously, because he's moving a chair on his bike. But even more so because of the "ho-hum" approach he's taking to it, as evidenced by the way he's dressed. Like he's out for a Sunday stroll: white slacks and sandals, cool button down and his sweater tied around his shoulders, topped off with favorite baseball cap.

There is nothing about this guy to indicate that he's doing anything unusual, or that he's trying to earn street cred or style points, or that he's trying to make a statement about people-powered transportation, or that he's even interested in bicycles or furniture.

He's just a guy taking care of business.

I'm reading a lot into this picture, but this guy appears to have a perfectly utilitarian view of his bike. He would probably be as baffled by Bicycle Culture as he would be by Vacuum Cleaner Culture.

Distracted driving

2010-08-04T20:06:00.010-06:00

It's a hot topic. It was described in shocking detail in Tom Vanderbilt's Traffic.

And, I mean, it has its own dot gov site.

A dot gov website featuring, naturally, the most celebrated and multi-modal friendly Secretary of Transportation of all time, Ray LaHood.

And this year, congress declared April National Distracted Driving Awareness Month after passing a resolution introduced by Colorado's own Betsy Markey.

Most discussion of distracted driving concerns drivers of automobiles. Which is fair to a degree because the most gross examples of it are kind of unique to automobiles. Meaning, you can't fiddle with the stereo while shaving on a bicycle.

But that doesn't mean even a little bit that distracted driving is limited to drivers of automobiles. I've seen bikers doing it, and it seems I'm noticing it more and more. Others are noticing it too; several states with laws regulating cell phone use in cars are considering extending those restrictions to cyclists.

Which makes sense. It would be consistent with the expectation that the rules of the road apply to cyclists and motorists in equal measures. I don't see any downside to saying you can't text while biking. It's a little invasive, but so are seat belt laws.

And it would prevent the scene I saw yesterday.

That's a photo I took with my one-of-a-kind handlebar-mounted MS PAINT GOOGLE MAPS camera. It's a photo of a dude on a bike flying down the new bike lane on MLK Blvd. He exhibits perfect posture. And he has both eyes and both hands on his cell phone.

Clearly this is distracted driving. And it's happening on one of the busier streets you're likely to come across in this area.

And it's happening because of the false sense of security of the bike lane.

A couple months ago, there were no bike lanes on MLK, and you rarely saw a cyclist there because of the thick, fast traffic. Now there are bike lanes and the shift from scary to bike-friendly was almost instantaneous. You see a ton of cyclists on it. They obviously now feel safe on this road.

It takes a certain amount of hubris and a certain feeling of invulnerability in order to engage in distracted driving, because it is a willful choice to fish your phone out of your pocket or to start putting on your makeup. Bike lanes, similar to being nestled deep within three tons of steel, can provide such a false feeling of security that you see things like the above gentleman, oblivious to his surroundings and flying down one of Denver's busiest streets.

Vehicular cyclists, who take the lane and otherwise share the road with motorists, must be actively engaged with their surroundings in order to survive their rides. It's unlikely for them to engage in distracted driving.

So if you want to reduce distracted driving among cyclists, and assuming a primary function of bike lanes are to make novice cyclists feel more comfortable on the road, take the funds set aside for installing new bike lanes and divert them to classes aimed at making the novice cyclist feel more comfortable on the road.

open source transportation

2010-07-22T11:53:00.003-06:00

Very few people could build a car themselves out of parts they salvaged, found, or otherwise obtained for free.

Most people, though, could do so with a bike.

Tour de B-Cycle

2010-07-15T08:02:00.013-06:00

The Tour de B-Cycle is a an on-going challenge by Denver Bike Sharing (tw/fb) to visit each b-cycle station in one business day.

The goal is to check one bike into and out of each station, keeping the travel time between stations under 30 minutes so that each ride is free. Returning to and checking in at the station where you initially checked out your first b-cycle concludes the tour.

On Friday, June 25, I did it.

In 100 degree heat. Yow.

But, verily, it was fun of win.

Above is a slightly shopped picture of the Tour website, getting your name on which is one of the prizes for finishing. Other prizes include-

Braggin' rights

Rad t-shirt (1)

Cool b-cycle poster (1)

Sore glutes and legs (2 each) 'cause those bikes all weigh a bah-zillion pounds.

I spent a lot of time planning my route on mapmyride before realizing that you have to pay to print your route, which I consider to be poppycock.

Fortunately, investing that mental energy beforehand made it such that I was then able to proceed with confidence armed with nothing but the basic map of locations from denver.bcycle.com.

The exact route I took, unfortunately, can no longer be taken. When I completed the tour, there were only 42 stations. A 43rd station has since opened at 7th & Grant.

And one thing I learned quickly is that the touch screens aren't like normal touch screens. It's like the screen covers actual buttons, and you have to manipulate the screen in such a way that actual buttons are pressed.

For example, sometimes there are three buttons in a row, and if you press the left hand button you get the menu from the middle button. So you back up and press the far left bit of the screen, not necessarily on the button itself, and get the left button menu.

It's a little eccentric.

Below is a reckoning of all 42 stations.

I started my day at about 6:30 AM by purchasing a $5 day membership at Park & Tremont (1) since it's the station closest to my house. I then jumped up to Five Points (2) and over to 28th & Larimer (3) area. (The 28th & Larmier station is right outside the B-cycle main offices.) The 25th & Larimer station (4) kiosk wasn't working, so after I checked my bike in, I called b-cycle and left a message to that effect, and walked back to 28th & Larimer to check out another bike and continue from there. (Sadly, this was the first of several instances of having to walk to another station from one that wasn't working.)

Car scrap art @ 24th & Larimer

Several stops passed with little incident: Broadway & Walnut (5), 22nd & Market (6), Coors Field (7), 19th & Market (8), 17th & Larimer (9), Market St Station (10) and Union Station (11), where I found a b-cycle membership card atop one of the bike stalls! (I would later return this card to the b-cycle offices.)

The board game benches at Market St Station

15th & Delangy (12) was a nice stop. I liked the view of the big stabby heart thing outside the art museum.

Some truck driver paused in his truck-drivin' to ask me about b-cycles. Seriously, about 1.5 points into a 3 point turn, he stopped and started gabbing at me through his truck-drivin' window.

The Little Raven station (13) is where I ran into my first little bit of trouble.

I returned my bike and when I tried to check out another, the station gave me a green light and a Go Ahead. It said it released a bike, but then it didn't. The dock clicked as though it had unlocked, but the bike remained locked steadfast.

So suddenly we had an annoying little discrepancy between life as it is actually lived, and life as it is represented in computers. I called b-cycle for help but they wouldn't open for another hour, so I got somebody from a call center, who encouraged me to buy another membership by swiping a second credit card, with the expectation of having one $5 membership refunded at some point. Fortunately, I had a second credit card with me, so that's what I did.

On past the National Velvet station (14) by Salvagetti, and the only station in the Highlands by Little Man Ice Cream station (15), and back to REI (16).

By that time, it was approaching 9:00 AM, which is when I had scheduled a doctor's appointment, so I rode from REI back to Park & Tremont, where I parked my b-cycle and picked up my own bike, which I had locked there, and went to the doctor.

Turns out I have pretty good cholesterol!

After that, I checked out another bike at Park & Tremont and rode to the Pepsi Center (17) where I checked in but was unable to check out because the screen was frozen, or locked, or broken. It was unable to advance past the initial welcome screen. But it did not say "Welcome" or anything. It merely displayed two rather fuzzy, somewhat pixelated boxes: one for English and the other for Spanish.

Unable to do anything else there, I called b-cycle to report the problem, and then walked to 14th & Larimer (18), from where I was able to zip along through 17th & Curtis (19), the US Bank building (20), the Convention Center (21, and 14th & Welton (22).

A fantastically detailed knitted u-lock "locked" to the station at the Convention Center

I didn't see the station at Denver Pavilions the first two times I rode past it because, I guess, it was under that land bridge and in the shade. After I finally checked my bike in there (23), I was unable to check another one out. (Got a "Sorry the system is down" type message.) So I hot-footed it on over to 15th & Tremont (24) which was also down.

I walked further on to the Webb Building (25) which was also down. (Three in a row!) I tried to call b-cycle but the call didn't go through, so I thought the entire office had lost power, been struck by lightning, or been raptured up somehow.

At this point, it was blazing hot and, facing the prospect of all the stations being down and b-cycle being unreachable for help, I almost called it quits and caught a bus home.

Starting to walk home/towards a bus stop, I saw the station at the news building (26), and I thought I'd try it for the hell of it. And lo and behold, I got a bike! I rode to 16th & 16th (27) and to the library (28) without incident.

"Lao Tzu" outside the library

Confidence restored, I rode to 11th & Broadway (29), which is an oddly placed station in the parking lot of an Arby's. A reeling, shirtless dude approached me as I was swapping bikes and offered to do 25 push-ups for me in exchange for 25 cents. I apologized for not having any change on me, and hurried along.

Past the Sunken Gardens, I traded bikes at Denver Health (30). A doctor paused in his doctorin' to ask me about b-cycles.

After that was one of the Long Rides of the day, during which I came close to approaching the 30 minute time limit. But at the end of it, I found myself at the Pearl & Louisiana light rail station (31), where I stopped for lunch, and to get out of the heat, and to rehydrate.

Entrance to the underground Light Rail station at Pearl & Louisiana

Then down to Pearl & Florida (31), and Buchtel and High (32, where somebody apparently flipped out and hulksmashed the kiosk in the face, shattering the screen and rendering it rather embarrassed. Couldn't check out there, so walked onto campus--calling b-cycle along the way to report the broken kiosk--to Nagel Hall (33) and rode from there to the Driscoll Center (34).

Those two DU stations were Denver's first.

It was about this time that I discovered the weird little thing on the handlebars by your left thumb is a bike bell! So I tootled around campus after that dinging and smiling at everybody.

Smashed screen

After a second Long Ride, during which I saw a group of b-cyclers among which might have been some of the six others to complete the tour that day, I arrived at the Cherry Creek mall (35), and hit the stops there (36, 37, 38) and stopped again to cool off for a spell at the Ross-Cherry Creek library.

There was a girl at the hot dog cart across the street who took off her shoes and waded into a fountain to cool off. It was hot, yall.

From there, to the Botanic Gardens (39) and 9th & Downing (40), 13th & Pearl (41), and finally to the last station at 19th & Pearl (42)!

Returning to Park and Tremont (1) completed the loop at about 3:30 PM. That's about nine hours altogether, including several long stops.

I then tried to check out another bike so I could ride to B-cycle HQ to turn in my found b-card, say hi to the crew, and fill up my water bottle. But instead I got another false check-out. Having run out of credit cards with which to buy memberships, I just grabbed my own bicycle and rode on over.

And that's pretty much all there is to say on the matter.

That was Friday, and my shwag was available after the weekend.

The ride was obviously not without its challenges, and the b-cycle system as a whole is obviously not without its own problems, but it's new. And it was a fun ride, and it's an awesome service to the city and people.

I'm happy to have it.

Ride on.

double heckle

2010-07-13T07:15:00.005-06:00

I've been heckled twice in the past two days. Disconcerting!

The first heckle was as articulate as the second one was incomprehensible, but both were uncalled for.

Heckle 1

The first happened in an intersection at 13th & Franklin, north of Cheesman Park.

What you can see in the photograph below is me, northbound, and a silver car, southbound, sitting at the traffic light like the good law-abiding vehicular citizens that we are. This photo also captures another cyclist blowing through the red light and looking quite tickled about it.

The cyclist may or may not have been naked.

I observed the cyclist go by, and continued waiting for the light to change. When I noticed the opposing light begin to change, as shown below, and after noting the lack of cross traffic, I started getting into my saddle and started inching forward. (I had forgotten to downshift approaching the stop, you see, and I knew it would take me a minute to get rolling.)

By the time I had entered the intersection, my light had turned fully green, and as the driver of the silver car also entered the intersection himself, he called out his window to me--both of us, mind you, in the intersection--"You actually let him influence you. That's sad!"

Referring, I believe, to the naked and grinning cyclist who ran the red light, and thereby, I believe, implying that I was submitting to some kind of peer pressure and running a red light.

Were this his assertion, then by his logic, his dumb ass was also running the red light. But the light was green, and-- gah!

It was a statement at such odds with reality that I couldn't even open my mouth to say anything until the car and I were practically a full block away from each other.

I continued to ponder it the whole way home, wondering what I would have said to him had I been given an opportunity to respond.

Heckle 2

This one happened at MLK and Franklin. (What's up with Franklin, right?) I was using the aforementioned MLK bike route to get home after work and was on the part of the route where the bike lanes gave way to some sharrows.

This is a two-lane one-way street. I was riding on the sharrows, and as I approached Franklin I looked behind me to check the traffic, because I was planning to change lanes and turn left onto Franklin to continue my ride home.

Behind me in my lane was one car, and in the passing lane next to our left were two cars. I realized I'd probably have to take the next left instead due to having to wait for at least those two cars to pass, and possibly the one behind me.

You know, elementary traffic maneuvering stuff.

The two cars to in the passing lane passed, and then the one behind me laid on the horn, kind of straddled to the two traffic lanes, and started to pass me.

I started to shake me head at the driver, hoping to convey the fact that he was in error, that I was doing nothing wrong, that I was disappointed in and a little embarrassed of his behavior.

It was a loaded head shake.

As he pulled up along side me, I made eye contact with him, hoping to really drive home the full effect of my poignant head shake, at which point he leaned in and kind of shook his fist a little and yelled, "Mufuckin shit ass, here!"

In answer to which I scolded him lamely, "No! That's wrong!"

I was referring not to his grammar and diction, but to his overall response to the situation.

He sped on and turned right at the next block, eager--I assume--to get out from under my scornful gaze and sad head shake.

And so that was the trifecta of Angry Motorist responses. I got a honk, a low grade buzz (he was half in my lane), and a cussin. The only thing missing was having something thrown at me, which thankfully I have never experienced.

Still, I was about as mad as I've even been after a traffic encounter, and I commented to myself that if I didn't flip him the bird for this--and I did consider it--then I'm just not a traffic birder. I am a head-shake-of-disapproval-er, which is far more lame, but which is probably safer in its lameness in that it will probably always fail to incite further action from an angry motorist.

MLK B-LANES

2010-07-11T20:27:00.007-06:00

So some new bike lanes went up on MLK Blvd a while ago. When they first went in, I was critical of them. "MLK is so busy, and cars just fly down it." Also, 29th Ave is bike route D6, a nice wide enjoyable route. (MLK is effectively 32nd Ave, only three blocks north of 29th.)

I hadn't ridden these bike lanes, and no plans to before hearing about the "Bike Lane Unveiling" that was planned one Friday morning. (Bikedenver's announcement here.) It sounded like it would be a hoot, so I turned out in Stapleton the morning of the event.

The Denver Bikerati were out in scores. Attendees and special guests included the Bike Depot's Chris Dunn (whose infant son wore the tiniest helmet and sunglasses, and had a kick-ass handlebar seat behind a large protective windshield), councilpersons Carla Madsen and Michael Hancock (both of whom rode b-cycles during the ride), bikedenver's Piep van Heuven (who is always awesome and fun to chat with), Senior City Planner Emily Kreisa, and others.

Clif Bar and Starbucks were both there handing out their wares. Some Stapleton neighborhood group was giving out bananas.

There was a lady there promoting a local car share program. She had a large beautiful dog next to the car, and I have to admit I felt as though I had been mislead when she admitted to me that the shared cars don't all come with large beautiful dogs. DANG!

There was also somebody there leading the crowd, which initially consisted of but one person, in pre-ride yoga exercises.

Councilperson M. Hancock on the left. Co-worker o' Mine D. W. on the right.

Incidentally, there was a five year old in the yoga crowd who could yoga the hell out of some yoga. All the adults were embarrassed of their own yoga when they saw this five year old busting out his own kick-ass yoga. He was like the Michael Jordan of basketball yoga, and everybody else was the Michael Jordan of minor league baseball yoga.

Some speakers did some speakin', during which it was spelled out to me what was significant and special about about the MLK bike lanes: they create the only continuous, newbie-friendly route between downtown Denver and Park Hill/Stapleton.

Once it was explained to me that way, I immediately ceased being critical of the MLK bike lanes. Suddenly, I was appreciative of them, and I admired them, and I valued them. They suddenly became awesome.

Some red string--perhaps it was a ribbon--was strung across the front of the podium where all the speakin' occured. Eleven or eight Important People were given tiny scissors, and together they cut the "ribbon" and the bike lanes were "opened."

The lanes had been painted and dry at least a week prior, and the cutting occurred several blocks from the beginning of the lanes. But nobody thought it appropriate to mention such things, and we all clapped and cheered instead. Hooray!

Then, soon, it was time to mount up (it means "get on your horses") and ride from Stapleton, down MLK and eventually along Champa, where we would end at Curtis Park. (Event map.)

It was a ride largely parallel to my daily commute, so it was familiar. But it was in orders of magnitude faster than usual. The reason being that we had a three car police escort through town, stopping cross traffic and ushering us through intersections. I guess that's the kind of service you get when city councilpersons are leading your bike ride.

Immediately I became accustomed to the VIP treatment, and every ride I have taken since then has been comparatively inferior and decidedly spoiled by the lack of fanfare and flashing lights.

The ride down MLK was fine. Somewhere between Steele (halfway through the phantom projection of City Park, blocks to the south) and York (exiting the phantom park) the bike lane ends and is replaced by a couple of sharrows. Which is fine for any experienced rider. But assuming these bike lanes exist for the novice Stapleton commuter, it might be somewhat unnerving to suddenly be thrust into traffic that heretofore had been driving mindlessly along without having to think of or otherwise consider the bikes that had been sectioned off and segregated in their own special private little bike lanes.

I don't recall seeing any "Bike Lane Ends" kind of sign. I think drivers and cyclists alike could benefit from one at that point.

When we arrived at Curtis Park, bikedenver had a booth set up with freebies and good will for all. There was also a cupcake truck! (I had the chocolate one because omg chocolate.)

Bikedenver unveiled (as far as this blogger is concerned) their new logo and branding. I told Piep it looked awesome, and she responded thankful that a macho dude such as I didn't find the cool blues too feminine.

So there ya go. A clear shot from downtown to Stapleton now exists.

The next question I have now is when will Stapleton get its first b-cycle station?

books n bikes

2010-07-07T12:29:00.001-06:00

Big and Tall

2010-06-12T06:32:00.001-06:00

via flickr

Tall bike with an xtracycle! Seriously.

Please restore access to Black Hawk

2010-06-10T11:48:00.004-06:00

The city of Black Hawk, Colorado has banned bicycles from most of its streets. You can read the press release and the actual legislation here. (via cityofblackhawk.org, which uses an annoying flash navigation menu).

I submitted the following email using language from Bicycle Colorado's response.

to: CityClerk@cityofblackhawk.org
date: Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 11:48 AM
subject: Please restore bicycle access to Black Hawk

To: Mayor David D. Spellman and Aldermen Linda Armbright, Paul G.
Bennett, Diane Cales, Kathleen Doles, Tom Kerr, Greg Moates

Please restore full bicycle access to the city of Black Hawk.

Your ban prevents residents from commuting and shopping by bicycle,
and from having the choice to live car-free. Your ban closes a
major cross-state route by denying bicyclists access to Gregory
Street/State Highway 279, the only paved street connecting the Peak to
Peak Highway with the Central City Parkway.

The reason for the ban is unclear because, although City Manager Mike
Copp said the ban was put in place "to promote safety," neither he nor
Police Chief Cole were able to cite any bicycle fatalities or
bicycle/automobile collisions preceding the ban.

And the ban was made, according to City Manager Copp, without any
input from bicyclists or bicycle organizations, despite Bicycle
Colorado's Dan Grunig's request that the ban be reconsidered so that
the bicycle community may have an opportunity to provide input.

Bikinginla offered this blurb, with informative links, on the matter:

Cyclelicious offers a couple of great looks at the Blackhawk, Colorado bike ban, which was supposedly done for safety reasons — even though there were no cyclist or pedestrian deaths in the entire county in the last four years for which records are available.

Spring is here! And bad cyclists!

2010-04-12T13:39:00.006-06:00

DPD Twitter

A cyclist died last night after colliding with an automobile. I used to live near the intersection in question. It's one of the more trafficky spots in an otherwise very calm, residential area.

According to the Denver Post article, the collision happened at about 8:30 PM, by which time it would have been mostly dark.

I don't know any of the circumstances surrounding this unfortunate event, but I choose to see it as a symptom of a certain trend I've been noticing. During the last several days, as the weather gets nicer, there has been a considerable increase in the number of cyclists out on the roads. Many of whom, since they weren't out on the roads during winter, are fair-weather pleasure-cruisers. And a large percentage of this group is doing it just plain wrong.

I've become more and more annoyed at cyclists as the temperatures approach 70 degrees. Come 8:30 PM, I am seeing tons of cyclists in dark clothing, with no lights and no helmets, often riding down roads so busy that I avoid them whenever I can.

There is scientific evidence of the presence of these idiot cyclists.

It's a graph. It must be true. That's science!

I had been lulled into complacency this winter by the fact that the majority of cyclists I encountered were careful, safety-conscious, and responsible riders. But now that it's getting nice outside, there are all these ninjas, salmons, scofflaws, and imbeciles. They're clogging up the tubes! I remember now feeling the same frustration last spring.

Well! This I guess is the season to do some Pirating!

I need to prepare some give-away packs.

Clear Creek Trail

2010-04-05T07:53:00.004-06:00

click through for to see traildenver's maps
I got a chance to go for a long ride this weekend, which included the leg of Clear Creek Trail between the South Platte River and Ralston Creek Trails.

There are three confluences along this section of trail. From northeast to southwest—

Clear Creek and South Platte River

Clear Creek and Little Dry Creek

Clear Creek and Ralston Creek

I am going to address these confluences in order, not geographic order, but in order of Nicety and Usefulness.

1. Ralston Creek Trail

This is the most intuitively navigable confluence of trails I've seen in Denver. I've taken the wrong turn at, or have at least hesitated at nearly all of them except this one. The first time I tried to take the South Platte River to work, I accidentally took Cherry Creek Trail at the confluence. Which is totally my fault because I am easily disoriented. I don't get that way here though. It's idiot proof.

Trail marker and Helpful Graffiti

I'm a fan of helpful graffiti. Especially in situations like this when you're out on the trail and don't necessarily have access to landmarks and cross-streets for reference.

This three way intersection is labeled "Arvada" for Ralston Creek Trail, "Denver" for eastbound Clear Creek, and "Golden" for westbound Clear Creek. Straightforward enough.

And the Ralston bridge is just pretty.

2. South Platte River

An A-OK juncture. Platte runs north/south, and Clear Creek runs east/west.

Eastbound on Clear Creek, there's a natural flow in the trail that usually suckers me into continuing north for a beat before I realize it, and that I wanted to take that wooden bridge back there on the right in order to continue on to Denver. So I have to stop and turn around.

It's a nice enough little rest stop, complete with benches and a small bathroom. I usually stop to stretch my legs.

There is a big trails map posted, but no markers by the intersections so you'll have to keep your direction clear in your head. There is a trail that I think just loops around the little confluence park, but I haven't ventured around it.

3. Little Dry Creek

Okay. This is my Bermuda Triangle. I have ridden past this lake half a dozen times and I continue to get completely disoriented every time I do. My motivation for making this post is the hope that if I write this down I will be able to proceed with confidence next time.

It's not the trails intersection so much as it is the lake just before it. Clear Creek seems to dead end at this lake, for when you come around to the other side of it, there's a hard left at the spill-over, and a sign informs you that you are getting on Little Dry Creek Trail.

Which always throws me because I always want to continue on Clear Creek. I don't want to go on Little Dry Creek. So I backtrack thinking I must have absentmindedly missed a fork. And when I don't see one, I waste a few more minutes looking at the trails map posted near the lake's street entrance, which is too large to offer any real detail and which has no "You Are Here" and which is just not helpful. So then I might surface to the street so I can see what my nearest cross streets are, thinking that the map might then be more useful.

Eventually, in desperation I just take the damn Little Dry Creek Trail. Which, ironically has been flooded every time I've ridden it.

And then a couple beats up the trail, I come to an intersection well marked with Helpful Graffiti. "Arvada" for westbound Clear Creek, "Westminster" for northbound Little Dry Creek, and "Denver" for eastbound Clear Creek.

So the point that I need to remember is that the "Little Dry Creek" marker at the lake is premature, or at least it does not signify the termination of Clear Creek. The trail fork lies past this misleading marker.

Icy roads ride report

2010-03-21T10:18:00.007-06:00

I have belly ached and moaned this winter whenever road conditions got icy or slippery enough to prevent me from riding. That's because until about a month ago, I didn't have any tires available to me other than skinny road ones. And so I fell down a lot on the ice.

But, about a month ago, I adopted an abandoned mountain bike. It had been left unchained behind my place of employment, by the dumpsters. We brought it in and waited for about three weeks for somebody to come inquire about it, but nobody did, and now it's mine.

I got to take it out on the ice yesterday after it snowed the whole previous day long.

I had made it several blocks and was in a neighboring residential area when I had an encounter of the up-close and vehicular kind. Recapping it to a coworker in an email:

The car was some yellow thing. Maybe a Volkswagon? It was parked parallel to the street on my right, and the windows were COMPLETELY iced over. Hardly a peep hole to see through. So as I got close to it, it backed up suddenly, SLAMMING into the car behind it. Nothing shattered but there was a loud thunk. And then it pulled out into the street when I was right next to it. I had to swerve out of the way and almost wiped out in the process. I yelled at them to stop, but they sped off.

The car had Florida tags, so maybe they don't know much about things like Ice or Snow. Or Driving. Or Not Being A Miserable Human Being. While it may not be fair, I'm harboring some ill will towards all things Floridian today.

I have since let Florida off the hook.

I yelled at the driver to stop because I intended to instruct them to scrape the ice off their windows before continuing. In the moment, latching on to the fact that they had Florida tags, I really did think they might not know about ice scraping. I was prepared to show them how to do it with a credit card if they didn't have a scraper.

That all passed through my head in a split-second while the car spun its wheels and sped away.

A few houses further along, an older gentleman stood in his driveway where he had seen the whole thing. He look bewildered.

A quick thinking bystander was able to photograph the incident:

My ride continued towards, and into, Wash Park. The roads in Wash Park had not been cleared and it was just covered with ice. I got a bad case of the wobbles and nearly fell over. So I dismounted, portaged my bike through the ankle deep snow, and got back on the main road. As I was pedaling off again, a jogger acknowledged the fact that I was riding in the cold and slippery by hollering at me, "You're a brave man!" To which I assured him it was safer for me on the dry street than in the icy, more slippery, park.

I did not stop to show him the print-out of the photograph of my previous encounter with the yellow car.

I made it the rest of the way to work after stopping once to warm my hands.

Safe and sound, at my place of employment, I unclipped my helmet, swung my leg over the back of my bike to dismount, and tore my pants.

Between the new tear and the skunk stripe that comes from riding through wet stuff without fenders, these pants were trashed!

My boss looked concerned upon my arrival, and then looked visibly relieved when I emerged from the bathroom in a fresh, crisp change of clothes.

Eight hours of work ensued, and when it was time to return home, the sun had been out all day and the roads were completely clear. I wore just two t-shirts under my jacket instead of the two long-sleeve shirts from that morning. What a difference!

Between my weather gear and my work clothes, here is a list of all the clothing I carried with me.

Buff. Worn like a balaclava in the morning and a head scarf in the afternoon. (My buff is my favorite piece of cycling gear. I use it all year long.)

Two long-sleeve t-shirts. For the morning ride.

T-shirt and button down shirt. For work.

Another, heavy long sleeve shirt. For work.

Tights and (currently trashed) khakis. For morning ride.

Blue jeans. For work.

One pair of wool socks, one pair of wool gloves.

My reflective cycling jacket.

Shirt total: 5
Pants total: 3

That's roughly the amount of clothing I pack for a long weekend vacation!

Two steps forward, one step back

2010-03-20T12:03:00.009-06:00

The beginning of March was an excellent time for cyclists everywhere. The Bike League's National Bike Summit was held in DC, and there was some serious advocating and politicking done:

Google maps unveiled it's "bike there" layer.

Bikes Belong launched it's People For Bikes campaign.

It was announced that bike lanes will be installed on Pennsylvania Avenue. (Some really cool looking ones, at that!)

Ray LaHood, your Secretary of Transportation, crashed the conference, jumped atop a table, and shouted down a sea change policy revision meant to be the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.

It was exciting stuff, yall. It was enough to make me feel optimistic and hopeful about the future of our streets and transportation and access.

But then right at the same time—on the last day of the Bike Summit, actually—Tony Kornheiser, host of ESPN's Pardon The Interuption, goes on a good six minute rant about bicyclists. (For the time being, it can be heard on YouTube.) Here are a couple of selected highlights from the transcript posted at washcycle.

I don't mind those one lanes, but you get in Rock Creek Park and 3 or 4 of these people start riding abreast, and I swear to you it's all you can do to not RUN THEM DOWN, like Wile Coyote's, run them over.

They don't share the road. They dominate the road. They dare you to run them down. And then when you do, they get angry.

TK: And so you tap them. I'm not saying you kill them. I'm saying you tap them. Tap them once.
Other Dude: Just a spill, not a fatal spill, but a little spill.
TK: If you're not rubbing, you're not racing right? So you pop them a little bit and see what happens.

The rant was immediately picked up and commented on by Lance Armstrong who, with a few mere flicks of his thumbs, was able to mobilize the entirety of the interwebs. This lead to a slew of complaints, a guest spot for Armstrong on the show, and an apology from Kornheiser.

Which is good. Because it was a horrible thing to have said. Cyclists are attacked by motorists. That happens. For instance, the recent Dr. Thompson trial just got a ton of media attention. Those victims happened to survive the encounter. Plenty more cyclists don't survive theirs. There's a ghost bike memorial near my house in testament to that fact.

And while I am plenty angry at Kornheiser, I don't think he's the guiltiest party. Pardon The Interruption is a comedy/sports show, and the host was putting on a show. He's a shock-jock and a loud-mouth. It's part of his "crotchety old man" shtick. He's an entertainer and he's doing exactly what he is paid to do. He drummed up some controversy, got a lot of attention and a big reaction, and got one of the world's top celebrity-athletes to appear on his show. He was doing his job, and he was doing it well.

ESPN, however, I can fault. They're paying the man to say that kind of stuff. They're the man behind the curtain. So I'll be writing them a good break-up letter. (Radio station management can be reached here.) But I don't consume any of ESPN's products so I don't feel very empowered by doing that. (ESPN is 80% owned by Disney. What hope is there in affecting any kind of change when you're dealing with so large a beast?) According to the wiki, the program is sponsored by Diageo, a beverage company with a lot of products I can choose to not consume out of protest. I can definitely feel good about efforts to get them to pull sponsorship.

Once I'm on this path of escalating blame, though, I realize that ESPN wouldn't air that kind of drivel if it wasn't profitable. It's the consumers who are entertained by violence and bigotry who are creating a market in which Kornheiser is employable.

Which is why I'm encouraged by the outcry and the backlash. Perhaps ESPN will begin to suspect that Kornheiser isn't employable.

Kornheiser, incidentally, was given a two-week suspension earlier this year after making fun of ESPN television personality Hannah Storm's attire. So if endorsing vehicular manslaughter is worse by several degrees than criticizing a woman's wardrobe, then there must be an equally harsher suspension to follow. Possibly a termination!

Right?

Fat chance.

It's so discouraging because there great things happening right now for pedestrians and bicyclists and skateboarders and rollerbladers and public transit-ers and anybody else who may not always rely on a car for transportation. Great things. The US Secretary of Friggin Transportion jumped up on a table and said so himself! Streets are being built, and are being retro-fitted, in such a way that safely promotes all modes of transportation.

But there are still ignorant, or vicious, groups of individuals who actually believe in—and act on!—the kinds of things that Kornheiser said on air. So to give Kornheiser leeway to encourage and incite such behavior is reckless, dangerous, irresponsible, and stupid.

But I continue feel that, in a way, getting mad at Kornheiser is like getting mad at a dog's teeth if it bites you. The teeth are certainly the offensive part, but they are also implements of a larger entity.

Freebie Bottles and Lanes on 16th Ave

2010-03-18T10:49:00.007-06:00

I got a new water bottle from the Census Bureau!

It doesn't look nearly as good as the blue on blue, but that old bottle is ... old. And getting kinda beat up. I might go back to carrying it just for aesthetics, but for now I'm glad to add a little more political content to my bike.

"I ride a bike and I count."

Plus, this continues my life long streak of having never bought a (bicycle) water bottle.

I got the bottle at a meeting in downtown Denver, a meeting after which I had to ride back to where I work. So I hopped on the E/W leg of the Teenybopper Mallrat Route, and soon fell in alongside this other biker. We started chatting, and as we approached an intersection a car pulled up to the stop sign at our left and came to a full stop. The driver looked at us, and then started to proceed through the intersection while we were in the middle of it.

I hollered and the car stopped, while my new cycling partner pointed angrily to the driver's stop sign.

That gave us plenty to talk about until we parted ways a few blocks later.

"What a bozo!"

"I thought he saw us, but I guess he didn't!"

"It's like, I'm amazed I haven't been hit yet, you know?"

I recall several friends of mine saying they've almost been hit along that same stretch of 16th Avenue. It may have something to do with the fact that the bike lane there doesn't resemble a bike lane as much as it does a shoulder in need of some patching over.

click through for street view

It just doesn't look like a bike lane. It looks like a wide shoulder, or like street parking. I'm not surprised that a lot of cars don't think to look for cyclists.

I found myself riding outside the bike lane and in the traffic lane during the remainder of my time on this street.

Compare that to the bike lane on Montview, which I got to ride on during another leg of my ride.

click through for street view

That looks like a bike lane. At least, it's recognizable to motorists, and doesn't look simply like a wide shoulder.

16th Avenue probably needs a bit of a touch up to its lane markers. As it is, bicyclists aren't as visible as they could be. Until then, I'll probably just continue to eschew the bike lane and utilize the traffic lane.

=-=-=-=

Edit:

Consider further the new DC bike lanes! Holy cow!

Springtime and Plunder

2010-03-17T10:06:00.004-06:00

In regards to Daylight Saving Time having done happened, I dig the extra light in the evenings, but am not sure I like the drastic difference in temperature between my morning commute and my evening one. It means having to layer very intelligently. In the mornings I still need layers over my ears and fingers. In the evenings, I can wear nothing but a t-shirt.

This morning though was nice! It's only March though and Spring is a fickle tease. There will be snow storms between now and then.

I was able to pillage some road side finds during my commute!

I plundered this little one-armed snowman.

There was also a large extension cord that I did not stop for.

Read what you will into the fact that I stopped for the toy and not for the object of actual utility.

I've got priorities! Not sure what they are!

Bike Friendly Businesses, Winter 2010

2010-03-12T15:11:00.008-07:00

So the LAB has announced its Bike Friendly Business award winners for winter, 2010. Like it has done in the past, it released the data as a PDF document, rendering it pretty impossible to analyze.

So, like I have done in the past, I copied it into vim and regexp'd it into a CSV file so I could sort it and take a look at it.

So here's the breakdown.

Number of new awards by type, and Percent increase by award type

Bronze: 25
Silver : 17
Honorable Mention: 12
Gold: 9
Platinum: 0

Gold: 75%
Honorable Mention: 70%
Silver: 68%
Bronze: 61%
Platinum: 0%

Number of new awards by state, and Percent increase in number of Bike Friendly Businesses by state

1. Wisconsin - 12
2. Minnesota - 8
3. Nebraska - 7
4. California - 6
5. Utah - 3
5. Virginia - 3
5. Illinois - 3
6. Tennessee - 2
6. Michigan- 2
6. New Hampshire - 2
6. Ohio - 2
7. Arkansas - 1
7. Arizona - 1
7. Florida - 1
7. Iowa - 1
7. Maryland - 1
7. Montana - 1
7. Oregon - 1
7. Pennsylvania - 1
7. South Carolina - 1
7. Texas - 1
7. Washington - 1
7. West Virgina - 1
7. District of Columbia - 1

1. New Hampshire - Infinitely more BFB. (Debut state)
1. Ohio - Infinitely more BFB. (Debut state)
1. Arizona - Infinitely more BFB. (Debut state)
1. Montana - Infinitely more BFB. (Debut state)
2. Nebraska - 350%
3. Utah - 300%
3. Wisconsin - 300%
3. Virginia - 300%
4. Minnesota - 114%
5. Tennessee - 100%
5. West Virgina - 100%
6. Illinois - 75%
7. California - 50%
7. Florida - 50%
7. Maryland - 50%
8. Michigan: 33%
8. Arkansas - 33%
8. Texas - 33%
8. Pennsylvania - 33%
8. Iowa - 33%
9. South Carolina - 25%
9. District of Columbia - 25%
10. Oregon - 12.5%
11. Washington - 9%

Number of new awards by region, and Percent Increase by Region, and new totals by region

1. Great Lakes/Midwest - 35
2. The South - 10
3. Coastal Pacific - 8
4. Northeast/Mid-Atlantic - 5
4. Mountains and the West - 5

1. Great Lakes/Midwest - 152%
2. The South - 62.5%
3. Mountains and the West - 50%
4. Northeast/Mid-Atlantic - 35.7%
5. Coastal Pacific - 25%

1. Great Lakes/Midwest - 58
2. Pacific Coastal - 39
3. The South - 26
4. Northeast/Mid-Atlantic - 19
5. Mountains and the West - 15

Motobikes

2010-03-12T13:14:00.003-07:00

I read an article yesterday about biking in Beijing. As car ownership has surged over recent years, the population went from 4 out of 5 Beijingers commuting by bicycle to just 1 out of 5. Automobile traffic and congestion have consequently become a problem, and so there is now a counter surge in the popularity of electric bicycles.

At a certain point, these bikes simply become motorcycles, and so Beijingers are debating how to regulate these speedy and silent bikes—or if they should at all.

I don't think I've ever seen an electric bike, but I did see this homebrew moped parked outside the library one day.

I'm not sure what kind of motor he had rigged to that rack, but it looked like one off a dirty old weedwacker. Something where you have to mix the gas and the oil together. The engine spins the cam that rests atop the wheel, propelling the vehicle forward.

It didn't go too fast. But there was sure no danger of the rider ever sneaking up on anybody. You could hear him coming from around the block!

Fix a flat: leave the wheel on!

2010-03-11T11:09:00.004-07:00

It never occurred to me that you might leave the wheel on while changing a flat. Game changer! I may never take off a wheel again!

(via clevercycles)

Wash Park

2010-03-10T14:21:00.003-07:00

I get to ride through Washington Park during my commute if I want to. After work on a recent Tuesday, I wanted to, so I did. And as I approached the park, my progress was obstructed by a hundred or so joggers jogging around the perimeter.

Turns out the Wash Park Running Club meets every Tuesday at 6:00 PM to pound pavement.

Their facebook page looks marginally active, and their website sucks, so I guess that's all I have to say about that. They look comparatively inferior, based solely on web presence, to the Snug Runners, who operate out of an Irish bar and claim the turf around Cheesman Park.

This morning's ride through Wash Park revealed a few gems, including the Wash Park Gondolier.

Dude was in hiking boots and a helmet, paddling his skateboard through the park. The paddle had what looked like two large rubber balls attached to the end.

It felt significant to have happened upon this gentleman shortly after having first stumbled upon pavedwave.org and "long distance pumping." This guy was not pumping, but he was making good, creative use of his longboard, and I salute him for that.

At the southern end of the park, I came across a closed and boarded up public restroom. It's apparently being renovated as part of the Better Denver Bond Project.

One social critic voiced his displeasure about suddenly being denied access to the restroom.

Alleyway

2010-03-10T10:57:00.005-07:00

Upon a closer look, and actually riding the route, The Google did in fact suggest that I ride through the alley for four blocks.

The street view of the alley shows what I saw first-hand this morning: it's a wide, clean alley. Nice enough as alleys go.

But bikes don't go in alleys. They go on roads.

I submitted a problem report under the "Directions suggest a route that is difficult or restricted" category, because there wasn't an explicit "Directions suggest a route that is unsafe" category.

Bicycles should not be directed through alleys. It is safer for the cyclist, fir [sic] pedestrians on the sidewalks, and for motorists on the streets if the cyclist behaves as much like a car as possible. They should stay on the streets, proper.

You wouldn't randomly or spontaneously drive your car through the alley for several blocks. It wouldn't be safe!

And if you wouldn't drive that way in your car, you shouldn't drive that way on your bike.

Bike directions on Google maps

2010-03-10T08:33:00.005-07:00

With the advent of the iPhone, it is possible to wake up only to find oneself adrift in the tubes before getting out of bed. And so I woke up this morning to find one email from the bike league, and a plethora of twooshes, all excitedly and twitchily informing me that Google Maps has added a bicycling option to its directions-finder.

I shuffled from the bed to the office, fired up the laptop, and had a gander for myself. I asked for The Google to plot my commute and to optimize the route for a bicyclist, and it proceeded to do its damnedest.

Critique of its optimized route

+1 for existing. For showing up. For bike directions even being an option. Thank you The Google for offering this service so that the people doing their living might realize the possibility of doing it by bike, alleviating wear on the roads and instead putting a healthy amount of it on their bodies.

+1 right off the bat for designated bike routes and trails being visible (highlighted in green) and for using them where possible.

-1 for making heavy use of traffic-heavy Downing Street! Granted, there are a number of blocks on which I'll ride Downing, but it's primarily not very ... Whoa, hold on a tic. What's this? The route here suddenly jumps between northbound Downing and southbound Corona. As though indicating there's a bike path in the median?

No, as though directing bike traffic through the alley! What kind of shenanigans is this? This shall not go uninvestigated!

+1 for inciting investigatory adventurism, with the possibility of later docking points for directing bike traffic off of roads and into alleys.

-1 for utilizing a bike route two blocks west of beautiful Cheesman Park instead of routing through the park. Optimizing directions for a cyclist should account for scenery-beauty. When will the Google learn to appreciate beauty?

-1 for routing the ride down 1st Ave, in front of the Denver Country Club, which is a dangerous sidewalk in winter because they don't shovel their walk. On the other hand, this option is fine in warmer weather, and whether or not to take it is a personal preference, but this is my list, so I'm docking a point.

+1 for making good use of the Cherry Creek Trail. The Google has accounted well for scenery-beauty!

Tallying up the score, it appears we are left with a total of one Arbitrary Unit of Judginess.

I am happy to have the "bike it" option on Google maps. It pleases me. Using it will be quicker than looking at driving directions and then overlaying my own map of bike routes. But it's definitely in Beta, and I'll be handling its suggestions in the meanwhile as though they are likely to be buggy. Because they are.

Bikes and beer

2010-03-05T14:59:00.001-07:00

Denver Country Club doesn't shovel its sidewalks.

2010-02-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

It has been a cold and wet winter. One result of this is that I haven't been riding as much because the roads have been so icy. But another result of this is that is I have acquired a mountain bike! (Or "rescued" one, as they say.) So I don't have to be quite as skiddish on the ice as I am on the skinny little tires of my zippy little road bike.

One stretch of bike route that has made skiddish is the portion of D14 that runs east/west along 1st Avenue, north of the Denver Country Club.

This is also part of the Cherry Creek Trail, where it briefly comes above ground.

First of all, this is one of the more sketchy "Use the sidewalk" portions of bike route that I have seen in Denver. The sidewalk feels narrow. There's enough room for opposing foot/bike traffic to pass each other, but there have been several instances where I decided to stop and wait for the oncoming joggers or bikers to pass before continuing. Especially when portions of the sidewalk are lost to ice mounds.

Further more, this narrow little sidewalk is woefully unprotected from the 1st Avenue traffic. Here's what a well protected sidewalk looks like.

This sidewalk, an example from completestreets.org, protects users from street traffic with grass, trees, and a shoulder on the road. Actually, it looks a lot like the the west side of the same country club:

Compare the above sidewalks to the one in question, along 1st Avenue:

This sidewalk in no way protects its users from street traffic, which you can see is considerable.

Imagine once more that the sidewalk—as is often the case—is covered in ice. On this sidewalk, a slip or a spill could mean instantly entering the flow of traffic if you're not riding close to the hedge.

The hedge, incidentally, which is just tall enough to prevent any sunlight from hitting the sidewalk, leaving it caked in ice long after it has melted off elsewhere.

And so, although I might brave it now that I have this new mountain bike, I've taken to abjuring this little stretch of D14/Cherry Creek Trail/1st Avenue. I've marked it as a seasonal trail hazard on my map. And I'm going to call up the country club and suggest they raise their dues if they can't spare twenty dollars to outsource the shoveling of their sidewalks to a twelve year old from the neighborhood.

Life is a bicycle

2010-02-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

Life is a bicycle. If you want it to take you places, then you're gonna have to pedal.

Life is a bicycle. You might be a little sweaty by the end, but that's the cost of doing business. Besides, you're a mammal and that's what mammals do.

Life is a bicycle. Sometimes you fall down.

Life is a bicycle. And sometimes it gets cold, and sometimes you get a flat. Remember to bring your gloves and your patch kit.

Life is a bicycle. The uphill parts are hard and the downhill parts are fun.

Life is a bicycle. That means whatever you want it to mean.

Life is a bicycle. Yours is probably just as good as anybody else's, but if you really want to you can get a new one.

Life is a bicycle. You decide what makes it good.

Life is a bicycle. You can spend as much or little time, effort, and money on improving it as you want.

Life is a bicycle: more versatile and useful than one might think.

Life is a bicycle. And that's awesome.

Life is a bicycle. Sometimes you arrive with skinned hands and grease on your clothes.

Life is a bicycle. So bicycle maintenance and repair are both handy skills to have.

Life is a bicycle. Watch out for cars and don't get run over.

Life is a bicycle. Sometimes you need to announce your intent, assert your lane position, and otherwise stand up for yourself.

Life is a bicycle, and any schmuck can ride a bicycle.

Life is a bicycle. It ain't going to pedal itself.

Life is a bicycle. You may have ten speeds but I bet you only ever use maybe three of them.

Life is a bicycle. Then what is your bike shop?

Life is a bicycle. The local bike shop is your hospital/church/mechanic.

Life is a bicycle. And there's only so much you can do about the rain.

Life is a bicycle. Wanna ride on my handlebars?

Life is a bicycle. That kind of limits the amount of crap you can carry with you.

Life is a bicycle. If you learn to adjust it so it fits you, you'll be a lot more comfortable.

Life is a bicycle. WHEEEEEEEEEEE!

Life is a bicycle. And a child's bike is just as much a bike as yours is.

The Hummer is dead

2010-02-24T16:05:00.002-07:00

Ding-dong, the Hum-Ding-Danger is dead: GM shuts down Hummer.

So that was the final nail in the coffin.

Anybody who needs a coffin that big is clearly overcompensating.

plundered a wallet

2009-12-08T18:53:00.010-07:00

826 Valencia's "Goals for the Voyage" so closely mirror the objectives of the Bike Pirates that we have officially adopted them as our own.

"Meet New People" is something you obviously do at events, during group rides, and on the interwebs. To Learn Valuable New Skills such as bicycle repair/maintenance is important and might save your behind out there on the road or trail. And to Plunder is fun! Or at least interesting, as documented from time to time in Flickr's Roadside Finds group.

And it is plundering that I wish to talk about today!

On the way to work last week, I saw a wallet lying near the gutter of the street. It was one of those things that, had I been in a car, I would never ever have seen in the first place, nor would I have been able or inclined to stop, turn around, and go back for it.

But I was on my bike, so I did see it. And I did stop, turn around, and go back for it.

But I was also on my way to work, so after I confirmed that there was nobody nearby who might have dropped a wallet, I continued on my way while planning to investigate the found wallet once I got to my destination. After, that is, stopping on the way for a coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I didn't want to alter my commute plans just because I found a wallet on the ground!

Searching the wallet later, I was able to learn the owner's phone number, which was disconnected, his email address, which produced results on neither MySpace nor Facebook, and his street address, which was on my way home. I also learned all the details concerning the owner's Initial Arrival because his original birth certificate was folded into the billfold!

Left with only street address, I struck out after work with the intention of knocking on doors.

I wouldn't recommend that anybody go knocking on doors by themselves after dark like I did, by the way. I didn't think too much of it until I found myself trying to explain my presence to a wary and skeptical looking older lady who eventually decided I must be harmless, identified herself as the owner's aunt, and accepted the wallet.

I hope she was telling me the truth!

People, bikes lead to adventures.

Boneshaker!

2009-12-08T13:43:00.006-07:00

I got my first issue of the Boneshaker Almanac last night!

It's a small little publication, pocket-sized and looking just like the Field Guide it claims to be. It doesn't lack anything because of size, though. The goodness starts just inside the front cover, upper left hand corner, with the publishers information and the copyright information, similar to Dave Eggars' A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius.

Speaking of the publisher, Wolverine Farms Publishing is based nearby in Fort Collins. Like New Belgium Brewery, which is the first thing I think of when I think of Fort Collins, and that would be simply a coincidental association if it weren't for the New Belgium banner at the top of the Wolverine Farms website. I'm not sure what the connection is there, but I'm not surprised by it. New Belgium is pretty well established in the bike scene, and Wolverine Farms publishes bike almanac. So I guess they would be friends.

The neat thing about the publisher being so nearby is that some of the content is real local news.

Like the picture of Pennyfarthing Guy that appears in the middle of the advice column. I've seen Pennyfarthing Guy pedaling down Cherry Creek, and I saw him at BikeDenver.org's volunteer appreciation party, although I didn't introduce myself.

And like the interview with Brad Evans, editor of Kickstand Magazine and Denver Cruisers Ride architect, wherein he totally called out and heaped scorn upon the skofflaw BIKE NINJAS and their unilluminated ways. Brad Evans, I hereby bestow upon you the title of "Honorary Bike Pirate."

The content wasn't all local though, not by any means. There are blips and blurbs from Texas and beyond, including a bit about biking in Birmingham by Elisa from bikeskirt!

It has the aforementioned advice column, and a book review of David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries. I'm not even finished reading this almanac yet, but I'm obviously tickled thus far.

By which I mean to say, subscriptions are cheap and I endorse it. Go ahead and order a couple copies.

cold cold cold

2009-12-08T12:41:00.003-07:00

Bikes and the City made (an ironic) reference to the "cold" 40 degree weather they're having in San Fransisco right now.

Which made me grumble.

We're experiencing a prolonged snap of "cold" 5 degree weather. Which is problematic in that the streets having un-frozen for a couple days now. Cold weather I can handle, but I don't enjoy riding on ice because I don't enjoy falling down.

Consequently, I've been off the bike for two days now and commuting by car feels strange.

anti-theft spray

2009-12-06T19:26:00.001-07:00

This just in! Workcycles sells an Anti-Theft Spray.

umbrellas in the rain

2009-12-06T18:20:00.005-07:00

So this post on Bakfiets en Meer touches on the fact that the dutch are likely to bike in the rain. Which is fine and good. I've ridden in the rain, and it can be enjoyable under the right conditions.

What the post doesn't explicitly say, but does depict in the accompanying image, is that a lot of cyclists choose to bike in the rain while holding an umbrella.

Not like this crazy banana-helmet dude.

But more like, you know, one hand on the handlebar and one hand on the umbrella.

Which sounds crazy dangerous, right?

Although you can apparently ride with 1.6 hands on the handles like the Japanese:

In Japan, when it rains it is common to see cyclists holding umbrellas. I watched closely, and it seemed like they hold the handle between their thumb and first finger, while keeping the other three on the brake lever.

Of course, sidewalk riding is also common there, so perhaps Japanese practice is not the safest in the world.
—bikeforums.net

All the same, I don't think I could I could do it. I imagine it would be far too distracting and akin to biking while talking on your cell-phone. And cell-phoning while driving is something I wasn't on board with even before reading Traffic.

ice bike

2009-12-02T19:42:00.002-07:00

Especially my front tire. I was pretty much riding on the rim, and I have no idea how I didn't notice. I must have been focusing too hard on the ice and the traffic.

When I parked my bike, both tires were covered in a thin layer of water/snow, through which the escaping air bubbled and hissed and mini-gurgled. It's a weird noise and when you hear it, it's obvious that it's not good.

When I went to pull out the front tube to patch it, I noticed that it wasn't 100% flat as I had thought. It was more like 75% flat, but seemed to be holding air at that point. I was curious about whether the sealant goop had somehow gooped up and sealed the leak, so I just pumped both the tires up instead of pulling it all apart.

The front one held. So, yippee!

The rear one apparently has a slow leak, but slow enough to let me ride home on it after another pre-departure pump.

I'll have to find and patch that leak tomorrow.

On the way home, about four blocks from work, I wobbled on some ice and fell down. A Schwann's truck that was approaching me slowed, and the driver hollered out the window, "Whoa dude, are you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks!" I answered.

"That ice is hard," he called.

"Yup."

At that point we both continued along our original trajectories.

Roads in the south

2009-11-29T08:56:00.004-07:00

I've been in Birmingham, my home town, this Thanksgiving. And I've been looking at the town of my youth through a fresh set of eyes, through a new lens. My impression of Birmingham may now be forever skewed, partially because of my experiences from bike commuting in Denver for a over a year, but more so because of having read the Dangerous by Design report, and because of my ensuing obsession with complete streets and safe infrastructure.

Birmingham streets suck. It's obvious and it's tragic.

As I drive though the heart of downtown and as I drive through the surrounding suburbs, I can't help but feel all kinds of respect and admiration for Elisa, Anna, and all the other souls who choose to brave the roads and bike in the south.

I don't know what it is about rural areas that spell out danger for pedestrians, and the report focuses on metro areas with populations of over one million, so I lack data on smaller rural areas. But I would suspect that small rural towns aren't much safer than large southern cities.

That is, I don't think it unreasonable for Zoe's mom insist she wear construction gear while out for a jog.

No matter where you go, you're likely to hear an assertion following the "People in x drive y" formula. And sometimes there's some truth to these assertions. For example, people in Denver drive through red lights. They just do. I find myself doing it, too. The traffic signals have odd timing cycles.

And people in Birmingham drive fast, through neighborhoods and down side streets, amongst pedestrians and joggers and people walking their dogs who don't have sidewalks or other mobility options.

Edit: It was just brought to my attention on BikeSkirt that Alabama ranked dead last, 50 out of 50, on the League's list of Bicycle Friendly States this year.

It's depressing and it's discouraging, but I find hope in the fact that several of the most dangerous metro areas are now also leading the pack in spending on walking and biking. It suggests to me that they have realized that something is wrong and the cities are now taking steps toward fixing the problem.

And I'm encouraged by advocacy groups like Birmingham's Bicci Coop, and these guys, who are organizing a car free week in Jackson, Mississippi, a town too small to land on the list of 52 large metro areas, but which has a pedestrian danger index higher than the fifth most dangerous area.

So. Good luck to them and to everybody else out there drawing attention to inadequate and dangerous infrastructure.

I hope you soon get to enjoy the safe roads you deserve and that you don't get hit by a car before then.

Can pretty people literally stop traffic?

2009-11-23T10:32:00.003-07:00

Found a research paper, Designing Roads that Guide Drivers to Choose Safer Speeds (pdf), that's interesting to skim over. The authors are able quantify how much things like sidewalks/curbs, on-street parking, and building setback affect how fast drivers choose to drive.

For example, given two streets with speed limits of 35 mph, drivers on the one with a sidewalk average 34.7 mph. Drivers on the road without the sidewalk averages 42 mph.

One of the most interesting parts of this report is the effect of beauty on the speed of traffic. A line pulled from the report and highlighted on the Tom Vanderbilt Traffic blog—

The aesthetics or “beauty” of a road environment has also been investigated in relation to traffic safety. Drottenborg (1999) studied the impact of speed on streets that appear as “beautiful” due to the blossoming of cherry trees along the streets in Lund during springtime, and similar streets that lack such beautification. She found that the free-flow mean speed decreased by about 5 percent and the number of vehicles traveling at high speeds between 50-60 km/h decreased by about 12 percent during the cherry blossom period.

That's pretty awesome.

And I know it to be true. I definitely slow to an amble down streets like Montview when the leaves are starting to change.

Of course, there is an associated increase in the appreciation of your surroundings as you slow down. It allows you to stop and smell the proverbial roses. Or coffee. Or bacon. Or whatever it is you like to smell.

And I have to be careful not so succumb to modal bias here. You can see and appreciate more on a bicycle than you can zooming along in your car. But I've definitely seen and noticed things while strolling on foot that I missed while zooming along on my bike.

D2: From Lakeside Amusement to Wall Mart

2009-11-19T16:43:00.020-07:00

Route summary!

D2. The northernmost E/W route on the grid. It stretches from the Denver/Jefferson county at 43rd and Sheridan, by Lakeside Amusement Park and Berkeley Lake, across town to Wall Mart, just this side of Stapleton. And between the two endpoints is a nice little ride!

0.00 miles - West 43rd Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard. This initial stretch of road is pleasant because you start out right on Berkeley Park. I loved going to this park when I lived near here. It has a rec center with a pool, a fenced in dog park, a public library, a big lake with fishing and a walking trail around it. It was tempting to stop the ride before it even began and loiter about, enjoying the morning here.

0.07 miles - Double sharrows!

0.52 miles - DOUBLE EFFING SHARROWS. (At Tennyson St.) There are three generations of sharrows painted on this street. The most recent ones look bold and bright. The next oldest are clearly visible, and the oldest ones are very faded. But you can see nearly all of them clearly enough. There's one every couple of feet! It's impossible for a motorist on this street not to know that there may be bicycles about.

1.14 miles - Rocky Mountain Lake Park. Another park. With another lake. But this one has a big damn frog.

And how does this rinky-dink little park win the thousand dollar name of "Rocky Mountain Park?" Is it the big damn frog? Must be.

2.60 miles - Turn right onto Navajo Street. The turn is labeled. If you're paying attention, you can't miss it.

2.92 miles - Turn left at West 43rd Avenue. This turn is not labeled. If you don't know to turn here, you'll miss out on the best part of ride, coming up ahead.

3.24 miles - 43rd Avenue dead ends at Inca Street. At the 43rd Ave Foot Bridge!

I wasn't positive this thing existed. I decided to do this ride in the first place because somebody arrived at this website by searching for "denver d-2 bicycle 43rd bridge." I felt bad for whoever that was because I, until now, I didn't have a lick of information about it.

So when you turn on to it, 43rd dead ends after only a few blocks at Inca Street. Beyond Inca are the train tracks. Before the tracks is a several stories tall foot bridge. I didn't think it was open at first because of the abandoned fire tower look it has, but when I went in for a closer look, I discovered that it's a solid, concrete over pass. There's a small stairwell in the middle that you have to carry your bike up (PORTAGE!) and then you have to carry it back down the other side again, obviously. And then there's a small patch of dirt between you and where 43rd continues.

Portaged my bike and got some mud on my tires. Awesome.

3.45 miles - Left on Fox Street.

3.53 miles - Turn right onto West 44th Avenue, which will carry you right over I-25, and then curve north to parallel the freeway.

3.99 miles - Turn right onto East 45th Avenue. And welcome to Globeville! This is a neat little neighborhood. Globeville proper spreads out farther than this, but this is a cute little 3x8 blocks neighborhood confined by I-25 the to west, I-70 to the north, and the Platte River to the south and east. Watch out for the White Owl on your left. Apparently a groovy little dive bar. I'll have to go back for a few brewskies some time.

4.46 miles - Across Washington Street is BikeDonalds, which sits right on the South Platte trail, has ample bike parking and bicycle themed art on the walls inside. Either stop for a milkshake, or continue through the parking lot, onto the trail, and north one exit.

4.72 miles - Go under E 47th Ave (it's labeled), keep going for a heartbeat and then turn around and proceed up the ramp. Turn left onto 47th and continue towards the Colosseum/National Western Complex. 47th Street will go underneath I-70 and then dead-end at a stop sign. Turn left. Hard left. Onto Humboldt.

5.32 miles - Turn right onto East 47th Avenue.

5.92 miles - Here's a funky little place where 47th starts to curve northwards, and then crosses York and you have to turn hard right, almost doubling back the way you came, and then continue across to remain on 47th. It's not tricky. It'll make sense when you see it. It's not a big deal.

6.24 miles - Right onto Clayton

6.54 miles - Past Dunham Park and then left onto 44th.

6.77 miles - Right onto Steele. The first block or two of this stretch of Steele is pretty unwelcoming, but it gets friendlier.

This is the beginning of an annoying two mile detour that is necessary to get around the damn puppy chow plant.

6.90 miles - Between 43rd and 42nd, there are some train tracks that proceed east from here to Smith Road, which is where we ultimately want to go. I didn't investigate at the time, but if there is some cleared brush along the tracks that might support a mountain, or otherwise-off-roadable, bike then this could cut almost two miles off the route, as well as offer a brief, natural, rails-to-trails style respite from the otherwise very urban route.

Warrants further attention.

7.59 miles - Right onto E 35th Ave/Bruce Randolph. Down shift before turning. There's a steep little climb for one block. Continue past the City of Nairobi Park.

7.97 miles - Left onto Jackson.

8.72 miles - Jackson veers right and becomes Smith Road. Continue along Smith. Smith runs right next to the rail road tracks. I had the misfortune of riding down Smith once while a train was passing. The noise from the train was so loud that I couldn't hear anything, so I never knew a car was behind me until I could see it at my side as it passed me. Scary!

Watch out for where the tracks cross the road here. They'll rattle your bones a little.

10.71 miles - Just west of Quebec is the "Last Bus Stop In Town." It's a filthy little bus stop, the closest one to the mega big-box strip mall across the street. If you pass by here at the right time of day, you'll see six foot tall piles of Wall Mart and Home Depot shopping carts. It's the only solution for people who are dependent on the bus for transportation and who also need to do low-price/high-volume shopping.

There's definitely an opportunity here for something. Be it some kind of a cart return service, or a shuttle service to and from the bus stop. Or maybe just a nicer bus stop. One that's not a bench surrounded by mud and litter. A canopy, some pavement, a trash can, and a cart return would do wonders, really.

12.00 miles - Wall Mart. Effectively the end of the route.

12.14 miles - End. The actual end of the route. Between Wall Mart and here, there are lots of prairie dogs to bark at you.

The speed with which industrial/residential land turns into natural/feral land makes me realize and appreciate how much we're imposing our modern, urban lives upon the original, kinder and gentler, more natural inhabitants of the area. Those prairie dogs don't know what Wall Mart is, but they don't know what bikes are either.

To wrap up loose ends, I thought I'd return home at this point by jumping on the Sand Creek trail, which appeared to intersect Smith Road here. But I was unable to find it!

I think. Maybe I found it. But Smith Road was blocked off due to some kind of construction related in no doubt to the expansion of the nearby subdivision. So I veered into, and got lost in, the underbelly of Stapleton. I floundered around for quite a while until I stumbled upon Westerly Creek, which I was able to follow down to Montview and, ultimately, home.

I find it easy to protest Stapleton's cookie-cutter, "little boxes" style of development. But the streets were so nice. Wide, with sidewalks and bike lanes. And walking/biking trails all over the place.

They're doing some things right.

bicycle parking

2009-11-15T11:50:00.003-07:00

Yehuda taking advantage of available street parking. The first things I thought of when I saw were—

That's totally legal. If you feed the meter, the space is apparently yours, whether or not you choose to fill it with a car.
That's the concept behind Parking Day, an event that Denver participates in, but during which I have had to work for the last two years and so have never seen it in execution.

I'm afraid I discovered in myself a double standard the other day. While I support—and find humor in—Yehuda claiming equal access here, I caught myself cursing the owner of the Honda Ruckus that is still parked perpendicular to the curb alongside which I was trying to find parking. Its spacing from the corner made it such that it occupied an entire car's length. It could have been parked neatly between two cars, or on the sidewalk where every other 50cc in the neighborhood roosts.

I guess I'll cut him some slack.

It would be neat as hell to see a couple parallel parking spaces allocated for bike parking. That bike cage adequately addresses security in addition to the mere availability of space. I almost can't imagine a world in which you don't need to worry about securing your bicycle, but such places purportedly exist. For example, there are apparently no bike thieves in Copenhagen.

Pedestrian safety in Denver and elsewhere

2009-11-13T13:11:00.006-07:00

Denver's rankings in T4A's "Dangerous by Design" report

Transportation for America released its Dangerous By Design report this week. The report assesses the danger of walking in major US metropolitan areas, and ranks the cities according to their Pedestrian Danger Index.

Fifty two metro areas were assessed. Denver ranked 23, with a PDI of 75.6, which makes it more dangerous than 55% of other areas. We're off the average of 77.4 by 1.8 points.

It is interesting to note that the ten most dangerous metro areas are all in the south, with the top four all being in Florida (Orlando/Kissimmee, Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater, Miami/Fort Lauderdale/Pompano Beach, and Jackson). Having spent nearly all of my formative years in the south, I have to say this doesn't surprise me. It has been my experience that roads often narrow and lack sidewalks, and traffic flows through much too fast through residential and commercial areas alike.

Another table in the report shows the absolute number of pedestrian deaths, unadjusted—as the PDI is—for the number of people walking to work. Denver is tied for ninth most dangerous on this list with San Diego.

So absolute number of pedestrians killed by traffic in Denver is well above the norm, but because we have a proportionately large number of people walking to work, our PDI index is close to average.

New York City occupies a unique place on this list. It has among the highest number of actual deaths, and one of the lowest PDIs. Because they have by far the largest number of pedestrian commuters: 6% of all commuters, compared to an average among the other large metro area of 2.2%

Another figure reported is the average federal funds spent each year, per person, on biking/walking projects. Denver allocates $0.65 of its transportation budget, which gives it a ranking of 42/52 on this list. Bottom 10.

Interestingly, Tampa and Jacksonville, the 2nd and 4th most dangerous cities, are near the top of this list, shelling out $1.86 and $2.25 respectively. This is encouraging because it leads one to assume that the cities have recognized and are addressing the dangers detailed in this report.

Here are the figures for the other parts of Colorado.

Safety Rank within state	Metro Area	Pedestrian Danger Index	Total Ped. Fatalities (2007-2008)	% of Traffic Deaths that were pedestrians	Avg Yr Fed $ spent per person	% workers walking to work	2008 Population
1	Denver-Aurora	75.6	79	20.4%	$0.65 2.1%	2,506,626
2	Grand Junction	38.2	3	7.0%	$1.33	2.8%	143,171
3	Pueblo	34.1	2	4.1%	$1.08	1.9%	156,737
4	Greeley	21.4	3	3.3%	$0.41	2.9%	249,775
5	Boulder	16.7	4	10.5%	$3.55	4.1%	293,161
6	Fort Collins-Loveland	12.6	2	3.9%	$1.73	2.7%	292,825
7	Colorado Springs	6.7	3	3.4	$0.69	3.7%	617,714

Denver is obviously the most dangerous place to walk. Hopefully that will change as our Living Streets task force begins accomplishing tasks.

LAB's "Bicycle Friendly Communities" with Pedestrian Danger Index

The League of American Bicyclists maintains a list of "Bike Friendly Communities." as part of their Bicycle Friendly America program. Communities are evaluated on "the 5 Es" (Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluation & Planning) and a 28 page whopper of an application submitted by a representative of the community.

T4A's Pedestrian Danger Index cannot be applied directly to this list because the areas are defined differently. T4A defines "metro areas" such as Denver-Aurora, with a population of over 2 million. LAB "communities" tend to be defined by city boundaries, giving Denver a population just over 550,000.

But anyway, for curiosity's sake here are all cities in the top two tiers (Platinum, and gold) with, where available, the corresponding PDI.

City/Community	Rank	PDI
Boulder, Colorado	Platinum	16.7
Davis, California	Platinum	Not available
Portland, Oregon (PDI includes data from Vancouver and Beaverton)	Platinum	36.4
Corvallis, Oregon	Gold	7.9
Eugene, Oregon (PDI includes data from Springfield)	Gold	31.3
Fort Collins, Colorado (PDI includes data from Loveland)	Gold	12.6
Jackson, Wyoming	Gold	Not available
Madison, Wisconsin	Gold	7.8
Palo Alto	Gold	Not available
San Fransisco, California (PDI includes data from Oakland and Freemont.)	Gold	40.9
Seattle, Washington (PDI includes data from Tacoma and Bellevue.)	Gold	31.1
Stanford University, California	Gold	Not available.
Tucson/East Pima, Arizona	Gold	72.8

Like I said, you can't really apply the PDI directly to this list, but it's interesting nonetheless.

That's all for now. I'm going to keep pouring through this report.

One year of carfree living

2009-11-12T11:50:00.003-07:00

I sold my car exactly one year ago. As of today, I have been car-free for one year.

During the past year, I've ridden in the dark, and during the day. In gorgeous weather, in the rain, and through the snow.

I've put my bike on the bus. I've cursed the bus on snowy days when I needed it and it simply didn't come.

I've fallen down.

I've puzzled over how best to carry stuff to work, and thrilled over new roads and alternate routes.

I've motivated coworkers to occasionally bike to work.

I've had a lot of fun.

And here starts one more year of one less car.

Bicycle Diaries

2009-11-10T17:44:00.002-07:00

I'm off tomorrow, and I just got a hold of the new David Byrne book.

Score.

Ciclovia

2009-11-10T11:38:00.005-07:00

"Ciclovia" is a Latin term referring to an event during which major roads are closed to automobile traffic so that pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles can flourish, thrive, and otherwise assume control of the streets.

I learned the word this morning from an LA Times article via the League of American Bicyclists. Apparently in Los Angeles, local advocacy group cicLAvia is gaining some support from the city council for organizing some ciclovias in downtown LA.

Now, we have our own ciclovias here in Denver, where we have "1st Sundays in the Park" at Cheesman Park five months out of the year, May through September. And that's cool. It's a lot more than other places get.

And our ciclovias being on Sundays, you can further flex your cyclist's rights by venturing two blocks north, down the Teenybopper Mallrat Route and down the 16th Street Mall should you feel like it!

Geohashing

2009-11-06T09:44:00.001-07:00

Geohashing is a method for finding an effectively random location nearby and visiting it: a Spontaneous Adventure Generator. Every day, the algorithm generates a new set of coordinates for each 1°×1° latitude/longitude zone (known as a graticule) in the world. The coordinates can be anywhere -- in the forest, in a city, on a mountain, or even in the middle of a lake! Everyone in a given region gets the same set of coordinates relative to their graticule.

"Spontaneous Adventure Generator!" That sums up the appeal of this little game for me! It's the same thing I find appealing in planning out 60+ weekend rides. Trying new trails, plotting new routes. ADVENTURE!

Denver is geographically unfortunate because it is what is called a "split city," meaning that an intersection of graticules, those 1x1 longitude/latitude grids, falls almost directly in the middle of the city, and so we recognize four of them in our area: NE, SE, NW, SW.

Which means that our field of play grows from about 3,381 square miles (69 miles to a degree of latitude by approximately 49 miles to a degree of longitude at 45 degrees form the equator) to four times that at 13,524 square miles.

Which is a friggin lot.

The city and county of Denver is ~155 square miles.

So there's almost a 1/50 chance that it will fall within 10 miles of Denver.

Which all goes to say that in these parts, if a hashsite happens to be a reasonable distance from you, it's a shame not to go after it.

Like I did on Hallowe'en Eve.

Edit:

According to the tool at chemical-ecology.net the four-graticules sized grid is 138.09353334000397 miles by 107.31667373389479 miles long, or 14819.738662209928518 miles square. My original estimate was off by about a thousand miles. I'll now assert confidently, when asked, that our playing field is about 14,819.75 square miles.

Folders

2009-11-03T07:44:00.003-07:00

LGRAB announces they have a new Jango Flik to test ride and review one day after admitting the allure of a folding bicycle!

They've previously reviewed Dahon folders, so I'm looking forward to a full write-up and comparison.

Don't want to use them, but don't want them to go away

2009-11-02T14:21:00.002-07:00

As winter approaches, I begin avoiding bike lanes because they tend to fill up with snow, slush, leaves, and other debris.

But I don't want to contribute to the notion or to any statistics about bike infrastructure not being used.

How to I reconcile these two conflicting desires?

Bike around the world

2009-11-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

So the other day, I rode home from the airport.

That accomplishment really captured my imagination.

I fantasize now about biking to the airport, packing up my bike somehow, jetting off to some distant place, unpacking my bike, and then continuing my ride.

Rental cars? Where we're going we don't need rental cars.

There are ways of accomplishing this.

S&S Couplers

One is a product from S and S Machines called Bicycle Torque Couplings (BTC), and which most of the rest of the world call "S&S couplers."

It enables ~~you~~ a trusted bike mechanic to essentially saw your frame in half and install these couplers. After that, you're able to disassemble your bicycle whenever you please in such a way that it fits into regular-sized luggage. That is, you can check it as you would any other bag and not have to pay an over-sized baggage fee.

Some frames, like Surly's Travelers Check, come pre-built using this technology. Other bikesworks offer to retrofit your favorite frame.

The appeal of this technology is obviously having a full-sized, travel-ready bike. Larger riders like myself might be skeptical of the integrity, comfort, and cargo capacity of the other obvious travel solution: a folding bike.

Folding bikes

Which brings us to folding bicycles. Like the Bike Friday variety.

They don't really appeal to me. And they don't really seem marketed as a solution to airline travel the way S&S Couplers are. Rather, they seem marketed to urban commuters who have short distances to travel and who are worried about space on the train for their bikes. Or space in their office cube for their bike.

I know Bike Friday's site has pictures of folks on tour with their foldies, but I'm just not really buying it.

But they do have their place.

And there are some groovy looking ideas on the drawing board.

Other powered

And then just for fun, there are motorized devices like Honda's the U3-X, and Yike Bike.

Being the elitist that I am, I commend them for their small footprint and then dismiss them for not being human powered.

And more importantly, you can't take those things on a tour of the San Diego countryside. They are commuter tools. Not traveling tools.

And in summary

I think the solution for me would be an S&S Coupler ready bike. And as far as those go, Surly's frame is pretty awesome.

I'm going to go pour over the specs and daydream.

Bikes, burritos, and the Benevolent Bovine

2009-11-01T09:28:00.006-07:00

Apparently locally-owned Chipotle is one of the sponsors for professional cycling team Garmin-Slipstream.

My interest in cycling is practical and not competitive, so there's really no reason for me to have known that before last night, when the Lady and I were on Chipotle's site looking for locations participating in Free Burrito Night.

(Free Burrito Night being every Halloween, from 6 PM - 10 PM. Show up dressed as a burrito—i.e., with a piece of tin foil somewhere on your person—and you get a free burrito. It's a family tradition here in the Unclefather household.)

In addition to team info, it includes a nifty little flash game called slipstream ride, wherein you play an easily toppled cyclist who is uprighted after each spill by a flying cow. The Benevolent Bovine.

Who I guess is later, at the end of the race, turned into burrito stuffing, to be enjoyed by the winners. Such a benevolent bovine!

Weird little game.

As far as bicycle related flash games go, I'll be sticking to my cyclomaniacs.

Ride safely! And should you stumble, may the Benevolent Bovine set you upright again!

Pirates > Ninjas

2009-10-31T16:29:00.000-06:00

Everybody knows it.

Back on the horse

2009-10-30T12:00:00.000-06:00

I start to realize what a big part of my life biking is after I'm forced to take a break from it for some reason. I had a grin on my face and a "WHEEEEEEE!" on my lips that whole ride.

Unfortunately, my return ride coincided with Denver's first big snow of the season. Snowed for over 48 hours. During that time, I continued to commute and managed to fall only once.

It wasn't a hum-dinger of a fall by any means. I was going really slow on a side street. Just hit a hidden ice patch and fell on my left side, pushing my bike out from under me towards the curb. I was back on my feet, collecting my bike, and scooting onto the sidewalk within 3-5 seconds.

My left thigh has been sore since then. No bruising or anything. Nothing that's going to keep me off the road.

Glad to be back on the bike! Even when I fall off of it!

Google Trike

2009-10-16T09:16:00.005-06:00

This morning, the google maps team invited us in this blog post to begin nominating off-street locations to be mapped out by the google trike.

You have till October 28th to submit a location at google.com/trike.

My first submission was not bicycle or Colorado related. I nominated the Ocean Beach Pier, up and down which I used to walk almost every day when I lived in San Diego.

Route profile: 16th Street/Avenue

2009-10-15T11:06:00.006-06:00

16th Street Mall and 16th Avenue are collectively known as the Teenybopper Mallrat Route.

One of Denver's stranger bike routes, notable for running along the spine of the city, but at the same time not really taking you anywhere.

Access to the mall is limited to one day out of the week; and 16th Avenue has a bike lane but is not part of the Grid, and eventually comes to an abrupt stop after a couple blocks.

The route starts at one end of the city at the northwest end of the 16th Street Mall, either at Union Station or at National Velvet.

Now, unless it's Sunday, you cannot ride on the 16th Street Mall. This is one of bikedenver.org's Big Four rules, right up there with No Riding On The Sidewalk. Bike here 85.7% of the time, and you'll get a ticket.

On Sunday though, you can cruise right down the middle of the road. It's an interesting 1.5 mile ride that's not without its own unique joys and frustrations.

At the southeast end of the mall, your route crosses Broadway and becomes E 16th Avenue.

16th Avenue is not listed on the City of Denver bike map as a "grid" route, or even as a local bike route, but simply as a "road with a bike lane."

So even the city recognizes that it's kind of special.

Personally, I have a tendency to forget about 16th Ave until I cross it coming from the north or the south, and I see a bike lane, and I think to myself, "Oh! An E/W bike lane! I need to go east … might as well use this convenient bit of infrastructure!"

So I turn onto 16th and cruise along, slowly progressing through the the stop signs that litter the route, until suddenly it dead ends at East High School.

Near the school, there is suddenly eleven or eight fleets worth of cars parked on the street, and there are always—regardless of the time day, morning or afternoon—handfuls of kids milling about outside.

Enough to make you want to point out to them that there's no such thing as education by proxy. Being at the school doesn't count. You gotta, you know, go inside and learn stuff.

Anyway, so suddenly you dead-end at the high school. You options for continuing are, to the south, Colfax Ave; and to the north, 17th Ave.

Neither of these streets are safe to bike on.

That leaves you the option of, to the north, continuing past 17th into and through City Park or, to the south, riding on the sidewalk on Colfax for one block before cutting back up to a safe side street.

Of these options, one is illegal (sidewalk-ridin') and one is inconvenient (the winding route through City Park takes you out of your way.)

So this route is interesting. It takes you from East High School to the far end of 16th Street Mall, and not really anywhere else.

But in doing so, you get really close to the real heart of the city.

Just off this route is City Park, Civic Center Park, the Central Library. Cheeseman Park is a short ride to the south. It runs parallel to all the wondrous crap on Colfax and it runs right through all the wondrous crap on the 16th Street Mall, including Skyline park. At the northwest end, you can get on the S. Platte River trail just north of the confluence with the Cherry Creek trail.

So from a wider perspective, I suppose it's quite a well connected hub.

But since all it literally does is connect a high school to a strip mall, I shall henceforth call this the Teenybopper Mallrat Route.

Kids in Crosswalks

2009-10-14T13:40:00.004-06:00

October 7th was the ninth annual International Walk To School Day. Highly celebrated here in Denver. There are cute little "Kids in crosswalks!" signs posted around the neighborhood that are apparently going to be up for the duration of the month.

Walk To School Day is a concept that I find strange for some reason I can't quite put my finger on.

Rick Smith touched on the subject in the following Yehuda Moon.

And I guess he addresses what I find odd about making a big to-do about walking to school.

But I think that's only applicable when you're thinking about elementary and middle schools. This campaign could do some serious good work at high schools.

It'd be a challenge for sure, trying to convince a bunch of 16 year olds to leave their cars behind in favor of walking and bicycling. But I know I didn't consider biking to school a real or viable option when I was a kid, and it's less than 4.5 miles from my old house to my old high school.

That's nuthin.

I remember parking always being such an issue, too.

That's where this campaign should focus its attention. I used to walk and bike all the time when I was in elementary and middle school. After I got to high school though I didn't touch a bike for over five years.

Don't wanna share.

2009-10-13T16:37:00.000-06:00

I was thinking about this "share the road" article as I was riding around town this afternoon. One premise of it is that "share the road" essentially evokes negative memories from Kindergarten of being forced to share your toys and your milk-n-cookies. Which is pleasant for no Kindergartner.

This time of year, bike lanes have a tendency to become useless and dangerous as they fill with leaves, ice and slush, and other road debris. Consequently, this is the time of year I tend to avoid roads with bike lanes. Instead, I find nice, wide roads. Multi-lane ones where I can take an entire lane without slowing traffic down.

I adhere as closely as I can to the principles of Vehicular Cycling.

In other words, I do a lot sharing the road with motorists.

And the problem with that is one of perception.

I may perceive myself as a vehicle with equal rights to the road, but that doesn't mean motorists don't perceive me as a slow moving object to avoid and to get around as soon as possible.

For example, this afternoon.

I was in the far right lane on a one-way, three-lane road. A white compact car was behind me; and next to it, one lane over, was a red sedan.

What happened next is when "share the road" means two different things to two different parties.

I have sometimes experienced that if I'm not assertive enough in my taking the lane—if I'm hanging out in the right-most third of the lane, or even smack dab in the middle of the lane instead of closer to the left-most third—then a motorist behind me might chose to interpret "share the road" as share the lane. And they'll drift over a little bit so that they're actually occupying two lanes as they attempt to pass me without getting all the way over.

There is some logic behind this tactic on a two lane road where changing lanes to pass me means driving fully on the wrong side of the road. Driving on the wrong side of the road is uncomfortable, even when conditions are clear.

But there is less logic—if in fact there is any—in sharing the lane on a wide, one-way, multi-lane road like we were on. There's no reason not to wait until it's clear, and then change lanes properly, like you would do to get around any slower moving car.

So instead of adhering to logic, the white compact attempts this share the lane tactic, accelerates and drifts towards the red sedan. Red sedan honks and the compact brakes and falls back in line.

One block down the road, I signal and leave the road, still next to the sedan, having obstructed traffic not one bit.

Being told to share the road may cause some people balk and insist that they keep all their cookies to themselves. But it is also problematic at times when those who would be willing to share don't know precisely what it means to, or how they ought to do it.

Share the road, folks. Not the lane.

Perhaps, as suggested in the article, we should abandon use of the slogan altogether and rely on simple "Watch for bicycles" signs.

Less connotation. Little more direct.

Beausage

2009-10-11T15:01:00.003-06:00

A portmanteau is a blending of two different words and their meanings. The word itself, in this context, was apparently invented by Lewis Carrol.

So some portmanteaus grate on my nerves. Labradoodle, Brangelina, and other designer words are manufactured and created by marketing departments in order to sell something flashy and fab.

And some portmanteaus are so accepted that you—or I at least—rarely notice them as being a jumble of two different things. Like brunch. Or spork, blog, and wikipedia. These words seem more natural, at least.

So Grant Peterson, of Rivendell Bicycle Works, apparently coined the portmanteau beausage in an article he wrote for the Rivendell Reader, the bike shop's newsletter. Rick Smith used the word in the 10/11/2009 episode of Yehuda Moon.

I think it's a pretty great word, with great potential to be used "in the wild."

It's a blend of "beauty" and "usage," and is used to describe a beauty that comes from or through use. Like dings and nicks on a trusty bicycle. Or a leather bicycle saddle once it has been broken in and has adopted the shape of its rider's bottom. Certain sets of kitchen knives acquire beausage after many years. Or—and this might be the perfect example—musical instruments. Like Trigger, Willie's guitar.

Where pronunciation is concerned, I'm going to go ahead and say that the American pronunciation ("BYOO-sij") and the French pronunciation ("bo-SAHG") are equally acceptable.

I'm looking forward to noticing and appreciating examples of beausage in the future.

bike google

2009-10-11T14:18:00.004-06:00

Bike Pittsburgh spots the google trike and comments on plans to start mapping bike trails.

When I'm planning out a ride, I usually compare "Avoid Highways" driving directions to walking directions, and then overlay trailsdenver's trails map and my routes map.

Two suggested routes through two different maps, and then I'm able to plan out a third route through the city's bike infrastructure.

Sometimes, it is time consuming. Other times I throw caution to the wind and set out knowing only that I need to go generally southeast.

But I gotta admit, one-click bike routing will be handy.

City bike auction

2009-10-09T20:17:00.001-06:00

I'm not going to be able to go to the city bike auction next week because I ... have a thing.

But they just posted the auction catalog, and man! There are like a hundred bikes they're auctioning off!

Pedicab vs. Taxicab

2009-10-09T07:28:00.008-06:00

Video streaming from a NYC Fox News site, and found on LJ Bikepirates.

Which one of these seems like a disproportionate response to you? Throwing a cup of coffee at somebody's car? Or hitting somebody with your car?

The biggest danger of engaging a motorist is that—

motorists have precious few avenues of communication, and
a motorist's car is such an extension of his body that it may feel like hitting you with the car is not that different from hitting you with his fist.

In Tom Vanderbilt's Traffic, he says that there are several thing about driving itself that predisposes drivers to frustration and anger, the biggest of them being that it severely limits our abilities to communicate.

Humans are incredibly communicative creatures who rely heavily on nonverbal signals like facial expressions, body posturing, tone of voice and volume of voice. In a car, you are deprived of all of that. Instead, you are expected to use a car horn (often used too frequently) and a turn signal (often not used enough) to express yourself and convey depth and meaning.

Which is ridiculous when you think about it.

So this taxi driver obviously felt he could not adequately express his anger through any combination of sounding car horn and blinking turn signal. It's the torture of an artist, really. Having so much to share and not being able to articulate it satisfactorily.

But when an artist dramatically hurls a canvas painting across a room in frustration, people don't die like they do when a car hurls into people.

I myself had a "failure to communicate" moment the other day during my commute home.

A pickup truck and I were approaching a four-way stop from opposite directions. The truck didn't have its blinkers on, it was in the middle of the traffic lane, and its front tires were pointing straight ahead. So I logically assumed it was going straight.

Right up until it executed a right-hand turn directly across my path.

The truck had plenty of time to complete its turn. This wasn't any kind of a near miss, but I became frustrated at the lack of communication.

I raised my right hand in the air and starting doing that thing you do when you want to tell people to turn their lights on. Repeatedly closing my fist and then spreading my fingers wide. You know, that thing.

The truck then—in a surprise move—quickly pulled over to the side of the intersecting street and the driver hollered out his window, "What?"

Surprised to suddenly find myself in a conversation, I quickly blurted, "TURN SIGNAL!"

In answer to which he called back out, "Okay! Blobby flarggin blip bloop dada!"

Or something like that. I could only make out the "Okay!" before I was too far away to make out what he was saying.

He probably said something like, "Okay! And how about next you don't run the stop sign!"

Cause I did. I idahoed it.

Two sides to every story, right?

Like in the video above.

The pedicab driver ultimately chose to engage the taxicab by throwing his cup of coffee. And then he chose later to throw a friggin trash can at the driver.

I, on the other hand, did not pause or stop to throw anything at this pick-em-up truck. Because I knew I was a little bit wrong in this encounter, and that I would soundly lose an actual confrontation.

I, instead, was pedaling quickly away and discovering my "Donotgetintoafightwithatruck" mantra.

Point is folks, ultimately, go ahead and think twice before engaging the deaf, dumb, blind, raging bull-moose cars you share the road with everyday.

Winter cometh

2009-10-08T13:06:00.004-06:00

35 degrees and raining.

I actually love this time of year and this kind of commute. Because of the thrill of persevering despite the elements, and because of the smugness that comes from being a member of the exclusive All-Weather Cyclists Club.

I love the Man vs. Nature element of it. I enjoy that I now have to start watching the weather ahead of time so I can plan for both my morning and my evening commute. That I need to at times be ready for varying amounts of rain and snow, which sometimes means having to stop mid-commute to remove or add layers.

Being ill prepared or under-dressed is less dangerous now that my commute is 10 miles round-trip than it was back when it was about 20 miles, but it can still suck plenty bad.

This is also the time of year when you see fewer cyclists on the road, and the ones you do see are in it for the long run, just like you are. This time of year, when it's freezing and raining, if you see another cyclist you nod or wave, and they smile back. The comradeship is near the surface and it's easy to spot a kindred, nutty soul.

This is when cycling becomes an indoor sport for the fair-weather (possibly smarter) cyclists out there.

Biking the 16th Street Mall: access to usually restricted areas

2009-10-04T15:56:00.006-06:00

Today is Sunday.

In many ways, Sunday is kind of a tough day. Certain shops are closed, like Chick-Fil-A and 20th Street Cafe. Also, I live next to a huge Baptist church, and so there's no parking available next to my house on Sundays.

In fact on Sunday, you're kind of restricted in terms of stuff you can do. Wherein lies the appeal of doing something that can only be done on Sundays.

Such as taking advantage of "Big Four" Rule #4.

Six times out of seven, if you ride your bike on the 16th Street Mall, you'll get a citation. But on Sundays, it's fair game.

And that's really the only appeal: getting to do something you don't usually get to do.

Because it's not a terribly pleasant ride. Almost every intersection is a traffic light, and during my ride this afternoon—during which I rode from one end to the other and back again—I got stopped at nearly every light.

And it sucks to get stuck behind one of the buses.

And you must contend with the mental kung-fu that makes it such a great pedestrian mall: there's so much continuity between the sidewalk, the road, and the crosswalks, that it's possible to almost sail straight through an intersection without realizing it!

Other than that, though, it's neat scenery that you otherwise don't get to enjoy from atop a bicycle. Lots of public artwork to enjoy, people playing chess at the games tables in the median, shops that I always forget about between trips to the mall. You can detour down Skyline Park in the middle, or through Commons Park at the north end. On the other side of the north end is swanky Lower Highlands, where you can make a hard to beat one-two stop at Salvagetti and My Brothers Bar.

So I guess upon reflection that it's not that unpleasant a ride, as long as you know what you're getting into.

Yup!

16th Street Mall, I'll be seeing you again next Sunday!

Hazards of the separated lane: bikes go in the street!

2009-10-04T09:08:00.004-06:00

Today's ride left me feeling like I should from time to time carry a broom and a dustpan with me on my commute.

There was so much broken glass at so many points along the way.

On roads where there were bike lanes, it was in the bike lane. On roads where there was no bake lane, it was in the furthermost third of the road where bikes tend to ride.

It was like there was a bottle smashing party last night!

It made me think about the approaching winter, and how when after it snows around here, the plows shove all the ice and snow and slush directly into the bike lane, rendering it useless in its inaccessibility.

Which is I guess what must happen to some extent now, with broken glass being the snow and regular traffic being the plows.

The regular flow of traffic probably contributes to all that crap being deposited in the way of bike traffic.

Which leads me to the ultimate conclusion that bike lanes just aren't the best thing for cyclists or for motorists.

Cyclists get a false sense of security from a piece of infrastructure that tends to act as a gutter on the side of the road, and motorists get the false—and dangerous—assumption that cyclists go on a special little section of the road, not on the "real" road, and so they don't have to watch out for them as much. And that they're not any more a part of traffic than rollerbladers or joggers.

I don't agree with John Forester about everything, but I do agree that bikes belong on the road, proper. And not on special bike lanes.

Incidentally, one of the guys at Salvagetti said that when he realizes he just rolled over some glass, he swings his foot out and lets his shoe rub on the tire for a few revolutions because "it's not the initial contact with the glass, it's the grinding it in that happens next."

I'm dubious of the actual effectiveness of this, but I keep doing it. Mostly because it gives you something to do. Otherwise, if you don't immediately dismount and check your tires for punctures, you just groan and swear and keep riding.

I'll tell you what, it's a feat of contortion to do that with fenders!