Monday, January 28, 2013

obama's new chief of staff rides a bike to work

the league of american bicyclists has a post describing that current bike commuter and new obama administration employee, denis mcdonough, may have to stop riding his bike due to the security involved.


the league posits top five reasons the new CoS should be allowed to ride his bike to work.

• the fitness of his security detail will set a new standard for the entire White House
•he’ll never get stuck in traffic in times of emergency
•there’s always plenty of bike parking space on the White House railings
•he’ll never have to leave a critical security briefing “becasue my carpool is leaving now”
•didn’t you sign an Executive Order on Sustainability that encourages this sort of thing?

they are asking to fill out 5 more reasons as to why he should be allowed to ride his bike to work. what would you say?

the times article i listed above says probably one of the most poignent reasons he should be allowed to ride his bike: "(After scrapes with motorists, he now mostly drives.)"

so one of my reasons would be: "the visibility someone in his position bike commuting to work will set a nationwide trend." the trend will be less dependence on foreign oil and also combat obesity, setting a role model for our nation's children. basically things we like about biking anyway.

what would you add to the list?

Friday, January 25, 2013

friday fun times: hawt damn

our friends over at san francisco yellow bike project are starting to ramp up their volunteer program.

here's a volunteer re-purposing a bike frame. i haven't heard back yet as to what it's going to be used as, but it got me to thinking...what do you do with old frames? if you are in the bay area, don't forget to donate old bikes and bike parts to SFYBP!



happy friday everyone! weather is nice, and i still have to take care of some business at home. no bike camping for me, and i was so looking forward to it!!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

¡Oye!




Found via the Headspinningly Ostentatious Typographic & Applied Art Review [HOTAAR].

Pre­cau­ción Bici­cleta artwork is by Aaron Kuehn
"Span­ish speak­ers in Los Ange­les ride bikes more than other groups..." 
The print is a downloadable PDF and you can read more here:
CAUTION: Your Fam­ily Also Rides a Bicy­cle

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

two for tuesday: buses and pedestrians

unfortunately this morning on my way to work i witnessed a bus hit a pedestrian and her little dog (i guess s/he's a pedestrian too). made me think of what kind of city we live in, what kind of factors we need to negotiate in our daily lives just to get to work, to school, to wherever.

MustStop

the person looked like she'd be ok when i left. another bike commuter behind me commented, "that was hard to watch." indeed it was.

then this morning i got my weekly newsletter from the bike coalition talking about their taxi driver education program:
You probably know that the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition teaches free bicycle education classes. But did you know that last year we launched a program to teach all new taxi drivers how to share the streets with people on bike? We know that educating frequent drivers about safely sharing the streets with bikes is crucial to making your ride around our great city much safer. Last week, we celebrated our one year anniversary of the taxi training!

In 2012, our instructors have led two courses per month, and taught over 1,000 taxi drivers how to pass bike riders safely, how to avoid dooring, and how to safely turn when people on bikes are on the road! By working to educate these frequent drivers, along with our dozens of classes for bike commuters, we’re making our streets safer for everyone. Hopefully this great program is already making a difference in your ride. Please remember that the only way we can educate the thousands of people -- both behind the wheel and on two-wheels -- is with the support of people like you.

i believe they have muni driver's education as well, but i will need to confirm it. either way, makes me think of everyone's safety and how we judge importance of running lights, or getting ahead of the light to cross the street.

please stay safe everyone. and what's the hurry? you'll get to where you are going in due time. and muni, take some advice from your own campaign. and is driver education enough? what, dear readers, do you think we can do?

20090804 not-always-right

Friday, January 18, 2013

friday fun times: panda shadows

well, this week started off with a bang for us. to my knowledge, the jerk still hasn't been caught. left it up here this week to keep the word out.

with lance confessing thrown in the middle of this crazy first week back in the states, let's just say we are dreaming of simpler times and ones where we are with our loved ones and they are safe and sound. what better way to be with those loved ones than on a nighttime bike ride?!

Oaxaca

the weather is nice here in SF. went up to be in the low 70s as a high today? where are YOU going this weekend?

much love and stay safe everyone! happy riding.

--CTX

Sunday, January 13, 2013

My Stolen Camera

So today my camera was stolen from me in front of Declan, a block from my home.  The people that took it have been targeting my neighborhood for weeks.  Enough is enough! 


MY STOLEN CAMERA


The above are the serial numbers for my Nikon and the 50mm lens that was on it. This camera will be floating around SF tonight. If you see it in a pawn shop, Craig's list, EBay, Civic Center... please call Officer Amy Hurwitz (#4146) at 415-404-4000 (because the people that shoved me to the ground in front of my 7 year old to steal my camera have been doing this to people in my neighborhood for the last few weeks and are getting more violent) and reference case #130 035 533.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Oaxaca es más bella en bicicleta!

CTX is still "OOO," but i have signs of being plugged back into the matrix.

here's a good group of people we rode with while we were in oaxaca city a few weeks ago. the website on the tote bag seems to be down, but we think we know where else to find them [link in spanish].

either way, we will be reporting much more of our mexico bikey adventures soon. hopefully we will have some guests posts too!

Oaxaca

happy 2013 everyone!