Remember how when you got your first car you had to put your mark on it? A "Ralph Nader For President" bumper sticker (or one of those "mean people suck" ones that I have always hated), or a dashboard hula girl, or a pink haired troll doll... same goes for bikes. I love to put silly things on my bike.
My latest, and most necessary new addition- a tilisandia plant!
The basket it is hiding behind is new, too. I am not as happy about its addition. It was a pain in the ass. We had to undo my break cables and route them through the basket to get it on (so much for the quick release aspect of my basket ).
My commute is just a bit greener, now. Perhaps, greener than yours : )
One of the reasons I have not given up my car completely, is that I love to listen to public radio while I drive. Today's story of interest was about bike commuting in New York City ( something I would one day like to try as NYC is my second favorite city after SF). What was interesting, was hearing the voice of Bike Snob New York, who was interviewed for his perspective on cycling in NYC.
I love BSNYC's acerbic sense of humor and think his unique perspective is a valuable one. He is usually right on the money and he makes sure that none of us takes ourselves too seriously. True to form, he had some interesting things to say in the interview and is worth listening to.
Now that I have managed to learn how to successfully embed video (hold the applause), I may just have to start making some movies! Until then, Flickr group member, gregraisman, sent us this video of his wanderings through a bicycle parking facility in Leuven, Belgium. While it is modest compared to the massive bicycle parking structures of Amsterdam, it is a helluva lot bigger than anything we have here in San Francisco! It also shows that this kind of infrastructure is being created outside the most well known cycling cities of Denmark and the Netherlands.
Of course, we could just keep resorting to parking like this
Today is Labor Day in the United States. It is supposed to be a day of rest for the workers of the country. Of course, there is always work to be done. Like teach your kids how to ride a bike!
Declan took to his bike a bit earlier than my other two children. Probably because we ride as a family more than we did with them. He is the last child I will teach to ride. He is the last one to earn his wings. A good day.
Lately, people have been making a big deal about stop signs. Everyone wants to know "do you stop at stop signs?". The frequent lack of stopping is used by some as a reason to stop bicycle infrastructure being developed- why should we give these law breakers anything?
I will state, quite publicly, that I do not. I hate stop signs. If there is no one coming, if there is no right of way issue, I will go right on through. The single greatest suck of my energy, after large hills, is the constant stopping and starting at the stop signs that are at almost every intersection through out town. The ones at the bottom of hills (going up the incline, not down) are of particular frustration and difficulty for me as I not only have to get my heavy monster bike going again, the added 50 lbs that Declan and his seat add to my bike mean that it is not uncommon for my bike to pop a very unstable wheelie just as a car is passing too close to get through the intersection ahead of me (it happened today except it was a bus coming at me and the back end of the bike started to go out on me, too).
As I rode through town today, I was thinking about this. When driving a car, stopping for signs and lights is only as inconvenient as we make it. No energy is expended on the part of the driver. The only problem is when we don't have enough time and perceive that stopping will make us late. For me, coming to a full stop and putting my foot down is the same as a car coming to a stop, turning off the engine and engaging the parking brake. Every 1000 feet. What driver would put up with that? How does it make them, or anyone else, more safe?
The argument that cyclists should obey all motor vehicle laws presupposes that motor vehicle laws are appropriate to non-motorized vehicles. I, for one, would love to see the common sense approach to stopping that Idaho utilizes developed all over the country. In my view of things, if there is a law that a majority of otherwise law abiding people fail to comply with, then perhaps it is time to review that law.
There are many stories about the perils of failing to stop. I have seen people suffer greatly for not, but in both cases, the cyclist was being either completely clueless or was totally out of control. There have been way more incidents that I have witnessed where drivers have failed to stop and caused great mayhem and yet, we do not insist on more stringent regulation of drivers to ensure that they always stop. We do not delay the creation of new roads or fail to investigate the collisions of drivers because they fail to stop. We do not call the millions of drivers who roll through stops signs "lawless" or criticize them as "bad parents" or "hooligans".
Feel free to agree or not. What do you think?
Addendum- Thanks to Calitexican for the link to this video! I couldn't find it when I was writing this.
