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.

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?

VOTE! 2012

hola all;
I made this little card for the United States 2012 presidential election, which is today Tuesday, November 6th.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!
Laminate it, bike it as a spoke-card, postcard it, read as bookdivider Etc.
Here in San Francisco voting stickers are 2" but should fit most voting stickers or draw on it your own if you have voted by mail or sent in your absentee ballot.

Print › share › use them as you'd like.
But most importantly -VOTE-
// Get the (4x) set per letter-size sheet on Scribd HERE. //



/xxom

two for tuesday: recovered bikes!

well, well, well. who says the bike fairy godmothers aren't on the lookout for your bikes. ok, most of the time people do not recover stolen bikes (except for ade), but i have two stories for you. and the common thread is community and power of social media when used for good.

story number one...

the first story involves my former roommate, ayuchi. she had the cutest sweetest blue terry bike. notice the front wheel? it will become important later.



so ayuchi is a student, and students get very tired. people make mistakes. she locked up her bike at the 16th street bart station, and then when she returned after a day at school, it was gone. except for the front tire she locked to the pole. she came back with a lock and one tire. and a very sad face.

don't know if those outside of SF heard about a the sf police department discovering a lone bike thief who had stolen over 100 bikes. they posted these bikes on the internet. turns out, one of them looked very similar to ayuchi's. despite the blurry picture, you can see the bike is missing its front wheel. and had other similiarites to ayuchi's beloved terry.

long story short...look at who was reunited recently:

story number two...

this one involves plattyjo. i know her from g+, but other people know her as jenny oh. her beautiful ibis mountain bike got stolen recently as well.



she asked for people to put on social networking blast. i put it a couple of places on FB, including the east bay bike party group. someone from that group, jillian, went to make the flea market rounds looking for her bike before she went to work this past sunday. well, jillian didn't find her bike, but she did see jenny's and said she recognized the bike from an FB posting. not sure if she saw that particular post, but the point is COMMUNITY ROCKS.

read the full story here on jenny's blog.

with all that bikey karma, i think jillian will find her own bike soon. or maybe someone will find it for her and return it to her.

these stories are why i prefer to use the word "bike community" as opposed to bike culture. we look out for each other and take care of our own. here's to our little bay area bike community!

Educating The Future

I am sure many of you have read about the Walker, Michigan high school Seniors who were suspended from the last day of school and then told they would not be allowed to walk the stage at the graduation because they rode their bicycles to school (with the Mayor!).  What a stupid situation that was.  My favorite quote from it so far has been School District Superintendent Gerald Hopkins-

"Superintendent Gerald Hopkins told the meeting that the district would have supported the bike ride if students had alerted officials ahead of time."

Who calls a school superintendent to ask if it is OK to ride a bicycle to school? What kind of power do they think they have?  A lot of those kids are 18 and are no longer required to ask anyone's permission to do anything.

Cameron in danger? He is a high school Senior.

Anyway, just when that whole idiocy starts to work its self out we get this next beautiful example of education and reasoned response to the needs of children and families in Gilbert, Arizona.

The Board of the charter Edu-Prize School in Gilbert has banned children from biking or walking to school!!!!! I am sorry, but who the hell gave a charter school board the power to  say anything about anything that happens outside their school, outside of school hours when kids are with their parents?!!!  The school's chief operating officer (just that title should let you know this is coporate, not education) Barbara Duncan is quoted as saying-

"All have put children at considerable risk, and our board has acted to keep children safe before there is a predictable event," Duncan said in an e-mail. "The streets are marked with bike paths but are not wide enough for children or parents to safely use them."

So all of the parents have had to sign an agreement that they will drive their kids to school- mistake number one.  I am a parent in a school that tried to prevent me from letting my daughter walk 3 blocks home by herself after school.  After pointing out that they had no problem with her walking to school alone everyday and then providing them the name of my attorney should they feel the need to push this further, Úna was never again prevented from walking home on her own.  Parents can and must fight this kind of idiocracy.

Mistake number two?  If the Charter Board of Edu-Prize School wishes to throw their power around, do something to make your streets safer!!!  That is what we are doing here at many schools in San Francisco.  We are returning the streets around 181 of our schools to the 15 MPH spaces they are supposed to be, we are expanding our bicycle lane network and working for even more (and with this and other changes our elementary school had 31% of our student body participate in Bike To School Day even though it was raining), we are using our Safe Routes To Schools money to make needed changes, and most importantly, we are not letting the world just keep on trudging along running over our children.

Children in imminent danger?

Obviously these kids will be killed any moment.  Yeah.

Schools are supposed to be places that teach kids how to think.  Schools are not there to police a parent's transportation decisions.  Forget the "my kids get great exercise" argument.  How about the "I am out of work and the car isn't working so we will be using those bicycles we all got for Christmas" argument?  Or the "We live three blocks from school so we are walking"  argument?  Or my personal favorite "My kid is still having trouble reading because you are too worried about her using her scooter" argument.

If this we Gilbert we would be rebel outlaws!

Kids have to take classes in critical thinking to graduate and go to college.  I think some "educators" could do with some brushing up in that area, don't you?

market street bike lanes, an attractive nuisance?

attractive nuisance: (doctrine; lay definition): [a] landowner may be held liable for injuries to children trespassing on the land if the injury is caused by hazardous object or condition on the land that is likely to attract children who are unable to appreciate the risk posed by the object or condition.

i ride market street everyday. i don't particularly care to do so, other than it is the main artery of the city, therefore it is the way that leads me from here to there. so in order to get to where i need to go, market street is a necessary part of my commute and other errand type of biking.

as a regular market street rider, i can say that it has gotten better since the installation of separated bike paths, delineated with those green painted spaces or with those "safe hit posts" (oxymoron anyone?). within the past year, personal car traffic has been direct to turn left at two intersections, 10th street and 6th street. traffic earlier in the year was directed to turn right at 8th street and 10th street by traffic cops, but they have since discontinued that practice, presumably there in the first place to get regular drivers used to the new practice.

is this a "safe hit" post? foto by ade

in the past couple of weeks i have noticed a few things on my morning (aka pre-caffeinated) commute, two of which are disturbing to me as a daily commuter, and as a frequent weekend market street rider.

first, at 10th street, bike traffic is directed to the left of the mandatory right turn, with the bike lane sandwiched next to and to the right of to the F rail train. so it's muni tracks, bike lane, mandatory (car) right turn lane. like this (except now the bike lane is painted green):

foto by meli

this does not leave a lot of room for those mandatory right turners to go straight through the light, as they have to cross paths with east-bound bike traffic. which is exactly what has been happening in the mornings in the past couple of weeks, and can be pretty unnerving. apparently the sign saying "LANE CLOSED" has been down. today, thankfully, i noticed it was reinstated and that the mandatory right hand turners were obeying traffic signs.

which brings me to the second, and instigator of this whole post: seeing the below picture of two buses blocking the bike lane at 8th and market:

foto by adam

two wednesdays before this photo appeared in my feed, i noticed something very similar happen, but on a much larger scale, on my way to butterlap. sigh. there were at least 5 large tour buses in that very spot, NO DOUBT related to the big tech company convention that was all over the news. sigh.

a block away i was already busily thinking how to navigate around that nonsense with taxis in front of me, who are able to go straight through on market street until embarcadero. i must have worn the confused look on my face because the other cyclist turned to ask me with a wry smile, "how are we going to get past that?" "i have no idea, was just thinking the same thing myself," i replied.

foto by meli

i show this pic of meli cause i think it illustrates several of the obstacles of which i refer: grates, and those pinche muni tracks on either side of the double yellow line. UGH. i have seen many a competent (and newbie) cyclist get stuck in those tracks, then fall down, go boom, spawning this sticker:

the comments which started in the picture above with the buses were very interesting. adam, whom i know is a parent (thus familiar with the term), mentioned market street being like an attractive nuisance in that market street with its green lanes and "safe hit posts" thus creating the analogy that market street's new sporadic bike infrastructure may make it attractive to cyclists of all levels, including newer and other inexperienced riders, and get them encouraged to ride, despite its obstacles.

that conversation stuck with me for a couple of days, enough to for it to jump without me past the flickr picture and on to spark a lively facebook page discussion and then produce a vimeo video taken just yesterday (as of the writing of this post)

2010-10-04 Blocked, by Clear Channel from TyrellVoightKampff on Vimeo

so, are the newer bike lanes on market street like an "attractive nuisance" to newer riders?

i'm certainly not a new rider. i'm comfortable in trafficky conditions, as a frequent pedestrian (nyc baby) a frequent bike rider and an occasional car driver. i know i'm not the oldest hat at bike commuting, but i'm confident in traveling in urban traffic in my own patient way.

i cannot even fathom to promote what can be done with market street as i am not an engineer nor am i an urban planner. i am, however, a bike rider who commutes daily. i would like to feel safe in my designated and provided separated bike lane, and i would like to know that cars on market street will turn at appropriate intersections because it makes the remaining stretches of the commute for the rest of us (public transporation, taxis and bikes) more bearable and predictable.

but those buses...... those buses really are a problem for muni buses, passengers, taxis and bike riders alike.

for all of the obstacles shown above, market street now really is rather enjoyable, compared to what it could be, during the morning commute.

what about the afternoon commute west-bound on market street you may be asking? well, let's save that for another long post, shall we?

Street Life

There is a lot of manufactured enmity out there. Not sure why.

Seems to me like people are getting along just fine.

Happy Friday!

Time To Flip The Script

The internet is an amazing place. It is not on a map, but it is most assuredly a place, and that is the strength of it. All people, from all places on geographical maps can gather in this electronic land and discuss what is important to them as a group. My firm belief is that these conversations are what will ultimately change our world for the better, not legislation or politicians or bailouts or any "ism" we can come up with.

That being said, I reposted a piece from last year over the weekend. I highly suggest you visit the comments section and then come back to this post. The conversation there is, currently, between Mexico City and Australia (Canberra and Brisbane) and Arizona and is about whether or not the current trend toward "cycle chic" is one that adds to or takes away from the total conversation of "bicycle culture".

photo by Richard Masoner of Cyclelicious

Looking at the picture above, I can see it from a few different perspectives, not all of them my own. There are those who feel that so many pictures of young, beautiful women on bicycles isn't much different than endless pictures of young men in spandex pounding the hills of France. In both instances, there is the perception of exclusivity and judgment of those who do not fit these molds. It is felt that because the woman in these pictures don't look like the "average" person that they no longer "represent" the "average cyclist". To make that claim though, there has to be consensus of just what the "average cyclist" is and if that is even relevant. Do we need more of what is currently the "average" in most parts of the Western world? Isn't that what has brought us, in part, to where we are today- that "average cyclist" has become something other than the cute girl next door out for a little fun on a Friday night.

Some would say that in those places where helmets are mandatory, that the idea of a "chic" cyclist is not possible. The helmets make cycling seem too dangerous, and thus, not attractive to people not already on bicycles. While I make no secret of my personal dislike of helmets, I do not believe that they have all that much power to deter and that the problem, instead, is the rhetoric around them that makes cycling less attractive to some. There is no doubt that in places where helmets are mandatory that cycling numbers have dropped tremendously, it has been shown repeatedly (go Google it). However, how often are people shown in helmets actually portrayed attractively?

If more people saw images of what wearing a helmet could look like, in situations that do not involve speed, steroids or jerseys, I suspect that helmets would become less of a deterrent (and yes, infrastructure is what really counts, but we are not talking about that here). If we stop focusing on the fact that the woman in the picture (our own Meligrosa) is young and on a road bike and fashionable and oh-my-god-I-could-never-look-like-that what we could see is a person who has chosen to embrace her surroundings and ride her bicycle her way and not the way we see people in bicycle catalogues. I know I will never look like this on my bicycle, but it shows me that I can look my way, even with a helmet.

photo by Iam Sterdam

The chances of the woman in the picture above being out and about in Denver, Colorado are pretty slim. People who ride bicycles for transportation in the vast majority of the US just do not look like this (people who ride bicycles for transportation in the vast majority of the world don't look like this). It is easy to dismiss this as "cycle chic" and leave it at that. More is required to see it for what it could be- not a judgment about what we each wear but a reminder that we can ride our bicycles with authority and confidence even in heels. There is nothing here that says you have to look like this to ride, only that looking like this doesn't mean that you can not ride.

photo by bitchcakesnyc of Bitch Cakes blog

When looking through photographs, I picked this one out specifically because it is a bit over the top. We have both ends of the spectrum here- chic/lycra, cruiser/road bike, heels/clipless... each rider completed the Tour de Queens (40ish miles). If they can ride together, then all those that fall in the spectrum between them can do the same. Each can just be who they are and ride.

The rest of us just need to start seeing in a broader perspective. When we worry about "chic", who has the best "infrastructure", hipsters, bicycles without brakes, high heels, vintage, carbon....we forget that the common denominator are the people who ride all those carbon, mixte, speed machines from 70's era Amsterdam. We can continue to worry about what the people look like, or we can celebrate all of the wonderful new people on bicycles, no matter how they got there. At least, it seems to me.

Addendum: I was just about to re-write this post because it wasn't coming across the way I wanted it to. But then I saw The-Most-Stupid-Bicycle-Article-Ever (two words- titanium chainguard) and some of the silly comments that accompany it and decided to keep it as is. 1 Girl, 2 Wheels probably puts it all together better than I do.

Links: Bike and build.

Have you heard of Bike and Build?
If you are a fan of what Habitat for Humanity does around the world, you might be interested in this post. Read more at Dave's blog here:
http://davesbikeblog.squarespace.com/blog/2010/6/7/bike-and-build.html

via_ davesbikeblog.squarespace.com

"The purpose of Bike and Build is twofold. To raise money for organizations like Habitat for Humanity, and also during the ride across country, the cyclists take a break from riding from time to time; to actually lend a hand, in the form of offering their labor to help build homes." Read more»

Everyday People

While I am a participant and chronicler of the "Cycle Chic" movement, I really love the regular old folks you see on bicycles. There is so much beauty in the everyday, mundane world that we hardly ever notice.

This guy and I talked about riding around the city and how much fun it is. He took off down 3rd st. and I kept going. We'll see each other again on Market St. and we'll have someone new to wave to.

These two were on their way somewhere and taking the opportunity to people watch at the red light.

Maybe he needed to pick up his bike somewhere and she was heading over there with him.

You just know this lady has sons and she took one of their bikes to get out with her daughter. I love all of those clips in the girl's hair! I bet they click like the spoke beads we all used to put on our bikes.

Sometimes you have to make your own parking. Unless you have a skateboard, in which case you can park in your messenger bag.

One of the great joys of human powered transportation, any kind, is what you get to see- everyday people, doing everyday things and making the world a more beautiful place in the doing.

Changing neighborhoods within neighborhoods: San Diego, Calif.

This picture was taken earlier this year. Not exactly in the North Park area, but near it, in San Diego.

Have you reconnected with many people from your grade school recently? (as Adrienne would say - "back when I was your age") Well a close friend of mine did, and his friend turned out to be a positive, community leader taking the area by a storm in the area of San Diego. He thougt I'd enjoy how connected the internet can be building nets and bridging gaps from grade school to the present (via facebook, blogs, etc.) Here is an excerpt of the story:

"What are your favorite things about North Park?
-I just won a T-shirt answering that question. I love that my wife and I can bike to wherever we want to go. I like that the business owners are not cold and detached. It is a warm welcoming and for the most part clean place to live."

Read the complete article here:
North Park's Community Builder »

What have you done in your community lately to make a difference? Are you involved in neighborhood activities? Do you say hello to your neighbors, or do you know the corner store workes, owners? - Do share :D