Today's picture: It's "Car-Free Happy Hour." If you enjoy leaving your car keys at home – even if only occasionally – join walkers, TARC riders, and bicyclists who take the road less traveled, too. This month it's Tuesday, Feb. 16, at The Bodega on E. Market St.
My friend Dominic Bosco wrote this a couple of days ago:
I just wanted you to know that you've inspired me to make change.
Our second car is "my car" and I've used it primarily to drive to work and shuttle kids between home, school, extra curricular activities. It's a 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis but only has a 106K miles on it. My previous car was a 1989 Volvo 240 Wagon with over 300K miles.
Winter will soon be over and then it will be time to perform maintenance and minor repairs on the Mercury. On average I've spent $1,000 a year maintaining this used car (including tires) that I bought used in 2006.
My wife and sat down and took a good look at our schedules and determined that we could service our family's (two adults, three kids, four dogs, two cat and three guinea pigs) transportation needs with only one car (hers). I shouild point out that I think that our schedule adjustment will be greatly facilitated by the fact that my wife is now working at home and has a very flexible schedule.
So, I've sold my car. I took a deposit on it today and we'll transfer the title tomorrow.
See ya at the next Two Wheel Tuesday Happy Hour.
Thanks, Dom
PS: Remember, every lane is a bike lane.
Share the road. freewheelin
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Enjoy the ride home.
When Steve Jobs, one of the most innovative minds in the computer world today says, "the computer is like a bicycle for our minds," he's capturing in a nutshell the essence of The Third Industrial Revolution that may already be under way.
I find it interesting that Jobs had to reach back 120 years for an example of clean, ultra-efficient energy that can match the communication and problem-solving potential of the computer. He found it in the bicycle!
PS: Remember, every lane is a bike lane. Share the road.
Today's picture – One-third of a year into My Car-Free Experiment and I have a 30-day review of my new Roadster. Today's dusting of snow glazed the streets, but presented no big problem for me on my bicycle. I took it slow all the way to work and contemplated the possibility of a two-ton vehicle sliding out of control in my direction. I'm grateful it didn't happen.
I haven't missed a day commuting by bike in a good long while. Even through the snow days I took precautions. Living just a block from Frankfort Ave. helps a lot. If my street is slick I just walk the bike to the cleared main route.
I usually work until after dark downtown, so lights are essential. The Pashley headlamp isn't nearly as bright as the Blackburn system on my Trek FX 7.3, but I think it's plenty of light to be visible on city streets. I supplement the rear light and reflector with a Blackburn Flea on my helmet. My neon yellow reflective vest is probably more visible than any of my lights.
It's hard to convince friends and associates that riding to work 25 minutes in extremely cold weather is really not a big deal. I've quit the routine of showering and changing clothes at the health and fitness center near my office. Lately I prefer to ride in my business attire. Sometimes I use waterproof rain pants to protect my suit trousers. The chaincase on my Pashley Roadster keeps the chain clean and my clothing out of the grease.
I've decided that a dignified bicycle made in Stratford Upon Avon, the home of William Shakespeare, should have a regal or literary name. I'm thinking there must be a character in one of The Bard's plays, or a British Monarch's name that would be fitting. This is a big bike that rides high. There's a regal feeling when you tower above traffic on a Brooks leather saddle. Ophelia (from Hamlet) is the best suggestion yet. What do you think? Give me your best recommendation.
The moving parts other than wheels and controls are all housed inside the hubs. That's expecially good on sloppy winter days when the slush can play hell with brake pads and levers. Even the electric-generating dynamo is in the front wheel hub. It keeps the front light burning.
Within 30 days of accepting shipment of this bicycle from England, I found a 1977 Schwinn Suburban is great condition. Someone in an apartment down the street cast it off. It's a heavy, black, steel bicycle made to ride upright. But that's where the similarity between the Pashley and the Schwinn Suburban ends.
With those 28-inch wheels and Marathon Plus tires, the Pashley Roadster Sovereign is a very smooth ride. It's not a bike for a lot of hill climbing. The five gears are probably aimed high for some bicyclists and the bicycle weighs more than 47 pounds. But if the hill's too challenging, the Pashley returns a good amount of power when you stand on the pedals. The big wheels can come in handy.
PS: Remember, every lane is a bike lane. Share the road.
Today's picture: Looks like good, clean fun to me! But State Representative David Osborne (R) wants to outlaw carting kids by bike. I can't think of anything more out of step with public health and safety.
Protection? Really?
Rep. Osborne's HB255 would "...prohibit the operation of a bicycle on a state-maintained highway while transporting a person under the age of 18 years in an attached trailer or other apparatus."
If this bill is an attempt to protect kids, I'm afraid the 59th District legislator hasn't paid attention to what's really killing our children – obesity and diabetes for starters. A Louisville Bicycle Club listserve member, John Purple, asked this question in a letter to Rep. Osborne:
"Would you also sponsor a bill that made it illegal for an adult to lead their minor child across a busy street? It seems to me these are nearly identical acts. I suspect there are far more injuries sustained in crosswalks than in bicycle trailers. If you are truly concerned about improving the safety of bicyclists, please support enforcement of existing traffic laws that affect auto drivers, such as speeding, DUI, impaired operation (cell phones), etc."
Thanks, John! While we're outlawing behavior that carries a certain level of risk, perhaps we should start, as he suggests, with more effectively policing the motor vehicle operators – not the bicyclists and pedestrians they injure and kill.
Catch hit and run killers first, OK?
Several hundred car-pedestrian collisions are written up in police reports around the country every day. This year we can expect a total of 60,000 or 70,000 such reports, including about 4,500 fatalities. Approximately one in five drivers in these wrecks will hit and run. Lots of these pedestrians are children.
I was knocked down on my bicycle by a commercial delivery truck that failed to yield at a stop sign last spring. The driver never stopped and claimed he never saw me. I was wearing a bright yellow highway-worker-style reflective vest in full daylight. Another motorist graciously chased down the violator and I called the police to take an accident report. The driver wasn't charged.
Where are we headed?
My point is this: It shouldn't be the business of lawmakers to further shield motorists from their responsibility in the use of their vehicles' deadly, crushing force. Rather, it should be the lawmaker's duty to protect the most vulnerable citizens from the danger imposed by motor vehicle operators. Otherwise, we live in a world that goes on the assumption that bicyclists and pedestrians shouldn't have put themselves in harm's way to begin with.
What's really killing us?
In our sedentary culture with diabetes, heart disease and related illness killing nearly half a million people a year in the U.S., I'm sure you'll agree we should be in the business of offering the public – especially families and young children – every possible incentive to use active transportation instead of automobiles. HB255 could not be more out-of-step with the growing trend toward improved public health and city planning initiatives that encourage active tranport.
When you consider that moderate exercise like walking and riding a bike reduces your heart risk by 50 percent, how can you even consider restricting the use of bicycles for transporting children. How much energy could we save and how many school buses could we remove from service if more parents would use bicycles to carry small children to day care, preschool, and kindergarten?
Take a look around the world
In the Netherlands, where heart risk is lower, life expectancy is higher, and the cost per capita for healthcare is about half of ours, you never see a school bus. Moms and dads cheerfully roll through the streets with “bakfiets” – cargo bikes – full of kids.
What can you do?
Contact State Rep. Osborne right way. Here's the contact info. Let him know that you favor more rights and freedoms for the most vulnerable among us who are trying to stay healthy, preserve our air quality, and improve our economy. (Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that 71 percent of your dollars spent on gasoline leave town immediately. Lots of that money ends up in the hands of people who sugjugate women, support terrorism, and would love to have us over a barrel. But that's another story.)
Instead of restricting the freedom of bicycling families, maybe Rep. Osborne could sponsor some legislation that would funnel some overdue transportation funding for more suitable bike routes and sidewalk repair.
I'll leave you with this glimpse of how much fun it can be to haul your kids and your stuff on a bicycle. At least, some of the most prosperous and healthy people in the world do it this way. You won't see a lot of helmets. Why? Because in some parts of the world it's actually a crime to run over a bicyclist! Imagine that.
Kentucky is facing unprecedented financial problems (except for right after the Civil War) and this Republican is spending his time making bills on bicycles???
I thought Republicans didn't like government interference in people's lives.
State Representative Osborne should look for more important things to do with his time.
This bill is lame...totally lame.
I skimmed through the article and agree that the outlawing of carts and what not seems a bit out of touch I would like to point out that NO one in that picture has a helmet and I feel its gross negligence to transport children by bicycle w/ out helmets ... it ranks right up there w/ no seat-belts or car seats ... truth is the bill should focus on that ...
Why not just enforce the helmet laws...doesn't KY have helmet laws?
Heck, they don't have the money to enforce what laws are on the books now...why do they want to make so many many more of them?
They should be getting RID of some laws instead of making more.
Today's picture – One-third of a year into My Car-Free Experiment and I have a 30-day review of my new Roadster. Today's dusting of snow glazed the streets, but presented no big problem for me on my bicycle. I took it slow all the way to work and contemplated the possibility of a two-ton vehicle sliding out of control in my direction. I'm grateful it didn't happen.
Today's picture: Looks like good, clean fun to me! But State Representative David Osborne (R) wants to outlaw carting kids by bike. I can't think of anything more out of step with public health and safety.
