Luck, and Un-luck

I've been working in Beautiful Downtown Burbank this week so I haven't been getting my daily constitutionals on the bike. I miss that. But I know the rest of you early-adopters are out there, building up your quads, reducing your footprints, raising those LDLs, being closer to your community. And hopefully staying clear of the obstacles to a progressive approach to transportation that might do you harm.

Sometimes when I have a near-miss I think, "I was just really lucky...". And other times I think, "I was just really unlucky...". I'm never really sure which it is. I saw this video which takes that to an extreme - the luckiest cyclist in the world, or almost the unluckiest. Either way, someone was looking out for him on this day as he rode to work...

A Bike Commuter's Wet Dream

My brother lives in downtown L.A.  I've been visiting him a lot lately and I was thinking today about riding from Santa Monica, where I live, to downtown L.A. where my brother lives. I thought I'd try Google Maps new bike route finder to see what it came up with.

The majority of the route it found across town was on Venice Blvd., which I know has some good bike lanes for at least part of it, so it seems like a good enough choice.  It's about a 17-mile route each way which sounds like a nice ride - maybe next weekend or something I'll give it a go.

As I was thinking about navigating the mean streets of L.A. by bike a friend posted this vid on Facebook - kind of an L.A. cross-town cyclist's wet dream.  Maybe I can play it on my iPhone as I ride, imagining a peaceful trip, ticking off the miles as I pedal from neighborhood to neighborhood...

Running on Empty from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

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Step, Baby, Step

In thinking about sustainability and urban design, I'm not sure how change on a massive scale comes about. Catastrophe is certainly an attention-getter, but with the outcomes being pretty unpredictable it's not really the policy tactic of choice.

The oil spill in the Gulf is in that category, but with the "Drill, Baby, Drill" crowd somehow using that disaster to further their agenda we are clearly in up-is-down world.  I hear them bleating, "We should drill everywhere so we can be independent of foreign oil but oil is an international commodity and the oil companies are driven by profit not national allegiance so another 2% in the international market doesn't make any difference at all but it's a cudgel to beat Obama with which is a feature not a bug and now that crude is loose in the Louisiana wetlands we can blame him since our followers have no intellectual honesty or memory or honor and it makes us look populist and even though the obvious conclusion of our hysteria about Obama not plugging that hole is regulation of the industry we'll fight that tooth and nail and ask rhetorically why Obama hates America and as soon as the oil-soaked birds are off the front pages we'll be yelling Drill, Baby, Drill again." At least that's the way it sounds to me. Spill, Rinse, Repeat.

So in the face of our society's logic on this front it's hard to see how small, local, good ideas can ever get a foothold and evolve and grow into any real change. Change that is literally essential to our success as a species, a success that is hardly assured.  And Bob Herbert accurately points out that even Obama has some kind of corporate-funded, campaign-financed amnesia about the oil companies historical tendency to be shocked, shocked that something could go horribly wrong.  As John Cole of Balloon Juice often says, "Hoocoodanode". (That Balloon Juice lexicon is some fine reading, "political humor" category.)

Who knows what this latest spill-catastrophe's effects are going to be?  No one, that's who.  As chemical dispersants are ladled generously over the muck an infinite number of toxic bits will find their way into the local environment - and by "local environment" I mean "the ocean and everything it touches".  Eating high on the food-chain seems ill-advised these days - as those carcinogens begin working their way north who knows what fun they are going to have.

But I do see small changes out there, green shoots through the concrete, and they do give me hope. I saw this piece the other day that here in beautiful downtown Santa Monica they are instituting a "Bike@Work" program, that The Argonaut describes thusly:

"Bike@Work, provides city staff access to a fleet of branded city bicycles to ride to local meetings and between city facilities. Eight new and five retrofitted bicycles are available for employees to check out during the day for commutes between city facilities from the Santa Monica Airport to the Santa Monica Pier and other offices around town.

The collaborative effort of the Planning and Community Development Department and the Office of Sustainability and the Environment is intended to help fellow employees bicycle more and drive less, city officials note.

Having more staff ride locally supports the Land Use and Circulation Element’s transportation demand management goals, bicycle awareness and environmental stewardship as well as healthy habits among staff..."

That sounds great to me.  The little acorn that becomes the oak.  You know, baby steps.  

Step, Baby, Step.

Distracted Drivers & Korean Cards

I often profess my guy/policy/cabinet-member crush on Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. I just have never seen someone at his level so proactive in the interests of bike riders and other alternative transportation users. I love that guy.

Below is a vid of LaHood with U.N Sec'y General Ban Ki-Moon announcing the U.N.'s support of a worldwide focus on the dangers of distracted drivers. As cyclists we are well aware of, and vulnerable to, this problem. As mentioned in their announcement, in 2008 in the U.S. six-thousand people were killed in distracted driving crashes, and a half million were injured, many seriously. A distracted driver is 4 times as likely to be in a crash, the same as someone boozed up to the legal limit.

While this vid is not riveting, you will get to see what I think is the longest handshake of all time as LaHood and Ban meet at the beginning of the event (although the photo-op handshake category is extremely competitive). And you can also enjoy the U.N. Sec'y General's stand-up chops, as he drops lines like, "No SMS, is worth an S.O.S.", And, "Don't let using a mobile for a few seconds make you and others immobile for life." Who knew that the Koreans were such cards?

Enjoy...

Bike Week L.A.

So it's Bike Week all across the land, and if you haven't noticed boy you must have your head under a rock!  What with everyone leaving their cars at home and the transformation of our urban landscapes into a self-propelled utopia! 

OK, so the transformation is not complete, but it's a start.  And truth is maybe I'm just more aware of it, but there are shifts happening in terms of our country's evolving urban design.  But it's slow, and is completely the result of the dedicated pressure from bike advocates at the local, state and national level.  Mainly local, like the proto-movement to get the new Trader Joe's in Hollywood to include some freaking bike racks.  We just have to keep knocking at that door until people answer.

This week I was going to be downtown anyway so I went early for the Bike Week L.A. downtown ride, and while sparsely attended it was a blast for those of us that showed up.



There were a bunch of media there, and this family with their kid in the sweet little bike seat.  After a bit of milling around the 50 or so of us set off - a motley crew of office workers, bed-headed urban bike advocates, tenured bike commuters and even a couple 20-something fixers.



I gotta say, the LAPD was awesome.  Because of our meager numbers, we had about a 1:1 attendee-to-LAPD-bike-cop ratio.  It was insane.  They cleared the way, leap-frogging our group to provide complimentary corking, and generally giving us all a wonderful, if ephemeral, sense of acceptance and worth in the downtown L.A. commuter landscape. 



Getting to ride these wide-open streets is an amazing feeling.  A sense of what a transformed, "complete streets" L.A. could be like, with more riders and more places safe to ride.



I had the good fortune to ride behind a young hipster with the skinny jeans and the U-lock in the back pocket, which of course pulled down the skinny jeans giving me an early morning serving of "hipster smile".  I tried to grab a shoot-from-the-hip shot but clearly failed, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  And dude, maybe try a belt.



We got to ride past some downtown landmarks on our way back to Olvera Street, and our ride-of-joy was over, much too soon. 



Since I still had a little time to kill I walked into Olvera Street to grab some breakfast.  Another rider was headed there too so we shared a table and chatted over Huevos Rancheros and Machaca.  Some small talk between two people from totally different walks of life about the basics - home, work, etc.  Her name was Isabella, she does concrete finishing at some major L.A. landmarks all around the area, including at City of Hope, where my brother is currently being treated.  Small world, and one made smaller by being out on a bike and not sliding though our community in a car.  I love that about bikes - you're available.  Able to interact with the people that live around you.  I liked this conversation, with this person.  I liked the lack of sentimentality when I shared the difficulties my brother is facing.  Sympathy without pathos.  She seemed like a person who has lived with difficulty and knew that you press on without wallowing.  That was what I saw anyway.

It was time for me to go, heading off to City of Hope, so I offered to pick up the tab.  Times are rough in my family right now.  Not financially, but physically, emotionally, so treating a friendly stranger to breakfast is something I can do.  I figure any greasing of the wheels of karma can't hurt right now and you never know what door brings something good back to you. She handed me her card.



I paid up, and stood to go, off to the hospital, more procedures, more uncertainty.  The Concrete Diva said, "Thank you.  I'll never forget this."  It was a small thing, just a few minutes in a day, and life goes on.  But I won't forget either, about the little ways your life can change when you get out on the street, when you are part of the city we live in.

And who doesn't need a superhero on your side from time to time?

Scrapers, Excuses and Reasons for Hope

Man I have been gone a looong time.  But I still see bike stuff I love and maybe I'll pull it together and get this going again.  I started another blog recently out of, I don't know, desperation?  My brother was diagnosed with cancer, and a blog seemed a good way to communicate with friends and family about what is going on.  If you're interested you can find it here. 

There's so much in the bike world these days that's changing, showing signs of new life.  Ray LaHood as Secretary of Transportation is really pushing in the right directions.  Local communities making infrastructure investments.  And the seeds of real change in urban planning - seeing that the old model of bedroom communities and private car-dependent lifestyles is not sustainable.  That stuff gives me hope.

I also seem to be seeing a lot of stuff about urban kids and bikes.  Black kids getting on bikes and bringing their style and energy to it.  I think that's great, a breakdown of old boundaries.  I saw this vid tonight that is up that alley.  A beautifully produced piece done by California is a Place, it's about a kid in Oakland that rides Scrapers - tricked out bikes that provide a diversion for kids who could be drawn to less promising pass-times.  Really cool. They have other vids too that I imagine are worth a watch.

Take a look.  I'll post more of this kind of stuff...

Scrapertown from California is a place. on Vimeo.

Angel Face, CM & a Horse

Jared Leto has a band. If I were a gorgeous movie star, screw it, I'd have a band too...

OK, so I met Jared in passing on Fight Club and Panic Room and when he was going to do this video it came my way. Wasn't able to do it but Nicholas Wayman-Harris at our editing company Union Editorial did a great job with it - tons of footage from random sources, but pulled it all together into a whole.

While it may be accused of the usual music video transgressions (I've made them all so I know...) it has some great bike culture/Critical Mass/Mad Max-inspired fashion/nighttime streets-of-LA goodness. That alone makes it worthwhile. So if you have a few minutes, sit back, take a look, listen for Colbert's eagle and revel in some 'Why a horse?' ruminations!

Take it away Angel Face!

Thirty Seconds To Mars - Kings + Queens - HD

30 Seconds to Mars | MySpace Video

Nice work, Jared. Next time, cyclocross! No, bike commuting! No, pennyfarthings!

Nah, I guess you got it right the first time...

Ciclovia, CicLAvia & Bogota

I just read an article in the LA Times on a movement here in LA to bring Bogota's "ciclovia" to our sunny streets.

As the article says, "Ciclovia was born in the Colombian city of Bogota 30 years ago. Car-choked and polluted, Bogota's geography and sprawl very much mirrors that of Los Angeles. But every Sunday in Bogota, the city's major avenues are shut down to cars and hundreds of thousands of cyclists take to the streets. CicLAvia wants to replicate that success in Los Angeles - a city not exactly known for being bicycle-friendly."

Good for the folks working to make this happen. They rock.

I hear these stories and I think a) Look what is possible! and b) What the hell is taking us so long?! I mean New York closes down streets in the middle of Manhattan, Bogota closes down streets EVERY SUNDAY, and we have to scrape to get a freaking bike lane that doesn't even make to our downtown area.

We have a long way to go, but you look at these other examples and it's clear that it can be done, and that given LA's natural features - good weather and relative flatness - we are wasting a terrific opportunity.

If they can do it, we can do it.

Dicks, Jerks & Scofflaws

KPCC spent some time on car/bike relations yesterday in response to the conviction of Dr. Dickwad who pulled in front of some bike riders and then slammed on his brakes sending them to the ER as his way of saying, "Pardon me, would you mind fucking off and getting your own damn infrastructure?" Wouldn't it have been ironic if the injured riders got to the ER and Dr. Dickwad was their doctor? Man, that would have sucked. But not as much as picking your missing teeth up off his trunk. I hope the judge drops some science on the good doctor's ass come sentencing day.

Anyway, Larry Mantle covered the car/bike dialog which usually goes something like this:

Bike rider: "We'd like to have some space to ride our bikes to work, school, etc."

Car driver: "GET OFF THE FUCKING ROAD AND P.S. EAT MY INTERNALLY COMBUSTED SHORTS..."

I didn't hear the actual show, or the call in, but I'm guessing it started there and ended with both sides behaving badly and getting nowhere. Larry blogged post-show and while his post is basically reasonable he does have some behind-the-wheel bias, such as when he mentioned a rider taking the lane (which is recommended in some situations for safety) saying, "It might be legal, but it's sometimes unnecessary and, in my opinion, rude to needlessly hold up car traffic." Yeah, that's exactly what Dr. Dickwad was thinking too, only he expressed in a less socially acceptable way.

I posted a comment on Larry's blog and since it might be read there by, oh, one person I thought I'd post my comment here too so I could double that readership (Hi, Tom!).

So here it is, my contribution to the comments section:


"One problem here is that many car drivers see a bike rider acting dickishly and then make the leap to 'all bike riders are dicks'. That's not true, by a mile. Clearly from the Mandeville case we see that poor behavior is not limited to bike riders, and when you get a jerk behind the wheel of a car, it's no longer an annoyance, it can be deadly. My feeling is that the guy who rides his bike like a jerk is probably a jerk when he gets in a car, too. So it's not the mode of transport, it's the jerk.

"Cars are awarded the overwhelming majority of infrastructure dollars compared to bikes - it's not even close. You spend much time out there on a bike and you are quickly made to realize that you are second class. You piss people off if you use the sidewalk, and you piss them off if you use the street. (You piss SOME off - most car drivers are really respectful - in my experience) You are forced to go rogue out there - you're really left to fend for yourself. So the fact that bike riders improvise, for convenience or for safety, is to be expected. The roads aren't made for us, the laws aren't based on our impact or our threat to others. So we improvise. Car drivers may see it as lawlessness, but they should try it sometime, you learn to make do however you can.

"That doesn't excuse rudeness. I live by Santa Monica College and I see some true retards out there on bikes, salmoning up the wrong side of the road and blowing through crowded intersections. Obviously Darwin has plans for these scofflaws.

"I think that car drivers should spend a bit of time on a bike - for many reasons. Health, sense of community, and for a little understanding of what we face. We're out there literally 'pulling our own weight', and really don't deserve the intolerance some car drivers send our way. And hey, when they pull into that empty parking space, maybe they could send a little goodwill to those of us who left our car at home."

There. World saved. Crisis averted.

El Porvenir, Clean Water and Bike Commuting

OK, I’ll get right to the point. El Porvenir is a small, grassroots organization that helps local communities build clean water and sanitation facilities for themselves in the rural areas of Nicaragua. Here's how they get water before El Porvenir gets involved - the women carry it from wherever a source is...

Photo by Patrick Xavier Bresnan

Clean water for people who deserve it - it’s a fundamentally important thing. (They also build washing/shower facilities, healthy cook-stoves and have begun reforestation projects - but it all starts with the water.)

Here's a picture of my Mom and Step-dad about 15 years ago when we went on one of their work trips. My folks were on the board of El Porvenir for many years.


(My folks also dabbled in helping kids over the border into the States to reunite them with their families trapped by INS laws, and protesting things like the School of the Americas - with the arrest record to show for it. They look so innocent, don't they?)

Anyway, if you ever wanted to see your charitable (and tax-deductible) dollar have a direct, tangible, deeply satisfying effect on the lives of others - this is it. Bringing clean water and sanitation facilities to these communities has a life-saving effect on their health, and a profound effect on the lives of the women that are the core of family life. Clean, accessible water and sanitation is a BIG DEAL that we take for granted.

I’ll provide more info below, but here's my brother-can-you-spare-a-dime/bike-related pitch...

We’re having an event at our house on November 6th to provide information about what El Porvenir does (and of course eat and drink and tell stories and goof off). Doors will open at 7, and we'll have a speaker from Nicaragua at about 8:30. We want people who work late (like me) to be able to attend. So there’s that, you are invited to come on the 6th.

If you can’t make it or if you just like additional reasons to part with a little cash, we will be doing our transportation bike riding in November as a fundraiser as well. We ride as a family about 10 miles a day to get to school and work. We are looking for pledges based on our commuting miles in November - probably about 200 miles - rain or shine! You can set a limit to your contribution or do it any way that works for you. Email me with your pledge and I’ll follow up with any more info you need. We’ll love you for it.

Please RSVP to me at bikedate(at)me(dot)com if you plan on coming so we can be ready, and we'll send you the specifics. Also, please come even if you can’t give right now. We mean that, we want to see/meet you and share what El Porvenir does more than anything. You can even just stop by for a drink and then head off to that exclusive Hollywood party that you didn't invite us to!

The bottom line is, this is a great organization. Very low overhead, and your hard-earned dollar will make life better for men, women & kids. It’s that simple. (We set up Quicken to send a small monthly check - that works for us.)

OK, here's a short video about El Porvenir:




Here’s the link to El Porvenir's site.

Friend them on Facebook here!

That's it. We hope to see you on the 6th! RSVP! RSVP! bikedate(at)me(dot)com

High Fives, Bad Bloggers & Lousy Excuses

OK, I'm the worst blogger ever. Too busy lately. But a friend just sent me this vid and it just makes me smile.

Excellent...

You think YOU have problems

On Craigslist today:

Cannondale M300 Black - Great shape - $297 (Van Nuys)

---

Date: 2009-09-12, 5:02PM PDT
Reply to: sale-rd5em-1371621324@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

---

Rarely used, bought this because I had a DUI, then got a DUI on this #$%& stupid bike - and I don't even drink.
Anyway - black beautiful, a little dirty but a kick ass bike.
Price is $297.62, firm. Cash only. Call Joann at (818) 455-1530

• Location: Van Nuys
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 1371621324

If anyone knows how to get two DUIs without drinking, well, they should call Joann.

OK, that was my shortest post ever!

Van Jones, bullies & Ocean Park Boulevard

OK, I’ve been working like a madam lately and just haven’t been able to keep up with my invaluable blogging responsibilities. So I’m thinking I’ll start writing shorter, but maybe more frequent posts. I know, I made your day.

Here goes. A speed round of sorts.

First, local Santa Monica bike activist Michael Cahn pointed out a bit in the Santa Monica Daily Press - reactions to an experimental change to the traffic lanes on Ocean Park Boulevard. It went from four lanes (two lanes in each direction) with no left turn lane and parking along the side to the current set up which has two lanes (one lane in each direction) a designated center left turn lane, bike lanes on each side and parking. This area is both a small neighborhood business area, as well as a route for commuters to get from places south of Santa Monica to the freeways or other parts of LA.

As most cyclists are aware, members of the car-driving community are consistently supportive of this kind of traffic calming, quality-of-life-for-neighborhoods change, even if it impacts their desire for unrestricted car-centric civil engineering. They are remarkable in their understanding and enlightened attitudes. It something I love about car drivers - when you ask for some road space for cyclists and pedestrians, they look like this:


Here are a few samples of the comments received by the paper on this issue!

"They should put it back the way it was. All the idiots in charge of traffic in Santa Monica have done nothing but mess it up and make traffic worse than it used to go, because they're idiots and they should all be fired."

And this:

"The head of traffic planning should be sent on a broken tricycle back to New York City.”

And this:

"The people who changed the traffic pattern on Ocean Park Boulevard are idiots.”

And this:

“It should definitely be returned to four lanes. And while you are making changes, would you please get rid of the so-called 'traffic engineers' that have screwed up the already difficult traffic big time in this city. Let the pedestrians and bike riders move to Bermuda, or some other lovely, less populated place to do their thing."

Oh wait, when you ask car drivers to share the road they look like this:


I don’t know exactly what the solutions are to these conflicts. Obviously we are stuck with getting cars from one place to the other for some time, and stuck with their arrogance and sense of entitlement. But adding lanes has been shown to not reduce traffic, it just raises the tipping point where congestion once again becomes unbearable.

The solution definitely lies in support for alternatives to cars, changes in commute distance between homes and work, and a general shift from cars being the bull in our neighborhood china shops.

But sometimes I have little hope. When good people like Van Jones get run out of town by despicable bullies like Glenn Beck, when our health care debate revolves around the existence of death panels, well I wonder if I have the patience to endure the changes this country must make to become a sustainable enterprise.

Sigh.

Tron, graft & the Big Time

So to fund my bike expenditures and keep my kids in shoes and cereal I have a day job as a film editor, currently on Tron. So as with all things in life, worlds collide and synchronicity prevails.

To wit, friends have sent photos of a couple Tron-inspired bikes they've come across. They pay homage to varying degrees, and truth is if we fall short in our VFX budget maybe one of these babies could take up the slack. With the right sound effects it just might work.

Here's one found at IGN:

Quite respectable. Modern, minimal. Syd Mead would be proud.

Or this DIY version:

True to the spirit, with the enthusiasm of the hardcore fan.

But this next one falls a little short:

(PHOTO DELETED OUT OF DEEP RESPECT FOR COPYRIGHT LAW...)

That one might also satisfy the hardcore fan (or even the softcore fan), but it seems to be about 5% loosely-connected Tronware and about 95% Tron Guy wishful thinking. However, at least now I know what those stem pads are for.

Also, today is a major milestone for the Bike Date blog and the entire Bike Date corporate family. We received our very first offer of free bike product to review. Yes, Bike Date is now "Big Time", and obviously this vendor can surmise the soon-to-be-established promotional power of the "Bike Date Bump".

Our accountants are currently looking into the ethical and tax implications of accepting in-kind, quid-pro-quo, you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours "review items". Obviously Bike Date's attorneys assure the various interested RICO investigators that graft promotional materials will be handled within the appropriate legal framework.

An honest review of these products will be posted once Bike Date R&D has conducted their thorough testing. Those guys are relentless. I know our readers expect nothing less.

Rumors, changeable gears & Trekworld

I’ve been busy this week here at TrekWorld 2010 - amazing stuff. No doubt some memorable new designs and improvements. No doubt.

But there were rumors. There was something else Trek had to share, if only to a few.

And I got lucky.

Except for one blurry photo via BikeHugger, this most elusive protobike almost completely rolled under the radar. But Bike Date got a special viewing of this steampunk monster and I can say with confidence, there is nothing else like it out there in the realm of changeable-gear bicycles.

Consider yourself scooped Main Stream (bike) Media - here it is:

The Hill-Climber. A retro-tastic 3-speed shaft-drive screamer. Check out the solid steel foundation of the Hill-Climber, both breaking and making irrelevant every rule of modern frame design.


Sure the geometry is familiar, and the Shepard Fairey treatment breaks new ground as expected, but this bike’s glory is in the details. Let’s start with that insane drivetrain.

Trek’s work-in-progress promotional materials describe it like this: “a gear ratio of 86-51-36 that helps the rider up the hill, against the wind, and makes riding the bicycle a pleasure at all times.” Then this: “the only bicycle that gives the rider a variation of three gears.” You read that right. Three.

And then they drop the real science: “You shift gears with a small shift lever at the head within easy reach of the rider, AND IT STAYS CHANGED!”


You hear that Dura-Ace? I thought you did.

Bontrager has obviously stepped up their game for this outing with a from-square-one wheelset re-imagining. Fabricated from a top-secret wood-based alloy (no details were divulged, but it smelled like pine) they clearly had the Mavic R-SYS in their sights. Direct hit.


You can tell just by looking at it - pumping out the miles on this A-sym future-orb will be unforgettable. But this two-wheeler is not all “high-tech engineering” this and “exotic formulations” that. At its heart it's a work of art. And I can tell you, riding it makes you an artist.

From the head badge...

...to the crank...


...to the saddle.

Just when it seemed innovation was impossible, Trek simply says, “It’s possible.”

The “Wheeler Extra” saddle comes standard on the H-C. (As an accommodation to the marketplace they included the leather and gel cover seen above with it’s form-fitting “Spongy Wonder” comfort layer. But purists will undoubtedly want to rock it old school with the “Wheeler P2” - the “Pride of the Perineum”):


That ass dais will leave a mark - on your soul...

Much will be written as the Hill-Climber approaches rollout in 2010, but it will always remain an enigma - a nanotech reverberation out of the Industrial Age - the Keyser Söze of bikes. But for the lucky insiders invited to this preview one thing is for sure...

“It Must Be The Bike”™.

(For more dope on the Hill-Climber go here and buy his book here )

Idaho stops, vulnerable users & Scandinavian porn

Hey everybody! What could possibly be more interesting than a post about bike lanes?

OK... now that it’s just the two of us, I could post a few shots of Scandinavian bike infrastructure porn and let nature take it’s course, but let’s keep that private. But I do dream of such things - actual dedicated roadspace for my two wheels as some kind of payback for the substantial yearly contributions I make to our federal, state and local coffers. I can dream, after all.

Here in Santa Monica we have more bike space than other areas in LA. But it’s still half-baked, considering what a wonderful place this could be for more people to get around by bike.

Here’s one of the issues. From the city’s website there is this 2007 info: “There are 130 miles of arterial streets in Santa Monica. Bike lanes are designated on 13 total miles of roadway. Of these, 3.78 miles of designated bike lanes are on arterial streets. That means less than 3% of Santa Monica’s arterial streets have bike lanes, a figure which falls short of the city's 35% target for 2010.” They even had this graphic:


The good news is that we have some people in our local government that have recognized this state of affairs. The bad news is that even this info overstates the case. We ride 11th Street from our home in the southern part of the city to our kid’s school in the northern part of the city - about 2 1/2 miles each way. Here’s a photo of a representative section of 11th Street:


You can (hopefully) see the bike lane marked from the white car in the upper left and running down to the right. And as you can see the bike lane really only runs in the middle of the block - it ends about 100’ before and after each intersection. So while 11th street is shown by the city to have a bike lane, it really only covers about half that length. You are constantly being dumped back into traffic, and at the busiest parts of the road. So that 13 miles of bike lanes is not even accurate.

We need so many things to change this. “Vulnerable users” laws to protect non-car users of our public space. Livable “Complete streets” to make our streets safe and attractive. “Idaho stop” laws to make regulation fit the reality of riding a bike, not glom us in with laws meant to protect teh public from cars and the people driving them.

And most importantly we need to find a truce between car users, pedestrians and cyclists to make changes that really benefit us all. After all, we're paying for all those roads that treat us riders as an afterthought.

Twitter, Twitlegs & the Twitterati

My bike riding lately has been a bit un-postworthy, just my cruise to work which hardly even raises my heart rate.

Twitter followers of mine would already know that if I stepped up and built this DIY device that would automatically post my heartrate to Twitter. As the reviewer in that link says, “That way should you stop supporting the Iranian revolution, we will all know why.”

And speaking of Twitter, I’ve gone from one-toe-in-the-water skeptic to the cannonball of the convert. I find myself wanting to defend her, like a girlfriend that dresses like a hooker, but I know has a heart of gold.

Painter Natalia Fabia clearly understands...

The short version is, Twitter’s value isn’t in getting a running update on your friend’s heart-rates or what’s on their IPod (in fact I don’t know the people I "follow", except in about two cases). Twitter’s value is in following people far more connected to the outside world than myself, and who in turn connect me.

It’s like a CliffsNotes to the internets. Whether it’s political news from Markos Moulitsas, KagroX, Josh Marshall or Matt Yglesias; bike related posts from Bikejuju, BikeHugger or BikeIntel; insights on photography in the media from BagNewsNotes; random photos from the road from Silversun Pickups; the moving saga of families facing cancer from Pablove or Fat Cyclist; Rob Corddry, Diablo Cody or Jason Linkins pleasingly blackened wit; or Lance Armstrong’s steady stream of, well, what he’s listening to on his IPod.

It really is limitless - like Facebook-friending with a far wider reach. Tweetdeck (a Twitter web-browser of sorts) is now my first stop on the laptop. You need a guide to get started (I'll give you pointers if you're interested) but once you get your Twitlegs, it’s an indispensable tool...

...even if many people still assume it’s too trashy for polite company.

Keywords, Action Wipes & Bikejuju

OK, so the purpose of this post started out simply - to win the free Action Wipes in the Bikejuju contest. Having just linked back to Bikejuju I could stop right there and qualify per the rules of the contest, but who would link back to Bikejuju for only selfish reasons? Why would someone so carelessly break with the long-standing Blogger's Code?

That would be wrong.

So let me say this. I am already an Action Wipes user! Love them - a great product to address the aromatic embarrassment when you say, "Hey! I rode my bike into work today!" And your co-worker says dryly, "I know..." I have two packs sitting right over there on my shelf here at work - got them after Bike Skirt gave them their seal of approval. Now I don't really need any more Action Wipes right now, so if I win I am going to donate them to charity (though I need to discuss the tax implications with my CPA).

So Bikejuju, you might as well start addressing those babies to me here at Bike Date HQ, 'cause there's a stinky armpit out here in CA just waiting to be neutralized by those sweet, sweet Tea Tree oils and other magical salves and poultices.

But here's the thing - the thing that makes makes this post more than just a suck-up to Bikejuju. This contest is what is called (in common parlance) "a cry for help". We bloggers are out here posting, often several times a month, in an act of pure self-sacrifice, expecting nothing in return. Well actually there seems to be one common thing we'd like, and that is some sense of who the hell reads this stuff? This contest is that lonely blogger's cry for help - a quid pro quo: Let Bikejuju know you are out there in a verifiable way, and you can wipe away his sense of isolation and leave a mild-but-tingly eucalyptus scent!

And he is not alone in this. I am able to see how many hits I get a day (anywhere from 40 to 100 believe it or not) and other odd details about the traffic here at Bike Date. Because aside from the random commenter, I would otherwise have no idea. And I learn interesting things. Things like putting the terms "dildo" and "bike" in a post will pump up your blog's traffic.

My inclusion of those terms was innocent enough - I had no idea there actually is a "dildo bike", or how many individuals are out there telling their Google, "I would very much like to see videos of this unusual bike!" (I'm guessing about 40 to 100 a day). From my site's stats, I can see that these folks hail from many far-off places, like Kalamazoo, Michigan; Rapid City, South Dakota; Brisbane, Queensland; Manchester, Michigan; Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; Ajax, Ontario; Corvalis, Oregon and even Efshahan, Iran! The dildo bike diaspora.

From his search keywords I saw that an industrious chap in Minot, North Dakota was wondering how to make a dildo bike, while Deseranto, Canada stood out for searching ‘free bike dildo videos’ - I guess up there in the land of universal health care they think everything should be free...

Here is a graph of recent searches leading to the Bike Date site in order of volume:

So the Giant Suede is currently edging out the others, but as always the various combinations of "bike" and "dildo" are holding steady. I see that "bike with dildo" just barely beat "cute bike seat", and I hope that doesn't mean they may have been sent to the same urls - I doubt that would have ended well.

So here's the real point. Yes, you can cynically link back to Bikejuju to try to steal the Action Wipes from me (and as I said I'll donate them to charity, which I don't expect to be praised for unless you feel strongly about it). But what we really want is a sign, some small sign that you exist, that you care. (No not you 74.168.135.101 , I know what you're here for...)

So if you made it this far, leave a comment. Even just one lone character from among the qwerty choices. Something. Or do I need to offer a free dildo cozy to make it worth your while?

Don't tempt me.

Gavels, assholes & #twitterrhea

First off, I was watching the Tour de France this morning and saw this spot for AutoZone which should get some kind of Clio for it's disservice-to-mankind and backwards thinking. The storyline is a kid on a bike fixes up an old beater car (with parts from AutoZone, natch...) and ends with the line, "At least now when I go, it's not on my bike!"



Nice going AutoZone and agency-of-record Sponge! And the genius that bought time on the TdF really deserves something special...

OK, just had to mention that.


I've always loved these Bakfiets (European cargo/kid hauling bikes) and not only because they are often shown with some comely Euro-Spokesmodel-Mom in the cockpit. But these bikes with their "kid-forward" design always make me think of that Laurie Anderson song where she delivers this little spoken-word piece:

"After doing these concerts in French, I usually had the temporary illusion that I could actually speak French, but as soon as I walked out on the street, and someone asked me simple directions, I realized I couldn't speak a single word.

"As a result of this inadequacy, I found that the people I had the most rapport with were the babies. And one of the things I noticed about these babies was that they were apparently being used as some kind of traffic testers. Their mothers would be pushing them along in their strollers--and they would come to a busy street with lots of parked cars--and the mother can't see what the traffic is like because of all the parked cars--so she just sort of edges the stroller out into the street and cranes her head out afterwards.

"And the most striking thing about this is the expression on these babies' faces as they sit there in the middle of traffic, stranded, banging those little gavels they've all got. And they can't even speak English."

I think us bike riders can all relate to this feeling, like we are out there on the road as some kind of traffic testers to answer the question, "Just how dangerous is it to ride bikes among the internal combusters?" Well, "quite" is many rider's answer. That and banging our little gavels.

Alex Thompson is spearheading a drive to take back Santa Monica's Bronze award for bike friendliness since he feels that many aspects of riding in Santa Monica aren't Bronze-worthy, and that local riders weren't consulted in the process. I asked him to describe the safety situation in Santa Monica in one to five words and his response was, "Not very safe." He also offered, "Just like Los Angeles" as a backup, which may be more to the point since Los Angeles was not awarded Bronze or Pewter or any other color. They barely got the "Los Angeles" award for bike friendliness, which not only doesn't exist, but it's nothing to brag about and should have been a gimme.

Local officials feel Thompson's approach has a "cutting your nose to spite your face" quality, that local advocates in government should be encouraged for what they do, not reprimanded when they come up short. I'm not sure where I fall on this, but if there is in fact any laurels-resting-upon because of this bronzing, then I'd side with Alex. I know some city council members are fighting the good fight, and hopefully both sides will work to prove their point and we riders will be better off for their efforts.

My experience of bike safety in Santa Monica has been that it depends where you ride. The most dangerous thing I face in my 2-mile commute is getting grease on my pants, while other journeys can be more touch & go. I rode down 23rd/Walgrove the other day (and there are only three crappy choices to ride north/south like that - Centinela, Walgrove or Lincoln) and man that was not a "Bronze" experience (and also only partially in Santa Monica proper). The color that came to mind was more of a crimson, hamburgery shade illuminated by the flashing lights of first responders. The League of American Bicyclists might consider adding a new award - the "Hamburger", though I'm quite aware there already is a Hamburger award, and it was won by Barry M. Brenner in 1999. He looks like he deserved it:


Maybe our streets could be graded based on what you actually experience, like "Verbal abuse", "Close Call" and "Compound Fracture". Lincoln Boulevard has tantalizing "Bike Route" signage, obviously installed by someone with a mischievously dark sense of humor. Or maybe they just had extra signs. Anyway, Lincoln deserves a "Close Call" designation at best.

The oft-heard biker's lament is that people get behind the wheel and become assholes. Or maybe they get in the car that way. But I've found that I've gotten very little grief from the drivers I share the road with. As Markos Moulitsas recently tweeted, “Amazing how most car drivers are nice to cyclists out here, giving right of way when it's theirs, etc. So few assholes, but they do exist." That is actually my experience too, though I've not tweeted as such. But then Markos tweets about everything, to the point I think he may have #twitterrhea. Actual diagnosis is difficult since I just made up the disease. [UPDATE: Apparently this condition was previously identified... Dang, I could taste that Nobel.]

As Markos mentions, drivers often give the right of way even when it's theirs (which I actually find annoying - I like the order of a clear right-of-way etiquette). My feeling is they assume I'm going to ignore all rules of the road (since some highly visible cyclists do in fact ignore all rules of the road) and so they just wave me on. So, my main act of bike advocacy is the five-finger salute - I wave at drivers all the time. Usually as a thank you, or sometimes just to say, "Hey, here I am! Please don't send me to the ER!" Eye-contact is the bike rider's best defense.

I think we riders that try to cooperate with cars on the road need to make our numbers known, highlight our good citizenship, otherwise all people remember is that guy flying through a four-way stop filled with cars, salmoning up the wrong side of the road, and acting like the inevitable near-miss is the car driver's fault. Smart money says those riders are probably dicks when they get behind the wheel, too.

But since the rules and the infrastructure were not made with us in mind, we often are left to improvise. I understand how that need for improvisation combined with a youthful sense of immortality can go all Ornette Coleman without much encouragement. It's wrong, but as Chris Rock said, "I understand..."

In one sense I feel complaining about biking conditions in Santa Monica is like complaining about the breeze and the chill in the air here every evening right when you want to sit out back with a Mojito (a complaint I've often made) - many people from colder/more bike-hostile environs would scoff (actually have scoffed). Still, things could be so much better here.

I believe that making things better for bikes and pedestrians makes for a much better local environment for everyone - commuters, residents and businesses. And here is where I think bike advocacy sometimes gets off track: When we push for things that make life better for bikes, it needs to clearly make life better for pedestrians and cars too - it can't be zero sum. As bike advocates we need something that seems even rarer than a well-spent infrastructure dollar - broad-based community support.

Yes, we need better infrastructure and more of it. But it's ultimately more about a broad culture that is embracing the need for that infrastructure. We need to advocate by example, in growing groups, with increasing visibility, cooperation, practicality, innovation and humor. If the only force pushing for the changes we want is our ragtag band of believers (I love you, man!) we will continue to get what we're getting - the scraps left over after Big Car has taken the good stuff.

What we need to do (while we petition and cajole and influence and demand and all that) is find ways to grow our group. We need a larger constituency. We need non-car transportation, complete streets and livable cities to go mainstream, at least far more mainstream than they currently are. We need a public impression of our movement that is compelling and appealing.

We need more than just current riders - it simply isn't enough. We need to ally ourselves with other groups, some that may even seem like adversaries, and create a broader, positive coalition. It's like the Apollo Alliance - the "environmental" group that has unified previous adversaries (enviros, labor and business, for example) and shown that sustainability is in everyone's self-interest. The Apollo Alliance sets a very good example for us, I think. A movement always has to play to people's self-interest.

Looking at it this way, we need car drivers pushing for our cause, we need pedestrians backing us up, we need business speaking up for our infrastructure requests. If our approach is to go toe-to-toe with these other groups, zero-summing each other, our progress will be... well, what it is now. Meager.

So we have to hold up examples like NYC's Commissioner of the DOT Janette Sadik-Kahn to our representatives and say, "If New York City can do it, if they can turn Broadway into a pedestrian mall, then we have no excuse." Some encouragement, some shame. Some five-finger salutes, some Alex Thompson.

But we need to dump old thinking that hasn't worked, old ideas about who is with us and who is against us, and replace it with a bigger idea. Something broader. More popular. A movement that attracts people, not something they pre-judge and avoid.

When that AutoZone spot doesn't get past the pitch stage, we'll know we're making progress.

Who says bike helmets aren't cute? (Warning: Linkholes will be followed...)

OK, there have been many skirmishes in the helmet-or-no-helmet wars. It's not really a fair fight since the axis of helmet-wearers suffer fewer head injuries and as such live to fight another day, while the helmet-free need constant replacements at the front. You'd think this unfair advantage would be handicapped somehow but since there is no referee, no governing body adjudicating this debate, that attrition is simply the life-threatening head trauma the feel-the-wind-in-their-hair troops will have to bear.

So the debate rages on.

One of the complaints about helmets is their arguably off-the-charts dork factor. Even President Obama, who is generally seen as stylish, always appearing to inhabit a world of easy grace and elegance, can succumb to the fiercely equalizing dork-power that is the bike helmet.

Exhibit A:

This image was received so poorly the NY Times even pulled this out in comparison:

Obviously Obama was able to recover, but I have to wonder if that bike was hurting him image-wise too. Maybe he should have gone this route:


And going back to the original Obama/helmet/fail image, his bike has some attachment on the back - what is that?


I thought long and hard, and my best guess is it's something like this:

Maybe that's some Secret Service requirement? In an emergency they could swoop in and take control of the bike? Maybe it's a towbar with the nuclear football attached? (That could explain why it's cropped out in both photos I've seen - national security.)

Or is it some sad mountain bike fender? But that hardtail Trek would have to suffer an epic bottoming out to need that kind of clearance. And anyway, in that event the problem wouldn't be rear wheel clearance, it would be how to remove the saddle from the President's colon. Simple physics.

Anyway, that's all academic when the fail had already occured up top, though they really didn't have to drag Dukakis into it.

But here's the deal. Where is it written that helmets need to be crafted from 100%, corn-fed dork? Well OK, fair enough - it's written everywhere. But I'm prepared to make a prediction - from this point forward the momentum will change. "Helmet" and "Someone should say something" and "lame" and "King Dorko" and "No thanks, I don't think I'll even go to the prom this year" will no longer be found in the same sentence.

I present you with... Exhibit R (for "Rosemary"):

Game over. Admit it, that helmeted girl is pure win. Check, and Mate.

Next topic.

This brings me to the general issue of bike safety. Some take this issue head on, writing articles with titles like this:


Admirable. Direct. What could be more important? Well, this could be:

Safe and Healthy Bike Seats for Men and Women

They had me at “coccyx pain”:

"We make kids wear helmets and knee pads," Dr. Goldstein said. "But no one thinks about protecting the crotch."

It does seem obvious, but Dr. Goldstein is so right; that point cannot be stressed eoungh. They listed several bike saddles and their relative merits crotch-protecting-wise. But one stood out - "The Spongy Wonder":

“As I finished the research I decided to try the Spongy Wonder. I haven't been biking much lately, so it's hard to tell whether I'll get used to it quickly. I don't suffer from numbness anymore, but I find it hard to signal turns, since I don't feel safe enough to let my hands go of the handle bars. My friend who uses this seat, said that I need a bike with a higher frame, so that I could use my hip to lean on the frame, while I take my hand off the handle bar. He says it works well for him. Time will show.”

Indeed.

OK. The lack of numbness seems to be a net positive. I have experienced near total numbness in my Spongy Wonder area at about mile 18 - figured it probably was saddle-related. So now I have that ironed out. But this part concerned me a bit - "I find it hard to signal turns, since I don't feel safe enough to let my hands go of the handle bars." I think this confirms that a safe seat, even one (purportedly) as safe as the S.W. can't provide a letting-go-of-the-handle-bars-to-signal level of safety. But really, what can?

It makes me think the rider's saddle may not be the primary issue. But the writer got advice: "My friend who uses this seat, said that I need a bike with a higher frame, so that I could use my hip to lean on the frame, while I take my hand off the handle bar. He says it works well for him." I think their friend may have been as high as the frame they were recommending. About this high:


Seriously, I am having great difficulty imagining a riding position that includes hip-on-frame leaning. I mean, how do you do that? I strapped on my Google shoes and trust me, there's nothing...

But when you expose yourself to a post with the tags, "bike, seat, safety, saddle, erectile dysfunction, health, pain, numbness, chafing, prostate" you know you're on shaky ground. Best to saddle up and move on.

So move on I did. And this question caught my eye: "Is it safe to mountain-bike during pregnancy?"

Well? Is it?

One commenter had this sage advice: “I don't think it's the biking itself that is a problem it is the falling.” So true.

Well someone should have told this very masculine looking young lady, who, reliable sources have told me, was most definitely with child:

I won't go into the details, but this experiment did not end well, helmet or no. So this bike safety thing ran far deeper than even I, a regular rider, would have ever thought. I continued to dive down these bottomless linkholes, and here's what came next:

There is More to Bike Safety than a Helmet

Do tell...

"There are many aspects of bike fit that can affect your ability to ride safely. If the title of this article resonates to you, then chances are something has gone awry with your bike riding, or the safety of your current bike fit. Deciding that your health and sexual function are important enough to warrant an improved position on your bike is taking an active step to riding in comfort and peace of mind... When I sit on a standard saddle (a Selle Flite for ex), I can feel the pressure in all the wrong places and it is very uncomfortable for me because I know what is going on physiologically."

OK, my peace of mind was just shot to hell. But after considering the impact of mountain biking on pregnancy and now the impact of my saddle on my very ability to bring about the aforementioned pregnancy... well, I had to go right to the source. So I wrote the author:

"Hello Mr. Kraus,

"I was reading your article about bike seats and sexual issues tonight, with both concern and interest. If the problem is specifically erectile dysfunction, that is clearly not good. I love to ride, but not only the bike (ba-dum-bum - if you know what I mean).

"But I was wondering if ill-fitting bike seats can cause other issues, making actual reproduction less likely? I was reading some other articles about the safety of mountain biking while pregnant, and while they recommended against it, they did not say it would guarantee a child-free lifestyle. [What I neglected to mention in my letter is that I have found wearing a bike helmet to be an extremely reliable form of contraception, since it is then unlikely anyone will have sex with you in the first place.]

"So, my question is, would you consider an ill-fitting bike seat an effective method of birth control? If the answer is yes, you mentioned the Selle Italia Flite, but are there other saddles that would be as effective?

Thank you, Jim"

I got this response:

"Jim, anything that puts pressure on your nerves and arteries that run under your taint is considered a method of birth control. But its pre-birth control..more like booty control. If your stuff doesn't work, then you can't even play."

Damn. Helmets were seeming more and more like a distraction. The issue is taint-trauma, for crissakes. Still, the public is obsessed with helmets. I saw this desperate post:

"Dear Dr. Cory: Are bike helmets safe? Should I wear one?
Stephanie Knock, Massapequa Park, New York"

This whole thing was turning upside down. It started with the debate as to whether riding a bike without a helmet was safe, and now I was finding that the question was actually whether it was safe to ride with a helmet!

Dr. Cory let it all out:

"Dear Stephanie: Yes!"

He went on, but I'll spare you his propaganda and the obvious fact that Dr. Cory is in the pocket of Big Helmet. So I went to the only location I felt I could place my trust - the content related ads in the side bar.

There were three.

This:

"Zero Dork Factor Helmets
Coolest bicycle helmets on Earth from award-winning designer Yakkay
www.50cycles.com"

And this:

"Bell Helmets- Buy Direct
Free Shipping, All Styles & Colors Half Helmets, Moto 8's & More!
www.TheHelmetZone.com"

And this:

"Public Sex Offender List
Are Sex Offenders Living In Your Neighborhood? Find Out Now - Free!
www.FamilySafetyReport.com"

Damn. Clearly there was a relationship between bike safety and sex that simply could not be denied. And it was moving into the criminal arena.

So I have come to this conclusion. If a helmet is to be worn, it needs something of a "helmet-offset". The risks and downsides are just too great. It may be as simple as creating a diversion, a bike that has the firepower to take on the proven fashion-trampling mojo of the helmet. Maybe a ride like this:


Anything less would just be foolhardy.