The Field Guide

Don’t forget tomorrow is National Bike to Work Day. I’ll see you out there.

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…Thanks Daddy Clear Channel!

The NYTimes is reporting a new bicycle sharing program for Washington, D.C. The kicker?…it’s supported by a deal with Clear Channel which provides exclusive access to bus shelter advertising. So if you’re biking in D.C. try not to get so distracted by the bus shelter ads that you put yourself in danger.

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Thanks to good weather and childcare (and a job away from my house, of course!) I finally got back to commuting by bike. Friday I rode the 10+ miles each way. It was a bit much for the first time back in the saddle, but a great ride overall. Most of the route is on the Hudson River hike and bike trail, squeezed between the Hudson River (imagine that) and I-787 (who put that highway there!?). As long as I rode with my face to the river and went fast enough for the wind in my ears to drown out the noise of the highway…it was blissful. Looking forward to riding it again.

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Yesterday morning the host of Marketplace Morning Report mentioned high oil prices then joked, “where is my bicycle pump?” Indeed. And where is Marketplace’s coverage of bicycle commuting/alternative transportation issues? I might even sit through that 5/4 earworm of a theme song to hear to it.

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More bicycling goodness from the New York Times. Apparently, creating a friendly bicycle culture is good for the bicycling business–just look at Portland. The punch line here goes something like “we went for sustainability and got a better economy, too.” No surprise there except that the business activity was noticed at all. After all, bottom line contributions from bike culture industries must be a fraction of other cultural institutions, even in a city like Portland. Not to poo-poo the article, but isn’t part of bicycle culture envisioning a smaller, more local, more easily customized economic reality?  Its a vision that works great at the Better Business Bureau but that may not have such long legs at City Hall. Regardless…bully for Portland.

Oh, did I mention how nice it was to notice great bicycle commuting infrastructure in the Bay Area during my recent visit?

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The NYTimes has a story on the Vélib bicycles newly available for rent in Paris. The pricing system seems especially appropriate for bicycle commuters: free for the first half-hour, 1 euro for the second half-hour, 2 euros for the third half-hour and 4 euros for each half hour after that. Many factors would need to work together to make such a system work in the US, including size of the city (populous enough to support a regular ridership, but not so sprawly as to make short bike trips impractical), number and location of stations, and biking infrastructure, to name a few. NYC comes to mind as a place where the US version of the Vélib could take root. Modify the gear ratios, beef up the brakes and San Francisco might be in the running. Making the bikes tourist friendly may be a necessity, but it could also open up possibilities for cities like DC or Charleston, SC or numerous national parks.

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NYC plans to reconfigure 7 blocks of 9th Avenue in Chelsea to make it friendlier for bicyclists. The plan involves positioning a bike lane between the sidewalk and a row of parked cars. (A buffer zone with barriers to prevent cars from entering the bike lane is also included.) See a New York Times article here. I wonder how these lanes will function at intersections, particularly with the pedestrian islands extending into the street? I’m in favor of more bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure, so I look forward to seeing this implemented–and one day riding it myself!

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