Pittsburgh

Streetfilms' interesting look at Pittsburgh, its infrastructure, and efforts to improve public space, livable streets, and biking. I like what they've done with Market Square.

Wooing is key

from Streetsblog:

Wooing the Hesitant Cyclist

For those who bike everywhere now, biking in the street is probably no big deal. But most of those cyclists probably fall within the two categories of “Strong and Fearless” or “Enthused and Confident.” Together they make up 8% of the population. In the U.S., 8% is pretty good, but if we really want to break through, we need to find a way to get the 60% who are “Interested but Concerned” to ride a bike.

full article

Extra-stone age

From the BBC:

Average UK male weight up 16lb in 15 years, study finds

"The problem is really how people are getting around. They are driving more, cycling less and more likely to be employed in a sedentary job.

"Physical activity is slowly being removed from day-to-day life."

Not to pick on the Brits, it's happening everywhere, not least of course in the US of 'hey, buffet!'. I've read the Aussies have their own obesity epidemic. If only a certain magic wand (on two wheels) weren't staring us right in the face...

full article

18th St and Columbia Rd

Yeah, I know, I've used this building as a backdrop before. But not at night!

Our Man in Munich - Part IV

My friend Mike Tierney, an American expat in Munich, on growing up outside New York and sensory deprivation/activation:

Engaging all of the senses, and observations otherwise missed

3rd Ave Elevated over Cross Bronx Expressway, c. 1974, photo by Jack E. Boucher, via Wikimedia Commons

First, an autobiographical note.  I was born in the Bronx in the early 1960s, but I have no memories of the place.  My family was among the thousands who fled the boroughs of the City for the surrounding countryside.  By that time, Robert Moses and his acolytes had lacerated New York City with highways to make way for the new higher-order life form and left the Bronx drawn and quartered.  The new Cross Bronx Expressway became the evacuation route for those of sufficient means to create a better life as grass farmers and quarter-acre landed gentry in Westchester and Putnam Counties.  It was not long before the neighborhoods of the Bronx died like a drained swamp, all non-auto human life left to die of asphyxiation and UV exposure.  The swamp is an apt metaphor: a carbon sink, a wealth of biodiversity, and a source of nutrients and oxygen for the surrounding area.  

Hudson River Valley, © 2009 James G. Howes

And so I was deposited in the highlands above the Hudson River Valley, around 70 miles north of Manhattan, along with a bunch of other kids from the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten Island.  For a young boy it was the perfect Huck Finn life.  For years I explored miles of former farm fields that were growing into new forests, looking for caves and downed airplanes.  But we were city people: the winding country roads were called "blocks," and many evenings were spent hanging out on "the stoop" and listening to tales of milkmen, horse-drawn produce carts, and epic street stick-ball tournaments.

In my section of the woods ("our block") I was always outside, but that was it.  Otherwise, all I knew of my hometown was experienced from a car.  With the exception of a few parking lots and school playgrounds, my feet never touched the ground.  As a small child, the rest of my hometown was seen from the side window of the family Detroit land yacht, and later as an adolescent it was seen through the front windshield.  No better than High Definition TV, but with an 8-track tape deck and ash trays for everybody.  Had I not regularly hand-cranked the window open, I would never have known the smell of burning leaves (legal then), Indian Summer humidity, and melting snow.

Here endeth the historical note.

Biking through Munich offers sensory activation every kilometer, and it changes with the season.  Crossing the Isar by Rosenheimer Platz, twice a year you are hit with a sweet smell of fermentation from the industrial breweries that provide all the 6-7 million liters of beer consumed at Oktoberfest - with my help, of course.  Apparently, by law, all of the beer consumed must be brewed within the city boundary.

By Giesing (southeast of the city) I pass the Dallmayr coffee plant, where I get several hundred meters of the smell of roasting coffee.

In the fall a morning fog sets in between Giesing and Fasanenpark.  The temperature suddenly drops and only the nearby trees are visible, serving as both landmarks and speedometer.

One particular night offered something otherwise missed.  I was crossing the Isar coming home when I heard a strange splashing sound below the bridge.  I stopped to look.  My first reaction was that someone was driving a Fiat Cinquacento into the Isar.  I looked harder.  It was a beaver.  I swear you could throw a saddle over this thing.  Apparently there are a few of them living around the river, with no natural predators.  I realized then that this beast must be the basis of the Bavarian legend of the "Wolpertinger," a mischievous chimeric monster of the forest, similar to North America's Sasquatch and Mexico's dreaded Goat Sucker.  It submerged in to the blackness, leaving an eerie silence.  I checked my headlight and continued on.

Next:

Integration into the urban landscape and culture

East and West

Build it and they will come:

NYC Bike Count Continues Upward Trend in 2010

In total, the bike count is up 88 percent in the last three years.

And over on the left coast, similar trend, despite the three-year ban on new bike lanes:

Bicycling up 58 percent in S.F. since 2006

San Francisco, governed by a transit-first policy that discourages the use of private automobiles, has an ambitious plan to add 34 miles of bike lanes to the old network of 45 miles by 2014.

Talking points

How to Talk to a Conservative About Cycling

Bottom line (and that is what conservatives like to think they are all about): Cycling saves money, saves lives and makes us stronger as individuals and as a nation. Spending money to support cycling is like putting money in the bank - it pays big dividends at low risk. It’s as all American as Mom’s apple pie. How much more conservative can you get?

full article

Happy bike-day

Sometimes you have a good bike-day.

My Electra was in the shop, so this morning I CaBi'd from Petworth to Bloomingdale for a quick photo shoot. Stopped off at Big Bear Cafe for a coffee (man, the place was packed on a Saturday morning). Then CaBi'd from there to The Bike Rack at 14th and Q (100 percent on the R Street bike lane) to pick up my bike. Ran into one of my neighbors who was thinking about a new bike. I, true to recent form, gave her the upright/slow/normal clothes spiel. I know, I'm probably getting annoying.

Moseyed over to Dupont Circle to look for citizen-cycling pics. Didn't find much going on photo-wise, but did put a few of my Moo calling cards on any parked bikes that looked like candidates for the Chainguard Revolution. In a nice little moment of karma, my friend Eric sent me this cool video that was sort of apropos to the bike-day I was having. Watched it on my phone before heading up to Adams Morgan (first real hill of the day) did a few errands, warmed my hands up in a few places.

Grabbed lunch from one of the Latino vendors who set up on weekends in the little plaza outside City Bikes. Really great Puerto Rican pork and a garlicky plantain dish I can't remember the name of. The nice guy who sold it to me sat down while I was eating it and explained all the inside tricks he uses to make it.

There I met Eryn and Patrick, around the time I was taking this picture of the plaza scene:

They asked me about my bike because she was shopping for an upright bike and had been eyeing the Electras online. She actually had heard of District Citizen Cycling! ("wow, that's you?!") Very cool, first time that's happened. Further up the street, here's Eryn and Patrick taking out the last available CaBis at the 16th and Columbia station:

Riding home, dropped in for the tail end of the bike clinic behind Qualia Coffee on Georgia Avenue, where I finally made some decent photos that helped redeem the day a bit in that regard (see previous post):

Kind of cold out there, and the wind had some bite, but plenty sunny. Nice DC early winter day. Just the kind of bike-day that puts you in touch with the city in a way that driving and walking don't. Walking's great, but biking you're flowing like water through the streets, covering ground quickly while absorbing your changing surroundings, finding a kind of rhythm, feeling DC's great neighborhoods and how they connect. City zen!

Gangs of DC

Riding home yesterday I came across one of these little herds of kids on bikes, on their way from school. Just south of the Petworth metro, off Georgia Avenue. I see them in the morning sometimes too, passing through Columbia Heights. Looks like how I imagine the Portland bike scene.

I think it's great and cool, but also a little sad in a way. I remember being that age and riding my bike everywhere, by myself or with a friend or two, just launching out on adventures. Kids in the city or suburbs don't get the same freedom now.

Then again, in those days we didn't wear seatbelts, adults smoked a lot more, and a sunburn was a badge of honor. Not to mention the range of unfortunate 1970s fashion choices. But it was a fun time to grow up.

Danish cycle tracks

From the Cycling Embassy of Denmark [Ed. note - you know your bike culture has arrived when it has its own 'embassy']

Cycle tracks that come to you as you go

[...] Over many years a fine-meshed network of cycle tracks has been constructed along with other measures that prioritise bicycles. It is all easy to use, and cycle tracks aren’t something you need to look for: They come to you as you go.

full article

Staying mobile

Well, this was interesting and unusual:  a bike with a built-in holder for a walking aid. Meaning for this nice woman, walking is obviously problematic but still she bikes around town. I think that's great. Even not knowing the full story, it does kind of lay bare some of the excuses the rest of us may have for not biking, within our limitations. I actually crossed paths with her twice in the same recent afternoon, near Dupont Circle and again crossing 16th Street.

photos © Bill Crandall

Reason to bike #437

I think it's safe to say drivers don't have as much fun at stoplights.

photos © Bill Crandall

Breezer Citizen

Today's City Zen Cyclist is Larry, proudly displaying his wheels (a Breezer Citizen, available locally) next to the Petworth bikeshare station in front of Sweet Mango Cafe. He said he commutes everyday from Petworth to Georgetown and all over downtown. Likes the upright riding, chainguard etc. His friend in the middle was saying, I like those Dutch frames.

photos © Bill Crandall

We're number six!

Found this good recent BBC article, which focuses on Washington DC:

Cycling surges in the land of the automobile

Jim Sebastian, head of Washington DC's bicycle and pedestrian programme, says his goal is to make the nation's capital "one of the most bike friendly cities in the country".

"This is something that's clean, healthy, efficient," he said. "People are demanding it. It's going to bring people to the city and keep people in the city."

Great to see the explicit link between cycling and the vitality of the city itself.

According to a sidebar stat in the article, the US census bureau ranks Washington DC sixth in the country in terms of number of cycling commuters, at 2.3 percent. Seems like a pitiful number compared to the likes of Copenhagen, where upwards of 30 percent bike to work. But not hopelessly far behind Portland OR (5.9 percent) in the top spot, and well above the US average of .5 percent.

14th and Irving St

She may have been biking in a skirt and heels, but she was really motoring down Irving Street. A brief but eloquent pause. Then just like that, she was long gone.

photos © Bill Crandall

Sydney can be saved

Good summary on Copenhagenize about a Portland bike advocate speaking in Sydney. So it's a Dane writing about an American's vision for citizen cycling in Australia. Nicely cosmopolitan.

The man responsible for transforming Portland in the United States into a bike-friendly city says the same can be done for Sydney [...]

[full post]

Watch the furniture, though

Good item today over on Copenhagenize, about a campaign by that city's health department. Good way to address the reflexive fear some people have about getting on a bike.

You're Safer on the Bicycle Than on the Sofa

As noted in the post - "Appropriate message in a city saturated with cycling. In Emerging Bicycle Cultures, it is always better to highlight the basic facts that appeal to homo sapiens, like A2Bism and quicker transport through our cities. With all that said, this is an important poster in that finally SOMEONE is countering all the negative branding that cycling is suffering..."

I'd say Washington DC is an Emerging Bicycle Culture. Or rather, there is an existing old-guard bike culture dominated by pant straps, helmets, toe-clips, spandex, courier-types, off-roaders, etc. All the stuff that has its own logic but can be off-putting to those considering biking as a practical, elegant, everyday means of getting around.

Within that are tender shoots of citizen cycling, cycle chic (or whatever you want to call it) visible here and there, that just need a little care and watering.

Warriors! Come out to play-ay!

Though the upsurge in adult cyclists in the U.S. began in the 1980s, neither the road designs nor the culture have fully adjusted to that fact. "It's a huge contrast to Europe, where drivers most frequently wave, and where I've never seen the behavior I see here," said one Annapolis cyclist.

Astute bit from a Washington Post article today (actually about helpful new bike laws in Maryland) which I won't even link to, because it's too damn depressing. The usual grim cyclists battling for space among DC's marauding road-ragers. Oh yeah, that'll get new butts in bike seats...

Sure, I know it's at least part of the reality, but not the reality we're singing about here. Find that somewhere else and wallow in it.

Citizen Cycling is about a better model of what could and should be - and occasionally even is. While the physical landscape slowly catches up, Citizen Cycling as a different, holistic approach to riding can actually cure many of the woes of the North American urban bike-warrior.

I'm just saying, it doesn't have to be all fear and loathing for the sake of speed. There's another way.

[Ed. note - alright, who gets the reference in the title?]