Apr
23
Guess the Gas Price…
Filed Under Deep Thoughts, Interbike | 3 Comments
If you guessed “obscene”, you win! (I know, Carlton, it’s still a pittance compared to UK and Euro prices…) And we’re all riding our bikes to work and store so it should be irrelevant, right?
The station around the corner from our office in San Juan Capistrano, California, had these prices posted this week as I walked to lunch. We’re well on our way to $5/gallon and there still seems to be no major shift in driving habits. Minor adjustments and more hybrid car sales, yes. But no major impacts that I can see on true alternatives to car use at this point.
Speaking of shifts in driving habits, at Sea Otter I overheard someone commenting on how places with poor weather seem to have more utilitarian bike use than those places with more agreeable weather. Think Portland, Seattle, New York, Boston… Now think L.A., Miami, Phoenix. Which ones come to mind when you think “city with lots of bike commuters”?
Apr
14
Local Advocacy Opportunity
Filed Under Advocacy, Cycling | 2 Comments
I have a chance to be a part of bicycle advocacy efforts starting tonight. While looking up some unrelated information last Friday on our town’s web site, I was surprised to learn that the city (Vista, 35 miles north of San Diego) was inviting residents to join the “Pedestrian and Bicycle Trail Visioning Team.”
“As part of the General Plan Update, we are evaluating the City’s existing network of pedestrian and bicycle trials(sic) and examining how this network can be improved. Ultimately, we will be creating General Plan policies meant to promote walking and biking as safe, viable and appealing transportation options for both residents and visitors.”
The first meeting is tonight. By the quote above from the linked flyer on the city website, things sound encouraging. Then again, since they failed to respond to my email to them last week indicating that I wanted to volunteer, I hope that this isn’t just lip-service and they’re, in fact, just hoping that it will go away quietly. We’ll see. I’ll refrain from condemning them until after the first meeting.
There are four scheduled meetings over the next month listed on the flyer so, at the very least, this should make for a few interesting post topics. Having participated in a number of national advocacy efforts like the Bike Summit and working with groups like Bikes Belong and Trips for Kids, I’m looking forward to actually having a local impact through advocacy.
“Act Locally” as they say. I’ll keep you posted.
And, sorry about the late notice, but… if you live in Vista, California (or work here in the bike industry, for that matter: Haro? Masi? Canari? Electra? Trek Bike Superstore?) come on down. The meeting’s at 5:30.
Feb
29
Article: Year of the Bike in 2008?
Filed Under Advocacy, Cycling, Industry News, Interbike | 1 Comment
I hate to re-hash something that another site has already covered (very nicely, btw), but in this case I think the topic merits another mention in case anyone missed it – especially with the National Bike Summit taking over the Capitol next week.
The article that Jonathan Maus of the awesome bikeportland.org blog discovered recently was written with the Summit in mind by columnist James Peirce of the Washington Post Writer’s Group. Mr. Peirce goes through a list of issues that have been in the headlines recently that all point to a very favorable atmosphere for the growth of the use and acceptability of the bicycle as a legitimate form of transportation and dynamic solution to many of these problems. (That last point also eloquently brought up by Interbike show director, Lance Camisasca, back in 2006, btw.)
Jonathan does a great job of describing the article and has some nice pull-quotes, so I’ll avoid echoing here. Of course, you should read the whole article itself, but one snippet at the end where he describes the significance of Portland’s Bike Boulevards seems an important point, so I’ll excerpt it again here:
“But perhaps most importantly, they’ve marked a major shift from meeting needs of expert and intermediate cyclists. The focus, instead, is on making cycling welcoming for everyone — kids, families and novices included.”
We “expert and intermediate” cyclists in the industry can tend to forget the needs of the masses of non-riders (the 161 million, as I’ve often heard quoted as their number) that we are trying to encourage to leave their cars in the garage. It may be tough to paceline in a bike way or path, but that’s not really the point, is it?
Have fun at the Summit – and go do some good!