An old, new Breezer

(click for larger image)

From Plattsburgh late February 2010. A Breezer in a box!

Bought from the great guys at Harris Cyclery in January of last year.

Uptown Infinity

I linked to the ecovelo teaser of this new bicycle from Breezer a bit ago, it was shown off at Interbike earlier this year. I always bring my Breezer into the newest bike shop in Plattsburgh, and the only dedicated shop, Mountain Riders. Talking with the owner and head grease monkey or the past months, and seeing my Breezer, talking with him about my (few) upgrades, talking quality of parts and such, he has decided to become a Breezer dealer. This will be a great fit, he was a dealer before out in Colorado, has owned a Breezer mountain bike for many years, and strongly believes in the company and quality of work.

That being said, in the next 1-2 weeks, the Infinities'(?) will be shipping out to first orders (from what I know), he has ordered one for the shop and I will be able to test ride it for him once it comes in.

Needless to say I am quite excited!!!
I will post a review and thoughts when it comes in.

specs are now online at the Breezer site, Click Here for more information.

Moving Forward

Rest assured I am still here and still working on the various projects I am pushing. My time is limited, and what I am not using in class or to push projects, is being used to keep up to date on the latest happenings in the transportation community, and looking for internships for early next year. I simply do not have the energy to keep up here while doing everything else, even if I actually do have the time.

I will post here every once in a bit, and I appreciate folks checking back in every once in awhile. If you do not yet follow me on some type of reader, Google or otherwise, I highly recommend that you do, that way you will know when I start posting again.

• Bicycle racks have been ordered and shipped, Phase one is moving forward quickly. Meeting with facilities to determine final location prep next week, a couple sites have already been picked out for a ceremonial install, the next step is planning for that event and making it big.

• On the death that happened the other week, prosecution seems limited, even though it was a hit and run and the driver ran a red light, he apparently did not see the cyclist. The cyclist was on the sidewalk through this intersection, no it is not illegal to be on the sidewalk in the town of Plattsburgh (that I know of). However, sidewalk riding is incredibly dangerous for all road users, and until we have proper bicycle roads along auto roads, it is still best to be in a lane. He was new here and did not know the area well, and it is hard to take a lane when you are surrounded by 6 lanes of traffic moving at high speed.

• The bike group on campus is working to advocate for a bike lane for the road, I am working to have them change the goal to be increased bicycle safety on the road, not advocating for a specific infrastructure fix. There really is no easy fix for this road, a bike lane or a separate bike road(cycletrack, bike path etc) will make it worse, there are simply too many driveway cuts.

• The Campus Facilities Master Plan comes out in November, and is in final stages now. I am involved with asking questions regarding bike and ped improvements for a couple of the planned streets through campus, they have not answered many questions, and there are potential problems with what they are advocating we create, especially if they are leaving it up to the planners here to figure out the specifics.

• Finally on to the posted image, it is a map I created that marks all the designated public park space in the city of Plattsburgh, combined with a two different distance buffers showing accessibility and distribution of parks. Overall Plattsburgh is doing pretty darn well, with full accessibility for the entire city within about 1/2mile of a park. It is not a perfect map, there is no scale and while North is "up" it is not designated as such, anyway.

For now that is all, stay tuned, I will update when I can, Jim is busy as well but might try to get some posts in, he has some topics in the wings.

Plattsburgh City Parks update

I had not looked at my Google Parks file I had created for Google Maps in awhile. If you remember, back earlier in the year, I had a post on the parks that I had digitized from the city parks website. Looking back a couple days ago I noted over 1200 views in that time, with little to no public mention of the parks. So with this new evidence, I took the time to update the file and re-edit the actual park locations, as well as clean it up a bit.

I then decided to contact the City Parks and Rec Department to see if they might be interested in putting a link to this file on the website.

Long story short, I now have my map linked from the main page of the parks section of the cities parks and rec website!

check out the map link Here
the Parks and Rec website Here
the previous post on the map Here

The end of Bike to Work Week.

Well it has been another bike to work week, today is bike to work day. It’s hard to tell if there was much of a change here in Plattsburgh. I am rarely on the roads when commuters would be going or coming home from work, so I can’t tell too much.

However in the short time I was on the roads yesterday, I saw maybe 12 cyclists out, and only 3 of which were on the sidewalk when observed, but only 2 were in normal clothes and not suited up.

Saw one gentleman riding north on 9, he must have been very tall, he had very long legs and the frame of his bike was huge! I seriously thought it might have been a double frame bike from a distance, but nope, it was just a really really big frame, he fit it though so more power to him!

Was at the Co-Op on Wednesday meeting a good friend named Jon to make some butter (Jon bakes bread). I arrive in my usual way, but I do have quite a bit of baggage, and I have loads of bells and whistles (well really only one bell) so I guess I can look kinda impressive...

Anyway a nice older woman outside on her classic 3 speed Raleigh, mistook me for an officer in training... I must say I take that as a compliment. While I have no intention to go into law enforcement at that level, if there are some out there that see me as possibly and officer in training, then good, maybe they will give me a bit more room on the road...

She was having a problem with her bike though, the breaks were not working well on the back and she had already gone over the front trying to stop a day or so earlier. It turns out she was riding it and trying to get it ready for her granddaughter to use at the university in the fall. I commented on how wonderful of a bike it was and that with a bit of love it could be made into an object of desire, and to be sure to get a good lock for it.

I opened up the handy tool case (e.g. the mess of tools in my bike bag) and gave a whirl at tightening the break pads. I quickly came to the understanding that the pads were very hardened and would not be useful in stopping in any form. They seemed like they original and probably should be replaced. I recommended that she head over to Mountain Riders and have then take a look at it, She did not know where they were so I pointed her around the corner, after all they are really close to the Co-Op.

I saw her again a little later, she was so very happy, they had filed down the breaks she had to get to non cracked rubber, and oiled up her shifters.

This is the third person I have directly helped in terms of breaks, gears, or seat fitting. I helped the bicycle of a forth, unknown person earlier in the semester. The chain was un-oiled and was rusting away, I had a few minutes so took the opportunity and oiled it right up.

Never underestimate what a bit of oil, or grease, can do for your bike. I use a corn based biodegradable oil, which works very nicely :)

For god's sake though, don’t oil your bike with WD-40!! It wont work and might make it worse!

Happy bike to work day, enjoy your commute :)

I will be back and active on here in short order, I might also be talking up my own on going projects through the internships I have, providing they agree to that.

Cyclists seen today, including the elusive sidewalk salmon!

Thanks to we4farm14 via flickr for these Salmon!

Its exam week, give me a break!

cyclists seen today (not on university property)

All cyclists observed today were in the afternoon while I was on the road from 1:40 to 1:50 pm and from 6:20 to 7:00 pm.

total 16 (not including me)
6 road cyclists (only 2 were practicing vehicular ways when observed)
1 was a salmon cyclist(maybe even a salmon sidewalk cyclist!) shortly before becoming a road cyclist
1 couple on bikes, not being gutter bunnies at point of observation
2 different cyclists who were riding as gutter bunnies when observed
1 cyclist who was a gutter bunny as I talked/passed him, he then became a separated trail cyclist when reaching the city beach area.

5 sidewalk cyclists
4 salmon sidewalk cyclist. they are defined as sidewalk riding on the side of the road where the closest traffic is moving opposite to them.
1 normal sidewalk cyclist

5 bmx bikers
all 5 were at the local bmx/skate board park at one of the elementary schools.

of note only 2 cyclists were female, one in the mentioned couple, and one sidewalk salmon cyclist. There are maybe a handful of female cyclists in the Plattsburgh area, and even fewer that actually ride on the road properly. This of course does not include university or school students.

There was a west wind today, that was a bit southish coming in and then kind of northish going home. still made good time, I was just blown about quite a bit.

I Received one internship so far. I will be working as an unpaid(yeah yeah) intern with the non profit advocacy group, MassBike out of Boston, Massachusetts. There will be a combination of commuting via Amtrak's Downeaster, possibly staying with friends in Somerville (their intern position was full until September, booo) , or staying with my wonderful girlfriend just outside of Worcester.

Plattsburgh Parks

I have taken the data from the Parks and Recreation website on the city parks as well as the facilities at each park and put them together in a basic google map showing location and amenities. I am in the process of adding non official parks and relaxation areas that are not included. If you are from Plattsburgh and are reading this and would like to be involved in the editing process or in adding to the map please let me know so I can add you as a collaborator. The map is not public yet, but I plan for it to be soon.

To take a look at "LocalSustainability.com"'s map of public spaces please click Here. There are a few parks, but this map includes other public places in the North Country and not just in the city.

See if your city has done this already, or if it just has an address listing on some hidden corner of the city website. Larger cities can have so many parks that many people do not know about them.

Anybody can create a basic public spaces map and Google makes it real easy. Do you know where your public spaces are?

Snow... seriously???

Right, the pictures are yesterday morning before riding in and then last evening when I got home.

It snowed all day, about half an inch on the grass. Yes it is April, I had to check to make sure...

As the temperature was around 40 it was very very wet snow, which meant that unlike the typical dry snow we get, I was soaked by the time I got in this morning, and really soaked coming home.

Did I mention the wind was from the North West at a sustained ~10 mph? Oh and also that it was gusting to near 20mph? yeaahhh good times. Hence why I was royally soaked coming home.

I am ready for spring, Plattsburgh. Annyyyy time now...

should be 75 by the weekend...

riggghhtttt....

Hey you, get off of that sidewalk!

Image thanks to OberWiki, from Oberlin, Ohio.

I was riding home yesterday, after about 40 minutes of excellent conversation with a cyclist member of the board of my local Co-Op. I was showing him my new bike and the features and we were discussing riding habits, how and where a lane could and should be taken, safety and so forth. We parted ways and as it was dusk, I had my full complement of lights flashing away, making me quite similar to a bloody Christmas tree!

I round the corner by the new bike shop and what is technically State Route 9. There is a man, maybe later 20's, I don't think a college student, and anyway he is riding along quite quickly on the sidewalk. Now I hate sidewalk riders and I do try to comment every time I come across one, if it’s logical for me to do so. He also had no lights...

I said, Dude, you shouldn't ride on the sidewalk. Simple too the point, however I could have said something like, dude its safer for you to ride in the road. I thought about this later due to the response.

Oh yeah he was wearing headphones, but heard me...

"Shut the fu*k up, as*hole"
I of course was in no mood to explain the subtleties of subjective vs. actual safety of riding on a sidewalk as opposed to the road. Especially in the situation where he had no lights or other reflective equipment, was wearing dark clothing after sunset, was clearly in a foul mood, and seemingly not interested in talking points.

I kept riding along, thinking that most likely this guy was the type to own a large truck and would normally be passing me within inches going 40 and screaming to get the fu*k off the road. I bet he got a DWI in that truck of his....

Nonetheless, I am out on the 4 laned 35mph (ha, more like 45) section of 9 past the Georgia Pacific plant heading toward Cumberland Head, when I see two more cyclists on the sidewalk.

(note I estimate 1/2 to 2/3rds of cyclists in Plattsburgh are on the sidewalk, for a majority of their ride)

I decided a slightly different tact was needed in this case, they were two young women, maybe freshman in college age or seniors in high school. What made them stand out was the one at the back had a freaking bright light (I saw later that the one in the front had a very strong headlight... I hope they planed that...)

My comment was, "thanks for having nice lights!" and gave a thumbs up :)

My response was, "hey thanks man, sure" with a smile.

I continued on, smiling :)

Now I understand subtleties, and do use them, but is it this simple?
I know in many cases using encouragement or complements can get you further than criticism, but I actually do best with criticism, knowing what I am doing right is great, but knowing what I am doing wrong is so much better, and much more useful to me. Was it the age and social difference between the high school girls, and a late 20's man, that caused the responses? Or was it my tone of voice and positive vs. critical reinforcement...

I have a feeling if I said "dude its safer in the road with me" to the guy I still would have been sworn at, he was not a happy cyclist, hence my thinking he got a DWI and license suspension.

I try to be a showcase for proper cyclist behavior, for motorists, and cyclists alike, but I do understand riding with cars going 45+ past you is not comfortable for many. Nor is taking the lane on this stretch to increase safety on a personal level, comfortable either.

In a way, it does feel safer on the sidewalk. There is the tendency to think of yourself as a pedestrian with wheels, after all that is how we are taught to think at an early age. The true risks of this behavior are not apparent to many motorists or cyclists. I understand why they are riding on the sidewalk, I do, but I also know that they are not dealing with complete information and I feel a duty almost to give them a different way of doing things, and better information.

The ~50% of the population that would ride if they felt safer needs separated infrastructure. 10% will feel safer with bike lanes and 1% like me will ride no matter what is provided. (Data from Albany bike master plan (yep its a pdf), mentioned in previous post)

I know I can’t stop cyclists from riding on the sidewalk through the city and out in the rural routs, but perhaps if I focus on positive reinforcement of proper actions. "Dude its safer in the road with me" "hey, I almost didn't see you because I think you have a light out" I will be able to make some small change in the perception of cycling...

Making fully separated infrastructure, using bike sharrows, blocking off streets for motorists and making counter flow bike lanes is what will really bring cyclists to the roads though, only by doing that will you start to get the cyclists off the sidewalks of America.

Thanks to Olivia for mentioning the sidewalk riding in her comment from a couple posts back. I will talk about the theft rates that she seems to be seeing in a city with lots of bicycles, later too

Bike Parking, almost forgot!

Thanks to BikePGH for the photo of their valet parking

I am part of the local Earth Day planning committee for the community celebration; I act as the unofficial university link as well as the transportation go-to guy. I managed to put together a plan for a lot closure around the event pavilion downtown (see pdf link at the end for final design) , which was approved, although the best design was not chosen, mostly because I was not there to lobby for it and had the city public works/municipal people presenting the designs. Nonetheless, we managed to secure a little under half the lot to be car free for the event, which is better than last year when there was no lot closure! I also am finalizing plans to get Nova Bus (French Canadian company based just outside of Montreal, with a large production facility here in Plattsburgh. they are part of Volvo Bus worldwide) to bring a showcase bus to the event. They will be able to and present who they are, the types of buses made here in Plattsburgh, and how they are helping improve the environment with green manufacturing jobs. We are just now waiting on a PR person to be able to dedicate their time, after I had a very good conversation with one of their people last week.

So today, I was thinking, and it dawned on me. We have no provision for bike parking!!!! Now part of this is encouraging people to walk from their homes to the downtown area cleaning trash and littler along the way. However, many people live far from the downtown core for which cycling would be a much better and faster option! Me being one of course :P. The goal now is to have something similar to what Transportation Alternatives does in NYC with large events, VIP bike parking. Its something that is catching on in the more progressive cities in the Americas that have a growing bike culture. I am working with the new university bike group, Biketopia, with the hope that they will be able to help in terms of manning the parking area, but also being able to introduce who they are to the community and give out information. Providing a much needed university-community link, as well as a service to the community.

It says something that this was not even on my radar until today, but none the less its not a complicated setup and I thought of it soon enough that we should be able to get a good setup and provide the needed infrastructure for safe parking

Parking Closure PDF (its large, from my server)

Some Thoughts on Spring, Cyclists, and the Anti-Cyclist

A proper allocation of space from copenhagenize

Well at least in Plattsburgh, spring has sprung, with nice 70's and clear sky's, it will get back to 60's next week though, which is just fine by me.

What does that mean though? Yes it means planting time and all the birds are out and flowers are coming up and all those nice things. It is also a time where there are a whole heck of a lot of cyclists out and about. These people have been cooped up in their cars over winter, fearing the harshness of a North Country blizzard and freeze, I don’t fault them for that really, I am the crazy one seeing as I am out in pretty much every element with 5 layers on. I am glad they are on their bikes though, and the weather is perfect.

For those of you who do not live in bike friendly areas (e.g. most of the US, Canada, and Australia) this is a time for another type of person to come out of hibernation. Can you guess who it might be?
...
I will give you a second... and a quote from a blog I happened to stumble upon while trying to find a picture, it sickens me, (and fills me with anger, I took the quote and had to leave, I am still angry actually) and illustrates my point nicely, I will not link to the hate filled post, you can do a word search for it if you wish.

You know who these people are. The cyclists who decide they can ride their bike down the side of – even middle, if they’re that rare kind of asshole – of busy public streets, holding up traffic and inducing in drivers flights of both panic (“oh my god, if this guy falls I will run him over”) and rage (“I hope this motherfucker falls, because then I get to run him over”). I hate you people. I don’t care if there are rules stating you shouldn’t be riding on the sidewalks; that maybe the side of the road is your designated riding area. Get on the sidewalk anyway, you overly-fit pricks. You have no idea how much every non-cyclist hates you

Ok times up, its the "get the hell of my road you dirty cyclist" type of person. Although usually they are not that kind with their words.

This is something interesting I noticed, since I have been cycling long distance here starting in early September, I have maybe had 2 or 3 honkers, 1 yeller and 1-3 near side swipes total, basically until this week, especially during the winter months I maybe had 1 or 2 altercations total.

Today I had 1 honk and 1 near side swipe on the ride in, 1 honk and yell(A**hole, same person for both) while heading from campus to the co-op, at least 3 near side swipes heading home and another honk (multiple from the same person actually, quite aggressive). Just today, I have almost equaled the animosity shown to me since September.

I will not give an inch, they can honk yell do whatever but I am going to ride where it is safe for me, and safe for them and that means taking a lane on a 4 lane 35mph road (btw nobody goes 35 its usually close to 50 on this stretch, nobody enforces, because nobody goes the speed limit). It means I will follow NY state law and ride as close to the shoulder as is safe, which actually means 3-4 feet out since the shoulder is a mess of rocks, glass, potholes, drains, and a 3 inch concrete curbing.

Do I get scared when these things happen, absolutely, my heart starts pumping, the fight or flight instinct kicks in, and the adrenalin starts to flow, for sure.

This is why cyclists here and in many bike-unfriendly communities, ride on the sidewalk.

While technically it is not safer to be on the sidewalk and in many cases its much more dangerous, one does not have to deal with almost being run over multiple times a day or getting swore at.

It’s almost enough to make me join them, almost. Except that I know that I will be giving in to the demands of the motorists; that they will have won. How sad is it that it has to be US vs THEM confrontation? As a budding transportation planner, I will have to plan for cars, even if my focus is cycling and walking, I understand this. Cars are not inherently evil; I welcome the electric car in many ways. (its usually the drivers actually)

This is one of the main reasons why I firmly believe that bike lanes and paint on the ground are not what will change culture in this country; there is no sharing the road with many motorists. Ironically, all but one incident happened on a dedicated shared and signed roadway that officially states to share the road with cyclists. Many motorists begrudgingly do share it with me, but the few who don't are in 4000lb steel cages which can quite easily kill me. That distinction is important. True the percent of drivers who threaten me is extremely low, however the few who do, can do me great harm.

In order to affect a culture shift we need to have fully separated infrastructure with bikes having priority at lights and intersections as well as on certain low mph streets and zones. We need to have what the Netherlands have, what Denmark has, what many other European countries have.

We need to separate the cyclist, from the pedestrian, from the car. Each is its own unique form of movement and each requires its own infrastructure. If we do not do that, then this country I fear is doomed to single digit cycling numbers for a very long time.

Nothing has made me surer of that than today.

I was talking with my girlfriend about my tiredness even after a mile on my rural rout; I could go 2.7+ miles in Leeds and be sweating, but not hurting. My diet is pretty much the same, but what I realized was in Leeds, on the route I took, I could move faster than the cars and buses, speeds were low (relative) and it was a very urban area. I also had panted lines all the way to the university, else 20mph residential zones. It was easier on my mind to bike in Leeds, I had less to worry about, yes I got yelled at once and had an egg thrown at me, but despite that, it was a much more pleasant trip. Despite the fact, it was hillier and had more traffic lights (although no stop signs, since there are very few in the UK).

My commute every day is on rural routs with cars and trucks going 50mph+ past me through a little over half my commute, in town I am pretty ok, I use residential side streets mostly and have little problem. That rural bit is taxing me quite a bit it seems, such that I may be feeling some physical pain from it.

Its just a theory but seems to make sense.

We need more cyclists who actually ride in the road, it would help a lot, but I fear that many would stop riding if they had to ride in the road, the police do no cite cyclists on the sidewalk because well they believe it to be safer (I think) despite it being against state law. If I was just getting on my bike here, hell yes the sidewalk is safer, we have one painted bike lane in town (yes one) and 2 longer distance multiuse paths that don’t connect to anything. That’s it.

I am mixed about advocating for following the law, when the law is not the safest option here, I want to do what safe and yes nationally I know the numbers, but it sure as hell does not feel safe when you bike on the roads in a lot of the town.

Educating cyclists on the danger of sidewalk riding is all I can do, I know I have inspired a number of people to get on a bike, ones who may not have done so before, that I call a success.

Educating drivers on why cyclists are where they are and the dangers that make them be where they are, is something I want to do as well. The above quote fits right into the education part of this.

Somehow I don't think education will make much difference...

For now I will ride like I have since September, maybe it’s the new bike they are honking at and they think it looks nice ;)

[update 4/4/10]

Urban Simplicity over in Buffalo NY also covered this topic briefly in a post yesterday, for more reading you can head over to that wonderful blog. Urban Simplicity

A cost of a new bike

As I mentioned here back in January, (or I thought I did) I bought a new Breezer Uptown 8 as my general commuting bike (in all but the worst weather, because I cant bear to get her dirty yet)

Now I knew this when I got it but didn’t think it completely through I guess. I have a Toppeak track rack+bag system for my older Giant bike that I use every day. Now this bag is pretty great, I love how it locks and slides into the rack and everything, but the Breezer comes with a spring rack that has the built in dynamo powered rear light meaning that my go-to commuter bag for everything from change of clothes, to food, to knitting, can not fit without some modification.

This is sad, giving me options to get a new rack to put on, switch the racks around (best solution really) or what I have now, old punctured inner-tubes tied on one side and locked to a carbineer on the other (for quick release!). This is not the most elegant design, and I won’t be winning any cycle chic points for it. The bag is not quite steady in this setup either, but it should be ok for most of the time I think.

I took a picture of the Breezer as it was just out of the box (that the kind folks at Harris Cyclery packed for me) and tomorrow I will take one, once its on campus, because yes! Tomorrow I ride my new baby into campus, and ride home in the dark with my nice dynamo headlight!

Its kind of exciting to have a new bike, hopefully I have it adjusted properly, in terms of seat height and handlebars.

Only problem seems to be my rear dynamo light... It has connectivity from the front, tested with my voltmeter, but I can get no resistance from the light nor can I get it to light up. Its LED so not sure why, but might be the capacitor that keeps it lit even when stopped, died...

Other than that, I am very excited :D


(Except for the fact that its going to be raining tomorrow and that means I am not going to bring it in, so it won’t make it to campus until Wednesday or Thursday this week, booo)

Dear Anonymous

Dear couple out ridding their tandem yesterday along route 9 toward town,

Thanks for getting out to enjoy the nice weather, I smiled when I saw you ride by as I readjusted my clothing to be more appropriate to the niceness of the weather. I have seen your bike parked before, next to a house, I forget where, and always wondered if it was used or just went on trips. Next time though, don't demean yourself by riding in the ditch next to a 6in concrete curb on a 4 lane 35mph road. There is plenty of room for everybody if you take the lane, and its a heck of a lot safer too!

Thanks for getting out on your bike! I hope to see you often.

sincerely,
that crazy guy with the reflective vest and multiple blinking lights.

Campus Survey

Well as I mentioned here, I have funding for the first part of my bike rack implementation program, I am waiting on the head of facilities to get back from surgery and then finalizing with him and ordering will happen. The plan is to have the racks and be able to install them around Earth Day, which gives about 4 weeks. The first step to that though, is finding the places that cyclists find most lacking in current parking. I am in the process of creating a survey with the head of Human Resources on campus that would do just that, and a little bit more. I am aiming this at students as well as teacher/staff and want to know how they ride their bike (or if they do). What reasons they may not or don’t even bring a bike to campus, where parking is inadequate, and finally bike sharing.

A couple years back a bike share system was started as a senior project, it was well intentioned, but fell victim to the "tragedy of the commons." The bikes were free for anybody, basic recycled models and could be used at any time anywhere. Very soon, they were found trashed all over town, in the river, in the lake, messed up, destroyed and its usefulness never came true.

So with that in mind my proposal, which I don't think I will be able to implement before I leave, but hopefully can get others interested in, involves personal ownership with payments of a non refundable, and refundable deposits and participants are given a bike to take care of for a term or year. This is a question for both students and staff as I feel there is demand for bikes on campus for commuters that may travel to and from campus by car due to their living distance.

I also mention the bike-commuting stipend from the federal government, for staff and teachers, and if they knew about it or would offering this program make them more willing to commute by bike.

I am moving ahead with this and I have received support on all fronts for this so far, this is a good use of time while I wait to finalize the racks and get them to campus.

There will be more on this, including the finalized questions, shortly as I hope to have everything finalized by Monday.

Night riding

Yes there is something calming about riding at night, especially late, when its quiet and its just you on the roads (or path). However there is nothing calming about night riding after a very long day and with a 10mph head wind blowing reallly cold air at you even while the temperature is still above freezing (technically a heat wave!!)

In fact, its kinda stressful for me to be doing that, especially at 11pm.

I wish I lived in town again sometimes...

Malls-R-US

Google maps link

I just got done watching a formatted version of Malls-R-Us on CBC TV. This Documentary came out last year and talks about the evolution of the malls in North America and around the world, it also goes into some detail about the feelings of users and what they are looking for, the mystical properties as well as what is left after the malls have been leapfrogged over. I recommend you try to catch a viewing of the full film, this was about half of the actual film, so I would like to see the whole film at some point.

I found it interesting, nothing new, and more of a nostalgic feeling for the loss of our malls. A feeling I don’t share in the least, I am glad they are dieing, and really, they can’t die fast enough. The picture I used on here is the North Country Shopping Center, and is not yet listed on the deadmalls website, however Champlain Center South is and looking at the area we have 3+ dead malls that tried to take advantage of the Canadians and their tax free shopping weekends. It is officially no more, it was destroyed last fall and now all that remains is an empty parking lot, a small bowling alley/bar a new theatre complex, and a billiards club across the street. The theatre is actually doing pretty well, considering the Regal we have in the main mall area is literally decrepit, but in a way so is that mall, despite the new Target stores and Best Buy.

I think its good for us to look upon the mall and what it brought to this country, and what it encouraged. As a planner (not officially yet) and as somebody who deeply cares about environmental effects, I hate mall development, I hate chain based shopping developments, and I hate car-centered monstrosities to our failed version of capitalism. Maybe I go to far in my dislike, but in the end, they have done little good for few people and have destroyed many, many communities in their rein of terror.

With that I take deep offense to an individual interviewed and focused on in the film, he is a developer in Canada that developed the West Edmonton Mall and is looking to develop and in the process of developing a huge mega "green retail community complex" outside of Montreal. His goal is to destroy one of the last sections of pristine forested land around Montreal and put up this eco-village/shopping experience with the goal of being the largest green development.

I literally got pissed as he talked about this; this is a bastardization of the term green, of the term sustainable, and the term eco. A shopping complex can not be green, ever, by definition, especially one designed in a pristine environmental sensitive forest (listed as such by the government) with man mad trout streams so "condo residents can launch a fly out their window and eat the trout for dinner” its pure bullshit is what it is. I realize I may be a bit more radical when it comes to development then many of the people in the field I wish to go into (planning, even if the focus is transportation) however, I have a firm belief that pretty much all new development is bad unless its done a certain way. If all products sold here were manufactured within 100, hell even 1000 miles of this mall, if parking were metered, if public transport and bike use were heavily encouraged, if the residents could get fresh local produce, then maybe it would be a better option, but not in one of the last pristine environments around Montreal. Nothing that is built on land with wetlands and that is ecologically sensitive can be green in any way.

Call me an idealist, yes I am, but I cant stand especially when developers call their project green, no its not green its like everything else with a couple trees.

There is no such thing as a sprawl green development; there is no such thing as a sustainable commercial experience where you can choose from millions of products and many hundreds of stores. There is no amount of mitigation that can truly offset the effects of developments like this.

Unfortunately I only see one thing stopping this mass consumerism masking as green, that is peak oil and energy and resource requirements, its the one thing I truly hold out hope for, knowing that once we start paying the true price for things that developments like this will be as deserted as the town around Chernobyl.

There is hope, but man things like this make me evaluate how much real progress we have made and what we have to deal with still.

What a week!

I have to say this week was pretty crazy and limited my ability to be on the bike every day. I biked in Monday with no problems.

Tuesday I biked in but conditions after 8pm and slick(and snowy) shoulders persuaded me to take a ride home, so the bike and I piled into the back of a Forester of a good friend who lives only a 1 mile from me and away we went.

Wednesday comes along and snow galore, I wake up at about 6inches of wet snow, the roads are a mess and the rural highway I live on barely has the road cleared, let alone my small 2 foot section of shoulder I ride on. Classes were still on so needed to come in for 11, had my friend pick me up on their way into town. It snowed throughout the day with classes canceling at 4pm that day with the promise for much more snow on Thursday; I had a classmate bring me home.

The roads are clear mostly on Thursday thanks to warm temperatures around 39, it was very wet with lots of water but unfortunately the shoulders were only about 6in to 1 foot along the 2 mile rural rout I have to travel before I get to wider roads. So once again, my friend and her husband were carpooling into town so picked me up and made it to my 9:30 class. I had another good co-op friend bring me home that night, it was late due to Sign class so can be tricky for the people I know since most are home by the time I need to come home.

Today I brought the bike out as the roads were just fine, enough melting had happened to give me a shoulder into town, I knew it would be wet but that’s ok, I don’t mind too much.

Indeed, it was quite wet, I always forget that my front fender is only meant to prevent spray into my face and is crap at keeping it off the chain, my feet, or my legs. I cant wait for the full fenders on my Breezer, that being idk when it will get ridden in the rain since I will be very reluctant to ride it in messy weather!

Oh and the sidewalk was actually cleared! However as is typical the badly designed separated cycle path was not cleared. This city does a horrid job of cleaning sidewalks, mostly because it puts the responsibility on the citizen to do it, so in the areas where nobody lives, it does not get cleared, or in homes with old ladies, its not cleared. This is of course exasperated by the fact that the crews clearing the roads overnight need a place to put the snow and thus designate sidewalks as a dumping ground making snow banks of 2-3 feet in some locations and leaving maybe 1 foot clear right next to the building.

Next week should be better, in good news the temps are warming a bit, which I always welcome!

rant time at the bar and grill

I don’t want to get into detail now as I have to finish studying for a geology test tomorrow as well as a bunch of other things but nonetheless wanted to update. Yep its a rant, sorry about that.

I think I mentioned here that I submitted a grant proposal for new cycle racks on campus through the campus Green Grant fund. This is student money raised by an optional fee that can be used toward student projects throughout campus.

I had an 8000$ (max) bid in for new proper hoop racks as the first stage in creating proper cycle infrastructure and parking on campus. I had full support from faculty and staff on the allocation committee but was whittled down to less then 6000 by some of the student representatives who I consider my friends, unfortunately I could not attend the decision making meeting, and there was no place for me to attend anyway. However one of the students felt that two or so racks "over here somewhere will be fine" so I guess I should be lucky anything came through. However to do a proper plan for campus would involve 30,000$ in racks both at classes and dorms, plus more for proper covered parking at both classes and dorms. I could take every bit of that fund that’s left and put it to use within 6 months and have results on the ground

I am pissed though and it means that I will, instead of working for outside sources be back for more. We have 2/3 of 26,000$ that are not allocated and are sitting in a fund not making money, just sitting there and they could not give me an extra ~2000$ to bring in more racks and do a proper first phase roll out. I will be writing a letter to the campus newspaper as the students involved did this to my project, as well as to a bid for recycling containers outside around campus, and that is not acceptable to me and shouldn’t be acceptable to any student who paid the fee and is seeing NO results on campus. Of all the projects supported so far (6) mine is the MOST visible with the fastest turnaround in terms of installation of any project, current and past. It took a year before our bio-diesel converter even got online and its still not fully operational, yet certain students feel the need to nickel and dime me to death on a subject they know NOTHING about. I am a transportation planner (in training) this is what I do, I do the research, and I know what cyclists need on campus. I am sick of non-cyclists dictating to me what is best for me and other cyclists, I know they don’t know the subject, which is why they should defer to somebody who does. I don’t tell a firefighter how to fight a fire, because I am not one, it’s the same deal.

This is a power trip pure and simple, it’s a lack of forward thinking and vision and an acceptance and love of mediocrity that it seems permeates this campus and the North Country. Its not like we were out of money or anything, so once again most of the fund money goes unused and just sits there doing nothing for another year.

Un-fucking-believable.

A deer in the headlights (or the bike light actually)

Well saw my first deer up close tonight cycling home about 8:20pm. It was located about where the yellow marker is in the above imagine from Google Earth. I saw a deer in the fall much closer to home, but it was many many yards ahead of me and way out of my headlights, this one was right next to the road in a fallowed field on the lake side of the road I ride on. I am very quiet when riding, my bike is well oiled and everything, but i did have a good amount of tire noise since I was going about 17mph on this stretch, it jumped up and bounded out away from the road.

I like commuting in a rural environment but I am always scared I am going to have a deer or other large animal jump out in front of me and I wont be able to stop. Granted I am not moving that fast but still there is a risk, especially since I am practically silent running and so an animal may think it safe. I am lit up like a Christmas tree so hopefully that's enough to keep most things away.

always an interesting ride home...

The cold kills things I think...

sorry updates and posts are sparse, with limited time and very limited energy its hard to get on here and get something moving. I will try but never fear I am still at it and will update when I can.

that said, my nifty little trip odometer suddenly stopped working this afternoon after a week and a day of service... I think the cold might have done it in actually bit I honestly dont know, I am quite disappointed really, as it was useful to have the time, speed, total distance, average speed and so forth on a nice little display.

in other news its still really cold, but no snow... unlike the rest of the east coast.