Back

I am back from a week in northern Spain, mostly in the city of Santander with my lovely girlfriend. I took note of some infrastrucutre as well as cycling, as I could see it, while in the city and will be making some posts in regard to that.

in the meantime I will leave you with this note on the new health care bill from streetsblog

...but the meat of the upper chamber's health proposal is set to become law by week's end.

Once that occurs, a new pool of federal "Community Transformation" grants would be established, with local governments and nonprofit groups eligible for a share of the funding...the grants would go towards projects that support public health, including "activities to prevent chronic diseases" and "the infrastructure to support active living.

I am not here to debate the bill, but this part of it is certainly going to be good for many communities that are working hard to change the way things are in regards to transportation and the movement of people. I am sure they will have a complete update on what the new bill means specifically for transportation. It sounds pretty good though.

Streetsblog article link

Transportation For America » U.S. Transportation Department makes good on promise to ensure our streets are made safer

Transportation For America » U.S. Transportation Department makes good on promise to ensure our streets are made safer


I wanted to note this, and mention how important this decision is. This is a first step in undoing the last 100 years of failed transport policy and its a big one. This is very exciting for many many reasons and these next years hopefully will prove to be very exciting in terms of livable streets, these last 2 years certainly have been.

in other news I am in northern Spain until Sunday and continue to update once I get home :)

Getting Involved

I can't say enough about Street Films. they continually bring to light the most pertinent information on cycling as transportation. I'll admit to being one of the dedicated cycling commuters out there who knew nothing of the Bike Summit before the film.

I've tried to get involved locally, but there is simply nothing to get involved with, no one cares about cycling except as a recreational activity. That leaves me with being the one to start the ball rolling and I simply don't know if their would be any response. I think a good way to start would be to attend The National Bike Summit next year and see what ideas I can garner to get the public interested in biking.

For now enjoy the film.

The True Riding (Cycling!!!) Lawnmower

Well no, that picture is not quite what this invention is, although the picture is quite fun. I came across this article the other day, from Bikeportland.org’s Monday roundup. Due to time constraints and energy, I didn't get a chance to do a write-up on it earlier in the week.

This is from a local NH inventor and looks promising. Bikes can sure be used for a lot of things but this is quite unique, pictures are scarce but there is one the article link you should check out!

The article is from the Boston Herald and quotes the guy as looking for offers as he believes it can be built at a very reasonable price, but only if its built in the US. I am glad some people are really starting to look at the true costs of a product they want to bring to market and not just go the fast easy money route of having it made in China.

Its a two page read but very interesting!

Here is an old (2007!) article from Treehugger on bike-powered lawnmowers. Most of these are retrofits onto a current frame or design which certainly works but many do not seem comfortable. This recumbent design looks and sounds a whole lot better for sure.

Boston Herald article link

Google "Bike-There" is live!!

{Update} Please see Bikeportland.org as well as Streetsblog for more in-depth interviews with some of the folks at Google behind the launch.

This is a day I have been waiting for, at least about 2 years since I first heard murmurs of the petition for the feature. The launch of the Bike-There feature as a layer on Google maps(zoom in to any part of the country to see the included trails).

For many people it may not seem like a big deal but if you are in New York or any of the other specific cities with a complete setup, and want to get on a bike but only want to go on say, separated routes, now you can find a way!

This opens the options for so many things, combining safe rides with transit links, and this feature combined with bike parking might be the next step.
If you know where you are going has bike racks outside, you see there is a separated path the entire way, then maybe you will replace that car trip with a bike, and that’s the step that’s most important

so lots of folks covering this, but I got the first hint this morning from my Ecology professor and then Ecovelo put the post on their Facebook feed.

Read the blog that has been pushing for this option for years and who is behind the large petition to get this program across the country, Here

googlemapsbikethere.org
ecovelo link
google maps link to nyc with bike layer on

Seeing in the rain, not quite like singing in the rain

thanks to Ed Yourdon via Flickr

This comes from the folks over at BikePortland.org.

the question:

I commute about 3 miles to work (and back, obviously) 5-6 days a week, and I wear glasses. This becomes an issue when it’s raining, and was wondering what other glasses-wearing riders do about it. I asked the gentleman at my local bike shop, and he didn’t really have any useful suggestions — so I turn to you! I know they have prescription goggles, but I was really hoping for a slightly less expensive alternative — something I can wear over my glasses, perhaps? Please help!

This is actually a question I had for a good long time, and still often have. This was posed to the BikePortland community and garnered over 50 responses. If you ever have an issue ridding in the rain, head on over and check out some of the recommendations. This is especially true if you wear glasses. Fogging also came up, with some answers but that depends more on what your glasses are made of and the type of chemicals you could use that would not eat them up.

I would pay good money for a small battery powered windshield wiper for my glasses... somebody should invent that quick...

One of my friends who works at my Co-Op had a friend who basically cut up a bit of a windshield wiper (the rubber part) and then glued/affixed that to the thumb of his riding gloves. This enabled him when it was really raining, to effectively wipe the water off as he went. To great success. However the flaw of that of course is you have to take your hands off and your vision is partially obscured for a few seconds, when in the rain those few seconds of loss of site and control could cause problems. The design is good, and it works and I am thinking of doing something similar.

Do you have something that works for you?

link to the original post, Here.

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...

Pictures at last!

Well as promised, a day or so late but here nonetheless. These are pictures of the wonderful goodies produced in my kitchen Sunday night. The food I linked to in this post, Multi-modal food transfers. I Will try to bring the camera into the butter making process next time and get some pictures of the process, but I don't know. It will take some work to do that and involve me not making butter at 10pm. The first picture is the butter made from 32oz of heavy Organic Valley cream (sold at the north country co-op) and the second is the buttermilk pancakes I made from scratch, with a little OV milk in the background.

enjoy!

I made this in two batches due to the amount of cream I used, and the limits of my containers.


a wonderful dinner was made with honey and a bit of that butter!!

1000 hits and a link

Well this little ol blog hit 1000 visits today. I must say that’s no small feat, and while we may not be as popular as Ecovelo, I actually have a life that unfortunately means a great deal of work is put into things that are not related to this blog. I consider this a success though for sure, and it’s been good :)

I wonder if I can hit 2000 before the end of July...

Thanks :)

And now that link

Raise My Taxes, Please! Financing High Quality Public Transit Service Saves Me Money Overall | Planetizen Planetizen blog makes the case of raising taxes to finance good public transportation and the actual savings it can mean for each and every person served by said system. I agree that we should raise taxes and peg them to specific things, at least a percentage of the raise. The general fund is great but many politicians have proven that they cannot handle that type of responsibility. We save money when transportation is done right and we can get out of our cars. Or even when we switch to cycling everywhere! This is not the big bad government taking your cars, this is the government doing what its suppose to do, providing a service for all the public that is in everybody’s best interest in a lot of ways, and one major one is the thousands that could be saved when you switch to a good system. Many people have a knee jerk reaction to hating taxes in all forms, without taxes there would be no roads, no fire, no military, no public library, no schools... Without taxes, we would not truly live in a society. Done right they can make our life better and I for one welcome that.

It’s worth a read!

Fixing the Great Mistake

I came across this little film from the wonderful Street Films. It talks quite a bit about the problem without getting much into the solution. As it is supposed to be part of a series, I assume that Street Films will do their usual wonderful job of following with lots of good information.

Enjoy