health

On Potato Omelets and Winter Cycling

On Potato Omelets and Winter Cycling: What these actions of mine and others lead me to conclude is that culture matters. I’m not shirking the fact of my own laziness; it’s a real observation about how the world works. If my friends and family members were riding off to work in the cold, I likely would to, without complaint. But alone, when few other people are, it’s easy to decline the invitation my bicycle offers me, or not even see it.

As we head into spring and the warmer months, this point will become moot. I’m sure I will once again start riding regularly. But maybe next winter, or the one after, I may make different choices. Cycling as transportation is increasingly popular in New York, and as this popularity grows, I suspect we will reach a tipping point, to use Malcom Gladwell’s famous phrase. I look forward to a future, perhaps not so long away, when even the fairest-weather riders like me venture out in even the worst of weather, doing so as easily as taking a bite of an easily-made potato omelet. [So yesterday I joined the bike commuter ranks. In my case it is a “multi-mode” affair, because I’d spend way too much time commuting the 36 or so miles form home to work entirely by bike. I biked in my “street” clothes adding only a bike helmet and a bit of cover for my head (it’s still a bit cold in the mornings for me). Nothing more seemed necessary, even though I do not have a “commuter” bike per se.

And the cultural stuff starts at home. My wife is trying very hard to be supportive, but would really rather not think about my riding in the City. Of course, there’s no way to make it clear that riding the route I do is actually safer feeling than a lot of the riding I do in the suburbs because I’m not mixed with car traffic as much. The west side greenway provides a good chunk of the trip.

Naturally, today rain is expected this afternoon, and while it wouldn’t stop me from a biking in the rain standpoint, the bike does have to survive the rest of the trip on top of the car in the rain. Not so much goodly as they say.

Which brings me to my point. The multi-mode, or park and ride, or plane, train, and automobile, or whatever combo of your choice infrastructure is very, poor, both public and private. It needs some attention if people are serious about changing how they commute. It’s easy to say I will do something, and far more difficult to just do it when the facilities aren’t there to enable it. I’d love to lengthen the bike portion of commute, but I need to find parking in NJ that makes sense. And more parking in NY that makes sense. And if the trains allowed bikes (or there was secure, out of the weather bike parking) I would have more choices.

One can argue about where I live, choices, etc. all one wants, but I live where I live and do what I do, and just trying to make the best decisions I can for a healthier life, commute, world etc.]

Take me back to the start

Take me back to the start: Out on the trail, the value of your paltry possessions takes on a whole different meaning. Clothing becomes as valuable as the body parts it protects. Electronic gadgets are heavy luxuries. A hack repair job that keeps a bicycle running is as good as gold. Cash is worthless. And kindness can change the world. [I need some trail time. It’s been too long. Way too long. Maybe in a few months? Definitely!]
Source: Up in Alaska

Bike Network 2.0

Bike Network 2.0: Her team created a modified Google Map that enables cyclists to log on and trace the routes they ride every day. Watch the data pile up, and voila — sensible bike routes. “We found out where the actual desire lines are,” she said. “Using existing technology was great.” [Most excellent! Notes on how they did it here.]
Source: StreetsBlog

Persuade Google To Map Bike Routes

Persuade Google To Map Bike Routes:

We are asking Google Maps to incorporate a bike travel as an equal option  to automotive and bus transportation.
This would be very cool and useful, especially with the new tracing algorithms they have recently implemented.
Pass it around to all the cyclists you know.  Google responds quite well to these things.
http://www.petitiononline.com/bikether/petition.html

[Cool. Ya’ll go!]
Source: the Practical Pedal Blog

Bike rack instructional video brings the groove

Bike rack instructional video brings the groove: TARC raps on bike rack
Louisville’s TARC employees hope a new rap video will teach bus riders how to use the bike racks that have been installed on many city buses, according to an agency spokeswoman.

The video, which features TARC employees singing and dancing, has only been released online, and there are no plans to pay for television advertising spots, said Nina Walfoort, a TARC spokeswoman. [As a multimodal commuter myself… it’s really nice to the folks in the transit agencies getting involved. I’d love to see a video like this produced by New York’s Finest. I guess I should add that the video is awful form an intructional standpoint, never clearly showing you all the steps required, but then I’d guess that it’s not all that hard to figure out, even under the pressure of waiting bus.]
Source: Bike Commute Tips Blog

A year before the tragedy, Austin Miller wrote “Please Do Not Run Me Over”

A year before the tragedy, Austin Miller wrote “Please Do Not Run Me Over”: A year before a tragic fate befell Austin Miller, the 15 year-old Beaverton student wrote an opinion article on bike safety for his school newspaper titled, “Please Do Not Run Me Over.”

Writing under the pseudonym “Charlie Elsewhere”, the article (full text below) was published in The Savant, the school newspaper at the Art and Communication Magnet Academy in Beaverton, where Miller was a sophomore.

Reading through it, I had mixed emotions. As a father, I found it chilling and immensely sad. As a bike advocate, I found it frustrating. [It is to weep.]

City’s two-wheel transformation

City’s two-wheel transformation | UK news | The Guardian: Planners hope the changes will encourage a “critical mass” of cyclists to use the routes, creating a safe and accessible environment as well as cutting congestion and pollution across London. “We are aiming to make cycling part of public transport and if we can get even 5% of people out of their cars, off the tubes and buses and on to bikes it will mean 1.7m cycle trips in London every day,” said Mark Watts, transport adviser to the mayor. [London is so far ahead of New York right now. So far.]

Vision Zero

The Washington Post Writers Group: “Vision Zero” — no more deaths from highway accidents. The idea was born in Sweden, where it’s had spectacular success in reducing traffic fatalities. Now zeroing out all traffic fatalities must become an explicit U.S. and worldwide goal. Otherwise we have no prospect of taming the appalling roadway death toll — 42,000 lives lost yearly in the United States, close to 1.2 million worldwide. [snip -ed]

How did the Swedes do it? Tough seat belt and helmet laws, to be sure. But they’ve also begun to remake their roadways. Red lights at intersections (which encourage drivers to accelerate dangerously to “beat the light”) are being replaced with traffic circles. Four-foot high barriers of lightweight but tough Mylar are being installed down the center of roadways to prevent head-on collisions. On local streets, narrowed roadways and speed bumps, plus raised pedestrian crosswalks, limit speeds to a generally non-lethal 20 miles an hour.

[As said… imagine if that 42,000 death toll was from Jet crashes? Or a drug? Why is it an acceptable part of our lives since it comes from traffic? That’s an awful lot of maximal system failures. We need to do better, and it starts with a Vision Zero plan for the country. Who’s going to step up? So many roads in my neighborhood are barely safe because of the style of driving they reinforce. Walking is extremely dangerous during the day and nearly suicidal at night. Bike riding is horrendously dangerous at all times. Parking lot driving habits are awful… and the lots themselves are poorly designed. We must stop the madness.]

Staying a Step Ahead of Aging

Staying a Step Ahead of Aging – New York Times: “Train hard and train often,” said Hirofumi Tanaka, a 41-year-old soccer player and exercise physiologist at the University of Texas.

Dr. Tanaka said he means doing things like regular interval training, repeatedly going all out, easing up, then going all out again. These workouts train your body to increase its oxygen consumption by allowing you to maintain an intense effort.

“One of the major determinants of endurance performance is oxygen consumption,” Dr. Tanaka said. “You have to make training as intense as you can.”

When you have to choose between hard and often, choose hard, said Steven Hawkins, an exercise physiologist at the University of Southern California.

“High performance is really determined more by intensity than volume,” he added. “Sometimes, when you’re older, something has to give. You can’t have both so you have to cut back on the volume. You need more rest days.” [Plan for February: Ride (out or in) Sunday through Thursday. Intervals will be sprinkled into the schedule. It’s time to regain some fitness. Last year was a fitness disaster. Little steps people. Little steps.]