How long do bike decorations last?

As a practical joke, my daughter Abby wrapped my road bike in celery green crepe paper.



We started to wonder how long it would last. Kids' bikes on July 4th have lots of decorations, but these are ridden slowly. How would this stuff stand up to normal commuting speeds of 15-16 miles per hour?

Here we are after 7 miles. The stuff around the wheels is going (had to take a threatening piece out of the rear derailleur). Stuff on the body is in good shape.



After 14 miles, the wheels are about bare, but most of the decoration is still on the body.



At this point, I called the experiment over and removed the rest.

Cool job: Google tricycle mapper

Courtesy of Joe Ferguson, I was informed of this job:

Google is mapping the paths on and around college campuses and is doing so with a tricycle equipped with their sophisticated camera technology. The mapped colleges will allow new students a way to familiarize themselves with campus before they ever arrive at campus. It will also allow parents to see what the campus is like by allowing the parents to take a “virtual tour” of the college campus...

The major benefit of mapping the paths with the tricycle is it will allow mapping and photographing of areas that can not be done with Google Mapping cars. The Google tricycle will eventually allow for some amazing “streetviews” of bicycle trails around the world.. This will allow you to be able to look at a trail before you ride it.

Story here with nice picture.

Who puts up these signs?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/signlanguage/4603140/Sign-language-week-36.html

From Everglades National Park

Blow Your Nose the Cyclist's Way

A true cyclist can generate nasal congestion. A true cyclist checks behind them for other riders, turns their head to one side, puts a finger on one nostril, and blows out the other. This produces what's called "snot rockets", although there is only primitive rocket science involved.

Now studies shows that this is actually the healthier way to do it. According to research reported in the New York Times,

"Dr. J. Owen Hendley and other pediatric infectious disease researchers at the University of Virginia conducted CT scans and other measurements as subjects coughed, sneezed and blew their noses. In some cases, the subjects had an opaque dye dripped into their rear nasal cavities.
"Nose blowing generated enormous pressure — 'equivalent to a person’s diastolic blood pressure reading,' Dr. Hendley said — and propelled mucus into the sinuses every time. Dr. Hendley said it was unclear whether this was harmful, but added that during sickness it could shoot viruses or bacteria into the sinuses, and possibly cause further infection.

"'The proper method is to blow one nostril at a time and to take decongestants', said Dr. Anil Kumar Lalwani, chairman of the department of otolaryngology at the New York University Langone Medical Center. 'This prevents a buildup of excess pressure.'"

One nostril at a time is, of course, the only sensible way to do it on a bicycle. Who knew we were so smart?

Bike Commuting with Fat Tire Ale

Winter Cycling article in Evanston Review

Here's a link to the article, which includes two photos taken at the Evanston Bicycle Club meeting in November.

 

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/evanston/lifestyles/currents/1375157,on-winterbikeWEB-011509-s1.article

 

The interview and photo session was so long ago I'd practically forgotten about it.

Boy, is this the wrong e-mail list!

RAAM (the Race Across AMerica) is one of the most grueling sports events imaginable. In long bike races like the Tour de France, you race a specific distance each day and then sleep in a hotel at night. RAAM runs the width of the US with no rest stops -- you sleep when you want/need to.

I have a certain fascination with this race, and I'm on their "fan" mailing list. But either they sent this out to the wrong list or they have a very optimistic view of my capabilities:

Dear RAAM Racer, Team Manager,
We are excited to bring back the RAAM Clinics for 2009. We held two last year, one in London and one in Texas, with both being very well attended. This year it's 3 - Sacramento, CA; London, England; and our finish - Annapolis, MD. You can find more details on dates, price, and more here -
http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/subwebraam/raam.php?N_webcat_id=97.
The clinics are a great way to dive into RAAM logistics and preparation, ask your questions, and interact with the RAAM team and other team managers/crew chiefs. There are no secrets to RAAM, just lots of questions that we delve into to further your changes of a successful RAAM.
Register now at the RAAM Store (https://www.raceacrossamerica.org/subwebraam/store.php?N_webcat_id=9) under RAAM Clinics.

What does "Transportation Alliance" mean?

The term "Transportation Alliance" shows up quite a bit in organization names. Google has 78,100 hits. But these groups don't seem to be unified in any way other than the use of these two buzzwords next to each other.

Let's look at the top page of Google search results

The Minnesota Transportation Alliance mostly looks like people who favor more highway spending.
http://www.transportationalliance.com/sponsors.htm

The Transportation Alliance Bank is part of Flying J (the truck stop people)
https://www.tabbank.com/home/index.jsp

There's a Bicycle Transportation Alliance in Oregon -- looks like an alliance of bicycling groups.
http://www.bta4bikes.org/

"The Pennsylvania Transportation Alliance (PTA) was formed to bring together all people with disabilities and their allies in a unified, statewide organized effort to ensure that "accessible, affordable transportation is available to all PA citizens with disabilities." http://www.cilcp.org/transportation_alliance/index.php

The Central Maryland Transportation Alliance is all about transit -- regional rail.
http://cmtalliance.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

The New North Transportation Alliance (Tampa) is also about transit, transit, transit, although they do offer a free bike rack program for businesses.
http://www.newnorthalliance.org/Bike%20Racks%20for%20Businesses.html
There's also some superficial bicycling information -- e.g. "you might think about biking to work". The maps page (which is a good indicator) has a map of bike racks on the USF campus, but otherwise is all transit.
http://www.newnorthalliance.org/maps%26pubs.htm
The advisory board doesn't list any organizations I recognize, upon quick glance, as cycling organizations.

The Regional Transportation Alliance (Raleigh) http://www.letsgetmoving.org/
is "The regional business leadership group that focuses on relieving traffic congestion and enhancing mobility." That says "build roads" to me. The project page http://www.letsgetmoving.org/Projects_&_Priorities/index.html lists road projects and the construction of a regional rail system. Well down the list (11th, 2nd from last) is "Completion of American Tobacco Trail and improved pedestrian-bicycle access to transit." [Biking on the American Tobacco Trail??] But it does have a pedestrian and bike page http://www.letsgetmoving.org/Projects_&_Priorities/Pedestrian_bicycle.html and links to bike maps on the NC DOT web site.

The Westside Transportation Alliance http://www.wta-tma.org/ [Washington County, Oregon]
OK, now we hit pay dirt. The executive directors are wearing bicycle helmets. They are big supporters of the new commuter rail line that opens next year.

Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance http://www.nvta.org/
The third paragraph of their mission statement says it all: "The debate is not roads and bridges versus buses and trains, but which strategies move the most people most effectively in most corridors." Then there's the last two paragraphs: "More than half of all transportation resources available over the next 25 years are assigned to public transit to move less than 10% of daily trips.
Road projects that will carry 90% of future vehicular – auto, truck and bus -- trips remain un-prioritized and un-funded." Doing a search on "bicycle" turns up one table showing bicycles are used on only 1-2% of daily trips, nothing else.

I don't see much of a thread here other than a general advocacy for some form of transportation (hence the word "transportation" in the name. Only the Westside group seems, at first glance, to be the type of organization ATA (formerly the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation) would want to turn into, although on a bigger scale.

Logo comparison

Here's the old CBF logo and the new ATA logo.







Note:
1. The CBF logo is no thing of beauty.
2. The CBF logo is pretty Chicago centric and bicycle centric.
So, it's a fair statement that if CBF was going to expand their mission, the logo needed to go.

But
3. The new logo is pretty much as generic as you can get. There are buildings, not not recognizable ones. There's a slash -- is that supposed to be a sidewalk, separating buildings from parkway? There's an unfortunate shade of green in the lower right.
4. The logo shows the determination of ATA to get as far away from its CBF roots as possible. This could be the logo for anything that might occur in or near a gray building, which is most things.

I was taken to task on the earlier posting by someone who noted:

The name is Active Transportation Alliance, not ATA. I have not seen ATA on any communication from the organization. The abbreviation used in the website name is "Active Trans".

Right, and the name is Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, not CBF.

What's your point? ATA is particularly the moniker that will stick because "Active Transportation Allliance" is just 3 generic buzzwords thrown together and "ActiveTrans" sounds like a laxative.

But my whole point has nothing to do with either ATA, ActiveTrans, or Active Transportation Alliance. My point -- which you completely ignored, thank you very much -- is that CBF threw away all the equity in their existing name. They took a name that meant something, and substituted buzzword gibberish.

It's not the specific buzzwords chosen -- although I think these are poor ones -- it's the fact that they are turning their back on their equity. It's like when Philip Morris renamed itself "Altria". At least Philip Morris had the excuse that they were trying to hide the fact that they made cigarettes.

CBF throws away its name equity.

The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation -- CBF for short -- wants to expand its mission.

While I support the expanded mission, it was STUPID to throw away all the equity in the CBF name. It's now called the Active Transportation Alliance, or ATA.

Are we ashamed of being Chicagoans?

Are we ashamed of being bicyclists?

Does ATA mean anything except a failed airline?

Could you not find some name that hearkened back to the CBF equity, rather than turn your back on it so completely and ashamedly?

Folding wheels

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/reinventing_the_1.php

They look interesting, but due to the added weight are only practical in carbon fiber, hence they would be expensive.

In addition, folding bikes would need to be redesigned to take advantage of this technology.

So, they won't be at your bike shop soon -- it's a great idea if it works, though.

Vote -- don't take it for granted

Sweep finishes ahead of ride leader?

Saturday I went on a ride through "Meet Up" in rural Wisconsin. The ride leader (Ron) was very well organized, but the 20+ riders here a highly varied lot and a ride leader can't be everywhere at once. I volunteered to sweep the ride. My friend Mark stayed with me.

Mark and I and the couple of riders in the back were seldom able to see the riders in the front as we fell progressively farther back. But, about 10 miles from the end, we saw them stopped for a flat. By my reckoning, they must have been there several minutes already, and our speed was in single digits, so we just kept on going. I figured they would catch up soon.

They had some additional problems, and arrived a couple of minutes behind us -- first ride I've been on when the sweep arrived first.

One traffic fatality a day in Chicago

From the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation:

Every day in Chicagoland there are more than 800 traffic crashes. Of those, about 150 drivers will flee the scene. Chicagoland has an average of more than one traffic fatality every day. Another 24 are seriously injured every day. Crashes cost the Chicago area resident $1,000 each year.

All this crashing is mostly cars crashing into other cars. But they are crashing among people biking and walking. And those are the people most vulnerable to serious injury and death.

Hit-and-run crashes

Pedestrians are disproportionately impacted by hit-and-run crashes. In Northeastern Illinois, an alarming 30 percent of all pedestrian crashes are hit-and-run. That means that in four crashes each day in our region, a driver leaves the scene after hitting a person walking. Pedestrians are left many times in the street to be found by a passerby. Cyclists fare a little better. Just under 20 percent of our region’s bicycle crashes are hit-and-run, a level similar to car-on-car hit-and-run crashes.

Bailing out banks ... and bicyclists?

To get the bailout bill to pass, a variety of odd pork was added to the bill.

Here's one that might benefit me:

Congress Passes Commuter Act

WASHINGTON, DC (BRAIN)—Employers of people who bike to work stand to gain a $20 per month tax credit per cycling employee, according to the final version of the Wall Street bailout bill, H.R. 1424, passed this afternoon.

The House passed the bill today with a final vote of 263-171, a comfortable margin that was 58 more votes than the measure garnered in Monday's stunning defeat. The Senate passed the bill Wednesday by a vote of 74 for and 25 against the bill.

The bicycle tax provision was part of an additional $110 billion in line items added to the already $700 billion bailout package.

What does bicycle commuting have to do with credit issues or covering the debt racked up on Wall Street? Bicycle commuting advocate Earl Blumenauer, a Democratic Representative from Oregon, was one of the 228 Representatives who voted against the House version of the bailout package on Monday. House members looking to pass a bailout bill needed to convince as least 12 of the dissenters to switch their position and vote for a bailout bill.

According to a Blumenauer spokeswoman, the bicycle commuting tax credit had the Representative’s attention, according to a report by www.govexec.com. However, Blumenauer said he was opposed to the bill because it failed to include bankruptcy equity for homeowners, not because employers of bicycle commuters suffered unfair tax burdens. He is also against incentives for coal-based liquids, tar sands and oil shale also included in the Senate’s bill. Blumenauer voted against the bailout bill in today's vote but his pet bicycling project passed with it.

Congressman Blumenauer spearheaded a seven-year campaign to extend commuter tax benefits to those who bike to work.

Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, said the Bicycle Commuter Act has been held up getting through with previous bills.

“It’s been attached to a variety of different bills or devices—climate change, energy, transportation,” Clarke said. “It’s ironic that it would wind up in a financial rescue package, but we’ll take it. I’m not going to quibble with the method; I’m glad to see it done.”

There's a civics lesson in what's above, and it's not a pretty one.

Sunday parkways

Today was Chicago's first Sunday Parkways.

Car traffic was banned from the city parkways streets from Logan Square down to Garfield Park. Cross-streets were still in operation, so you had to stop.

The nicest thing about this event was seeing so many parents and children out. The children were often on training wheels. There were many, many little girls on pink bikes with streamers.

The city's parkways system is a gem, but a gem that isn't paid much attention by many of us. This links parks that also are wonderful areas that can be made more wonderful.

I rode down with a group of cyclists from the Evanston Bike Club. At Garfield Park Conservatory we stopped. There were a group of cyclists from the other EBC (Elmhurst Bike Club) there. But most people seemed to be local, which is good. The Garfield Park Conservatory is such a gem, it's hard to believe I lived in the Chicago area for 25 years before visiting it.

I liked the event -- and liked that the rain held off until I was almost home.

On October 26th, there is another Sunday parkways -- this time on the south side.

Dangerous water bottles?

After listening to some zealot explain the dangers of plastic water bottles to me, I looked up some information here.

The net of this is that this is a problem with the expensive, Nalgene-type water bottles. These have a "7" in the recycling triangle.

I checked the water bottles cluttering up my bicycle area. I got them all free because they advertise Amlings Cycle, the North Shore Century, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, REI, Village Cyclery and other similarly fine institutions. They are evidently free of harmful BPA as well. They have either "4" or "2" in the recycling triangle.

The BPA problem does not apply to all Nalgene bottles currently sold. I threw out the older Nalgene I used for foreign travel.

Be a bike race official?

Here's an interesting way to get involved in bicycle racing (or re-involved):

If you would like to get involved in the exciting world of bike racing from the sidelines our officials program is for you. You take a class, pay $35 for your license, and then can help
officiate at the races. Everything from criteriums to time trials, to road races, to cyclocross and track too.

What is nice is you get paid for your time and travel expenses. You can also move up through the ranks and become a National Commissar and officiate bigger regional races.

Please spread the word to your club members and if they are interested, have them sign up. The details and registration procedure is here:
http://illinoiscycling.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=73 If you have any more questions before you sign up, please send an email.

Thanks!!
Steve Hansen steveh AT illinoiscycling DOT org
President
Illinois Cycling Association

A way to clear out traffic jams

Above picture from http://www.axonoid.com/images/axonoid/posts/signs/carinwater.jpg