New Record (for me)

I finally did it, I took the bike three times this week to work! woohoo! Previously I’ve only ever bike commuted two days in one week, and I wasn’t sure I was quite conditioned for this. Granted it’s only 14 miles one way, but that’s 28 miles a day which is a lot for me. And I did ok! Yesterday was probably the worst on the way home, it was really hot, and at one point I started getting the tell-tale chills of heat exhaustion. I rested for a minute, drank some water and kept going and made it. At the last hill, when I was really getting tired I downshifted to the small 3rd ring the dang chain came off which it has never done before. Maybe it was the universe’s way of making me take another break. As I was standing there trying to get the chain to stay on, a rider on the other side of the road had stopped and called over to me to offer assistance. Luckily I had managed to get the chain back on (it fell off again after the first time I pulled it back on), but I would have told this guy not to try crossing the road to help me anyway. It was the midst of rush hour on a two-lane high speed road, very busy. I doubt he would have been able to get across in one piece. I just yelled “I’m ok” (geez I hope I said thank you) and got back on the bike to finish the ride to my car. If I’d had to I could have walked from this point, probably less than 3/4 of a mile. But I thought it was awfully kind of that guy to stop to help. He looked like he was just out for a training ride, spandex-clad on a nice road bike, not a work-commuter like me.If by some chance he sees this blog (which I believe the odds are slim to none, but just in case…) whoever you were, thanks for the offer of help!

I also got into a great discussion with a co-worker yesterday who found out I was riding to work. He doesn’t live too far from me, and had done a combined mass transit/bike commute yesterday. So we pulled up Google maps and I showed him the route I take, talked about all aspects of riding in (time it takes, average speed, bike lockers, and so on). When I talk to women about my biking they all commend me for it, tell me how awesome it is, but never think of trying it themselves. Granted, guys have it easier, they don’t have to fuss with hair and makeup, but it can be done!

So I’m looking forward to riding three days again next week. I think the only thing that might stop me at this point is if it gets too hot. I’m not exactly sure how hot it was but it felt like about 90 degrees, with almost no breeze. One section of road I ride is through kind of an open valley, which I’ve started thinking of as Oklahoma (’where the wind comes sweeping down the plain’) because it tends to be windy there. Not so yesterday. I could see rain clouds in the east heading my way, but of course they didn’t arrive until after I was in the car driving the second half of the commute, and then it poured in a couple places. I may be the only cyclist who was actually wishing for rain yesterday, that would have been exactly what I needed in that heat!

WTA Carefree Commuter Challenge

 

Another attempt to get those of us in the Portland/Vancouver metro area out of our cars and using alternate means of transportation is upon us. The Westside Transportation Alliance is running the Carefree Commuter Challenge with lots of fun prizes to be won. All you have to do is take alternate means of transportation to work at least six days during the month of July (and of course register for the challenge).

Every July, throughout the Metro region, companies participate in an event that offers a supportive, fun environment for trying sustainable transportation: the Carefree Commuter Challenge. Employees track their sustainable commute trips during the month to win great prizes and pats on the back. Transit, walking, bicycling, carpooling and vanpooling all count, and so does telecommuting. The CCC also creates a friendly competition among businesses of like size for awards and high praise. Sponsors and in-kind contributors make it all possible by donating cash and prizes. This annual event creates a change that lasts.

I hadn’t actually paid any attention to the announcement that came out in the corporate newsletter. Then Mentor came by my desk this morning, saw I had ridden in today, chatted about the Tour de France, and naturally encouraged me to sign up for this. So I signed up. One down, at least 5 to go. I was hoping to try riding in three days this week, but we’ll see…

How Green is Mass Transit?

 

 

Yahoo! this morning has an article on how un-green certain modes of transportation might actually be. We all think mass transit (buses, trains, etc.) are the way to go, rather than the lone driver behind the wheel of their own car. But if those buses and trains are not at capacity, they’re now saying you could be better off driving than in one of those beasts. And we’ve all seen the buses belching smoke from their exhaust. If there are only five people on the bus, is it really a green ride? Apparently not. There’s more that goes into these calculations than simply the number of cars on the road.

A saloon (sedan) car or even an 4×4 that is fully occupied may be responsible for less greenhouse gas per kilometer travelled per person than a suburban train that is a quarter full, the researchers calculate.

———————————————————————-

The paper appears in Environmental Research Letters, a publication of Britain’s Institute of Physics.

You still can’t argue with a bike.

Bike Fatalities in Portland

2008 was a good year for cyclists in Portland, Oregon. There were no cyclist/car crashes resulting in any fatalities. Unfortunately, our luck seems to have run out. We’ve now had two in as many momths.

The first bike fatality in Portland since 2007 was 49-yr-old Cary Bernick of Southeast Portland, on April 27, around 5:30 p.m. According to the police statements on BikePortland.org, Mr. Bernick was riding against traffic, on a one-way street, and did not have a helmet.  I wonder if he had been wearing a helmet if he might have survived. In the video posted in a previous post here, there were no helmets on any of the cyclists in Amsterdam (I believe that’s where it was filmed), and there were A LOT of cyclists. Hundreds. Generally cars are held to be at fault if they hit a cyclist over there. Here, the prejudice is still against the bicycle. There’s a follow-up here, with a little more information.

The last I saw on this did not make any mention of what the driver was doing at the time of the crash, so we don’t know if he/she was distracted by anything, or really any of the circumstances. I’m sure many people are wondering.

The second was on May 14. A 36-yr-0ld single father was on his way to pick up his 4th grader after school when he was struck and killed. According to this article the preliminary police report seems to be indicating it was the cyclist’s fault:

The Police have also already determined that the person operating the motor vehicle had the right of way and that impairment was not a factor. Voepel told Blue that it appeared the man operating the bicycle “made an error”. Police spokesperson Mary Wheat told The Oregonian that, “it appeared that the driver of the vehicle had the right of way.”

The Oregonian report gives us this:

The cyclist, Sandy E. Bass Jr., was leaving his apartment complex parking lot at 5702 N.E. Prescott St. to pick up his son from nearby Rigler Elementary School late Thursday afternoon when the accident took place. He was struck while crossing Prescott at 57th Avenue by a car traveling west on Prescott.

The boy, Damion Bass, is now staying with his grandparents. My condolences to Mr. Bass’s and Mr. Bernick’s families.

Clover Fields

With the long weekend, naturally everyone bagged out of work early today. Hell, most people never came in at all.  Since it’s such a gorgeous day, what could I do but hop on the bike and go for a ride to get some photos of the clover before it fades? Actually, it might be slightly past its peak already, the red wasn’t quite as vibrant as it was a few days ago. Still, I got a few shots that I think came out pretty well. I also saw some wild roses growing by the side of the road. I think I messed up the settings on my camera somehow, because the roses are really a true pink and they look very pale in the photos. If only I knew what I was doing with that camera. Oh well.

Anyway, here are a few that I liked:

You should be able to click each one and bring up the larger version.

Today IS a good day to ride!

With apologies to Lt. Worf.

Yippee! First ride to work this year, months earlier than I started last year. Interestingly, it also happens to be National Employee Health and Fitness Day. Not that it means anything where I work.

It was cold out there, but luckily had my arm warmers on under my little hi-viz yellow jacket ’cause I’ll tell you what, you do NOT want that fabric to touch your bare skin when it’s 40 degrees out there. I feel like a rolling advertisement for Trek: Trek bike, Trek jacket, Trek headlight…

It’s really light out there now by the time I get on the bike where I drop the car, so no problems there. I had taillight and headlight going, just the same. Teensy bit of excitement on the way, had to pull over for a police car to go by. I got totally off the road, off the shoulder into the dirt which was good because a couple cars pulled onto the shoulder right behind me.

It took me exactly one hour to ride the distance (13.48 miles), which I think is about 5 minutes better than I was doing last year. I was really conscious of my pedaling technique, trying to keep in mind what Mentor said about the pedaling in a circle. It does seem to help. It’ll be interesting to see how my legs feel when I start the ride home this afternoon. Last year on the first day I rode in (first bike commute ever) my legs already felt like jelly when I started the ride home, they were that tired still from the ride in. Hopefully I’m a little stronger this year, but we’ll see.

And I did not bring my camera, which I know I’m going to regret later. The red clover is blooming now, there are acres and acres of the stuff all over, that I want to get photos of. It’s really beautiful to see. I think they grow it for the bees to make honey. And I pass a big patch of lupines in a field which are really pretty, too. Maybe next ride, or this weekend I can get some pictures.

Getting some mileage

I’ve finally been out on the bike, twice last weekend (13 miles on Sat., 20 on Sunday), and then another 20-miler today. My cycling mentor at work has been giving me tips on pedaling technique which seems to be helping with increasing speed and stamina.

I noticed one day a couple weeks ago when I was out riding that when I pedal, I have a tendency to be too far forward on the ball of my foot, almost on my toes, so to speak. By accident I started digging down with my heel as I pushed on the downstroke and noticed an immediate difference. I got a much stronger push, and could feel I was using more of the muscles in my legs. When I do this, I can stay in a higher gear for a lot longer, with less fatigue.

Mentor also commented to me one day as he was prepping for his ride home (and busting my chops for not riding to work yet: “You’re running out of excuses! It’s getting lighter, and it’s getting warmer!” Yeah, yeah, it was 35 degrees at my house that morning…) that I need to watch my pedaling to see if it’s a circle or a square. It took me a minute to visual this, but as he explained, we tend to apply force at certain points as our feet go around, as if we create a square. What we want to do is keep consistent pressure, pushing, pulling, using the whole stroke. One way to check yourself is to find a flat stretch, or even a slight downgrade for a ways, and take one foot off the pedal, and just pedal with one foot. This is really awkward, and potentially dangerous, it can be hard to maintain your balance while you do it so be careful. You won’t be able to do this unless you have clipless pedals, or at least toe clips. Mentor assures me if I can master this I will fly up the hills. We shall see.

Now I’m much more conscious of my pedaling, and try to work the whole circle around. I think I’m making progress, I feel like I can sustain a faster pace in a higher gear, when last year I would be downshifting to my lowest gears to get up some hills. I’m not doing that anymore. I really need to get a cyclocomputer so I can see how fast I’m going. Right now I can only estimate by how long it takes to complete a known route compared to previous rides.

I totally missed Bike to Work Week last week, but I’m hoping to ride in at least twice this coming week. It’s still National Bike Month so I’ll do what I can. I am seeing more girls out there riding now, too, which is cool.  I still can’t make it up Iowa Hill, in fact I’m not getting as far as I was able to last year, but hope in time to get some strength back after a long winter and crappy spring of not riding.

Oregon is Very Green

Almost too green, in recycling terms. This article in today’s The Oregonian shows the successes, and pitfalls of an overly successful electronics recycling program here:

Oregon’s electronics recycling too successful for some manufacturers
by Scott Learn, The Oregonian
Tuesday May 12, 2009, 7:44 PM

Less than five months in, Oregon’s free electronics recycling program is collecting too much too fast for the largest manufacturer group involved, prompting it to ask the Oregon recyclers it works with to dial back their efforts.

The group, the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company, or MRM, recently warned Goodwill and its other collectors that it won’t pay if they participate in off-site recycling events put on by groups such as churches or neighborhood associations.

Facing high returns and a bum economy, MRM told the collectors to limit themselves to state-provided signs for advertising and not to use freelance fliers when it comes to state-mandated free recycling of televisions, computers, laptops and monitors that began Jan. 1.

This is scary. We’re one state, and this is probably only including a small portion of the population. If we have this much junk, multiply that by everyone around the world who has junk… Never been so scared in my life. Where is all this crap going to go? It makes me cringe at the idea of buying one more anything. Personally, I tend to keep stuff. Forever. My car is twenty years old now. My cell phone is close to four (which is like immortal in cell phone terms). My computer here at home is ten. Yes, ten years.

I don’t know. How do we get people to quit buying and using up so much unnecessary stuff?

The Dutch know everything!

If anyone has any connections to the city fathers/mothers in their town, see if you can get this to the appropriate people. This is a fantastic video of a UK Parliamentary excursion to The Netherlands to investigate how their biking/public transit work together. Normal people, in normal clothes, biking EVERYWHERE, carrying everything from small bags to a CELLO. Hand to god, I’m not making this up. It’s towards the end of the video. Women in high-heeled boots, no spandex in sight.

Here’s the link again, in case you missed it up above: Biking in The Netherlands

Much thanks to JustWilliams for posting the link on his blog!

Cat City

All my cat-loving friends will be delighted to learn that Portland ranks as one of the 10 most cat-friendly cities in the U.S. From the Portland Business Journal:

Portland is among the top 10 cat-friendly cities in the nation, according to a new organization called CATalyst Council.

Phoenix-based CATalyst Council is a coalition of the veterinary community, academia, nonprofits, industry and animal welfare organizations,

The cities named include Tampa, Phoenix, San Francisco, Portland, Denver, Boston, Seattle, San Diego, Atlanta and Minneapolis. The list was compiled after reviewing the top 25 standard metropolitan areas for such data as cat ownership per capita, level of veterinary care, microchipping and cat-friendly local ordinances.