Fat City

Another article has appeared on the relationship between the design of cities and towns, and the obesity rates of their occupants. MSNBC’s article draws a direct link between living in older neighborhoods that were designed and built with pedestrians in mind (rather than the all-mighty car) and newer sprawling suburban neighborhoods where nothing is within walking distance. They have a link to a site, walkscore.com, that lists the most walkable neighborhoods in the U.S., and you can input your own location to see how your town rates.  My town, or the area right around my house, ranked a mediocre 62 out of 100. A couple of the results were questionable. It seemed to fail to find the park where the library it listed is located, but named another nearby “park” which is not really a park, it’s more of a wetlands preserve. It missed a number of restaurants that I am aware of, and grocery stores. I have no idea what their criteria is to get listed with them. Perhaps it’s just new and will be refined as time goes on.

Also, on the Walkscore Web site, please sign the petition to “Improve America’s Walkscore”, in support of the 2009 Transportation Bill. Here’s the text of the petition:

“Help reduce our vulnerability to oil prices by tripling—or more—the share of funding for walking, biking and public transit.

Build a world-class rail network—both between cities and within them—that links our communities and transports people and goods more efficiently.

Require that roads are safe for everyone using them—including pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users, as well as motorists.“

I don’t think anyone will be surprised that living in the suburbs is designed for a life that revolves around having to drive everywhere. It’s a tradeoff. If I lived in the city, I wouldn’t be able to garden, but shops and entertainment (movie theaters, bookstores, etc.) would be within walking distance. Right now, I just wish more of the stores in town would install bike racks so I could ride to them. They have them at Target, but not Safeway. Unfortunately my Target trips often involve purchases of things I can’t really carry on a bike (40 lb. box of kitty litter — if anyone has actually managed to haul one of those things on a bike I’d like to know about it!).

Cyclists’ Rights and how not to get there

Not all cyclists are out to impose their will on everyone else. I ride as a I drive: defensively, not offensively. I understand the limitations of riding a bicycle in fast-moving traffic. If riders truly want to “share” the road, then they have to acknowledge that they are a different type of vehicle. Things may change in the future as far as access for bikes (bike lanes, more bike paths, even bike traffic lights as I understand they have in Amsterdam) but for now the reality is we’re not there yet. Taking the vigilante attitude of Critical Mass is not helping. The incident last night in Seattle makes me almost more afraid of bicyclists on the road than cars. Read down through the comments if you think CM is having any sort of positive effect on anyone, anywhere. I’m afraid this is going to devolve into another situation like the 1989 “wilding” incident involving the Central Park jogger. Now, instead of roving bands of disenfranchised youth, the CM supporters are going to become the enemy and the object of fear.

If Critical Mass wants to lead the charge for cyclists’ rights, they need to take a more reasoned approach to it, instead of this ‘in your face’ belligerence.

Longer, stronger, farther

Got out for my weekly ride this morning. I didn’t plan a route out ahead of time, I just went with a vague idea of heading north instead of my usual route south. One good thing about this area is there are only so many roads, and they generally connect with something you know eventually so you really can’t get too lost. Therefore, I fearlessly set off for parts unknown. I tried to leave early to get done riding before most of the recreational traffic hit the roads, but didn’t get out of the house until about 9:20. I wound out through more farm country, north of Highway 26, and it was pretty quiet for the most part. I did get passed by a double flat-bed semi going through the only real curvy part of the road (naturally). That was a little scary. I saw lots of other cyclists out on the road, and without fail, every single one greeted me with a smile and a wave, called “good morning” or “heya!” or all the above. People just seem to be in a good mood on a bike, at least today. Maybe I should check my horoscope I was about an hour into the ride and circling back to my starting point, but decided I was nowhere near ready to come home, so I headed on down my usual ride on 219 to Burkhalter. I can feel I’m getting stronger, I’m doing much better on the hills. Coming up Rood Bridge another rider on a racing bike passed me but smiled and said “good morning” before leaving me in the dust. Seriously, he was almost out of sight in just a couple of minutes. While he was just a little ways in front of me on the road, I tried pacing him for a minute, just to see how hard he was riding and it was only a minute before I gave up! He was like one of the Tour de France riders, legs just pumping like a machine. I don’t know if I will ever get to that point.

I wanted to add that just as I was nearly home, I cut through the park by my house, and was rolling along very slowly to avoid running down some pedestrians, and a family with young children. One of the teenage girls in the group was pulling a cooler on wheels along, looked like they were having a family picnic. She watched me slow down and wait for a skateboarder to ride on by us all, and as I started to go around she pulled a couple bottles of water out of her cooler and asked if I needed some water. I politely declined, but I thought that was awfully nice.

By the time I got home, I’d been gone almost two and a half hours. And whaddya know, the keys I had double and triple-checked to make sure were in my pocket… were the wrong ones. I had taken my bike lock keys, no house key. There was an open window in front of the house, but too high for me to try climbing in without having to find something to stand on. Instead of letting the neighbors know I left a window open, I called my son to get his housekey that he has. Back on the bike, another six miles roundtrip. I was amazed at how much energy I still had to ride over there and back. I’m wiped now. But a new distance record for me, 33 miles! And close to three hours in the saddle. I may not be able to sit for a week.

Going for a bike ride? Check the Web first

Ok, boys and girls, the Web is starting to take notice of us. I like to post links to useful articles, because the link will vanish off the original host’s front page fairly quickly. It’s still going to be awhile before it’s really useful, but Google and MapQuest are looking to map biking and walking routes. There are also bikely.com, and mapmyride.com. These work for the US, but I haven’t tried mapping other parts of the globe. If you do, please do post a note and let me know what kind of success you have with them.

1 World, 2 Wheels

I found out yesterday that Trek bikes is giving away a bike a day from July 17 – August 31. The promo is called 1 World 2 Wheels. It seems aimed at encouraging people to ride, specifically for short trips from home of 1 – 2 miles.  This is apparently when your car produces most of it’s pollutants, before the pollution control devices really kick in. I had never really thought about that, although I guess I’m not surprised. Before I take my car in for the smog check for registration (we do that every two years here in the Portland metro area) they tell you to drive around for at least 1/2 an hour before going through the test to give the engine sufficient time to warm up (something to do with the oxygen sensor).

Anyway, Trek has some great statistics and info on the “Get Involved” page that I highly encourage everyone to read. The “How to Go By Bike” page has tips on getting started, and if you don’t find what you’re looking for, if you have a question they haven’t covered there is a link to e-mail them. Since my concern of doing the half drive/half bike commute concerns where to park my car for the day, I thought I’d ask them and see if anyone at Trek had run into a similar situation. I sent in the question, and sort of half expected a canned answer back in a week, but lo and behold when I got home last night, I had a lengthy, detailed e-mail from someone at Trek that addressed all of the concerns I mentioned in my e-mail. No real definitive answer, but she encouraged me to contact the homeowners along the route I’ll be taking and seemed confident that folks would be willing to aid me in my quest. And I didn’t even mention that I’m already a Trek-owner. I haven’t actually signed up for the challenge, I don’t really need the bike and they might as well give it to someone who really does. There are also a number of links to biking organizations worth checking out.

Bikes get a break at Portland stop sign sting

A couple of high-bike-traffic intersections in Portland were targeted by the Portland PD in an “educational” sting operation. Quite a number of cyclists were issued warnings, rather than tickets. I’m dismayed that cyclists think they don’t have to obey the traffic laws. I know many do, and are very responsible riders. It’s so important to ride predictably, which is what following traffic laws is about. If people know what to expect from cyclists, they might be more willing to share the road.

A third day of this campaign was canceled after certain news outlets reported the location ahead of time this morning. Nice work, folks. I ride, and I drive, and as much as I support other cyclists, we have to play fair.

Iowa Cyclists Sidelined by Tacks in Tires

Could people really be this petty? Sure they could. Even the police think it was deliberate. I know some people (hopefully not too many) get really angry at bicyclists, which I’m still having a hard time understanding. Was this just a prank, or is there something more sinister behind it? The article says the tacks were found along the white lines, which seems too focused to be a random spilling of tacks. I hope this was just a random bit of nastiness, or some bozo’s idea of a joke.

O Pioneers!

So I was musing about my cat, Gracie, and how she came by her name. When I first adopted her, she had not yet been spayed, although that was one of the conditions of her adoption from the Humane Society. Before we could get this taken care of, a little gray male tabby showed up. I hadn’t gotten around to naming Gracie yet, I was just sort of calling her Miss Puss at the time. Then the little stray showed up, and I started calling the two of them George and Gracie. George was an odd cat. No idea where he came from, but I think he had a collar so I assumed he belonged to someone in the neighborhood although he never seemed to go home. I called him “the cat raised by wolves” because he didn’t seem to have any idea of what a litterbox was for, and even outdoors, he would do his business in the middle of the yard, like a dog, and not make any attempt to cover it up like most cats would. Anyway, fast forward to post-surgery for Gracie, and George disappeared, never to be seen again. Typical guy.

So all this got me thinking about how cliche it was to call the two of them George and Gracie, and how many pets must bear those names. But wait…who understands that reference anymore? George Burns and Gracie Allen were icons in their day, household names. But the new generations coming up now have no idea who they were. They were pioneers of entertainment, at a time when the world was full of pioneers in every endeavor: from vaudeville, to movies, to radio, to television, the introduction of plastic, to the dawn of the space age in the 1950s and 1960s when a rocket launch was more than a footnote on the evening news. We hadn’t been to the moon yet, didn’t even know if it could be done. When I was in fifth grade, I remember being crowded into a common area at school with all the other students to watch one of the Apollo missions lift off (had to have been Apollo 14). Now it seems like only the hardcore space geeks even pay attention to shuttle missions. What’s new to these kids? What do they have left to pioneer? They’re so jaded now, they take so much for granted that was wondrous to us older generations. I wish I could have been at NASA in those early days, watching science fiction come to life. Will anyone feel that sense of awe and wonder again? Things are so taken for granted now. We know faster, more powerful computers are coming, but think back to when there were no computers.

Childhood’s end (apologies to Arthur C. Clarke).

Say Goodnight, Gracie.

Personal Best

Silly me. Friday night I mapped out a new biking route on walkjogrun.net, because I was getting bored with riding the same route every weekend. I wanted to increase my distance, the 14 mile ride I’d been doing only took about an hour, so I wanted to push myself a little, and frankly one hour was just too short. So I mapped out this new route, only I failed to check the terrain. Well, I sure got a surprise as I rounded the curve, and saw Iowa Hill in my future. Even still, I went on, to see how far I could make it before I ended up walking the bike. Ha, didn’t get too far before I decided that way lay madness. I finally checked online today, Iowa Hill has an 1130 foot summit. Now I don’t feel so bad about wimping out. I’m nowhere near in shape enough to tackle that. Might as well be on the Tour de France trying to get through the Alps. I finally just turned around and started down, I’m not actually sure how high up I got before I did but as you can imagine , it wasn’t too far. Maybe I’ll take that road again just far enough to get a good photo of it and post it here. I don’t always feel like hauling the camera with me.

But I did increase my distance. My morning ride ended up being 20 miles, and then yesterday afternoon I rode over to my son’s apartment and back, adding another six miles for a new daily total of 26. Not too shabby. No wonder I’m tired today!

More Road Rage

More cars and bikes mixing it up. Again, the fruitloop was using “intoxicants”, only this time it was the motorist, a 21-yr-old. And as anyone who has raised kids can tell you they still know it all at that age. This time, however, it was all caught on tape. Motorist behaving badly, bicyclist gets mouthy, motorist chases down cyclist with cyclist ending up on the hood of the car.

This is why I’m not a big fan of taking it upon yourself to try to correct other people’s bad behavior. This really could have ended tragically, for both parties. Luckily it seems these two are getting a second chance.