More blog crawling

In my wanderings through the various blogs I watch, I found a link to a Los Angeles-based blog called Neighborhood Pride (Thanks, Branden!). The link I followed went to the post on "Ten ideas to boost block spirit." There are some fun ideas in her post!

I walk Cisco, Jenn's dog that she adopted from the Humane Society eleven years ago, just about every day. Cisco gets to walk his rounds two or three times a day, inspecting his "dog newspapers" (aka sniffing every tall blade of grass, tree, shrub, and garbage can within range of his leash), and whichever of us is walking him stops to talk to whatever neighbors are out and have time to chat a moment. During the power outage following Hurricane Ike a year and a half ago, we got to talk with neighbors quite a bit, and have made a point of continuing dialogs with them. In most cases, the response has been something along the lines of, "I'm glad we're talking--it feels more like a neighborhood this way!"

Other ideas that would be less likely in Good.is contributor Kyla Fullenwider's home of Los Angeles: Shovel the snow off your elderly neighbor's sidewalk and driveway. Shovel the snow off your own sidewalk, so those walking instead of driving aren't struggling through the ice and snow left after a partial melt. I admit to some enlightened self-interest here, of course. I take it the next step, so to speak, and clear a path for our mail carrier, who covers our neighborhood on foot.


Following another link in the Good.is listings, I found this discussion of a new traffic sign idea. I've not yet read all the commentary on it, nor all of the underlying thoughts going into its creation, but on the surface it makes too much sense for it to ever get into the MUTCD. Of course, the same was once said about the Sharrow, which IS in the 2009 MUTCD. As one who is interested in roundabouts as a way to smooth and calm traffic flow in our suburbs, I read this as an alternative when the immediate topography won't allow the space a roundabout requires, and it will receive more of my attention soon.


Yet another Good.is link led me to musings on whether we need to limit car advertising, much as we do with tobacco and alcohol advertising (expanded upon here). Of course, this one really grabbed my attention. I'm not sure how well the concept would work, given the human tendency to ignore reason and follow emotional stimuli, but it's worth trying. There would be the usual knee-jerk reactions from the anti-cyclist crowd--mostly the same crowd that gripes about "business owners' rights" when smoking bans are discussed (a "smoke screen" meant to obscure the real issue if ever there was one).

I want to read more, but have stuff to do. I'll have to come back to my reading. Ah, the magic of bookmarks!

radar camera thoughts

After a celebration of Car Free Happy Hour last night, I wound up driving to work today. Blah!

It wasn't the temperature--that is above my threshold. It wasn't the roads, I don't think--I haven't scouted the one section that usually gives me trouble when the roads are snowed-over, but the rest of my route was clear enough.

Both of us were running late, though, so I dropped Jenn off at her office on my way to work. Her task load at the moment is such that I may be picking her up on my way home tonight. Since her office isn't far out of my way, we are at least taking one car off the road.

As I drove to work this morning, though I had WFPL playing on the radio. They were broadcasting the NPR story over the angry folks in Arizona griping about traffic ticket cameras.

As I listened to the report, which gave some views from folks who decry the system as invasive to their privacy, illegal, and so on along with those who have found great benefit from the camera's placement, I thought about my own progression as regards traffic law.

You see, once upon a time I was one of those hot-headed motorists (still have a bit of that, sad to say) who felt that traffic enforcement wasn't "real" police work--their time (and thus my taxpayer dollars) would be better spent catching robbers, burglars, murderers, and so on.

I didn't think about motorists being murderers, despite that motor vehicle crashes cost our nation more than 40,000 deaths annually. I didn't think about motorists being terrorists, despite that society seems bent on terrorizing vulnerable road users into staying off the roads, lest we be run down by some clueless twit herding his car along while paying greater attention to his GPS, cell phone, the brat in the back seat hitting his sibling, and his breakfast than to the road around him. I like to think I've matured a bit since then, despite having a short temper when I'm in the car. I have re-calibrated my private rantings a bit, though. I fuss about folks blowing stop lights--regardless of their vehicle choice. I fuss about people following too closely (I've been known to "brake check" on such folks, usually after a warning taking the form of several rapid taps on my brake lights).

It has always been thus, or so it seems. At least since the dawn of the Automobile Age. The Copenhagenize blog had a post the other day on a poster from London in 1908. Despite that we knew this about cars a hundred years ago, we still kowtow to the addiction of using them.

I also thought about our societal attitudes about traffic law a bit. I've often observed that those most insistent on "law and order" are the most cavalier about their own obeyance to the law, especially as regards their driving. It's as if the law's main purpose is to get folks out of the one person's way so that one person can disobey the speed limit at will.

I won't say there is no valid point against traffic cameras used for law enforcement. I'm sure there is potential for misuse and simple error. If someone borrows your car, speeds, and you get the ticket/fine/points, you have incentive to not lend your car to that person ever again, and use the resulting tiff between friends as argument against the camera system. If Jefferson County or Kentucky were to consider doing such a thing, I'd want to see measures in place to guard against misuse and a way to deal with the "borrowed car" phenomenon. I don't see it happening here for a while, though, simply because most such systems depend on the car having a front license plate, which neither Kentucky nor Indiana have.

One possible by-product of the cameras' presence is that there has been a sharp reduction in traffic fatalities near them. Causality is unclear--the statistics don't support anything beyond a correlation--but it seems reasonable to think that motorists near those cameras are paying better attention to the road and how they are using it, reducing at the very least one of the largest causes of death in our society--inattentive motor vehicle drivers.

Those who claim the cameras are an invasion of privacy would do well to remember that if you have such an objection to getting a ticket from such a system, don't speed/run the traffic light/pass illegally/whatever. Some of the loudest protesters are ready to protest that the police department isn't proactively preventing burglaries/muggings/murders, and would be happy to invade the privacy of others to prevent such things. See my comment above about motor vehicle mis-use as causes of death.

More snow? So what?

More snow. Something like another three to seven inches expected from onset last night until it finally quits dumping on us later today. Of course, a lot of locals are already weary of snow--good thing they don't live in, say, Minnesota, where a friend commented he hadn't seen grass since before the holly-daze season. Or, perhaps they'd like to trade places with a relative of mine a bit north of Baltimore, who got out of her house the other day for the first time in over a week, and is expecting lots more snow that they don't need this week. It's a shame we can't redirect the snow storms and get them to unload on the Winter Olympic Games--they've had to truck in snow for some events.

Getting to work today was done with four wheels rather than two--too many non-drivers herding their cars between the ditches (sometimes without success...). There were a few intersections where the remains of the snow created very slick slushy spots making it hard to get moving, but overall it was one of those "take your time, don't rush, be SMOOOOOOOTH" drives. Apparently, even those who should know how to drive in snow don't always--I saw one truck--with City of Anchorage logos on the doors and a plow on its front end--in a ditch alongside LaGrange Road. There was a picture on the Courier-Journal's web site of an Oldham County road department truck on its side in another ditch, along KY393 near Buckner.

We have our last class of the February Tool School this evening, unless the roads get really bad and I have to reschedule it. Two of the students have already called me to check, and both want to be in class rather than reschedule.

The March Tool School schedule has been set, and should be on the news page in http://www.bluegrassbicycle.com/ tonight.


Don't forget! Tuesday, 16 February, starting at 5:30 or so, it's Car Free Happy Hour at The Bodega at Felice! The Bodega is on East Market Street, between Shelby and Campbell Streets. It's becoming a happening thing to do. Jenn and I plan to be there.

Saturday wrap up

I got to ride to work today! The roads were clear enough, I was up early enough, and the air was warm enough to meet my weather minima, so I enjoyed a bike ride getting to work.

My feet were cold by the time I was halfway there, but I still enjoyed the ride!

After store hours, we had the third of four classes in this month's Park Tool School series (Oh, by the way, we have decided on one more series for this winter--a Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday Wednesday set starting on March 7th! More on that in a moment). As we were waiting for the last student to arrive (not remembering that he'd told me he wouldn't be there...), the topic of the letter that prompted my post "Riding at Night" was raised. I was asked about the exchanges, and what I had been doing since. It was cool that I had the bike in question there to do a brief "show and tell," as well.

I've been giving some thought to this whole thing. I do appreciate the perspective that Mr Tucker gave me. His statement boils down to that if I am between two motorists, one behind me traveling in the same direction and one coming the other way, the oncoming car's headlights make it hard for the motorist behind me to see me. As difficult as it is for me to believe that, I'll accept it at face value for the nonce, and play with the concept for a bit.

Having ridden that section of Westport Road a few dozen times, it's now almost indelibly burned into my brain's metaphorical DVD player. Riding it on the way home tonight didn't change my thoughts, but rather confirmed what I'd been thinking: If someone is likely to be blinded to my presence by oncoming traffic, they have already been dealing with my presence for at least a few seconds, and are well aware (or should be) of the fact of my being there. My bike is hard to ignore, especially at night.

In comments on my first post about this, Timothy mentioned that since I'm at about car headlight level, there may be something to the idea that car headlights overpower my blinkers and reflectors. One suggestion was to add lights higher up, say, on top of my helmet (or on a flag pole, by someone else). Given that motorists are (hopefully) spending at least part of their time looking at where their headlights are shining (road surface, for clues on where the road is, including painted lines on the road ahead of them), having most of my reflectors and lights in that area rather than where motorists are NOT looking (above their eye level) makes sense to me. In other words, I don't see a lot of value in putting lights where folks are not looking. That is not to say I'm against having a light on my helmet (indeed, I have a helmet with integrated lights). I would say that without a LOT of effort, it's hard to have a helmet light aimed in such a way as to help make me easier to see. Reflective stuff on the helmet makes a lot of sense to me, though, as it's easy to put there and low-maintenance (and low weight).

The pictures below were taken with a digital camera, using its built-in flash unit that I have previously described as being far weaker than electronic flash units built for amateur photography twenty-five years (or more) ago. I have a couple of Vivitar flashes programmed to work with my Canon film cameras (A-1, AT-1) of late 1970s or early 1980s manufacture that will reach into the drum kit that is upstage of the act currently entertaining the nightclub crowd from ten feet AWAY from the fifteen-foot deep stage. The current flash might reach the stage from the same chair. If there is nothing the camera's sensors figure is more important in the foreground. I've seen the side reflectors on my bikes with light from the back porch when I opened the back door to walk the dog, and they show up better than they do here.

Side view, obviously enough. One thing that comes to mind looking at this one is that it's time for a new front tire with the snazzy reflective sidewall. I can see it being difficult for folks who know nothing of recumbent bicycles to figure out what this apparition really is, aside from that it's clearly moving when they see it. Headlights were not turned on for this shot:


Front view, again obviously enough. This is the opposite side of what oncoming motorists would see (right instead of left), but it's clear enough (at least to me) that SOMETHING is moving here, or at least worthy of a second or two to see what the heck it is. This is pretty much what the clown SHOULD have seen, had he been looking, from Northumberland Drive as he pulled out almost into my right side a few weeks ago. I shouted him down, he stopped and lowered his window and listened as I told him he didn't stop for the stop sign, let alone look to see if there was anything coming before he blew the stop. He drove behind me until the road widened to four lanes! Anyway, here's the front view:


And, again, the rear view, this time with a left turn signal extended. The picture is a little blurry, despite the tripod use, possibly a function of the camera's difficulties in finding the bike before setting its auto focus. I may have moved at just the wrong moment, too. Anyway, this is the view Mr Tucker says would be washed out by the lights of an oncoming car, if the angles are just "wrong." Again, my real-world experience suggests that by the time a car is close enough to me that oncoming headlights would make me hard to see, the driver of said overtaking car has had ample time to realize I'm there. Indeed, he (or she) has been driving behind me for a few seconds at slower than the posted 25 MPH speed limit.


I didn't get to participate in the Bicycling for Louisville moving day extravaganza. Jenn did, however, and used the trailer to help haul stuff. Kirk Kandle has put a bunch of pictures up on his Flickr pages. Frequent readers will recognize my trailer (it's one of the smaller ones in use). Jenn is wearing the blue and yellow Kucharik jacket with the recumbent rider centered on her torso. Jenn told me she had a good time and got to meet and talk with some great folks. She also got to experience pulling a loaded bike trailer!

More from the blogosphere

Another blog had a link to this study, done in Oregon. They started with an advert titled, "Should cyclists pay a road tax?"

Despite an assortment of misgivings I (and others) have over the way the "study" was designed and implemented, it suggests a couple of glaring points of ignorance among the motoring public: that roads are fully funded through vehicle-specific taxes (like those associated with fuel purchases and license plate renewal) and that cyclists pay no road taxes (I think the tired old expression is something like "as if"). Yet again, it's clear that many people have no idea how road work is funded, nor that folks who cycle instead of driving, who have payroll taxes withheld by their employers and who pay sales tax on things they buy, underwrite road construction and maintenance costs in large measure.

I've mentioned this point of ignorance before. It would be really cool to see some analysis on a local basis, detailing how much money comes from vehicle-specific taxes and comparing it to how much is spent on road work.

Recall drivers?

From the "blogosphere," one of several interesting concepts: Recall drivers.

There has been much news coverage over the Toyota recall of many of their popular car models, the focus being on unintended acceleration (remember the Audi 4000?) due to sticky throttle systems, and faulty brake algorithms (what happened to direct-action hydraulic brake systems like the one on my 1972 Cutlass?). In short, nineteen deaths over a decade or so have been attributed to these problems, and eight million vehicles are perhaps going to be recalled as a result.

Counter this with over 400,000 deaths due to automobile crashes (from FHWA), in which anywhere from forty-five to seventy-five percent have as a major factor "driver inattention."

Los Alamos Bikes author Khal is now suggesting that, if Toyota is to face big-league excoriation over those nineteen deaths, the US Department of Transportation should also show outrage over the far more serious "faulty drivers" threat evinced by the huge number of crash fatalities.

I don't know to what degree this is "tongue in cheek," but it is being said to bring home the point--that finding mechanical solutions for inherent human problems is not addressing the problem.

Big moves afoot (or a-cycle!)

Looking for something to do Saturday? Help the folks at Bicycling for Louisville move their stuff from their old office to their new office--by bicycle!

From the Bicycling for Louisville web site:

When: Saturday, February 13, 10 am -1pm

Where: Starting at 425 S. Second St, in the basement, and ending at our new office-- We'll be renting office space at 2132 Frankfort Ave., adjacent to the Bike Couriers Bike Shop.

How: by Bike, Trike, or other human powered vehicle

Who: YOU and your friends

Why: Because it's fun, and we'll have coffee and snacks!

Please come and be prepared to haul cargo on your bike, even just a small box. The more the merrier! Please bring trailers, baskets, rope, bungee cords, even empty boxes if you have them. You get the idea. And be prepared to smile for the TV cameras.

If you can't join us Saturday the 13th for the move, you can help us a couple other ways:

1) Be a bike-powered box-packer--Monday 2/8, Tuesday 2/9, or Friday 2/12, from 2-5pm at 425 S. Second St, in the basement

2) Be a Bike-powered box UNpacker at our new office on Frankfort Avenue, Monday 2/15 from 6-8, or Tuesday Feb 16 2-5pm (before Car-Free Happy Hour)

As noted, there will be some sort of video recording of the process, in order to show the world that it can be done.

Sadly, I'm scheduled to work that day, in Crestwood, and am teaching that afternoon, so I won't be able to be there.

I got out on the Raleigh for a few minutes yesterday, to try the new lower gear. I wasn't able to really test it in depth, as I was busy navigating the left-over crud on the road, but the fifteen-percent lower gear is going to be nice. Just enough to take the edge off, without being a shock to my system. I have a twenty-two tooth cog that I may try at some point, but I think the twenty will be fine.

Yeah, we got some snow, but so what?

It's snowing as I type this. A little while ago, I shoveled six inches or so of accumulated snow off the driveway, sidewalk, and street-side parking pad. I had "dog help," though, so it wasn't bad.

It certainly was not anything comparable to what the folks within a couple hundred miles of Washington D. C. are fighting. Believe me, I am NOT complaining about the "heavy flurry" we got.

I used to tell folks that "snowfall is measured in feet, not in inches. Anything less than a foot is a heavy flurry." I said so partly in jest, as I fully recognize the difficulty many have with snowfall of more than a few inches. Heck, even my little truck has its problems, partly due to the lousy tires that are on it nowadays.

But I learned to drive in snow during the early part of 1978, when the Louisville area had something like two feet of snow on the ground after one storm went through, and that snow stayed on the ground for weeks afterward. The car I had at the time was a 1967 Pontiac Tempest that I had bought from the original owner. The only upgrade on the car from the base model was the two-speed automatic transmission (base transmission for that car having been the old "three on the tree"). It had inexpensive bias-ply tires--not even cheap snow tires, let alone radials (which were becoming popular about that time). I got around, got to work and back, got stuck a few times, dug myself out as many times, and learned from my mistakes (and successes).

I also drove tow trucks later in life, and learned a heck of a lot about dealing with less-than-adequate traction situations doing so.

I don't always keep from getting stuck, and it's been partly a function of luck, partly a function of being careful about what I'm doing that I've not needed a tow truck myself. I've learned, though, that I don't have to get wound up over a little sideways action if I'm leaving myself enough of a safety margin.

The biggest thing is to leave oneself that larger safety margin, expect to take a bit longer to get from point a to point b, remain calm when stuff isn't quite to one's liking, and above all BE CAREFUL.


On the bicycling front, I ordered a larger cog for the back of the Raleigh, based on information from Sheldon Brown suggesting that I likely had an 18-tooth cog on the bike. I tried counting the teeth on the existing cog without taking the wheel out of the bike, which is always a hassle, and apparently mis-counted, as I found it has seventeen teeth instead of eighteen. No big deal, I suppose, as the cog I installed today has twenty teeth. It's a bigger step down than I thought it would be, but fifteen percent drop instead of ten percent will actually be more to my liking.

My Raleigh, like many of its kin, was originally geared a bit high "by modern standards," as Sheldon put it. I prefer a fairly high cadence, compared to the folks for whom this bike was made thirty-five years ago. The lower range will allow me to better utilize the overdrive gear, AND make for easier climbing and better acceleration from stop signs. I'm looking forward to testing it soon. Since I'm off work tomorrow, and have a couple errands to run, I may see whether folks are paying attention to their surroundings and ride to the grocery.

riding at night

From a post to kycyclist, the local bicycle-focused list server:

Just an FYI to anyone on this list who may be riding regularly down
Westport road at night.

For the last several weeks on Monday and Tuesday nights while I have
been Driving West on Westport Road, under I-264 in the construction
zone, I have come up behind a recumbent rider (sometimes alone or
sometimes with another cyclist) between 6:15 and 7:40 p.m. (I don't
recall the exact times)

The rider(s) are lit-up pretty well with red lights in the back and very
bright headlights in the front. For the Most Part, they "Take the
Lane."

HOWEVER, THE RIDERS ARE STILL VERY VERY HARD TO SEE FROM BEHIND. I have
come up behind the rider(s) several times in my car and it's a little
surprising. I worry that those that are less attentive to cyclists may
not see them at all.

As you know, it is very dark on that section of road. There are no lane
markings and with cars coming the other direction, the red lights on the
bikes blend in.

I cycle pretty regularly down Westport in the daytime and at dusk and
dawn when I commute to work. I also know that there are really no other
alternatives to get from the East End inside I-264.

But, and some of you may be annoyed by this comment, Please Consider
whether you really need to be riding on this stretch of Road at Night.
I understand that if you are commuting you may have no choice. Is there
a way to become more visible?

I also know that every lane is a bike lane and we cyclists have the
right to be on the road, but ... I also have the right to smoke 4 packs
of cigarettes a day and eat fast food every meal, but I don't do it
because I know its bad for me (and its disgusting- but you understand my
point).

Frequent readers of my blog have seen images of my bike, including the one I linked for Mr Tucker (the author of the missive). Given the lights and reflectors mounted on my bike, I find it hard to believe that anyone who is not legally sight-impaired would have trouble seeing me or picking me out of the (scarce) light points on that section of roadway.

However, perhaps he's right. Perhaps I need a bit more light back there. Like, for example, a 100-watt driving lamp from a race car. With a flash mode. Or a Xenon strobe! Yeah! Make road users behind me TRULY blind! THAT sounds like a winning idea.

How about, instead, we address the root cause of the danger? Why not some better enforcement of the 25 MPH speed limit on that stretch of road? It's a construction zone, so fines are doubled--the police department could generate a windfall profit there in no time (said knowing full well that traffic tickets are not a good revenue source).

driving it home

Branden Klayko made mention the other day of the Disney cartoon Motor Mania. I've linked to it before, David Crowell linked to it some months before that, and Copenhagenize linked to it a week or two ago.

It's a popular video in my circle of online friends, to be sure.

It also illustrates one of the reasons I am leaning more and more toward riding a bike instead of driving: I dislike who I become when I'm at the wheel of a car. I find myself far less patient with the world and the road users around me. In my own defense, I don't get upset at cyclists for slowing traffic, but I am frequently frustrated by the zoned-out inattention I sense in other drivers, and can see where many of those drivers fail to differentiate between cyclists and slow-moving motorists in terms of "get the F*@$ out of MY way!"

Jenn and I were talking about bikes as transport mode the other night, and how far toward or whether I wanted to go car-free. I keep coming back to, "I prefer to ride," as a simple statement.

Sure, the money-saving part is nice. The exercise part is good, too--I get over a hundred miles in each week just by riding to work instead of driving, not counting any other utility bike uses I find on days off. "Doing my small part" for the environment is probably offset by the goofball in his outsized Suburban Assault Vehicle with the monster tires, loud exhaust, louder stereo, and various ego problems, but I figure I'm also showing that it can be done, and it's the example I like to set.

But at the end of the day, as the expression goes, the bottom line is that I simply enjoy cycling more than I do driving.

Numbers games and driving competence

In my reading, attending bike-related meetings, and generally being who I am, I come across a BUNCH of numbers. Some of them mean something, some are simply indicators of how well I'm sleeping (my CPAP machine records my Apnea/Hypopnea Index...).

A couple of numbers related to transportation drew my attention, though. Here are some scary ones:

• According to studies cited by Liberty Mutual Insurance in the Winter 2010 issue of LibertyLines, 5870 people were killed by distracted drivers in the United States in 2008. 515,000 others were injured in crashes caused by distracted drivers. That's almost twice as many lives lost to distracted drivers than to the terrorist-driven debacle of 11 September 2001. Per year. Is there any wonder some people refer to the automobile and our dependence on it as a war on ourselves? And that's just distracted drivers--it doesn't count things like the stupid twits who think they can beat the train, or the folks who simply fall asleep at the wheel because they didn't get enough sleep the night before.
  
  
• Texting drivers have their eyes off the road to send their all-important messages for an average time of 4.6 seconds--enough time to travel the length of a football field at 55mph. And to think that people send text messages to one-another, knowing that the other party would be driving at the time, and expecting someone to read it and respond.
  
  
• Embroiled in a cellphone conversation? The distraction fouls up your reaction time as badly as having a Blood Alcohol Content of .08...and a .08 BAC will get you arrested for DUI.
  
  

Distracted cyclists don't have enough mass to do that kind of damage--except to themselves. I've not tried texting while riding, and have no intent to try it in the foreseeable future. I've tried talking on a cell phone, and even then only on very low-traffic streets without any other cyclists around. In general, I won't even answer the thing if it rings (although if I'm expecting a call I might pull over and call the person back, while sitting still).

In a meeting a couple weeks ago, I heard another number that was pretty astonishing: the cost to build a parking lot or parking garage. Similar numbers are on WikiAnswers.com: Surface parking lots cost, on average, $4,000 PER SPACE. Multi-layer parking garages? $20,000 PER SPACE. Below-ground garages? $30,000-40,000 PER SPACE!!

A few months ago, Kirk cited a statistic claiming that there are roughly three times as many parking spaces as there are automobiles in our country. Even if that number is off by half--say, one and a half times as many spaces as cars, our parking spaces may be worth more than our cars! I've asked before about the ecological effects of all this parking space--storm water management, chemicals dripped from parked cars leeching into our groundwater, the asphalt itself breaking down over time and that oil seeping into the water. It numbs the mind.

It's easy to see how bike parking spaces would cost more than the bikes--let's face it, many utility cyclists get around on machines that cost them less than a week's pay, and dedicating six or eight square feet of space to parking a bike could cost a couple thousand dollars or more (based on the square footage used in the car space figures above), especially if bike security is part of the equation (cars typically having their own mobile security systems, even if they are so rudimentary as simple door locks). Still, it doesn't take long to see how bike riding is much cheaper for society when compared to motor vehicle use. We can build a LOT of bike parking for the cost of a few car spaces in an underground parking garage, and take up a lot less space. Remember the video I found for my post of 12 January?


I found myself driving somewhere last night. I was coming up on a traffic-light-controlled intersection, and the person opposing me but waiting to turn left had her brights on. I flashed my brights at her (saw her in the car as I went by), but she never seemed to have a clue why I was flashing my headlights. I guess she was too wrapped up in her cellphone conversation (her cell phone was attached to both her head and her left hand). Even if I hadn't been coming along, her left turn was blocked by the fact that a train was moving along the tracks parallel to the roadway.

Do people not notice the little blue (or in some older cars, red) light in their instrument cluster that tells them their headlights are on bright, potentially spot-blinding other road users? Have they quit teaching that someone flashing brights at you means your lights are probably on high beam? Do some of these folks even know what "high beam" means?

Or are the cars figuring that since the drivers aren't bright, the headlights might as well be?

RAAM update

I've had an email exchange with the Team Type II manager, confirming my spot on the crew. It's a mild change from what I'd been expecting--I'm now slated to drive one of the RVs instead of the team car. This is fine with me--I'll have more time to do transition point stuff, including but not limited to fixing bikes (although I doubt there will be much to do on that score most of the time).

As before, I have just a small idea of what I've signed up to do. I won't fully "get it" until some time after the event. It will interrupt my riding preparation for RAIN, but I expect I'll do well enough on that ride.

On the "keeping up with when I rode to work" scale, I didn't get to ride today--I have a large sociable tandem trike to haul home this evening. I rode the Vanguard to work and back Monday. On the way home, I met Jenn at her work place so that we could ride home together--something I always enjoy doing.

Sunday thoughts

At some point, this blog was to be a way for me to hold myself accountable in keeping the "car-reduced" thing going.

Over the last month or so, however, I've not been very good at leaving the car at home. Much of it has been weather-related--my commute is such that I don't care to be outside for an hour-plus bike ride in sub-threshold conditions that I wouldn't mind if a) my commute was more urban in nature or b) my commute was less than ten miles instead of thirteen or fourteen or c) I wasn't so concerned about other road users crushing me as they lost what little traction they had on the ice we had this past Tuesday morning.

I took the Raleigh to work a few weeks ago, to test the bus/bike multi-modal thing, and found that much more time-consuming than simply riding. I also found a broken fulcrum sleeve on my way home that evening. I was able to tighten the fulcrum clamp enough to ride the bike, and have gotten a replacement sleeve to install later today.

If the temperature will stay above 20F overnight, I'll ride tomorrow morning.

The second round of Tool School starts Saturday evening. It's not full yet--there are two spaces available as I type this. Drop me a line if you are interested.

Hawk sighting

I was off work today, and had some errands to run. While getting ready to go, I heard a hawk calling near the house. VERY near the house. I looked for her, and saw another hawk getting ready to light onto a tree over my driveway. About then, I heard the first hawk scream again, and sure enough, there she was (I'm assuming gender, here, as a) I can't tell whether it's a male or female just by looking at that distance, and b) it could have just as easily been male--I don't know their calling habits well enough to say). Both were sitting in the neighbor's tree, on a branch above my driveway.

Sadly, my cell phone's camera memory was full. By the time I got a picture deleted, both hawks had flown away.

I've been hearing them calling in the neighborhood for a while, but rarely get to see them. Their call is more of a scream than the calls of songbirds--it's quite distinctive. I love seeing the big raptors around. They are quite attractive birds (well, the carrion fowl are not so pretty, but they serve an important function in nature).

Hawks are pretty timid, apparently. I often see them being chased by crows, despite that a hawk could easily turn on a crow and take it out of the sky if it wanted. Hawks are opportunistic feeders, too. I once saw a youtube video of a kid playing with his pet rodent on the backyard picnic table, only to have his pet taken by a hawk that was quick on the draw. The video may or may not have been staged, depending on which of the attached comments you choose to believe, but it looks pretty much like what I've seen them do.

My errands took me to Home Depot, then on to Hikes Point for some CPAP supplies, then a stop at Feeder's Supply for dog food, then a search for a replacement for the mattress foam inside the dog's bed. The latter is proving to be hard to replicate--I measured the thickness at 2 1/2", but 3" "eggcrate" foam found at Gould's Discount Medical supply was not as thick. The search continues...

He's seen a light

...if not THE light.

My friend Kirk had a nice chat with David Osborne the other day, mostly centered on the latters HB255, mentioned here previously. It seems that Mr. Osborne had encountered a cyclist, who was making a u-turn on the back side of a blind curve, and barely had enough room to avoid a collision with the cyclist. There was a child in a trailer attached to the bike.

The two of them, Mr Osborne and our mystery cyclist, exchanged a few words at the scene. Apparently the cyclist expressed that it was legal for her to be on the state road (although the wisdom of making a u-turn that close to a blind curve is debatable). Mr. Osborne claimed to have contacted the two larger bike clubs in the area for clarification, and got no response (I can vouch for the education@louisvillebicycleclub.org not getting anything from him...). He went to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, and got no results (they would say "enact a law..."). So he (or his staff) wrote the bill as presented.

Mr. Osborne heard from several cyclists--local and national--who expressed shock that he wasn't being mindful of KRS himself. Reading the Kentucky Driver's Manual, one will find several admonitions regarding looking ten to fifteen seconds ahead, not driving any faster than your visibility allows (including slowing for curves, in case there is a stalled vehicle just out of sight...), and so on.

I forwarded him a link to Copenhagenize blog entry regarding the Sacred Bull loose in the china shop (or shoppe). While there are valid criticisms of the entry, it does serve to make a point for politicians with their limited ability to focus on one topic for long.

The upshot is that Mr. Osborne has no plans to carry forward with this poorly-written bill. My only problem with this is that it's still there for some other misguided lawmaker to revisit at some later time--blaming the victims yet again for something that would be the motorist's fault.

Merchant of the week

Here's a jersey even an atheist like me can find humorous. It's from ElevenGear, who also bring you the kit from the Republic of Anaerobia National Cycling Team:

What you can't see in the image is the citation, "Revolutions 53:12" on the sleeves...


They have posters, too. Ah, 'tis a shame I cannot make this image my new email signature...

What in the world is up with this guy?

Kentucky House District 59 Representative David Osborne needs to hear from you. He has introduced House Bill 255, a curious piece of regression if ever there was one. It reads:

AN ACT relating to bicycles.
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 189 to prohibit the operation of a bicycle on a state-maintained highway while transporting a person under the age of 18 years in an attached trailer or other apparatus.

The reasons for such a prohibition are unstated, but are probably related to some constituent feeling put out that he rounded a curve on Covered Bridge Road to find a cyclist in his path, tooling along enjoying the day at ten or fifteen miles an hour in a thirty-five zone forcing said motorist to slow from fifty-five in said thirty-five zone. The motorist, like many not-so-well-meaning motorists, decided that the parent hauling his child in a child trailer was endangering the child by doing so, ignoring that speeding into a blind curve so fast as not to be able to properly deal with foreseeable road conditions presents a far larger danger to everyone.

Yeah, that's one of the arguments anti-cyclist cagers use for prohibiting cycling: they come around a curve and suddenly find themselves behind a cyclist going a third as fast as they are. This ignores--pointedly--the reality that there are few if any curves where a motorist traveling at a sane speed would not be able to know well in advance that they will overtake a cyclist--if the motorist would bother to look more than ten feet ahead, and travel at a reasonable and safe speed instead of ten (or more) over the posted limit.

It's easy for me to see folks in Mr. Osborne's district using this spurious argument to support a prohibition of cycling on the roadway. In my own cycling, I've found motorists to behave differently toward cyclists in correlation to where I am in town, and that area is one of the worst for ugly attitudes from motorists (sure, there are ugly attitudes all over town, but I get more concentration of such ugliness in the Prospect/Goshen/Skylight corridor than most).

I'm not the only one worked up over this. There has been a busy thread on the topic on the League Cycling Instructors' list server. Kirk has made a blog entry on the topic (to nobody's surprise), and in it, he quotes a contributor to the kycyclist list server.

In various ways, all are pointing out that Mr. Osborne is ignoring what Copenhagenize calls "Ignoring the sacred bull in society's china shop." Rather than leash or contain the bull, he wants to isolate people from each other.

Make sure you contact your own representative as well, and alert her or him to how you feel about HB255.

Now I've gone and done it...

Folks who have read this blog for a while know that my wife, Jenn, volunteered for a RAAM (Race Across America) team last year. The team, Team Type II, is of bicycle racers who all have Type II Diabetes, and is a companion team to Team Type I, who are all insulin-dependent Type I diabetics. One need not have Diabetes to be on a support crew, and while Diabetes is a part of the qualification for being on the race team, there is competition for slots on the race roster.

At any rate, the team and crew are organizing for the upcoming RAAM, which will start on June 12th or so. They've been having a series of phone conference calls to deal with team needs, and it was brought up that Team Type II needs a few folks, including a team car driver/mechanic. Jenn piped up and reported that she and I had been discussing whether I would volunteer this year, with one factor being whether I was needed.

I am now penciled in as a team van driver/bike mechanic. I get to take two weeks off from work in the height of our busy season to fly to California, assemble a few bikes, drive halfway across the country (in shifts with someone driving the same vehicle the remaining half) at speeds from stop to race in support of a rolling relay of bicycle riders, get a little bit of sleep here and there between stints at the wheel, eat when I can and make magic happen for bike racers and their machines whenever needed.

The support team for an eight-man race team is pretty big--twenty folks in addition to the eight racers. We'll be using five vehicles--two RVs, one each for crew and team for shift sleeping, and three vans--one to follow the racer of the moment as a safety precaution, one to carry the other three racers in current rotation to their respective relay points and a third to function as a utility vehicle for backup in case one of the other vehicles breaks down, run errands like grocery shopping and laundry details or find parts for broken bicycles.

Jenn drove the utility van last time, partnered with David. They made a great team, and enjoyed working together immensely. A friend of mine is trying to make the team roster for his second year.

Jenn had a great time last year, despite getting little to no sleep for the week. I do better on short hours rack time than she does, but since I use a CPAP machine, I don't know how the machine will fit into the program on the RV. With almost twenty folks "hot bunking" in an RV made to sleep eight folks, luggage space will be at a premium.

Thankfully, I don't have to invent anything. The team has functioned for a couple years, now, and the guy running the show knows what he's doing. All I have to do is show up, work hard, smile, be creative if something goes awry, and drive with some sense as we cross the country at a bit more than the speed of smell (we expect to make the crossing in something like seven days).

I can't wait.

stoplights

Yeah, I do a fair bit of urban cycling. I also do a little bit of blog reading, often focusing on other urban cyclists and cycling issues.

I do some group riding as well. I'm always surprised at the number of riders who are not aware of what I consider easily-accessible general information on some issues important to anyone riding (or even driving, for that matter) in an urban setting.

Take stop light technology, for example. I'm not talking about understanding all the science and programming inside their control boxes, nor that we've moved most of our signals to LEDs instead of incandescent bulbs (saving energy AND making the lights more visible). I'm talking about how those signals recognize our presence.

In the downtown grid, many of the lights are set on timers, and those timers are coordinated to allow traffic to move at a certain speed. Jefferson Street is an example--one can stand at the east end of Jefferson Street and watch the lights change in sequence over the course of a couple minutes.

Away from the "grid," though, many lights are triggered by sensors. Some of us remember the old weight-sensitive plates placed in the pavement a few feet or yards before the stop line (that wide white painted strip at the intersection). Those were not as reliable as the current (pardon the pun) system that uses properties of electromagnetism to detect vehicles waiting for the light to change (no moving parts in the newer system, for example).

Many of these traffic lights have quadripole sensors. I'm not an engineer, so I am not able to fully explain what makes them quadripole, but I know that they are easy to spot--they are the ones with the squared-off figure eight cuts in the pavement, as the following diagram shows.






The picture shows that the Public Works folks have painted a bicycle with rider on the sensor loops. This shows where the sensor is tuned to be more sensitive to the wheels of a bicycle. A cyclist can trigger the stop light to change at this spot on the pavement.

Barry did some blog posts on this topic some months ago, when he went out with Dirk Gowin and some Public Works folks to test a few traffic lights.

Cyclists are not the only ones who don't know this about traffic lights, though. I have often seen motorists sitting in an intersection, with their rear bumper over the stop line, wondering why the left turn light won't turn green for them... It's the sensor, dude. If you are not on it, the light doesn't know you're waiting!

I'm still a club officer

It was almost a foregone conclusion, but I always allow for surprises. I was unopposed running for the VP Education slot again this year. It's always possible that someone would nominate from the floor in one of these elections, but the VP Education post is pretty low on the scale of likelihood for that to happen.

In any case, now I can set to my plans for the upcoming season in earnest. I have a lot I want to do, including re-working the education program from top to bottom, to closely follow the LAB TS101 course outline and have the certificate hold the same value. Folks who earn this certificate may go on to earn their own League Cycling Instructor license at a later date.

Indeed, I have at least one assistant instructor who is eager to earn his LCI. He'd been working with me over the summer, and when I asked him about helping teach another session at another location, his only reluctance was that he didn't have the formal training to be the teacher. I'm working on that, too, but in the mean time, I surprised him by naming him my Volunteer of the Year in the Education Program at last night's club banquet.

The only changes in the officer listings were to President, Vice President for Racing and Vice President for Advocacy. Laura stepped up to join the Executive Committee as VP Advocacy, and Andy, the prior VP Advocacy has stepped up to the President's position, allowing Earl to step down after eleven or twelve years in charge. Mark stepped down from the VP Racing post, and Travis has taken his place. I look forward to working with these folks this coming year--I know all of them well enough to expect good things from them.

Amanda Fuller, the interim Executive Director of Bicycling for Louisville, came to the soiree with her husband. Both were a bit blown away by the size of the gathering and the amount of stuff happening in our club. We also had a member who lives in Alabama (but who is in town quite often and used to live here) join us, so that she could compare our meeting to her club in Alabama. She expressed surprise at how many people were there, and what sort of craziness happens at our annual business meeting.


In other news, my first Tool School class of the season is going well. I have seven excellent students this time around, and all are learning about as fast as I can teach them. They ask good questions, and absorb information quickly. They've had fun getting their hands dirty working on their bikes, too, including replacing brake cables, removing and re-installing their cranks and bottom brackets, truing wheels and adjusting bearings. They get to learn about adjusting derailleurs on the last night of the school this coming Wednesday, and they are excited about it.

Car-Free Happy Hour fun

Car-Free Happy Hour has apparently grown. I got to attend last night's "incarlessnation," and it was a good time by all accounts.

Of course, I got there by bicycle. I opted for the Raleigh, simply because I could. I pulled the trailer along--empty--again because I could (although I also used the rationalization that it would make me more "un-ignorable" on the trip home). When I arrived, David and Manton were outside, discussing the cool bikes already locked to the railings. David said something along the lines of, "When I saw the trailer, I should have recognized it as yours."

Katie's cargo-bike was already locked to the fence, as was her husband's LHT with its bright blue fenders. There were a couple more bikes of various makes and models, but none that I recognized as belonging to particular people (I'm a bike guy, okay? I can look at many bikes and say, "oh, that's so-and-so's bike.").

David, Manton and I exchanged greetings and entered the Monkey Wrench to meet the rest of the folks. Rick, Allison and Eric were talking together at one end of the group of tables; Amanda, the interim director at Bicycling for Louisville, was there, eventually joined by her husband Justin; Nina, Bryan, Dominic, Kirk, Ron and quite a few others whose names I either didn't catch or cannot remember showed up as well.

Kirk showed up in grand style, as one would expect if one knows Kirk. Eric was talking to me about my Raleigh--he even made a mock offer to buy it from me--and he said something to Rick along the lines of, "You have to see this bike." They went outside to have a look at it, and when they returned to the table, Eric was excited that Kirk had arrived while they were outside.

Kirk, of course, was riding his Pashley Roadster Sovereign--a most elegant commuter rig--and in Kirk style, he was wearing a business suit and tie.

Katie opened the event with a few thank-yous, then introduced the speakers for the gathering. We got to hear about Ticket to Ride, and their van pools, car pools and bike pools (yes, bike pools). Amanda spoke briefly aboutBic ycling for Louisville's goals for the coming year as well. Katie mentioned the Louisville Bicycle Club's upcoming Mayoral Forum, and asked that I say a few words about that event. After all that discussion, folks went to socializing for a while.

As the party wound down, folks drifted off in ones and twos, and several of us stood around in the parking lot oohing and aahing over Kirk's bike and Katie's cargo bike. I got to take Katie's bike for a loop in the lot, and found it to be easy to ride (not that I was expecting it to be a problem). Eventually, we all had to head home, so Kirk, Manton, Dominic and I headed east. The four of us made for a sight cruising along Grinstead Drive, with all the reflective clothing, bright lights, and--"wow, those guys are actually riding bicycles in this weather!"

Kirk and Manton split from my path at Grinstead and Lexington, continuing on Grinstead. Dominic and I went out Lexington Road together, as he lives near me and I had offered him some reflective vinyl from my stash. As we were standing at the light, waiting our turn to turn left on St Matthews Avenue, Manton rode up with a horn-honk greeting, before heading on his way to Middletown.

What a day--I didn't have to drive at all!

As for today, I'm going to work a bit late this morning, as I'm teaching Tool School tonight. It's warm enough that I get to ride to work, so I'm riding the Vanguard.

Periodically, someone "gets it" with respect to bicycle transportation issues on a large scale. Of course, those folks are rarely here in town.

A recent post on Copenhagenize.com reminded me of some folks in Japan who most certainly "get it." Oh, to have the problem here that they are solving there! They are parking hundreds of bikes in secure, weather-proof underground silos through the magic of robotics (at the risk of perpetuating a stereotype, is it any wonder that the Japanese would be at the forefront on this?).

Have a look at the video on the design and construction. One thing I really liked about the voice-over script is that, not once but several times, bicycles are referred to as vehicles. Simply vehicles, with no drama about the use of that word.

Multi-modal trip

It's been a while since I used TARC much. I used to ride TARC when I was a student at Spalding College in the early 1980s, but rarely since. I rode TARC partway home one day last spring, due to a bit of rain, and that was my first "real world" use of the TARC bus bike racks. Aside from the bus trip, it was a "vacuum day." When the bus trip, soggy as it was, served as the high point...

Anyway, I've mentioned using the "Bikes on Board" program to alter my commute a bit before. As mentioned, and as tested today, it takes about ten minutes longer than I usually do on the Vanguard, and requires that I ride the Raleigh (the Vanguard will NOT fit the bike rack on the bus). Aside from a few intersections near the Jefferson Freeway and the construction zone near the Watterson Distressway, the most challenging segments of my route are well outside the range of the TARC route.

Sure, there are express routes that get to Crestwood and LaGrange, but they are simply not feasible for me. They don't go when I want to go, and don't stop where I need to be. All in the fun of working in the hinterlands.

As I started to say, I found that while it's okay to be on the bus in foul weather, to get one's feet warm or get out of a thunderstorm, it's even slower than being on a bike.

All the more reason to ride, in other words.

Oh, yeah, I rode from the end of the bus route to Crestwood, a distance of something like five miles. I rode back from Crestwood, braving the ice patches on Houston Lane, got to the bus stop ten minutes or better before the bus was due, and simply rode the bike the rest of the way home. It didn't make sense to me to wait ten minutes to sit on the bus and get home fifteen minutes or more later.

From time to time, I encounter motorists who seem to be genuinely nice folks. I assume that the vast majority of motorists would prefer to not hit me, they just want to get where they are going without a lot of drama, and want to know what I plan to do as I interact with them. Sometimes, though, someone goes out of his or her way to be nice. Last spring, a motorist followed me across the Clark Bridge, at a polite distance, blocking overtaking traffic from my lane during a rain storm. A month or so back, I mentioned the woman who apologized to me for her inattentiveness and the resulting dangerous pass she performed.

Today's "Polite motorist" award goes to the person who was driving that big honkin' Suburban Assault Vehicle, but who nevertheless let me go down Houston Lane ahead of him or her, following at a polite distance yet providing more light than the SOTA circa 1995 headlights on the Raleigh can create as I navigated the various ice patches on that stretch of pavement.

I'm hoping that ice goes away tomorrow and Wednesday. I may have to drive to work Wednesday, despite the warmer weather in the forecast. I may be able to ride--I'll see how things go Wednesday morning.

I'm off work Tuesday, though. I have some errands to run (by bike), some work to do around the house, and am scheduled to attend the Car Free Happy Hour at The Monkey Wrench in the evening. Jenn won't make it this time, however, as she is hosting this month's edition of Bunco at the house.

Which to attend--Bunco, or Car-Free Happy Hour? Decisions, decisions...

See you at The Monkey Wrench!

blah title

We had a busy day at the store, surprisingly enough.

Most days have gone by slowly. I have stuff to do, mostly in preparation for the coming season, but sales are off this time of year. The recent cold snap hasn't helped much. Small stores like ours have to set aside operating funds for winter.

Nonetheless, we had some great activity today. We filled the last two slots for the Tool School I'm teaching this month (starts tomorrow), and had at least one more guy commit to the one in February. At this rate, we'll have to schedule a third session, in addition to the "advanced" modules I plan to offer in the next month or three. In any case, the group for this session should be a good one. I know most of the folks (big surprise), and like them.

No riding since Wednesday, due to lack of interest in playing in the snow, interest in riding to work in sub-20F temps and lack of interest in dealing with motorists sliding around on slick roads.

I keep thinking about using TARC to "go multi-modal" for some of my trips to work. It really wouldn't save me any time, judging by the schedules posted on their site, but it could get me out of some weather time. If it's snowing, riding TARC gets me out of riding the easier part of my trip, rather than the part I'd prefer to avoid in snowy weather. Using TARC to haul a bike also makes it necessary that I use the Raleigh, as the Ryan won't fit the bus rack AT ALL. The Raleigh is probably a tad bit more reliable in snow (simpler systems), but I'm more comfortable on slicker roads with the Vanguard--something about being closer to the ground.

I drove today, and I didn't think to drive my side roads to see how they look. I don't know whether I'll ride or drive to the store for Sunday's Tool School class. I should be able to ride to work after Monday, though.

This Tuesday is the monthly Car-Free Happy Hour, held from 5:30 to 8:00 PM at The Monkey Wrench, located at Barret and Winter Avenues, not far from Bardstown Road. I've not attended any of these to date, having been at work for the last several, but I'm making an effort to go this time. It could be lots of fun--usually is, judging from the posts I have seen after the parties in prior months. Ride on by!

Okay, I'm jealous

My friend Kirk, who has been conducting his own car-free experiment of late, got a new vehicle.

He'd been building up the suspense for several days, asking folks for their opinions on what sort of vehicle to get. Of course, many (to some degree, myself included, embarrassingly enough) thought he was talking about getting a car (in my defense, he did indulge in a bit of misdirection). My suggestion? Get a velomobile. I wasn't even thinking in terms of his purchase of yet another bike. However, the Pashley Roadster Sovereign he bought (and had already chosen, in all likelihood) is a marvelous machine. It's a purpose-built commuter, from a company that has been building such works of utility art since 1926. It has all the esoteric stuff--Brooks B33 saddle, Brooks stacked-leather grips, and smooth-riding 28" (635 ETRTO)Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires, er, TYRES, the fully enclosed drivetrain, and a proper Brooks saddle bag. I can already see some green on my own jealous brown Raleigh--another purpose-built commuter (albeit a less-sophisticated one). Did I mention that Kirk got an awesome bike?


In the course of Kirk's blog entry on his new bike, he inserted a link about Walk Score--a way to see how an address fares when it comes to stuff to do within walking distance. I tried it, even though I already knew the score for my home would be fairly good. My score? 78/100. There are LOTS of restaurants, pharmacies, shops, taverns, and other places to get what I might want within a mile or so, and many more within the two mile radius I've mentioned before as part of the Clif Two-Mile Challenge.

Still, I am in a better mood this morning, and not entirely jealous. I awoke to an ambient temperature of a balmy 20F outdoors, meaning I can do my errand-running by bike today! Yay!

I'd better get busy...

B-r-r-r-r

I have a couple of friends who are still riding their bikes to work this week.

I have not. Probably won't, either, for a few more days.

It's just too darned cold for my tastes.

I didn't used to be a cold-weather-wimp. In younger days, I was able to deal with temperatures down into the single digits wearing little more than a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled. I was a high-strung kid, burning hundreds of calories just standing still (well, as still as I could stand at the time). I'm still more tolerant of cold than many folks I know--to a point.

As I get closer to fifty, my tolerance for cold decreases. It's a fact of life.

I pressed my temperature minimum down a bit this year, with better gear. If the low temperature would stay above twenty or so, I'd be fine. Spending an hour on a bike in ten-degree weather (not counting wind chill index) doesn't appeal to me.

If my commute was fifteen or twenty minutes, or half an hour, I'd probably go ahead and ride. I don't know what it is about that extra half hour that buffaloes me into driving, but I just don't enjoy the prospect.

I mean, the bike is plenty reliable. It's not like I am using a crappy bike that breaks down all the time, and flats have been thankfully rare on this route. The headlights don't much like the cold, but the biggest problem coming from that is a short stretch behind Pewee Valley (Of course, my sense on the headlights could be left over from times using the SOTA Circa 1995 Vista Light set that's now on the Raleigh. The new lights on the Vanguard may be more cold-tolerant--I haven't tried them yet).

I could go multi-modal, I suppose--TARC has a line that would get me about halfway there--I just need to get organized a bit to use it...and use the Raleigh, since the Vanguard won't fit on a bus-mounted bike rack. After all, that's one reason I bought the Raleigh--to make it possible for me to go multi-modal.

At the time I bought the Raleigh, I was working in the urban area of N'Awb'ny. I was riding through the urban area, not out in the 'burbs. "See me" lights were far more important than "see where I'm going" lights. The multi-modal route now would have me riding the more challenging part on the Raleigh--the darkest segments, the hilliest segments, the narrowest roads--and that is taking the fun out of the idea.

I'm off work tomorrow, and will spend most of the day working on some last-minute weatherization chores around the house. Maybe I can tinker around with the bikes a bit--move the light set over on a short-term basis, re-install the small panniers that I took off since I use the trailer with that bike so often, and set up the Raleigh to be my multi-modal commuter for a while.

We'll see.

End of the year post

It's been over ten days since I bored anyone with a post here. I don't know that there was any particular reason, other than I've not thought to post anything for over a week.

Yes, there was the legal holiday, er, holly-daze last Fried-day. Today is something of another noteworthy day--we flip the calendar over to the teens decade from the aughts decade tonight.

It's customary to have and share year-end thoughts, or plans for the coming year, or something. I kind of like the attitude my cat takes on the topic, though--it's just another trip 'round the sun, another time the sky outside gets light, another day to enjoy watching birds. Cats have much to teach us.

I didn't ride to work much over the last ten days--not at all this last week, in fact. Temperatures have been below my thresholds, or the combination of cold and wet has been outside my range of "willing to be out in it for an hour on a bicycle."

I've been working on improving some practices at the store over the last couple weeks. I've implemented some inventory-control measures that will help us be more profitable this year, and better serve our customers in the process. It will take time to get all the staff "up to speed," but we are already seeing benefits. We started carrying Specialized as a brand a couple months ago, and I think it's going to be a great help for us--Specialized has a great range of products, with full-on race bikes, time trial bikes, kid bikes, and the Globe line of urban bikes, not to mention the Body Geometry lines of gloves, helmets, shoes, and saddles. We get to drop some lines of bikes that were not doing well for us. We will get to be a destination store instead of "Oh, yeah, there's a bike shop in Oldham County, now, too. Wonder what they sell?"

Oh, and we are the only shop in the Louisville area selling Specialized's "S-Works" products.

We've got a couple of Park Tool School sessions coming up--one this month, and another in February. The January session is over half-full as of this afternoon, and the students seem like good folks. I know of a few others who are interested (which reminds me that I need to call a couple folks this weekend...).

Tomorrow will see the Club have its annual Polar Bear Ride, pot-luck chili dinner, swap meet and club meeting. It's going to be a bit chilly during the day, so I don't know who will be riding. I plan to ride over, since the party is less than a mile from the house. We'll have to figure out what we are going to carry and how, but unless we ride the tandem for the first time in over a month, I can easily haul whatever food we take in the trailer.

See y'all next year!

blog-reading finds

Poking around on blogs can be one of those "black hole of time" things. Sometimes, however, interesting nuggets of information can come out of the clutter that is the internet. In terms of bike safety, some of the posts I've seen are thought-provoking.

This one, for example. It's an article on a recent study done in England, showing that cyclists' deaths are not commonly due to poor behavior on the part of the cyclists. It's usually poor behavior on the part of the motorists. A quote from the article: "With adult cyclists, police found the driver solely responsible in about 60%-75% of all cases, and riders solely at fault 17%-25% of the time." Wow. That differs from my sense of the data taught in LAB-certified classes.

Even so, a quote from the study is interesting:

"We believe this report strongly supports our view that the biggest problem for cyclists is bad driving. With that in mind we are greatly concerned that the government still seems fascinated with analysing (sic--British spelling) and promoting cycle helmets, the value of which appears to be inconclusive. We believe that the government should now focus on tackling the causes of injury which appears to be mainly inconsiderate and dangerous driving. Reduced speed limits, stronger traffic law enforcement and cycle-friendly road design are the solutions."

A brief digression: To read the source study, you would have to register to receive the .pdf download. It doesn't cost anything, unless you want to have them send you a printed copy.

Getting back to the study and the article, I mentioned that it's thought-provoking. I have an assortment of ideas that come immediately to mind, in no particular order. Based on a quick read of this article:

• "Bike Ninjas" will claim that they can continue being such
• "Wrong way riders" will make similar claims
• "Sidewalk pedalers" will echo the claims above
• Motorists, or rather, "Anti-cyclists" will gripe that all the blame gets put on them again when "the roads are meant for CARS, stoopid! and get those dratted bikes off the roads!"

I'll keep riding as part of traffic, though, thank you very much, and I'll do my usual things to remain visible to other road users.


Also found, in responses to an NPR article on cargo bikes (well worth reading, BTW), was this gem: "If you divide the number of miles you need to go by the amount of time you spend in your vehicle PLUS the amount of time you spend to pay for it, for gas, and for insurance, you may find that a bike is faster than a car. This kind of calculation yields what is called 'effective speed.' For most people in the United States (yes, here) bikes have a higher effective speed than cars.

My effective cycling speed is around 7mph. My effective driving speed would be about 1.5mph. (I don't make a lot of money and don't need to go very far)."

I'm no mathematician, so I'm not sure how to set up that equation. Still, it's an interesting concept--that time it takes us to pay for stuff affects how cost-effective that stuff is in our lives. It makes sense to me, but I can see how it would confuse many folks who are dependent on their cars.

Of course, cost-effectiveness isn't the only reason we do things. We are emotionally driven animals, after all. On my to-read list is Cotten Seiler's Republic of Driving, in which he explores some of the emotional baggage associated with automobiles and their (mis)use. Of course, the Louisville Public Library seems to not have this book, so I'll have to cycle over to Carmichael's to order a copy.

Morning errand

As a club officer, I am sometimes called upon to help make club business happen quickly. Today is such a day. We have a mailing we must get "out the door," as the information didn't make it into the last newsletter.

I volunteered to fetch the printed matter from near U of L, and host the labeling/stamping party this afternoon.

I also have been putting off a trip to get more cat litter, and the Feeder's Supply location where I usually stock up is not far off my path.

It was about 20F when I was getting ready to go.

Jenn has my truck today.

What's a somewhat logically-minded person to do?

Ride a bike. The Raleigh, specifically, pulling the trailer.

It wasn't the quickest way to do what I planned to do, but it worked well. I was not cold (save for my fingers, and they were not intolerably cold). My shirt even has a fair bit of sweat in it.

On the way home, I stopped at Nancy's Bagel Grounds for some yummy bagels. I also felt a desire for some sweets, so a stop at Plehn's Bakery happened before I got to the house.

I'll share some of what I bought with Rachel, as she is (hopefully) going to help me with some chores today.

I kind of sort of took a day off today. It wasn't carefully planned, so I wasn't off all day, but I got to have some fun and ride a bike for a while.

I did have some things I wanted to do at the store, of course. I had to follow up with some customer requests from the weekend that required I talk to a live person at each of two or three of our suppliers, and then report to the respective customer.

I had a couple bearings I needed to fetch for a repair, so that was first on the ride trip list. Of course, it was the opposite direction from the store.

I'd spent some time over the weekend riding the Raleigh, just for a change. I still like the bike, especially for short-distance work. It's fairly easy to lock to whatever is handy (tree, light pole, etc), too. I rode it to Albert Crush Bearings and Drives, on Baxter Avenue, then stopped at the Feeder's Supply to look at the cats they have for adoption before heading home (and no, I didn't adopt any cats this trip--we have enough cats for the time being--but I did pet a few that were awake and tell them that I hope they find good homes soon).

When I got home, I changed the bearings in the idler for the repair bike, then decided that since I was only going to the shop for a little while, and coming back in daylight, I'd ride the Raleigh out just for the change of style.

Until now, I've considered the route segment from Westport at Collins Lane or so to the other side of Pewee Valley hillier than I would enjoy on the Raleigh--that thing is NOT the climber my Ryan is, and the Ryan is no "mountain goat bike." The Raleigh also lacks the level of headlight I have on the Ryan (although I suppose I could move the light system over easily enough, should the need arise). My ride today did not do much to change my perspective--I know I'm capable of the small hills I encounter on just about any bike I'd be willing to ride, but I still think I'd prefer to ride the Vanguard as my daily get to work bike.

It was a grand day to ride, too! The temperatures were MUCH warmer than those of just two days ago, although the wind was something of a challenge, and more of one on the trip home. It was cloudy as I rode home--it looked like a storm front moving through at some point. Still, I arrived home after making the round trip to Crestwood in shirt sleeves, as the jacket was simply too hot!

On the trip home, I had one twit in a pickup truck blow his horn at me repeatedly, as if to say, "Get the @$#% off the road!" When he passed me, his passenger flipped me off. I mainly ignored them, until I saw that the next traffic light held them up to the point that I could pull up beside them and say, "See how far ahead of me you got by being jerks?" By then, however, their windows were closed, and both guys waved with fake smiles. I just shook my head and let them go--I'd not shown them any indication I was paying attention to them when they were behind me, and didn't want their oafishness to ruin my day.

My ride was brightened quite a bit, though, when I passed Plantation Racquet Club. There is a garrison-sized American flag flying by there, and it has been replaced within the last few days. The one that had been there was tattered terribly, and was saddening to see. It's good to see a new flag there, and the wind had it flying straight out. Now if some of these other places with tattered flags aloft will replace them...

Once home, I changed loads in the bag and took some books back to the library. On the way home, I stopped for a sandwich at Jimmy John's on Shelbyville Road at Saint Matthews Avenue, where one of Jenn's daughters works. I got to see her and talk to her for a moment or two without interrupting her work.

It's good to be able to say I like both of my step-daughters. My goal for my relationships with each of them is that I be a positive influence on their lives. I want them to live well, and happily. They are good people. The world certainly needs good people.

Night images

A few weeks ago, there was a discussion regarding headlights on the kycyclist, a local list-server. One poster mentioned that it's a good idea to see how one looks at night--one suggestion is to have someone dress in your night gear and have that person ride for you and see how visible your friend is while you are in a car.

Not wanting to burn the gas for that, I took some pictures in my driveway.

Awkward-seeming pose notwithstanding (I was wearing a down vest under the wind shell), here's a side shot. Hopefully the only time motorists will see this, they already know I'm moving along as they are waiting for a safe opportunity to enter the road. I like the reflex band on the rear tire. When the front tire wears out in another year or three (it was installed early in 2002), I'll replace it with the current Schwalbe Marathon with reflective stripe. I didn't have the headlights on when I took this.





Here's a close-up of the Urbanize helmet with the reflective stuff I added. This thing shows up quite well.

I'm not as enamored of the lights in this helmet as I had hoped to be. I still like the lid, as it fits well and is readily adjustable. I'd like for the lights to be brighter, but they still are an improvement over simply passive reflector stuff.



My biggest complaint about my camera is that the flash is fairly weak. I can't "reach into" a nightclub stage to pull images of, say, the drummer unless I'm right up by the singer. In the image below, though, the weak flash is kind of a good thing. It's showing how visible I am with partial headlights on me from behind. This is the view that most motorists see as they approach me to pass, at least if I'm signaling for a left turn. If the car has good headlights, I would be even harder to ignore.





I may still have someone ride the bike for me so that I can get a motorist's-eye view of things. I figure that most motorists don't have any interest in marring their driving records by hitting me, so I might as well make it easier for them to find me. Almost half my bike miles are after dark these days, so it makes sense to me to have good lights and good reflectors.

Still chilly

My wallet is, indeed, a bit lighter, but not because of the shoe covers I mentioned yesterday. They don't fit over my sandals.

In general, I'm finding that stuff from that brand (Pearl Izumi) runs a bit small--I typically wear large men's trousers/tights, and the AmFib ones are XL and snug. We have a pair of Pearl Izumi lobster gloves at the store, and they fit my hands pretty well--they are XXL. I don't think I want those, anyway, at least until I ride regularly in sub-20F temps.

The tights work well, though. My feet were much more comfortable on the ride home last night. I'm sure ambient temperature was a factor, but haven't looked to see how much warmer it was. My Campagnolo jersey was damp with sweat when I got home, too.

Yep, my low threshold has gotten lower.

Another Fried-day

I wound up driving yesterday, in part because it was colder than I like, in part because I had cargo to haul out to the store.

A supplier of BMX bikes we sell has a warehouse in Bluegrass Industrial Park. Rather than have bikes shipped, we sometimes pick them up at the warehouse. Since I was going to use Hurstbourne Parkway at least part of the time, I offered Jenn a ride to work, and took her bike with us for her trip home.

However, I decided that I needed the bike miles this morning.

Last year, I lowered my threshold for winter commuting rides to the mid-twenties, by adding better gloves. A friend showed me some gloves he has that have a fluid sac in the palm. Heat from his palms warms the fluid, which then gets pumped out to the fingers to keep them warmer. Seeing these, and talking to him about riding temperatures, I found myself compelled to ride in cooler weather yet.

So today I did what any sane person would do: I rode the bike to work.

I have a couple of winter jerseys that haven't seen enough use, so I wore one of them today. I wore a pair of matte lycra shorts inside my coldest-rated tights, with two pairs of socks, my trusty pair of Rocky Gore-tex socks and sandals on my feet. I wore one wind shell, and found that just right, when combined with a fleece balaclava and the aforementioned cold weather gloves.

My only complaint was that my feet were almost cold by the time I got to Crestwood. They weren't painfully cold, but they weren't comfy, either. Warmer than they were would have been better.

I've long held that part of the key to keeping one's feet warm is to keep one's legs warm. My legs were cooler than I would prefer, which contributed to the mild discomfort in my feet. At the store, I found that we have a pair of winter tights in my size that are better quality than what I've been using. We also have a better pair of shoe covers than my current ones, and they happen to be ones that my friend recommends highly.

I can see that my wallet will be a bit lighter before I go home tonight...and my low temperature threshold will be a bit lower this year.

Wow, it's windy today!

I'm glad I'm not working today--riding to work in wind like this is challenging, to say the least. Unlike many of my car-reduced/car-free pals, I don't have the option of riding TARC most of the way to work, then pedaling a few blocks, so when it's bad enough that I'm not going to ride, I have to drive a (gasp) car to work.

Of course, one of the family motor vehicles is in Georgetown this week, so if Jenn needs to not ride, and I need to not ride, we have to coordinate things. Her contribution to such coordination today was to take the bus to work. I'll have some more odds and ends to accomplish today, but will do most of them from home (I do have a trip to Bluegrass Industrial Park to make today or early tomorrow...).

Not much else of note, although I did get the new monitor in use last night. It's quite different...a 23" wide-screen/flat/thin unit--much larger and with much higher resolution than the old CRT-based one (which was new circa 2003). I may have to watch a movie on it, just for the fun of it...

New week, new challenges

Yesterday morning, I awoke to the sound of my cell phone ringing. It was my sister, asking how I dealt with snow when riding my bike--did I use chains or studded tires? As my alertness level adjusted, it occurred to me to answer her that I could, indeed, get studded snow tires for my bike (thinking of my Ryan, of course).

As it turned out, though, the snow accumulation was limited to grassy areas--the streets were merely damp. I rode to work, despite my mild head cold.

Yep, I also discovered that I had a head cold yesterday morning. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be a bad one, and generous application of Zicam probably helped. I felt much better when I got up this morning.

When I got home from work Monday, Jenn was working at her new laptop, getting it configured for use. She has a router that supports wireless device use in the house, but that function was not switched on. In the process of reconfiguring the router, something went awry, and now we have no internet service at the house.

I spent an hour or so playing telephone games with our ISP before running up against a time limit (had to get to work), with nothing accomplished other than exacerbating the DSL disconnect. I'm typing this during a break at work. As I told Jenn, some time when I have a spare hour or three (or five) to kill, I will get back on that project. She won't have time until at least Wednesday evening, so I may do it tomorrow. Such adventures always try my patience.

I realized this morning that with all the activity over the weekend, I managed to forget getting to the library to pick up the book they had waiting for me. As it's now been five days or more, and I haven't thought to call them to ask that they hold on to it for another couple days, I'm sure it's been sent back into circulation. If it's the book I have in mind, it's already happened once, and I've been waiting to read this one for several months. I just can't bring myself to buy it, as it's only out in hardback at this point. Phooey! On the other hand, it may be a book I had requested for Jenn, in which case I'll simply request it again--I don't think too many folks are waiting for that one.

Sunny-day morning

I didn't get to ride to work as much as I would prefer this past week. Tuesday afternoon, I picked up a trike (while not as fancy as the Team Dual on the web site, still a large, heavy "sociable tandem") that was to be repaired at the shop. Later that evening, another friend dropped off her bike at the house so that I could take it to the shop with me Wednesday as well. So, with a load in the truck, I drove to work--in the rain.

Given my preference for NOT riding in the rain, my timing worked pretty well.

I rode again Thursday, and received quite a few "Weren't you COLD!?!?" comments during the day. In fact, I was not cold at all during my rides to or from work, simply because I've learned to dress fairly well for commuting. Would I have wanted to ride sixty or seventy miles in those conditions? Probably not that day, although I've done centuries at near-freezing (above and below) temps.

Friday (or, as I often spell it, Fried-day) morning was one of those, "Oh, phooey! I can't get going" ones, and I wound up driving. I don't like using the car as a fall-back option, but there it is.

Saturday was a day for other things. Jenn's younger daughter asked us to attend her soccer team banquet at Georgetown College, so we did that, and brought her home with us afterward. She is taking one of the cars back to school with her today for a couple weeks, so any "fall back option" driving will have to be coordinated a bit more than usual. Basically, it means I have to be more disciplined about riding to work.

During the two days I rode to work, however, I had a couple of bothersome incidents with motorists. The more aggravating one was with a tow truck driver who cut me off as I approached a traffic light. As a supposedly-professional driver, he should know better, but as a former wrecker operator in a prior life, I know that many of the drivers don't share my knowledge of road rules and laws. He certainly didn't, although his employer will soon receive a letter (a copy of which will go to the police department) suggesting he learn a bit more.

I find that I get many more such experiences in my commute to Crestwood than I did when I was commuting to N'Awb'ny. I've mentioned this in prior posts, and it is one of the reasons I don't enjoy this commute as much as I did the older one.

I still prefer riding to driving, of course, it's just that the ride is not as much fun.

In those prior posts, I mused on the reasons why I'm not having as much fun. I think the largest one is the perceived animosity from motorists I encounter. This behavior from motorists is in keeping with an observation I've made for some time: there are zones in which motorist attitudes are better than others, and along my corridor I see the demarcation pretty clearly. I'm treated more equitably inside the Watterson than outside, better west of Hurstbourne Parkway than east of it, and generally better inside the Jefferson Freeway (or as some insist on calling it, the Snyder Freeway--although I've also heard it called the "Shameless Political Hack Freeway") than beyond it. Once near Crestwood, I usually don't have any troubles with motorists, although there will be exceptions there as in all my zones.

I won't get to ride today, sadly (or not). I've got family things to do--Jenn wants the seasonal tree-like object assembled (both of her daughters are helping with this, so I get to see them as well), and a cousin is coming through town later today on her way to some westward destination. I'll spend the afternoon with my stepfather, helping diagnose a problem he's having with one of his tractors.

Back to the preparations for all this...

That was different...

I scheduled my day off for today so that I could help at Seneca High School. Mr. Keswani, a teacher there (who also rides to work fairly often), asked for someone to do a presentation for his first-hour class, then participate in a panel discussion with a few other local folks working to make our community a healthier and more sustainable place to live.

Of course, I rode a bike to get there.

Having done a presentation in Mr. Keswani's classroom before, I know it's on the second floor. I opted to ride the Raleigh this time, simply to make navigating the stairs less of a hassle.

On the way to my next errand, though, is where the title originates. I was pedaling along Hikes Lane, a bit east or north of Klondike Lane, when a motorist passed me with almost no room to spare (with no other traffic going our way, she could have used the left lane, but...). Being the person that I am, I yelled out a variant on, "Hey! Watch where you're going!" To my surprise, the motorist stopped--in the middle of the right lane of a four-lanes-with-left-turn-only-median roadway--and waved me up to her window. She said something along the lines of, "I'm not trying to start nothing, I want to apologize for not moving over further. I'll be more careful in the future."

I was gobsmacked. I asked her to please give people she's passing more room in the future, and let her go on her way.

It's a first for me, to have a motorist stop and apologize (albeit in an unsafe manner, stopping in a traffic lane as she did).

In my travels today, I've had a surprising number of motorists stop, without need (i.e. stop sign) or legal suggestion, to allow me to make left turns from, say, Breckenridge Lane to Grandview Avenue, or from Grandview to the entrance for the public library branch (separate trip), or similar sites. I don't know how to tell these folks that I'm perfectly happy to wait my turn to turn left, and I don't want them creating a disruption in traffic flow (and thus a potential safety hazard) to be so polite. I usually wave them on and wait anyway, but one guy today wouldn't go until I had made my turn. I don't know if having the kid trailer on my bike had anything to do with it, or just what his thing was (the first two times it happened today I did not have the trailer attached).