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Posts by Adron

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by Adron

Bike Theft & Building a Replacement

April 3rd, 2017 my bike, a modified, custom component, solid machine I’ve had for six years was stolen while I ate a po-boy in the International District in Seattle. I was immediately heartbroken that what I’d spent so much time, effort, and planning into had been whimsically stolen from me by some piece of shit scum human being. But these things happen. The police are unfortunately ineffective in fighting bike theft, and plans and organizations exist to fight this scourge, but alas the chances of recovery are so small it is simply best to immediately go through the stages of of grief: shock & denial, pain & guilt, anger & bargaining, depression & reflection, the upward turn, reconstruction, and acceptance as quickly as possible.

Simply, mourn and move on. There are trails to ride, adventures to have, and bike riding to do.

April 4th, 2017 begins and the obvious thing to do, which I’m privileged to be fortunate enough to do, is to simply get started on plans for a new bike. The list of things I want aren’t really difficult to have, but they are specific.

A New Bike?

With that a list comes to mind of must haves:

  • Front and rear disc brakes.
  • Mounting points for front and rear racks for panniers.
  • Dynamo hub for front and rear lights.
  • Brooks saddle because yup.
  • Some solid drop bars with appropriate brake & gear levers.

But then the N+1 problem begins. do I really need drop bars, how much carrying do I need when I’m just commuting to work? Obviously I want 2-4 panniers for grocery getting, but I don’t need all that when it’s just the urban attack of commuting. Maybe I can just get some bullhorns or pursuit bars without the excess weight of panniers and related collateral weighing me down? Right? So maybe I should build two bikes?

Then it occurs to me, maybe that’s exactly what I ought to do. Ugh, I’ve got things to do and am not sure I want to blow that kind of money. I’ll have to think about it. That thought is going on the back burner, what do I need right now for the daily grind of commuting, grocery getting, and just living life day to day? That brings me back around to the list above. This needs collected and assembled as soon as possible. This is what I’ll do and updates will be forthcoming, until then, hold the ones you love close and watch out for those bike thieves.

by Adron

Discover Redmond’s Future

I sat shifting through some website material I found after receiving a postcard about the upcoming Downtown Bus + Rail Planning for January 26th, 6-8pm at Redmond City Hall. I was instantly curious and dug into the link on the post card.

https://redmond.gov/lightrailextension

But what I found was what I’d been curious about for some time. What in the world is going on with the transformation of downtown Redmond. First things first, let me show you a map I created first to get an idea of where and what we’re talking about.

First, Redmond in comparison to where Seattle is. Seattle is the large red zone to the left on the map that is labeled Seattle. Continue reading →

by Adron

Living Subserviently to the Automobile

Let’s talk about how to describe effectively how the automobile, and our heavy dependency and emphasis in taxpayers dollars for the automobile to design and build roads and other infrastructure, homes, towns, and almost everything around the automobile has shaped our world. Here are a few terms I’ve started using. I don’t know if there are official terms for these things, but none the less I have observed and know of these systemic characteristics to exist in the United States today.
Dependent Communities – These are communities that can never be dependent on their immediate retail, infrastructure, and related facilities. The jobs aren’t located within reasonable distance, nor food, or other necessary items needed for living life on a day to day basis.
Red Line Divisions – Like the red-lined districts where “blacks” or “others” would never be loaned capital to improve their neighborhoods, the construction of many roadways were often done so in a distinctive and careful way as to split communities that were diverse into communities of sameness and inequity.
Motorist Elitism – This is less evident in Seattle & Cascadia than in much of America, but it is evident among the poor and the rich alike. The idea that one of means (i.e. the person with money) would only drive and looks down upon those that don’t drive as a lesser person who has made bad decisions or some other nonsense. This elitism is misguided, myopic, and filled with contradictions on many levels, not including the idea that it’s horrifyingly wrong.
Subservient Marketing Choice – This is the practice of marketing a “make your life simpler” style product or lifestyle that really locks one into an ongoing monetary mortgage against this lifestyle. Auto-dependency itself is one of those things, and we’re all bound by this to some degree even while alone in a mountain cabin – as we’re all part of this ecosystem Earth. However this is specifically oriented toward the suburban lifestyle dependency and subservience that is often coupled with motorists’ elitism and dependent communities. In the end, it causes those sold this lifestyle to be subservient and supportive of the entities (businesses, government, or other entity) that keep them in this lifestyle.
In summary of these terms, I leave this post with a question and a quote. The question is, if you’ve got any additional quotes, or know of  better way to more accurately state these specific characteristics of modern American life, please share them in the comments or ping me on Twitter @transitsleuth. The quote is on this general topic in which we find most of the populace today.
“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.” – Thomas Jefferson
by Adron

Urban Seattle Blogs – Rollcall

I sat down recently and put together the list of how to stay informed on what’s up in Seattle and the immediate area. Here’s the run down.

Transportation Specific Blogs

Neighborhood and Related Blogs

Other Extremely Useful Sites

Others that aren’t Seattle specific but really good reads and often report on Seattle urban and transportation news.

Ok, so there’s gotta be more. Please ping me @TransitSleuth and help me build this list even bigger!

by Adron

Ranting about Bellevue, Washington

I had thought that literally nobody cared in the city of Bellevue. It’s a super dystopian vertical suburbia that is super creepy from anything other than the wheel of a car. Even then however, it’s pretty myopic in it’s worldview. I was super surprised at this twitter thread however and the great new material to sleuth through!

What transpired from that included a few gems from @theboobla. Then a bit later, after I was frustrated by needing to weed through stopped auto traffic through inclement environments I ranted again while I waited in some cartopian dystopian crossing.

…which led to…

Then the sleuth work actually got underway! Here’s some starter material on what looks like prospectively amazing infrastructure heading for Bellevue. This city could absolutely turn around it’s car-dependency dystopian myopic worldview with this and open the place up to a better future!

Which leads me to two of the leading blogs on all things transit & bicycle transpo ->

http://www.seattlebikeblog.com and https://www.seattletransitblog.com ! Both excellent sources of great information and news for the area.