I was surfing about the web, reading things about transit and bikes. I stumbled upon this video from some San Francisco residents. It’s about getting started carrying things on your bike. This is an important thing to figure out – regardless of what mode of transport you use, if you carry things around regularly. It’s a good idea to come up with a solid strategy. This video was put together pretty well, so without further babbling, I thought I’d share it.
Category / Biking
The Portland Crow Attacks!!
While out biking around and taking care of some errands yesterday, I was attacked! For the third time in a row, a crow has swooped down and whacked me in the back of the head. Fortunately, it’s only been while wearing a helmet. Here’s a layout of the crow attacks. When approaching the Morrison Bridge from the western on-ramp you approach a point where cyclists and pedestrian pathways converge onto the shoulder of the bridge.
Approaches to Morrison Bridge. Click for full size image.
At the convergence, as shown with the “Crow Attacks” arrow above, is where the crow will swoop in and attack your head. This generally only happens to cyclists, and apparently only to certain cyclists. The bird has narrowed it down to some particular identifying characteristics that triggers it to attack. I’d love to know if you’ve had this experience. I’m curious why a crow is so perturbed about something, and what that something is, that it attacks people. Very strange thing for a bird.
As it hit me, I immediately went forward and got off my bike, grabbed my camera from my camera bag and tried to get some shots of the culprit. Here’s what I got. Nothing super clear, but as with other images, click for the giant full size image!
He’s sitting on the light post. Hard to see as I had not had a change to adjust any settings to get the image clearer. Remember, click for full size image.
The Crow escaping to safety after the dive bomb attack! Click for full size image.
A better shot of him sitting scruffely on the light post. Click for full size image!
Vancouver Cycling, Translink Trolley Buses
Biking near Stanley Park, I stopped for a break and took a few shots of the beach on the south side of downtown. Surlac leans to on the metal contraption, or artwork, or whatever it may be called.
Near Stanley Park.
After this I grabbed some noodles, home made and totally awesome. While there I also had a tea while sitting outside, Surlac in the distance.
Outside for some noodles.
Next up I rode up on the Brurrard Bridge and got a shot of the shipping in the waterway.
Overlooking the shipping in the bay.
A little further along I found a giant bird!!
A giant bird!
Stopping on the Viaduct to get some pictures.
On the Viaduct, in the protected bikeway.
note, I am in the bikeway, where I’ve stopped and have set my bike in the picture. I’m stepping over into the pedestrian sidewalk on the bridge, and the cars go way over there beyond the concrete barriers. A TRULY separated bikeway. Vancouver might not have the bike culture in Portland, but it absolutely is working toward being as world class as Amsterdam is! It’s truly impressive what they’ve done in a mere 2-3 years! Vancouver is one of my favorite cities to visit in North America hands down.
Looking into the city from my first stop on the Viaduct I took a few shots, here’s one of the one’s that turned out pretty good. Completely unedited.
Translink Skytrain heading into downtown.
…and then another…
Translink Skytrains Passing…
…and looking the complete other way I saw two cyclists riding up with the Skytrain heading toward us in the background.
Skytrain & Cyclists on the Viaduct.
Last but not least, one of the venerable trolley buses of Translink.
A Translink Trolley Bus!
For more of the images from this collection check out “I Bike About” and “Monday in Vancouver“. That’s my tour for now. Enjoy!
Joining Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Velo Cult and Night Time Wild Ride Race vs. Bus #75 & Bus #4…
I joined the BTA finally, after meaning to for years. Met Carl & others at Velo Cult. I needed to meet a fellow coder, cyclist and cool guy Benjamin Van der Veen over there to wrap up some business. I noticed that Velo Cult was having happy hour, he’d mentioned he wanted to check it out, so we setup to meet there at 6:00pm.
I rode out Multnomah, cutting around through the bike boulevards toward the Hollywood District where Velo Cult is on 42nd Ave just off of Sandy. I got there just a few minutes early and locked up my bike in the bike corral out front. As I walked in the door I realized that a special guest appearance by retired road racing cyclist Nelson Vails would be in store tonight! Call me stoked, and here’s a little background.
• 2009 Inductee to the US Bicycle Hall of Fame
• 1984 Olympics: Track – Sprint Silver, 1984
• First African-American to win an Olympic Cycling Medal
• 1985 World Championships: Tandem Sprint, Silver
• 1984, 1985, 1986 National Tandem Sprint Champion
• 1984 National Sprint Champion
• 1983 Pan American Games: Gold Medal
• 1980s and 1990s competed professionally in the 6-Day circuits in Europe and the Japanese Keirin events.
• Media Cycling commentator involved in cycling commentator for major TV networks and cycling safety programs.
• Starred with Kevin Bacon in the Columbia Pictures release of “Quicksilver”, a movie about the tough world of bicycle messengers in New York City.
Yup, this guy has ripped it up over the years. He showed a few of his races and gave some commentary about his insight, strategy and approach in each of them. Overall, great to hear about his races from him personally.
Benjamin showed up and we snagged a beer, finished the business we had to do and commenced to just hang out. The BTA was taking memberships and since it’d been years that I had intended to join, I figured today was the day. I went over and met Carl handling registrations and got signed up in just a few minutes. Now I’m a proud member of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance!
Joining the BTA
If you’re curious what the BTA does, besides simply helping to make America not suck so bad at life, here’s a few of the cool things…
Walk + Bike to School Network : You know how you hear about police arresting parents for letting their kids ride their bikes to school? You know how in most of America now kids can’t ride their bikes to school, often can’t even bike or walk to school, because it’s just too dangerous. Well, the BTA works diligently to make sure that is never going to happen in Portland!
Walk + Bike to Work : Not sure how to bike to your office? The BTA has workshops to help people figure out how to get to work, in one piece, in good fashion, and generally be awesome while doing it!
…and much more!
The Race Begins
After Velo Cult dinner was had and then a race began. Kristen and I were here, in Hollywood area and home was many blocks away in southeast Portland. We went to wait for the bus at 42nd and Sandy. I of course was going to end up riding and she was going to take the bus, since she was bike-less and I was bus pass-less. The #75 route bus arrived and she boarded.
The bus make the green light and I was stuck behind at a red light. I saw it disappear a block away around the corner. The light turned green and I tore through the intersection cranking hard. I dug into the turn that the bus had just gone through seconds before. There was the bus stuck at the next red light. I pulled up behind it. The bus slowly moved forward and I sprung around it to the left as it turned right into the Hollywood Transit Center.
I rode up to the 3 story flight of stairs and jumped off my bike, slung it upon my arm and started hoofing it up the steps. The #75 started to pull away behind me to get back on the main road. I got to the top of the steps and rode across the Interstate on the biking & pedestrian overpass, turned hard onto the switchback on the other side. It was entirely empty. I stay safe and don’t want to injure anyone, so go super slow when pedestrians are around or if there is auto traffic.
I made it around the switchbacks and into the north south bike boulevard and immediately started cranking hard. I ripped through the neighborhoods in the darkness. I could feel the breeze and dryness of my eyes as the wind whipped around me. Through the ups and downs in the road I swerved in and out keeping a smooth line. I made it to the main arterials; Belmont and then Hawthorne. I then got the Lincoln street bike boulevard and cut down to 39th, where I figured I would see the #75 coming.
Sure enough here comes the bus and I have a red at the bike boulevard crossing! Arrgh the bus is going to get ahead of me again! I wait, impatiently, and the bus passes. As soon as the light turns green I rip into 39th, with no traffic I go bold and follow directly behind the bus. I actually catch up and am traveling faster than the bus. I have to brake. Then it actually starts to brake too for the upcoming stop, the stop were Kristen will get off the bus to transfer to the Division #4 route. It stops and I pull up, standing there as if I’d been at the stop for ages.
Kristen gets off the bus and gets a little confused as to which direction is which, we figure out we’re going to the stop westward. At first it seems like it’ll be a short distance, but we quickly realize it is closed. We keep walking and get to the next stop. I wait with her for the next bus which pulls up just a few minutes later. I again take off behind the #4 bus (I NEVER like to be anywhere near the front of the bus).
After barely a half block I cut off to the left, south to the Clinton Street bike boulevard. I turn onto the clinton street boulevard hard. I can hear my tire gripping the road. There are a few tweaks in the bike, kind of like hearing the bike itself moan under the force of my pushing it into this hard turn. It’s a Surly 4130 cromoly CrossCheck, so I know it’ll hold up though.
I continue to push hard, cranking against the chain hard I can feel things flex on the bike. I had not ridden this hard in a while. I tend to ride fairly easy and take care of the bike. But today I’m having fun, I’m pushing the envelope, I’m tasting the speed and the fresh air and the night. Blazing down the bike boulevard I make it down the street super fast and then turn at 12th (having just ridden from 39th to 12th in just a few minutes). At 12th I come upon Division, the street the #4 travels down and see it pulling away from the 12th and Division stop. I blaze by the stop on 12th and continue toward home…
I’ve won, while being good company while waiting for the buses, with a solid 30+ seconds to spare! 😉
Of course, if I’d ridden straight through, I’d have been about 10-15 minutes ahead of the bus. But it was a game of wait and go tonight. Fun for all, a great day, great ride, great new people and a new BTA membership and beer run to Velo Cult. Cheers
Portland’s Light Rail Advocates
There are a number of people types when it comes to light rail in Portland. I’ve set out to put together a view of those types. First off, I’ll describe the two types I find myself fitting into.
“Backbone Advocates” – Ideal: Light Rail is a great arterial back bone for a transit system.
These advocates see light rail as a great core service provider for moderate to heavy use lines. They’re often likely to want light rail (LRT) over bus rapid transit (BRT) in almost every scenario. The key reason, is because growth can congregate around light rail far better than almost every other bus option. A backbone advocate is also dramatically less likely to use a bus over or in lieu of light rail.
“Cycling Transit Advocates” – Ideal: Light Rail are useful, buses are a pain, I’d rather just bike.
Ok, this category I fall into a lot. Buses are effectively useless and dangerous to cyclists. More so than the tracks in the street. Buses have been the vehicles that have killed almost a dozen of cyclists over the last decade. Many of them children, 5-12 years old. Beyond that, the bus carries two cycles at the most. None of the bus drivers barely know a thing about placing cycles on board. So effectively a bus carries 2 cycles, light rail – a one car train – can carry 4 on racks, and almost a total of 4-6 in between the entrances in the open area for a grand total of 8-10 per car. Most light rail runs with 2 cars, giving a total of 16-20 bikes per train. Buses can’t even remotely touch this. The last fact is simple – streetcars and light rail don’t merge onto you when you’re biking. That makes the rail based streetcar or light rail option the only real transit option for cyclists.
“Derp Advocates” – Ideal: Light rail is nifty, I like the way it looks.
These advocates love light rail. They’re not sure they know why they like light rail, but they like it. They like how it feels and they feel X, Y or Z about it but usually can’t back up any of those reasons. These are the people that vote for light rail, and want it because it’s green or it looks pretty or some other non-functional, not really true reason to want light rail, but they love it anyway. These advocates are useful for their votes for light rail, but politically they’re as detrimental to light rail as any other thing someone may advocate for. Basically these advocates are the urbanized version of a dumb red neck that thinks the highways are part of the free-market.
“Numbers Advocate” – Ideal: I can statistically prove why light rail is the superior option.
These advocates don’t care about passion or how one feels about something, they’re here to prove everybody else wrong and those that oppose light rail just can’t do simple math. They’re often harsh and introverted to the extreme. These advocates are huge political help when light rail comes up against the “it’s too expensive” or “it doesn’t carry enough people” or whatever other nonsense someone comes up with. These advocates are the ones who do analysis on every single thing they can find. Very useful for bringing up the argument of what light rail really does for a city, but not someone to advocate in front of the camera.
“Car Hater Advocate” – Ideal: It aint a car, build it. End of story.
This advocate is simple. Sometimes a cyclist, sometimes a curmudgeon, or whatever they may be they are against anything car related. They often have a host of reasons, all very legitimate, but something society just can’t face no matter how true they are. This advocate doesn’t care how expensive a line gets, doesn’t care if it messes up existing traffic, and only cares about getting the line built. These advocates are politically damaging but often bring with them a number of other staunch advocates in the above categories.
“Common (Wo)Man Advocates” – Ideal: I’ve analyzed what data I could find, looked at the benefits and negatives and this seems like a great option.
These advocates are the most important, politically and for ridership reasons. They are the people who will be the core ridership of the line and also will make a line politically feasible or not by discussing and carrying on conversation to build political momentum for a line. They may come to community meetings, they may not, but they’ll be talking about light rail at coffee shops, in the office, over the water cooler and anywhere else the topic comes up. They’ll talk about the pros and cons of the line and say they lean toward building light rail and riding light rail.
“I Hate Traffic Light Rail Advocate” – Ideal: If they build other stuff for other people to ride on then I won’t have to deal with as much traffic when I drive.
This is the hypocrite, yet very important ally in the battle to get light rail transit systems built. These advocates, albeit horribly misguided in their notions of what does or doesn’t create traffic, are key in winning votes to get light rail built. Even with the facts around human behavior and induced demand, these advocates have some odd idea that transit will resolve the idiocy and failure of auto dependent roadways.
Summary
So this is kind of the bullet list of light rail advocates. Are there others? What’s your take? In a subsequent entry I’ll post the light rail haters list. It’ll follow the same basic premise. If you have any suggestions for those, let me know your feedback on that too, it’d be much appreciated! 😉
Transit Sleuth 