December 2010
30 posts
Ride On
Gloom is setting in as the probability of rain is pegged at 90% for New Years Day, adding insult to injury with forecast high temps in the 50s. That day is the scheduled SLO Bike Club’s ride from Cambria to Ragged Point and return, a ride that has become either a symbol of a riding year ahead, or a fitting end to a year on two wheels.
Some living in Portland might consider this the...
What's Happening to Bicyclists?
In just the last week in the news:
Man on bicycle robs bank in Stockton
Bicyclist armed with assault rifle shot in L.A. shot by police
Robbery suspect flees on stolen bicycle.
Bomb planted in bicycle injures policemen
Bicyclist arrested for robbing cars.
A Trail to Nowhere?
The SLO Railroad Safety Trail remains incomplete largely because of foot dragging by the Union Pacific Railway. That’s the gist of the story in the latest edition of The New Times.
The 500 foot section that runs between Foothill Blvd and the city limit, constructed with local private donations, was finished last summer but remains barricaded because of the railroad’s failure to...
Fond (Distant) Memories of. . .
… riding on a sunny day:
Bike Racing's Future. . . or Lack Thereof
The year has been a grim one for professional bicycle racing. Evidence is mounting that next year could be even worse.
All year there has been mounting news of doping, not something likely to enhance the sport’s prestige. Now comes word that the sport can be a terrible financial failure as well.
Consider first the drumbeat of charges of doping, increasingly ominous in recent months.
...
A First! Sort of
The bike box in San Luis Obispo much maligned by this writer is the first on a state highway in California. There are boxes in San Francisco and Long Beach. But it’s Cal Tran’s first experiment. This according to the California Bicycle Coalition.
The coalition writes: The California Traffic Control Devices Committee OK’d installation of the bike box last spring as an ...
Backlash City (Updated)
All this talk about vivid bike lanes, more bike lanes, dedicated bike paths etc does have it’s risks. You can push the envelope too far.
Case in point: The Big Apple, where there are 250 miles of bicycle traffic lanes, the city’s plans for widening or creating bike lanes at the expense of lanes for motor vehicles has engendered a backlash. In a couple cases the city has had to...
Bike Box Dissent
There’s a single “bike box” in SLO, at the corner of Madonna Rd and Hiquera. When it first went up there was a lot of enthusiasm for the Cal Trans-city of SLO experiment.
Its purpose is to allow bicyclists to follow the traffic around to the left without having a driver in the right lane go forward into the shopping center across the street and cut off the cyclists.
I...
Problems? What Problems?
Bicycling in Europe seems to be the topic of the week, what with all the huffing and puffing about vivid bike lanes and their prevalence in Europe and toe-hold on the Central Coast.
Now comes word that all is not sweetness and light in the two-wheeled culture in places like the Netherlands, where cycling leaders complain that there may simply be too many cyclists.
Too many? Not possible.
Some...
BIke Lanes Redux
Vivid bike lanes are not unique to Cayucos by any means. (See posting below on the experimental bike lane that looks from the photo to be just a hundred or so yards long.)
They’re old news except around here.
In fact we may be a very long way behind. Paso Robles has one on Vine St, as pointed out by Clem Michel.
Chris Fylling has recorded bike lanes throughout Europe.
Here’s one...
High School Confidential
Happened to visit SLO High School today, when the weather was cool and partly cloudy, what you might say was an okay but not ideal biking day. Surprisingly there were dozens of bikes tied up on the racks just at the campus entrance. Not as many bikes as cars, perhaps, but more than expected.
Vivid Bike Lanes
Update: Clem Michel points out that the county may have been inspired by a similar bike lane installed in Paso Robles along Vine St, but without the bike symbol. Seems like the symbol is a major addition. Dale Sutliff says that the county’s Bicycle Advisory Committee has talked with county staff about installing bike lanes. That was about a year ago. Whatever the inspiration, let’s...
WatchBike sharing may be a winning business proposition, at least on a large scale. That’s the experience in Washingon, D.C. , where the system could be profitable in three years, remarkable for any start-up enterprise. New York City is looking to build a 10,000 bike sharing program. It’s by no mean certain that the economies of scale would would work in relatively tiny SLO.
Read more...
College Students on Bikes
You see some pretty outrageously dangerous and illegal bike riding in and around SLO, especially by young people wearing flip-flops, messenger bags, jeans, t-shirts and no helmets.
You see bikes zooming down sidewalks, across major roads, through red lights and weaving in and out of traffic.
There otta be a law!
It turns out there is… in Berkeley.
U.C. police have been on a big...
BIcycle Recall
Redline Bicycles have been recalled.
The headtube can separate from the frame, and in the view of the U.S. Product Safety Commission, may lead to instability, falling and possible injury. (Well, I guess.)
About 200 bicycles imported from China by Seattle Bike Supply of Kent, Washington, are involved. The bikes have the nameplate “Redline.” The recall involves the 2008 model...
Why Are These People Smiling?
No, not those people. These people:
The temperature was in the 70 degree range today, the skies were clear and the wind was light. Tomorrow the forecast is for more of the same. In fact, there has generally been excellent riding weather of late.
In truth we live in a 12-month riding zone, with a few days off for rain now and then and a dozen days with unpleasantly high temps. (Granted,...
Bicycling Felons
In the News Roundup posted a couple days ago is the comment that there are a surprising number of crimes committed by people on bicycles. Hardly a day goes by that there isn’t a news story from somewhere in the country about a mugger, robber or other law breaker committing a felony on a bicycle.
Case in point: the Beverly Hills police now say that the murder of a well-known Hollywood...
Update on Drunk Biking
This morning’s USA Today tells us everything we wanted to know about cycling and drinking. (See posting below for some background. They must have overheard our chit-chat yesterday. Whatever. Thanks to Dave Abrecht for passing it along.)
In California and many other states it is illegal to drink and bike, and the CHP has begun a crackdown on drunk bicyclists. Just recently they...
I'll Drink to That
A bunch of us were wondering today if you could be cited in California for drunk driving while intoxicated. Nobody knew, but everyone agreed that drinking and biking don’t mix.
Today it was revealed that drunk while riding on a bike can get you into serious trouble in Oregon.
Oregon has a “three strikes” law for drivers that also now applies to bikes.
Under the law, if you...
News Round Up
A woman in India was reportedly brutally murdered by her husband and in-laws for not bringing bicycle as a dowry. (Probably enough said, but if you want the very gory details of the homicide on the Indian Subcontinent read here and weep.) This is such a grim story that we’ll withhold all the obvious one-liners.
Here’s another unsettling headline:”Tampa Bay has had nine...
Another Bicycle City
This one’s slated for Gaston, South Carolina, where a 600 acre parcel has been set aside for a community without automobiles, and miles of bike and walking paths. It’ll look something like this when fully built out:
Initial plans are for ten homes and a community center to be finished by year end. Read more here.
Bike City USA: the Real Story
Portland, OR, thinks of itself as a fabulous bicycling city, and with good reason. How and why it got that way, and where it’s going, is the subject of an article in Yes Magazine an online ‘zine sent to me by two readers (and good friends).
There’s plenty for city and county planners around here and just about every other big cycling area to ponder.
First, there’s...
Green Zones Outside of Baghdad
SLO just installed a green bicycle zone at the end of Madonna Rd., as you turn left on to Higuera. First one in SLO as far as I know. However…
… compared to the ones we’ve seen in places like Portland, OR… .
… it looks a little (what’s the word?) anemic. Oh, well. It’s a step forward.
Plan to Bicycle Atascadero
Atascadero appears to be taking a step toward furthering the county’s bike plan. (See item below about the newly adopted county plan.)
The city just adopted its bicycle plan, according to a story in this mornings’ Trib. The plan’s short term goals include bike lanes and signage along Highway 41 and El Camino Real, improvements in roads and paths to encourage students riding...
Vitamin D and Calcium Supplements Nixed
A lot of people have been urged to take high levels of vitamin D and calcium as ways of preventing or treating certain diseases. Now comes word that some medical researchers have found that the high levels are probably not necessary, and can actually be harmful.
The findings about vitamin D and calcium were actually reported in the New York Times a couple of days ago. The piece is definitely...
SLO's Biking Future
The SLO county supes have approved a new bicycle plan, which you can see here.
In brief, the plan imagines a much more bike-friendly community in the future. Darn good news.
The plan itself is not exactly bedside reading. So I talked with one of the County Bicycle Advisory Committee members. The committee is the group that drafted the plan along with the county staff and sent it along to the...