May is Bike Month

Eric Fredericks • Thursday May 1, 2008

Don’t forget to log your cycling miles this May… it’s once again time for Bike Month. Those biking in the Sacramento region can log them in at MayisBikeMonth.com. We fell just short of the 1,000,000 mile goal last year.

Sadly, I’m only pledging 100 miles so far because I need a new bike. My current bike is an older retro Peugeot road bike and is just too uncomfortable to ride for long distances. I’m in the market for a folding bike (I think) so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

I shot this photo at the Santa Monica Beach bike path in Southern California. This is easily one of the best places to bike in the world.

 

Category: Bicycling •• Region: General •• Comments

Stupidest Bike Lane in America?

Eric Fredericks • Friday March 28, 2008

I’m not sure if I can argue with this West Los Angeles Bike Lane.

P.S. – For those of you subscribing to this site by e-mail, I’ve been embedding several videos in articles lately. These do not show up in e-mails, so you need to click on the headlines to view them.

 

Category: Bicycling •• Region: Los Angeles •• Comments

Do the Test

Eric Fredericks • Thursday March 27, 2008

DOTTHETEST. Brilliant!

 

Category: Bicycling •• Region: General •• Comments [1]

Day 30: Monterey Bay Coastal Trail - Pacific Grove, CA

Eric Fredericks • Tuesday July 31, 2007

Whew! Finally, after 29 days of anticipation and waiting for the #1 photo, I bring to you this photo of Pacific Grove, California.

The bike path in the right side of the photo is the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail and you can tell from this photo that it’s probably one of the most beautiful paths in the world. Also pictured is Monterey Bay and either the Santa Cruz Mountains or the Gabilan Range in the background (or both). The rocks appearing in this photo are often covered by sea lions and many other aquatic species.

This photo made it to the top more for the surrounding beauty than the “bikability,” but nevertheless, it turned out to be my favorite of the pictures related to this website.

Pacific Grove is probably in my top five most picturesque places in America. It has a charming little downtown, beautiful views of the Bay and the Pacific, and is nicknamed Butterfly Town, U.S.A because of the Monarch butterfly wintering phenomenon. It’s downfalls—typical for the Monterey Bay Area—very expensive, not as much diversity, lack of larger city nightlife, and year-round moderate climate for those like me that like a change of seasons. Those downfalls aside, it’s still quite an amazing place. As I’ve said before numerous times in this photo series, you can view more photos of Pacific Grove in the photo gallery (Please excuse some of my bad photos, I need to remove them when I magically find the time!).

Well, this ends the photo series. Hope you enjoyed the tour! I plan to have a recap and links to all of the articles and photos soon.

This article is a part of the Exploring the Walkability of America in 30 Days photo series.

 

Category: Bicycling •• Region: Monterey Bay •• comments

Day 8: Lane Avenue - Upper Arlington, OH

Eric Fredericks • Monday July 9, 2007

The next stop on our photo tour is located a few hours north of our last stop in Cincinnati. Upper Arlington is a fairly walkable suburb of Columbus. I just happened to catch this father biking down the sidewalk with his two sons. The restaurant pictured is La Chatelaine, a quaint French bakery and bistro located on Lane Avenue.

While I’m not an advocate for biking on the sidewalk because of bicyclist safety factors, Lane Avenue is not a bike friendly street—especially for children. Many of the residential streets in Upper Arlington are good for biking.

When I used to (part-time) live in Columbus, I stayed just a short distance from here. Across the street from where this photo was taken is the Shops on Lane Avenue. These shops underwent a massive renovation in 2005 and is now definitely more walker-friendly. There are a few restaurants with pleasant outdoor seating areas that I frequented. The owner of the shops (at least in 2005) also owned the Town and Country Shopping Center in Kettering, Ohio near Dayton. The thing I really liked about both of these suburban-esqe developments is that they provide (what I call) cut-throughs to the surrounding residential neighborhoods. Those little sidewalk connections allow neighborhood residents to avoid walking the mile or so to get around the fence that typically surrounds this type of development—and thus avoid having to hop in the car.

Upper Arlington also has a lovely historic district. There are a few schools within short walking distance to the shops there. (See the city guidelines for this district).

If you only have a short time in Columbus, I recommend several places to visit before Upper Arlington, such as nearby Grandview Heights and other Columbus neighborhoods (see prior Columbus articles for some recommendations). If you visit some of the other places, then Upper Arlington is worth a visit. It has some massive older homes that even urbanites find impressive.

This article is a part of the Exploring the Walkability of America in 30 Days photo series.

 

Category: Bicycling •• Region: Columbus OH •• comments

Don't Forget: It's Bike to Work Week!

Eric Fredericks • Tuesday May 15, 2007

Don’t forget that this week is Bike to Work Week, and depending on your region, your Bike to Work Day is likely to be this Thursday or Friday. For the Sacramento Region, Bike to Work Day is Thursday. Here are some details on Thursday’s events at the Capitol:

BikeFest, at the State Capitol Thursday

On May 17th 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., enjoy music, antique bicycles, award presentations, and drawings for bicycles. Bring your bicycle for routine maintenance. We’ll have safe, secure Bike Valet parking.

Held in conjunction with the CalEPA Clean Air Celebration, the Capitol BikeFest will have tables of information from bike shops, bicycle groups, public transit providers, clean air and walking organizations.

There will also be raffles for free bikes and gear.

The Sacramento Region has a great website dedicated to Bike Commute Month (which, if you didn’t know already, is this month). You can pledge a certain amount of miles and keep track of the miles you ride during the course of the month. You can also join a team and/or employer and “compete” against others. I’m not sure if a national site like this exists, but one should. Then you could break it down by regions, counties, or cities.

I’ve only pledged to ride 10 miles this year for May. I wasn’t sure how I would feel on a bike with respect to my slowly-healing broken ankle. I’ve actually already logged 19 miles so far this month. I have had very little pain except for when I step off the bike. Otherwise, I think it’s been a good way to increase my flexibility and speed up the bone healing process. To be honest, the limitations of riding this month will more likely be because I have an uncomfortable old road bike, and not because of the pain.

 

Category: Bicycling •• Region: United States •• comments [3]

Video: Are Physically Separated Bike Lanes Best?

Eric Fredericks • Saturday March 31, 2007

The debate on physically separated bike lanes is quite interesting. This video by StreetFilms argues that regular bike lanes are not sufficient and the New York City Department of Transportation should start implementing separated lanes. They say that separation has worked well in many cities around the world.

I think that a separated path is a great idea for traveling along streets. My only concern is at intersections—they must be designed properly so that bicyclists are not placed in danger. Drivers of vehicles may not expect to see a cyclist headed from the opposite direction when they are making a turn. You also need careful consideration when placing the bike lanes inside the parking lane—you can create a nightmare for curbside delivery and emergency vehicles.

Anything that makes cyclists feel more comfortable and gets more riders out is a good thing—as long as it’s safe, of course. Personally, bike lanes (I’m talking about Class II lanes for some states, including California) work just fine for me on speeds lower that 35mph. When you get above that speed, I feel much more comfortable with a separation. I think that NYC deals with many more bike lane abuse issues than we face in Sacramento.

I wonder if the painted buffer between bike lanes and travel lanes that they show in the video is actually worse for bicyclists because it invites drivers to park in the lanes?

Physically Separated Bike Lanes [StreetFilms] via
The Case for Physically Separated Bike Lanes [The Oil Drum: New York City] via Jawed :)

 

Category: Bicycling •• Region: New York City •• comments

ETE: On DANISH City Bikes...

Lauren Hilliard • Tuesday September 5, 2006

The famous ‘city bikes’ in Copenhagen are actually quite hard to find since the demand is much greater than the supply — same applies for bike parking! These communal bikes can be used by inserting a 20 kroner coin into a slot on the handle bars, which then releases it from a chain connected to designated ‘city bike parking.’ Most bikes have a map of the city on it since nearly 100% of its users are tourists, not locals. As you can see in the picture, they are not exactly the most comfortable bikes to ride (especially without a seat on this one!). And you’ll get up to a 1000 kroner ($160) fine if you ride it out of the defined boundary line.

This article is part of the Exploring Transportation in Europe series.

 

Category: Bicycling •• Region: Denmark •• comments

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