Showing posts with label Righteous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Righteous. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

put that thing away

When riding in downtown Bend, I really enjoy nice weather days, because people have their windows down. That means, when I roll up alongside and spy they're using a cell phone, I get to say, and have heard, "Put that cell phone down." Pointing at them helps.

The younger the person, the more likely they are to do so without saying anything. Although I haven't had anyone not put their phone down. Older people, like my age, and male, are likely to say something smart-allecky, but they put it down anyway.

Love the nice weather...

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

top down

Last year, I wrote cultural change, corporate or otherwise, must come from the top down.


Now, it looks like that change agent is here. Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood announced last month that bike and pedestrian modes are now equal with motor vehicle as to priorities.


Equal.


Transportation for America released a study that points to a majority of citizens favoring more transportation options than wider highways to move traffic.


Groundswell is upon us. When the next instance of $4+/gallon happens, we will be thankful this top down cultural shift of priorities has paved the way, so to say, for more options; healthier options.

Now, visit craigslist.org and find your next bike on the cheap.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

distract this

Oregon recently enacted a Distracted Driver law, prohibiting cell phone use while driving a motor vehicle, a Class D infraction. There are a few exceptions, like using a blue-tooth, law enforcement, people who operate a vehicle as part of their job, and others. See ORS 811.507 for a full list. Question...are drivers who wear a badge or drive truck for a living immune from distraction? Just asking.

Now consider this thought which I have been mulling over for a month or so...When a person gets behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, after drinking say 3-4 pints and is legally over the limit, one might argue that they were unable to formulate the necessary intent to drive under the influence. (Good luck with that, by the way.)

However, assuming one is not drunk, use of the cell phone that does not fall under an exception is a conscious choice to defy the law, distract oneself, and put the lives of others in danger. I have no stats handy, but one would have to be living under a rock to not understand the concept of a distracted driver. It seems to me that the fine associated with a Class D infraction is laughable.

Monday, May 4, 2009

back in the saddle

Well, after a 15 month or so hiatus from this blog, I return.

My change of heart about burdening you with my thoughts came about when I was at High Lakes grade school last Friday, handing out prizes to students who biked or walked in to school. I was looking after the Green Lake corner of the school, handing out 13-14 prizes. That was all the "traffic" I got.

What I did see was plenty of SUVs queueing up in front of the school to drop off one kid. This was not a scientific count, I did not have a counter, nor did I have a control. But, the majority of cars/rigs were dropping A kid off.

When I was in corporate software, one of the principles of change I learned about was that to change corporate culture, one must get the management to change. Culture won't change unless the president embraces and exemplifies the change.

It's the same way here. Commute Options can sponsor and hand out all the prizes they want, but unless the parents lead by example, change won't happen. As a society, our children will not learn to affect change unless their parents show them the way.

A handful of parents are doing it; leading by example. I considered what might be holding others back from getting away from driving a large vehicle to transport a small child. There is a network of school buses, that operate regardless of the number of children on the bus. High Lakes is an area school where most of the student families live within a few miles. Why is it so hard to carpool, bus, walk, or ride to the school?

People are lazy. Too lazy to make a change. Too lazy to spend a few extra minutes each day arranging a smarter transport plan. It is too easy to simply get into the car and ramble down to the school. We do not nor should we, need to drive everywhere in this town. Bend is a relatively flat town, with a 3-5 mile radius, and during rush hour, can be navigated easier and faster on two wheels, than by four.

Friday, February 29, 2008

freedom

Next time you have to wait through three cycles of lights...anywhere in Bend...think about all of that personal freedom you are realizing by being in your car. How much mobility you have over the world.

Now picture me passing you in the bike lane.

Booya.

zeroing in on local

I was talking with my wife today about getting local with our grocery shopping...she pointed out that Newport Market is the cheapest around, if you walk or ride your bike.

Good point. True, you do pay a bit more there, but for some things, you do not pay any more than you would elsewhere. You do get better quality for the most part. What you certainly get is better service, especially in the wine and meat departments. I hope to leverage my law degree into a job at Newport selling wine. It could happen.

It is no longer feasible to drive down to Fred Meyer's to shop their better prices. The gas is killing us (us=people in general). But for those of us who did not buy into the southern deschutes sprawl that is, say, River Rim, we are better off eschewing the car and riding down to Newport or Devores, paying a bit more per item, and burning no gas.

Is that commuting? Hell yes. The wisdom of alternative transport does not start and end with the work day.

Look at the recent article on the bulletin's site about the development program for the Bactchelor parking lot. Nowhere did anyone talk about alternative transport for the roadway engineering. Interesting.

If we can get 5% of us on bikes, maybe 6%, you will see a decrease in roadway traffic. That also means less risk. As my wife pointed out, not driving to Fred Meyer's means less of everything, gas, risk, hassle, headache...

I found an interesting video at http://www.celsias.com/2007/05/15/designing-cities-for-people/ ...scroll to the bottom. The f word is used 4-5 times, so keep your volume under control.

OK...enough random thoughts for now. Have a great weekend.

Get out there and ride...there is no someday.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

yes, but how can I help?

Below is an email I sent to a friend who was thinking of converting his Cannondale mtb to a commuter. He lives in Hillsboro and commutes 8 miles round trip. He asked me to put together some wisdom on outfitting for commuting in the rain...something I have a little experience with. Edited for anonymity...
*********************************

Start now. In spite of the rain, soldier on.

Bike – yer Cannondale is fine for it, but switch to slicks, anywhere from 15-25 per tire.
Get some fenders, another 25
Get a tune up, 35-65
Maybe a new chain will be needed? 35-60 depending on level of quality
You have a rear rack? If not, 15-25
Weather proof panniers – I say, go big and get top of the line gear. Well, I would say that about anything you get, but especially for something you want to be weatherproof. Look at http://www.jandd.com/ for top-notch panniers. Anything that goes on a rear rack and looks like a dry bag, ought to do well.
Messenger bag – Same site, http://www.jandd.com/ for messenger bags. That is where mine is from. Never regretted getting that model (largest size).
Lights – MARS Blackburn, LEDs, rear 5 reds with 2 yellow side markers…I actually ride with two of these on my Commuter. Headlight, I have two four-LED whites mounted on my commuter.
Batteries – get rechargeable AAs and AAAs for your lights.
Headlamp – either wear on your helmet front with clear LED cover, or wear on your helmet rear, with red LED cover.
Pedals – get some simple pedals to go with your cycling shoes
Pumps – get a floor pump, a two hander, for the garage if you do not have one already, and get a small hand pump to attach to your bike
Under seat bag – put yer tools and your spare tubes (always 2) and your tire removal kit in here

Clothes – Take yer work clothes in your panniers
Cycling Pants- Spend some money on good gear. I have pants from http://www.nau.com/, they work like champs
Cycling Jacket – jacket is from http://www.craftusa.com/ and worth the extra coin.
Gloves – get some winter gloves when it is butt-arse cold, otherwise, simple riding gloves will do
Helmet cover- for rain, I use the shower caps from hotel rooms…free, elastic rimmed, they work awesome…on warm days, even if raining, forget it, because your helmet will not breath
Riding cap – get a thin, slim head cover to wear under your helmet to retain heat
Cycling shoes – something simple that you can wear into a store while on the commute home…three Velcro strap style
Waterproof booties – wear these over your socks...keeps your feet dry, even if your cycling shoes are soaked. Put these on, then step into your cycling pants, then put your shoes on.
Lock – I use a small, Kryptonite U-Lock designed for motorcycles, along with their 7 foot, thick braid, cable lock with loops on both ends. Get both tires looped through with this thing, and through the frame and no one will mess
Helmet - more vents the better, spend no more than 50
Reflective stickers – buy some and stick them on your fenders for more vis

Maybe your riding jacket should be fluorescent yellow for high vis?
Get a bell to put on your handle-bars.

Looks like a lot, and it is, and will cost cash. But, you should be able to get you a lot off of craigs list or ebay. The nice thing is that once you buy an item, that is it. You do not do a lot of spending all the time, as you would for a car.

My wife usually gets me whatever I want (off ebay, etc.), because I save so much by not owning a car.

Give it a week or two, and you will never look back. Soon, you will be riding everywhere for every errand and feeling righteous the entire time…and you should.

Now get after it…

Thursday, January 31, 2008

rain rain rain

Wow, I have been focusing on law school and time simply flies.

I have nothing really important to blog about. It is raining like crazy and hovering just above freezing...has been all week.

Just to mention, I have been spending time on www.bikeportland.org, watching the posts and keeping up on the issues. Most of the people on the site just like to post vitriolic comments, showing how "smart" they are. Bah.

If they spent half of their energy advocating for their position at council meetings or congressional representatives' town hall meetings, they would do more good. Could this be representative of society? we are too lazy to do the work and simply want to post from the luxury of our offices? I expect better from bike-commuters, since they are not afraid to get out and brave traffic.

Friday, September 21, 2007

name caller

My friend read this blog and jokingly called me a commie. Whatever that means.

I am not advocating for the redistribution of wealth or resources. I am advocating for changing the way we think.

We are one of the most advanced, educated, free-thinking countries in the world...and yet we are shackled to a way of life that is choking us.

While one might agree in the abstract that we need to do something, that same person will get into an SUV that seats seven...to drive to work alone. How hard is it to see the foolishness of this behavior? Are citizens that blind to what is happening?

This is a war we are in and there are those of us who are not living like my grandparents did through WWII. They conserved, made changes, tried to go farther with less.

This war, we consume, drive more, buy and consume more. That defies logic.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

two a day

Still not convinced you should convert to pedal power for your commute?

You could spend less on an outfit to bike-commute than you spend in one month on your car. (assuming you have a car payment)

There is no someday.

bad, getting worse

And Bend is not immune to this phenom...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/18/traffic.congestion.ap/index.html

Cooley and 97 is already bad. Juniper _will_ make it worse.

The state wants to spend money changing 97 into an expressway south of Madras to California, making all interchanges below highway grade. That makes perfect sense. Take that truck traffic and make it more fluid, unfettered by cities like Redmond, LaPine, Bend, etc. or dumb intersections like China Hat has been or like the Sunriver T has been.

What is interesting about the cnn article, acknowledging that it is cnn, is the lack of planning to get fewer people driving and/or getting more bodies into cars. Of course, no one mentions bikes.

There just seems to be a lot of head scratching going on. Gee, we had no idea that more cars would be on the roads, would mean more time in the car commuting. Could better planning have mitigated this issue before it happened? Or simply staved off the inevitable? I think it was inevitable. We are bound to buy more, consume more, use more, because we are Americans. I am about to compare us to Europe...be ready or stop reading now...In Europe, most people do not own cars. Most people do not own large, gas-guzzling cars. Housing and building is centered around the urban center, not sprawling across miles landscape. They tend to build up, not out. Smaller houses (versus 2600 square feet for two people). Now, do not get me wrong, I live in Bend/Salem, not Amsterdam; I bought into this just like you, true believer. I love Bend, living in Bend, but thank some one's god that I ride to work, instead of contributing to this problem. I do contribute to other problems, like wine consumption and love of the 80's.

See that waste the article quantifies? We as a people, as a culture, as a belief system, NEED to move ourselves away from what has defined us as consumers, guzzlers, abusers of resources. As in Fight Club, you are not the car you drive...the things you own, start to own you.

Bikes, not Bush.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

brain bucket

I asked a class-mate how much he was spending on his law school education...over 100k...I then asked him if a $30 helmet was a worthy insurance policy for his bike rides to school.

He laughed...but did not answer...or maybe he did.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

telfer driving to salem

Chris Telfer, genius CPA from Bend City Council (and purveyor of wrong mileage info during the TDC Century ride) is thinking of running for state senate... http://www.ktvz.com/global/story.asp?s=7028883

Based solely on this article, I formed the conclusion that she drives a car and does not think in terms of alternative transportation. From the quick read, she is concerned with improving roads, presumably for vehicular traffic.

She has been a council member in Bend for two terms now, according to the article. According to the years I have lived there, I do not recall a time she touted anything other than pro-growth. And not even smart-growth, what I like to call dumb growth. How long did it take the city to put a fixed route system in place? How hard can it be to find the money (she _is_ a CPA) and then go spend the money? Now she will bring the pork back to Bend.

In a related news piece, http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070905/BIZ0102/709050359/1011&nav_category=

a few of the area's tourism heavyweights weigh in on the need for a better transport system, preferably one funded by the business community and/or the city. Because they cannot make money fast enough. Should the taxpayers foot the bill, so they can bring 1200+ ski groups to Mt. Bachelor? I know, I know, the money they spend while skiing all weekend, goes to local businesses, like Merenda, Bellatazza, and various gas stations. Oh and hotels. Those entities employ locals (even Bend locals occasionally). Just seems a little self serving.

A better bus system would be great. Even one that has buses that run, that are not parked permanently near a cemetery. Could they spend more money on roads to enhance cycling? Could they sidewalk Bend streets with that money? Ride down Newport, 14th, Century, various side streets...where are the sidewalks? Some streets are still gravel. What year is this?

This is the rambling I produce on Wednesdays, when I only have two classes.

Maybe Telfer would be a welcome breath of fiscal responsibility in Salem someday. But only if she gets the pork brought home, baby.

Monday, August 27, 2007

there is no someday

My wife bought me this righteous shirt at her home-town's bike shop. Nothing fancy on the front, but on the back it reads:
*****
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday

See? There is no "Someday" so get out there and ride.
*****

That is logic that even my five-year-old daughter can understand. If it is still unclear, email me and I will get you an answer someday.

Word.