Subject:     Austin Bike News 6-30-00
Date:        6/30/00 7:17 AM
Received:    6/30/00 7:22 AM
From:        Michael Bluejay, bluejay@mail.com
To:          austin-bike-news@topica.com

>#####################################################################
     /__/   ==       
      /_____/       AUSTIN BIKE NEWS
  ___/ \  _/ \___   covering bikes as alternative transportation
 /  /\  \/___/\  \ 
 \___/   &   \___/  Michael Bluejay, editor  *  bluejay@mail.com

  http://michaelbluejay.com/bicycle                     June 30, 2000
>#####################################################################

      >> [See the very end for how to subscribe/unsubscribe.]


 W E ' R E   H E R E ,  W E   S T E E R ,  G E T   U S E D   T O   I T
>#####################################################################
>###  FROM THE EDITOR:  New Name the Domain contest; last wk's winners
 ###
>###  UPDATES:  Hearing on Shoal Creek bike lane parking ban MOVED
 ###   
>###  WEBSITE:  New search engine for Austin Bike News
 ###   
>###  NATIONAL:  Naked bicyclists protest against sweatshops
 ###
>###  LEADING BY EXAMPLE:  Mainstream article about living car-free
 ###   
>###     BOOKS:  Divorce your car!
 ###   
>###  CLASSIFIEDS:   Used bikes for sale
 ###   
>#####################################################################


======================================================================
>FROM THE EDITOR:  New "Name the Domain" contest; last week's winners
----------------------------------------------------------------------

>- - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>>>"NAME THE DOMAIN" CONTEST -- $50 PRIZE

The Bicycling in Austin website will get its own domain name soon, and 
move off of michaelbluejay.com/bicycle.  And YOU get to help choose 
the domain name!  Not only that, but one lucky winner will be drawn 
from everyone who votes to receive a $50 gift certificate at the 
bicycle shop of his/her choice.  (In our last contest, only 12 people 
entered, so your odds are very good.)  Email me your top choice from 
the following list:


>BikeAustin.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  PRO:  Shortest, fewest syllables, simple.


>BicycleAustin.info
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  PRO: "Bicycle" garners more respect than "bike" (and we ARE trying
        to influence public opinion, not just serve as a resource
        for hobbyists)

>BicyclingInAustin.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  PRO: Matches the name of the website. (On the other hand, the name
        of the website could be changed, too.)

>AustinBikeNews.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  PRO: Simple and easy.  Matches the newsletter name.
  CON: Misleading, since "news" is only a tiny fraction of what the
        site covers. Most of the site is reference-based, while this
        newsletter is where you get the actual news.

Email me your preference by Wednesday night, 7/5, 11:00pm.  Only 
subscribers to this newsletter (at the time this newsletter was 
published) are eligible.  Remember, only 12 people entered last time.
By the way, you don't have to vote in the majority to win; ALL voters
are eligible to win, regardless of which domain name they vote for.


--------------------
>LAST WEEK'S WINNERS

Readers selected "Austin Bike News" as the name for this newsletter.  
These people won a free red blinky bike light:

   JERRY CHAMKIS   *  MICHAEL BOGOMOLNY  *  STEVEN MOORE

Winners, please send me your address and I'll get your lights out to 
you.


======================================================================
> UPDATE:  Hearing on parking ban in Shoal Creek bike lanes has MOVED 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Last time we told you about the proposed ban on car parking in Shoal 
Creek bike lanes.  Cyclists are needed to go to the public hearing and
politely tell the City that this is a good idea.  Please note that the 
location for the hearing has changed.  The hearing will be held:

  on July 5th, 6:00pm,
  at 721 Barton Springs Road, Room 130

For more information, please see:

  http://www.austin.quik.com/canfield/scbl



======================================================================
> WEBSITE:  New search engine for Austin Bike News 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Back issues of Austin Bike News are now searchable with our new search 
engine.  To search through back issues, go to:

 http://michaelbluejay.com/bicycle/newsletters/SEARCH-BACK-ISSUES.html

Each "hit" is an entire newsletter.  Obviously the search engine would 
be more useful if each news article were saved as a separate document. 
This would be a few hours of work...  Any volunteers?


======================================================================
> NATIONAL:  Naked college bicyclists protest against sweatshops;
>             A bicycle manufacturer is implicated
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Regular readers of this newsletter know that we like to cover the
curious intersection of bicycling and nudity.  Here's another example.
As part of "Sweatshop Awareness Week", a dozen naked cyclists 
reportedly circled the Quad at New York's Syracuse university to 
protest the university's dealings with notorious footwear producer 
Nike.  (Nike's CEO was profiled in Michael Moore's book "Downsize 
This!", and in his movie, "The Big One.")

The issue of worker exploitation has become a growing cause on college 
campuses following numerous reports of human rights abuses in third 
world countries.  Here in Austin, UT students have held regular 
protests at The Gap on the Drag.  But while we support naked cycling 
and oppose sweatshops, it's unclear how bicycling without clothes 
constitutes a meaningful denouncement of human rights abuses.  (What's 
next?  "Mowing lawns for Jesus"?)  Also, in a supreme bit of irony, 
the world's largest bicycle maker, Huffy, has itself been accused by 
activists of human rights violations in its Asian factories.  Check 
out the alleged working conditions for Chinese workers making Huffy 
bicycles:

  http://www.nlcnet.org/report00/huffybikesdoc.htm

Incidentally, Huffy's stock price over the last month has been at an
all-time low, lower than at any other time since the company joined
the stock market in 1987.  Here's a dramatic chart:

  http://quote.yahoo.com/q?s=HUF&d=my

[The Syracuse info is from the Summer 2000 edition of a quasi-nudist 
 magazine called "Naturally", which credits UPI without a date.]


======================================================================
> Mainstream article about living car-free           Chicago Sun-Times
----------------------------------------------------------------------
'Car-free' don't miss the worry of wheels
   by Gary Wisby, Chicago Sun-Times, June 29, 2000
     http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/car29.html

Sick of high gasoline prices? You could write your congressman, move 
to Indiana or Wisconsin or trade in that 18-mpg Ford Explorer for a 
61-mpg Honda Insight.

Or you could just quit driving.

That's what Wrigleyville resident Danielle Maillette, 29, did three 
years ago--"three of the happiest years of my life," she said.  "I'm 
far less hostile now that I don't drive.  And I never have to worry 
about how much gas costs."

Ask people why they don't have wheels, and they tell you it's the 
economy, stupid. Or the environment.  Or a simpler --and safer--
lifestyle.  A sobering statistic from Katie Alvord's new book, 
"Divorce Your Car":  More than 30 million people have died in crashes 
since cars debuted a century ago.  Alvord went "carless" in 1992 when 
she was living in rural northern California, working from her home as 
a free-lance writer.  Two years later, and married, she moved to 
Michigan's Upper Peninsula. There, because of the weather, she is 
"car-light."

She and her husband drive about once a week in winter and once a month 
in summer, mainly for long trips.  "I got snow tires for my bike," 
Alvord said.

Her book lists Chicago as one of 15 good places in North America that 
are friendly to non-drivers.  Alvord cited the city's good transit, a 
mayor who bikes, lots of bicycle racks--perhaps more than any other 
city--and the big influence of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.

She also praised two programs of the Center for Neighborhood 
Technology.  One offers cut-rate "location-efficient mortgages" to 
borrowers who buy in densely populated areas served by mass transit. 
Center officials are seeing about one closing a week under the 
month-old program, which recognizes that people without car expenses 
have more money to put into a home.

By year's end the center plans to set up its first car-sharing effort, 
aimed at similar city areas.  Members living within a five-minute walk 
of one another will pay hourly and per-mile rates to drive one of a 
fleet of autos.

Bob Palmer, 32, lives in Logan Square and walks or rides public 
transportation to his job in Bucktown.  He's never owned a car because 
"it simplifies the way I live my life."  Without a car, Palmer has to 
figure waiting time for trains and buses into his schedule.  "On the 
other hand," he said, "when I go downtown or to the lakefront, I don't 
have to worry about parking."

Megan Lewis, who lives in Uptown, said she doesn't drive because
"I don't want to contribute to the impacts a car brings to the 
city--primarily emissions and congestion and noise."  Grocery shopping 
finds Lewis, 32, on foot, loading up her backpack and hefting a bag in 
either hand.  "I have a tendency to not overshop," she said.

***

Cut your driving with Circle Game

1. Find your neighborhood on the map and place the point of a divider 
compass on the approximate location of your home.

2. Draw a circle with a two-mile radius.

3. Find and mark the places you regularly visit. Include workplace, 
grocery store, parks, library, movie theaters, video store, bank, gym, 
school, place of worship and any other place you visit at least once 
every two weeks.

4. Which places are inside the circle? Pick one and commit to walking, 
cycling or taking public transit to it every time you go. Repeat every 
week or so until you're not driving to any spot in the circle.

5. See how many places outside the circle, such as a grocery store, 
you can replace with a closer alternative.

         Source: John Schubert, in "Divorce Your Car" by Katie Alvord 


======================================================================
> BOOKS:  Divorce Your Car!             (from the publisher's website) 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
DIVORCE YOUR CAR! (and live happily ever after)
 by Katie Alvord. 2000. New Society Publishers. 320pp

Our romance with cars, begun with enthusiasm more than 100 years ago, 
has in fact become a very troubled entanglement. Today's relationship 
with the automobile inflicts upon us pollution, noise, congestion, 
sprawl, big expenses, injury, and even death. Yet we continue to live 
with cars at a growing cost to ourselves and the environment. 
Ê
What can people do about this souring affair? Divorce your car! 
Re-meet your feet, board a bike, take a train, pull out of this 
dysfunctional relationship with the automobile! Divorcing your car can 
take many forms, from simply using it less to not owning one at all. 
This practical guide shows how divorcing a car can be fun, healthy, 
money-saving, and helpful to the planet in the process. 
Ê
Most other transportation reform books emphasize long-range political 
and economic policy. Divorce Your Car! speaks less about policy and 
more about realistic actions that individuals can take now to reduce 
their car-dependence. It encourages readers to change their own 
driving behavior without waiting for broader social change, stressing 
that individual action can drive social change. 
Ê
Car dependency is a serious problem, but Divorce Your Car! is leavened 
with love-affair and self-help analogies in the text as well as 
cartoon illustrations. From commuters crazed by congestion and soccer 
moms sick of chauffeuring, to environmentalists looking for auto 
alternatives, Divorce Your Car! provides all the reasons not to drive
and the many alternative ways we can all get around without our cars.

  ORDER A COPY:  http://michaelbluejay.com/bicycle/books



======================================================================
> CLASSIFIEDS:  Used bikes for sale
----------------------------------------------------------------------

>> DIAMONDBACK MT. BIKE, $300.  Recently overhauled, excellent shape,
>> excellent for both on- and off-road.  Curt_Lansing@Dell.com  (6-30)


CLASSIFIED POLICY:  Ads from individuals are FREE and run for four
  months or until you tell me to remove it.  Commercial ads are $10.
  Four lines max. for either.


======================================================================
>PUBLICATION / SUBSCRIPTION INFO               Michael Bluejay, editor
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
>>     http://michaelbluejay.com/bicycle              bluejay@mail.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Back issues are available on the Biking in Austin website.

Biking in Austin is published one to four times a month.  You're
getting this newsletter because you either asked for it, or you
joined the austin-bikes discussion list.  (As advertised, joining the
discussion list gets you an automatic subscription to this newsletter.)

>UNSUB: If you no longer want the newsletter, send a blank email to:

   austin-bike-news-unsubscribe@topica.com

>If someone forwarded you this newsletter and you want your own 
>subscription, send a blank email to:

   austin-bike-news-subscribe@topica.com

Articles are by me if uncredited.  Articles by others may have been 
edited for grammar, clarity, conciseness, superstition, or just for 
the hell of it.

Before writing with questions, please check the Biking in Austin 
website to see if your question is answered there.  Here are some 
useful links:

  Bike Safety...........   michaelbluejay.com/bicycle/safety.html
  Back Issues...........   michaelbluejay.com/bicycle/newsletters
  Traffic Laws..........   michaelbluejay.com/bicycle/laws.html
  No Justice for Cyclists  michaelbluejay.com/bicycle/justice
  Calendar..............   michaelbluejay.com/bicycle/calendar.html
  City's Bicycle Program.  www.ci.austin.tx.us/bicycle
  Tracking License Plates  www.publicdata.com

Now that we have a search engine for back issues on the website,
we're no longer maintaining a separate web page of all the URL 
links which appear in newsletter articles.

We currently have 562 subscribers.  Previous circulation numbers were
slightly off, because I forgot to subtract subscribers whose addresses
are bouncing and no longer valid.

> Thanks for reading this far.  Ride safely! :)  -MBJ-

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