Contents From the Editor . Regional Texas: Bicyclists to be driven
off the road by
redistricting. General Classifieds Car-Free World, a publication of and
©2003 by BicycleAustin.info,
covers alternative transportation, especially
bicycling. We're not opposed
to cars, we're opposed
to the car culture.
CFW is published sporadically, and may be
discontinued at any time without notice. We
currently have over 700 subscribers. Here are links
to subscribe
or unsubscribe. Articles are by the editor if uncredited.
Articles by others may have been edited for
grammar, clarity, conciseness, superstition, or
just for the hell of it.
|
The most common question I get from people interested in the trikes is, "How long do think you'll have some left?" Folks, if everyone who asked me that had already got one we'd be nearly sold out a long time ago. I figure they'll be all gone in one or two months tops, but I will not make any guarantees. If you miss getting a trike, it's not my fault. :) For more info check out our trike sales page. And one last thing -- if you happen to see a genuine Worksman trike anywhere for less, I'd like to know about it! :) |
|
Regional
News AUSTIN: Death of the local bike movement? Ten years ago, there was no practically no bicycle movement in Austin. There was no Critical Mass, no city Bicycle Program office, no radio show, no Yellow Bike Project, no Bicycle Month celebration,and no website. Then suddenly, within four years, we had all those things. Each new milestone and project seemed to spawn another. And now things seem to be dying down again. Reportedly only three people showed up for the last Critical Mass ride. And this May is the first time in years that a Bike Month program hasn't been actively planned and carried out. Why did this happen? Well, it's common for activists to move on. (For me, faced with the need to earn an income I've limited my activities to maintaining the website and publishing this newsletter. Others have limited their activities or dropped out altogether.) But usually those who move on in some movement are replaced by a new, often younger, more enthusiastic crowd. It just didn't happen in this case. Things aren't completely dead, of course, but it's nothing like the glory days of the mid-90's. And there's no reason it can't happen again, if some committed people decide to throw themselves into it. Below, Eric Anderson shares his frustration with the fact that the community failed to put on a Bike Month this year. To my knowledge there will be no Bike Month Full Moon Bike Ride. In fact, there will likely not be any Bike Month events this year other than a probable Wheatsville Bike Swap (date unknown) and the Political Pedal ride.
San Antonio: Thong-wearing cyclist annoys park-goers Readers of this newsletter know of my interest in that strange intersection of bicycling and nudity. Here's another case of those concepts colliding, courtesy of the San Antonio Express news:
Texas: Bicyclists to be driven off the road by redistricting It's an old political game: Politicians redraw the district maps to secure their power. If Party A is in power and Party B has a large base of support in a certain area, then Party B draws a line right through the middle of it when redistricting to break it up. Presto: The supporters of Party B in that area have now been divided into two separate districts, diluting their voting power. That's what the Republicans are doing right now in the Texas Congress. Austin's U.S. representative, Democrat Lloyd Doggett, may soon be out of a job. That's too bad, because Doggett has been a strong supporter of bikes, riding with cyclists on the Political Pedal rides, and even riding his bike to work at the Capitol in Washington. And the Texas legislators about to redistrict him into oblivion are those like Republican Senator Jeff Wentworth, the subject of an ethics investigation, who in the last session introduced a bill that would have banned cyclists from the roads in certain conditions and which would have required cyclists to wear slow-moving emblem triangles. (The bill died in committee, thankfully.) (Read an article about the redistricting mess)
NEW YORK: Bike Loop around Manhattan From the New York Times: "In its modest way, it has been a quest as irrepressible as sailing a ship around the globe. New York's Magellans on bicycles have long yearned to complete a loop of Manhattan Island. The chief obstacle has always been that Manhattan's shores, unlike those, say, of Paris, were designed for commerce and commuting, and only in a few patches for pleasure. But slowly, the city has been hacking out a trail from the jungle of piers, railroad tracks, highway ramps, factories and scrap heaps that ring Manhattan. By this fall, the Department of Parks and Recreation hopes to carve out (or in parts mark out) a 32-mile circuit that will take bikers from the Battery up the West Side, past the George Washington Bridge almost to the northern tip of Manhattan, then down the Harlem and East Rivers and back to the Battery." (read whole article)
CHINA: What's it like to cycle in China? Riley Geary shares his experiences on the Chinese bicycle culture of a two-month trip there. He describes what kinds of bicycles the Chinese ride, how they ride in traffic, how they deal with repairs, and more. An interesting look at Chinese bike culture. Read the article at: Chinese Bicycles and the Cycling Experience.
General U.S. fuel economy hit its lowest point in 22 years. While it may be tempting to blame the big bad George W., that would be lazy: Bush is simply continuing the policies of the Clinton administration. Fuel economy improved under Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush Sr., and then came to a grinding halt with the Clinton presidency. It's also tempting to lay the rest of the blame on the automakers. But the fact is, they make more efficient cars, Americans just aren't buying them. Ultimately, the largest share of the blame must go to those buying and driving the inefficient cars: the citizenry. Here's a New York Times article on this topic.
National survey of bicycling and walking yields no surprises A new survey by the U.S. Department of Transportation finds that Americans don't walk or bicycle very much. Fewer than 30% of Americans ride a bike even once during the summer months. (read the article)
City, suburban designs could be bad for your health From USA Today: Why don't Americans walk anywhere?
Dealing with aggressive motorists advice from the email list Michael Zakes writes: When motorists honk or yell at me, I wave at them like they're my best friend that I haven't seen in years. The more they honk, the more I wave. if nothing else it confuses the hell out of them since they aren't getting the desired response of pissing me off. Lauren writes: That's a great tip, thanks. On Friday on my way home from work I got honked at for being on the road, so I grinned and waved happily. This morning on my way to work a passenger in the car passing me yelled out the window for me to get off the road and onto the sidewalk. Again, I smiled happily, yelled hello, and waved vigorously. Fred Meredith writes: If the motorist is still within earshot after they yell at you, then smile, wave, and shout, "Hey, say Hi to your cousin, I haven't seen (him or her) lately." It might drive them crazy trying to figure out who you are and how you know them.
Lance Armstrong pushes SUV's In a move that doesn't surprise us at all, sports cycling celebrity Lance Armstrong is getting $12 million to push Subarus, including SUV's. (read article) Are bike lanes always the answer? Bike advocate Tommy Eden is pushing for bike lanes to be striped on the major downtown streets of Guadalupe and Lavaca in Austin, Texas. Here at Car-Free World we like bike lanes, if for no other reason that we know that more people would ride bikes if there were more bike lanes. But these posts to a local email list show that even cyclists have some reservations about bike lanes -- both on these streets specifically, and in general. This is certainly food for thought for those advocating for bike facilities elsewhere. Questioning the safety of bicycle lanes by, May 1, 2003 You may FEEL safer, but it may be a false sense of security. The only thing that is going to actually make you safer on those streets is how you and the other road users behave.... If the bike lane is painted to the intersection, are you going to stay in it if you go straight across the intersection? What should the car turning at that intersection do? Should he/she come over into the bike lane to make the turn? Do they know that? Are you going to stay in the bike lane if it is right next to parked cars [any one of which could open its door in your path]? If cars are parked on the left side of a one-way street and there is a bike lane on the left side, are there special considerations you should keep in mind? Why is the bike lane any safer than being out in the middle of the traffic lane? There are lots of other lanes for the rest of the road users, why shouldn't you have one? If you feel unsafe in a traffic lane, then maybe you need more experience/practice/or something. Maybe less paranoia. Questioning the importance of bike lanes on Guadalupe & Lavaca by, April 30, 2003 [This is what Mike Dahmus submitted to the Austin City Council.] I'm a part-time cyclist and part-time driver who sits on the UTC with Tommy, and I respectfully disagree with his position on bicycle lanes downtown. Due to work and childcare issues, I won't be able to speak at the meeting. I believe the position I hold represents fairly well the perspective of the cyclists who operate outside the immediate center-city area, as well as the perspective of cyclists who also drive. I would wager that relatively few of those people will be able to speak at the meeting either; and thus, you may be getting a fairly non-representative sample of opinion. My bicycle route to work currently takes me down Guadalupe in the morning and up Lavaca in the evening; so I feel quite qualified to assess the route's usability compared to the suburban routes I've had to take to work at various times. More in-depth discussion why I think this is a bad idea was already posted to the austin-bikes list, and is available upon request; I have condensed to the essential minimum here: 1. The bicyclist in question (whose death is the impetus for this move) was riding on the sidewalk, even though he was supposedly an expert cyclist. We cannot protect cyclists who ought to know better from their own bad decisions. Additionally, this was at night; and he may not have had lights. 2. Guadalupe and Lavaca's automobile traffic is currently slow enough that most national bike facilities experts would not recommend even a wide outside lane as an appropriate bicycle facility, much less bike lanes. Traffic is held to a maximum of 25 mph (usually much slower) by signalization; which is a perfectly adequate speed for adult cycling in traffic. 3. Bike lanes on one-way streets with short blocks present additional problems with turning at intersections (not my contribution; but I think it's a valid issue). 4. Nearby parallel routes exist with very light automobile traffic (nearby meaning less than 3 blocks away). 5. Our city's bicycle funding and 'attention' should be spent where the biggest problems are - the outlying parts of the city of Austin (where parallel routes as in #4 are miles rather than blocks away). 6. More practically, it is a bad idea to push for a plan which results in the loss of a car lane or a parking lane downtown; this will result in backlash which could impact other, more worthy, bicycle projects in the future. As a cyclist and a driver, I ask you not to support a move which would install bicycle lanes on Guadalupe and Lavaca. Thanks for your time, Mike Dahmus Bikes
for Sale Free bike
ads
back to contents That's all, thanks for reading! |
||||||||||||||||
Adult
Trikes for sale
Easy
Street Recumbents