Test Ride

Trade your car for a bicycle? probably not, but it’s fun to commute some. Unless of course your commute involves chasing Sean back and forth across the Palouse. The intensity is a bit more than I customarily use but it’s better than time-trialing. At least I get some mileage as well as a high intensity workout.

Test Drive: Trading In The Car For A Bike

Published July 16, 2008 by CBS News
by Kelly Wallace

When I was assigned a story for tonight’s CBS Evening News with Katie Couric on bike commuting – how more Americans are getting to work on two wheels instead of four due to gas prices – I had a couple of questions. A few were serious, one somewhat vain. Who is really doing this? Could it be the start of a new trend? Is it safe? (Biking on New York City streets is not for the faint of heart!) Should I consider commuting by bike? And now to the superficial inquiry – what do you do about helmet head?

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Some cyclists are all about looking good. A mirror, oh, no. Geeky. Helmet, if I have to. Shaved legs, tiny or non-existent seat post bag. But for those of us who long since gave up any pretense of looking good, this may seem silly but the article offers some excellent tips for commuters who worry cycling may mess their coiffures and make them smell. Maybe you should read it. Corrie

Look Good on a Bicycle

Published July 8, 2008 by Men’s Style Examiner

With rising gas prices, this month’s Tour de France, and the fact that riding is just, well, stylish… most men decide to pedal their way to work at some point or another.

Even British clothier Paul Smith was once a cyclist. A good one. But a serious accident — and the subsequent meeting a certain woman — caused him to become a fashion designer. However, he never lost his love for cycling, even going so far as designing both a track (fixed-gear), and touring bicycle for Mercian (a hand-made English bicycle company).

You see, there’s a fascination between men’s style and transportation. From fast sports cars of today all the way back to the beginning of transportation, there’s been a distinct link between looking good and going fast. What started with the golden age of the Tour with their wool sweaters and cycling hats, has continued to this day, and for good reason: on a commute to work you can show off your style, tie waving in the breeze, trousers cuffed to show off your brilliant socks, and the speed to go with it.

So the question remains: How do you look good while riding to work?

Can you really bike faster than you drive?

In a car to bike fair race, no. But when has driving ever been fair. We all  know that if we hit the lights, we make better time. The bike just gives you a better chance of timing those lights.–Corrie

I’ve read different places that people can actually get to work quicker riding their bike than driving their car.  This doesn’t seem feasible to me, especially since my commute is twice as long when I ride.

So is it true that there are bike commuters out there that actually save time by riding instead of driving?  If so, how do they do it and how much time does it save them?

Read comments of bike commuters who try to beat driving time.

Safety Tips for Commuting

Q: What’s the best way to stay safe while biking to work?

A: Here’s an abbreviated version of some tips from Indiana State Health Commissioner Judy Monroe. The tips were distributed recently by the Indiana State Department of Health:

Read the Tips

Commuter Pack

Sometimes you need a little extra carrying capacity.–Corrie

or the past couple months the SealLine Urban Backpack has been my goto bag for commuting and trekking in general. The bag has gone through rain, pouring rain, very hot 100 degree days and a couple off road crashes. Still, it looks close to new, no damages to the water protect material and I think the “air bag” that it makes when closed saved me a couple times.

Read the review and see more pictures.

Major ‘car-free’ experiment in North Portland

Car-free may be going to far, I think. Bike-friendly as Portland, OR may be, I think it still rains there and when it rains my committment to commuting wanes.-Corrie

Major ‘car-free’ experiment in North Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. – North Portland residents were experiencing what it’s like to function without vehicles for a day while the city tries a car-free experiment.

Six miles of streets were closed off to vehicles on Sunday, June 22nd, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. as part of the event called ‘Sunday Parkways.’ The city and area residents have been planning the event since a year in advance.

When a stop light is a stop sign.

You probably hadn’t considered the difference. At a stop light you wait until the light changes, but at a stop sign you look and go. A bicycle should follow the same rules, right. Not in Idaho. The law allows cyclists to treat stop lights like stop signs which makes since in rural Idaho where there may not be any traffic at all despite the need for a light some of the time. What about a stop signe? Well, you know we roll through those all the time, first checking for traffic. And that’s legal in Idaho. Rules for a sparsely populated state? San Francisco, though is considering these rules. Read the article but don’t forget to read the comments below it.

The San Francisco Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) bicycle advisory committee (BAC) will consider a proposal for changing California law to allow bicyclists to treat stop signs as yields and red lights as stops. If the BAC likes the idea, they will forward the proposal on to the MTC which can eventually forward their suggestion to the California legislature.

Bicycle more popular than the automobile

17 reasons with links to supporting articles.

17 Reasons Why Bicycles Are the Most Popular Vehicle in the World Today

Bicycling it isn’t always easy. Busy streets, honking horns, and inadequate city funding for bike lanes and paths can make bicycling an uphill battle. However, with green in the news, the economy in a slump, and summer on its way, it’s getting easier to find reasons why there are some 1.4 billion bicycles and only about 400 million cars in the world today.

Read the reasons

The Switch to Bikes

Here’s another article suggesting gas prices are the motivation for cycling. They’re missing something. Perhpas gas prices will bring someone to the bike, but only the joy of riding will keep them on the bike.–Corrie

Reporters Change Lifestyle to dodge hefty gas prices!

(CNN) — As rising gas prices leave drivers with ever-heftier tabs at the pump, Americans have started looking for ways to reduce the drain on their budget. For some, transitioning away from a one-person, one-car lifestyle has proved rewarding.

Twenty-two-year-old Janaki Purushe bought her bike, which she rides to work every day, for $100.

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Janaki Purushe, a 22-year-old genetic researcher living in Rockville, Maryland, bikes just about everywhere she goes. “When I had the opportunity to finally plan my own life after I graduated college,” Purushe explains, “I took into consideration where I was going to shop, where my friends live, where my boyfriend lives, and I definitely tried to plan the location of my home around where I was going.”

Fewer Calories; Less filling?

Why do you ride that bike? The news is all about the gas prices forcing folks to commute by bicycle as though that were an inferior choice. I advocate bicycling ’cause the more aware drivers are of the presence of bicycles, the safer I feel. I ride my bike ’cause I like it, not ’cause the price of gas is so high. That’s just a nice excuse.–Corrie

Let’s coin a new bike-promoting word meaning ‘cheaper, but superior’