Unconventional Sources

I admit it. I love the bicycles by Madsen, because they’re pretty. I love the lines of them, and the colors seem nice… wait a minute. The colors of the web site are nice, and the people riding on the bicycles are pretty, but what about the bikes?

The bicycles are pretty expensive actually, ranging from 1,000 dollars on up. Of course, these bicycles include the trailer parts, built in. Bicycle trailers are expensive in and of themselves, so maybe the Madsen bicycles aren’t so expensive.

But then, the Madsen bikes are awfully long, what with the built-in trailer portions, and that extra length doesn’t appear to be removable when one isn’t hauling kids or cargo. That’s kind of awkward.

I’m of two minds about these Madsen bicycles. Does anyone have any information that would sway me one way or another?

According to testimony given to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs today, we can expect the amount we drive to double by 2030 if current trends continue. That’s not bad for our free time. It’s bad for the environment as well, as pollution from transportation currently accounts for 28 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a portion that’s rapidly increasing.

Thankfully, there are organizations that are trying to reform American transportation, promoting increased efficiency, community redesign, and increased usage of efficient modes of transportation already available: Walking, bicycling and public transportation. Among these organizations is the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy – check ‘em out.

Last month, I wrote about Bikely, a web service that helps people share their preferred bicycling route through Google Maps. Today, I found out about a similar service, Map My Ride. Map My Ride uses MapQuest instead of Google Maps, which means that the interface isn’t quite as pretty, but it’s easier to find nearby businesses. It seems that there are many more routes on Map My Ride as well.

I am in love with Bikely. It’s a simple web site with a simple idea that makes life for bicyclists a lot more interesting.

Imagine Google Maps, but on a site dedicated to the sharing of good bike routes all around the world. That’s Bikely. I’m trying to plan a bicycling trip out of London right now, for example, but I really don’t know the roads. Bikely has been extremely helpful in my efforts.

The bike paths are shown on the maps, but show are the little points along the way, with directions and sites worthy of remark showing up as you progress from point a to point b.

The only trick – I can’t imagine actually navigating while on a bicycle in this way. How can a service like Bikely be integrated with on the road needs? Perhaps that’s where an iPhone would come in handy.

As the economy gets worse, what we do not need more of is posturing by the national leaders in photo opportunities like the G20 summit. What we do need are strategies for learning to get by with less. Whether it’s by Bush or by Obama, stimulus is clearly targeted to help big banks and corporations. The rest of us are just supposed to live off the trickle-down kibbles from the fat cats’ banquet.

Here’s one tip: Leave your car in the driveway – or even sell it. Instead of burning up expensive gasoline every day, try using your muscles to move. Walk. Bike. Heck, skateboard.

Remember, your legs are designed to enable you to move, not just to tap acceleration and brake pedals.

While you’re at it, visit the National Center for Biking and Walking, and keep up to date with their activities in helping people promote a stronger place for pedestrians and cyclists in American communities.

It’s not just for our human economy that we need to learn to move again. Our planet’s biosphere is becoming a dangerously filthy place to live in, thanks to the pollution that comes from fossil fuels.

Get back on your feet. It’s a better way.

It’s a small service, really, but blogger Paul Dorn is assembling information from other sources at Bike Commute Tips. It’s a bit heavy on the quotes from other news sources, in my opinion, but useful nonetheless.

What I can’t believe from there is the article on how easy winter bicycling can be – from a newspaper in Boulder, Colorado, where the air is so dry that there’s hardly ever much winter precipitation – easy for them to say. It comes with a photo of the difficult winter conditions they have to deal with in California – fog. Have mercy!

For a more realistic, if not less adventurous, perspective on the matter, go take a gander at the winter biking tips from IceBike. That’s more like it.

Something I’m starting to notice about bicycle commuting web sites: They’re mighty heavy on the ads – and not just ads either, but some maybe-not-so-ethical relationships with bicycle manufacturers as well.

Take as an example the Bike Commuters blog, which has some really good writing about bike activist events, but then they’ve got articles like a review of a bike by Dynamic Bicycles, which just so happens to have supplied the writer with a free sample. I don’t know if I can really trust that review. I’ll have to go elsewhere to find some other opinions that aren’t so gifty-biased.

I think I’ll try to read their articles on actually commuting, while ignoring the flashing ads and disregarding their product reviews.

I’ve given some rather half-heartedly enthusiastic recommendations about the bicycling sites I’ve found so far, because they’ve been about the recreational side of biking, rather than the practical, day-to-day way of a bicyclist’s life.

I’m happy to pass you on, therefore, to Commute By Bike. I’m particularly grateful for their Beginner Tips – because in a world like ours, where people regard driving a car as a more natural activity than even walking, it doesn’t hurt to have the car-free bicycling lifestyle spelled out in a very simple form.

Also, if you’re not prone to fits of despair, read their article on the 10 worst cities in which to commute by bicycle – but Washington D.C.? What about their Capital Crescent Trail?

A sad statement on the state of bicycling as a form of regular transportation is made over at California Bike Commute, which is sponsorinng the California Bike Commute Week this May (I’ll have a reminder again in a couple of months). The site advises that when you prepare to commute by bicycle,

“Inform your supervisor that you will be commuting by bicycle. Ask where the bicycle can be parked during working hours, and what, if any, advance arrangements need to be made.”

Think about the implications of this. How many businesses can you think of, outside of a place like Manhattan, that don’t have any place to park a car for customers and workers? Now, try to think of more than two or three businesses that do have bike racks, or other places for people to park their bikes when they come to work or shop.

Business owners can make a clear statement in support of sustainable transportation, and in support of worker health: Put a bike rack outside your front door.

Almost right away, I’m getting pulled away from my pursuit of everyday bicycling sources right into politics. I’ve discovered, with mixed feelings, the National Bike Summit.

It’s taking place March 10, 11 and 12 in Washington D.C., and it will be much, much more than just a bunch of bicyclists talking about how great it is to be bicyclists. The National Bike Summit is a serious conference that includes meetings between attendees and their U.S. representatives and senators to talk about new transportation policy that emphasizes an integrated role for bicycling as a real, important, sustainable way for Americans to get around. Some members of Congress, such as bike-pin wearing enthusiast Earl Blumenauer, will even be speaking at the conference.

And I have to say that I wish I could go, but the earlybird rate for attending is $455 – and you need to pay that by February 7th if you want that discount. That, plus the prospect of travelling hundreds of miles by bike in the not-so-hospitable month of March has me feeling more like staying at home.

Oh well. Maybe next year.