Posts from — May 2008

No, I’m not being catty. MPR reports that during the GOP Convention, 1,000 bicycles will be available for check-out from racks around both Minneapolis and St. Paul.

There are all sorts of interesting things to think about this.

• How does this fit in with the St. Paul Council’s refusal to extend bar hours to save residents the sight of “puking Republican lobbyists?”
• How many lost out-of-towners will be wandering about on bikes?
• Will these out-of-towners know bikes are available in advance, or will we see convention-clad people sans helmets on these bikes?
• Will these bikes be available to the massive number of expected protesters? I’d think the protest peeps would be more likely targets for bicycle use, somehow.

Me, I’m planning to be well away from the convention hijinks, as I survived the DNC 1996 and that was enough for at least 20 years. I’ll be up near Grand Marais somewhere, so I’ll rely on all y’all to let me know what sort of law enforcement is brought to bear on lost (drunk?) cyclists, or if the bikes even see use.

New: Article says program will leave behind the check-out mechanism (credit card swipe) and 70 bikes. This article also says that somehow, the bikes all come with helmets.

Me, I am grossed out by communal helmets. Ew.

1. No helmet on dude
2. No helmet on DAUGHTER
3. White visor always fashion faux pas
4. Midgrade 28c more than standard
5. Midgrade called “Silver”
6. Front tire low
7. Back tire flat
8. Seat too low
9. Cellphone use while riding
10. Flip flops

(Picture from Associated Press.)

We’re selling a Trek 7000 Mountain Bike in great condition.

• RockShox Judy fork
• Shimano rapidfire-style brake lever/shifters, bar ends
• Mixed mountain components with 27 speeds
• Time ATAC Carbon clipless pedals (but if you have your own pedals, we’ll knock $$ off the price)

$350/obo.

Update: We sold it. Someone else is now happy with their own Trek 7000, and we’re down to only 5 bikes in the garage pending the addition of… two more.

Minneapolis Council Member Cam Gordon has posted some great info on his blog about the KSTP ‘investigative report!!!!1!!!!!‘ of several days ago.

Included are bike-car crash data for the city of Minneapolis, which shows that the anecdotal percentage blame suggested by a police officer isn’t held up by the annual data (2006), and the observation that in ‘investigation’ of bicyclist behavior, the KSTP team themselves violated multiple traffic laws in their own right.

Hee hee!

Shamelessly stolen from Bicycle Retailer, a good source for this kind of thing:

This chart proves a few things I’ve been saying all along, one of which is that it’s fair to assume many cyclists are regular contributors into the general tax base of our state and nation. I wonder sometimes if the perception that we all aren’t is because everyone thinks bicycles are $80 at Target.

Following another cyclist-car collision in Chicago, a Chicago Tribune writer takes a surprisingly sane look at the rage that exists between bicyclists and motorists.

He even gets quotes from psychologists and people like Bob Mionske:

“If every cyclist obeyed every single traffic law, I don’t think the [Internet] comment boards would change that much,” says Bob Mionske, former Olympic cyclist turned attorney and cycling advocate. “Drivers ask, ‘Why are they in my way?’ I think that in some of the more general ways, it’s competition for a limited resource: the roadway.”

Sadly, he’s likely right. Still, it’s easy to find misbehaving users of roadways in general - cyclists, vehicles, bus drivers, even jaywalking pedestrians. I’m sure we’ve encountered every one of ‘em.

The question is, does encountering one, or even several, of these cause you to assume that all of them are outlaws? I’d bet that in most cases, it’s NOT universal. You’re more likely to assume that of specific groups. There’s a group identification.

Better roadway design is probably a start. Traffic calming measures have worked in Europe. They’re also used to high gas pricing there, which helps create some sanity in vehicle choice and use. In Minnesota, I wonder if some of the recent hue and cry is due to the recent gas tax upgrade (2 cents a gallon!) coinciding with gas price hysteria. The increase isn’t just the tax - the tax is a small amount of it all. But it’s hard to say who understands that.