Google Maps ‘Bike There’

Mellow Johnny’s, Lance’s new bike shop to open soon in downtown Austin will be both, approximately two-thirds for racing, one-third for commuting.

Having any bike shop mention the word commuting in their marketing at all is a big deal—and a very good thing, in my opinion. Having such a marquee store doing it is an even bigger deal, and an even better thing.

That said, another part of me thinks that high-end bicycle racing gear and commuter/lifestyle gear do not necessarily go hand in hand in the retail space. With two very different cultures, they are about as close to inhabiting two different, parallel worlds as you could imagine.

Think fast food vs. slow food.

Racing vs. commuting.

Apples vs. oranges.

There’s nothing to read into with those analogies—racing is not better than commuting, nor is the opposite true. I’m just picking some non-controversial concepts to demonstrate what I think is the cultural difference between these two types of bike use.

That said, bike shops chains like Performance Bikes seem to be able to sell to all sorts of bike folks, from beginners to not-so-beginners. My last three bikes came from Performance: one hybrid, one single-speed, and a road (racing) bike. I had a good experience every time I bought from Performance, and I’ve often gone back for supplies. There’s definitely something to be said for chain stores; they’re big, and they probably have what you’re looking for if you’re just a regular biker. I’m not sure how much places like Performance appeal to hard-core bicycle racers, though. Any thoughts?

The awesome Momentum magazine has Lance on the cover this month. Be sure to check out what Lance and others have to say about the new store.

(Hopefully MJ’s will carry Momentum. I’m not really into most of the bike-related mags I see on the stand at bookstores, but for whatever reason, Momentum applies to my world. The everyday bike riders I see in their pictures are the people I actually see on the streets every day. They’re just like me. I want Momentum on the magazine racks in my town.)

The Charlotte Observer has a quick piece on the steady pace of business, and lack of the commuter infrastructure use, at Black Sheep Cycles:

One might think with gas prices at record highs, more people would turn to bicycles for their commute, especially urban-dwellers living near uptown.

Not so, says Ethan Grossman, who opened Black Sheep Cycles three years ago.

Grossman envisioned his store as a social club, where cyclists could relax and watch movies. Two plasma TVs hang in the 3,300-square-foot shop, nestled off West Morehead Street in west Charlotte.

He also bought an espresso machine, expecting to sell lattes and other coffee drinks. The store offers showers for commuters.

That part of the business never took off. So the front of his store sits unused, filled with bike tires, sofas and armless mannequins.

The proper reaction is not panic, but rather a willingness to learn and adapt as necessary, if necessary.

As a bike commuter and potential commuter bicycle buyer, I’m not particularly interested in shopping for my commuter bicycle at a high-end bike shop. That’s probably just me, but that’s the way I feel. For instance, if I am going in to buy a Honda Accord, I don’t necessary want to go into a shop whose floor space is two-thirds BMWs, with only a one-third left for my Accord. That’s the practical aspect of my preference. But the other aspect—the cultural aspect—is just as important, if not more so. I don’t want to buy a “boring” commuter bike from someone who would rather be selling high-end carbon frame racing bikes. My perception may or may not be accurate, and it may or may not be shared by anyone else in the whole world. But I suspect that most potential commuter buyers would rather go into a bike shop where they won’t fear getting lectured about the necessity of having clipless pedals (more on perception). This has a lot to do with marketing. Mellow Johnny’s seems to be doing good work, so far, in being welcoming to everyone—racers and commuters alike—but I wonder if just anyone could pull it off, or if it requires a personality/celebrity like Lance to pull it off. What do you think?

I’m also hoping Mellow Johnny’s can do some kind of lunch event, where they invite the tens of thousands of local office workers to come over and have a look around, ask questions about whatever they want, check out the facilities, and so forth. It’d be cool to have a nice video up on the website that basically does a walk-around of the store and especially of the shower/commuter facilities.

I’ve met and/or know of some of the folks involved with Mellow Johnny’s, and I’m more than convinced that they are exceptional people and have their bicycling hearts in the right places. I’m just not so crazy about that 1/3 share for commuters. Hey, I’m not hating; I just want more and better for commuters, who have a great chance to help reshape society for the better, and to have a very large impact right now. I have tremendous love for commuter/lifestyle cyclists.

For the record, I want to see a full-on commuter bicycle shop in downtown Austin and in downtowns everywhere. I think downtown Austin and other large cities could support several full-service bike shops. And I wouldn’t mind having the bicycle community reach out to area gyms to do some joint marketing. Maybe bicycle commuters could use the shower and laundry facilities at local gyms, which are already established in the downtown core areas. Individual riders already do it; we should formalize it and make it easier for folks.

Of course, I hope I’m wrong about a “racing shop” being not the best match for a “commuting shop” in terms of retailing. (And it would not be uncommon for me to be wrong, of course.) But I do want to think about the big questions and be ready to adapt if the time comes to do so.

My message to customers and potential customers alike? We’re growing both sides of the business aggressively, and if things go well we may have separate full-on facilities for both: one focused on commuter/lifestyle cycling, and the other for racing cycling.

Springtime is here, and business is booming. If ever there was a time to be optimistic and try new things, it’s now.

A couple more pre-opening pics of Mellow Johnny’s:

This issue has more to do with bicycle maps (probably), than it does with bicycle directions, per se, but it’s still an important point. Our petition is primarily about bicycle directions, not maps - but maps obviously play an important role.

Check out the following map comparison (click for a bigger version). On the left is a view of Austin from Google Maps with the blue and green bike lanes highlighted (it’s incomplete, and I didn’t do red bike lanes because I think red bike lanes are worthless, or worse). On the right is a clip out of the Austin Bicycle Route map, which is in PDF format. They’re not correctly aligned, but I did the best I could.

I started recreating the Austin Bicycle Route map - the PDF - on a Google Map using the ‘My Maps’ feature of Google Maps. I thought it’d be cool to try, and I was curious what it would look like. I have even used it a bit to find my way around, but there are several things wrong with it - one of them being that it can be difficult to make out the actual bicycle lanes on the google map.

To me, the map on the right - the PDF - is the better bicycle map. The main (only?) reason it is better is because you can actually see all the bike routes clearly. And the reason you can see all the routes clearly is because of the PDF map’s white background. Compare that to the Google Map which has the grey background. The Google Map version also uses more and deeper colors for roads (yellows) and green areas (green). Those are great for directions, but they’re not so great for showing bicycle routes on a map because they just make it that much harder to see the bicycle lanes.

Myself and other folks have tried, with some success, to automatically convert GIS data from the city of Austin, and other places, into/onto Google Maps. I think it would be really cool if we could pull this off and have it look awesome. Right now, we’re not there yet, but that’s a hope.

So, how does all this apply to bicycle directions as opposed to just bicycle maps? Well, bicycle directions, in an ideal and completely awesome world, would be able to tell us which parts of the directions were which type of bicycle route - ‘easy’ (green), ‘medium’ (blue), or ‘difficult’ (red). If we want to see this ‘nice-to-have’ feature as part of our bicycle directions on Google Maps, we’ll probably need a white backgrounded Google Maps interface.

…ps - Happy Bike Month!

Mellow Johnny’s is Lance’s new bike shop, about to open in downtown Austin.

In theory, some aspect of it will be commuter-focused, which, in my opinion, would be extremely cool, because I’ve never seen a bike shop cater to commuters - even a little bit. The store might have lockers and/or showers for commuters - we’ll know in about nine days.

The picture is from my cell phone - thus the low quality. It’s one of a couple signs up on the outside of the store.

Here is a embedded Google Street View of the store:
View Larger Map

Notice the garzagantuanishohmygoshthatthingishuge building going up right across the street from the store. That’s a pretty common sight in downtown Austin these days, as it is in lots of cities across America (San Diego, Portland, and Miami come to mind).

…The wiki page explains how the nickname ‘Mellow Johnny’ came about: (from ‘Maillot Jaune’, French for ‘Yellow jersey’).

…previous article in the local Austin paper.

There’s not one that I know of. Not yet, anyways.

The pictured logo is the special Google Earth Day logo. Pretty cool, huh?

Google has a long history of creating special holiday-themed logos–check them out.

Do we have any artists in the house who want to take a stab at a Google Bike Month logo? Or maybe develop a Bike-to-Work-Day logo?

Bikepooling is the practice of riding your bike in the company of at least one other cyclist. It is similar to carpooling, but usually each cyclist has their own bike.

Some of the advantages to bikepooling are different than the advantages of carpooling, but they both share at least one very important aspect: the company of others.

How does a bikepool even get started? Here’s an example from RocBike.com:

A few weeks ago, we were working together on a gender awareness workshop for Beyond the Binary. We both mentioned that we commute to work by bike, and realized that we live in the same neighborhood and work in the same direction. We also, unfortunately, had both faced motorist aggression on roads designed with cars, trucks, and buses in mind instead of bicycles. And so began our experiment in bikepooling — we meet up just about every morning for 25 minutes of commuting, conversation, and adventure.

Our experience has been fantastic. This morning we ate a small breakfast together in the convenience store parking lot where we meet. We said “Hi” to people as they walked by, and shared a smug conversation about automobile repair costs. We headed out on our bikes, riding side by side down a double lane road, while the conversation continued. A couple cars honked at us at an intersection without a shoulder, but shortly after that we were turning off the busy street onto a side street and through the Public Market. From then on, it was mostly easy riding, through the north side of downtown.

I like the “smug conversation” part. 

Why is this bikepooling thing even necessary? In that same post, the good folks from RocBike have given as good a definition as I’ve seen yet:

Carpooling attempts to mitigate the problems inherent with using automobiles—fuel costs, environmental impact, traffic congestion, and parking space; to name a few. Commuting by bike eliminates these problems altogether instead of merely reducing them, so at first glance bikepooling may seem unnecessary. But bikepooling shares carpooling’s benefit of social interaction and brings a whole other set of benefits to the table—increased visibility on the road, improved respect from other road users, and cooperative adventuring. If driving a car is a passive, rote task; and riding a bike is about actually living your life; then bikepooling is a way to share the daily adventure of bike commuting with someone, to learn how to be safe and fun together, to try new routes and get into the groove of familiar ones, to laugh and play together while being ambassadors for a safer, cleaner, happier city.

The previous post on Bicycle Highways made me think, “Huh. I wonder if it’d get lonely out there on those massive bike highways?” I figured, “Nah,” or, “I could deal with it,” or, “Sounds like a great problem to have!” But I also remembered the loneliness of my first couple of days on my bike trip from San Rafael to San Diego. (Zowie…700+ miles by the time I finished!) When I started out, everything was cool, but then the weather got rainy and cold, and I was tired (I never did more than 30 miles in one go) and lonely and very sunburned and I could hardly stand up straight because of a luggage-carrying back strain/thing I got just days earlier (which actually delayed my start date by three or four days). In short, I was in a bad way. And then my cell phone service went out (Big Sur has pluses and minuses). I thought I was gonna quit the trip.

And then I met up with another southbound cyclist, and it was really cool and fun from there on out. He was definitely a strange cat–he would say everything twice–he would say everything twice–but I’m a bit strange myself, so it all worked out.  :)  Anyone who’s been part of a cycling or running group knows that the camaraderie of other folks, and the expectation and hope that you’ll get to see other folks after you get out the door, is one of the prime motivating factors that allows you to get out of bed on those cold, dark winter days. Alone time can be great, but so can the community aspect of doing things together, even just commuting.

Here’s a special bikepool that happened in Long Beach yesterday. Going to the farmers market. Man, I could go for some fresh veggies right about now.

The BikePortland folks have an entire forum dedicated to bikepooling, and the sticky post at the top titled “Welcome to Carpooling” says this:

This forum is meant for people to connect, create and get advice on setting up bikepools in their neighborhoods.

Bikepooling is like carpooling. Portland cyclist Elly Blue started one up in her Southeast neighborhood. I wrote about it on BikePortland.org and someone suggested a forum where people could connect.

So here it is. But first, here are a few things to consider when posting your bikepool (suggested by Elly Blue):

A) Your bikepool announcement should include the following information:
–Starting point
–Starting time (specify a meeting time and/or departure time)
–General route (eg, over a particular bridge)
–Other important data, eg fast or slow, beginners welcome, etc.

B) Don’t ask if anyone’s interested in a certain route/time — just invite people. You have to go to work anyway, so if it’s a weird route and nobody shows up for the first week or two, well, what do you have to lose?

__________________
Jonathan Maus
BikePortland.org

And then there is the BikePooling.com website designed to help people organize their bikepools. It doesn’t seem to be doing a whole lot of traffic yet, but maybe we can help change that, no? And, they’ve only just gone live, so I’m sure things will be picking up, now. Like every good website, BikePooling.com has an RSS feed to help us easily keep track of what’s going on. Good work, y’all! It appears to be a bit buggy, but hopefully that will get worked out soon enough.

Semi-side note: The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, the Bike the Bridge Coalition, and the Bay Area Bike Coalition and others are all working on getting a bicycle route that spans then entire length of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (total length: 8.4 miles or 14km). This is not the famous Golden Gate Bridge, which already has bike/pedestrian access; this is the other Bay Area bridge. But the Bay Bridge is awesome. And being able to bike over it would be awesomer.  :)  If you were to bike it on a regular basis, you might want some company, so this is definitely a BikePooling-type bridge. It’s a worthwhile effort, so if you have some time, read through their websites and see how you might be able to help. San Francisco is a huge tourism town, of course, so even folks who don’t live there could have an influence by doing things like contacting the chamber of commerce and telling them you support such a plan.

I don’t have a regular commute in Austin yet, but I will be very interested to know about folks who are already bikepooling and anyone who decides to try it out, wherever they live.

One of the earliest groups (if not the earliest) talking about bikepooling was Bike Pittsburgh. Here is an article in the local newspaper about their efforts from two years ago.

I’ve previously mentioned the phrase “Now is the time” to emphasize my impression that we could possibly achieve a whole lot very quickly if we really went after things, as opposed to just sitting back and taking advantage of current economic conditions–namely, rising gas prices.

This post is a short thought to drive that point home and perhaps make it a bit more concrete.  :)  Many of us already do all that we can. Still, I think this is an important point to make.

Let me get to it.

The short version:

A little bit more work right now can save us a lot of work later.

Or:

A little bit more work right now could possibly turn the tide. It could it could help move us up to and over the tipping point (book), because right now, at this moment in time, the tipping point is closer than it’s ever been before–and it’s a temporary condition.

Certain political ideas (possibly with some roots in military and humanitarian affairs?) that have attained particular prominence over the past few years can be lumped under the banner of “crisis politics”. The key theme of these ideas is that when people are in a state of crisis, they just want a solution that works. It doesn’t have to be a good long-term solution; it has only to be a solution that is good enough to get them and their families to tomorrow.

People in the U.S. are not starving or anything (yet), yet they’re having to make cuts to all their discretionary spending. And rice rationing is already occurring at large retailers. People aren’t quite panicked yet, but there are folks who are looking around, thinking, “What is going on?” The article linked above states, “people will not give up their cars,” but they leave out the context for that assertion, which is that “riding a bicycle in most parts of America can be very daunting for the uninitiated.” We need to let people know that this situation can change very quickly.

I think someone (one of the national bicycle coalitions?) should put together a quick marketing campaign that we can implement on the local level. We need to have smart, soundbite-ish answers for helping transition people out of their cars and onto their bikes. We need to do a much better job of talking up the real economic benefits of dropping your car. We can go after two-car families first, and we can appeal to what people hate most: dropping $40 or more at the gas station every week. We need to get people’s attention and say this:

We know things are rough. And we think we can help. Really. You see, you probably think it’s only those people in spandex and teenage kids who ride bikes, but it’s not. More people are riding bikes every day. They ride their bikes to work, to school, to the grocery store, wherever. And check this out. Go buy a bike and ride it to work one day a week; each Friday, give your car the day off. (It’s usually a dress-down day, anyway. You’ll love it.) Do that for six months, and the bike and any gear you got with it have paid for themselves! And you just lost that ten pounds you’ve been trying to get rid of forever. Trust me. It will be the best decision of your life.

We should all tighten up our marketing message and when the media outlets come calling, we’ll be prepared. I’m afraid that we’ll be talking about global warming when most people will want to be reassured about the safety of riding their bike. Or that we’ll be talking about how evil cars are instead of how much money it’s possible to save by riding your bike. (And it’d be nice if we could put concrete figures and calculations to our claims and open them up for scrutiny). We need to have our 10-second, 30-second, and 2-minute elevator pitches ready. And we need to be consistent. What I’m arguing for is a bit of media savvy. I think it can make a big difference to any campaign.

An Austin area church did some marketing Sunday morning when it held church outside and guaranteed a price of $2.49 per gallon of gas at a local gas station. Pretty cool stuff. I’m not suggesting that us cyclists have the money to do something like that, but could we not be as creative? Could we band together and come up with a contest to convert one or three drivers to cyclists by, say, providing them with fully-equipped commuter bikes (rack, lights, etc.), a training class, a discounted car sharing membership, a bikepooling buddy for their first two months, and finding them a good, safe route from their home to their work? I think we could do it, and we could do it well. We’d have to be careful not to come off wrong (arrogant, conceited, or superior), since I suspect lots of drivers have negative impressions of cyclists and cycling. But I know we could do it and wind up with people falling in love with cyclists and cycling. Bike Month might be a great time for such a publicity stunt.

And here’s the thing: we’re not offering a temporary fix. This is not a one-day affair. We’re gonna get you into better shape financially and physically, and we will have helped you change your life for the better permanently.

Further, it’s not like we have to sell umbrellas in the middle of the Sahara. We are selling what might be the closest thing to the fountain of youth and prosperity that the world has ever known. Maybe that’s a little lofty, but still, you get the point. 

Some folks in Portland run the Breakfast on the Bridges fun. You really can’t call it a program because, to me, that label would not do it justice. The type of imagination and humanity embedded in events like this suggest a whole new way to think about your commute, your relationship to others, and your life. Yeah, you still have to get to the office, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could just hang out for a few minutes looking at some beautiful scenery and enjoying a coffee and a chat in the outdoors before you get to the office?

We should be bold enough to propose big ideas, participate in bold initiatives, etc. It is possible that a Level 5 effort over the next six months to a year could be more important than a Level 9 effort for the following five years. It is possible that you might just find out that there is political and popular support for an idea that would have been considered outrageous just six months ago (such as bike highways?). So, go ahead and propose it.

There’s also a word of warning, here. Lots of people are going to push for anything that lets them get to tomorrow, even if it’s a new 12-lane autos-only highway or some other monstrosity. There won’t be any logic or coherence to the arguments. Instead, any objections will be explained away by the people who stand to make boatloads of money from the projects. We need to be prepared to respond with proper rejections of unsound development, and be able to offer good alternatives.

That’s what I want for Austin and for every city and town in every country in the world. Having bicycle facilities that are separated from cars and trucks could help to increase bicycle use dramatically. How much, you ask? 500% in a year? 1000%? It’s possible. But we need the infrastructure.

What exactly is a “bicycle highway”? I can’t say I’m sure. I don’t even know if people really use the term. But in my mind, a bicycle highway is just that–a highway for bikes. Pretty simple. We have highways for cars and trucks, so why not create highways for bikes?

America, at least (and we have reports coming in on the McMansion/Suburban Sprawl-ization of developing countries like China), has suburbs that are pretty far away from urban work centers. Residents of these suburbs need a sustainable, future-proof way to get to work. Car-and-truck-only highways aren’t going to cut it. I’ve seen at least one study that says new highways reach capacity within five years of being built. To continue building new auto highways is to fight a losing battle. We need to do better, and we need to do something differently. Giving people a sustainable way to get to work is a great first step. People can and will bicycle ten or twenty miles to work each way. Just give them the facilities and watch it happen.

If cars can have incredible amounts of space and facilities and money and resources dedicated to them, why shouldn’t bicycles? Below is an artist’s rendition of what a bicycle highway system for Austin might look like:

This StreetFilms video talks about the importance of separated bicycle facilities:

I was reminded of bicycle highways when I found out about the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign and their tour of the Atlanta Beltline (video).

Austin will soon decide what types of rail lines it may ultimately implement. I’m all for mass transit, but I can’t say I feel particularly strongly about rail lines running at street level; I’d prefer if we started with bikeways (or greenways or bike highways–whatever you want to call them).

Then someone emailed and let me know about the Minneapolis Midtown Greenway (wiki).

Here in Austin we have the Lance Armstrong Bikeway project.

These are all steps in the right direction. I feel that 90%+ of all future funding for transportation should be spent on non-automobile infrastructure: bikeways, walkways, mass transit, and so forth. I don’t believe that spending any more money on car transportation can be justified. As I said yesterday, not one more dollar to car culture.

p.s. wow.

…looks like Toronto may be having a transit strike. So, they disallowed a bunch of on-street parking, are promoting car-pooling, and allowed for a couple of very small ‘bicycle highways’. Not sure what to say about that.

Helping extra-terrestrials get home since 1982:

E.T. will be proud of Google once they complete this feature request.

I’ve been meaning to post this forever, and now I’m a couple days late, but better late than never.

Spacing Toronto tells us about a cool petition–the petition is not a piece of paper, but a car!

The project was put together by a crew called Streets Are for People. This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long, long time. It goes to show the creative things people can come up with when they get together.

See? Cars aren’t completely useless.

Planetizen points us to an article in the International Herald Tribune about the disaster that is modern day traffic. This particular story describes São Paulo, Brazil (map) (wiki):

FIGHTS, SHOOTINGS

Local newspapers are littered with chronicles of shootings and fist fights over traffic disputes. Hold-ups in bottlenecks are common. And last month, a disgruntled commuter slashed the tires of a bus because it was full and was almost lynched by passengers before police intervened.

“It’s a nightmare. It’s getting to the point where I can’t take the stress anymore,” said Geralda Aparecida Mendes, a cleaning lady who takes three buses to work every day.

The traffic woes are also a drag on the economy. In a recent study, Sao Paulo state’s transportation secretariat estimated the gridlock costs the city’s economy at least 4.1 billion reais (1.2 billion pounds) a year in lost productivity.

It turns out that traffic is not just about smog and asthma and wasting time sitting in traffic and economic slowdowns and all that fun stuff–it’s also about violence and destruction of property and road rage and robbery and pushing people towards nervous breakdowns. In short, traffic is anti-human.

The people of São Paulo need to look at every conceivable option to mitigate these problems. My vote? Bike paths.

I would like to see some bang-for-the-buck studies on building bike lanes vs. building more/bigger auto roads/bridges/highways, but I can imagine that folks would love the thought of a peaceful ride into work instead of being packed like sardines into a bus or train.

I lived in Reston, Virginia (map) (wiki) for a bit (a western suburb of DC), and they have an awesome rail trail: the Washington & Old Dominion trail. It can take you from some of the nicest suburban towns on the west side of DC to just about into DC itself. It won’t quite get you all the way into downtown DC, but you could navigate your way in or jump on the Metro. When I lived there, the trail often seemed to get a decent bit of traffic (especially on weekends), but now with gas prices skyrocketing and traffic generally growing worse in every metro area in the country, I suspect this trail might be seeing more use than usual. If anyone would know about (bicycle) traffic on the trail these days, it’d be WABA or RBC. Point being, I’d like to see rail trails be an option for any city struggling with traffic problems. This might be an area for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

Every time I think of traffic and cities, I’m reminded of Buffalo, New York (map) (wiki)–the city best known for Buffalo Wings and benching Doug Flutie. I didn’t spend a lot of time there, but was there long enough to realize that driving around town (and back and forth to Niagara Falls and Orchard Park) wasn’t that difficult; there just didn’t seem to be a whole lot of traffic. It definitely made an big impact on me. I wonder if it’s still like that?

The Pedaling History Bicycle Museum is in Buffalo. The city seems to have a Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Board and some racing-oriented clubs, but I wasn’t able to find an advocacy-oriented group. Did I miss them?

They do have a bike lending-type program called Buffalo Blue, a pedicab company called The Buffalo Bike Taxi Co., and at least one intrepid bike commuter. SUNY-Buffalo does some biking stuff and UB Green seems to be involved a bit.

Sydney, Australia (map) (wiki) is working on dedicated bike paths and a full-blown integrated bicycle network with their Sustainable Sydney program. I can’t imagine how much more beautiful Sydney is going to be when they finish this project. The city is already unbearably nice in lots of areas.

The picture to the right comes from the SydneyCyclist.com forums, and it is part of a new media campaign by the City of Sydney. This particular poster focuses on safety, which happens to be the primary/initiating focus of this petition. The poster advertisement says:

What if you could safely ride your bike instead of your luck?

The reaction of one cyclist to that photo is pretty funny and, I think, indicative of what is going on:

OK, that’s it. Forget whatever I’ve said about Clover Moore in the past, Clover Moore for Premier I say
Wow, things are really happening. (thank God for the Climate Change movement).

The bold is the commenter’s original formatting, not mine. I think it’s fair to say that Clover Moore has won herself a new fan. The part I like best about this comment is the “Wow, things are really happening” statement. It’s true: things are definitely happening. Even the grizzled veterans are becoming convinced, it seems. I have no doubt that there was a tremendous amount of effort in Sydney by all sorts of people to get this initiative going. Congrats to them.

Some social research on cycling done by Sydney talks about “potential cyclists” and says:

Safety concerns, high levels of traffic and lack of cycling infrastructure are the current barriers to them cycling

In other words, “if you build it, they will come” (ref).

Bicycle NSW (NSW = the state of New South Wales) seems to be the main advocacy group in/around Sydney.

I also like the idea that bicycling seems to help different constituencies form natural coalitions. The Sydney commenter said–somewhat but not completely in jest–”thank God for the Climate Change movement.” I think this is important because it makes it crystal clear for us (if it wasn’t clear enough) that bicycle advocates and environmental advocates need to work together. It is actually possible to form coalitions of groups who have little-to-no interest in each other’s proposals and work, but in this particular situation, many of our goals are actually the same. Environmentalists and cycling advocates may have different reasons for wanting more/better bicycle infrastructure, but they share that same real goal.

Of course, everyone is busy, but there may still be very easy, low-cost ways to work together. An example?

Maybe leaders of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club and the Texas Bicycle Coalition could agree to a sit-down lunch (everyone’s got to eat, right?) once a month. And what would they do at this lunch? Talk about the things they’re trying to get done, learn from each other, and figure out if they can help each other.

Using these state-level organizations is just an example; any group can and should try to work with any other group.

Boston wants in on the bike lanes act, too. Thanks to the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition for the good work they’re doing up there.

Urbana-Champaign Bicycle Commute let us know about the 1,000,000 Bicyclists Campaign (website not live until May 1, 2008), via BikePortland.org.

Planetizen, our lead-off into this rambling post, is:

a public-interest information exchange provided by Urban Insight for the urban planning, design, and development community. It is a one-stop source for urban planning news, commentary, interviews, event coverage, book reviews, announcements, jobs, consultant listings, training, and more.

Go check ‘em out!

Finally, maybe the lesson of São Paulo is, “Don’t wait until it’s too late.”

[Website note: We pulled the Forums because they don't work with the latest version of WordPress (2.5)--the free software that runs this website. If folks think we could use some real forums, just holler, and we'll drop in something a bit more industrial strength. :)]

In my job hunting, I’ve been checking out a bunch of towns online - either for the first time, or to re-familiarizing myself with some place I may have lived previously. I used to live in Atlanta (wiki) a loooong time ago.

Atlanta is a good town, and I have some very good friends there. Home to such fan favorites as The Weather Channel, ‘the ATL’ (aka ‘Hotlanta’, ‘The City Too Busy to Hate’, ‘The Black Mecca’, ‘A-town’, etc.) was responsible for introducing me to R&B (Brian McKnight, 112, Usher, Dru Hill, etc.), and I’ll be forever grateful (”It’s 6 o’clock, 6 o’clock - time for Greg Street to rock!”).

I thought, ‘I wonder if Atlanta has some kind of bike group?’

So I googled ‘atlanta bicycle coalition‘ and what do ya know — a group called Atlanta Bicycle Campaign (ABC) that looks to be very active popped up. I’m proud of you, Atlanta! <sniffle>

Almost 600 strong? Wow. That’s no small feat for a town like Atlanta, or any other car-obsessed town - which is most towns in America.

ABC has a rockin website - which I think is awesome. Even if you happen to be or have folks around you who know ‘web stuff’, it can still be difficult to get the right setup - to get the right set of tools to ‘put yourself in a position to win’ - a favorite phrase of coaches everywhere.

I immediately noticed this blog post - CNN is going to air a segment on rising gas prices and bicycling, and they wanted to talk to the local experts, so ABC obliged them:

ABC staff members and cycling instructors spent 2 hours with CNN International reporter, Ralitsa Vassileva - pictured right speaking with our Executive Director, Rebecca Serna - shooting film and recording interviews for a story about how the American public is responding to rising gas prices, in part, by turning to bicycling as an alternate form of transportation and how ABC is helping people who want to do so overcome their doubts and learn to cycle confidently on city streets.

Looks like the story will air the weekend of April 26-27. (That would be Comcast channel #206 in Atlanta.) We’ll keep you posted about the details as they are shared with us. The back story of how this all came together is interesting in and of itself.

Very cool stuff!

So make sure to drop ABC’s RSS feed into your rotation, and/or sign up for their e-newsletter.

CNN (wiki) is headquartered in Atlanta, so maybe it just makes sense for them to go out and find some locals when they need to do a ‘human/local’ story?

Atlanta has a bunch of other interesting things to see, places to go, etc. - which kinda reminds me of something I’ve been interested in - getting bicycle tours going in various cities and towns, or just getting them the attention they deserve. I understand that there are some folks who are just unable to ride a bike for various reasons, but for the great majority of people, I believe a bike tour is possible, and it will become the new best way to see a city because once people try it, they’ll love it, and they’ll do it in every town they visit. I was thinking about this the other day when I was cruising around Austin - there were so many cool little neighborhoods and landmarks that I passed by, and I wasn’t even trying - I just happened to be on a bike, so I could just cruise around and just meander, and stopping and starting again is no big deal. Lots of big cities thrive on tourism, and I see a lot of synergies between tourism, businesses, and bikes. I don’t know if there’s a ‘process’ for how to go about working on things like this - it’s probably just taking care of the obvious stuff - contact the Chamber of Commerce - let them know we exist, contact local tour operators (be they bike, walking, bus, whatever) - things like that.

I think that this exact point in time - right now - is crucial for bicycle advocacy. We can sit back and still see gains in bicycling infrastructure and funding and membership rolls and maybe even some changes in the law books to help protect us on the roads a bit better — or we can recognize the opportunity we have before us and really have a go. From the great movie Chariots of Fire, I’m reminded of the phrase, “seize this chance, rejoice in it, and let no power or persuasion deter you in your task“. This is the mindset I believe we should all have. And without conflating causes (though, I think there are important parallels), I’m reminded of the phrase ‘Now is the time‘ (at 5:15) from someone who did a lot of work himself in Atlanta, Martin Luther King.

…made some typo corrections. Man, this blog really needs an editor (as do many blogs). Sorry!

I mentioned in a previous post that I would revisit ‘urban design’ as a topic — that was primarily because I saw this video from James Howard Kunstler, entitled ‘The tragedy of suburbia’.

[NSFW - Not Safe For Work: Be warned - the video delivers a few curse words.]

The image seen here is the opening slide of Kunstler’s address - the slide is titled “The National Automobile Slum” (interesting that BMW sponsors TED). Kunstler starts his talk with the following:

The immersive ugliness of our everyday environments in America is entropy made visible. We can’t overestimate the amount of despair that we are generating with places like this. And, mostly I want to persuade you that we have to do better if we’re going to continue the project of civilization in America.

Strong words. And you definitely get the sense that Kunstler is angry. I know that I am angry.

The idea is not to pick on suburbia, per se (and I’ve often lived in suburbs, including the place I lived before Austin — Palo Alto, California), but to point out what I think is a great video. I don’t agree with all the sentiments expressed therein, but I think Kunstler’s main point is correct - we need to do better.

To me, bicycling is a crucial step in the re-making of our world, but it’s not the only step. So after we get bicycle directions on Google Maps, we’re going to want to continue to take steps to make the places we live nicer places to be. The more each of us knows about the principles of good urban design, the better off all of our communities will be. We won’t have to be such watchdogs for urban design because everyone will know the basics - might be a bit of a pipe dream, but I imagine it could be done. I’d like to see a more widespread teaching of urban design principles - starting in elementary school, even - so that we reach non-cyclists and non-advocates, too. The more folks who know the basics of good urban design, the less chance we’ll get stuck with poorly-planned town centers, car-only roadways, lack of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, etc.

Majora Carter has a very good presentation, too, as does Jaime Lerner. And don’t forget to watch the presentation by the founder of Zipcar, the car-sharing service, Robin Chase (check out here new ride-sharing/carpooling startup, GoLoco, too). I’m sure there are plenty of other good bicycle/transportation/green TED Talks that I didn’t point out here, so if you know of any we missed, please let us know in the comments.

…there’s another important part of Kunstler’s presentation that I wanted to point out:

We’re gonna have to change this behavior whether we like it or not. We are entering an epochal period of change in the world, and certainly in America. The period that will be characterized by the end of the cheap oil era. It is going to change absolutely everything. Chris asked me not to go on too long about this and I won’t. Except to say, there’s not gonna be a hydrogen economy. Forget it. It’s not gonna happen. We’re gonna have to do something else, instead. We’re gonna have to downscale, rescale, and resize virtually everything we do in this country — and we can’t start soon enough to do it. We’re gonna have to live closer to where we work. We’re gonna have to live closer to each other. We’re gonna have to grow more food closer to where we live. The age of the 3,000 mile Ceasar Salad is coming to an end.

Bicycling can be a boon for all of us because it can be beneficial to so many different people and causes and end goals. For instance, if you are a greenie, you probably know all about the slow food, CSA, and community gardens movements. These movements, along with the bicycling movement (implicitly), have to do with moving things closer together - exactly as Kunstler talks about. We need to be sure, as advocates of bicycling/pedestrians/local food/etc., that we reach out to each other and work together to achieve our goals. Send some emails, make some phone calls, attend some meetings to organizations you don’t belong to, and let’s see how we can help each other.

Tonight I stopped by the monthly Austin Flyers social (thanks, y’all!) at Mandola’s Italian Market (good food!) at The Triangle (map). The Triangle (which gets its name from the shape of the roads around it) is a mixed-use development with apartments, retail stores, restaurants, and a park. Cruising by tonight (on my Fuji Roubaix), I noticed the Austin Farmers’ Market (run by the Sustainable Food Center) was in full effect - man, it looked cool. There seemed to be lots of people, local farmers and food and veggies and all that, live music, some street vendors, and kids and dogs running around everywhere - a very cool scene. This market I saw is actually the second location — this one runs on Wednesday evenings, and the main one is downtown on Saturday mornings. The Triangle is about 4 miles north of downtown.

Kunstler mentions New Urbanism - essentially, a body of knowledge concerned with retrofitting poorly-designed urban areas - which is an unfortunate necessity for too much of America. Kunstler goes on to say more about ‘localization’:

We got a lot of work to do. We’re not gonna be rescued by the hypercar. We’re not gonna be rescued by alternative fuels. No amount, or combination of alternative fuels, is going allow us to continue running what we’re running, the way we’re running it. We’re gonna have to do everything very differently. And america is not prepared. We are sleepwalking into the future. We’re not ready for what’s coming at us. So I urge you all to do what you can. Life in the mid-21st century is gonna to be all about living locally. Be prepared to be good neighbors. Be prepared to be find vocations that make you useful to your neighbors and to your fellow citizens.

I thought the ‘vocations’ part was particularly important because I feel like many of us - especially in the white collar world - have little to no vocational experience. That is, take away our computers and we’re effectively useless if you need any type of skilled labor. I can’t build a house, fix a car, plant a garden, cook, etc. I can now change a flat on my bicycle - so that’s a start, and I can and have and will continue to provide physical labor to lots of efforts that can use it, but I’m still not that useful. I want to learn a real vocation so I can do my part. There are tens of millions of people like me. I don’t fear for us - humans are enterprising - we’ll learn and do what we need to do, but I like the idea of telling folks, “Hey - learn to do something useful - there is real value in being able to do things for yourself and your community”.

The DIY (Do It Yourself) movement continues to pick up steam for a lot of the same reasons all of these other movements continue to do so. The Austin Yellow Bike Project seems to me to have a DIY-type philosophy. I think one of the things that people value about doing things themselves is that when they’re done, they actually have a piece of work, a meal, a vegetable, a building, a bike - something tangible. Even sectors of the service industry can provide some fulfillment - fixing a bicycle, for instance. I think a lot of the computer work we do is just not fulfilling - and people aren’t meant to spend all day sitting in front of a computer, getting fat. OK - enough of the ’society’ rant.

I see bicycling as the primary linking mechanism between all of the movements that are going to help us get to a better world - bicycling is very much the key to making good progress in ‘downscaling, rescaling, and resizing’. And it’s just my opinion, of course.

…Another note - the part where Kunstler mentions that we can’t expect to be ‘rescued’ by ‘the hypercar’ or ‘alternative fuels’ - I think it’s either true or true enough. Why is that important? Well, lots of people still think that something will save us - maybe technology. John Doerr is a venture capitalist at the premiere VC firm in the Valley. His firm invested in many of the top computer companies in the world - including Google. In March 2007, Doerr gave a presentation at TED titled “Seeking salvation and profit in greentech“. So, they even have a term for technology that will save us — greentech (short for ‘green technology’). That’s fine - I wish them well - we’ll need all the help we can get - but I think we should do our best to point out to folks - VCs and others - that it may just be non-technology that ‘rescues’ us - things like bicycle lanes, community gardens, and other ‘localization’ paradigms. Doerr mentions in his talk that he thinks it’s stupid to drive a car just to go a short distance, maybe to the grocery store, but then he talks up biofuel initiatives. He states plainly that he doesn’t think people will want to sacrifice enough - change their lifestyles enough - to help stave off the worst effects of global climate change. I disagree.

And I think many of you would disagree with Mr. Doerr, too.

And I think the question - “Are people willing to sacrifice enough?” - is misleading. Is riding a bicycle a sacrifice? Not for me. Is getting healthier and having fun and enjoying being in the fresh morning air and the warm afternoon sun a sacrifice?

I feel great when I walk someplace, and I feel great when I ride somewhere. Riding my bike is usually the highlight of my day. I don’t have to convince myself that I like it - I actually do like it. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that I love it. I think we need to be proactive in knocking down false platitudes that are just taken to be truisms, when in fact they are not. Ever heard, “People love their cars”, or “People will never give up their cars”? I say, bul…..poppycock!

I say:

People love walking and riding and fresh air and nature and exercise and camaraderie and feeling alive. If they so much as get the smallest sense that it’d be possible to give up their cars for even one day a week, they’d jump at the chance and never look back.

Take that!

And I think it’s true. Lots of people would love to ditch their cars - they just can’t for various reasons (bicycling looks prohibitively dangerous; too far from work; etc.). As cycling/pedestrian/mass transit advocates, we need to bring the narrative of enjoyment and exercise and nature and connectedness and community to our cause. Save the polar bears and the human race? Yes - it’s true, but it’s this very abstract thing for most people. Exercise is not. Fresh air is not. Self-reliance is not. Saving money is not. These are all powerful ideas that people will readily identify with.

Whether you believe that Jevons’ Paradox is real or not (more), I want to argue that car culture sucks, and we can do better. If tomorrow someone managed to invent the perfect fuel - for cars, for factories, etc. - I would have mixed emotions. The world would be saved from pollution and global climate change, but this movement to create local places that would make us happy would be destroyed. To me, that would be a terrible loss.

Going back to DIY culture - just to make this post even longer - I just thought of a book that I read called Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology. The Google Books link gives us this:

What happens when a graduate of MIT, the bastion of technological advancement, and his bride move to a community so primitive in its technology that even Amish groups consider it antiquated? Eric Brende conceives a real-life experiment: to see if, in fact, all our cell phones, wide-screen TVs, and SUVs have made life easier and better — or whether life would be preferable without them. …

Good book. It might just be worth your attention.