Bike to Work and School Day!

Well, folks, it's Bike to Work Day and Bike to School Day today. I hadn't realized it was bike to school day until I got to the West Seattle Water Taxi dock in West Seattle and started chatting with a dad taking the boat with his daughter who was riding to school today. I'm really happy to see so local schools embracing the day for encouraging children cycling to school.

As I was heading out the door today with my bike, my neighbor across the alley was pumping up his tires.  He'd finally purchased the new tires he'd been meaning to buy, just in time to ride in to work and hit a couple commuter stations (I think he mentioned something about a station at Starbucks headquarters).

My bike commute these days is shorter, although where I live and work hasn't changed in a few years. My route to work, if I ride the entire way, goes through some industrial areas that are sketchy at best.  So, I do a real multi-modal commute:  Bike to the Water Taxi, then transfer to a bus for the rest of the trip.  Rather than the 12.5 miles one-way, I'm riding only about 2.5 miles.  It's all good though.  Any time on the bike is good time! 

Anyway, today was a neat trip in.  There were a few of the usual suspects with their bikes on the water taxi this morning.  There were also a few new faces with their bikes.  As I mentioned, we had the father and daughter going to school. We had a gentleman riding an old Trek (we're talking probably late 70s or early 80s vintage, US Made) and a couple others riding riding bikes that looked a bit like they'd not seen much time on the road in quite a while.  I also noticed more folks riding the Alki trail towards the West Seattle Bridge. Once downtown, where I usually see a good flow of cyclists, I saw many more today.

I did make a stop at a couple of commuter stations.  I stopped at the Bicycle Alliance of Washington office where I  said good morning to Barbara Culp (holy cow!  she's retiring?) and picked up a new, hot off the press, 2012 Seattle Bicycle Routes map.  Next stop was at Union Station (right across from my bus transfer to Tukwila) where Sound Transit was giving out patch kits (you can never have too many of them, right?) and Bike Month bandanas.  They were also having a drawing for a new bike.  Hmm...wonder if I'll win ;-)


The one disappointment was the bike cage at work.  Was I disappointed that I didn't get "my spot" at the bike rack?  Hardly.  In fact, I think I'd have been pleased if that were the case.  There were three other bikes there. Sigh...maybe next year I'll have to look for a spot to squeeze my bike in.  ;-)

Car-free weekend out and about

Last weekend, Maurie and I had our first car-free weekend since before we moved to West Seattle that involved more than just staying home and knocking about our neighborhood all weekend.

This being the first ever Seattle Tweed Ride, and the weather was looking promising, we decided that we'd join in the fun on Sunday. After exploding our closet all over the bedroom, and several plastic storage bins as well, we discovered we had little appropriate for the event. Time to visit some thrift & second hand stores. We'd decided that we really didn't want to get in the car this weekend at all, so we caught a bus into town. We spent Saturday busing and walkning through town, hitting thrift shops, and a second hand shop on Capitol Hill (ironically, a couple blocks away from where we'd meet for the ride on Sunday).

After a fairly exhausting day "off the island", as we tend to view our trips into downtown, we returned home and more or less crashed. Shortening my pants to knickers length will have to wait until morning, as will pulling together food and making the rest of the preparations for the ride.

Sunday morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed shortly before the alarm and began preparations for the ride. I brought the bikes out of the basement, got the picknick blanket and basket. We prepared food and Maurie shortened my pants. We got into costume and wheeled our bikes to the bus stop, arriving with less than five minutes to spare before the bus arrived. We had a good transfer downtown (less than five minutes to wait) and arrived at Cal Anderson Park for the ride half an hour early. People finally started to arrive right around noon, and continued to gather, drinking tea (and other libations), eating snacks and playing games.  Among those who showed up were Julian from Totcycle, Tim & Anne from CarFree Days, and Eric from Tubulocity.

Me, "tweeded-up" testing my stability with that huge picnic basket on my rear rack

 My dapper bride, posing with her bike

Shortly after 1 when we headed out for the ride itself. North up the length of Capitol Hill and across the University Bridge, then on to Gasworks park where we took a break.

We left the ride here, opting out of the pub stop, to make our way home, via the Seattle waterfront. We made a quick stop at the Fremont PCC to refill water and get some iced tea. While waiting outside, I was noticed by two gals who I worked with in at the state legislature. I must have been quite the sight!

We made our way by bike along Lake Union, and then up through Belltown to the Olympic Sculpture Park, where we rested for a bit looking out across the Puget Sound at the boats and the Olympic Mountains beyond. A deisre for coffee finally rousted us from our chairs and we made our way down the crowded waterfront to a Starbucks. So we didn't have to undo the half mile (hey, it seemed like that) of rope securing the picknick basket to my rear rack, we went in singly to get our drinks. The barista (technically, in this case since we're talking about a make here, shouldn't it be baristo?) had been at the ride until he had to go to work.

We made our way to the bus stop, only to discover that we had a 40 minute wait until the next bus home (really, one hour headways on Sundays for a route that goes to Alki, Metro? What's up with that!). Since it was getting chilly out, we decided to ride home. It was a pleasant ride home, mostly on milti-use path. As we rode along the Elliott Bay shoreline, we really were reminded why we love living here in Seattle so much. The Seattle skyline, the sunset over the Olympics with the ferries crossing the sound in the foreground, the smell of beach fires.

 Seattle evening skyline from West Seattle

Seven and a half hours, and a nineteen mile bike ride later, we were home...and ready to crash!

You can read Maurie's writeup on the Tweed Ride here.

Opening Weekend for Link

In case you've missed it (and if you live in or around Seattle, I'm not sure how you could have), The Link light rail line from downtown to the airport will open on Saturday. Sound Transit has details on the opening here. The folks over at Seattle Transit Blog have been counting the days to this, and I have to say that Ben and company really seem ready to party as a result of the long-awaited opening.

There will be free rides all weekend. Be prepared for long lines and crowded platforms and trains all weekend. Also, there are no round-trip rides. To give everyone a chance to ride, once you get to one end, you have to get off the train and get back in line. There will also be shuttles running the route if you don't want to wait in line again.

Personally, I think I'll be waiting to take my ride on Link until after the festivities

Veer -- the review

Last Thursday (June 2), Maurie and I went to see Veer. As mentioned below, the showing was a benefit for the Major Taylor Project, which is a project of the Cascade Bicycle Club Education Foundation.

We arrived at the Columbia City Cinema shortly before 8:30 for the panel discussion. The panelists for the discussion were David Hiller (Advocacy Director at Cascade Bicycle Club), Willie Weir (bicycle touring travel author and columnist for Adventure Cyclist magazine), Davey Oil (BikeWorks and The Bikery), Erica Barnett (Publicola.net and formerly The Stranger), and Greg Fredette (the filmmaker). The discussion covered topics from legislation to the demographics of cycling, to the overall cycling culture. Much of what they discussed related directly to the film. Those of us who were there for the 9:30 showing were at a bit of a disadvantage as far as knowing what they were talking about.

One observation about the panel discussion; although the theater in which we were viewing the film and holding the discussion, it was difficult to hear. Some sort of PA would have made it easier to hear the discussion. Also, and this is a hazard of wooden floors and an abundance of cyclists, it was impossible to for many to walk through the theater quietly. It wasn’t the fault of the individuals; it was their cycling cleats on the wood floor!

The movie is fantastic. The trailer barely touches on how good it is. The film maker did not simply follow five individuals who are active in Portland’s bicycling culture, but he showed how the facets of the bicycling community, no matter how different, all contribute in a real positive way to the health and vitality of the culture as a whole. We followed Scott Bricker of the Bicycle Transportation Association as he lobbied for Oregon House Bill 3314 in 2007, seeing it to passage and signed by the governor; one of Portland’s famous (infamous?, notorious?) “Zoo Bombers”; Scott, founder of Exchange Cycle Tours as his organization packs up to move out of one location, and the search for a new location and finally the grand opening in a new location which has been underserved in terms of cycling accessibility; A staff member and cycling educator from the Community Cycling Center as he runs an after-school bike club for elementary students; and finally one of the founding members of the Sprokettes “mini-bike synchronized dance team.”

I walked out of the theater with a real strong sense of how closely tied all these aspects of the cycling community are, and how they fed and fuel others. Rather than rant and rage about what the others are, or are not, doing, those profiled seemed to really see the positive in what the others were doing; the Sprockettes and Zoo Bombers bring an aspect of pure, unadulterated fun (and possibly insane adrenaline) to cycling, the BTA really focuses on the policy aspect and the ECT and CCC at getting others into cycling.

Another thing I really appreciated is that the film showed interactions with the police, for the most part, in a positive light. No aggressive confrontations, no bashing—just an acknowledgement of the job the police have to do.

There were also some poignant moments of the film: the final field trip and graduation for the bike camp kids; the aftermath of a break-in at the Community Cycling Center and the Portland Ride of Silence.

The film was truly outstanding. I don’t know how the filmmaker plans to distribute it, whether in DVD only, if he plans to continue to tour it for viewings in various cities, or what. If you have a chance to see it, I highly recommend making the effort to do so. If there’s no city near you that is listed in their screenings, contact them from the form on the website, and see what you need to do to arrange one.

The Tour comes to Seattle!

No, not the Tour de France! The Tour de Fat!

The folks at our favorite national sustainable brewery, New Belgium Brewing, who love cycling so much they named a beer for it, is bringing Tour de Fat to Seattle on Saturday, August 8.

The event will be held at Gasworks Park and will include a bicycle parade, beer garden, a general celebration of all things cycling and the presentation of a brand new bicycle to one lucky person who agrees to give up his car in favor of a bike for a full year!

New Belgium Brewing donates everything for the event, and it's free two attend, with two exceptions: there's an entry fee for the parade and you have to buy your own beer. All proceeds, however, go to the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and Bikeworks.

The Bicycle Alliance is looking for volunteers to help with the event. You can even enter to be the lucky winner of the new bicycle!

Hope to see everyone there to celebrate cycling. Oh, if you go, be sure to click the link to the Tour de Fat site, and read the "10 Commandments of Tour de Fat"!

Veer, the movie Thursday, June 25 @ Columbia City Cinema

I'm excited about this! The evening of Thursday, June 25 Cascade Bicycle Club is hosting two viewings of Veer, the movie. Showings are at 6:30 and 9:00 PM. In between showings (at 8:30) is a talk with the film maker (Greg Fredette), David Hiller (Advocacy Director at Cascade Bicycle Club) and others.

The viewing is a fundraiser for Cascade's Major Taylor Project.

Here's the trailer for the movie:




More details on the Calendar at Cascade Bicycle Club's website.

There is a bike check next door to the cinema for $3. Ride your bike or take the bus (Metro's #7 goes there from downtown).

Thank you for not driving!

We saw this sign in the window at Free Range Cycles in Fremont today while we were visiting the Fremont Fair and Solstice Parade. I wanted to shout out "Your Welcome!" when I saw it.

The Fremont Fair always makes trying to drive through Fremont even more of a mess than usual. To help people get to and from the fair, not only did Metro have the usual bus routes running through Fremont (well, at least they did when the parade wasn't going), but they added a shuttle service (PDF link) to the event today. Cascade Bicycle Club even got on the "don't drive to the Fair" bandwagon and had two rides going to the see the parade.

We caught a shuttle this morning at Dexter & Denney. It was the second shuttle to depart the stop after we arrived. The one we didn't get on, as well as the one we did, were filled to standing room only. It reminded me of playing "sardines" in middle school!

We were dropped off at the south side of the Fremont bridge and walked across into Fremont. We'd opted not to ride our bikes becuase we knew that it would be wall-to-wall bikes, with them locked to anything and everything reasonably solid. We were right. It seemed like every railing, street sign and fence had a number of bikes locked to them (sorry no picture, when we thought of taking one, we weren't near a good spot, and when we were, well, I forgot). Unfortunately for most of the cyclists, I believe Hal Ruzal would have given them pretty poor marks on thier bicycle locking (see here, here, and here to see why).

The highlight of the day was definitely the community-organized, human powered Solstice Parade, complete with its contingent of cyclists. Hmm...I wonder if any of them joined the Cascade ride to the parade...

Coming events - Week of May 18, 2009

A couple of events are happening this week that you may be interested in.

Intro to Bike Commuting: It's how we roll
This is a free class offered by the Cascade Bicycle Club to help you get ready to begin commuting by bicycle. Covers traffic laws, basic equipment and strategies for commuting.
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 from Noon to 1 PM
Location: King County Chinook Building, 401 5th Ave, Seattle 98104, Rm 123
Website: http://www.cbcef.org/bike-commuting-resources.html

Ride of Silence
Free lesiurely ride in honor/memoriam of those injured or killed cycling. This is a slow-paced ride in which riders are to keep together. Black or red arm bands are encouraged, as is spreading the word through facebook, twitter and other social media.
Seattle ride info:
Date/Time: Wednesday May 20, 2009 from 6:30 to 8:00 PM
Location: Gasworks Park
Cascade Bicycle Club link & ride info: http://cascade.org/EandR/Activities_Calendar_Detail.cfm?eventID=12267
Main Ride of Silence Website (contains information for national rides): http://www.rideofsilence.org/main.php

Cascade Bicycle Club January Presentation

Bikes & Bridges
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
7:00 PM
Seattle REI, 222 Yale St.

This is one of the monthly presentations that the Cascade Bicycle Club hosts. This month's presentation is a briefing from the project teams responsible for both the 520 bridge project and the Alaskan Way viaduct project.

This is an opportunity to hear how bicyclists are being taken into consideration for the projects and voice any concerns or ideas that you might have.

Cascade Bicycle Club monthly presentation series: http://www.cascade.org/EandR/Monthly_Presentations.cfm

For more information you can contact David Hiller at the club. His e-mail address is on the link provided above.