Take the Lane

The "wow" factor of winter cycling

The "wow" factor of winter cycling is the "wow" from non-cyclists when they look outside at the fat flakes blowing by in gale-force winds and turn to you and say, "You didn't ride in this, did you?"
Sometimes, as I stand there in winter tights and bicycle shoes, I wonder if they think I dress like this when I take the bus, but I never ask that.
No, I just smile and say, "Oh yeah. It's not that bad out there. Except when you get the cross-winds at intersections."
They think I'm insane, but that's OK.
Because they're right!

Toronto Cyclists Union, First Trimester

The Toronto Cyclists Union isn't due to arrive until June 2008, but Dave Meslin has launched its website, where you can download the first two newsletters, link to their Facebook site and view an early ultrasound of the developing bicycle advocacy group.
Go to http://www.bikeunion.to
Of interest to Toronto cyclists, of course, and to bicycling advocates anywhere.

Winter cycling and little brothers

It's riding at this time of year that reminds you that cyclists are the little brothers of the road.
Yeah, we're cute and precocious, but also kicked around and often forgotten.
I was thinking about this particularly with regard to bicycle lanes.
Right now, the lanes are a mess. The ones I use pass along the front of single-family homes, townhouse farms and apartment monoliths. The homeowners dump their leaves off the curb, right on to the bicycle lanes. The entrances to the multi-unit parking lots are like alluvial fans of snow dragged (or shovelled) out into the street. And the plows have done the roads, but the bike lanes? Not so much.
So riding to work was not so much fun yesterday, and riding home, in the dark, after every demi-melted piece of snow had frozen into a rock-hard shard capable of ripping the bottom out of a tour boat, was big time no fun.
The bike lanes on some roads stick to the curb, then swing out around designated parking areas, and the plows swing out even farther past the parked cars. And the snow and leaves so obscure the painted bike lanes that cars are parked whereever and the best thing a cyclist can do is take the lane.
Kind of irritating though, knowing that there is a designated bike lane right beside me, and I'm safer riding in the road with big brothers who aren't sure they want to share it.
It ain't easy being the little brother.

Good discussion on CBC

Anna Maria Tremonti had good guests and good questions this morning: Dave Meslin of the fledgling Toronto Cyclist Union and Bonnie Fenton of the Vancouver Bicycle Advisory Committee. Other participants via phone and taped interviews.
It was more-or-less Bicycling 101 -- road rage, training, cyclist responsibilities, cycleway development and commitment -- but great to hear the discussion on a national radio program, especially at this time of year. Partly because the lousy weather might have kept a few more people close to their radios to actually hear the item, and partly because the general public needs to be reminded that cycling can happen all year round.
I found it interesting that Suzanne Lareau, exec director of Velo Quebec noted that the most bicycle-friendly nations in Europe are the northern nations. We need to have more people get out of their cars, to reduce traffic congestion and improve our health. I hope that we can look to our northern peer nations, see what has been successful and incorporate that into our thinking and planning.

You can read the show's transcript or hear it on real audio at http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/

Turn on your radio, cyclists

CBC's The Current is promising to talk about bicyclists and road manners today. In the Waterloo Region, tune in at 89.1 FM.
I'm interested in the approach they will take...

Moron of the Week, #10

I am alive to tell this, so I should be grateful, but of course, I'm bloody irritated.
The motorist in question was driving a small black buzz-bomb, with licence beginning AWRT.
He was coming up behind me on Ottawa Street yesterday, clearly heading for the ramp to the Expressway.
I moved left so he could slide by me on the right to get to his ramp.
Instead, he gunned it, swung out and around my left and cut in front of me to make the ramp, nearly clipping the curb (and me!).
It is hard to give someone the finger while wearing lobster-mitts, but I gave it a good shot.
You sir, are my choice for Moron of the Week!

The pain for Portland cyclists

Cyclists in Portland are having a rough time, thanks to some recent cycling deaths and the apparent cavalier attitude of the local police to those deaths.
There was a rally on Sunday, in the rain, of dozens of cyclists who were trying to make the point that cyclists are traffic, too. That the rally was attended by the Portland police chief and her cycle-commuting husband suggests something might be done, but the crime is that something has to be done. When did it become "us and them" between cyclists and a reputable mid-sized city police department? Is this the way things are in North America?
You can see photos and audio from the rally here:
http://bikeportland.org/2007/11/18/despite-rain-hundreds-attend-we-are-all-traffic-rally/

Thanks to Geoffrey for alerting me to this incident.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Stationary Bicycles

In the spirit of ethical treatment of our friends, I think it is only appropriate that we create a new organization: People for the Ethical Treatment of Stationary Bicycles (PETSB).

There is a circle of them at the Good Life Fitness Centre: sad, lonely spin-class machines, the greyhounds of stationary bicycles, waiting for someone to pay some attention to them. There's a warning sign beside the circle, advising club members to stay away unless they are under the supervision of a spin class instructor.

Is this any way to treat these sleek machines? Are they to be left there, forever staring across at one another, waiting for the few opportunities to participate in a spin class? I say, throw off their chains (however metaphorical) and set them free to spin on through their imaginary country rides, to the pounding bass-beat of bad late-'90s dance music.

Free the stationary bicycles!

 

Cyclist-killer gets jail time

Further to my post of Oct. 30, the man who struck and killed cyclist Robbie MacRitchie in New Brunswick last year has, on appeal, been sentenced to prison time.
The Canadian Press reported that the New Brunswick Appeal Court ruled that the appropriate sentence for charges of impaired driving and leaving the scene of an accident is three years and six months in prison.
Peter Howe, 42, of Geary, N.B., had originally been sentenced to two years of house arrest.
The prosecutor, to his credit, appealed what was a patently ludicrous sentence.
MacRitche was cycling along the side of a road in July 2006 when Howe, after drinking 24 beers, veered off the road and killed him.
The appeal court extended Howe's sentence to two years and 10 months, crediting him eight months for time already served in custody.
Hardly just punishment for taking another person's life, but a vast improvement over house arrest.

Moron of the Week, #9

You know who you are, riding down the wrong side of the road on Ottawa Street near Kehl Street in Kitchener last night just before midnight. You were dressed in dark colours and almost invisible as you headed straight for me.
In fact, because I was looking down at the somewhat ragged bit of pavement I was rolling over, I didn't see you until you swung out to avoid me.
You were on a nice bike, wearing a helmet and had a light. But going the wrong way, right toward another bike. Couldn't you have at least rung your bell or yelled?
You sir, are my pick for Moron of the Week.