From around the Globe...

From our friends up north...

Bixie not Fixie.
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From Grand Rapids, in the Grand Rapids Press...

Editorial: Michigan lawmakers should approve Complete Streets bill to focus on more than motorists


We’ve all seen it when we’re driving along in our automobiles. The cars are clipping along just fine. But there on the side, you spot a fellow traveler on foot, pushing a stroller, riding a bike or using a wheelchair. And that person is in peril. The road was built with zero thought for him or her. No bike lane, no sidewalk, nothing for safe transit for those outside a car. All a passing motorist can do in that instant is slow down, pay extra attention and pray for safe travels.

But Michigan can and should do better. It’s time for the state to motor toward smarter transportation planning. “Complete Streets” legislation pending in Lansing would help get us to that destination. The Senate should pass it promptly, following the measure’s recent wide-margin approval in the House. Complete Streets is a movement gaining ground nationally. More than a dozen states, plus Grand Rapids and a growing number of cities nationwide, already have passed bills that encourage planning for safer, more livable and welcoming roads. Upgrading or building a street? Good, but how about planning for a sidewalk, bike lane, good crossing spots and pedestrian signs? How about a bus lane and pleasant bus stops?

The goal is to modernize transportation policies that for decades focused solely on accommodating motorists, and often were blind to needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, older citizens and those with disabilities. Too often, transportation planners had a default setting that forced people into cars for safe travel. The result is people have been robbed of options for getting around.

The legislation in Lansing is largely a planning tool for state and local government. It begins with establishing the premise that Complete Streets are important to the livability of communities.

Local road agencies already are required to develop long-range plans, and the legislation requires that smart streets are part of that conversation.

The state transportation agency would be charged with making it easier for communities to accomplish that through goal-setting and planning expertise. A Complete Streets Advisory Council would be formed within the transportation department, with representatives from government (such as traffic engineers, road commissions and transit planners) and a variety of community groups (including AARP, bicyclists and disability advocates).

The legislation has broad support from community groups, including senior advocates, Safe Routes to Schools group, environmentalists, cyclists and others.

It’s also important to note that Michigan’s proposed Complete Streets law does not over-reach, or encourage senseless expenses or government intrusion. It acknowledges that road-planning needs vary according to urban, suburban and rural settings, and that local context and cost factors must be taken into consideration. One size does not fit all.

But it does accomplish making room for Michigan to show how it can be a leader in all forms of transportation. Complete Streets doesn’t knock the car from its perch as king of the road and as a central force in Michigan’s identity and economy. It simply establishes that two-footed or two-wheeled travelers also are good for our streets, our downtowns, businesses and neighborhoods.

Safe travels and Complete Streets: Both are good for Michigan.

A head scratcher.

Being the main contributor of the blog for my 9-5 job, I stumble on a few things from time to time that I can't post there but are definitely I feel a need for a repost. Here is one that I saw from the Phil Wood Twitter feed from the Core777 website.

Head scratcher? Yes.

Interesting? Definitely.

Will we see it make it to production? Probably not.


Enjoy.

Kevin Scott's bike design gets around the theft problem

Posted by hipstomp | 8 Jul 2010 |

I'm not sure about UK slang, but in America if I tell you "I'm gonna wrap my bike around a pole" that means I'm gonna crash it. But Kevin Scott, an industrial design student at the UK's De Montfort University, means it in a different way.

[image credit: Tony Kyriacou/Rex Features]

Scott has designed a bicycle that the user wraps around a pole literally. A ratcheting mechanism transforms two parts of the bike's frame from stiff to bendable, and once wrapped, a single bike lock can be passed through both tires and the frame, which Scott hopes will decrease the bike theft rampant in London and so many other of the world's cities.

For his troubles, Scott won Runner-up in the UK's Business Design Centre New Designer of the Year Award. Which does not mean he's done with the bicycle design; he's dumping the award money back into the project for further development.

Alo Here.

Well, it's been far to long between posts with lots of talk of revived passion for the site. No Drive is not dead just in hibernation. My computer recently took it's official walk to the dark side and is a nice Apple logo-ed paper weight. Right before this occurred I had renewed the nodrivejustride.com for another 2 years. I'll be getting my hands on a new computer in the coming weeks and hopefully in that time Alex and I will be able to put together a new look for the site and potentially move to another site to host it other than blogger. We shall see.

Keep riding.

finding the hidden

on wednesday i went for a ride on the trails in the cedar valley. i packed my bag with the usual stuff; my sketchbook, pens and markers, camera, a book, and a journal. i had the intention of riding for a while and then stopping off at a coffee shop to read and sketch. a short ride followed by a long chill time. i started my ride and, eventually, ended up under a highway bridge looking at the pillars that held it up. it was there that i saw some of the best art i have seen in a while. there was graffiti on each pillar. some it was thin and novice, but there were a few that inspired me, since i am an artist myself. i parked my bike [lucy] and pulled out my camera. i spent a good 45 minutes exploring this make-shift gallery, taking photos and admiring this unnoticed art. in the end, i pulled out a marker and added a statement to sum it all up. i wrote "this is real art." nothing profound, just simple.

now, i have driven on that bridge at least 100 times and never have i known about the incredible work that was displayed below. i only noticed this art because i was riding a bike. it reminded me of an email i received from my dad, who is also a cyclist, last fall. he sent it to me and all of his friends who had hung up there bikes and bought motorcycles. it talks about noticing the little things, the things unseen when driving a car, the things revealed when you are "one with the road."

here is the email from my dad:

Today I saw the blackbirds pestering a hawk as he flew from perch to perch, a deer, horses playing in the barn lot because they didn’t even know I was there, a new hole in the abandoned barn roof that wasn’t there in the spring, a tall pine tree standing like a sentinel in the middle of a country cemetery as if it was standing guard over the loved ones who had been buried there, roadkill, the shadows on the crops as the sun rose higher in the sky, a new strip of gravel that had just been place the day before along side the road, a patch of yellow wild flowers dancing in the gentle breeze. Today I heard crickets and other insects looking for one more mate before the seasons changed and the cool weather drives them into hibernation, the pop of an American flag and the clink of the chain as it slapped against the flag pole, the sound of a distant bird singing as it sat on the telephone wire and the sound of small kids playing in the yard. Today I could smell the fragrance of purple cone flowers as they fought out the remnants of an old barnyard and the sweet scent of the corn and beans as they begin to dry down and drop their leaves as they prepare to be harvested.

Why did I see, hear and smell these things? Because I was cruising by under my own power and not that of 1200 cc engine.

Peddle on.

Dam the Dome: Urban Ride!

Well, I'm heading home for an extended weekend. I figured, why not, let's kick off the No Drive rides back in the homeland. Here's the information:

Meet: In front of Bike Tech, Cedar Falls, IA
When: 2pm-ish Sunday
Pace: Casual, with the occasional sprint [no one left behind]
Bring: Helmet, Lock, willingness to have a great time!

This will be a nice urban ride from the dam up to Uni-dome and back. I'm still hashing out the route, but I'm thinking after the ride, food and drink at one of the fine downtown restaurants.

As always, questions? Ask. Let me know if you're coming via the Facebook event page.

*Monday, I will also be doing a little bit of a dirt ride to break in my new mountain bike. Interested in joining let me know.

I ride a fixie, but I'm not hipster

As of a year ago, I only knew one person that rode a fixie; Alo.

Now, I attend an art school in the *newly appointed* number one bicycling city in the America, MPLS, and it would be easier for me to name people who did not ride a fixie. The bike racks are daily littered with fixed-gear after fixed-gear, with colourful rims and bar tape, playing cards in the spokes and perfectly mismatched everything else.

Yes, I am talking about hipster fixie riders.

Now, I will admit it: I ride a fixie. I have every intention of swapping out parts to make her, Lucy, match and I sometimes wear tight jeans so as to not get my pant leg stuck in the crank. To anyone, I look like another hipster riding a fixie because it is hip, but deep down, I am not a hipster. If anything, I am an accidental hipster.

I know how it goes, "If you are denying being ____, you are totally ___." I agree with this, and I am not denying having hipster fixie riding qualities, but there are two things that set me apart from the actual dirty hipster trendy fixie riders.

PBR and handle-bars.

1. I do not drink PBR and everyone, who is anyone, knows that hipsters live on that stuff. I have a higher standard for my taste buds. Yes, bicycling and beer really do go hand in hand, but not can in hand. I do not drink PBR [or smoke American Spirits] so there for there is no way that I can be a hipster fixie rider.

2. The proper way to get on a bike is debated by scholars on nearly a daily basis. Hop on like horse, lean the bike over, there are plenty of options. The one option that every hipster has adopted is swinging the leg over the handle bars. You look like a pretentious idiot [I know I sound like one, but I will openly admit it]. The proper way to get on a bike is not to swing your leg over the front of the bike. One of my best friends mounts her bike this way ... I yell "hipster" at her every time. I know that it is an adaptation from serious cyclists ... but hipsters dirtied it up.

I'm not trying to hate, but sometimes it is good to get it out there.

So in the end, I might look like a hipster, though my pants are a little looser and my hair has been freshly washed, but I watch me get on Lucy and you will see that I am hipster hater just like everyone else. Yes, i just started riding fixie, but not to join the hipster trends. I started riding to join a brotherhood and connect with a 319 brother in another state. Yes, ultimately it doesn't really matter who is a hipster and who is not. Who works on their own bike and who needs help. Bicycling is all about connections, both intimately and communally.

The labels and the looks don't matter. Hipster or not, all that does matter is the fact that we just ride. Isn't that what the bicycling community is all about? Isn't that what we, NDJR, is all about?

Just ride.

...but don't call me a f*cking hipster.

Monday Morning Quarterback

Since we're all talking about them anyway...

'Balance, momentum, and low center of gravity'... cute. I do believe I know the arch of this man's life... he becomes The Most Interesting Man in the World.

The irony of having bicycling promote driving is like using solar power to promote deep ocean oil drilling. Sure, I might be blowing that a bit out of proportion, but I guess with 'knowledge does come confidence'. I'm confident you're doing some thing.