My Pedaling Career, Part 5: Commuter Hybrid

After I sold the bike that didn’t fit I went for about a year and a half without one. My circumstances had changed, and so did my transportation requirements.


I moved from Seattle to Bellingham and hung around town for four months in early 2002, then went traipsing around the country for five months in the car I finally bought. I had been car-free in Seattle for over three years, but eventually succumbed. While car-free I was one of the original of members of Flexcar, a car sharing service, which was later merged into Zipcar.


The end of my journey around the country brought me back to Bellingham. I lived a suburban existence for ¾ of a year, driving hither & yon about town. But then it was off to Eugene, back to graduate school, and a return to the saddle.

Bellingham: Integral part of U.S. Bicycle Route System

http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/usbrs/

There's an effort underway to create a national network of signed routes for bicycle touring, and the plan shows Bellingham being a hub, of sorts.
The Adventure Cycling Association has announced the U.S. Bicycle Route System (USBRS), for which they are currently raising money.
The route corridors are already planned out (PDF map) -- they're careful to say they're planning general routes within 50-mile-wide corridors rather than naming specific roads. The plan is for organizations within each state to take up the mantle and get the work done. In Washington State the local partner is the Bicycle Alliance of Washington, and they are fundraising this month to get Route 10, across the northern part of the state, up and running. WSDOT is also a partner.
Bellingham comes into the picture because, as the Bicycle Alliance notes, Route 10 will link Idaho to the Alaska Ferry -- which docks in Fairhaven.
But note that Route 87 (north/south just east of the major cities linked by I-5) appears to terminate at nearly the same spot as Route 10.
And Route 95 (north/south along US 101) crosses both 87 and 10, probably in Burlington, before heading into Canada from Whatcom County.

http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/usbrs/

This project could conceivably bring additional adventure cyclists through the county, many of whom are heading for the ferry. Local restaurants and lodgings could see a boost from additional bike tourism! If that's important to you, then you should probably help get the project underway.

http://www.razoo.com/story/Usbrswashington

Spring Showers

Now that I'm commuting to work by bike, it's inevitable that I will get rained on at this time of year, but I get to hear the birds singing to welcome the spring showers. That's a fair trade-off to me. :)

2 B'ham Bike/Ped. Projects: More Details

The Herald's Traffic Talk has two new articles about the recently-funded pedestrian and bicycle projects on Indian St. and Samish Way. The first gives additional project details, and the second features a former astronaut who works at Western and has been hit twice riding on Indian St.

Samish Way projects

Indian St. project area

The maps come from my previous post on the topic.

Bike Racks vs Gardening

As much as I enjoy biking; as much as I enjoy encouraging others to bike; still I appreciate getting a bit of encouragement back. A "Way-to-go, thanks for taking the effort," now & then. Most of the time I take this encouragement in the form of convenient places to park. When I visit a place that has a nice bike rack in a great location, it makes me feel like this place is looking out for me, and is happy I'm there. That sort of encouragement helps me keep going.
So what message am I supposed to take from this?

The only bike back at Rite-Aid on Northwest, completely surrounded 

But hey, at least it's not as bad as it was the day before. I didn't have my camera with me, but I saw as I cycled by that the entire rack was filled with potted. Exactly zero bikes had room to park. Message: potted plants are more important than cyclists to this establishment.

Or how about this nice bike rack at a local grocery store?

Uhh -- bike rack? Are you there?

Oh, there you are...

For much of the year the Community Food Co-op on Forest has their best bike racks right there. They're easy to access, easy to use with u-locks, covered, and of all their racks this is the one closest to the front door.
But come gardening season they remove the racks and replace them with bags of potting soil, compost, and manure. It would be tempting to say that the message is that bikes rate lower than dirt, but I know it's not the case. They do have other racks, even if those aren't as good as the ones they put out and take away on a seasonal basis.

So please tell me -- am I being unreasonable to think that bike racks, especially the only or the best rack at a business, should remain unobstructed (and physically present) ALL the time, not just sometimes? And what message does it send you to find a business that does otherwise?

Team Up Kick-Off

Thank you to Whatcom Smart Trips, everybodyBIKE, and Chuckanut Brewery & Kitchen for the nice Team Up for everybodyBIKE event Friday evening. One-third (that's 2 of 6) of my team attended, and I saw a few other folks from my place of work. I also met a few fellow cyclists for the first time.

The bike racks were overflowing, the snacks and the beer were tasty, I got a cute bike pin, and I am super excited about the shirt they gave to us Team Leaders -- I [bike] B'HAM! I shall wear it proudly under my top layer(s).

It's May 1st and my team has at least 2 points already -- G. & I biked over to work on our garden plot today.

Personal Advocacy Advice from Commute By Bike

Commute By Bike has a post today entitled "It's Bike Month: Get Out There and Proselytize!" It features tips on spreading the gospel of cycling, including:

4. Don’t Proselytize, But Be A Resource
3. Adapt Your Pitch For Each Potential Convert
2. Tell A Personal Story, But Don’t Be A Windbag


More at the source.