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witnessed a bike crash
2025-06-13 19:05No one badly injured, probably.( Read more... )
ebike adventures
2025-06-06 18:03Decided today to go to the Drexel Museum of Natural History. But Avi was interested too, yet couldn't go today. Decided on the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History. Close enough to walk to, if I wanted a brisk 20 minute walk in dew point 20 C weather. Easy bike, but taking my bike raises concerns about leaving it locked for hours in Center City. So went to Indego bikeshare, and an ebike, partly because that's all the station had. ( Read more... )
Indego pricing
2025-05-25 21:54The pricing of Philadelphia's bikeshare program is pretty weird.
One ride? A whopping $4.50 for 30 minutes; extra $0.30/min if you go over or use electric. Bus fare here is $2.50 and gets you free transfers.( Read more... )
I previously mentioned seeing the lowest recumbent trike I'd ever seen. A day or two later, I passed the highest recumbent bike I'd ever seen. Definitely a bike, 2 wheels, which looked about as big as the 20" wheels of my folding bike. Obviously they're usable, but I have no idea how you mount or stop such a bike, at best it looks like you'd have your leg at a very awkward ankle.
I've been indulging in hot chocolate recently, and realizing it actually costs money. Like I just got some peppermint hot chocolate form Trader Joe's, and it's $6.50 for 8 servings (not counting any milk added), something like 80 cents a serving. An earlier variety was maybe $5.50 for 10, still 55 cents each. On Amazon I see other expensive ones, even over a dollar per.
I also see Swiss Mix, "milk chocolate flavored", for 10 cents a serving. I guess the difference is whether the ingredients list goes "sugar, cocoa..." or "sugar, corn syrup, whey, cocoa..."
Chocolate can counteract the bitter flavor of Bitrex in mask fit testing. I plan to see if sipping hot chocolate works as well, or better.
I now have a new Tdap shot. I'd accidentally gotten a Td shot 2 years ago in Canada; I hadn't known there were different blends, so went in asking for "tetanus" or maybe even "Td", in all ignorance until afterwards that I wasn't getting a pertussis booster. Finally fixed that lack.
Not very deep, but a short video on the virtues of garbage/beater bikes. I'm in the category of people who have only owned a fairly cheap bike, though not garbage. I am reminded of advice I saw once on how to get bikes while moving around between cities: just buy a really cheap one, and sell or abandon it when you leave... Though safety, or having luggage baskets, are another matter.
Place vs. non-place in urban design.
OSP history videos on Cyprus and Sicily. Apparently Cyprus stayed literate through and after the Bronze Age Collapse, and Norman Sicily was a great ferment of multiculturalism, with Muslim scholar in court and coins with Arabic as well as Greek or Latin text.
Berkeley bicycling
2024-10-26 16:08Certain people on Twitter and Bluesky, along with my own observations (like crossing Ashby or University, or the Hopkins bike lane fiasco) have given me a low opinion of bicycling in Berkeley. But for the first time today, I tried biking toward campus beyond Ohlone Park, first to check the Downtown Farmer's Market, and I have somewhat more nuanced opinions now. Somewhat.
( Read more... )
bike and exercise
2024-10-11 19:30Some people have worried that using an e-bike means getting less exercise, since the motor assists your pedaling. Apparently multiple studies have found that yes, there's less effort per time, but people with e-bikes spend more time biking, for a larger total amount of (moderate) exercise.
I suspect there's something similar with my (acoustic) bike. I generally use it as "better walking" without really exerting myself often (except where slopes and gravity force me to), and with all the gentle slopes around here, a fair fraction of the time I don't have to pedal at all. But it's getting easy to be out for a few hours, with only my tailbone complaining (and maybe it's finally giving in?) whereas between 90-120 minutes of walking in a day tends to make some joints and muscles complain.
I'm also finding that I've gotten used to the speed, and walking can seem painfully slow...
Revisiting yesterday's post in American units, since I mostly want to persuade Americans.
Thesis: low-density living, with single family houses and sizable yards, is compatible with low-car if not car-free living, if you go in heavily on bicycles.
( Read more... )
I've touched on this issue before, not all that long ago even, but I feel it deserves multiple angles. ( Read more... )
For the first time in 7 years, I own a bike. For the second time in 7 years, I've ridden a bike. (First time was a rental in Vancouver.) I'd thought about it for a while now, but with my constantly hazy future, I never wanted to commit -- certainly not to the $660 new bikes down the street that I might have to abandon when going nomadic again, or commit my life to really cheap Target bikes, and I never got around to seeing what was on Craigslist.
( Read more... )
bikes vs. buses
2024-04-28 14:37I thought of a new angle on just how badly most modern cities have let people down by not enabling safe biking.
Most cities have at least some bus service, whether as a semi-credible public transit system or as a sop to the poor and elderly. How fast are these buses? Pretty slow. NYC buses rarely break 9 MPH / 14 KPH though they're especially slow. City Observatory has easily-graphable data for multiple US cities, 2000-2013; the mean and median are 13 MPH / 21 KPH, big dense cities I'm familiar with are more like 11 MPH / 18 KPH, and very few cities break 15 MPH / 24 KPH. Absolute peak in the US was Salt Lake, almost hitting 19 MPH / 30 KPH for a few years. Even BRT systems around the world rarely break 30 KPH.
Bike speeds vary a lot, but en masse, one source says Dutch riders average 17 KPH. From my experience, it feels hard to go under 15 KPH and stay upright, even on a thick and heavy bike. [Edit: this says 12.4 KPH for the Dutch, and now that I have a bike I see I overestimated my default speeds. I don't know if either Dutch figure is "speed of motion" or door to door "speed of travel".] So being able to bike is like having personal bus-speed service, without the car necessities of a driver's license, insurance, and thousands of dollars per year spent on a car. (Or social cost of the 40,000 lives a year lost to cars, pollution, noise, etc.) Even if buses go faster than you do on a bike, not having to walk and wait means bikes win up to some distance.
Let's do an extremely bus-friendly case. Bike 15 KPH, bus 30 KPH, average of 10 minutes walk and wait to get on a bus. They cover equal distances at
1) 15*t = 30*(t-1/6), t = 1/3 hour, distance = 5 km. So for trips under 5 km or 3 miles, biking is faster.
If bus speed is 20 KPH and the time is 15 minutes to get on, we have
2) 15*t = 20*(t-1/4), t = 1 hour, distance = 15 km.
And this has been assuming that your destination is right at your bus stop; in reality there's potentially more delay there. (Also assuming bike parking right by your destination.)
Note what this means for a city planner wanting to reduce car use. You could invest a lot in public transit, including the high capital costs of metro or the high labor costs of frequent bus service... or you could shape your infrastructure so that lots of people view biking as safe and convenient, providing their own bikes (at a few hundred dollars/year) and labor, with your main job doing sweeping and snow removal.
But of course that low financial cost comes at the high political cost of taking street space away from cars. Easier to drop some buses in and call it a day... easier, but not very effective.
This post owes a lot to this kchoze post, on why buses have low mode share in Japan, and arguing buses have little role in a well-designed city (one with good walkability and metro, not to mention attractive biking.) I'd urge you to read the kchoze as well.
turkey surprise
2023-11-23 18:45This post comes with a photo album.
No turkey at home today, just fried chicken, sausages, falafel, ham, and salmon. I don't miss turkey, the main reason it's popular is that a whole turkey is the cheapest way to feed meat to a larger family.
But I went for a walk and, after hardly seeing them for many months, almost immediately ran into the Albany turkey flock. I counted 22 of them. Watched them strut around, pecking at food in people's front yards. Mostly bugs I guess, though one turkey was attacking an apple.
I wasn't the only one hanging around to watch the birds; a couple of Asian women were as well, squatting on their heels in a way I still can't do comfortably.
Moving on, my "pay visual attention to the world" project had me noticed the bike infrastructure on Marin. While still far short of a protected bike path, they have tried to go beyond the most minimal painted bike lane. There are stripes on the inside edge of the lane, presumably meant to keep cars from parking sloppily and also to keep bikes from riding to close to door-zone cars. A car lane ends, and plastic bollards keep merging cars, or cars coming out of curbside parking, from being too sloppy. Further on, more plastic bollards keep cars from hugging the corner of an intersection.
I also have a couple photos of interesting house architecture.
Not shown are features of Solano Ave, the local "ye olde main street". Most of the intersections have bulb-outs, so a pedestrian only has to cross the width two traffic lanes -- no parking or turn lanes in the way. Most of the parking is diagonal, which I realized narrows the street compared to parallel parking, and probably also makes drivers nervous about cars suddenly backing up out of parking, thus slowing traffic down two different way.
And finally, at dusk, I discovered that wild turkeys are roosting birds. I ran across the flock again (well, a flock, but I bet it's the same), on the Ohlone path. I'd known before that they actually can fly, I've seen one on on a roof, and even seen them fly into trees in this exact spot. But back then, it was just a couple of birds.
This time, bird after bird seemed to work up the energy or courage to take off, some of them flying over the elevated BART line, and into the trees, until we had gone from most turkeys on the ground to most turkeys on the trees. I tried taking a few photos, first backlit by the sunset and then from the side, but none are great. Still, you can make them out. Presumably they mean to perch there overnight, which for the size and ungainliness of these birds, is impressive. Presumably they are good at not falling out in their sleep.
I realized that they might choose this spot because it lets them cheat by working up some height, too. On the footpath, facing north, trees are to your left, and to your right is a little rise of dirt, and beyond (and above) it someone's fence. The first birds I saw fly tonight had hopped up onto the fence first. Many of the rest took off from the rise, or ran down it with their wings open before taking off.
No turkey at home today, just fried chicken, sausages, falafel, ham, and salmon. I don't miss turkey, the main reason it's popular is that a whole turkey is the cheapest way to feed meat to a larger family.
But I went for a walk and, after hardly seeing them for many months, almost immediately ran into the Albany turkey flock. I counted 22 of them. Watched them strut around, pecking at food in people's front yards. Mostly bugs I guess, though one turkey was attacking an apple.
I wasn't the only one hanging around to watch the birds; a couple of Asian women were as well, squatting on their heels in a way I still can't do comfortably.
Moving on, my "pay visual attention to the world" project had me noticed the bike infrastructure on Marin. While still far short of a protected bike path, they have tried to go beyond the most minimal painted bike lane. There are stripes on the inside edge of the lane, presumably meant to keep cars from parking sloppily and also to keep bikes from riding to close to door-zone cars. A car lane ends, and plastic bollards keep merging cars, or cars coming out of curbside parking, from being too sloppy. Further on, more plastic bollards keep cars from hugging the corner of an intersection.
I also have a couple photos of interesting house architecture.
Not shown are features of Solano Ave, the local "ye olde main street". Most of the intersections have bulb-outs, so a pedestrian only has to cross the width two traffic lanes -- no parking or turn lanes in the way. Most of the parking is diagonal, which I realized narrows the street compared to parallel parking, and probably also makes drivers nervous about cars suddenly backing up out of parking, thus slowing traffic down two different way.
And finally, at dusk, I discovered that wild turkeys are roosting birds. I ran across the flock again (well, a flock, but I bet it's the same), on the Ohlone path. I'd known before that they actually can fly, I've seen one on on a roof, and even seen them fly into trees in this exact spot. But back then, it was just a couple of birds.
This time, bird after bird seemed to work up the energy or courage to take off, some of them flying over the elevated BART line, and into the trees, until we had gone from most turkeys on the ground to most turkeys on the trees. I tried taking a few photos, first backlit by the sunset and then from the side, but none are great. Still, you can make them out. Presumably they mean to perch there overnight, which for the size and ungainliness of these birds, is impressive. Presumably they are good at not falling out in their sleep.
I realized that they might choose this spot because it lets them cheat by working up some height, too. On the footpath, facing north, trees are to your left, and to your right is a little rise of dirt, and beyond (and above) it someone's fence. The first birds I saw fly tonight had hopped up onto the fence first. Many of the rest took off from the rise, or ran down it with their wings open before taking off.
I haven't been on a bike in 5 years. Was moving around Boston a lot, then found my bike had disappeared, then was moving around between cities, and haven't felt like dodging cars or figuring out where the next bikeshare station was. But today I rented a bike in Vancouver, from a shop, and took it down a bike path on Victoria, then to the Seawall...ish. I guess the actual Seawall is closed due to recent damage? But was on Beach, and then some road in Stanley Park. I eventually realized it's apparently one-way, counterclockwise, and I was going the wrong way. This seems obnoxious if you go partway and want to abort. I did turn back, then along the south edge, and started up the proper way. Then did turn back, which seemed okay since a lot of people had passed me going the 'wrong way', though no one had at the western end. Still, it was fun, if chilly.
The shop asked me "sporty or comfortable?" Comfortable, as close to a city bike as they could get, mostly upright, 'step through', 3 gear. Free helmet and lock loans, too. No lights on the bike -- I was told most of their business is in the summer, where they close before dark. Technically they close before night today too, 5pm but it was getting dim... I did remember how to ride, no problem, though after a while my tailbone hurt a lot, and still does even sitting in a very comfy armchair. Two people have told me you just get used to it or adapt after a while. Maybe that's my problem, I've been using beds or very padded chairs for so long that even sitting on a normal chair for long hurts now.
In bad news, I've been laid off. My company was profitable, but fragile, getting half its revenue from one client. Client cut their costs, so employer is cutting theirs... Sigh.
The shop asked me "sporty or comfortable?" Comfortable, as close to a city bike as they could get, mostly upright, 'step through', 3 gear. Free helmet and lock loans, too. No lights on the bike -- I was told most of their business is in the summer, where they close before dark. Technically they close before night today too, 5pm but it was getting dim... I did remember how to ride, no problem, though after a while my tailbone hurt a lot, and still does even sitting in a very comfy armchair. Two people have told me you just get used to it or adapt after a while. Maybe that's my problem, I've been using beds or very padded chairs for so long that even sitting on a normal chair for long hurts now.
In bad news, I've been laid off. My company was profitable, but fragile, getting half its revenue from one client. Client cut their costs, so employer is cutting theirs... Sigh.
I've been biking since 1998. Despite this, I've learned very little about bike maintenance. I haven't had to. I recall one flat tire ever, from a nail in SF, a few blocks from my bike shop. My chain popped off once but I got it back on somehow. I fill the tires with borrowed pumps, and I've generally taken the bike in once a year for tune-up. Generally I'd hear "wow, it's in great condition!" I'm a light utility biker who usually kept it indoors, so yeah. Pedals were making grinding sounds at one point, I got them replaced.
The past couple years I've been leaving it outside more, though, since bringing it in is a pain, and I've heard "you should bringing it in more often" as the rust builds up. And very recently I was hearing alarming grinding sounds as I pedaled. So I took it in, and got told my bottom bracket is "out" and loose. That's apparently not a big problem, though; the real one was my chain being dry, and looking fairly rusty. So I was persuaded to buy some oil and apply it myself. I got spray, thinking it'd be more convenient, then at home got alarmed by the warning label. Oh well. I did apply it, and woo! Huge difference today, no grinding sound.
So yeah, after 18 years, I've oiled my bike chain. Or, after 18 years, I've finally needed to.
Oil's weird. My one bit of self-guided maintenance was oiling the hinges on my folding shopping baskets when they got stiff. I'd apply some vegetable -- usually olive -- oil by finger to the hinges. Somehow it wicks in and everything becomes so much looser.
***
The local market had Cajun seasoned pork on sale. Pork what? It didn't say. I figured I'd take a chance. Put it in a frying pan, covered it, had it on decently high heat for 15-20 minutes. No additional oil, just what was in the cast iron already, so sort of baking it. Worked pretty well. On flipping I realized it was pork ribs; the hardest bit was cutting them apart so I could eat them.
***
I've known vaguely of Roald Dahl's Matilda for a long time; over Christmas I was exposed to the soundtrack of the musical, I guess. I finally checked it out today and read it. Mildly enjoyable, I guess. I was stuck by the long list of books Matilda had read by age 5, I wonder if Dahl was hoping to inspire some kids to go try Dickens and Austen themselves. I was surprised by the big twist.
***
Spam I just got: "Jesus's Lost Words Stun Christians (Not in the Bible)", from the "Laissez Faire Club". What.
The past couple years I've been leaving it outside more, though, since bringing it in is a pain, and I've heard "you should bringing it in more often" as the rust builds up. And very recently I was hearing alarming grinding sounds as I pedaled. So I took it in, and got told my bottom bracket is "out" and loose. That's apparently not a big problem, though; the real one was my chain being dry, and looking fairly rusty. So I was persuaded to buy some oil and apply it myself. I got spray, thinking it'd be more convenient, then at home got alarmed by the warning label. Oh well. I did apply it, and woo! Huge difference today, no grinding sound.
So yeah, after 18 years, I've oiled my bike chain. Or, after 18 years, I've finally needed to.
Oil's weird. My one bit of self-guided maintenance was oiling the hinges on my folding shopping baskets when they got stiff. I'd apply some vegetable -- usually olive -- oil by finger to the hinges. Somehow it wicks in and everything becomes so much looser.
***
The local market had Cajun seasoned pork on sale. Pork what? It didn't say. I figured I'd take a chance. Put it in a frying pan, covered it, had it on decently high heat for 15-20 minutes. No additional oil, just what was in the cast iron already, so sort of baking it. Worked pretty well. On flipping I realized it was pork ribs; the hardest bit was cutting them apart so I could eat them.
***
I've known vaguely of Roald Dahl's Matilda for a long time; over Christmas I was exposed to the soundtrack of the musical, I guess. I finally checked it out today and read it. Mildly enjoyable, I guess. I was stuck by the long list of books Matilda had read by age 5, I wonder if Dahl was hoping to inspire some kids to go try Dickens and Austen themselves. I was surprised by the big twist.
***
Spam I just got: "Jesus's Lost Words Stun Christians (Not in the Bible)", from the "Laissez Faire Club". What.
I. Headphones
I keep buying cheap earbuds and they keep breaking mysteriously. I'm not sure this is avoidable, even if you spend lots of money. Well, there is some alleged "Rugged" model out there. I figure as long as they're cheap enough it's okay, but I searched anyway, and found good reviews for the Panasonic Ergo-fit TPM 125. Also some others. Not necessarily for ruggedness, but for sounding good and fitting well at a $10 price point. And Panasonic has a good reputation with me, I've liked all few of their products I've owned (a walkman tape player, a VCR) compared to alternatives. And Consumer Reports rated them very highly for reliability a while back.
OTOH I also like instant gratification, and when I popped into a Dollar Tree the other day, I found earbuds there (despite what the two employees I asked thought) for, yes, a dollar. I bought three different ones.
One is technically over ear -- not like a muff, just hooks that go over your fleshy bit. Sounds okay but not that comfortable, and pops out when I try to wear my actual noise muffs over them. The second one sounded okay but smelled of plastic so strongly that I got paranoid about cheap Chinese products and put it in my spare room to air out. The third one I opened too and left to air as well.
Then I decided to go by Panasonic. Never seen them in a store so away! to Amazon! Next day wasn't that much more compared to basic shipping, so I indulged, and they came tonight. Sound fine and fit well, yes; nothing's going on for me to judge their noise isolation properties. And they don't smell toxic.
Keep in mind I'm no connoisseur, so feel free to be skeptical about my ideas about "sounds fine."
II. Bikes and pedestrians
So when I'm a pedestrian, I hate it when a bike zips by me at speed. "What if I'd stepped to the side for some reason?" I wonder. So when I sidewalk -- which I do a lot, because cars are scary -- I try to pass peds considerately, with enough space that I'd miss them even after a big sudden step sideways. If I can't I slow down a lot; if they look particularly fragile or unpredictable (senior, child, dog) I slow down even more, to pushing with my feet if need be.
OTOH I admit that from the other side, sometimes you can model the ped so that they seem predictable and you don't have to be that chary. Today I had an example: I was taking my safety-cut (I'm not sure it's a short-cut) across Harvard's extended campus, and a woman was crossing from left to right. Totally unaware of me, but given the paths and visibility, it totally made sense that I could zip by her on the left with little risk.
III. The Martian
I read the book a while back and liked it. I've heard the movie is good and sort of thought I should see it. When I realized it had left the Somerville theater (which is nice and walkable) I realized it was starting to fade and I should go see it Now. Happily I got two friends to come with me to the Alewife/Apple Cinmea. It was pretty good. They cut out at least two crises from the book, and may have jazzed up the final intercept a bit, I'm not sure. I'm still skeptical that Martian storms are at all like that. But good. I cried. I was disappointed they cut Mark's boobies emoticon/leet after they told him he was live.
As for the theater, I miss Somerville. Or Kendall. We had to buy tickets from the concession stand, waiting for her to finish getting food for other people. While there's a certain labor efficiency, it's also inefficient for people not planning to buy stuff. And she refused to give me a cup of water. I don't know if they'd have let me bring in a backpack with a water bottle inside. Oddly, there seemed to be lots of other employees standing around doing nothing.
I'm fairly sure that Kendall gave me a cup of water when I asked, and I don't remember grievances against it or Somerville, so probably either got cups or brought my backpack in.
The three of us stood in the lobby talking about it for a bit; right after the other two split off a woman asked me what we'd just seen. I guess we sounded animated and excited, I'm skeptical she was randomly hitting on me.
I keep buying cheap earbuds and they keep breaking mysteriously. I'm not sure this is avoidable, even if you spend lots of money. Well, there is some alleged "Rugged" model out there. I figure as long as they're cheap enough it's okay, but I searched anyway, and found good reviews for the Panasonic Ergo-fit TPM 125. Also some others. Not necessarily for ruggedness, but for sounding good and fitting well at a $10 price point. And Panasonic has a good reputation with me, I've liked all few of their products I've owned (a walkman tape player, a VCR) compared to alternatives. And Consumer Reports rated them very highly for reliability a while back.
OTOH I also like instant gratification, and when I popped into a Dollar Tree the other day, I found earbuds there (despite what the two employees I asked thought) for, yes, a dollar. I bought three different ones.
One is technically over ear -- not like a muff, just hooks that go over your fleshy bit. Sounds okay but not that comfortable, and pops out when I try to wear my actual noise muffs over them. The second one sounded okay but smelled of plastic so strongly that I got paranoid about cheap Chinese products and put it in my spare room to air out. The third one I opened too and left to air as well.
Then I decided to go by Panasonic. Never seen them in a store so away! to Amazon! Next day wasn't that much more compared to basic shipping, so I indulged, and they came tonight. Sound fine and fit well, yes; nothing's going on for me to judge their noise isolation properties. And they don't smell toxic.
Keep in mind I'm no connoisseur, so feel free to be skeptical about my ideas about "sounds fine."
II. Bikes and pedestrians
So when I'm a pedestrian, I hate it when a bike zips by me at speed. "What if I'd stepped to the side for some reason?" I wonder. So when I sidewalk -- which I do a lot, because cars are scary -- I try to pass peds considerately, with enough space that I'd miss them even after a big sudden step sideways. If I can't I slow down a lot; if they look particularly fragile or unpredictable (senior, child, dog) I slow down even more, to pushing with my feet if need be.
OTOH I admit that from the other side, sometimes you can model the ped so that they seem predictable and you don't have to be that chary. Today I had an example: I was taking my safety-cut (I'm not sure it's a short-cut) across Harvard's extended campus, and a woman was crossing from left to right. Totally unaware of me, but given the paths and visibility, it totally made sense that I could zip by her on the left with little risk.
III. The Martian
I read the book a while back and liked it. I've heard the movie is good and sort of thought I should see it. When I realized it had left the Somerville theater (which is nice and walkable) I realized it was starting to fade and I should go see it Now. Happily I got two friends to come with me to the Alewife/Apple Cinmea. It was pretty good. They cut out at least two crises from the book, and may have jazzed up the final intercept a bit, I'm not sure. I'm still skeptical that Martian storms are at all like that. But good. I cried. I was disappointed they cut Mark's boobies emoticon/leet after they told him he was live.
As for the theater, I miss Somerville. Or Kendall. We had to buy tickets from the concession stand, waiting for her to finish getting food for other people. While there's a certain labor efficiency, it's also inefficient for people not planning to buy stuff. And she refused to give me a cup of water. I don't know if they'd have let me bring in a backpack with a water bottle inside. Oddly, there seemed to be lots of other employees standing around doing nothing.
I'm fairly sure that Kendall gave me a cup of water when I asked, and I don't remember grievances against it or Somerville, so probably either got cups or brought my backpack in.
The three of us stood in the lobby talking about it for a bit; right after the other two split off a woman asked me what we'd just seen. I guess we sounded animated and excited, I'm skeptical she was randomly hitting on me.
I've never been much of a long distance biker; the fast majority of my rides are 10-20 minutes probalby 13-20. Shorter than that and I walk, longer than that and I don't bother. There've been the rare 'expeditions' into Altadena, or the SF Zoo, or further and further up the Minuteman bike trail, all the way to Bedford once -- 19 km each way. But mostly I'm a utility biker on a cheap mountain bike.
Well, motivated by various desires for more exercise and sunlight and such, I headed out for Bedford again. Leaving at 9:30! it wasn't too warm, 25 C. Still, I packed *two* liter bottles of water, as well as my spritzer.
Nothing too exciting at first, just biking and timing (25 minutes from Alewife to the Arlington TJ, Google says 23 minutes and 6.1 km, so I was doing 14.6 kph or 9 mph.) I noticed lots of side paths into nature preserves, as well as Spy Pond of course, and an art museum in Arlington; plenty of stuff to explore, if I wished. But I wished to go to Bedford and back.
One thing I noted: past Lexingont, some other bikers greeted me randomly, and I started doing the same myself to oncoming people. It sounds silly, but the smiles and acknowledgments with total strangers felt good.
So, I get there. The building at the trail end is only open weekends, but there's water fountain, and an older biker I asked showed me public bathrooms around the corner. So there's some utilities. Not much else -- like the much closer end of the Belmont bike path, you're dumped out into nother but busy streets.
But here's where my day got interesting. I asked another woman (whom I though was east Indian), whether the trail truly ended. Yes -- but there are dirt paths you can take to Concord and toward Walden and such. Interesting, I filed it away for later. I got to pay her back by pointing out the water fountain and bathrooms.
Then she asked if I wanted to follow her and her male companion to Concord. "Sure," I said, with the privilege of not even have to think about my safety. And I did. Down Loomis, and then left onto some path.
Good thing: on my own, I doubt I'd have had the courage to brave a narrow dirt path, unmarked, especially with T-Mobile's habit of dropping signal when I need it, not that Google knows about this route. We pretty much went in a straight line, so I could probably duplicate the route. The path itself is through some nature preserve, I later learned. Also... well, I'm glad I'm on a cheap and heavy bike; some small rocks in the path were surprisingly bumpy, and there were some dust pits near the end that made me worry about traction.
A friend IDs it as the Reformatory Branch Path. Yep. Huh, Google does know about it.
"This is Concord," she said. They split off, I found myself at Concord Road, eyeing some giant preserve across it, along with a hidden trail extension. Go bacK? Go on to Walden or the interesting parts of Concord, as she suggested? (I'd found that those were way south of where I was -- 20-24 minutes by Google time.) I figured I'd try for Walden, and noted it'd be faster to go to the train station than to bike back. Granted it's mostly downhill from Bedford.
She'd mentioned pastures; I saw farms. Like the Frank Scimone farm, with a giant sunflower, fields of corn or such, a decrepit greenhouse, and a flowers and produce stand, also looking somewhat decrepit. I bought a peach and a tomato; the peach was decent, haven't had the tomato yet. Some other produce was falling apart and covered in flies, though.
Down Concord, which turns into Bedford Street, then left onto Old Bedford Road, where out of nowhere a giant tree branch fell down with a dry creaking sound. And by 'branch' I meanmore like 1/3 of the trunk -- one of those trees that forks low down, and one of the tines just fell over. I gave that tree a wide berth.
More farms and other stuff to explore, if you wanted to roam old Concord, and a road I thought was rather faster than she'd led me to believe. 35 mph limit, which means even faster cars. I sidewalked most of it, but couldn't always.
I had another first, though: while I've used Google Maps a lot, I've never used the car GPS-style navigation voice. Figured it might serve me here, even speaking up from my pocket, and it kind of did.
Crossing Concord Turnpike was a pain, and the cars are REALLY FAST as you stand in the middle waiting for the next walk sign... though I didn't know the half of it.
Finally, Walden Pond! Looked on the left for bike parking, saw a replica of Thoreau's house, went down the hill to the right and found racks right by the pond. Sweet! And more water fountains!
OTOH I was totally unprepared for a beach, and I was running out of energy to go hiking around. By my stopwatch I'd been in motion for about two hours from home, not counting the various pauses. Remember that I usually don't do more than 20 minutes. And the temperature was up to 32 C -- not bad in the shade and with the wind of a bike, more oppressive standing still.
Chatted a bit with a ranger about trails, and how they should put up signs saying "bike parking and no trash cans down here".
And so I headed to downtown Concord, which is when it got unpleasant. Naturally I crossed Walden road to head back the way I'd come. But see, there's no real bike paths as such here, just a white line marking off the edge of the road. Coming, I could often pretend that was a bike lane, if narrow. Going... it was really narrow. I ended up walking to the intersection of Walden and the Turnpike.
Which is when I found no crosswalks. There's only one crosswalk, on the Pond side. I had no legal way of escaping my corner. I did, of course, but eww.
Then Walden continued to have a missing path problem for a bit: I continued to salmon even after that changed, since I was supposed to turn left onto Thoreau. Which also isn't bike friendly, until a sidewalk crops up on the other side.
Finally, the train station. I thought of exploring Concord before the next train, but was really beat. Hoooome.
Another first: I'd never taken my bike on commuter rail before. Turns out a 40 lb bike up rather steep and narrow steps is hard. I backed off to let the other passengers on, and finally wrestled it up. Then I folded up the basket, thinking that might make it easier to get off. Turns out, at Porter Square they let us off at a DIFFERENT door, so we had to dash our bikes down the aisle. Good thing I'd closed my basket, I'm not sure it would have fit.
'We', I said? The Indian couple who led me to Concord in the first place were also taking that train back, to Porter Square, even...
So, in the end, I probably biked as much as I would have simply coming back from Bedford. Maybe pedaled more, rather than coasting. But I got to see a lot more!
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mindstalk/sets/72157656754439411
Well, motivated by various desires for more exercise and sunlight and such, I headed out for Bedford again. Leaving at 9:30! it wasn't too warm, 25 C. Still, I packed *two* liter bottles of water, as well as my spritzer.
Nothing too exciting at first, just biking and timing (25 minutes from Alewife to the Arlington TJ, Google says 23 minutes and 6.1 km, so I was doing 14.6 kph or 9 mph.) I noticed lots of side paths into nature preserves, as well as Spy Pond of course, and an art museum in Arlington; plenty of stuff to explore, if I wished. But I wished to go to Bedford and back.
One thing I noted: past Lexingont, some other bikers greeted me randomly, and I started doing the same myself to oncoming people. It sounds silly, but the smiles and acknowledgments with total strangers felt good.
So, I get there. The building at the trail end is only open weekends, but there's water fountain, and an older biker I asked showed me public bathrooms around the corner. So there's some utilities. Not much else -- like the much closer end of the Belmont bike path, you're dumped out into nother but busy streets.
But here's where my day got interesting. I asked another woman (whom I though was east Indian), whether the trail truly ended. Yes -- but there are dirt paths you can take to Concord and toward Walden and such. Interesting, I filed it away for later. I got to pay her back by pointing out the water fountain and bathrooms.
Then she asked if I wanted to follow her and her male companion to Concord. "Sure," I said, with the privilege of not even have to think about my safety. And I did. Down Loomis, and then left onto some path.
Good thing: on my own, I doubt I'd have had the courage to brave a narrow dirt path, unmarked, especially with T-Mobile's habit of dropping signal when I need it, not that Google knows about this route. We pretty much went in a straight line, so I could probably duplicate the route. The path itself is through some nature preserve, I later learned. Also... well, I'm glad I'm on a cheap and heavy bike; some small rocks in the path were surprisingly bumpy, and there were some dust pits near the end that made me worry about traction.
A friend IDs it as the Reformatory Branch Path. Yep. Huh, Google does know about it.
"This is Concord," she said. They split off, I found myself at Concord Road, eyeing some giant preserve across it, along with a hidden trail extension. Go bacK? Go on to Walden or the interesting parts of Concord, as she suggested? (I'd found that those were way south of where I was -- 20-24 minutes by Google time.) I figured I'd try for Walden, and noted it'd be faster to go to the train station than to bike back. Granted it's mostly downhill from Bedford.
She'd mentioned pastures; I saw farms. Like the Frank Scimone farm, with a giant sunflower, fields of corn or such, a decrepit greenhouse, and a flowers and produce stand, also looking somewhat decrepit. I bought a peach and a tomato; the peach was decent, haven't had the tomato yet. Some other produce was falling apart and covered in flies, though.
Down Concord, which turns into Bedford Street, then left onto Old Bedford Road, where out of nowhere a giant tree branch fell down with a dry creaking sound. And by 'branch' I meanmore like 1/3 of the trunk -- one of those trees that forks low down, and one of the tines just fell over. I gave that tree a wide berth.
More farms and other stuff to explore, if you wanted to roam old Concord, and a road I thought was rather faster than she'd led me to believe. 35 mph limit, which means even faster cars. I sidewalked most of it, but couldn't always.
I had another first, though: while I've used Google Maps a lot, I've never used the car GPS-style navigation voice. Figured it might serve me here, even speaking up from my pocket, and it kind of did.
Crossing Concord Turnpike was a pain, and the cars are REALLY FAST as you stand in the middle waiting for the next walk sign... though I didn't know the half of it.
Finally, Walden Pond! Looked on the left for bike parking, saw a replica of Thoreau's house, went down the hill to the right and found racks right by the pond. Sweet! And more water fountains!
OTOH I was totally unprepared for a beach, and I was running out of energy to go hiking around. By my stopwatch I'd been in motion for about two hours from home, not counting the various pauses. Remember that I usually don't do more than 20 minutes. And the temperature was up to 32 C -- not bad in the shade and with the wind of a bike, more oppressive standing still.
Chatted a bit with a ranger about trails, and how they should put up signs saying "bike parking and no trash cans down here".
And so I headed to downtown Concord, which is when it got unpleasant. Naturally I crossed Walden road to head back the way I'd come. But see, there's no real bike paths as such here, just a white line marking off the edge of the road. Coming, I could often pretend that was a bike lane, if narrow. Going... it was really narrow. I ended up walking to the intersection of Walden and the Turnpike.
Which is when I found no crosswalks. There's only one crosswalk, on the Pond side. I had no legal way of escaping my corner. I did, of course, but eww.
Then Walden continued to have a missing path problem for a bit: I continued to salmon even after that changed, since I was supposed to turn left onto Thoreau. Which also isn't bike friendly, until a sidewalk crops up on the other side.
Finally, the train station. I thought of exploring Concord before the next train, but was really beat. Hoooome.
Another first: I'd never taken my bike on commuter rail before. Turns out a 40 lb bike up rather steep and narrow steps is hard. I backed off to let the other passengers on, and finally wrestled it up. Then I folded up the basket, thinking that might make it easier to get off. Turns out, at Porter Square they let us off at a DIFFERENT door, so we had to dash our bikes down the aisle. Good thing I'd closed my basket, I'm not sure it would have fit.
'We', I said? The Indian couple who led me to Concord in the first place were also taking that train back, to Porter Square, even...
So, in the end, I probably biked as much as I would have simply coming back from Bedford. Maybe pedaled more, rather than coasting. But I got to see a lot more!
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mindstalk/sets/72157656754439411
random stuff
2015-03-14 23:48A riddle! Not mine:
We are little airy creatures,
All of different voice and features;
One of us in glass is set,
One of us you'll find in jet,
T'other you may see in tin,
And the fourth a box within;
If the fifth you should pursue,
It can never fly from you.
----
I've sometimes seen "lady/princess in the streets, hooker/slut/??? in the sheets". Today I saw "Senpai in the streets, Hentai in the sheets."
---
links:
Swiss fines wealth based fines
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8446545.stm
Finland fines day fines
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-home-of-the-103000-speeding-ticket/387484/
Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland also have
some sliding-scale fines
bike lanes don't hurt businesses bike lanes and businesses
http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2015/03/the-complete-business-case-for-converting-street-parking-into-bike-lanes/387595/?utm_source=SFFB
Thomas Piketty on Greece, eurozone monster
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/thomas-piketty-interview-about-the-european-financial-crisis-a-1022629.html
getting RPGs on the same page tool
https://bankuei.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/the-same-page-tool/
We are little airy creatures,
All of different voice and features;
One of us in glass is set,
One of us you'll find in jet,
T'other you may see in tin,
And the fourth a box within;
If the fifth you should pursue,
It can never fly from you.
----
I've sometimes seen "lady/princess in the streets, hooker/slut/??? in the sheets". Today I saw "Senpai in the streets, Hentai in the sheets."
---
links:
Swiss fines wealth based fines
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8446545.stm
Finland fines day fines
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-home-of-the-103000-speeding-ticket/387484/
Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland also have
some sliding-scale fines
bike lanes don't hurt businesses bike lanes and businesses
http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2015/03/the-complete-business-case-for-converting-street-parking-into-bike-lanes/387595/?utm_source=SFFB
Thomas Piketty on Greece, eurozone monster
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/thomas-piketty-interview-about-the-european-financial-crisis-a-1022629.html
getting RPGs on the same page tool
https://bankuei.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/the-same-page-tool/
https://medium.com/p/9316abbd5735
after 15 million miles traveled, the Citibike program has still caused not a single fatality for either pedestrians or riders, and fewer than 30 serious injuries, while helping to improve the overall safety of the city’s streets.
In each of these cases, a thoughtful, intelligent observer is prodded by a mix of fear and anger to give an alarming anecdote more weight than an abundance of evidence, or even common sense. On a street carrying thousands of 3000 pound vehicles a day at 40mph or more, we focus our fears on the handful of 30 pound vehicles moving half that fast.
The CDC reports that 59,925 pedestrians were killed by motor vehicles between 1999 and 2009, while bikes (which are used for about 1.6% of all trips in the US) killed 63 in that same period, or roughly 0.1% as many.
drivers do rolling stops too
http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2009/04/so_you_think_cyclists_are_the.html
A 2002 study by England's Transport Research Laboratory found that when bicyclists violated a traffic law, motorists saw it as symptomatic of reckless attitudes and incompetence among people who choose to bike. However, when they saw another driver breaking the same law, they tended to see it as somehow required by unpredictable circumstances.
after 15 million miles traveled, the Citibike program has still caused not a single fatality for either pedestrians or riders, and fewer than 30 serious injuries, while helping to improve the overall safety of the city’s streets.
In each of these cases, a thoughtful, intelligent observer is prodded by a mix of fear and anger to give an alarming anecdote more weight than an abundance of evidence, or even common sense. On a street carrying thousands of 3000 pound vehicles a day at 40mph or more, we focus our fears on the handful of 30 pound vehicles moving half that fast.
The CDC reports that 59,925 pedestrians were killed by motor vehicles between 1999 and 2009, while bikes (which are used for about 1.6% of all trips in the US) killed 63 in that same period, or roughly 0.1% as many.
drivers do rolling stops too
http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2009/04/so_you_think_cyclists_are_the.html
A 2002 study by England's Transport Research Laboratory found that when bicyclists violated a traffic law, motorists saw it as symptomatic of reckless attitudes and incompetence among people who choose to bike. However, when they saw another driver breaking the same law, they tended to see it as somehow required by unpredictable circumstances.
Dim bicyclists
2013-06-08 22:18Biked for the first time since the heat wave, to Alewife TJ. Don't think I passed more than 6 other bikers, if that. Definitely at least 3 of them were running dark.
What I learned: passing under the big trees on Linnaean Street you really are nigh-invisible, even to a biker (me) with headlight 20-30 feet behind you. I could see him and the six-pack of beer he was carrying in one hand, but I think it'd be totally possible to not notice him if a tad distracted.
I think he technically had a tail reflector, from a few red photons that came glimmering back when I got really close, but it sure wasn't obvious. Granted, my bike light is not a car headlight. Still, now I wonder how many bikes are running with tail reflectors that are at too bad an angle, or some other flaw, to be effective. I guess you could try testing it with a flashlight, but it's a bit more involved than seeing if a tail light is visible from a distance. Hmm, new project.
What I learned: passing under the big trees on Linnaean Street you really are nigh-invisible, even to a biker (me) with headlight 20-30 feet behind you. I could see him and the six-pack of beer he was carrying in one hand, but I think it'd be totally possible to not notice him if a tad distracted.
I think he technically had a tail reflector, from a few red photons that came glimmering back when I got really close, but it sure wasn't obvious. Granted, my bike light is not a car headlight. Still, now I wonder how many bikes are running with tail reflectors that are at too bad an angle, or some other flaw, to be effective. I guess you could try testing it with a flashlight, but it's a bit more involved than seeing if a tail light is visible from a distance. Hmm, new project.
