It’s not specific to cycling, but some RocBike readers may be interested in my post today at HandCraftedLife on reasons to get out and be active despite the weather.

I’ve written before about visiting Canada, in the previous case, Toronto. Recently I took a trip to Montreal and was very inspired by all the bike commuters. People, if they can bike commute in Montreal and Toronto, we can certainly do it! Well, at least in terms of the weather. What those cities have, however, that we do not, is infrastructure.

For one thing, they have BIXI’s!. I love these. I love how they look, and I hopped on one and loved how it rode as well. Just one speed, very sturdy, and with a cute little front basket. And fenders.

You can buy a year’s subscription for $78 (although the season ends November 30…okay, I guess the weather gets to them, too). Or, you can use a credit card to rent on a less frequent basis. And, the first half hour is free. There are many stations everywhere (they’re the red dots on the map), so I can imagine that you could bike from station to station, picking up and returning at each station, and not pay anything, and get all around the city.

They also have bike lanes, which are separated from the roadway by a narrow median. One morning I went out running and all you could see down the road on the bike lanes was cyclist after cyclist going to work. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me, but it was really an inspiring sight.

And so, I came home inspired! I have been bike commuting more than ever, including this route, with a stop at the University of Rochester both to and from.

The only minor challenge was dealing with clothing issues. I have to be dressed professionally at work, and I work up a sweat quickly. My solution was to wear black pants that look professional but are comfortable to ride in, then I just had to pop into a bathroom to change shirts and shoes. If we had more of a bike commuting culture, I can imagine it would be more acceptable to come to work a bit more casually, but I don’t think we’re there yet!

Ah, well, I could always move to Canada. (Hey, I’d get free health care too!)

This is the
Frederick Douglass Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge, named after two famous Rochesterians. I find it beautiful every day, but especially today with the frost on the ground.

And this is another view, looking towards downtown.

On this crisp morning, I feel incredibly blessed to bike to work.

A couple of weeks ago I took a bike ride near Holley, along the Erie Canal. This portion of the trail is not used much, and neither are many of the buildings, it appears.

I highly recommend that you make a day of it and take the kids to Hurd Orchards, one of western New York’s treasures. In the fall they serve apple pie which is yummy and filling enough to be your lunch.

Here are a few pictures from a couple of years ago. I get no credit for those adorable kids.

When my partner and I go on vacations, we always take Zoe (pictured above). We also always want to get out on our bikes. This presents a problem, because it is always too hot to leave her in our car, and the other campers wouldn’t appreciate our leaving her in our tent. We know that she would bark the whole time. Our previous solution has been doggie day care. but this year, I finally convinced her that we should get a doggie bike basket. If you want to bring your canine companion with you, this is a good solution for a small dog. (Zoe weighs 8 pounds.)

Tanya had her handlebars shortened in order to fit her better, so the basket only fits on my bike. It really didn’t slow me down much at all and I kept up with her pretty well, especially surprising since she’s generally faster than me. Zoe was unsure about it at first, but seemed to settle in pretty quickly.

So far, I’ve only taken it on bike trails and side streets. I would be hesitant to bike on a busy and/or hilly road with it, because the extra weight on the bars takes some getting used to, and I felt like it slowed my reaction time.

A great bonus is that it seems impossible for another rider to pass without smiling and saying, “Aawwwwww,” with the inflection rising at the end.

There seems to be a lot of hostility in bike blogs these days. Everyone has an opinion about wearing helmets (or not), vehicular cycling (or not), bike trails (or not), and so much more. Having an opinion is a great thing; forcing it down others’ throats with vitriol is not.

I just have 2 things to say about all this. First, cycling is not an individual act; it is inherently social, simply by the fact that other people are using the trails/roads/sidewalks. I am both a driver and a cyclist. When a cyclist is biking erratically or is not visible in the dark, it affects me as a driver, by increasing my stress level as I am driving and trying to be safe. Further, if I were to hit that cyclist, it’s not just the cyclist who would be affected. I would be emotionally devastated. Our health care system would take another hit. My loved ones as well as the cyclist’s would be impacted. Insurance costs would go up. So, yes, individuals have the freedom to make choices about how they want to bike. But that freedom does not exist in a vacuum.

Second, could we be a little nicer to each other and to those with whom we share the transportation infrastructure? There’s a great post at EcoVelo to this point.

Read the comments too, where you’ll find, among others, this gem from the post’s author:

“The idea that acting courteously as opposed to confrontationally is somehow going to put us on a slippery slope leading to “laws demanding that all cyclists get out of their way” is a fallacy that has been used all too frequently to justify rude, aggressive riding tactics. What’s going to get us kicked off the roads is disregarding traffic laws, riding irresponsibly, and treating other road users as if we bicyclists operate under our own set of rules (see it too often). You are right, the car is “almighty”, but fighting its supremacy with a head-on frontal assault is not the answer in my opinion. I believe we need to build good will with the general public and politicians to gain the political capital necessary to instigate the infrastructure and policy changes that would make our roads (and trails) more attractive to new bicyclists, thus growing bicycling to the extent we’re all hoping for. In my opinion, the “us versus them” mentality is counterproductive to this goal and has gotten us nowhere in the U.S.”

I would just like to report that, in addition to RocBike’s rank in the top 50 at London Cyclist, my public service announcement has apparently worked.

My rides home over the past couple of weeks have been exceedingly pleasant.

I attribute it to the power of RocBike.

This is so cool. Make your own blinking bike patch, jacket with glowing buttons, or turn signal cycling jacket.

Way beyond my capabilities, but way cool.

Dear men-who-hang-out-near-the-underpass-on-the-trail-I-ride-home (and I don’t mean to be sexist, but you are always men),

1–Why do you hang out there? It’s stinky, full of broken glass, and creepy. Then again, maybe that’s why you hang out there.

2–How many of you are there? Although I have never seen any one individual more than once, and you are of different ages and races, I must assume that you all belong to the same tribe, as your behavior is unfailingly obnoxious, and at least 5 of you are there EVERY afternoon/evening when I bike home, regardless of the time.

3–I hate to be the one to break this to you, but…”Hey, baby, can I get a riiiide?” does not actually inspire women to cancel their plans for the evening, do a 180 on their bike, and jump your bones. (p.s. Nor is it particularly original.)

4–Whether out of aggressiveness or cluelessness, it’s just not charming when you hog the whole trail. Would it really kill you to move over, for just a second, so that I can pass?

5–I would like you to know that I plan to continue to take this route. For one thing, alternate routes involve alarming amounts of cars anxious to escape their work days and head home. For another, I don’t think you’re really dangerous…you just want to display your machismo so your buddies don’t notice your inadequacies.

Finally, you don’t get to hog the trail. I have just as much right to be there as you.

Sincerely,

Every-cyclist-(especially female)-that-passes-by-you

Last weekend, my partner and I (and our dog Zoe) walked most of the length of the Hojack Trail. The trail is about 8 miles round trip, so it would be a short bike ride, but it would be nice to do with kids or with someone new to cycling.

You could also combine it with other trails in the Webster Trails system. If you go to that web page and click on trails, you’ll see an overview map of the whole system.

The sections east of Klem Road abut the backyards of several new developments, which I didn’t enjoy nearly as much as the more wooded sections to the West. The trail is fairly narrow, much more so than the Genesee Greenway, for example. It’s a dirt trail, maybe a tiny bit rocky. (It can be hard to tell on foot vs. bike, but I’m pretty sure I would enjoy cycling it.)

If you go back in about 4-6 weeks, you might find some fruits on these wild strawberries (although I suspect the critters will get to them before any humans can, if my garden is any indication).

Nice Day for a Bike Ride
(In 4 parts)

Ride to work
First day in the seat since my whiplash injury.
A few aches, but I’m feeling okay.

Ride home
Three teenage guys are blocking the path.
Two move, but one stays square in the middle and looks me right in the eyes.
I know a challenge when I see one,
and I’m not in the mood for it.
There’s room for me to pass, but barely.
As I pass, I sarcastically say, “thanks for moving.”
Not really smart.
But ignoring men who harass me gets old.
The guy mocks me, “thanks for moving.”
On a good day, I figure I can out-bike someone who’s bikeless.
But my first day in the seat, with an achy back, is not really my best day.
I’m a little concerned they’ll take chase.
I look in my rear view mirror. No sign of them.
I hear “Fuck you!” yelled at my back.
I want to flip them off, but I refrain.

I start to fume, reflecting on every rude act I’ve experienced or heard about over the past few weeks.
I’m pretty sure that the phrase, “Kids these days,” pops in my head.

As I near my home, I see a boy on his bike, meandering along the sidewalk.
He cheerfully yells out, “Hello!”
I say hello, though not so cheerfully.
Undaunted, he says, “Nice day for a bike ride!”
Smiling now, I say, “Yes, it is!”

Ride to yoga class
Feeling stronger now.
I come upon a couple of young boys on their bikes.
One says hello.
The other rides up alongside me.
I say, “are you gonna race me?”
He smiles and starts pedaling.
I shift my gears and start to pull ahead.
He says, “Oh, you’ve got gears, that’s why you’re faster.”
I smile and keep moving.

Ride home
Twilight.
Sounds of the neighborhood as I pass by.

Yep, nice day for a bike ride.

There’s proof that I got my bike out in the last couple of months, and I’ve even ridden it a couple of times, but not nearly as much as I thought I would. For one, I don’t have studded tires, and we have had an extremely icy winter. Jack and Adam have both written before about the joys of studded tires, and next year I may finally take the plunge.

But there’s another reason I haven’t ridden, and it’s got me coming up with the counter-intuitive notion that bike commuting is actually a form of privilege. Hang with me here…not for many people, of course, I know that. Many people cannot afford cars, and while Rochester’s public bus system isn’t as awful as I thought it would be, it’s often not very convenient or time-efficient.

So I’ll own my privilege…I am solidly middle-class, and I could afford a reasonably nice car if I were willing to go into debt for one (which I’m not…my current car is 13 years old, has 135,000 miles on it, and is literally rotting/rusting away.) But I do have other trappings of a middle-class lifestyle–professional job, kids with multiple commitments, and pursuing a higher degree to boot.

In this kind of weather, when it comes to bike commuting, the sad truth is partly that I just haven’t had the time. When I have to work all day, then pick up my daughter and deposit her somewhere, then head to class for the evening…not to mention fitting in necessities such as purchasing and eating food along the way…there’s not a lot of leeway in the schedule.

Which is what got me thinking of bike commuting as a form of privilege. There are lots of women with a similar schedule to mine–for them, it might be working in a low-wage service job, picking up the kids from day care, then coming to class at the community college. Different details…same challenges. Honestly, I can’t imagine trying to convince any of them that bike commuting is a practical alternative.

It would be great if we lived in a society where it were more practical. In my mind, such a society would pay a living wage, would provide free or very inexpensive education at least up through the bachelor’s degree, free child care, and a public transportation system that was multi-modal and had multiple routes.

But we don’t live in that society. And thus I am reminded not to get high and mighty about being a bike commuter (when I am, indeed, such a person, which is not lately!).

Back in November, Orion Magazine published an article promoting bike commuting and asking for bike commuting pictures to be posted to their Flickr group.

In much more timely news, the New York Times profiled Portland Congressman Earl Blumenauer, founder of the Congressional Bicycle Caucus. Who knew?

Election Day here was a beautiful near 70 degree day, so I took the opportunity for a nice bike ride along the Genesee Riverway Trail through Genesee Valley Park. Although I have mixed feelings about graffiti, I have to admit that I love this one.

I wasn’t the only one who decided to take in as much outdoor recreation as possible.

It was a truly glorious fall day, and I’m glad I have this ride to remember when I think back to the day Barack Obama was elected.

Two of my favorite things! The latest issue of Craft magazine gives two examples of the combination…first, Natan Lawson’s mosaic covered bike…and he rides it!

More pictures at his flickr set.

And even better for this knitting bicyclist…a tiny knitted bicycle!

Got any good craft/bike combos to share??

We write about it often here at RocBike, but that’s because it’s such a treasure. You must get out to the Genesee Valley Greenway, if you live anywhere in western New York. These scenes are from portions of the Greenway between Rochester and Scottsvills.

On a separate trip, we took Zoe, who loves the Greenway, because she gets to run for miles.

A little while ago, Jody over at that which rolls wrote about biking in the Finger Lakes National Forest.

Here are a few great spots in nearby Burdett for cyclists. I’ve never been here when it’s open, but it looks like a great place for service, and they had some new bikes in there as well.

And this is my favorite breakfast/sandwhich spot for miles around.

Right behind the building there’s a waterfall, and there must have been a mill there at some point.

Fall is a great time to visit the Finger Lakes, so get out before the snow flies (not that snow would stop us diehard Rocbike’rs!)

As I had hoped, for the first time since her scary but fortunately quickly-recovered-from accident, my daughter Brianne got out on a bike this weekend!

She said she felt like a 7-year old, but she quickly got right back into it.

I’ m very proud of her!

BSNYC’s post from yesterday’s Links of the Day echoed my own feelings this week…sometimes the fact that I am only one wrong move away from a serious accident makes me pause. I remind myself that such a fact is true even when I’m not on a bike, but cycling ramps up the intensity and immediacy of that knowledge.

This week alone I’ve had several incidents that kicked up the adrenaline a bit. Funny thing is, they’re about equal in terms of whether they happened on a bike trail or on the street.

On the street, there’s been the usual…cars driving way too fast and too close, cars running a red light, cars backing out of driveways with no clue that I’m there. Oh, and cyclists on the wrong side of the road forcing me into traffic.

On the bike trail…again, some of the usual…cyclists rounding a curve without being prepared for me on the other side being the most common.

Then there was a very unusual instance: a pedestrian was walking in the middle of the trail (it’s a multi-use trail). I rang my bell a couple of times, and she froze in place…stopped walking, stood in the middle of the trail, and hunched her arms and shoulders as though she were trying to make herself smaller. I yelled, “Move to the right, please!” But she just stayed there. Fortunately, the trail was wide enough for me to go around her, and there were no other cyclists around.

All of this at the same time that my daughter has said that she’s willing to get back on a bike. Long-time readers of RocBike will know that Jason and I have a special and prior-to-RocBike unknown connection…he came to my assistance when my daughter was hit while biking several years back. I’ve written about how hard it was for me to overcome my fear and get back on a bike after that accident.

I am thrilled that she is ready to get back in the saddle. We will start with some easy trail rides and take it from there. I will put my own awareness of how quickly things can go wrong into trying to educate her about safe cycling. And, even though she’s 17, she will probably actually listen to me. She’s like that.

And I’ll try not to worry. Because life is always shorter than we want it to be. We can live in denial and fritter our time away because we think there’ll always be time in the future to do what we really want to be doing. Or we can live in fear and make ourselves crazy with worry and anxiety. Or we can do what I find the hardest and most uncomfortable of all—live in the full knowledge of the fact that my life and the lives of those I love will inevitably be shorter than I want them to be.

Cycling reminds me of that, and today, as I prepare to take my daughter out for a ride this weekend, I am grateful for the reminder.

Back in April, I visited New York City to see my son’s orchestra perform at Lincoln Center. I took some photos of real live New York city cyclists, and here’s a sampling of what I saw.

Get that person an Xtracycle (or at least some panniers!).

The first beautiful day of Spring in Central Park.

Lots of pedicabs.

It cracks me up that this woman is on her cell phone.

And in this election season, here’s the one political pedicab that I saw.

If you’re interested in more pictures (not all cycling related), you can find them at my Flick page.