Portland Bicycle News

[darkemeralds]

Most American bike-riders know that Portland is pretty forward in the bike movement. Well, check this out! I took it from an announcement* that was just released to employees of the City of Portland this morning:

Don’t forget that tomorrow is the first FURLOUGH FRIDAY for the City, so don’t come to work. In case you missed Wednesday’s Council meeting, an emergency ordinance was passed to create furlough days for all employees on the first and last Friday of each month. The salary savings will be used to fund the new Portland Bicycle Streetcar Project, which makes specialized streetcars available for bicyclists who don’t want to get wet when it rains. Each streetcar is equipped with treadmills so the bicyclists can ride their bikes while riding the streetcar. A Portland Loo will be installed in each car. The Portland Bicycle Streetcar Project is part of City Council’s desire to get 150% of all citizens to ride bicycles by next Thursday.

* In the Daily News, the production of a waggish friend of mine.

Bicycles, Rolling Stops, and the Idaho Stop: Great video for bike-riders everywhere

[darkemeralds]

Gosh, I hope I'm not spamming the comm today. This just came to my attention and I thought it was fantastic and worth sharing. It's an instructional video designed to explain the "Idaho stop law." In the US state of Idaho, traffic law allows bicyclists to use a rolling stop--i.e., an informed slowdown--at stop signs, rather than requiring a full stop in all instances.

"Cyclists are scofflaws and always blow stop signs" is a common complaint by motorists who sometimes seem to think that this fact rules out funding for cycling infrastructure (or, in extreme cases, justifies attempted vehicular manslaughter).

This video, by Spencer Boomhower, is the clearest, most rational explanation I've seen for why the Idaho stop law makes perfect sense as a general cycling strategy on streets and roadways shared with cars. It's well worth showing to non-bike-riding friends and family.

( Check it out! )

dynamos

[wychwood]

Does anyone here have experience with using a dynamo lamp on their bike? It looks like I'm going to have to replace my bike-lights again, and I was considering going for a dynamo as a better option ecologically and also over the longer term, but my mother claims that it makes the bike twice as hard to ride, and the lamp stops working if you're waiting to pull out or whatever so they're less safe. I suspect she's exaggerating, but I've never actually used one - I'm hoping some of you have!

Does it make riding noticeably harder? Is the extra expense (vs buying battery lights) worth it? Are there other considerations that I should bear in mind?

Meet the Magnificent Folding Doolittle

[uhhuhlex]

Since darkemeralds noted that my bike hasn't been introduced I thought I'd take this opportunity to extol the virtues of Doolittle, my folding bike.

I bought Doolittle on ebay, second hand from a man living in a town not too far away. This man bought it for his wife who rode it around the park once before putting it in the garage. I got a friend to drive me out of pick my beauty up (and snorted a little as the 'I *heart* my bicycle' stickers on the mudguards). To buy this model new it is about £225, but mine was a real steal at £89 virtually new.

Read on for photos and folding bike perving.( Read more... )