bicycles | Entries tagged with commuting

First off, hello! I'm new, here!

I'm also semi-new to cycling, since I've always depended pretty heavily on cars to get me around. Over the past few months, though, money has gotten tighter, so I've been relying more and more on my bike to get to and from work. It's been... an experience!

My town has a lot of bike lanes that are in mostly-working order, which is nice. Cars are usually attentive, if not terribly happy about sharing a lefthand turn lane. My only complaint is hills. Recumbents are not made for uphill, and there isn't a single bit of flat ground on my entire route. It's a fairly short distance-- about a mile or so --but for a more-or-less beginner, every day feels like a marathon.

So! Anyone have tips for a bike-commute newb? Best ways to ease into riding? Things to watch out for in traffic? General advice?

sara

NPR's Codeswitch blog, on minority bicyclists (their adjective) organizing.

There's a story that Veronica O. Davis likes to tell about why she started a cycling group for black women. She was pedaling past a public housing complex near her Washington, D.C., neighborhood one day when a young black girl shouted to her mother, "Mommy, mommy, it's a black lady on a bike."

"At first I was like, 'Why is she so excited?' And I realized I'm probably the first cyclist that she saw who looked like her," said Davis.

That one small experience led to a Twitter message, which then led to a Facebook group. Two years later and now 800 women strong, Black Women Bike: DC is a full-blown cycling movement. And it's not alone.

Minority cycling groups are sprouting all over the country. There's the National Brotherhood of Cyclists, We Bike NYC in New York and Cuidad de Luces/City of Lights in Los Angeles.

A recent report by the League of American Bicyclists cites people of color as the fastest-growing segment of the cycling population. Bicycle commuting rates in those communities are growing, too. The League's Hamzat Sani says that's not surprising.

"You'll see a lot of third-shift, late-shift folks or restaurant workers engaged in cycling because public transportation doesn't work when they get off of work. But those aren't the cyclists we'd see in a magazine, right?" said Sani.

ETA: Post this, go back to my reading page to double-check for typos, and immediately below it is

delux_vivens link to NK Jemisin's recent experience being stopped for biking while black in NYC. Which is...yeah. *sigh*

dragonfly

http://www.slate.com/id/2299432/

But the moment of folly seemed to provide an aperture for new thinking. In the face of this fanciful idea (a traffic-busting flight!) it became possible to demonstrate that cycling, often taken as a non-serious or marginal or even annoying (to some drivers) form of transportation in the U.S., could seem eminently reasonable: Not only the cheapest form of transportation, not merely the one with the smallest carbon footprint, not only the one most beneficial to the health of its user, but the fastest.

sara

Oh, this is neat: so, this weekend, the 405 freeway in L.A. is being shut down for roadwork; this is being referred to as "Carmageddon." Jet Blue has been offering $4 flights from Burbank Airport to Long Beach for $4 for the duration, as a publicity stunt.

But would it be faster just to bike? Never mind the lesser environmental impact.

Tune in tomorrow -- or perhaps later today -- and find out....

ETA: Victory for bicycles and public transit! From

dragonfly:

Places:

1. The bicyclists, 38.4 miles in 1 hr 34 min.
2. The public transit riders in 1 hr 44 min.
3. A rollerblader in 2 hrs 40 min (her start location and time was unwitnessed, so we should call her unofficial *g*).
4. Airline commuters, 2 hrs 54 min.

roadrunnertwice

Link-wander resulted in rediscovering JWZ's epically bitchy bike advice post from '08, so I'm sharing. Fun game: send it to a friend and try to guess how much of it they'll violently disagree with!

(I actually quite like the post, except for the part about riding on sidewalks. An oft-overlooked virtue of the abrasive geek textual aesthetic is its implicit assertion that the problem at hand is a: knowable and b: not too many levels harder than whatever else you have to deal with on a regular basis. It's reassuring, if that's what you're wired for.)

sporky_rat

So, best ideas for cold weather bicycling? Granted, I'm not in the coldest part of the US by any means, but still, 38° for Mississippi is not fun.

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: Hattiesburg, MS

roadrunnertwice

Ah, the wet season. Let's get a great big "welcome back" for all the puddles of decomposing leaves and unidentifiable slime that will be assisting in wipeout-related program activities for the next six months.

I think I managed to avoid any major slime incidents last year, but there was a real gnarly one in early '09 that involved slowing to a stall in the median to let a cop car pass and then losing all friction as soon as I pushed to accelerate. It was epic: I was clipped-in and couldn't put a foot down, so I just fell sideways like a cartoon character hit with a poison dart. The cop totally saw me bite it in his rearview and did not slow down. I ended up with a bruise the shape of California on my hip.

Also, I definitely spun my back wheel at a stoplight yesterday while idly thinking about this post on the commute.

Anyway, take care of yourselves, and watch out for slime on the corners!

sara

A review of office-friendly bike clothes -- but the cost is pretty steep!

What do you find works well for you as bike-to-work (or meetings, or school, or whatever) clothing? I wear a lot of skirts and pants with a high synthetic content, myself, but would welcome other suggestions.

foxfirefey

I've been putting it off while trying to budget, but then my friends got new bikes, and my newly transplanted boyfriend also got a bike, leaving me the ONLY PERSON WITHOUT A BIKE! Meaning I wouldn't be able to go on any fun bike outings until I, too, possessed one. After trying out the Novara Mia, I decided I really didn't like being THAT upright, and ended up getting Cannondale Quick Feminine 4--with fenders and a rack!

Today was the first day I commuted into work (around 2.9 miles), and it went pretty well. I did, however, have to walk my bike up what seems to be a fairly slight upwards incline. Hopefully my legs will get into better shape! I'm looking forward to some quantifiable amount of vigorous exercise being present in my day-to-day activities. And it'd be a shame not to take advantage of my work's facilities--a bike locker and a locker room with towels.

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Dreamwidth Velo Club

Entries tagged with commuting

Suddenly, Cycling

Well, this is cool.

Slate article wrapping up the #flightvsbike race

Only a nobody walks in L.A.

(no subject)

Cold Weather Bicycling

On Slime

Looking sharp and riding comfortably.

Eee I bought a bike

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June 2020

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