Every day it gets easier and more enjoyable to ride a bike in Portland, Oregon!
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/adams_promises_to_sacrifice_a.html
Every day it gets easier and more enjoyable to ride a bike in Portland, Oregon!
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/adams_promises_to_sacrifice_a.html
Portland’s own Jeff Mapes has done what many would like to but few have the skill, time or energy to do- document America’s 4th bicycling golden age and compare it to the bicycling meccas of Europe. The book is a comprehensive chance for us to drag our eyes off the pavement ahead of us and see how our local scene fits in with other places in the US and Europe. The bottom line-we’re way behind, but catching fire quickly.
Mapes includes a lot of great statistics for an objective look at where we all really stand, but he also tells a lot of stories of the people who are shaping the “Pedaling Revolution” and pulling more people out of their cars every day in this country. I learned a lot about the culture in my own town, and a whole lot about the happenings in New York, Chicago, Boulder, Davis, Copenhagen and of course the big daddy, Amsterdam. Being a seasoned political journalist, Mapes knows how to tell a story and still keep it succinct.
I’d recommend this book for anyone who’s interested in getting a quick yet indepth look at where we are today in biking and where we might be going. After all, by this time next year we’re all going to be on bikes (I wish).
My how cheap gas changes headlines! Last year it was “SUV’s rot on sales lots while millions flock to gas efficient cars.” Yesterday there was a New York Times article entitled Study Says Minicar Buyers Sacrifice Safety. The implication is that if you want to be safe you should be in the largest vehicle possible. So if everyone drove M-1Abrams tanks then it would be SUV drivers sacrificing safety.
It’s a matter of escalation, if everyone drives a larger car than the last person, then of course the smallest vehicle is going to be the most unsafe. Anyway haven’t SUV’s been proven to be a rollover hazard and therefore more dangerous than smaller cars?
So where does that leave bicycles which are a lot smaller than the smallest car? Here at Pedal, we recognize the dangers of being a defenseless human on 20 lbs. of steel moving at 10-20 miles per hour, but we do it anyway. Dangerous? More than an encasing yourself in steel. Good for you? Certainly. The health benefits for ourselves, our neighborhoods, cities, and planet are undeniable. Here in Portland bicycle use since 2000 has risen 144%, yet traffic fatalities have stayed the same. It’s getting safer to ride a bike here every day. The answer is not to jump in the largest vehicle possible, but rather the smallest.
Once more people get out of the tanks and into smaller cars, or better yet bicycles, then the world will be safer for everyone.
Pedal Bike Tours is proud to be teaming up with Bikes to Rwanda to do a Cafe Bike Tour at the 2009 US Barista Championship March 3-8. Baristas from around the US will be competing to see who’s the best coffee slinger in the US of A. On Thurs. March 5th and Fri. March 6th. we’ll be riding to several of Portland’s best cafe’s to sample their wares before the big parties happening afterwards. Bikes to Rwanda works to get cargo bikes to coffee farmers in Rwanda, allowing small family farms to get their precious beans to market before they spoil. Come on down and check it out!
We just got back from a soul-energizing trip abroad. You know how it is, you haven’t been away for a while and you finally just do it and as soon as you get that passport stamped you wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.
We spent 2 weeks bussing it in a loop from Cancun (skipped it) down the peninsula, through Northern Belize and the Cayes, then out Western Belize into Guatemala, explored Tikal (Indiana Jones style!) then ducked out Guate into Chiapas, and back to Cancun via Palenque and Merida (viva Mexico)!
Why there? Because it’s nearly the cheapest flight out of the country and I’ve been meaning to see Tikal since I missed my chance 15 years ago while traveling in western Guatemala.
I won’t bore you with a lot of stories of jungle choked ruins, boat rides up crocodile infested rivers, snorkeling with sharks and sting rays or showering under pristine waterfalls. What I do want to mention is the incredible number of bicycles we saw, particularly three wheeled cargo bikes like this one:
One of hundreds of cargo bikes we saw.
These things were everywhere and carrying everything, from chicken cages, to crates of oranges to mobile food stands:
We saw the same model, same setup everywhere we went. It’s single speed and the entire front cargo area pivots on the front wheels.
We even saw them on the side of the road seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
Of course we saw lots of regular bikes too. Everywhere you looked there were people pedaling complacently, on their way to work in the fields or home from the office. Kids, farmers, whole families sometimes; father riding, mother sitting sidesaddle on the rear rack and baby on her lap. They were as common as the stray dogs one sees everywhere.
In the whole two weeks I only once saw a brand I recognized. Of course with this many bicycles, there were also lots of bike shops. In larger cities they seemed to cluster in certain sections of town, there’d be 5 bike shops within a block. In smaller villages it was likely to be a shed, open on three sides, with one guy hammering on a wheel and another reading the paper by flashlight while a customer waited for his sole means of transport to be beaten back into service.
And speaking of flashlights, bringing your own can really come in handy when wanting to do a little biking at night. In places like the car-free Caye islands in Belize see photo of Todd riding the sand), riding at night is a blast but it helps to have your own small LED flashlight. If you’re looking for one for a future trip, check out this great article on the best LED Flashlights of 2019.
I was very encouraged to see so many people riding their bicycles for the short distances they travel to carry out their daily tasks and I hope they continue to do so until the next time I’m able to go back and visit.
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