Baby It’s Cold Outside! (Book Give Away Mini Contest)

Brrrrrrrrrr!  Damn its cold out!  But that didn’t stop the dozens and dozens of cyclists I saw this morning from getting out there and riding.  Sure they probably are not going for leisure rides, but they are out there and they looked happy!

In the interest in getting rid of a bunch of cycling books I have, and in giving you all something to read while you wait for it to warm up I am going to have a mini-contest.

MINI CONTEST RULES!

The first 6 people to either send me a picture of themselves dressed in their full winter riding garb ([email protected]), or link to a picture of themselves in full winter riding garb in the comments gets a free random cycling book.  The books range from fitness books, to novels, to coffee table books, the names will be put in a hat and hat science used to determine who gets what book.

I will be posting the pictures here, so everyone can see what total awesome bad asses you are 🙂

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Cyclist Hits Pedestrian, Cab Driver Punches Cyclist, Then Hits Cyclist With His Car

A cyclist hit a pedestrian, then asked a cab driver for help, the cab driver then gets into a fist fight with the cyclist and then tries to run the cyclist over…Oh Boston.

From UHUB:

A Brookline cab driver had bail set at $1,000 today on charges he wielded both his fists and his cab as weapons against a bicyclist who had just run into a pedestrian at Tremont and Avery streets Friday night, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office reports.
According to the DA’s office, the incident with driver Sam Chandler, 45, began when a bicyclist ran a red light and plowed into a pedestrian as she was crossing the street.

He went to her aid, he said, and asked a nearby cab driver – later identified as Chandler – for help. Instead of assisting, however, Chandler allegedly became belligerent, exited his cab, and struck the cyclist with his fists. When witnesses separated the two men and the cyclist blocked his cab to call police, Chandler allegedly drove into him and fled southbound on Tremont Street.
Witnesses corroborated the cyclist’s account. He and the pedestrian he struck were transported to Massachusetts General Hospital. Both are expected to survive their injuries.

Seriously this entire situation is fucked, from the part where the cyclist ran a red light and hit a pedestrian (and not being charged with anything…come on!), to the part where the cab driver gets into a fist fight with the cyclist when the cyclist asks for help.

Boston, you have a problem. The problem is all of you act like insane people! Collectively we are a bunch of jerks who just don’t give a shit. We will never live in a city that is a joy to travel in, unless we all stop being such shits.

I think this comment from UHub says it best:

I’m not surprised. People who get around by [mode of transportation] are the worst. The other day, in fact, on [street], I saw a [mode of transportation] completely break the law about [something a law is about] and I was [synonym for ‘disgusted’] by how bad these [mode of transportation]ers are in this city. The [state govt agency] should do something about this before [number] people are killed in a [mode of transportation] accident.

The reason why this little mad lib works so well is because no one user group is blameless, everyone is constantly all the time being horrible. This is not the case in every city, in some cities there is a clear “bad guy” the problem is that in Boston, we are all the bad guys. The cyclists, the drivers, the bus operators, the pedestrians, hell even the train drivers get in on the act.

The only way its going to stop is through systematic education, enforcement of the rules, better infrastructure, and most of all, each of us needs to stop being an asshole when we use our roadways.

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GET A LIGHT!

See the rest of this amazing comic, from the ever Talented BikeyFace.  Get some awesome prints of her great work here, tell her BostonBiker sent you over.

I honestly don’t know what people are thinking, but you need lights.  You need a red one in the back, a white one in the front and you need to have them on and at full power.  Its dark 24 hours  a day now, so the USB rechargeable ones are nice, but I don’t care if you have to light the front and back of your bike on fire, you are 100% invisible without a light.

Reflectors are nice, but they don’t work for pedestrians or other cyclists, or if the car has its lights off, or if it comes at you from a strange angle….basically you need to be lit up like a gaudy Las Vegas sign all the time every day (seriously).

I almost ran into another cyclist the other day, there was a line of cars facing me (as I was going up the Longfellow towards Cambridge), and they had no lights or reflectors.  They were completely invisible until I was about 3-5 feet from them.  Similarly some crazy ass runner did the same thing, except he was running TOWARDS me.

All in all I would say in the last two or three weeks I have had more than a dozen close calls with people dressed totally in black riding or walking with NO LIGHTS.  (I think that pedestrians need lights as well, especially when out for a jog in the street, or when j-walking.)

Get em, use em, love em.  LIGHTS!

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Hubway Breaks 1 Million Rides, Still Going Strong

A while ago I estimated that Hubway would break 1 million rides sometime this summer, and turns out I was right. Got this in the email today:

Hubway is celebrating two years and 1 Million completed rides!

 

In July of 2011, we proudly launched Hubway with 610 bikes and 61 stations spread throughout Boston. Since then, we’ve expanded our footprint into Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville, nearly doubling the number of bikes and stations, and attracting the interest and support of a growing mass of enthusiastic riders along the way.

 

After two years and more than one million rides, we’re humbled and excited by the way members like you have embraced the concept of urban bicycle sharing. It’s not an exaggeration to say that, together, we’re actively transforming the way we live, work, and play in our fair cities.

 

Looking for proof? Check out these impressive numbers. Together, we’ve:

 

• Ridden nearly 1.1 million miles
• Burned more than 40 million calories
• Reduced our carbon footprint by 285 tons

 

To celebrate, you’re invited to join us at the upcoming Artcrank Boston event, a bicycle themed art exhibit and benefit for our friends at Livable Streets Alliance. Enjoy original bicycle art, soft drinks, beer from Widmer Brothers Brewing, and the chance to mingle with bike enthusiasts just like you. Hubway is proud to support our local artists. When you purchase a poster, we’ll say thanks with a special gift – just flash your Hubway key at checkout to receive it. Additional event details are below, so hop on a Hubway and head on over! We hope to see you there.

 

Sincere thanks for all the great support and feedback these last two years. No one could have predicted the success that bike sharing has had in Metro-Boston, and you should be proud of what you have helped Hubway accomplish. Our expansion will continue through the summer, so keep your Hubway key handy and join us as we #BikeToTheFuture.

 

Cheers,

Your Hubway Team

 

Artcrank Boston

7.20.13

Fourth Wall Project

5:00PM

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Cargo Bikes: The New Station Wagon

This article from the Wall Street Journal is behind a paywall, but here is a taste.(link should last another couple days).

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ON A RECENT SUNDAY, Brandon Jones, a 44-year-old fund manager at 9W Capital Management, traveled from his home in downtown Manhattan with his wife and two children to meet friends for brunch in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They were heading to Reynard, the popular restaurant in the neighborhood’s fashionable Wythe Hotel, where Manhattan-bound Town Cars regularly idle on the street outside.
Cargo Bikes by the Numbers

But Mr. Jones did not drive. Nor did he take the subway. Instead, he piloted his two children via the deck of his Yuba Mundo, a so-called “longtail” cargo bike. (His wife rode her own bike.) Picture a mountain bike, but with a stouter frame and smaller wheels, stretched out and lowered in the back. “We actually beat our friends who drove back to TriBeCa,” Mr. Jones said. While Mr. Jones does garage a BMW BMW.XE +2.57% X5 SUV, his car rarely sees daylight within the city limits. Rather, for daily trips like the mile-and-a-half commute from TriBeCa to his children’s school in Greenwich Village, he simply hops on another kind of SUV—one that actually includes a bit of sport.

I have wanted a cargo bike for a while now. For large grocery runs, and getting things like plants and pies from one place to another (don’t laugh, I move a lot of pies around).

I have been seeing a lot of moms and dads with cargo bikes full of kids lately, and while I personally don’t think that is what I would store in my cargo bike, it does make me think we might be witnessing the kind of mode shift to pedal power that so many have been talking about for so long.

I think that if most peopled owned a cargo bike, and a commuter bike this world would be just about perfect (if they rode them of course). Throw in a road bike for a little weekend fun, and you got yourself a two wheeled utopia.

I have been eyeing a couple different cargo models for a while, I am torn between something like a cargo trailer, so I could use an existing bike and for easier storage, or just going for it and getting a extra cycle, or long john. Does anyone have any recommendations?

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