Bicycle Story Slam

This sounds like a good time. Here great stories, win great prizes!

From the email
——————-

we run story slams in boston we have created one just for you all on bikes
with Jim Fries as special co host guest.

It is on Monday the 17th at 7pm at Club Passims. Stories about bikes and adventures around town welcome. 5 min stories on the theme wheels and the grand prize at the end in April a trip to Tuscan villa in Italy. Interested? Please e-mail me at [email protected]

We would love to hear from you and if you could pass the word along and check out www.massmouth.com to see who we are

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“I Feel Happy Of Myself”

It is such a nice day for riding today, this kid pretty much sums up my feelings about cycling right now. FOR ROCK AND ROLL!

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Bicycle Time Travel

No I am not talking about somehow getting your hands on a flux capacitor and then getting your bike up to 88 mph (while running from Libyan terrorists.) I am instead referring to a phenomenon of Boston traffic, that I guess I am going to call time travel.

I started to notice that there was a radical difference in the temperament (yes traffic has a temperament, but that will have to wait for another post) and amount of traffic on my daily commute. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the variable that kept changing was the time I left my home.

Even small amounts of difference, less than 10 minutes, dramatically affected the amount of traffic. It got me to thinking about how people spend time in the morning. How at any given point there are X% of people who are on time, and Y% who are late, Z% who are dropping off kids, etc.

I have been paying special attention to what traffic is like when I ride at different times of the day. It is more complicated than you might think. There are windows of low traffic, and windows of heavy traffic. They more or less hover around the same times every day. For instance traffic might be totally different if I leave my house at 8:05 instead of 8:15.

It kind of boggles my mind that at 8:05 every day a massive surge of people all do the same thing. Causing a chain reaction that means that Centre St. in JP will be clogged up at 8:22…every day. The complexities quickly pile up and your brain sort of gives up. But the end result is that traffic has moods, and these moods shift through the day.

Take for instance the phenomenon that happens right around 10am. Most people have already made it to work, and most of the late people have made it to work, and the streets momentarily become really calm and pleasant. People driving are not in any particular hurry, and most drivers are safely trapped at work, you can really feel the difference.

The opposite happens around 8:45am, people are late, they see that traffic is grid locked, and they are pissed. Their mornings have not gone well, the kid was sick, breakfast burned, over slept, hung over, whatever, they are cranky and it shows. The roads are a battle field of poorly times turns, no signals, mean behavior, and cut throat competition for parking.

I also have noticed that different parts of the city have different behaviors depending on the major destination points. Areas with lots of schools have different traffic patterns than Down Town, or the medical areas, or the residential areas. I want to make a giant computer sim that will color code the traffic based on aggression, lateness, destination, work start time, boss strictness, etc. With the goal of course to find the optimal time to leave my house every day so I can enjoy an awesome commute every day.

Are you a bike time traveler? Do you leave your house at a different time every day to see what traffic is like? Share your experiences in the comments.

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I Like This

Past Peak Oil Travelling Towards Transition Animation from Anita Sancha on Vimeo.

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If You Really Want To Get To Know Boston, Ride A Bike

Have you ever seen someone take the green line from one end of the common to the other? Or take the orange line from state street to downtown crossing? Do people ask you constantly “is that near *so and so* t stop?”, or “what bus goes there?” Or how about the throngs of people who travel around down town lost and confused? It would seem most of the people who both live here, and visit here have no idea where anything is.

The reason for that is simple, people don’t really travel through this city, they teleport. They get in the bus/train/car/cab at site A and are teleported to site B. Never really experiencing the travel in between. This has the end effect of causing most people to know where things are in relation to T-stops, but not actually knowing where things are.

If you really want to know the city, on a deep bone level, you have to either walk it, or bike it. Being inside of a fast moving metal box (especially one that is underground) simply will not do. I would say that this is true of any city, but especially true of Boston.

Because of our creative street design, and historical street layout Boston unlike say NYC (which is mostly grid) can be hard to mentally model. People downtown are constantly thrown off by its hub-like design. I had family in from out of state this weekend and they constantly insisted that we go left, when the correct direction was right, it was like their heads were little compasses, and Boston was a big magnet.

Not only does riding your bike in Boston give you a good sense of where things are, it also lets you experience those things on a deeper more satisfying level. I have discovered so many new and interesting places while riding my bike. So many new little parks, eateries, cool abandoned places, interesting shops, beautiful vistas. I feel like I am really soaking in the city. Letting it get deep into my bones. Jumping in head first, where everyone else is just dipping a toe.

The key to this better experience is two fold, speed and access.

When you are on your bike you are moving fast enough that you can actually get places in a reasonable time. People are busy, and walking sometimes just takes way too long. But even at this very reasonable speed you are still going slow enough that it is very easy to stop and check something out, or to get a good look while still moving.

You also have much more access to the city. You smell its smells, feel the breeze, can go places cars cant, can park places cars cant, can go places the T doesn’t run, and at hours the T doesn’t run. All in all the bicycle is your key to the city. No other vehicle allows you such access and at such convenience.

If you really want to experience Boston, if you want to pry out the hidden gems of this fine city, you have to ride a bike. Its the only way you are going to get to all the lovely places in enough time, but at a speed that is human and enjoyable. Ride enough and you will not only have discovered the city and its her wonder, but you will be really good at giving lost tourists good directions.

Have you found a secret gem in Boston on your bike? Share in the comments.

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