I usually avoid this subject like the H1N1, but I get asked so frequently what my position is on bike helmets, I thought I’d take the time to make it official. While I reserve the right to change positions in the future, here’s where I stand at this place and time:

• I support the individual’s right to choose whether or not they wear a helmet (adults)
• I support helmet laws for children
• I wear a helmet most of the time
• I occasionally choose to not wear a helmet
• If a beginner asks, I recommend they wear a helmet
• The data on helmet use appears to be inconclusive
• Civil discussions on helmet use can be useful
• “Helmet war” discussions are a total waste of time

I’m going leave the comments open on this thread with the hope that people can share their positions without getting nasty. If it turns into a flame war, well… you know.

Not a Grocery Getter

I’ve been fortunate to spend time riding an unusually eclectic collection of bicycles over the past few years. The partial list includes:

I’m sure I missed a few. Some of those on the list I owned, others were on extended loans, all were interesting in their unique way, and each harbored a collection of design compromises. A few I still have, but many moved on because I changed my riding habits or they didn’t fit my riding habits in the first place. Probably the most important lesson I learned from experimenting with such a wide variety of bikes is that matching the right type of bike to the right use is more important than laboring over the insignificant differences between competing models within a bike-type. It may seem obvious, but it’s worth stating: if you’re going to haul cargo, buy a cargo bike; if you’re going to race, buy a racing bike; and if you’re going to commute, buy a commuter. The most lauded bike, if used for some purpose other than the one for which it was designed, is not going to live up to its potential and is likely to disappoint (as the boneyard above so aptly demonstrates!).

The University of Toronto recently published an interview with Professor Chris Cavacuiti of the department of family and community medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital in which he quotes a study that found bicyclists are the cause of less than 10% of bike-car accidents. From the interview:

I believe the study quoted by Professor Cavacuiti is the Toronto Bicycle/Motor-Vehicle Collision Study (2003). The full study can be viewed at the link below.

Read the full interview →
View the full study →

New York City recently commissioned the award-winning industrial design and branding firm FuseProject to develop a bicycle helmet that “appeals to the new generation of bikers, would provide safety both in a context of a free bike program, and of a policy to promote cycling in the City.” From the FuseProject website:

FuseProject →

…to fill a parking space?

Brompton →

[via Gizmodo]

Reason Enough to Ride

I’m sometimes asked, “Why all the pretty pictures?” It’s simple. EcoVelo’s primary reason for being is to inspire others to ride bicycles for transportation (read our mission statement here). The many practical benefits of bicycling may be motivation enough for some, but to be honest, what gets many of us regular bike commuters back on our bikes day-after-day are the pure joys of riding. My intention is to capture a little of the magic that we experience on the road and share it here, with the hope that it will inspire others to park their cars and give transportational bicycling a try.

Funny stuff in the L.A. Times:

Read the article in the L.A. Times →

Another beautiful sunrise this morning. Fall is coming…

Trek is moving more seriously into the utility/transportation market with a new three-speed they’re calling the Belleville. The look is decidedly retro but with an aesthetic nod toward high-end utility builders such as A.N.T., Kogswell, and Vanilla. Specs include a CroMo frame, steel racks front and rear, dyno lights, chainguard, and 3-speed Nexus IGH (what, no kickstand?). There’s a diamond frame and a mixte version available, both retailing at $659.99.

Trek →

The bicycle requires the equivalent energy of approximately 0.4 liters of gasoline to travel 100 kilometers, and the freight train requires the equivalent energy of approximately 0.6 liters of gasoline to travel 100 kilometers (per ton). That’s darned good gas mileage. As a comparison, a modern hybrid automobile requires approximately 5.0-5.5 liters of gasoline to travel 100 kilometers.

This Jeffson was built by a local bike builder Jeff Anderson, the owner of Kiwibikes. I commute to my teaching job four days a week at around 25km round trip a day. At an elevation of around 400 meters it’s quite a climb to get in and out of town. The 29″ wheels make the climb nice and easy and she is a smooth and comfortable trip. 

This year I converted my old Ortlieb motorcycle panniers to fit on my rear carrier to enable a reasonable hauling capacity. The lights I’ve fitted are Nite Flux 6V/ 15amp halogen which throw out a nice splash of lux to enable me to ride home at night. I’m planning to fit an electric assist hub to the front to enable a quicker ride up the hills and reduce my commuting time. Thanks to the reasonable rake angle of the front fork she is a smooth and comfortable ride. —Harm, Rotorua, NZ

Grocery shopping on bicycles can be a simple and enjoyable process with just a little planning and a properly set-up bike. It doesn’t necessarily take a specialized cargo bike; simply keeping your carrying capacity in mind while creating your shopping list makes the process go smoothly (less capacity = more trips). We manage to keep it down to a couple of trips per week, with the occasional fill-in trip here and there. In our case, it helps that we sometimes shop as a pair, doubling our carrying capacity while reducing our trips by one half. If you have a partner who has been reluctant to ride, here’s the perfect excuse to get them on a bike and give that “practical biking thing” a try.

Certainly a dedicated cargo bike is ideal for grocery shopping, particularly if only one person is shopping for a large family. On the other hand, a single person shopping for one or two, or a pair of bicyclists shopping for four or more, can make due perfectly well on standard bikes with a rear rack and a pair of grocery panniers. Front racks and baskets add even more capacity and we’ve found them good for bulky, but lightweight items such as paper towels, toilet paper, bread and so forth.

We keep toying with the idea of building up a Big Dummy for grocery hauling, but so far we’ve done so well with our standard bikes that we haven’t been able to justify the expense. We mix it up a bit, but recently we’ve been using a Breezer Uptown 8 and a Surly LHT for our shopping trips. The Breezer is outfitted with a rear rack and a pair of grocery panniers, while the LHT is set-up with a grocery pannier, an Arkel Bug pannier, and a Pass & Stow front cargo rack. The front rack is used for things like bulk TP or our CSA veggie share (see photo above), while the rear panniers are used for all the usual heavier staple items. The Breezer came stock from the factory fully-equipped and ready to go as a grocery getter. The Surly required a number of additions including racks, fenders, lights, and a chain guard.

One added benefit to shopping by bike is that it will likely encourage you to purchase less packaged food. Anything that comes in a box increases its footprint by at least 25-30%. Individually wrapped items can be even worse, sometimes increasing the space required to haul them by over 100%. The plus side to purchasing less packaged food is that whole foods tend to be less expensive and healthier, and there’s less garbage to go to the landfill. The only downside is that they may require a little more care when packing into your panniers.

If you haven’t done so already, I’d highly recommend giving grocery shopping by bike a try. Besides the obvious benefits of saving gas, providing a little exercise, and reducing pollution in your own neighborhood, combining a bike ride with a shopping trip makes it more of a fun event and less of an unpleasant chore.

Ryan Mlynarczyk and Mandy Creighton are bicycling around the U.S., spreading a message of sustainability and connecting with others involved in the sustainability movement. From their press release:

Within Reach →

“Goin’ to California with an achin’ in my heart…”

Goodnight, PA; I hope we meet again sometime. Starting tomorrow, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled program from NorCal.

We’ve spent the last couple of days in lovely Bucks County, PA, mostly in-and-around the charming little town of Doylestown. The area is oozing with history, the architecture is absolutely stunning, and the people have been warm and friendly; it’s a wonderful place to ride bikes and snap photos. The absence of CA-style sprawl and strip malls has been sooo refreshing. We have to say goodbye this evening, but we hope to return someday and explore the area in more depth.

We burned a year’s worth of carbon for two people today. Yup, we got on a big-ol’-jet-airliner and flew coast-to-coast. This was a big deal for us because we’re pretty much homebodies most of the time, staying close to family and work, staying out of the car and off of airplanes, takin’ it easy on Mother Earth, etc. …LOL. We’re super-excited to be on this trip though; we’re doing a photo shoot for one of our favorite bike companies for their 2010 catalog. This will be Alan’s first official gig as a “professional” photographer (we’ll use that term loosely). We don’t have any idea where this adventure will lead (not this little adventure, the larger adventure of capturing images for compensation), but we’re having fun and stepping through a door that’s been opened for us. Stay tuned — we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled program in a few days.

I’m sorry, but the wrong-headedness of this is mind-boggling. From Streetsblog:

Even though they have no jurisdiction over students prior to their arrival at school, an increasing number of school administrators are discouraging students from riding or walking to school, some going so far as to remove bicycle parking facilities. Reportedly the concern is liability, but this also appears to be yet another symptom of our tendency in America to over-protect our children, while actually causing harm in the process. I wonder if it dawned on any of these over-zealous administrators to look at the statistics? If they did, they would be encouraging biking and walking and discouraging parents from driving their children to school.

Streetsblog →

Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), wrote an interesting piece for Slate titled What Would Get Americans Biking to Work? (Decent parking).

Bicycle parking is an overlooked, and often serious problem in many places where bicycle use is on the rise. Even in world-famous bike-friendly cities such as Copenhagen, bike parking is not meeting demand. From the article:

Bike commuting rates have been directly linked to the availability of secure bike parking, so it’s imperative that bike parking is given serious consideration along with other infrastructure improvements. In many cities across the country, bicycle parking is not tied to the actual number of potential bike commuters in the area, so availability can be extremely spotty. Fortunately, we’re starting to see a few cities look at the problem more seriously, with Portland leading the way (no surprise). Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Los Angeles (among others) also have plans in the works to improve their bike parking facilities.

As important as it is, bike parking is only one piece in the bike commuting puzzle. We also need more and better separated facilities, comprehensive training programs, better integration with transit, and work-related transportation benefits on the level of what we see for motorists and transit riders.

Read the Article in Slate →

Our Independent Fabrication Club Racer project bike is essentially complete. Specs are as follows:

• Frame: Independent Fabrication Steel Club Racer
• Handlebar: Nitto Noodle 177
• Stem: Ricthey Pro 26.0 100mm 107 degree
• Brake Levers: Cane Creek SCR5 Ergo
• Brakes: Shimano BR650 Long Reach
• Headset: Chris King 1-1/18″ No-Thread
• Crankset: Shimano R600 Compact
• Shifters: 9spd Dura-Ace Bar-Ends
• Front Derailleur: Shimano FDR770 flat-bar designed long throw (best for bar ends)
• Rear Derailleur: Shimano Ultegra RD6600-GS SL med long cage
• Cassette: Shimano Ultegra 9spd 12-27
• Chain: SRAM PC991 Hollow Pin
• Gear Housing: Shimano Dura-Ace
• Brake Housing: Jagwire braided compressionless
• Front Wheel: Shimano Alfine Dyno 32h hub, Mavic A719 Touring rim, DB 2.0/1.8 DT Competition Black spokes
• Rear Wheel: Shimano Ultegra 6600 36h 10spd/9spd hub, Mavic A719 Touring rim, DB 2.0/1.8 DT Competition Black spokes
• Tires: Panaracer Pasela TG 700x28c
• Fenders: Honjo Fluted
• Seat Post: Nitto Lugged
• Saddle: Selle An-Atomica Titanico

Many thanks to Rick at Gold Country Cyclery for all of his work on this project. If you want to work on a build like this with one of the most knowledgeable mechanics around, give Rick a call.

The League of American Bicyclists’ recent policy research report, The Economic Benefits of Bicycle Infrastructure Investments, contains some real gems. Here’s a sampling:

• The bicycling industry contributes an $133 billion a year to the U.S. economy.
• The bicycling industry supports 1.1 million jobs and generates $17.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes.
• $46.9 billion is spent annually during bike trips and tours.
• North Carolina’s Outer Banks spent $6.7 million on bicycle infrastructure and they’ve seen an annual nine-to-one return on that one-time investment.
• In 2000, Quebec’s La Route Verte generated $95.4 million, corresponding to approximately 2,000 jobs and $15.1 million in tax revenue.
• As a result of policies to encourage bicycling and maintain urban density, Portland residents travel 2.9 billion fewer miles and spend 100 million fewer hours, saving $2.6 billion a year.
• A 2009 Portland study found that a disproportionate share of the bicycling occurred on streets with bicycle lanes, separate paths, or bicycle boulevards and concluded that the data support the need for well-connected neighborhood streets and a network of bicycle-specific infrastructure to encourage more bicycling among adults.
• A 2006 Minneapolis study shows that 83 percent of the time cyclists will choose a longer route if it includes a bike lane, and respondents were willing to add 20 minutes onto their trip in order to use a bicycle trail instead of riding on roads with facilities next to parked cars.
• An NHTSA study found that Urban households without a car, bicycle to work nearly three-and-a-half times more often than households with one car.
• In urban areas bike lanes can accommodate 7 to 12 times as many people per meter of lane per hour than car lanes.
• For the cost of repaving 3 miles of rough pavement on Interstate 710, CalTrans could sign and stripe 1,250 miles of California roads for bike lanes.
• Along San Francisco’s Valencia Street, two-thirds of merchants surveyed four-and-a-half years after bike lanes were painted said that the lanes had a positive overall impact on their business.
• A 2009 study of Bloor Street in Toronto found that people who biked and walked to the area spent more money than those who drove there.
• A study of home values near the Monon Trail in Indianapolis, Ind. showed that homes within a half mile of the Trail gained an 11% increase in value.
• Researcher Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute estimates that replacing a car trip with a bike trip saves individuals and society $2.73 per mile.
• A 30 percent mode-share in the U.S. would lead to an estimated savings of $163.8 billion a month (nearly two trillion dollars a year).
• According to the Texas Transportation Institute, gridlock costs the average peak period traveler almost 40 hours a year in travel delay, and costs the United States more than $78 billion each year.
• The results of a study of 33 large U.S. cities showed that each additional mile of bicycle lane is associated with an approximate one-percent increase in the share of bike-to-work trips.

The full report is well worth a read.

The Economic Benefits of Bicycle Infrastructure Investments →