Ride for Heart

I didn't really 100% sneak in, as my girlfriend was volunteering with the city to take photos of the event for bike week, and I went along to "help." I felt bad about doing that, so this year I am making up for it by being an actual Ride for Hearter.

Thoughts After Bike Union Volunteer Orientation

The newly formed Toronto Cyclists Union had a volunteer orientation meeting last night. It was an informative experience. They are looking for volunteers in two roles:

1. Outreach
2. Bike Valet

I signed up to do some valet duties at the upcoming criterium race, as my outreach capabilities would be more of a detriment than a feather in the union's cap. The meeting mostly focused on techniques dealing with (mostly antagonistic or lonely) members of the public. It should be fun, and I hope they are able to influence council enough that their Paint the Plan campaign is a success.

I was a bit concerned that the first campaign of the union was determined non-democratically, before any significant number of members have joined. I agree that it is important to start with a focus, and that the Paint the Plan campaign is a good goal, but it seems strange that a supposedly member driven organization did not let the members decide the first campaign. We'll have to wait and see how the focus of the union changes with time.

Hopefully the cyclists union will be a success and we will see cycling treated as a valid form of transportation by the municipal government.

Moving by Bike

We recently moved, and did 10 - 15 loads bike bike trailer. The pictured load was a smaller one. The two best loads were:

1. A bookcase and a bunch of small stuff
2. A lounge chair.
   

We did use a station wagon and pickup truck for the bigger stuff, but I think the effort was worth it because we saved a few car / truck loads.

Science is great!

A departure from what I normally put on this blog, but I wanted to say that I think science is great!

Utile

I just bought a flatbed bike trailer at Urbane. On the ride home, a gentleman driving a pickup trucked stopped me at a light to express his interest in buying one. I gave him the appropriate details. I have several thoughts about this:

1. Sweet damn! A motorist is interested in biking, utilitarian cycling no less.
2. I've always thought that a perfect world would have nobody commuting in cars, but that delivery trucks and contracters would still be using trucks as they do now. After todays incident, it dawns on me that some of them could use the old bike trailer instead.
3. I hope I don't get stopped on every ten minute bike ride to answer questions about the trailer.

Critical March

Wicked turnout eh. I left at around 7:45 because I couldn't feel my toes. I think a lot of people left at the same time, because there was a mini-'Mass heading Westbound on College as I sat and ate my margherita slice at Massimo's.

Death Clock

I've added a widget to the side bar of the blog which I have called Death Clock. People spend a lot of time commuting to and from work, and those hours add up very quickly. You can plug in your own estimates and see how many hours of free time you have in a week, and how many of those are spent commuting.

For the full death clock experience, my favourite is here.

One Lighted Crazy Man

Critical Mass always starts after dark in December. Fewer people than usual come out, as a large number of cyclists have packed it in for the cold season. Last Friday was relatively warm, and a fairly large crowd came out for the ride (I would guess approximately forty people).

On the way to the ride, I encountered last weeks Worst Car Interaction of the Week. After leaving Big Fat Burrito, I headed up Major (which is a one way street). Running into cars going the wrong way on one way streets is fairly common in the traffic mazes South of the Annex. However, most of these wayward vehicles recognize their mistake and give way to oncoming traffic.

Most certainly don't exceed the speed limit while driving with a headlamp out and not yield to oncoming traffic (on a street narrowed by snowbanks).

New Direction

I never really knew what to do with this blog, so I am thinking of taking it in a new direction.

Starting in a few weeks, I will be posting something along the lines of "Worst Car Interaction of the Week." I've decided to use the car as the object of my disapproval rather than the driver as a heavy handed way of illustrating the dehumanizing effect of automobiles.

The idea came to me a few weeks ago when I was out Christmas shopping and a police car chirped at me so that it could pass in the curb lane. Another incident with an sexagenarian VW bus which spewed bitter fumes in my face all the way down St. George and then honked at me when I passed a car parked in the bike lane cemented the idea.

There should be no shortage of material to work with, even given my short 8 km round trip commute. Hopefully writing about these interactions will make them more enjoyable in the long run.

Edit: As fun as I am sure it would be to vent about crappy drivers, I don't think I would enjoy it at all. I am not going to do this anymore.

Humour meets Reality

Poster

655000 Dead Iraqis and I'm still paying $2.69 for unleaded

I stumbled across this image just now. Paying for any gas at all is the problem, not paying too much.