30 Days of Biking, Day 16: Blogs

By Barb Chamberlain | Published April 16, 2014

Too meta, perhaps? A blog post about blogs, after all….

But as I wheeled down Jackson from my transit stop — my bike and I both rode the bus the 10.5 miles to work because it was raining pretty steadily and I appreciated the chance to pick up the half-hour of work time the bus ride provides — I heard, “Hi, Barb!”

Woman-Bicycle-HelmetCam-Etc_Blog-screen-shot_Ballard-BridgeIt was Rebecca Roush, whose Woman-Bicycle-Helmet Cam Etc. gave me an early vicarious firsthand look at bicycling in Seattle as I prepared to move from Spokane in the summer of 2012. She horrified me, actually, with her helmet cam footage crossing the Ballard Bridge and her description of the troll who attacked people on bikes. I moved anyway.

I originally encountered Rebecca’s blog in the process of compiling an international list of women’s bike blogs as a hobby/avocation/slightly obsessive quest. That list proved to be such a powerful tool to connect and create community that when I came to Washington Bikes I started a list of Washington bike blogs

Rebecca recently started a new blog, Seattle Bicyclist Portraits. She took advantage of our encounter to grab my photo, introduced me to her bike-touring neighbor who happened to be passing through Occidental Square, and went on her way.

Personal blogs provide an outstanding inside look at local bicycling conditions. If I were planning to visit or move to any town anywhere I’d go looking for local blogs to get an authentic slice of bike life.

As with the Ballard Bridge story, no one post will tell you everything about a place. Just possibly my first (and second) ventures across that bridge were overly colored with anticipatory dread based on that post. But it enabled me to be ready for a pretty challenging stretch so I went into it with my eyes open.

Last year at the National Bike Summit I presented data from the Women’s Bike Blogs list as part of a panel on social media, suggesting that the number of women blogging about bicycling might be a bit of an indicator of how bike-friendly a town is. If your town doesn’t have a bike blog, does the world have a fair picture of why a person who bikes would want to go there?

The creation of blogs has provided us all with amazing tools to provide micro-journalism and tell our own stories. If you’d not ready to start your own blog because the thought of keeping up any kind of publishing schedule isn’t something you want to add to your to-do list, we’d love to get your occasional, sporadic, or one-time psst to highlight your community’s bicycling here. If you write, photograph, map or record your bike life, get in touch!

Day 16 in the 30 Days of Biking, 30 Words, 30 Pictures series

Related Reading

Your Turn

  • How have bike blogs connected you with different places, types of bicycling, experiences, or people?
  • Do you want to guest blog for us? Email Louise McGrody!

 

Posted in Attitudes, Bike Culture, Encouragement, News, Seattle, Transit | 1 Comment

Build a Better Burke-Gilman Trail NOW!

By Louise McGrody | Published April 16, 2014
The University of Washington is applying for a TIGER 2014 grant from USDOT to improve the entire portion of the Burke-Gilman Trail that runs through campus (1.7 miles, from near University Village to near the I-5 bridge). Less roots. More safety. Better trailbed. Your voice counts! Project support is one of the criteria USDOT will consider when taking the University’s application into consideration. Make your voice heard today! Click here to add your name to the list of project supporters.
 
To find out more about the proposed improvements and grant application, visit uw.edu/burke-gilman.
Posted in Advocacy, Alert, Funding/Policy, Seattle, Trails | 6 Comments

Vote: Save King County Metro and Roads Today

By Blake Trask | Published April 16, 2014

A special April election will determine whether King County faces huges cuts to Metro transit and roads maintenance.

bike on busJust weeks before bike to work month, King County voters face a vital April special election. It will determine whether Metro Transit will face huge cuts and if we maintain King County roads for cars and bikes.

Vote YES on Prop 1 to keep our buses running and prevent major cuts to Metro bus service. We need to make sure our seniors, students, people with disabilities, and working families still have a way to get around.

Vote YES on Prop 1 to preserve King County’s roads and bridges. Forty percent of Prop 1 goes directly to each community in the county to make our streets, roads, and bridges safer. Spending $1 now to repair our roadways avoids $6-14 in replacement costs if we continue to put off these critical investments. Better local roads benefit bicyclists across King County.

We like bike racks on buses – we need more of these, not less. Every workday 400,000 trips are taken on Metro; less buses mean worse traffic and a longer commute.

Ballots are due by April 22nd — Earth Day. But there’s no need to wait. Mail in your ballot as soon as you get home.  Vote YES on Prop 1 today!

Together we can keep King County moving whether you bus, bike, drive, or walk.

Posted in Advocacy, Alert, Funding/Policy, King County, Transit, Transportation | Comments Off on Vote: Save King County Metro and Roads Today

30 Days of Biking, Day 15: Taxes

By Barb Chamberlain | Published April 15, 2014

Bike lane with potholeObvious connection, right? Federal income tax due date and bicycling.

Perhaps not, if you don’t know that the federal income taxes you paid today help fund the nation’s system of highways, roads, and local streets, including projects for biking and walking.

That’s right. We all pay for roads whether or not we ever drive. The mix varies depending on where you live.

  • Property taxes fund street bond projects. (If you rent, the building owner’s property taxes are built into your rental rate.)
  • Sales taxes on everything you buy — say, bike gear and a new bike — go into your town’s general fund and help pay for local street maintenance. In fact, in some Washington towns that have a Transportation Benefit District funded with a local-option sales tax, you will pay a lower sales tax rate on automobile purchases than you pay on any other purchase. That is to say, if you buy a $5,000 bike you pay more sales tax than someone buying a $5,000 car.
  • When your hometown or county receives federal funding, your federal income tax fills in the gap left because the Highway Trust Fund (federal gas taxes) doesn’t take in as much as it puts out in funding for state and local projects.

If you unpack the various fees and taxes arising directly from driving (gas tax, tolls, that kind of thing) it turns out those driving-related taxes and fees cover just 46.8% of the cost of Washington state’s roads, according to a 2013 analysis by the Tax Foundation. Less than half.

The answer to someone who says, “People on bikes need to pay for streets” is “We all pay for streets.” We all benefit, after all.

Did I really think about taxes while I rode my bike today? Absolutely.

First, because I had my taxes all ready to file and thus could enjoy my beautifully sunny 10.6-mile ride to work with a clear conscience.

Second, because the deadline for my ballot on King County Metro’s Prop. 1 is just one week away and I need to vote YES to keep getting the bus service I rely on as part of my transportation system.

Third, because every pothole and crack in the street is a reminder that we get the system we pay for and I ride over plenty of cracks, holes, bumps, and ruts. Years ago when the voters of Washington did away with the motor vehicle excise tax they cut an enormous pothole in funding for local street maintenance and the transit that makes it possible for people to get out of their cars and free up some space.

If you drive, you pay for that vote today in wear and tear on your car, cracked CV joints, and new shocks. Those of us on our bikes are our own shock absorbers so we pay a personal price in addition to the cost of blown tubes and tires.

As US Supreme Court Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said, “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.”

I like civilization: schools, roads, transit, libraries, parks and green spaces and wild places, clean water to drink and someone to take away my wastewater and garbage and deal with it, health care, help for those who aren’t as lucky as I am, police and firefighters and military protection — the list of things I can’t provide all by myself and take for granted much of the time is pretty long.

We should appreciate these things as much on April 15 as we do on July 4. TANSTAAFL.*

So yes, I did think about taxes during today’s bicycling.

*For those of you who didn’t read a lot of Robert Heinlein in your youth: There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

Day 15 in the 30 Days of Biking, 30 Words, 30 Pictures series

Related Reading

Your Turn

  • How often do you talk with people who assume those of us on bikes don’t help pay for streets through our taxes?
  • Will you share this post on social media to help spread the word that we all pay?

 

Posted in Advocacy, Attitudes, Funding/Policy, Infrastructure, Issues & Advocacy, Legislature, Politics, Transit, Transportation | 2 Comments

Volunteers Needed for Special Olympics Cycling Event

By Louise McGrody | Published April 15, 2014

Nearly 2800 Special Olympics athletes will compete over three days at the 2014 Summer Games at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, May 30-June 1. Volunteers are needed to help with the Special Olympics cycling event. People are needed to assist at start/finish lines and along the course. Contact Angel Quant at Quant_fam@msn.com or 206-355-7273 for details.

Special Olympics Washington provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical  fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in the sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.

 

Posted in Accessibility, Encouragement, Events, Volunteer | Comments Off on Volunteers Needed for Special Olympics Cycling Event

Pilot Project to Highlight Bike Travel, Tourism in Snohomish County

By Blake Trask | Published April 15, 2014
Happy cyclist at Snohomish Pie Company.

Happy cyclist at Snohomish Pie Company.

Bicycle travel and tourism is big business. In Oregon, it is estimated to provide almost $400 million in economic impact. Washington Bikes plans to grow opportunities for riders to experience the great trails and bikeways across Washington while highlighting the benefits of bicycle travel and tourism to local economies statewide. As a part of this effort, we are launching a pilot project to highlight bicycle travel and tourism in Snohomish County.

Do you know of a special location, ride or event in Snohomish County that we should highlight for bicyclists? Please share this information with us. Contact Blake Trask at blake@wabikes.org to help us spread the word that bikes mean business in Snohomish County!

Blog Posts to Inspire Your Snohomish County Bicycle Trip

Sign Up to Receive Updates On Biking in Snohomish County

First
Last

Posted in Economic Impact, Everett, Tourism, Travel | Comments Off on Pilot Project to Highlight Bike Travel, Tourism in Snohomish County

30 Days of Biking, Day 14: Driving

By Barb Chamberlain | Published April 14, 2014

What?!

Yep. Driving.

Working in bike advocacy, especially in a statewide organization, involves a fair amount of driving — in this case, heading back to Seattle from Spokane today in an old Honda Odyssey loaded with leftover materials from the Spokane Bike Swap and the gear needed for my husband’s Ronde van Palouse race on Saturday.

Share the Road license plate personalized with WA BIKES, 2 bikes on roof rack, parked in Pioneer Square, Seattle

Our bikes went for a car ride from Seattle to Spokane and back again. Someday they’ll go without the car.

That makes 4 of the last 5 days that I’ve been in a car because of bicycling. Pretty inside out from my usual transportation practices; if not traveling for work I may go two weeks or more without getting into a private vehicle.

I appreciate the transportation our car provides when we need its capacity to haul a lot of stuff and/or a lot of people point to point over a long distance with timing flexibility. However, that load-hauling action and distance aren’t typical of my transportation needs. Most of the time I’m just moving myself and stuff I can easily carry in a pannier or two, with relatively short distances between stops.

This morning’s 30 Days of Biking ride provides yet another example of how easy bike transportation can be and an example of why driving can be the less convenient choice for short trips.

I loaded my work items (old-fashioned paper notebook, tablet, phone, and wallet) into the bags I keep preloaded with my lock, headlight, and other standard items. From our friend’s home where we’d stayed, I rolled downhill 2.2 miles (wheeee!) into downtown Spokane for an omelet at Madeleine’s Cafe & Patisserie (French pastries, ooh-la-la!), locking my bike to the rack right outside. No looking for a parking spot (and there weren’t any for cars in that block). No paying for parking. No delay in getting inside to coffee and breakfast.

After breakfast I walked out the door and got my vehicle. (How often does that happen with a car? Even if you park in a lot or garage by your destination, you have a hike getting from car to door and back again — something you need to factor into your thinking about how long it takes to drive somewhere and actually arrive.)

I rode the short 5-minute half-mile to my meeting at Empire Health Foundation with our new Spokane staff person, Kate Johnston. Again I parked in front and went straight inside.

Had I driven to my first destination and paid for parking, of course I could have walked the half-mile to my second stop and walked back after my meeting instead of relocating my vehicle. Raise your hands, all of you who would make that healthy choice instead of moving your car and hunting for a parking spot as close to the building as possible. Yeah, that’s what I thought. Plus, the meters in the heart of downtown Spokane are good for no more than two hours, so if I’d found convenient car parking I would have to had to move anyway. These types of issues are why I appreciate the flexibility bicycling gives me.

After my meeting my husband arrived with our car to load my bike so we could head to Seattle. He found a parking place right in front of the building. I have this theory that because I drive so seldom I have “bikema” (like karma but with bikes). It gives me extra parking magic so if I do actually need a place to put a car I can find one. That’s my reward for leaving those spots for other people the vast majority of the time.*

As we pulled out, I noticed my husband glancing back to make sure no one was coming up behind us — not just cars, but bicycles. We’re both more observant and aware as drivers thanks to our time in the saddle because we know how it feels when someone pulls out from the curb without taking a real, honest-to-goodness look for others.

Driving: Fine for what it’s good for, like getting two people, two bikes, two folding tables, a pop-up banner, and boxes full of bike maps, “I Bike Spokane” coasters and magnets, and WA Bikes jerseys across the state — a hassle if you’re running around with a typical workday batch of items and making multiple stops fairly close to each other.

Related Reading

Your Turn

  • Do you do much bike-related driving — going to race venues, taking the bikes on vacation to a place chosen for its great bicycling, driving as a volunteer for a big ride, other?
  • When you compare how long it takes to drive to where you’re going with how long it would take to ride your bike, do you factor in parking and walking time?
  • How do you think riding a bike has changed your driving?

*We have a bumper sticker for sale in our Pioneer Square storefront that reads, “If I’d biked today this parking spot would be yours.”

Posted in Attitudes, Bike Parking, Commuting, News, Spokane County, Transportation | 1 Comment

April 19 is Free Day at WA State Parks

By Louise McGrody | Published April 14, 2014


Interested in doing some biking or hiking in a Washington State Park but lack a Discover Pass? No worries. Saturday, April 19 is a “free day” for day use activities at WA State Parks. This is your opportunity to use hiking and biking trails in our state parks. This includes trailhead parking at the Iron Horse/John Wayne Trail, the Columbia Plateau Trail, the Centennial Trail in Spokane.

The Discover Pass, a $30 annual or $10 one-day permit, is usually required to use recreation lands managed by WA State Parks, WA Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Department of National Resources. The April 19 free day applies to State Parks only. Other planned 2014 state park free days include:

  • April 22 – Earth Day
  • May 11 – spring Sunday free day
  • June 7-8 – National Trails Day and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Free Fishing Weekend
  • June 14 – National Get Outdoors Day
  • August 25 – National Park Service birthday
  • September 27 – National Public Lands Day
  • November 11 – Veterans Day
Posted in Accessibility, Encouragement, News, Trails | Comments Off on April 19 is Free Day at WA State Parks

30 Days of Biking, Day 13: Sounds

By Barb Chamberlain | Published April 13, 2014
Spokane River Falls beneath Monroe Street Bridge

The thunder of the Spokane River: One of the many sounds that accompanied today’s bicycle rides.

The first sound I heard in today’s biking went something like “ksh-ksh-ksh.” This turned out to be the rubbing of my front fender against my tire, a sound most likely caused by my bike falling over the day before and knocking things out of kilter.

You’ll learn the sounds that your bike usually makes and be able to detect something that doesn’t sound right. This “funny sound” indicator tells you to check the bike over for something loose, something rubbing, something that won’t work as expected.

We stopped several times on our pedal to Rockwood Bakery for quiche but never got the fender adjustment to stay in place, so when we got back to our host’s home we simply took the fenders off. We’re in Spokane, it got up to 67 degrees yesterday, odds are good I don’t need them.

Sound next entered into my bike day at the Spokane Bike Swap. In talking about training techniques, someone suggested doing one-leg drills with your eyes closed and listening for what it sounds like when your pedaling with one leg matches your pedaling with the other leg, rather than relying on instrumentation. As I do not do many one-legged drills myself, I share this in case it helps you.

Next up: the Belles and Baskets ride. If you travel to Spokane you’ll want to take this bike ride for sure to see beautiful scenery in the heart of the city. A dozen of us met at Chairs Coffee on Indiana for a beautiful route looping the Spokane River on both sides. We rode south on Howard to Riverfront Park and over the Spokane River that runs through the heart of downtown, its spring waters thundering underneath us.

From there we rode through historic Browne’s Addition and dropped down Riverside Avenue to reach the Sandifur Bridge and ride over the river again. We climbed the switchbacks to what used to be a bumpy gravel road. Now the trail continues thanks to Greenstone Homes and its completion of a missing link through the new Kendall Yards development. March 18 I attended the Futurewise spring awards luncheon and clapped as the Excellence in Creating Livable Communities Smart Growth and Transportation award went to the City of Spokane and Greenstone Corp. for the Mile 24 Kendall Yards Gap project.

And what an incredible gap they closed! The sound of thundering water accompanies the view of the river through the arch of the Monroe Street Bridge. The trail winds past new restaurants like Central Food, opened by bicycling chef David Blaine, where people laughed and talked on the deck in the sunshine. I kept marveling as I rode that such a fantastic connection has been added. Across the river on the south bank I caught a peek of the new Huntington Park developed by regional utility company Avista.

We pedaled on through Riverfront Park, crossing from the north to the south bank with the river roaring beneath us yet again, and upstream past the Riverpoint Campus where I used to work. We crossed the river twice more in a quieter stretch: On the Don Kardong Bridge (named for the Olympian and founder of Spokane’s Bloomsday run) and the new Iron Bridge, a reclamation of an old railroad bridge. Here the sound was a quiet chuckling, not the roar of the falls.

All along the way the sound of happy chatting accompanied the changing sounds of the river, the sounds of shifting and pedaling, the pad-pad-pad of runners along the trail, the music of the Looff Carousel in Riverfront Park, the honking of geese on the riverbank at the Iron Bridge, and the other sounds that told me I was outdoors, in a city, and with friends, all thanks to the bicycle.

Day 13 in the 30 Days of Biking, 30 Words, 30 Pictures 2014 series

Related Reading

Your Turn

  • Have you used the “funny sound” method to diagnose a problem with your bicycle?
  • What’s the most interesting, most beautiful, or strangest sound you’ve heard while riding your bike?

 

 

Posted in Adventure, Attitudes, Rides, Spokane County, Travel, Women | 2 Comments

30 Days of Biking, Day 12: Friends

By Barb Chamberlain | Published April 12, 2014

Day 12 in the 30 Days of Biking, 30 Words, 30 Pictures series

Going back to Spokane for the Bike Swap means seeing lots and lots of friends, reminding me of the ways in which bicycling has brought me some new friends and added layers and richness to existing friendships.

Adults don’t have many playgrounds: Places in which to hang out with a stranger side by side, testing the same new experience or challenge, and starting to talk with each other or help each other out, thus easing into a new relationship. In grade school that swing set or tetherball encounter might launch a lifelong friendship simply through the shared activity that gives you time to talk and get to know each other. (Tetherball meanies need not apply.)

Bicycling gives you entree to all levels of activity and the chance to make friends. If you’re competitive the racing world provides structure and challenge. As soon as we moved to Seattle my husband started scouting race teams. If you’re new in any town with a bike club their calendar of rides gives you a way to find people who share your interest. During a major group riding event like the Jederman Gran Fondo in Cheney or the Ann Weatherill Classic in Walla Walla you might find your pace matches someone else’s and you talk for miles.

Betsy Lawrence and Barb Chamberlain, founders of Belles and Baskets, an informal women's bicycle group in Spokane, WA, summer 2012

Betsy Lawrence (left) and Barb Chamberlain, founders of Spokane’s Belles and Baskets informal women’s riding group.

And then there’s adding bicycling into an existing friendship. When I started Bike to Work Spokane, my friend Betsy Lawrence (always good for yoga and coffee) got roped into helping with the wrap-up party our first year, 2008. From there she resolved to expand her recreational riding into bike commuting.

The rest, as they say, is history. One night she emailed me saying, “We need a women’s bike group to help other women like me who don’t think they can do it!” 20 minutes later she had created the Yahoo email account and a Facebook page for Belles and Baskets to help women get rolling in a supportive group with a heavy emphasis on treats.

She came with me on Bikespeditions through Spokane neighborhoods and I blogged about our search for treats, shopping, and bike-friendly streets with places to park our bicycles. Betsy gave an inspiring TEDx talk on the community of women bicycling that’s making the rounds; I was recently on the phone with a woman from Tacoma who said, “You need to see this great TEDx talk by a woman from Spokane!”

Betsy’s launch of Belles and Baskets introduced me to Wilma Flanagan and I recruited her for a seat on the Spokane Bicycle Advisory Board. The group introduced me to bike travel writer Katherine Widing, who ended up developing the Pedaling the Palouse tour and working on the San Juan Islands chapter for our new bike tour book, Cycling Sojourner Washington. So many great friends I can’t list them all here.

(Wait — I’m noticing that becoming my friend means being put to work on bicycling in some way. Don’t tell them and maybe they won’t notice.) 

Back to today’s Bike Swap: I rode my bike there in the sunshine knowing I’d see lots of friends, and I wasn’t disappointed.

People stopped by our Washington Bikes booth and when I finally got to wander around a bit (4 hours into the day because it was crazy-busy) I couldn’t go two feet without seeing someone who has become a friend thanks to bicycling.

Tomorrow I’ll be on a Belles ride for another friend fix. The Spokane Bike Swap gets bigger every year, bringing together more and more people who may end up becoming friends through a common love of bicycling.

Other events and groups do the same all over the state. As one example, Velofemmes in Tacoma, a women’s informal bicycling group formed in 2013, reminds me of Belles and Baskets and I’ll be riding with them one of these days. I bet I’ll make some new friends.

Bikes: The playground for adults.

Related Reading and Viewing

Your Turn

  • How has bicycling created and enriched your friendships as an adult?

 

Posted in Attitudes, Encouragement, Events, Women | 1 Comment