College Park Cycling

I visited friends in College Park, MD, this past weekend. It was not hard to find bicyclists nearly everywhere with so much of this community affected by its large university. One of the rather dominating features of late in College Park are towering brick monoliths designed to hold a seemingly unheeded number of students. Evidence of how jam-packed these monstrosities are consists of the bicycles arranged like sardines along the apartment exteriors. But that's not the only clue of biking culture in College Park. These masses of students have given rise to bike paths and bike friendly neighborhoods.

A friend's high aesthetic fixie.

One of those neighborhoods is inhabited by my friends who take advantage of the cluster of biking here. One of them, in addition to biking to work each day, uses a simple trailer to carry soccer balls for his coaching, while another has tapped the brain trust of College Park Cycles to create this slick fixie.


All of this is a refreshing contrast to the roads of Central PA which are comparatively empty of cyclists. 

Another friend's elegant uni-wheel trailer (perhaps a Bob Yak?).

For instance, the possibility of a bike stickered with Buddhist references would be an astounding find in PA, especially if it's next to a large building labeled, "Mathematics" or "Physics" as the one below was. Such an intelligent, if accidental, pairing of philosophy, transport and architectural purpose would be anathema to the proclaimed "intelligent" designs the current PA legislature is likely to hold. Alas, my local politicians are more likely to give gas frackers a tax-free ride in our state parks than offer to bike commuters some infrastructure that facilitates their ride.

A stranger's dharma cycle.

Well Burst My Panniers!

This photo illustrates the maximum capacity of my panniers (or it's a birthing photo of a mother grape). I pushed their limit today with a grocery list that was a bit over-zealous for a biking day. If I recall, my two panniers held: one loaf of bread, 2 frozen o.j.s, a jar of peanut butter, 5 pounds of apples, 3-4 pounds of bananas, one pack of American cheese, one package of 100 paper lunch bags, 6 Greek yogurts, one package of hamburger buns, a veggie burger mix, and 2 bags of pretzels. And frankly, I had to use the pannier's bungee cords to secure one plastic bag of groceries onto my rack. I'm thinking the rear of my bike weighed forty pounds all told.

And for you jazz heads out there: since my son was practicing saxophone while I've been composing this, I will honor his hard work with some Coltrane:

More on NYC and Bike Lanes and Mindsets

With my last post on NYC biking being both brief and somewhat uninformed, I thought it prudent to reference the NYT's recent piece (3-6-11) on Janette Sadik-Khan, NYC's controversial transportation chief. She's doubled the number of bike lanes since taking office, up to a total of 561 lane miles by 2009. Apparently her unilateral decision-making and ill communication methods (allegedly insufficient in number and short on describing bike lane rationale) have made her expansion of bike lanes and pedestrian areas a very angering development for some borough leaders. Is this really a surprise? No. It is the sad state of affairs. It’s the status quo that, covertly/subconsciously, resists cycling. In NYC I imagine there is another layer too, which is the city’s collective neurosis that gets tweaked every time individuals must fight veritable wars only for some meager change for their neighborhoods. 


But it’s not just some tense New Yorkers who hit the ceiling about bicyclists and their agenda. Tom Vanderbilt recently wrote in Outside Magazine that, "To cycle in America today is to engage in an almost political act...".  I’d have to agree. Bikes are progressive in their tacit eshewment of gasoline, in turn ruffling those who prefer status quo. Bicyclists also symbolize a level of energetic self-efficacy that some sedentary types might resent. Jeff Lockwood reflects this in Issue #9 of Bicycle Times when he contrasts cyclists versus drivers, “there’s a distinct lack of respect for each other’s choice of transportation…[and] there remains a strong sense of entitlement within each group.” I’m not sure how entitled I feel, but I’m certainly convinced that the green, quiet and mind-body benefits of cycling are a far more intelligent approach to travel than to continue to assume that driving is the only way.

NYC Bikes - February 2011

Vroooom!

Mostly run down, these NYC bikes seem chosen for practical use and low monetary value, lest they be stolen. Also, bike lanes are less plentiful here than one would expect in such a large metropolis, although standing on the corner of Second Avenue and 5th, its bike lane was pretty busy on a Saturday afternoon, with a cyclist moving past every 30 seconds or so....

Lovely Seat

Rusty Yet Effective Looking Chain

This yellow seated bike seems extra speedy with its refined lines...

A Bloody Ride!

While the temp was not too cold on record (24F) it felt otherwise this morning as the chill somehow penetrated my shell, fleece and turtleneck. Perhaps precipitation in the air, perhaps the wrong breakfast. Yet my concerns about the weather faded as my nose began to bleed! I noticed the red drops when I stopped my ride to deal with coughing and mucous (lovely!), and then saw the tell tale liquid on my glove, and then scarlet splatterings on my bike's crossbar.  Why the blood? Air quality? Subconscious psychosomatic resentment about the dearth of biking culture in Central PA? Gov. Scott Walker syndrome? Please, offer your blood-borne interpretation!

Recent February Rides

 I saw this cyclist heading west earlier this week as my son and I were stopped at a red light on the "Pike." It was very windy that day, and this guy was catching a lot of it given his cumbersome clothing. Presumably his duds are warm but not aerodynamic. But he was moving steadily, and probably safe to assume with more purpose than folks who need to just push a plastic accelerator to the floor to move ahead. Or maybe he was headed for a cigarette. 

A few days later I take a ride with my son. We traverse a simple route to the nearby shopping center using residential roads and parking lots hiding behind commercial buildings that together stitch a no-traffic pathway that avoids the Pike. He can handle busy streets well, and easily picked up the brief riding in traffic that we had to do. In the process we build another piece of our mental maps that make biking more possible: the pathway behind Wicker East, a small dirt trail behind Five Guys, where an avoidable stream of traffic enters from the main road. I also spy interesting bits of graffiti along the way, suggesting there is more diversity here than would meet the township code!

Small Lenses and Tearing Eyes

I left home in 18F this morning, my lowest departing temperature. I am learning that cold is not an issue, save for my eyes which couldn't quite handle the cold wind hitting them at 15mph or when I went any faster. But I was nonetheless pleased to know that I could easily commute in this weather overall, as long as I am properly dressed. Again I passed by a father with his bike while he walked along with his son toward an elementary school. The experience they shared as they ambled toward school seemed very pleasant to me, and then I appreciated the father's chance to zip home via bicycle and get on with his day with an efficient, human-powered start.

Cold Bus Nut

Here’s how I rode yesterday morning: 12.4mph on average, and just 10 seconds under 22 minutes in the saddle…..so, a little slower than usual.  But it was quite cold this morning, and the air felt chillier than the reported 23*F.  Plus there was a good gust of wind in parts, especially at the end of my ride as I pulled around the back of the reclaimed farmland that is now my corporate office center.  But the weather is understandable and tolerable. Less so was a nut job bus driver who seemed to want to race me (with vengence, not sportingly) as the light at US15 & Market St turned green. I assume he had resentments of some sort, perhaps fueled his antibiker impulse? Positive attitudes about bicyclists can’t be expected to run well here in Central PA, where the surrounding rural culture stifles the innovative nature we cyclists must muster as we ride against the status quo autophiles.