Due to the Thanksgiving weekend, the Thursday Bike News Roundup is coming out today! As usual this is an open thread.
- The Urban Country Bicycle Blog: Trashy Bike Lane
- BBC News – Cycling to power in DR Congo?
- Biking Bis – Bicycle Touring :: How many miles do you ride your bicycle every year? – Odds are, this guy rides way more.
- Inner Tube Body Armor – Bike Hugger – What to do with all those unpatchable tubes (if you are a geek)
- ORCA Wants Your Feedback – Seattle Transit Blog – Give them all your good ideas
- The Death of the Fringe Suburb – NYTimes.com – Are the outer suburbs around the nation on the road to becoming slums?
- A Soccer Ball Wheeled Bike – Bike Hugger
- Cycling, Safety & Health – Baltimore Spokes – How dangerous is cycling compared to over modes of transportation?
- NYC Officials Announce City’s First Neighborhood Slow Zone, Launch of Program for Communities to Request Slow Zones to Reduce Unsafe Speeds – Big step for neighborhood safety. Seattle needs to get in the game.
- Rabobank Women’s Team Signs Miracle Athlete Monique Van Der Vorst | Cyclingnews.com – Woman wins three handcycling championships, regains use of her legs, signs to pro cycling team.
- Wheely, wheely thankful | Grist – Elly wheely likes bikes
- BikePortland.org » The ‘bike swarm’ evolves into a movement of its own – The bike swarm is proving to be a fascinating protest tool
- Report: Switching To Transit Saves Seattleites $12,000 A Year | PubliCola – Imagine how much you save by biking
- Let’s talk about labia | Taking the Lane
- Turning vacant lots into parks reduces violent crime | Grist
- “As a matter of policy, we don’t build dedicated bike lanes.” – St. Louis County | nextSTL – Classic backwards thinking from my hometown: We don’t build bike infrastructure because few people bike (therefore, few people bike, therefore they don’t build bike infrastructure….)
- BBC News – Large 30mph speed sign painted on house in Bow, Devon – Love it.
- BikePortland.org » Dispatch from Europe: Bikeway innovations abound in Malmö
- Who Pays, Who Plays: the Gas Tax Fallacy
- Major Taylor has started the year off right!! « Cascade Bicycle Club Blog
- Local Economic Implications of Urban Bicycle Networks | This Big City
- Streetsblog.net » Bye Bye Curbs: Safer Streets in the UK Mix Cars and People
- West Seattle Blog… » As-it-happened: Mayor’s road-safety-summit stop in West Seattle – Good coverage of the West Seattle Road Safety Summit
- Secret To A Long, Healthy Life: Bike To The Store – NPR
- Forch Concedes | PubliCola – Jean Godden, who has expressed doubts about road safety projects, narrowly beat her opponent to win reelection to the Seattle City Council
- Women cyclists are more likely to be killed in traffic: TfL suppresses report | RUDI – Resource for Urban Design Information
- Building a Better Bus Route, With No Defined Stops – The Atlantic Cities
- Cyclist robs Shoreline bikini coffee stand, leaves bike behind – KCPQ
- Bus app for blind developed at UW | KING5.com Seattle
- Guerrilla bike lanes and asphalt devils: Remaking the streets with protest art | Grist
- Biking Bis – Bicycle Touring :: Turkey warning this Thanksgiving; bicycles can be used for hunting
- Bicycle-commuting advocate won’t let crash slow her down
- Biking Bis – Bicycle Touring :: Snow birds flock to Arizona for 2011 El Tour de Tucson; Marcotte wins again – Local biker wins
- GigaPica : Three killed in 52-vehicle pile-up on A31 – Absolutely terrifying images here
- Kidical Mass Seattle success! Amazing turnout today. Now time for beer :) – That’s a lot of family bikes at Fremont Brewery
- Bicycle Portraits – Fantastic
- Busted Carbon – Lots of expensive bikes snapped in pieces
- Car websites: be nice to cyclists it’ll accelerate your visitor stats | Bicycle Business | BikeBiz
- BikePortland.org » Would more bike cops, fewer riot cops lead to peaceful protests?
- Restaurant parking debate makes Houstonians seem small time, not big city – Mandating tons of extra parking is anti-business
- Bike ban on sidewalks downtown should stay, advisory committee recommends – Everett keeping sidewalk biking ban
- Loop-Frame Love: Kidical Mass rides in Novembrrr!
Comments
4 responses to “Bike News Roundup: Motor Mania (Starring Goofy!)”
Bicycling vs Transit savings:
Unless you include a high end gym membership, I don’t save anything! In fact it costs me more to ride my bicycle than to take a bus. But that is because I ride high end tires ($40 ea), use quality tubes ($10 ea), own “biky” clothing from places that charge a fortune for jerseys (www.ibex.com and http://www.vintagevelos.com), rain gear from http://www.showerspass.com etc etc. The bus costs me $5 day, at 22 days a month, I easily spend more than $110 a month on parts and amortized clothing and bicycle costs. (I’m assuming clothing lasts between 5 and 10 years of riding)
But if you factor in a membership at the WAC ($60/mo) plus… well then it at least balances out.
Most people don’t spend that kind of money on their bikes. I commute in the clothes I wear at work, buy my wool at the thrift shop, do almost all of my bike maintenance ( most probably don’t ever do maintenance on their bikes, and rarely upgrade my bikes. I definitely spend less that $110 a month on my commuting bikes.
I ride for an hour and a half to get to work. There is no way anyone would work next to me with out a change of clothes and a shower.
In the past I’ve bought my wool at thrift shops as well. A pendleton shirt works well if you can get one large enough. Or an old light weight wool sweater.
But used rain coats suck. Same for tights, socks, gloves and the beanie. The good news is that hand washing will make them last 5 to 10 years.
I do my own maintenance too (including building wheels), but those dang 10 speed chains wear out in 10 weeks even with regular cleaning. Brakepads, rims, tires, tubes, light systems. All get the cr*p beat out of them with those long winter commutes. And the tools are not cheap either. (although the amortization is probably 30 years.)
I’m just saying when you factor in all the costs of bicycling it’s not free.
Re: huge crash
In he central valley of California, there’s something called tule fog. It is very very thick, and occurs often. It regularly causes huge pileups like the one you linked to. In fact I think it’s the number one weather killer in california. But the real killers are the people who refuse to slow down in that fog.