On the bike@cartky.org mailing list there's an amusing discussion on the proposition that bicycles should be unremarkable tools, like vacuum cleaners. Brent kicked it off with:

“Our relationship to the bicycle in Copenhagen is much like the vacuum cleaner. We don’t have five of them that we keep polished and well-oiled, there are no vacuum cleaner enthusiasts, we don’t go to a specialty shop to buy one or wear special clothes while we vacuum. The bicycle and the vacuum cleaner are just tools. One of them we clean our homes with, the other we use to transport ourselves around the city.”

http://bikeportland.org/2009/10/30/want-to-be-like-copenhagen-think-about-vacuum-cleaners-and-raging-bulls/

That precipitated three replies in October (David Jimmy Brent), and in November even more discussion ensued, eith Michael and Jim also weighing in.

How jaywalking can save your life and the planet.

Dan Burden / PBIC - note upright riding position, fenders, fat-n-stable tires

The generation that delivered the 10-speed is at it again. AARP bulletin writes:

Sixty-six year old Lucy Rigg McAdams "quickly found out what many other 50-plus Americans have been discovering -- the U.S. bike market is now catering to their wants and needs. Many older bicyclists aren't looking for sturdy mountain bikes designed for daredevils or racing styles for Lycra-clad hard bodies. Instead, they're interests are piqued by the newer, more comfortable models broadly referred to as 'lifestyle' bikes. Lifestyle bikes boast features like padded seats for a soft ride; lower, U-shaped crossbars for trouble-free mounting; low gears for easy pedaling; and a sturdy, upright frame for balance. And some, like Rigg McAdams' new $1,800 wheels, are power-assisted.

The generator hub powers this headlight

The bike@cartky.org mailing list has been lighting up (har har) talking about lightsets for the coming winter commute months. Got a great system? Join the list and tell us about it.

There is a huge variety of opinion on light power sources, with the generator hub contingent being perhaps the most vocal and persuasive group. However, there are also proponents of high-performance Li-Ion batteries and also dirt-simple AA rechargables.

More photos below the fold.

All 3 modes post impressive gains over the last three years.

Transit numbers aren't a surprise - we all knew that 2007 was a gas spike year, and TARC fares didn't follow suit until 2008.

its impressive that 2.5% of the population is walking to work. Can ped improvements have 2.5% of the transportation budget now pretty please? $100 million to complete the pedestrian portion of ORBP should be no sweat.

Beware: For some reason no walk data was present in 2006. The point is interpolated between 2005 and 2007. The impressive walking slope looks a little more tenuous with that in mind, since 2005 might be an outlyer. But if not: hooray for walkers, who quietly increased their numbers by 67% in just three years!

Louisville's bicycling hard core continues to claw up. This is the proportion of people who take the bike most days, which is a little more intense than the fair weather commuter. The League of American Bicyclists explains: "the ACS methodology under-counts cycling by not counting bicycle commuters who biked just once or twice the week they were surveyed or most cyclists who bike and use public transportation for their trip to work." And of course it doesn't count non-commuting uses of the bicyle at all, which is a shame because commuting is usually the hairiest trip of the day. Nevertheless, 700,000 people times 0.41% = 2,870 hard core bike commuters out there....somewhere. Wow.

Source: US Census Bureau's American Community Survey, via Bicycle Commuting Trends, 2000 to 2008 at the League's Blog.

Suppose someone came to your neighborhood and told you that the street was going to be optimized for some form of travel you didn't use, at the expense of some form of travel you did use. Would you be very keen on that? That's essentially what is done in promoting Bicycle Boulevards, and no wonder it stirrs up resentment.

The trick is to find the values these people want from their street, and show how Bicycle Boulevards can accomplish their goals, even though it seems somehow tangental to their needs.

Quoth BikinginLA:

By diverting traffic onto other streets, local residents can finally free themselves from the headaches of high-speed traffic in front of their homes. No more heavy trucks or hot-rodding hooligans in the middle of the night. And no more commuters taking a shortcut through a quiet residential neighborhood to bypass congested boulevards, turning a formerly peaceful street into a mini-throughway.

Eliminating through traffic can give residents a quieter, more livable neighborhood, where children can play outside and families stroll along peaceful sidewalks. It can also mean a more attractive place to live, as homeowners take advantage of the opportunity to clean up their streets, and the barriers themselves provide opportunities for beautification projects.

After all, nothing says barriers have to be k-rails; they can just as easily be planters, artwork, fountains or any number of similarly property-value enhancing enhancements. And that’s another key, because property values often go up as the newly peaceful neighborhood becomes more desirable to home buyers.

Then you tell them the best part. It won’t cost them a dime. Because one feature of this wonderful new street plan is something called a bike boulevard — a gap in those barriers that allows bikes and pedestrians to pass through — the DOT will pick up the entire tab.

They don’t even have to make a commitment. The whole thing can be installed on a temporary basis to prove how well it works before they agree to a permanent installation.

Now how many homeowners wouldn’t beg for something like that? And once people in other neighborhoods see it, chances are, they’ll beg for one of their own.

All you have to do is identify a street where homeowners are already fed up with traffic. Which pretty much means any street with speed bumps.

via Streetsblog

To have some fun, be silly, and celebrate World Car Free Day and Two Wheel Tuesdays, we're going to hold a street corner "encouragement" of bicycling, walking, and public transit along Frankfort Avenue. We are literally going to line the streets and cheer for every cyclist, bus, and walker going by. Its just our way of celebrating the transportation choices that enhance our community.

Please join our zany party. Its a way for us to provide some positive feedback for biking, walking, and transit. We're meeting by the railroad tracks on Frankfort Ave (map) at 6 and will keep it up until we get tired.

If you can, bring noisemakers, signs, costumes, whatever! If not, we'll have some spares.

www.ridethecity.com/louisville <== bookmark this now!

Writes Scott Render of Bike Louisville:

Ride the City has been getting a LOT of feedback from our community on their tool and for the last month or so they’ve been tweaking the routes.  It “officially” launched today per their blog…