Friday Funny

Via Bike Portland,

A really amusing video that likens forgetting bike lights to forgetting to wear your pants.


Strategies for Getting Around Without Bike Lights (or Pants) from BICYCLE TRANSPORTATION ALLIANCE on Vimeo.


I think that the analogy of how silly forgetting either would be isn't made quite explicit enough for this to be a general public PSA,  but it's pretty darn funny.

Kudos to the guy who was brave enough to model his tightie whities!

Bikes in the media- digital and dead tree

I had an interesting exchange in the digital media recently.

There was a story on Universal Hub,  a local news aggregator about delays in bus service due to the cold and snow.  The original story was a lament from an unfortunate bus rider, who was waiting for 40 minutes for a bus in the 14 degree temps, and not happy about it.  She mentioned that it was 3 miles to work,  and several people commented that she could easily bike 3 miles.  (whether she would want to on a snowy frigid day is another question entirely)

Someone posted an inquiry about riding to work, saying that he'd done it in his grad school days, but didn't want to show up at work sweaty and dishevelled, and actually asked for advice, so perhaps naively I gave him some.  

I posted about my typical commute, gear and clothing, and pointed him to some sites that feature transportational cycling in normal clothing.   I said that I go slow, and that I don't get sweaty or gross.

And that hijacked the post completely.   

First someone posted to tell me  that I was stinky and that people talk about me behind my back.  This obviously got me mad, and I replied that I most definitely was NOT stinky! Someone else chimed in to say that if you ride 3 miles you definitely need to shower.  I  said- come on- unless you're sprinting, there's no way you need to shower, people are thinking that this is harder than it actually is.  

I was feeling pretty put upon- like everyone was attacking me online.  After a short period though, others started to chime in- to say they have a co-worker who bikes in and doesn't smell.  To say that they bike and don't smell, to say that biking is safe and fun and simple. So many general online forums are so full of anti- bike vitriol,  so it was nice to feel that despite the initial hassling, there was a community of bikers, even on a site not dedicated to biking.

In a less digital medium, I'm just read "No History", a recent book by William Gibson,  the father of cyberpunk.  This book is more of a thriller about corporate espionage and a caper gone wrong.  The subtext for most of it  is marketing and branding, and how iconic certain ideosyncratic brands are.  A character wears a International Klein Blue suit for example.  I perked up when a character need to build a "getaway" bike,  and starts with a Hetchins frame, and is going on about the curly lugwork (although he calls them "curly stays", which might be a British locution).   It's true that knowing some  of these niche brands makes you feel a kinship with someone else who knows about them, because they're both interesting and relatively unknown, so the other person must have some specialized knowledge of the subject if they're familiar with them.  It's like a secret handshake that we're in the same group.

Media Watch

The Wall street journal had an article that was the banner of the front page, and the lead of the Arts/ Leisure section about cycle chic,  and while I had a couple of issues with it,  I thought that overall it was a better pieces than most in the mainstream media.  Although there was a "business of cycling" slant (not surprising given the source)  I thought it was less patronizing than a lot of the "how cute, women on bikes" stories that one too often sees.  A guy on the elevator today wanted to talk about it- so it's great that it's getting a lot of attention.  A little disappointing that the author had to call her husband to pick her up at the end of the ride.

The thing that disturbed me was how negative the comments FROM OTHER BIKERS were.  There were of course the obligatory 10% of "scofflaw cyclists don't obey the laws, and biking in the city is incredibly dangerous and foolhardy" people,  who were robbed of their favorite "Lance Armstrong wannabe"  line.   What was discouraging was a ton of people, ok,  almost all men, who ragged on how heavy and stupid steel IGH bikes were,  and how the last thing the bike community needs are new inexperienced riders in "dangerous" inappropriate footwear.  

So now we need to don armor and steel toed boots to get to work?  What are you so afraid of guys?  Someone riding to work without a reflective triangle make you feel like what you're doing isn't so heroic and brave?  

To me riding not being heroic is the goal,  and to that end, my other tidbit:

This isn't actually "mainstream" media, but there's a fabulous film from the great Streetfilms about the recent VeloCity conference in Copenhagen.  I know that there's a lot of publicity about Copenhagen and cycle Chic, but this one was told through clips of american city planners there for the conference(Including Livable Streets' Jackie Douglas!) .  It was so inspiring and beautiful- to think that someday we might have the same thing here is something to be dreamed of, and worked for.  My favorite moment was the planner from LA talking about the boxes o'kids she saw everywhere. 

I went to a meeting about the Accelerated bridge program earlier in the week, and although the contrast to the "bad old days"  of the old MassDot was striking,  it's more that they seem to have gotten the message that if they don't plan for bikes, bikers will revolt and make their lives miserable in public comments.    We have such a great advocate in Nichole Freedman on the Boston side of things,  now what we need is a similar visionary in the Mass DOT hierarchy.  The aforementioned Jackie was saying how instead of them grousing about 6" of lane width, they need to come into these meetings saying: this is our plan for getting 30% bicycling mode share by 2020.  Supposedly they're looking for a Ped-Bike coordinator, and I hope that they get the right person in that job.

Bikes in the Wedding Industrial Complex

Saw these two images that are being used in advertising campaigns for registry services:
I'm a little skeptical of the messengers, but I like that they're using in both cases the image of a bride and groom actually on bicycles in full regalia:

Sorry for the heavy dose of advertising- don't worry FCC, I wasn't compensated for passing them along.

I'm just happy when bikes are used in a positive way in the media.