Hudson Update

My Dad informs me that the Hudson I saw in Chinatown last week was probably a Hudson Commodore, probably 48-50.   He notes that Hudsons had famously powerful engines, and when you drove on the freeway, people would try to pass you, just to prove that they could!

On my trip in this morning, I saw a slightly less vintage, but still old VW bug (the 60's type) with a "Yeah, it's got a Hemi" bumpersticker.  I would have been more charmed by the irony if it hadn't belched exhaust in my face as I followed it through the intersection.

Just after Charles circle, there was a tremendous traffic snarl caused by all the tow trucks lining up for the first street cleaning of the year.   Yea street cleaning, but boo the lousy job that Mass DOT did on the longfellow bridge.  It's like they just transferred all the scree into a line down the middle of the lane.
need to figure out who to complain to over there.

Chilly again this morning, and grey, but the rain that made the weekend dreary passed along overnight, so the ride was mostly dry.  I am wishing I had a lighter but still rain-proof jacket.  I realized after reading Velouria's review of her Nau jacket that my trench would be just perfect if it had a zip-out lining.  And maybe some reflective piping.

Chinese food delivery

A couple of weeks ago  the NY Times published this moving profile of a bicycle deliveryman.  They are much maligned for not obeying traffic laws, and there have been a lot of very punitive laws proposed to try to rein them in.  The irony is that it seems that a lot of the people who complain about them, are also quick to complain if their dinner is delayed by even a few minutes.  Or the time it takes to only go the right way on one way streets and wait at red lights.  I'm not saying that deliverymen are blameless, but perhaps there needs to be a better system that rewards safety and not just speed.   I know that there's a safety program aimed at delivery bikers and their employers, founded by a woman whose husband was killed (by hitting his head) after being struck by a delivery rider.

We don't have much of a bike-food delivery culture in Boston- I guess because it's not quite dense enough.  I know that Bertucci's and Upper Crust both have specialized pizza delivery bikes,  and I think that Redbones does some local bike delivery, but I haven't heard about much else in that vein.  It surprises me a bit that there aren't bike deliveries of Chinese food to the Financial district-  Chinatown is close, but far enough that it's a bit of a long walk, and there aren't really any good asian restaurants in the FD.  For that matter the North end is close too, but too far to walk on a regular basis,  but there could be a lot of business in delivering sandwiches.

Anyway, I was craving Chinese food, so I organized my own bicycle transport.  The ride there is a lot more pleasant now that they've striped bike lanes on the Greenway's surface roads.  I actually mostly get Vietnamese takeout from Chinatown (yeah I know).  But this time I tried a Chinese place, and I think it may be a winner.  Will have to do more "research"

I parked next to this fantastically decrepit  Hudson,  which I had to take pictures of, because I think my Dad had one of these back in the day.   The owner and what I'd guess were his grown sons were taking photos of each other with the car and a restaurant in the background.  I volunteered to take a photo of all of them together.  It seemed like a family tradition or get together to drive into Chinatown and eat together.  I should have asked them, but after looking online I think this might be a Hudson Hornet-  anyone out there know for sure?  

groovy steering wheel

fantastic patina

Although for gas milage reasons it's probably a good thing, they really don't "make them like they used to."   it would be nice to have more detail and character on modern cars to get the best of both worlds.

AWESOME

Via  Streetsblog

 

More please!  In Boston too!

Spare Tire

Sorry for the radio silence- have been busting my butt at work, trying to get a framing package out the door before I leave on vacation next week.

Chafed of Chafe City,  recently posted something I thought was interesting. About the same time I was struggling with getting Gilbert's new tires on his rims, she was raging at how insanely hard it can be to change a stupid bike tire.   She mentioned that it's easy enough for cars to carry a whole extra wheel with tire already mounted on it around with them at all times, so they never think about it.  The mass and awkwardness of carrying a spare on a bike is obviously prohibitive.

If a bike carried around a spare wheel, it would be about as inconvenient as this car I saw this morning carrying an XXL tire around:

The chip in my brain tells me to ride

Saw this article in the NY Times with the headline "Activists fight green projects, seeing UN plot"

Evidently some members of the far right loony wing of the Tea Party have decided that bike lanes are a UN plot to overthrow the US government and  ultimately  "TAAAKE AWAAYYY OUR CAAAAAARS!

Yeah,  I don't know about you, but how often have you received communications from the UN saying that we should advocate for better and safer bikes lanes so that the UN can take over the world?  Personally I  think the UN can barely run a peacekeeping mission successfuly, let alone the world.

I do understand that since the 50's when public space was chopped up and handed to drivers on a plate they've gotten accustomed to have the run of the place, and that they see any minor inconvenience (like slowing down and waiting to pass)  as a violation of their "rights"  But I have a right to safe operation on the roads too, and I don't get that from the UN,  I get it from US law.    

I have to wonder if the recent bike-punitive transportation bill from the House springs from this far right meme that green initiatives or progressive transportation measures are signs of the "socialist apocalypse"
If so, I think that a bunch of legislators need to adjust their tinfoil beanies.

#flightvsbike

Well, Carmaggeddon was the non-event that anyone who really thinks about traffic could have predicted.

If you build it, they will come has a flipside-  if it's not available, people will find other ways.

I had heard about the ridiculous Jet Blue cross town flights stunt.  I had not heard about bikers and transit users taking the opportunity for a multi-modal race, and whupping the plane. As anyone who has flown into Houston's Intercontinental airport knows- flying doesn't take nearly as much time as all the folderol involved in flying (driving an hour to the airport, getting your bags, security etc etc).

I thought that this article by Tom Vanderbilt had a wonderful conclusion about what this kind of challenge can show us:

"the reasons people give for not cycling in America are often as much failures of the imagination, or a priori rationalization, as anything else"

In other words,  people think biking is harder than it actually is. 

Entitled parking behaviour

There's been a lot of back and forth in Boston advocacy circles about the importance of plowing bike lanes, and the  feeling that the general use of bike lanes as snow storage spaces is disrespectful at best and diabolical at worst.   I think the rhetoric has gotten a bit out of hand.

First of all, we're talking about WAY more snow than usual. It's not like we're talking about 6". I've read varying estimates from 43" to 60" and that was before this last storm that has given us 6" so far with the threat of another 12".  There really isn't anywhere to put the damn stuff.  My tiny front yard is piled to at least 3' and deeper in some places where I've been able to throw the stuff from the sidewalk over the fence.

Secondly, and I acknowledge the chicken and the egg element to this, but there just aren't that many bikers out in these conditions.  Even moderately hardcore riders (I'll count myself in this group, but just barely) aren't willing to go out and play bumper cars with SUV's in salty slush.  Fortunately Boston offers a lot of transit and walking options for getting around.   We'll start riding more when the roads are back to mostly dry pavement.

Thirdly,  they're using parking spots as storage too- it's not just the bike lane.  However, this has lead to some really entitled parking behavior.   It seems pretty obvious to me that if the parking spot is completely filled (with a car or with snow) it's not an available parking spot.   Unfortunately,  there are a lot of people who think that they have the right just to park in the travel lane adjacent to the parking spot.  On Broadway just off the Longfellow bridge- the road was narrowed to just one lane because of this, and I've seen it lots of other places too.  I know that the city put "no parking" signs up,  but I'm not sure if it's being enforced.  (sorry for the lousy pictures- the combo of camera phone and mercury vapor light is pretty awful)  See the light post? That's the curb.  Normally this is parking lane, bike lane, traffic lane.  The parking and bike lanes are completely full of 6' of snow.

See the (ninja) biker who is about to run into the maroon car parked in the right lane?

I really hope that the city is ticketing the hell out of these people- maybe subsidize  some of the overtime snow plowing.  Yes, it's an inconvenience not to have those parking spots, but its a snow emergency, and we all have to live with some inconvenience.  Pedestrians have to deal with plowed over intersections,  bikers have to ride in the traffic lanes,  cars have to dig out after the plow goes by and be careful of bikers and pedestrians in the road.  If you can't find a parking spot, perhaps you should consider alternate transportation for the duration instead of adding to the traffic chaos by just deciding to park in the street.

WHOA! Scary

Universal Hub,  a local news aggregator here, is reporting that the Cambridge police arrested a man last night for "Armed Assault with Intent to Murder " for trying to run down a biker with his car.
Anyone know where or what happened?

On one hand, I am very happy that the Cambridge police are taking this extremely seriously,  as anyone on the street knows that a car can be a lethal weapon.

On the other, it's terrifying that someone could be so crazy with (presumably) road rage that they would actually try to run someone over with their car.  While I'm very careful with my middle finger, and am not going to try to get into arguments or fights, I've been known to use my vocal cords as a horn and yell at people who aren't respecting my space on the road. This is my worst nightmare, about riding vehicularly, that someone controlling a huge steel vehicle is riding behind you, and if they go crazy and act sociopathically, there's not a lot of protection.  It is at least a relief that the police in Cambridge are treating it with gravity.  Makes me even more curious what happened.

If anyone knows any details, or sees them reported, please share, and I'll post any updates I find.