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.

Disaster relief by bike

I'm not the only one who has mused about the potential bicycles hold for evacuation in an emergency situation.    But the city of Portland is taking it a step beyond, exploring setting up cargo bikes as emergency response vehicles.  And Bike Portland reports on a neighborhood preparedness organization which is testing the concept.

Photo from Bike Portland/ Ethan Jewett

It makes a lot of sense. Obviously a bike can't carry as much weight*  but they're more maneuverable, and if gas is scarce they don't have an issue.  This is part of why bikes were so popular in the 30's and 40's: Gas was expensive/ rationed so people biked every trip they could.   There are a lot of people talking about how high gas costs are "driving" (pun intended) to bikes.  I don't think that at current gas prices there is a strong economic reason to bike vs drive.  However I think that there's the "latte effect"  where people cut out expenditures that they think they can easily see, even if they don't have significant impact on their actual financial situation.   Biking can benefit from people trying it when gas prices go up, and finding that they like it enough to do it even if it doesn't affect their overall financial situation.

In any case, I think that the potential for bikes as part of a disaster response, and not just as part of an individual's preparedness is an interesting concept.  One of the rationales that is often used for over-sizing roads in a way that is not bike and pedestrian friendly is to allow for the passage of "emergency vehicles"  which in turn get bigger and bigger until they won't fit through existing road infrastructure.  Rinse, lather, repeat.    I don't know how viable bikes would be for fire-response, but for a lot of first aid, and the distribution of supplies to displaced or stranded people, they could really be useful in a catastrophe.

*although you read stories like this, and the amount of weight you can carry by bike is pretty incredible.

27 degrees on the 27th

This morning the temp when I left the house on the 27th of March was 27F.  A dramatic change from the mornings last week that were in the high 40's and low 50's.
Had to put my earpod ear warmers on, and wore a scarf, wool tights, boots and warm gloves in addition to my long Nau coat.  I looked almost like this:

Last week I looked like this- look ma- no sleeves!

I don't think this cold snap is going to do good things to all the flowering trees either.  I miss last week already.

Boom!

With the unseasonably warm weather we had last week, it seems like all the trees have exploded into bloom.  Normally there's a slower progression from crocuses to daffodils to hyacinths and then forsythia and magnolias.  This year it all seemed to happen at once!  

Saucer Magnolias in the north end

I don't know what kind of tree this is, but the blooms are spectacular- like fireworks.

Cherry blossoms still in bud (AM ride)

Forsythia

Redbuds (I think)

Cherry Trees PM- some of the buds were already blooming 

Normally all these flowers seem like a sign that you've made it through the long tough winter.  This year the winter was neither long nor tough, but it's still nice to have exuberant blossoms on every streetcorner, and the sweet smells of spring wafting through the air.  It's a great time to ride your bike (and everyone and their dog is out riding)

And then BOOM,  New England spring descends again!  It was cool and overcast and blustery all weekend!  The Scientist was all excited about going on a lovely spring bike ride Saturday morning, so we biked to brunch in the South end- and of course it was cold and windy and overcast.  Monday my ride in wasn't too bad, but the ride home was so cold I wished I had warm gloves and earpods- my fingers and ears were bright red and numb by the time I got home.  Didn't see many of the fresh crop of spring riders on my way home.

It's typical for the weather to shift violently back and forth this time of year, but I hope the needle shifts a bit more towards balmy and bright!

Follow up on Ride on Washington

I posted last week on the sendoff for the Ride on Washington, which I just happened to stumble across.

I just read an article about their arrival in DC, and about the focus of the ride, which I thought was especially interesting given my initial reaction.  My thought at the time was that the kitted group was a little unrepresentative of average cyclists  And I had questions about advocacy which presents only a stereotypical image of cyclists as super fit racers to policy makers who might have complicated reactions to that stereotype.

Interestingly, what I missed from my skimming of the ride's website, was that the idea behind the ride was to try to motivate roadies to have more of an activist voice.  The Bike Portland article makes the point that stereotypically roadie culture tends to be apolitical, and less involved than commuter culture in advocacy for better infrastructure.  Take the fictional example of the divergent views of Joe (roadie) and Yehuda (commuter) at the Kickstand Cyclery cartoon.

Instead of presenting themselves as advocates to the larger public, the point was for the ride to be elite athletes from the sport side of bicycling to raise awareness of advocacy issues within their community.

I wonder why there's such a divide between roadie culture attitudes towards advocacy, and commuter culture attitudes?  Is it about sport/ transport?   Is it a rural-suburban vs urban divide?  Is it about speed and the feeling that high speed long distance biking is independent of bike infrastructure?  Do commuters feel more entitled to demand infrastructure because their ability to do everyday tasks like work and grocery shop is impacted by it?

Anyway, I felt that the article really reframed my perspective, and made me think about some of the opportunities to expand and redefine advocacy.

Dutch Panniers

Full of Dutch Tulips

Not much more cheerful than a pannier full of flowers!

Hope everyone is out enjoying the spring weather!

Two upcoming events

Livable Streets and the "On the Move Coalition" are sponsoring a screening of "Boston Under"   a documentary about what happens at the T between 1:30 and 5am when all the maintenance gets done.

I'm a sucker for this kind of behind the scenes/ how things get done documentary.  Tickets are $6 and it's playing at the Central Square theater 450 Mass Ave, Cambridge.  More info here

Also another panel discussion about activism and creating more livable streets at Harvard with the slightly unwieldy title of "Become a Super Designer!  Redesign a Street, Plan a Neighborhood, Transform a City"

at the GSD (Harvard).  6:30 Monday March 26, at Piper Auditorium.  More info here. 

This is part of the "spring series on progressive urban planning" moderated by Aaron Naparstek who I met in August.