Bikey Sunday

Had a lot of fun at the brunch on Sunday-  It was a small-ish group, but we took over a booth and had a great time chatting about the latest in various bike projects around town.  You know you're a transpo geek when you pull out your phone to look up on the map the intersections people are discussing, and when people then make suggestions for best routes from point to point.

After brunch, we stood around and chatted about bikes:

 L--  has a cool light-string setup that wraps around the frame and adds extra visibility to the bike from the side.   It looks cool, but I'm afraid messing with the batteries would be too much work for me, so I'll stick with the reflective sidewalls and flashing pedals.

Rode back with A---  and she showed me a new route out of Allston, which if I've taken before, it's been so long that I forgot about it,  which was on Everett Street over the pike, which was perfect as I was headed to Watertown, but would also be pretty good for heading back into Harvard Sq.

On the way back into Cambridge I took the river path, and the street closure "cyclovia" was in full swing:

In a change from normal, there were lawn games, sponsored I think by the Charles River Conservancy

They weren't getting a ton of attention, but it was a little cool and overcast, and it was around lunchtime, so it might have been more busy later.

Awwww, it's so cute!

Was riding in Kendall Sq this evening, when I spied this very cute and colorful bike!

I may have freaked out the guy who was riding it a bit when I asked him if it was a Google bike,  and then asked if he'd "liberated it" (thinking Cambridge is a long way from the Googleplex in CA).   He wanted to know if I worked for Google, and I had to confess I was just a bike geek :)

Backing up slightly,  I knew that Google had these special bikes made for getting around their complex in California.  What I didn't know is that Google has two buildings at opposite ends of Kendall sq, and has therefore brought in some of the special bikes for employees to use to get from building A to B.

The rider said that they're in a bike cage in the parking area, and you unlock the cage with your ID and just take one.  He said that there were two at the building he just left when he left,  don't know how many total they have.

Anyway,  good to see one "in the wild"  and gosh if it isn't the cutest thing I've seen all week-  Makes you want to smile just looking at those mis-matched colorful tires and happy red fenders!

August Women who Bike Brunch

It's that time- after a brief hiatus, when everyone was on vacation, This Sunday we're having another Women Who Bike Brunch.   We're going across the river this time, to the Allston Diner, 431 Cambridge Street between the pike and Brighton Ave.  Thanks to J for the suggestion- I am never over there for brunch, and while I'm happy to go, I just don't have many go-to spots.  We're going to move it up to 10am to avoid the worst of the Sunday brunch crowd.

I have been collecting emails into a mailing list at previous meetups, but if you're not on it, please let me know if you're coming in the comments, or at bikinginheels (at) yahoo(dot) com.  I'm not sure if reservations will be required, but if we get to be too big a group I may try to make them.

I also want to remind people that we have an especially exciting brunch shaping up for September 22nd, with a clinic at Hub Bicycle in Inman sq.   Mark your calendars for that too, and hope to see you soon!

Harvard Sq Lane Diet

Looks like the city of Cambridge is putting Mt Auburn Street on a diet-  a lane diet.

I'm just guessing, but I suspect that there are too many tour busses trying to park in too few spaces, which ends up with them just parking half in the bike lane and half in the travel lane.  I suspect they're going to enlongate the tour bus parking area, and take the road down to one bike lane and one car lane.

I'm a bit ambivalent about this.  One one hand, I think that one car lane is probably enough and it might slow traffic down a bit.  On the other, I am always nervous about riding next to tour busses- afraid that they'll pull out suddenly without checking their blind spots.  They also are not terribly careful about parking close to the curb, so even if they have a dedicated lane, they may park partially in the bike lane. Ideally, they'd make the bike lane wider to allow some buffer space if they're taking away a travel lane.
I don't feel bad about taking a lane when there are two lanes, but if it's down to one, it may become more uncomfortable.

They've progressed beyond these photos and ground out some of the old thermoplastic, but not put new paint/ thermoplastic down.  Am looking forward to a bit more clarity when they get the new markings in- at the moment its a bit confusing.  Although I think confusing isn't all bad- it slows people down as they have to actually think about where they're going!

'Tis the season

Summer time, and there's lots of produce on counters- baskets of peaches, bowls of tomatoes, and piles of cucumbers. And where there's summer's bounty, unfortunately there are fruit flies.

To prevent your kitchen becoming an infested zone, I'm passing along a tip from the Scientist.
Unless you too are a scientist, you may not know that fruit flies are a very common experimental animal, and most major research facilities have at least a few "fly labs." The Scientist is actually more of a "worm guy," but there are fly labs on his floor, and there are always a few escapees.   He brought home a great trick, which they employ in lab to snag any escaped flies that might be buzzing around where they don't belong.  It turns out that fruit flies  are genetically programmed to crawl upward almost exclusively.  So if you can lure them into a trap with a tiny entrance at a low point, they'll crawl up to the (sealed) top and futilely attempt to find the way out until they die of exhaustion.

To make your own kitchen fruit fly trap, you will need:
A drinking glass (small),  A piece of paper, tape, and bait.
I usually use a splash of apple cider vinegar and a pinch of sugar for the bait.  Sometimes the tail end of a bottle of wine, or a bit of lemon juice.  In the labs I think they use yeast in the brew.  I'm sure you could make it of any fruit juice you had around.  Basically any fruity/alcoholic/vingar-ey brew you could throw together in 30 seconds of perusing your kitchen.

Put the bait in the bottom of the glass.  Form a cone with the paper that will rest in the glass and which has a bottom opening about 1/8" diameter.  You want a bit of space between the bait and the bottom of the cone.

Tape the cone together, and tape the outer edge of the cone to the glass.  It doesn't work if the flies crawl up the outside of the cone, and up out of the glass.
Leave on the countertop, near your fruit bowl, or wherever you're having a problem. You'll need to replace it every week or so when the bait dries out,  but it's amazingly effective in reducing the number of flies buzzing around your kitchen

Cyclovia Sunday

Cyclovias- closing large streets to cars and making them available to pedestrians and bicyclists have been all the rage lately with cities from LA to NY hosting them. 

Boston is having its first official summer of them, and this Sunday from 10-1 the Greenway will be open for non-motorized transportation and recreation with all kinds of events going on. Info  here 

In Cambridge, we tend to take our "Cyclovia" completely for granted- it's been going on for probably 20 years (or more?)  and nobody really pays attention any more.  Memorial Drive is just always closed on Sunday from sometime in April to sometime in November, from 11 to 6 or so.  There's not really any publicity or fuss,  it just happens every week in the summer.  Cars deal with it, people take advantage of it, or don't, depending on the weather and their plans for the day.  There aren't really any formal activities planned, although there always seem to be skaters with cones doing tricks, and lots of people have picnics, and recently there have been a lot more food trucks parked on the suddenly dead end side streets.  

I think it's great that Boston, and other cities are getting in on the open streets bandwagon.   I do hope that the idea that streets can be used for things other than cars is the beginning of a transition in some people's brains.  I'm just not sure how influential this will be in creating safety for people using the streets when they're not closed off for some "special" "recreational"  event.

Upcoming bike events

A couple of events I wanted to put on your radar:

This Thursday, Livable Streets is having a summer social.  It will be in the Boston Society of Architects  new space, at 290 Congress street just off the Greenway.  The exhibit space is currently hosting a show called "Let's talk about bikes"  which is about Boston bike culture and ostensibly about the impact of the bicycle on the city.   I missed the opening, but was there for the Hubway birthday party last week.

So let's get this straight- the woman in a nice dress is a "recreational rider" not a "commuter" ?!? 

The Elusive "Mayor's Bike" a specially painted Hubway which is normally in the circulating fleet

#4 With a bullet

I didn't really get enough of a chance to study the exhibit or take many photos because I was in a rush and the place was super crowded, and I spent more time talking to people than taking in the exhibit.    It will probably be just as crowded on Thursday, but it's really worth checking out.  More information here.

Do you like Basketball?  Or Hockey?  Or do you take the commuter rail out of North Station?
If so, you may be particularly interested in a meeting on Wednesday August 8th about the possibility of a cycletrack on Causeway street all along the front of the Boston Garden.   The city would really like to put one in,  but is getting pushback from local businesses, so getting cyclists there to speak up in favor of it is critical.   I don't know if you're ever ridden there around game time, but it's really a zoo, with cabs lurching in and out.   I can absolutely guarantee that a bike lane will become a double-parking lane if it's not physically separated somehow.  Information here

Finally- and this is a ways out, but sounds great- Spokes 2012 in Somerville on September 8th will be a celebration of bike culture of all sorts in Union Sq.  I'm kind of toying with the idea of riding as a "civilian craft"  with SCUL!!!  I'm way too timid to go to one of their normal "missions"  but I might just tag along if there are enough other people going too.  There's a "taste of Somerville by bike" tour too, and you have to sign up for that ASAP if you're interested- it may even be full by now as there were only 20 spots.