Archive for the 'Biking' Category
You know what I love? Good timing. My appreciation for good timing is more acute than for most people because I am so infrequently its benefactor.
Have I mentioned that I’m cursed? Yeah, it sucks. So far, I’ve been able to keep the boils and flatulence at bay, but when it comes to things like timing, be it elevators, Light Rail or career-making book deals, I’m always about 30 seconds too late. Every time. It’s uncanny.
The upshot is that my eternal curse doesn’t afflict anyone more than two inches away from me, which is why, as we’re mere moments from biking season, it has come to pass that Minneapolis received a $900,000 grant from the Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Project to promote biking and walking. Look out Portland! We’re going to annihilate you the next time they take one of those cycling commuter surveys! Put that in your tweeter and smoke it, you dirty hippies!
On a related note, if I could only figure out which of these still-packed boxes sitting around my bitchin’ new condo contained my Kryptonite lock, I wouldn’t even be sitting here right now. Now I’m gonna have to walk all the way to Surdyk’s like a sucker.
Speaking of timing, gas is now $3.357 a gallon??? Jesus bootie slapping Christ. That’s gotta hurt. How are these people expected to buy wine and cider when it costs them $73 to fill up their completely unnecessary SUVs that they have no business driving, even if they could successfully navigate or park them - which they can’t if the lofty views from my bitchin’ new condo are any evidence.
I’m so overcome with empathy right now. ‘Empathy’ means ‘disgust’, right? Where is my dictionary? Probably under my Kryptonite.
I don’t mean to sound like a self-righteous asshole about these gas prices, but for those of you who’ve developed lives that are entirely dependent on excessively large cars that you only use for commuting and blocking traffic in my neighborhood, I’d just like to say BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Oh, since I’m in a hating mood over here, there’s this red Hummer I see downtown all the time. Every time I see it, it’s ignoring other traffic or lazily parked in one and a half parking spots, last time, taking up part of a handicapped spot. I saw it again a few days ago - the passenger side window had been smashed in. Now, I don’t normally endorse vengeance-fueled property damage, but seeing this particularly deserving example of returned bad karma was by far the highlight of an otherwise dismal week.
Do your part, flip off a Hummer.
Biking, Car-free lifestyle, Downtown | 18.04.2008 11:00 | 6 Comments
Judging from my visitor stats, many of you probably found my blog via Metroblogging, so this probably won’t be news to most, but just in case, I wanted to highlight a recent post by Erica about winter bike safety.
Having just returned from Chile’s sun and warmth yesterday, even though I had been forewarned by numerous wretchedly jealous friends via email, I was nevertheless stunned by the cold and snow that appeared while I was away.
If memory serves, Minnesotans need a good month or so to re-learn how to drive in slippery conditions each winter and double goes for cyclists since the consequences for even minor accidents can be disastrous.
As for me, well, my bike has been retired. Not only does my work-of-art, pencil-thin, zero-friction road bike have no business tooling around in these conditions, but I’m still tiptoeing around here with no health insurance, so I’ve gotta scale back the risky business until I get myself some kind of coverage in this country.
That said, props to all the people still on two wheels out there. You’re insane, but I love you anyway.
Biking | 13.12.2007 10:03 | 2 Comments
I had no idea the monthly Critical Mass bike ride/organized traffic slowdown had become so, erm, critically massive. I fortuitously encountered last night’s ride as it passed in front of the post office while I was on the way home from an early evening brisk walk to cap a long day of ass-numbing writing.
I’m no good at estimations, but there had to be 400-500 people in the convoy. A stream of bikers three or four deep crawled by for about five minutes and I never even saw the front of the thing, so who knows, could’ve been 1,000. Five MPD vehicles brought up the rear.
I’d heard some ne’er do well jackasses caused a ruckus at a ride this summer. Who started it? Reports vary. It’s tempting to blame the dreadlocked, tattooed guys armed with backpack stereos, but then it’s no secret that the MPD employs its fair share of power-drunk bullies.
Then last month’s more orderly ride was lambasted by perturbed Strib columnist Katherine Kersten, who was incensed about the possibility of being stuck in her car for five extra minutes as Critical Mass riders “infringe on others’ rights by disrupting traffic and running red lights”. Oh the humanity. Lady, I’ve been stuck in line at Lunds longer than that waiting for people that don’t think to fish out their checkbooks until the last item has been rung up, chatting away with the cashier without the slightest inkling that the rest of us would rather get on with our lives. Why aren’t you taking a swipe at those menace to society nogoodniks in your column?
Read the rest of this entry »
Biking | 27.10.2007 16:54 | 1 Comment
I realize the timing of this post could be better. Most sane people are deflating their tires and hanging their bikes in the basement for winter. I’m also aware that I’m probably the last person to get around to gushing over it, but for the benefit of out-of-town readers, I feel compelled to highlight the Midtown Greenway.
Though it was partially completed before I left for exotic far off lands in 2003, I’ve only recently tooled down the full length of this swath of bike and foot traffic giddiness. Next to Light Rail, the Greenway is my favorite bit of urban renewal to come to fruition during my absence.
For those of you even less enlightened than I currently am, the Greenway forms a conduit across the heart of the city, largely in a disused, paved-over railroad ditch. It connects the Mississippi River Boulevard - and therefore downtown – with the western suburban trail system. The path is quiet, attractive and safe with a mirror-finish surface, tasteful ambient lighting and occasional gardens that verily erase the white-knuckle aggravation of cycling through the heart of the city.
Read the rest of this entry »
Biking | 26.10.2007 18:19 | No Comments