From Yehuda Moon:

It’s easy to fall back into old habits.

I have some non-PC comments, but I will let you have your own…

Sorry about all the videos lately, but looks like some really good stuff out there.

Looks like Mother Earth even in the time of great danger still knows how to show us that she cares about us. Let’s return the favor. Let’s…

• Bike to work ~ reduce air, noise, and visual pollution.
• Live in 20 minute neighborhoods ~ Save time, money, and your life
• Make electricity out of sun, wind, and tide ~ It is cheaper and almost maintenance free
• Go vegan ~ Much healthier and better for the environment

Happy Earth Day 2009!!

TreeHugger has a great article comparing cars, buses, and bikes. They compare the real estate sacrificed by each mode of transportation.

This image pretty much summarizes everything.

(Image: Press-Office City of Müenster, Germany via TreeHugger)

Here is my exercise for today:

• 30 minutes of biking (bike to work)
• 10 push ups
• Stretch up
• Twist body stretch
• 12 push ups
• Plank for 30 seconds
• 7 push ups
• Side plank 30 seconds each side
• 7 push ups
• leg split stretch
• 15 push ups

I have been driving a bit too much lately… Well, here is the comics (Bicycle Comics – Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery) pretty much demonstrating how I felt.

The Bet Goes To...

Just Like Riding A Bike

Didn't You Just Fill the Tank?

Turn! TUUURN!

The Nightmare is Over

Today on my ride to work, I broke my personal and probably most people’s record in the flats. And I am not only talking about the quantity but also quality.

Ok, start from beginning. I just recently moved to a new place in San Jose. Now my commute instead of involving suicide missions on Matilda Avenue in Sunnyvale, I just jump on the Guadalupe Trail at my condo and ride that all the way to Alviso. I have to cross a single road. The bad? Well, the Guadalupe Trail is currently mostly packed gravel. But it is totally worth it. Especially on my fixed gear. I zip at 20 mph and not worry about the cars.

Well, today in the morning I was waiting to cross the single road I have to cross and as everywhere in the Bay Area, the intersection has the car friendly but bike unfriendly sensors. So, I jumped on the sidewalk and pressed the pedestrian button. On the way back on the road I went through some brush. When I started to ride, I notice my tires are covered with some brown stuff. So I stopped to remove that and to my horror realize that the stuff was about a hundred thorns per tire. After removing couple of them, I heard the tire deflating.

So, I walked back home and switched to my road bike and zipped using the surface roads to work. Those roads are actually pretty good backup, especially since there is actually less traffic on them and are generally faster than my old commute from Sunnyvale. That is even though my new commute is close to 8 miles and my old one was close to 6 miles.

But back to my tire problem. I have not yet taken the tire apart, but I am convinced that what I will see is a tube littered with tiny holes all over the place. Coworker recommended I get the puncture proof tires. He recommended Armadillo. I guess I will see. It would be nice to find some with a more aggressive profile than a regular road tires. Something that will work good on the gravel.

Should the bikes be on the roads? Well, this is a tricky question… for some people. For me it is pretty simple. Yes. But, let’s go baby steps. What is the best way to travel? It turns out the most efficient way is bike. The least efficient way is a single passenger car. In between are things like trains, buses, walking, etc.

But what is the cost of each mode of transportation? Well, walking is pretty much free. For biking, you got to buy a bike. Most people will say that trains are super expensive, because you have to build tracks etc. But what about cars? What is the cost of a car? Well, let’s do a quick math. My assumption is that we buy a car and throw it away 10 years later.

• Normal car: $17,000
• Gas for 10 years at 22 mpg and 15,000 miles per year and $4 per gallon: (15000 / 22) * $4 * 10 = $27,240
• Oil changes every 3000 miles: (15000 / 3000) * $15 * 10 = $750
• Repairs let say $500 per year: $5,000
• Insurance and registration is another $900 per year: $9,000

Did I forget something? Anyway, according to my math, the total cost of having a car for 10 years is about $58,990. But is that the total cost of driving?

Let’s start by comparing this to a bike. Not completely fair comparison, but let’s try it anyway:

• Normal bike: $800
• Panniers, trailer: $600
• Tubes, break pads, let say 10 tubes a year ($5), 2 tires a year ($20), 2 sets of break pads a year ($20): $1000
• Repairs let say $200 per year: $2,000

Did I miss something here? Well, the total is $4,400. And this is for a bike that is tuned twice a year, gets new tires and break pads once a year, has panniers, trailer and so on.

Ok, how about public transportation. Assuming you live in the Bay Area, you are looking at the cost of a bus and Caltrain, Bart, Ace, or Amtrak. So, you are looking at anywhere from $5 to $12 per day for the commuter rail, and couple of dollars per day for the bus if you need a local connection. Assuming the worst, you are looking at $2 for a bus in the south bay, $6 for the Caltrain to San Francisco, and another $1.5 in San Francisco. This twice a day is $19 per day, which in 10 years is about $49,400. But this is the worst case. Also, all public transportation modes have 10 rides or monthly plans. Also, there are commuter tax breaks for the public transport. All these incentives can lower the cost of riding down to couple of $100 per year.

So, according to this, whoever can bike to work should. There is significant saving in that. So even ignoring impact on environment, health, and time, this should be enough motivation for most people to change their transportation habits.

Here are some random pages I saw and I thought were cool/funny/interesting/crazy:

• Pay off your share of the US national debt

Transportation

• Bike to work is healthy
• Energy cost of movement
• Live longer, run
• Cool and scary photos of traffic from space

Vegan

• Naked chicks protesting against UK guards wearing fur
• E. coli in Whole Foods beef

Social Security Number

• Protect your SSN
• How secure is your SSN

I am consistently harassed by car drivers when I ride bike to work or back home. Most of them seem to be annoyed by the fact that I am on the road where they think only cars should be. But according to CA Department of Motor Vehicles, I have all right to be there:

Permitted Movements from Bicycle Lanes

21208. (a) Whenever a bicycle lane has been established on a roadway pursuant to Section 21207, any person operating a bicycle upon the roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time shall ride within the bicycle lane, except that the person may move out of the lane under any of the following situations:

(1) When overtaking and passing another bicycle, vehicle, or pedestrian within the lane or about to enter the lane if the overtaking and passing cannot be done safely within the lane.

(2) When preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.

(3) When reasonably necessary to leave the bicycle lane to avoid debris or other hazardous conditions.

(4) When approaching a place where a right turn is authorized.

(b) No person operating a bicycle shall leave a bicycle lane until the movement can be made with reasonable safety and then only after giving an appropriate signal in the manner provided in Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 22100) in the event that any vehicle may be affected by the movement.
Amended Sec. 5, Ch. 674, Stats. 1996. Effective January 1, 1997.

In other words, if there is no bike lane, and this is not a freeway, I have a right to be on the road. Also, if there is potentially damaging stuff or some other obstacle on the bike lane, I can go on the road.

Since I moved to California, I have been biking to work and around town. I still have a car, but since I hardly use it, it is on a good way out. Currently it is used as a garage for my road bike. Not the most effective use of a car, but hey, at least I don’t drive it.

I have a funny story that happened a while ago, but I finally happened to remember it again. One day I am parking my bike into my car and there is a note on my car. The note said that since my car was abandoned, it will be towed away. I had to explain them that my car is fairly new, fully registered, on a dedicated parking spot, has the tag of the apartment building, etc and I just don’t use it that often, since I bike to work. They responded by saying that if I go to vacation I should let them know. Explaining that I did not go to vacation did not help a whole lot. Eventually the person told me that since the car has so much dust on it, they could not see the apartment building tag. This was of course complete lie, since you could see the tag without any problem. So, finally they pretty much told me that I have to use my car at least once a week.

So much for the green environment.

After this incident I checked my lease agreement for the apartment and they actually spell out that you have to move car at least once every five days. What is wrong with this picture? I pay for that parking spot. My car is completely legal, I have all the papers, registration, insurance etc. Why do I have to move it? Anybody?

Mainstream media’s opinion about biking tends to be extremely sketchy, but this article on CBS was great. Sorry about the commercial before the actual video.

I usually don’t do this in a public forum, but I have an announcement to make. I am coming out. Out of being a quiet fringe person!

I am a CYCLIST and I am proud of it!!!

Since I moved to CA in June last year, I rode bike to work every day but 3 times that I drove and couple of times somebody else drove me.

My shortest commute is about 6 miles. That means in the year since I came here I probably spend more than 3000 miles commuting (or about 136 gallons of gas with 22mpg). You can do a simple math to see that my $400 single speed commuter bike is more than payed of. But its not about the money. It is about you. And I mean YOU personally. You benefit from me doing this. So does anybody you know. Except perhaps if you know people working for the oil companies or car industry.

Also, since carbon is such an enemy (though I love my carbon bike), according to EPA, a gallon of gas burned in the car produces about 19 lb of carbon (1), so I saved about 2584 lb of carbon in the air. Maybe a bit less because I breathe harder when cycling. To be super conservative, that is about 2000 lb. Each tree in the forest can take somewhere between 2 and 15 lb of CO2 per year (2). That means I could plant anywhere from 133 to 1000 trees and get the same effect.

And of course, do people really like to be stuck on the 101, 237, 280, 880, 80, …?

So, let me ask you this question:

What can we do to persuade you to bike to work or take public transportation to work every day?

To close this e-mail, let me quote some of my favorite bicycling related philosophers:

“… You may say that I’m a dreamer; But I’m not the only one; I hope someday you’ll join us; And the world will be as one…”
“… Look at us we’re beautiful, All the people push and pull but, Let’s just go out and ride, Talk about the things we’ve tried…”
“… Lets take a ride, and run with the dogs tonight In suburbia; You cant hide, run with the dogs tonight; In suburbia…”

Finally, when you are biking to work and a person on the bike next to you smiles at you and/or waves at you, please do me a huge favor. Smile and wave back!!!!

According to this article an average commute is 16 miles. Most people work 5 days a week and let’s be generous and say that people take 6 weeks of vacations a year. Year has 52 weeks, so that means 46 working weeks. 16 miles twice a day, 5 days a week, 46 weeks a year adds up to 7360 miles a year. At 22 mpg this gives us 334.5 gallons. Current average price of oil is over $4, but let’s call it $4. This multiplies to $1338.

If you only use bike to commute half the time, you are looking at more than $600 per year, which is way more than a cost of a commuter bike. And it is also like getting the stimulus package every year. In Japan, they developed a cycling computer that logs the environmental and financial savings you make.

Let’s take this a bit further. Let say you have a gym membership. Most people go to the gym and exercise on the stationary bike or treadmill. The gym membership ranges anywhere from $10 to $80 per month. Assuming that an average gym membership is $30 per month, you add another $360 per year.

In addition, there are several well supported claims that exercise helps with depression and anxiety. Monthly supply of anti depression and anti anxiety medication can range in hundreds of dollars. And this does not even include doctor visits. I don’t know what the average numbers are, but I would imagine that you could cut those by significant amount.

But you need a car sometimes. Do you? Well, if you do, then you are asking, what is my solution? Community owned cars and temporary rentals for the time when you absolutely need the car. There are several options in the cities all over US. For the time you absolutely need a car, they are much cheaper than actually owning the car. Further more, most places you can get with public transport. It may take a bit longer, but you will save yourself lots of stress and anxiety.

So, adding all these expenses together, without including the cost of car and the costs of ownership (maintenance, insurance, registration, etc), you are spending a lot of money just to, well, go to work and make that money. Imagine the world, where you do not actually spend that money for stressful activity, but instead to take vacation every year to a nice resort. Or to buy yourself some present. Or save the money for the rainy day.

Couple of days ago, I received an e-mail from our HR that our $100 per month pre-tax commuter benefits will be moved to another company. Since I bike to work every day, I did not use the commuter benefits so far, but I decided to look at the new benefits.

Several of them make sense, such as: Bus, Ferry, Streetcar, Subway, and Train. Let’s promote the public transportation. Though I only use it when traveling and when I go to SF, I am a huge proponent of public transport.

Then there is: Vanpool (seating for 6 or more adult passengers, excluding driver; 80% of mileage is to transport employees and 50% of seating capacity used for employee transport). That sounds pretty good too, though it is hard to enforce.

Now, when I saw these two, I got really upset:

• Parking at or near work
• Parking at or near public transportation to get to work

I understand the need for … Actually I don’t. If you are driving to work and need to park on a pay parking spot…? Drive to public transportation? Am I missing something?

So, I suggest the following new “eligible expenses”:

• Bike tubes / tires / CO2 cartridges / tube fix kits
• Bike safety / helmets / lights
• Bike repair tools / pumps
• Bikes

These expenses would only be tax deductible for people who bike to work several days a week, let say the magic number 3. There would be several benefits to these benefits:

• Less cars on the roads, so roads would be safer, in better shape, and so less money would be spend on maintenance
• Cyclists would be better equipped, so less wasted time, less cycling accidents, and less frustration
• People would get more exercise, so there would be less stress and healthier people

Finally, it would solve a whole lot of other problems that people may or may not realize at this point:

• Cleaner environment, such as air
• Less trash next to the road
• Less road rage
• Less need for roads ~ more space for green
• Less suburban sprawl
• More jobs for bike mechanics
• …

Reading about tax benefits to polluters always leaves a horrible taste in my mouth. Especially when there are no obvious benefits to them. So, instead of investing into infrastructure to support the pollution and destruction of the environment, why not chose the clean, renewable, leg energy? Support biking to work.

There! no more excuses not to bike to work!!

Bike to work!

BIKE TO WORK!!!

Why? Do it for me, for you, for our children, for your neighbor, for my cats, for the whales…

Just bike to work; and do it now.

You should introduce some activism to anything you do. This way you can slowly change the world to be a better place. I helped organizing a Bike To Work Day here in our little company. Looks like out of close to 500 people, 30 or so ignored hot weather and biked today. To make riders more welcome, the events people set up a table with lots of food and swag.

Some other Bike To Work information:

• My friend Cyclelicio.us
• San Francisco Bicycle Coalition ~ Bike To Work Day
• Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition ~ Bike To Work Day

Interesting video showing why cyclists should be riding in the middle of the lane and not on the side.

My vehicle makes 100 miles to three energy bars and about a gallon of water.