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.

Tags: Bike to Work,California,Cycling,Safety
Categories: Biking, Rants
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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?

Tags: Bike to Work,Cycling,Driving,Environment,Villains
Categories: Biking, Environment, Rants
2 Comments »

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.

Tags: Bike to Work,Cycling
Categories: Biking, Environment
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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!!!!

Tags: Bike to Work,coming out,Cycling,math
Categories: Biking, Environment, Rants, Travel
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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.

Tags: Bike to Work,Cycling,Environment
Categories: Biking, Environment, Geeky, Rants
3 Comments »