From Yehuda Moon:

It’s easy to fall back into old habits.

Sometimes, I think civil engineers are out there making fun of everybody…

I wonder what they were thinking when they designed this marvel…

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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.

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)

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

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

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?

Another cool graph from TreeHugger:

Ok, why are insurance companies so weird? The health one are probably the worst, but I will save this for some future rant. After having an accident with my car, I called the other driver’s insurance company. They were, well, the word helpful would probably be really far on the list. They were returning my calls after days of leaving messages. They are probably really busy.

When I finally talked to their claims agent, he asked me if I will go through my insurance or through them. I wonder if people who are not guilty actually go through their own insurance just to make things simple. That said when I called my insurance first, they asked me what car I drive and what is the license plate etc. After explaining them that I have been their customer for years and that I have been driving this car for more than a year, the operator said that this is claims department and not customer service. Well, their computer networks are probably really secure and so they cannot just check their customer information.

But, to go back to the original story. After waiting for the other insurance company for about a week and talking to the person, well, I was not impressed with their performance. Eventually I faxed them the estimate from the body shop and they send me check without telling me that they are accepting the charge. It took me a while before I realized why there is some random company sending me check.

My favorite body shop was more than happy to fix my car in no time. In the mean time, I was driving rental, which was some random American SUV. One day I will complain about SUVs, but for now, let me just say that this is not comfortable car at all. It is big, but it drives much worse than my Scion tC. The good thing is that after the body shop fixed the bumper everything else worked out. I guess if denouement is good, everything is good.

Do you still remember my rant about people driving through red lights? Well, isn’t that something? The day after writing that rant, I was a victim of that exact traffic violation. Fortunately, I was driving slow and I had a seat belt,otherwise I would probably die.

Anyway, it started as any other trip to the dentist. This was my second appointment to put a crown on top of my brand new implant. After spending tones of money, this would be pretty much it. So I drove to Saratoga Springs the usual 87 north to exit 15. During the drive north, there was another person in Scion Tc driving about the same speed as I did and we were honking each other up until exit 15. There that person turned right, while I turned left.

In the same spirit I drove down 50 towards down-town Saratoga Springs. After a mile or so, just after passing the Loughberry lake, the light turned red, so I stopped. I was actually wondering about the car next to me driving through the red light and thinking how stupid that was. And then, all of a sudden, like somebody would take a giant hammer and whack my car.

So, I called quickly my dentist and told him I will be late and then went outside and check the damage. The rear bumper was bent and scratched but I did not see any damage on the rest of the car. After taking some pictures with my phone, we drove to the side of the road, where I called my insurance and she called hers.

It took forever to explain my insurance people all the information. For example, what is the make and model of my car. Are they crazy, just look on my file. It is not like I have hundred cars. Also, what is my address and so on.

Throughout all this fiasco, the driver of the second car was complaining that she is late to religious ceremony. Also that it is a minor thing and stuff like that. I canceled my appointments for the day and it wasn’t even my fault. But I guess religious ceremonies supersede all other things.

Well, the quippy things about this whole development were the following two things. First one is that I have been at the body shop with this car within the last year already two times. First time I ran over the truck tire which smashed my front bumper and second time when somebody keyed my side. Now the really quippy thing is that the driver of the other car said to me right after the accident: “I really thought you are going to drive through (the red light)”.

There are several day to day things that just throw me off. Interesting example of is the traffic laws in this country. I guess it is not much better somewhere else. Maybe some countries have more elaborate laws or higher punishments, but overall this are extremely funny. So, I could be writing about how in Italy a man can be arrested for wearing a skirt, or that it is illegal to kiss on the French railway, but hey, I am here, so I will write about this place.

Turns out there is a great number of people that die in car accidents every year. And for some reason the major causes of this, according to the message the media and government is sending, are speed and not wearing the seat belt. Ok, I can imagine a scenario where speed will cause an accident. For example let say I am driving really fast, and I cannot make a turn, or I cannot stop in time, or something similar. Ok, I buy that, but seat belt? Now, don’t get me wrong, I use it every time, but what is the worst thing that will happen if I don’t? I guess I can die, but I think if this is my decision to die, people should respect that and let me. I guess I can imagine a scenario where not wearing a seat belt will make accident bad. Let say the driver is launched through the window and he hits somebody.

So, what is this rant all about? Well, my question is why is there not more emphasis on the more obvious causes of accidents. For example, how about driving through red light, or passing over solid line, or, and this one may strike close to home, not use the signal. It turns out that there is no real emphasis on that. I see people at least once a week driving through a red light, or pass over the solid line. I would say about 30% of people do not use their signals at all.

I guess the priorities are important. Everybody will drive 55 miles an hour on the straight four lanes highway for hundreds of miles, wearing seat belt, but when you come to suburbia, all bets are off. People will disregard the signs, ignore the laws, and so on. And you wonder why most people die close to home. Well, nobody lives on the highway these days.

Another interesting one is the one about very obvious signs (black on white, about the size of notepad), such as “Slower Traffic Move Right” and “Do Not Drive On Shoulder”. The image on the right was taken today on the local road. As you can see, there is actually not only state law, but also an actual sign that people should not drive on the shoulder. But here you see at least three if not more cars doing just that. And all this just to save ten seconds wait. Now add to this the fact that our lovely suburbia with on average 1.5 acre per lot does not have enough space to put a decent bike path or sidewalk anywhere. That means that all pedestrians and cyclists have to share the road with people like the guy in the dark Buick.

I guess overall the problem with the society is that it is getting pejorated enough to just want to solve complex problems using simple solutions. It is easy to blame all the accidents to a simple problem like speeding. But at least in my reality, it is never that simple. Speeding can make accident worse, and not wearing seat belt will make your chance of survival smaller. That said probability of causing an accident by driving fast or by not wearing seat belt seems much, much, smaller than by driving through a red light or outside the specified lane (passing or driving on shoulder).