bike advocacy

New BART car design allows long bikes to fit without blocking doors
Originally uploaded by Rock The Bike

Heading home last night I spotted a new blue print of a bicycle on the wall of one of the BART cars. I wheeled my Xtracycle

A couple new products are helping bike people cruise with music this spring.

The Gadget Bottle is a functional water bottle that has no batteries or speakers, but its unique shape allows you to strap a cell phone with an internal speaker and listen to your MP3s as you ride. It fits inside a standard water bottle cage. At 2:35, inventor Steve Lach takes a phone call from his wife, holding the entire Gadget Bottle to his ear, with his flip phone securely rubber banded in place! No problem with one-handed use while cruising or training.

How photographer and bicycle advocate Derek Pearson ends a hard day in Olympia.

I had an interesting exchange with one of the volunteers at the SFBC's fabulous Winterfest party last night. I said "Hi" to the volunteer as I approached one of the food tables. He was surgically picking the turkey out of his sandwich.

He said:

"Normally I would eat a vegetarian sandwich, but since I'm not a strict vegetarian anymore, I'm leaving it for someone else."

At this point in the night, there were three platters full of turkey and beef sandwiches, and one vegetarian platter.

I said: "You're taking the turkey out of a turkey sandwich. It's just a bread and lettuce sandwich now. Why don't you eat the one you want?"

Why, when suggesting that riding a bicycle is an important part of building a 'greener' city, does PG&E pick a recumbent bike with a big flag sticking out the back? Why not an everyman's bike that readers will see and say to themselves, "Oh yeah, I could do that."