Our love of bikes is well-documented. Our home, however, is conspicuously lacking in any evidence of our two-wheeled ways – aside from the spare set of wheels temporarily living in the office. Despite having artwork in every room, we are completely without creative representations of our beloved bicycle.
Perhaps this is why the work of Yeong-Deok Seo caught my eye this morning.
That, and, it’s just incredibly cool.
This weekend, with weather better suited to August than October, we were fortunate to spend time outdoors soaking up some of the last mild sun of the season.
Relevant to the recent influx of Hubway bike share riders, CASA researcher Oliver O’Brien has a handy map to help keep tabs on what Hubway stations have available bikes, where you’ll find open spaces to drop your bike off after your ride and how many bikes are in use at any given time.
Not in Boston? Oliver also offers bike share maps for London, Barcelona, Miami Beach, Mexico City and a dozen other cities worldwide. Check it out!
Still not so sure you feel safe hopping on the bicycle bandwagon? Jump back to our primer on riding right to get a leg up.
It’s no secret that we’re pretty big on bikes. We think they’re pretty fun to ride (and are kind of like magic carpets ferrying you home in the wee hours when everyone else is fighting for cabs) and we love when friends ask us for help breaking into biking in the city. More bikes are better for everyone involved, in our opinion.
And so, though we’re a bit confused as to the target market, we really want to get behind Boston’s Hubway bike share initiative, which had its grand opening yesterday. Kiosks are up, bikes are out and locals are signing up – but what about that influx of new riders?
Biking in Boston is very doable, but there are some tricks and bits of knowledge that make things much easier and safer for cyclists, drivers and pedestrians alike. I have a date with a Hubway-enthused friend to ride with her and show her the ropes; not everyone compelled to hop on two wheels has this kind of connection. So, in honor of more bikes and less stress for everyone, here are nine tips that will turn you into a veteran Boston biker in no time, while keeping safe and annoying fewer drivers, pedestrians and other cyclists along the way.
Of course, the disclaimer is that this particular piece is geared only to the bike perspective (specifically to help newer riders), and we’re only two cyclists – what have we missed? What else should we consider?
Our weekend involved a lot of biking, a lot of visiting friends and a lot of web work. We headed to Rockport, MA by bike on Saturday, as one last training ride ahead of our 65-mile endeavor to support Bikes Not Bombs next weekend. Sunday saw us settled in (despite more sunshine) to put finishing touches on an outstanding site redesign project, and also making up this snazzy flier for our Bike-a-Thon bid.
How was your weekend?
April has come and gone, and we’re still trying to keep up. What have we been up to?
Per usual, plenty.
Because Jack is more hardcore than I am.
But you see, therein lies the rub – I am that cyclist.
I am the cyclist who will unapologetically take the lane when it is safer for me to do so. I am the cyclist that will not “get on the sidewalk”, because it is illegal for me to ride there. I am the cyclist that will catch up to you at the next red light, ask you to roll down your window and explain why, exactly, you thought it was reasonable to honk, swerve and curse at me.
As a society, when comments like this are made – even in jest – we are making the roads more dangerous for everyone.
There is no differentiation between me, as your friend/colleague/neighbor/family member, and that cyclist.
I feel like I must have first seen the work of Pete Dungey before I had started biking Boston’s notorious roads; I make this conjecture specifically because I don’t recall relating his Pothole Gardens to my own existence, but just considering it clever.
