Trader Joe's is the whole foods organic chain California. Dan rants about "dish rack" bike racks in use at a location in San Francisco. Readers comment with yawns and disinterest. Hat tip to Murph.
Some cities specify the type of bike racks that are permitted. The city of Denver, CO, for example, has an "equipment standard for bicycle parking areas" specifically spelling out inverted U bike racks as the preferred bike rack. The city of Palo Alto, CA, defines an "acceptable bicycle rack" as "a stationary object to which the bicycle user can lock the frame and one or both wheels of a bicycle with a user-provided high-security U shaped lock (“U-lock”) or cable, and which is either anchored to an immovable surface or is heavy enough that it cannot be easily moved."
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Tour de France 2008 TV and streaming video
NOTE: This page is about 2008 information. For Tour de France 2009 Internet Streaming Video, please visit this page.
Le Tour de France. Photo by Carlton Reid. In the United States, Versus TV will show some live coverage from every stage of the 2008 Tour de France beginning this Saturday, July 5. Coverages begins at 8:30 AM on most days and continues through 11:30 AM, though Versus will begin coverage as early as 6:30 AM for some stages. The complete Versus TV schedule is available here.
Your options are very limited if you live in the United States, don't have cable TV and you want live Internet streaming video, and the streaming video providers in Europe are getting very good at blocking access from outside of their regions. Versus will show live streaming video online for the early risers before TV coverage begins in the States.
For worldwide television schedules and Internet viewing options, Steve has a comprehensive listing of global television schedules and Internet video options at Steephill.TV.
Does anybody have idea when Garmin/Chipotle will be promoted to a ProTour team? They certainly have the roster for it and it looks like they now have the sponsorship commitment.
Le Tour de France. Photo by Carlton Reid.Your options are very limited if you live in the United States, don't have cable TV and you want live Internet streaming video, and the streaming video providers in Europe are getting very good at blocking access from outside of their regions. Versus will show live streaming video online for the early risers before TV coverage begins in the States.
For worldwide television schedules and Internet viewing options, Steve has a comprehensive listing of global television schedules and Internet video options at Steephill.TV.
Tour de France teams
Of the 20 teams participating in the 2008 Tour de France, three will have new title sponsors. Team CSC is now Team CSC Saxo Bank; Team High Road became Team Columbia after signing Columbia Sportswear as title sponsor; and Slipstream Chiptotle is now Team Garmin-Chipotle Presented by H30. Ken writes about the new sponsorships. I've seen the new CSC/Saxo kit; I've missed it if Garmin and Columbia kit has been unveiled yet.Does anybody have idea when Garmin/Chipotle will be promoted to a ProTour team? They certainly have the roster for it and it looks like they now have the sponsorship commitment.
More Tour de France 2008 news.
- View the Tour de France stages with Google Streetview.
- Flickr links and other Stage 3 updates.
- Automated Tour de France 2008 updates.
San Francisco fixed gear riding
Macaframa in San Francisco is releasing a new DVD this summer featuring fixed gear cycling in San Francisco. View the video below for a taste .
And this little snippet from Macaframa absolutely rocks.
I wasn't originally planning on it, but I think I might spend the Independence Day weekend in San Francisco. More at Macaframa MySpace page.
And this little snippet from Macaframa absolutely rocks.
I wasn't originally planning on it, but I think I might spend the Independence Day weekend in San Francisco. More at Macaframa MySpace page.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
All the cops in the donut shop say ay oh way oh
Look and see where the Boston police bicycle patrol like to hang out.
Outstanding photo by Chic Cyclist in Boston who writes, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
Outstanding photo by Chic Cyclist in Boston who writes, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
Position paper on Caltrain Bicycle Master Plan
The board of the directors of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition met over the weekend to create a response to the draft of the Bicycle Master Plan proposed by Caltrain. The SVBC put the position paper online and is seeking member input, both online and in person. The SVBC Board will have a meeting on Thursday July 10th at 6pm at Kapp's Pizza Bar & Grill i Mountain View specifically for the purpose of discussing the Caltrain Bicycle Master Plan with the membership.
Activist Jym Dyer of San Francisco posted his thoughts to the SFBIKE list on the role of advocacy and what he believes should be done to improve the Caltrain Bicycle Master Plan. I reproduce them below with his permission. Remember, Caltrain is accepting comments on the draft plan until July 3.
Activist Jym Dyer of San Francisco posted his thoughts to the SFBIKE list on the role of advocacy and what he believes should be done to improve the Caltrain Bicycle Master Plan. I reproduce them below with his permission. Remember, Caltrain is accepting comments on the draft plan until July 3.
Bikes on board is a success that built Caltrain's ridership, enhanced its reputation, and has been studied by transit systems all over the nation. Yet Caltrain overlooked the fact that their newer trains will only hold half as many bikes, and again failed to give the program any consideration when working on the current "Bike Master Plan." They didn't even *try* to maintain, much less enhance, this program; in fact their stated goal is to achieve a bike rider share of 5%, which is terrible given that they have already achieved a share of 7%. (7% is a figure for
February and serves as an underestimate for warmer months.)
An activist's role to provide vision and push to have it implemented. That's exactly what Cap Thomas and others did to make bikes on board a reality, and then to make it a success. Our vision must include context that Caltrain is overlooking. Allow me to suggest three "big picture" puzzle pieces:
(1) A bike+train combination gets you door to door, making it the *only* option that matches the (heavily-subsidized) convenience of cars for these distances. That's why bikes on board has been such a success. That's why whittling away at this convenience with schemes like requiring two bikes and locker rentals, charging fees to reserve spaces, and the current failure to provide capacity, are all bad ideas.
(2) Bikers actually make the least demands on transit overall. Non-biking riders generally require parking, buses, and/or shuttles, burdening roads and/or transit systems. Usually the comparison is made between bikers "needing more" than other riders, but that only makes sense if the other riders are all walking at both ends of the train journey, and the number of people who can do that is extremely small -- much smaller than the number who can bike at both ends.
(3) From the public meetings I attended, I got the feeling that this "master plan" is driven by the type of funding Caltrain goes after. They apply for "pilot" project grants, use them to try something out for 3 years or so, then let it whither. This results in disjoint, wasteful policy. I don't see why
they can't go after "project" grants to enhance an existing success story, taking a proactive role in making a case for it, if necessary.
Leah Shahum on talk radio TODAY
Tune in to KALW radio 91.7 FM at 11:00 am TODAY (Tuesday) for Your Call, and join a chat about bicycling in San Francisco. Featuring Leah Shahum (SF Bicycle Coalition), Bert Hill (SF Bicycle Advisory Committee), and Dave Snyder (SF Planning and Urban Research). It's a call-in show, so call your smart talk to host Rose Aguilar at 415/841-4134.
Cube urban street concept bike
There's a blog dedicated to all kinds of carbon fiber gear called, appropriately enough, Carbon Fiber Gear. The publisher of Carbon Fiber Gear, Dave, told me about a post today by his friend Alyson on Cube's Urban Street Concept Bike. The Cube is a full size bike that can be collapsed for storage or transporting in a small car trunk. You can visit Carbon Fiber Gear for all the dirt on this bike, but briefly it has a few features that make it handy as a city commuter: disc brakes, built in lights, and internal hub gearing.
At a whopping 17 kg or 38 pounds, though, this bike is by far the heaviest carbon fiber bike I've heard of. This is about the same weight as Ellsworth's "The Ride" cruiser bike with the nine pound NuVinci CVT hub.
You might recall that James mentioned the Cube shortly after the New Year. James has a great post from Mark Sanders today on designing bikes for "the vast blue ocean of potential cyclists." Sanders is the guy who designed the ingenious Strida folding bicycle. He talks about the evolution of his designs, from the X-bike he designed for Clive Sinclair, the Strida, and to the full size folding bikes he's designing now for Pacific Cycles. It's a fascinating read: go check it out.
Cozy Beehive also discusses bicycle design issues a lot, but in this post he writes about the importance of communication in the bike industry between retailers and customers. He pulls up a case study on how Cannondale uses IT to get immediate feedback from customers on their designs.
At a whopping 17 kg or 38 pounds, though, this bike is by far the heaviest carbon fiber bike I've heard of. This is about the same weight as Ellsworth's "The Ride" cruiser bike with the nine pound NuVinci CVT hub.
You might recall that James mentioned the Cube shortly after the New Year. James has a great post from Mark Sanders today on designing bikes for "the vast blue ocean of potential cyclists." Sanders is the guy who designed the ingenious Strida folding bicycle. He talks about the evolution of his designs, from the X-bike he designed for Clive Sinclair, the Strida, and to the full size folding bikes he's designing now for Pacific Cycles. It's a fascinating read: go check it out.
Cozy Beehive also discusses bicycle design issues a lot, but in this post he writes about the importance of communication in the bike industry between retailers and customers. He pulls up a case study on how Cannondale uses IT to get immediate feedback from customers on their designs.
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