Another book on biking

Maybe publishers were fishing around for bike ideas one year ago when gas prices were high. I came across another cycling as transport book today.

Read here:

From Treehugger:

The Cyclist's Manifesto: The Case for Riding on Two Wheels Instead of Four has a title that may evoke images of some earnest treatise, a dry rant. Oh, but it is nothing of the sort. It’s the inverse opposite. A wonderfully whimsical exploration of America’s transport choices. A rollicking account of how those decisions were made (and why people elsewhere travelled in other directions) and what all that means for the future of getting from A to B. Central to Robert Hurst’s story is the hugely significant influence the humble bicycle has had on personal transport. For as he points out, with all seriousness, “We almost had camels.”

Sausalito makes plans to deal with bike renters

If you've travelled anywhere betwen San Francisco and Marin during the summer (or any other time of year) you'll notice a lot of people riding across the Golden Gate Bridge and along Marin bike paths on rental bikes. Apparrently, Sausalito feels like they are overwhelming the town. The following article reports that the Sausalito City Council has approved a plan to provide designated bike parking areas.

Read article here

It seems like a common sense solution. I think the efforts described in the article to get the bike rental companies to contribute is laudable. It seems like Sausalito and Marin in general could be doing a lot more to provide facilities for this mode of tourism - there seems to be an element that sees this as creating a nuisance rather than embracing the situation as an opportunity.

Bicycle fashion in NYC

Nots not everyday that you see an article on bike commuting in the Fashion and Style section so I figured its noteworthy.

The New York Times has a feature the trendyness of Dutch bicycles and relates it to work fashion.

Read here

Pedaling Revolution

I came across a new book titled "Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities." I haven't read it yet, but after reading an article by its author it seems like it could be a good read.

There is only one review on Amazon, but its being given 5 stars...

Bike theft

There is an interesting meeting in the NY Times today about bike theft in NYC

Read here

Bike theft in New York sounds bad but I'm not sure it rivals Berkeley. The article includes links to a couple of interesting sites.

One site, Someone stole my bike, ttp://www.someonestolemybike.com, has some short vidoes of people who had their bike stolen.

Another blog, Kryptonite, has a list of the top ten worst cities for bike theft. San Francisco is #4, but after many years biking in SF I haven't had a problem yet (knock knock).

Bike sharing on campus

I came across an interesting article on Treehugger:

Read here

The post describes some bike sharing programs at Universities. Some schools are even giving away bicycles to students for free to encourage them avoiding the use of their car and biking to campus.

Stupid article, Interesting news

This Sunday, the San Francisco Chroncile's Matier & Ross column covered some of the issues Sausalito is having with the droves of tourists visiting the town on rental bicycles.

Read here.

If you ignore the inflated contraversy the article tries to depict, its interesting to read about how the volume of rental cyclists continues to increase despite a down economy, and how the City of Sausalito is being forced into providing bike facilities to keep up with demand.

If you're local to San Francisco, you've see the throngs of bike tourists who leave from Fisherman's Wharf, cross the Golden Gate Bridge, and head down into Sausalito. You can catch a ferry back to the City from Sausalito, or if you head a little further north, Tiburon. Its a great ride that is largely on some nice bike paths.

That said, the bike renters, often not being from the area and maybe not even speaking english, are forced onto some pretty dangerous streets due some disconnects in the bike network in Marin. I'd say the worst spot is along East Blithedale in Mill Valley, when those heading to Tiburon and forced off of a great Class I path onto a busy 2 lane road with no shoulder, across a freeway onramp to Highway 101, across 101, then through an offramp intersection. Not a very pleasant tourist experience.

I have always wondered why Marin hasn't tried to encourage this form of eco-touristm further and make the bike facilities better to try and attract business in the communities along the route.