Activate Your Commute

As regular readers know, I have a folding bike I adore. I’ve been riding it almost every day recently because my new “office” (really an apartment in a residential building) doesn’t have good bike parking. Wheelbender racks in the parking garage, overflowing with bikes: secure and covered, yes, useful, not so much.

I also took it on another trip recently, to the Active Transportation Summit in Salem. It was last year’s trip with a borrowed folding bike that convinced me I needed one of my own, so it was fitting that it was on this trip that I realized how much having a folding bike has changed my expectations of bikes. Where once the notion of a bike that could fit in a luggage compartment or a car trunk was entirely novel and amazing, I found myself aggravated by the amount of space the bike takes up and how heavy it is. I seem to be wishing for a bike like those dino sponges we played with in the bath as kids: it shrinks up tiny to fit in your pocket, then expands as soon as you need it. (Wouldn’t that be great?)

What a quick trip from appreciation to impatience! Fortunately, I have moments that remind me how lucky I am. Strangers about the mystery or coolness of my bike, and at a bar, I park it next to me, then take it with me for my bathroom stop before I leave. It might not fit in my pocket, but it’s still an awesome little package.

I go between NE and SE Portland a lot, because of having friends in both places. There isn’t a great way to do it by bus, as anyone who’s tried knows — unless you’re right near the 6, the 75, or the 72 on both ends, it just takes for-freaking-ever. And it’s not an easy bike trip either, what with climbing the Alameda Ridge, and the lack of connections over I-84.

I’ve just recently started experimenting with bike+transit as the best way to make some of my regular trips. I could have tried this out before I had the Tikit, but I worried about not being able to get on the bus or MAX with my bike. Now they can’t kick me off!

Today I planned to ride down to Lloyd Center MAX, hop on the Green Line, and get off at Division St, near my friend’s house. The trip takes about 40 minutes, compared to an hour or more to walk and take the bus. Without the bike, I can’t reach the MAX fast enough to take advantage of its greater speed — both my friend and I live just a little too far away (1.8 and 1.2 miles).

Everything was going according to plan until we got to Gateway and the driver announced it would be the last stop for the train, because of a biohazard in the rear car. Everyone groaned and looked at each other, complaining and wondering how they would get where they were going and whether they would be late. I looked at the green hills outside and the green bike beside me and smiled. The I-205 bike path runs right next to the station, so I hopped on it, rode a few extra miles, and got some bonus sunshine along the way. Arriving at my friend’s house, I easily folded the bike and put it by the door, where I knew it wouldn’t be in anyone’s way as a full-size bike might.

On the way back, I had a while before the Green Line was going to show up at Division. With the bike, it was easy to retrace my route to Gateway, where all the lines converge, to see if I could get an earlier train home — I knew that if I couldn’t, the Green Line would still be along shortly. I barely made it in time to catch the Blue Line train I was aiming for (the light timing on the path is pretty terrible). If I’d had my regular bike, I might not have gotten on since I couldn’t see any empty hooks in the nearest car. But I knew I didn’t have to worry about that so I just got on anyway.

With the bike, I had so many more options: to take the MAX, to ride the rest of the way when the MAX couldn’t get me there, and to choose my train home from a bunch of options, not just one. The Green Line and the Green Zebra turned out to be a perfect combination for a green spring day.

I just moved to inner NE, so I’m discovering all the new routes I need to take regularly. I’ve mostly been sticking to bike lanes, bike boulevards and neighborhood streets, but a few nights ago I noticed while driving down 15th with a friend that Knott is marked as a bike route. Huh? I thought Tillamook and Klickitat were the way to go. Indeed, a consultation of Portland’s citywide bike map shows Knott in gray, meaning it’s not considered a notable bike route, while Tillamook and Klickitat are marked with the outlined green indicating preferred bike boulevard routes.

So on a whim tonight I decided to check it out: I took Knott from 28th to 14th, cutting back west from my usual SE-to-NE route via 28th on my way home. It’s flat where Klickitat at least has a fair bit of minor up and down, and has only a few stop signs and signals. With the lower traffic in the later evening (it was around 8:30pm) it was stressless to ride in the lane when there were cars parked, and move to the outside if any traffic came along. So it seems Knott is a “bike route” in the classic sense: a lower traffic side street with a wide outside lane that can be used for parking or bike/car coexistence. It’s probably best if you’re comfortable riding in the lane, and can ride pretty briskly so your speed isn’t too different from the motor vehicle speed.

The takeaways:

Route planning is extremely time-sensitive. Before you decide to include a street in your route — whether for commuting or for any other travel — think about what time you’ll be taking it, and check out the traffic volume and people’s behavior on the route at that time. I’ll have more to say about this in a future post about commuting downtown!

Always be open to new routes, even “unofficial” ones. I’ve certainly got a few favorite meanders to avoid slopes, bad intersections, or poor signal timing that haven’t made it into any map!

Elly Blue was kind enough to send me a review copy of her Bikenomics zine, in the hopes that my audience might be interested in it. With that in mind, I read it looking to understand how it would serve both people who are interested in encouraging others to commute by bicycle and those who are (potentially) interested in beginning to commute by bicycle.

The 40-page zine vokes a compelling case for bicycling, focusing on both the personal and societal economic costs of our car-dependent lifestyle and the corresponding benefits of bicycling.

Whether you’re interested for yourself or for the sake of convincing others (or explaining your reasoning to them), there’s lots to like in this little package. If you’re already familiar with the economic arguments for bicycling, you’ll find it a handy reference for the statistics you’ve heard, and a useful pointer to the original resources they come from. Todd Litman’s work at VTPI [note: as of 1/3, the VTPI site is currently hacked; hopefully it will be back soon!] is particularly well-used and these statistics are among the most compelling. If you’re wanting to convince people that bicycling is a great choice, but aren’t as familiar with the economic arguments, it’s a readable and compact introduction to some of the major economic effects of the auto-oriented life most of us live today.

The writing is clear and accessible: Elly introduces concepts like “externalities” that may not be familiar to everyone with short and clear definitions, and covers each topic thoroughly yet briefly. The zine also contains the best summary that I’ve personally read on why freeway removal is an essential component of a bicycling future. Making city streets bike-friendly isn’t that difficult, usually requiring some paint and signals, and can be done relatively cheaply as part of road-building and maintenance. But freeways are inherently unfriendly to bicycling and active transportation: they erect barriers, promote sprawl and long-distance travel that’s only feasible by car, and create complex on- and off-ramps and constrained crossings that prioritize auto traffic flow and are difficult to navigate by bike.

There are a few weak points, though. Occasional casualness in the way that statistics are introduced and compared can make it unclear exactly who or what is costing or benefiting. Some copy-editing issues further muddle this up, as well as detracting from the overall excellent quality of the writing.

The zine also suffers a bit from disorganization and mission creep. The subtitle, “How Bicycling Can Save the Economy (if we let it)” suggests that its primary focus is on the benefits of bicycling, but the majority of the points more directly illustrate how our car-dependent society is sucking up resources. Of course, the counterpoint to this is that a “bicycle society” would allow us to avoid these costs, but lacking clear reiteration of this point, I didn’t turn the last page with the connection firmly in mind. And there’s minimal over-arching hierarchy to knit together the transitions between the personal and the societal, or the direct (business benefits) and the indirect (health benefits).

Finally, in the last section, the zine departs from traditionally economic points to discuss “well-being” and social and community concerns. This is my bread and butter as an advocate, and, as with the other topics, Elly does a nice job covering this in a compact way, but it doesn’t quite line up with the focus on the statistics and the current economic system in the rest of the zine.

Despite these minor criticisms, I thought Bikenomics was a great read for the excellent issue summaries and statistical information. And because it’s written in an informal style, it’s far more fun to read than similar summaries in the form of technical documents. Grab a copy and impress your friends, your company, and your elected officials with your knowledge of how bicycling can bring us a brighter future. You can find it on Elly’s website, and if you’re hungry for more depth, you can also read the columns it’s based on at Grist.

I’m off to my old riding haunts tomorrow with The Green Zebra! Since I’m staying with my parents in Berkeley, I know (because I’ve made similar trips before) that I need to take BART to Caltrain. But how should I connect? Most people transfer from BART to Caltrain at Millbrae, where the intermodal station connects the two systems. But Embarcadero BART station is only about 10 minutes by bike from the 4th and King Caltrain station, and Caltrain goes straight down the bay side of the Peninsula instead of curving around San Bruno Mountain through Daly City, so I wondered if that would be faster.

Unfortunately, the Bay Area, although it has the extremely useful 511.org transit trip planner, doesn’t have a multimodal trip planner like Trimet’s RTP. So I spent 15 minutes and four different websites (511, BART, Caltrain, and Google Maps) answering a question that should really only take 2: what’s the best way to do that transfer if you have a (folding) bike available?

It turns out that the bike doesn’t really make the trip faster. If I were really fast and confident, I might be able to leave 15 minutes later (leaving at 9:20 instead of just after 9), but I’d be stressed about making the transfer, having only 13 minutes to get out of the station (with my bike) and make an ~11 minute bike ride (thank you Google Maps). Otherwise, I take the same BART. And guess what? It’s cheaper to transfer at Millbrae, too! Saving one Caltrain zone subtracts $2, while adding the extra BART stations only adds $1.15.

So I’ll just hang out on BART and relax until Millbrae, and save my energy for those hills!*

*Note: technically not the same hills, but similar ones.

I’ve been trying to pick out new gloves recently, so when I saw that The Prudent Cyclist had written a post called More Gloves than Pants I couldn’t resist checking it out. I loved Will’s lighthearted take on the challenge of choosing good gloves for varying weather conditions.

For the last few years I’ve had three pairs of cool-season gloves, all Novara (REI’s house brand): fall gloves, which have full fingers but end at the wrist; my usual winter gloves, which are full-fingered with a wrist tube but not really insulated; and lobster-claw gloves, for, as Will aptly puts it “when the weather plunges below freezing or when cold rain would permeate any of my other gloves.”

Unfortunately my fall and regular winter gloves both wore out this year. I replaced the fall gloves pretty easily with a pair of Pearl Izumi Select Gel FFs. They fit well and are a good weight, though it turns out I’m not wild about the velcro set up (I keep grabbing the hooks by accident and catching the glove fingers on them).

The winter gloves have been tougher. Most winter biking gloves are designed for colder weather than we have here most of the time, and I want something that’ll continue to keep me warm when it’s wet and chilly, without over-heating me when it’s not as cold. I got a recommendation for Giro Candelas, but it turns out they have too many internal seams on the fingers. The Castelli Donna CW 4.0 is super-comfy, but might be too warm. Pearl Izumi Cyclones might work, but they have an upper palm pad that I usually avoid — I prefer padding on just the outer heel of the hand.

I may need to adopt Will’s philosophy and switch away from bike-specific gloves to something that would work for multiple activities. As long as it has a grippy palm and wears well, I could probably use any glove, though I do like that heel-of-hand padding. Wearing well is definitely essential: I’d like to keep my gloves for multiple years, instead of having them break down after a few seasons like the Novara fall gloves I had.

What’s your preferred cool-weather glove? Do you swear by multipurpose gloves or think bike-specific ones have an advantage? Do your hands run hot or cold? Keep ‘em dry or go for warm while wet? Maybe you can point me the right direction!

I’ve long been a fan of taking my lunch to work. It’s cheaper, and I like cooking and usually have good leftovers. But while brown bags might be great for driving, for active commuting, it’s nice to have something compact and strong, that won’t leak or get crushed, and it’s a big bonus if it fits in your other bag(s).

My preferred lunch container is a Mr. Bento. It’s tall and narrow, so it fits well in a bike bag. It tends to stay upright easily because it’s pretty wide and squat, and in my experience is essentially leak-proof because of the double-container setup: outer thermos container, inner food containers. The food containers don’t generally leak either. The bottom one is designed for liquids, and the others (except the big one which is for solid foods only) can handle fairly liquidy food without any problems.

The downside of Mr. Bento is that the containers are fiddly, and sometimes you don’t want four different things for lunch. Oh, and it’s not dishwasher safe. I didn’t have a dishwasher when I bought it, but that’s a downside for most people.

More recently, I’ve used To-Go Ware tiffins. They’re stainless steel and have larger compartments than Mr. Bento (no need to have four different things for lunch). They also have small sub-containers that I love for doing salad dressing or similar, which was always awkward with Mr. Bento. Unfortunately they’re not insulated, so this is only a good option if your lunch is okay at room temperature or you have access to a fridge. I also find that the non-cylindrical shape of the set I have is awkward — the bottom container is too wide to comfortably fit in my backback and bike bag. To-Go Ware doesn’t appear to make this version anymore, fortunately. All these are quite large, which is great if you’re hungry, but not so great if your bag space is a at premium.

I also read the blog Vegan Lunch Box for a long time, and the author used the Laptop Lunch Box for her son, and had compellingly nice things to say about it. I never tried one because I didn’t like the idea of keeping the container on its side, and it wouldn’t fit flat in my bag (too wide). But it could be an awesome choice if the form factor works for you. She’s recently mentioned that there’s a similar product called Planet Box now that implements a Laptop Lunch-like system in stainless steel.

I also like to carry utensils (either my handy TiSpork, or To-Go Ware’s Bamboo utensil set) in case I’m doing something fun for lunch, like going to PBOT’s Bicycle Brown Bag series.

How do you carry your lunch, and does it work for you? Let me know!

The Green Zebra at Wrigley Botanical Garden

Taking two different folding bikes on our trip was super cool (in a slightly nerdy way) because it provided an opportunity to compare the performance of the two in very similar circumstances, as well as to appreciate the way each company has created a different design solution to the problem of creating a fully functional bicycle that also folds down into a handy traveling package.

The bikes fold and ride quite differently, with the primary fold difference being that the Brompton folds on the main frame to become shorter, and requires you to retract the seatpost and bars, while the Tikit has a super-quick fold that wowed me when I first saw it in 2007 and continues to please me now that I own one. Seriously, is that not one of the coolest things you’ve seen, ever? If you didn’t go watch the video, go watch it now. It’s only 17 seconds long. I can wait.

Read more…

That video I mentioned in our Day 3 adventures is finally up!

Watch for the golf cart, and the other cyclists (including Brian ).

We were riding the road shown in the screenshot below:

It’s about a 400 ft climb in 1.3 miles or so. Our descent speed was around 20 mph based on how long it took to get down. 20mph feels super fast on those bikes!

View: Riding on Venice Beach

Pictures from the SoCal trip are up on the Gallery!