When the Beaverton Traffic commission decided to reject painting bike lanes on SW Lombard (Between SW Farmington Rd and SW Denny Rd (http://g.co/maps/h2nxw)), I was very temped to try something like that… I wanted to find a couple of cycling friends who had cars, and get them to park them directly across the street from each other at some of the narrowest locations legally allowed at that time. If the homeowners were pissed about the heavy traffic, I imagined how they’d like having it choked down a little.
K’Tesh, I understand your campaign – but to a Londoner those roads look MASSIVE! Seriously, if there were residential roads that wide in London (UK) they’d have parking down both sides of it and people would still find ways to pass each other in between the parked cars. The guy in the white SUV has done what a lot of people with big cars do over here – park over the kerb to avoid having too much of his vehicle stuck out in the road. Granted, he’s done it on what looks like a pretty nice bit of grass, but it actually looks slightly _considerate_ to me. I’m not having a go at your campaign, I’m glad you got safety and traffic flow improved. But just to get an idea of how different things are elsewhere, this image is pretty typical of a lot of residential streets in (relatively built-up areas in) the UK – from a Google Image search for “typical residential London street”: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fYO2jd9vBtw/S-dELPZP-II/AAAAAAAAAbE/CCUKUZhHgdQ/s1600/IMG_2487.JPG
Pierre, that “SUV” is actually a pickup truck. A Ford Ranger which is about as small a pickup as you can buy (they just went out of production). Big difference there: actual useful vehicle owned by someone who probably has a real use for it vs. vehicular affectation.
And that London road looks wide compared to many of the side streets here in NYC! Add in the New Yorker habit for double parking and fitting my ambulance down some streets is pretty tricky! They like painting the bike lanes on these self-same narrow streets which places my riding position in the door zone and atthe same time doesn’t leave enough room for cars & trucks to pass safely. I avoid the gutter ghetto lanes and try to stick to the wider streets.
For super narrow streets, I think that the best solution isn’t bike lanes, but 15 or 20 MPH zones- That’s a safer speed for cars to share the road with bikes and peds, and it’s closer to a speed that bikes can keep up.
Exactly my feelings on it. Whether riding in my rural North Idaho town, or in a larger city, vehicular cycling is my tactic of choice, and those speed limits make it much safer. Take your lane assertively, wave, & give a big smile; drivers often return it before they realize that they meant to be all irritated….
Its kinda funny what you think is tight, growing up in New England where most roads are paved cowpaths I thought I knew….then I spent the better part of a decade in the Tokyo/Yokohama area where many “roads” have signs limiting travel to Kei cars and some even have stairways, my deffinition has been drasticly altered. I would love to see large portions of american cities be reduced to alternative travel from what I have seen in other parts of the world it works
Yeah, I agree, Pierre, I saw those flickr pics of lombard and saw a beautiful street just made for cycling, no paint required. Heck, even if that moron had parked legally (it’s illegal to put half your car over the curb) and every other spot was taken, it would STILL be better than most of the roads I bike on and don’t think twice about it. About the only problem I’d have with that road (look at that smooth, dry pavement!) is it encourages speeding for the cars from being so wide and open. However, they’ll also see you a long way off if you’re visible. Remember, in a sane world drivers don’t want to hit cyclists and won’t if they know you’re there.
I would like to add that K’Tesh’s first picture showed a road that is wonderful compared to most of Coventry!
My own road is so narrow (at the other end from where I live) that when cars park like that on the side without grass, pedestrians often have to walk around them on the road … A bus route!
My neighbour told me, last year, that the council was considering banning any parking on the road side – especially half on and half off like that picture. I am lucky enough to have a front garden that is just big enough to park my motorhome/RV and still get past it to park my car in the garage. I don’t drive either very much, just when they are suitable. I use my bike for shopping. Being retired, I don’t have a commute. Cars waiting for their kids to come out of the school up the road often park on the limited kerbside space in front of my house and have depressed the tarmac laid down by the cable company in place of the slabs. At least it stopped lines of broken slabs appearing! Because this is a hill, water runs off and eventually onto the gutter and away. So I don’t get a pool instead like many houses on top of the hill do where the pavement is level
i don’t think so, because that would only give drivers reason to hate the bikers. The genius of what Yehuda is doing is that he’s pointing out to drivers that what’s really slowing them down and getting in their way isn’t the bikes- it’s the other cars!
Critical Mass isn’t about bicycle advocacy. Critical Mass is about a childish (aka, college student-ish) effort at sticking it to the nasty, hated car drivers. And that’s about what they accomplish.
Yeah, it started as giving back to the cars what they gave us but the car people don’t even understand that they started it. They just think cyclists are wanting to dominate or are inconsiderate or something. They don’t even understand what it’s about and how they are the ones that caused the need for it in the first place.
So, in my opinion that part has been a failure. On the other hand, the other purpose of it was to connect all the individual cyclists who had independantly discovered this way of transportation but maybe felt alone in it, realizing that there are many of them and so that aspect of CM has been good.
But in many cities now that are finally getting some good cycling infrastructure, it’s no longer the appropriate political method.
Yup, just checked the archives again (and re-read all of 2011 while I was at it).
That ties up Interbike and the Backstory…perhaps a little hastily (I imagine it was because you did it in case you stopped work for good, instead of leaving us in the lurch).
I bet the shakers had fun building this room into the new shop! This strip reminds me how sad it is that you can have a (10-20,000$) car that is often only 10 years old that becomes pretty much useless and unrepairable, while a bike of the same age is easily (and cheaply) repaired, or at the least almost fully recyclable… When I was 15, racing BMX, I’d pay 150.00 for a set of cranks, that are still usable today (16 years later). That same year, I bought an ’82 Checy Malibu for $200.00 that ended up in the junkyard because I couldn’t afford to get it legally drivable. Love the new strips!
Actually, keeping a 20 year old car on the road isn’t all that difficult. You just have to keep up with, and, deliberately ahead of, the maintenance. Unfortunately, the concept of maintenancing a car is rather alien to most Americans. For that matter, they aren’t all the different with motorcycles, scooters or bicycles.
In the UK, when a car is 13 years old, the manufacturers withdraw all support. Any spares you find in the parts bin is ‘new old stock’ that the garage hasn’t disposed of or found a different shop who is willing to give them something for. My favourite car fell foul of this system, when it went in for a service and was found to have a worn out catalyst, the replacements, 2 for a V6, meant a higher bill than the car was worth. I had not been driving long after recovery from my heart attack, I was still a little uncertain of things and followed the advice of scrapping it. I could havie treated it as a cherished antique and had somebody refurbish it. The V6 Cosworth 3.0Litre engine was wonderfull and about half way through it’s life span at 130,000 miles. The various “toys” made it a joy to drive. And the rear wheel drive with anti-slip differential meant it often showed the kids that their tiny front wheel drive cars weren’t as quick as they thought (up to the speed limit of course!) I miss that car. At least we have our Trandem!
Certainly not difficult, and learned more often when driving is less a privilege (like here in America) and more an investment.
I’ve done my best to keep good maintenance on all the cars I’ve owned, the Malibu was beyond repair when I got it…
Still, silly how often cars get scraped.
My best friend growing up always drooled over the Cosworth RS Escorts from over there. He drove a Ford Escort GT (4 cyl made here in America) It was as close as he could get, and took very good care of it.
Appropos of nothing, I just want to express how happy I am to have this site back in my life. I love the comics, and I love the conversation, whether I participate or not. I bicycle every day, though no one else I know does. this is a comfortable place to just hang out and follow your links and read your vignettes of life around the world of bicycles, it’s immersive, and though I listen to a few bike podcasts, nothing compares to the whole Yehuda Moon experience. So thank you, Rick, Brian, and every member who has joined to keep this going.
And reading this comic assures me that the way I think is not strange and abnormal but that there are others who have the same feelings about live. When I’m alone with the masses of “normal” people I sometimes forget about it…
Well after reading all the comments I have to say I tend to disagree with the majority here. I ride because I like it, not because I think I am better, superior or more responsible human being. The last thing I want is to make a social or a political statement. When I ride I like to think I am sharing the road with others, including drivers, thus I try to treat everybody the way I want them to treat me. I have found a wave, an easy smile and a little conversation go a long way into bridging the devid between cyclists and drivers. Righteous people on both sides are the worst and make the road more dengarous for all.
When the Beaverton Traffic commission decided to reject painting bike lanes on SW Lombard (Between SW Farmington Rd and SW Denny Rd (http://g.co/maps/h2nxw)), I was very temped to try something like that… I wanted to find a couple of cycling friends who had cars, and get them to park them directly across the street from each other at some of the narrowest locations legally allowed at that time. If the homeowners were pissed about the heavy traffic, I imagined how they’d like having it choked down a little.
Fortunatly, the City Council listened to reason, and overrode the traffic commission, and we’ve got the bike lanes now. Traffic actually is running smoother IMHO, as bikes aren’t forced to go around the few (less than 12) cars that were parked on the street there… While I’m talking about SW Lombard, you might want to check out this guy’s parking job before the bike lanes were painted.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ufobike/4410894576/
http://bikeportland.org/2010/09/28/first-look-beaverton-installs-bike-lanes-on-sw-lombard-40221
K’Tesh, I understand your campaign – but to a Londoner those roads look MASSIVE! Seriously, if there were residential roads that wide in London (UK) they’d have parking down both sides of it and people would still find ways to pass each other in between the parked cars.
The guy in the white SUV has done what a lot of people with big cars do over here – park over the kerb to avoid having too much of his vehicle stuck out in the road. Granted, he’s done it on what looks like a pretty nice bit of grass, but it actually looks slightly _considerate_ to me.
I’m not having a go at your campaign, I’m glad you got safety and traffic flow improved. But just to get an idea of how different things are elsewhere, this image is pretty typical of a lot of residential streets in (relatively built-up areas in) the UK – from a Google Image search for “typical residential London street”:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fYO2jd9vBtw/S-dELPZP-II/AAAAAAAAAbE/CCUKUZhHgdQ/s1600/IMG_2487.JPG
Pierre, that “SUV” is actually a pickup truck. A Ford Ranger which is about as small a pickup as you can buy (they just went out of production). Big difference there: actual useful vehicle owned by someone who probably has a real use for it vs. vehicular affectation.
I am so sad they’ve discontinued the Ranger. It’s the perfect size for almost anything a non-contractor/non-boat owner could need.
And that London road looks wide compared to many of the side streets here in NYC! Add in the New Yorker habit for double parking and fitting my ambulance down some streets is pretty tricky! They like painting the bike lanes on these self-same narrow streets which places my riding position in the door zone and atthe same time doesn’t leave enough room for cars & trucks to pass safely. I avoid the gutter ghetto lanes and try to stick to the wider streets.
For super narrow streets, I think that the best solution isn’t bike lanes, but 15 or 20 MPH zones- That’s a safer speed for cars to share the road with bikes and peds, and it’s closer to a speed that bikes can keep up.
Exactly my feelings on it. Whether riding in my rural North Idaho town, or in a larger city, vehicular cycling is my tactic of choice, and those speed limits make it much safer. Take your lane assertively, wave, & give a big smile; drivers often return it before they realize that they meant to be all irritated….
)
That said, Go Yehuda!
Its kinda funny what you think is tight, growing up in New England where most roads are paved cowpaths I thought I knew….then I spent the better part of a decade in the Tokyo/Yokohama area where many “roads” have signs limiting travel to Kei cars and some even have stairways, my deffinition has been drasticly altered. I would love to see large portions of american cities be reduced to alternative travel from what I have seen in other parts of the world it works
Yeah, I agree, Pierre, I saw those flickr pics of lombard and saw a beautiful street just made for cycling, no paint required. Heck, even if that moron had parked legally (it’s illegal to put half your car over the curb) and every other spot was taken, it would STILL be better than most of the roads I bike on and don’t think twice about it. About the only problem I’d have with that road (look at that smooth, dry pavement!) is it encourages speeding for the cars from being so wide and open. However, they’ll also see you a long way off if you’re visible. Remember, in a sane world drivers don’t want to hit cyclists and won’t if they know you’re there.
I would like to add that K’Tesh’s first picture showed a road that is wonderful compared to most of Coventry!
My own road is so narrow (at the other end from where I live) that when cars park like that on the side without grass, pedestrians often have to walk around them on the road … A bus route!
My neighbour told me, last year, that the council was considering banning any parking on the road side – especially half on and half off like that picture. I am lucky enough to have a front garden that is just big enough to park my motorhome/RV and still get past it to park my car in the garage. I don’t drive either very much, just when they are suitable. I use my bike for shopping. Being retired, I don’t have a commute. Cars waiting for their kids to come out of the school up the road often park on the limited kerbside space in front of my house and have depressed the tarmac laid down by the cable company in place of the slabs. At least it stopped lines of broken slabs appearing! Because this is a hill, water runs off and eventually onto the gutter and away. So I don’t get a pool instead like many houses on top of the hill do where the pavement is level
Wouldn’t a “Critical Mass Ride” be more effective?
i don’t think so, because that would only give drivers reason to hate the bikers. The genius of what Yehuda is doing is that he’s pointing out to drivers that what’s really slowing them down and getting in their way isn’t the bikes- it’s the other cars!
I’ve been on quite a lot of Critical Mass Rides, and even I find them irritating and antagonistic.
Critical Mass isn’t about bicycle advocacy. Critical Mass is about a childish (aka, college student-ish) effort at sticking it to the nasty, hated car drivers. And that’s about what they accomplish.
Yeah, it started as giving back to the cars what they gave us but the car people don’t even understand that they started it. They just think cyclists are wanting to dominate or are inconsiderate or something. They don’t even understand what it’s about and how they are the ones that caused the need for it in the first place.
So, in my opinion that part has been a failure. On the other hand, the other purpose of it was to connect all the individual cyclists who had independantly discovered this way of transportation but maybe felt alone in it, realizing that there are many of them and so that aspect of CM has been good.
But in many cities now that are finally getting some good cycling infrastructure, it’s no longer the appropriate political method.
I’ve ridden in Critical Mass. It’s just a bike ride. It’s not a protest, race, promotion or anything else. It’s just a bike ride.
Offtopic: Are we done with the whole “flashback” story arc?
Have you read the extra strips that appear in the archives (for Kickstand Club members) and that will also appear in the books (in Volumes 2 and 4)?
How do you get to the archives?
There are ‘First’, ‘Next’, ‘Previous’ buttons right above each comic strip.
Oh! And if you’re logged in you can read all the comics (per year) on one long scroll-y page (very easy and fun).
Yup, just checked the archives again (and re-read all of 2011 while I was at it).
That ties up Interbike and the Backstory…perhaps a little hastily (I imagine it was because you did it in case you stopped work for good, instead of leaving us in the lurch).
I bet the shakers had fun building this room into the new shop! This strip reminds me how sad it is that you can have a (10-20,000$) car that is often only 10 years old that becomes pretty much useless and unrepairable, while a bike of the same age is easily (and cheaply) repaired, or at the least almost fully recyclable… When I was 15, racing BMX, I’d pay 150.00 for a set of cranks, that are still usable today (16 years later). That same year, I bought an ’82 Checy Malibu for $200.00 that ended up in the junkyard because I couldn’t afford to get it legally drivable. Love the new strips!
Actually, keeping a 20 year old car on the road isn’t all that difficult. You just have to keep up with, and, deliberately ahead of, the maintenance. Unfortunately, the concept of maintenancing a car is rather alien to most Americans. For that matter, they aren’t all the different with motorcycles, scooters or bicycles.
In the UK, when a car is 13 years old, the manufacturers withdraw all support. Any spares you find in the parts bin is ‘new old stock’ that the garage hasn’t disposed of or found a different shop who is willing to give them something for. My favourite car fell foul of this system, when it went in for a service and was found to have a worn out catalyst, the replacements, 2 for a V6, meant a higher bill than the car was worth. I had not been driving long after recovery from my heart attack, I was still a little uncertain of things and followed the advice of scrapping it. I could havie treated it as a cherished antique and had somebody refurbish it. The V6 Cosworth 3.0Litre engine was wonderfull and about half way through it’s life span at 130,000 miles. The various “toys” made it a joy to drive. And the rear wheel drive with anti-slip differential meant it often showed the kids that their tiny front wheel drive cars weren’t as quick as they thought (up to the speed limit of course!) I miss that car. At least we have our Trandem!
Certainly not difficult, and learned more often when driving is less a privilege (like here in America) and more an investment.
I’ve done my best to keep good maintenance on all the cars I’ve owned, the Malibu was beyond repair when I got it…
Still, silly how often cars get scraped.
My best friend growing up always drooled over the Cosworth RS Escorts from over there. He drove a Ford Escort GT (4 cyl made here in America) It was as close as he could get, and took very good care of it.
Those tow fees could be interesting.
Appropos of nothing, I just want to express how happy I am to have this site back in my life. I love the comics, and I love the conversation, whether I participate or not. I bicycle every day, though no one else I know does. this is a comfortable place to just hang out and follow your links and read your vignettes of life around the world of bicycles, it’s immersive, and though I listen to a few bike podcasts, nothing compares to the whole Yehuda Moon experience. So thank you, Rick, Brian, and every member who has joined to keep this going.
And reading this comic assures me that the way I think is not strange and abnormal but that there are others who have the same feelings about live. When I’m alone with the masses of “normal” people I sometimes forget about it…
Well after reading all the comments I have to say I tend to disagree with the majority here. I ride because I like it, not because I think I am better, superior or more responsible human being. The last thing I want is to make a social or a political statement. When I ride I like to think I am sharing the road with others, including drivers, thus I try to treat everybody the way I want them to treat me. I have found a wave, an easy smile and a little conversation go a long way into bridging the devid between cyclists and drivers. Righteous people on both sides are the worst and make the road more dengarous for all.
The lone cartoonist :
http://cvcomics.com/artandstory/audio/thelonecartoonist.mp3