Way back in my first winter in Massachusetts I commuted by car. It sorta went like this: It was easy to never be dressed for weather. And easy to misplace things like gloves. Once I moved into the city that changed. Even before I started biking I found myself walking an average of 4 miles a […]
You’ve just parked, turned off your car, and given a sigh of relief that you’re no longer stuck in traffic. You reach for your things, kick open your door and CRASH! Okay, so you didn’t “door” a cyclist. But you very well could have! Just because you stopped driving doesn’t mean you can stop looking. Dooring […]
Whenever a person first discovers I bike, they reply with a story. And it’s always the same story. “I was driving down [insert any road name] when all of the sudden I saw a cyclist in the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!” Inevitably it always ends with them saying they “just tapped on their horn” or […]
It’s almost winter. The weather has been changing and there have been some pretty rainy days. While the weather’s gross and I have other transportation options, I still end up on my bike. I’ve been told I’m weird, but it’s all relative. Everybody’s bad weather commute has an element of the ridiculous. And […]
There has been a move to build more infrastructure for cyclists here. However, with limited space on the road, this comes at a cost… which has local businesses concerned. But there is the issue. How can you tell how you tell a driving customer from a walking customer from a biking customer? Especially when a cyclist is […]
Every bike commuter knows is that safety is a complicated issue. They face it every day. However, some safety campaigns focus entirely on helmets. But that means there’s been a crash. What if it could have been prevented? Wouldn’t that be safer? There’s many points along the way where an individual, a community, and a city, […]
I bike pretty much everywhere in the city these days. But I also have a driver’s license and 16 years of driving experience. And occasionally I still drive. Like the other day I ended up driving across town to run an errand. Now, if you live anywhere near a city, you know that the driving experience […]
Having worked in advertising a bit, I was intrigued by the ongoing debate about the representation of gender in bicycle advertising. At first, I was inclined to be offended too. But then, as I was watching the cyclists in my neighborhood, I realized something: the media really has us women figured out! For example, I saw this very […]
It’s not good to honk at a cyclist because, well, it’s startlingly loud: I can understand the need to communicate, but horns don’t do the trick. But even when some folks use their words, they don’t really do much better… So when find myself the target of horns or yells, I simply don’t respond. They’re […]