running on fumes

The price of gasoline is rising and an unprepared country confronts its addiction. As we hit bottom amid oil wars and looming petro-breakdown, Bikescape looks for signs that the denial is wearing thin. Come along for the ride as we talk with bikers getting ready for Critical Mass and drivers getting their fix at the local gas station.

Note: This podcast was finished moments before I handed my laptop to the repair shop for a week. It wasn’t till this morning that I noticed that the backround music in the last five minutes threatens to drown my voice. I’ll replace the file next week. Sorry about that…


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The Rainforest Action Network has a 12 step program to end oil addiction

Bike to Work Week is May 15-19 all around the country! In San Francisco, come and meet Bikescape (Me!) and geta snack and some schwag at the Caltrain Station energizer station during the evening commute.

Author Jim Kunstler has a blog about peak oil, suburban hell, and the coming breakdown. In this video we get treated to a far better interview than the amaturish one I conducted a few months back.

velodromes and bikestations

After a month of vacation Bikescape returns with a lot of odds and ends. First we take a few laps around the Encino Velodrome. Then Scott Mace reports from the San Francisco Caltrain Station where ground was broken for the new bike station. (scroll down) After that we get caught up on the effort to ban cars from JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park and check the calendar for upcoming events.

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Here's a video clip of the national team paracticing the move Henry taught me.

For a primer on track racing and velodromes take a look at this.

I edited Scott's Caltrain bike station report. To listen to the whole thing, go here.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian and the SF Weekly both ran articles about the politics behind car-free Saturdays in Golden Gate Park. Write to the supervisors and the Mayor to get this thing to happen!

park or parking lot?

What is an urban park? Is it a social public space, friendly to cyclists and walkers or a parking lot for museum visitors and a traffic sewer for cross-town traffic?

Bikescape spends Sunday in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park where the fight is on to ban cars from JFK drive on Saturdays just like they are now on Sundays.

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The Healthy Saturdays Initiative will open JFK Drive to cyclists, roller bladers and walkers on Saturdays.

Email the Board of Supervisor and let them know how important the park is to the city.

The San Francisco Ride for World Health has a fifty and a thirty mile ride on April 1.

The San Francisco Oyster and Beer Festival. Oysters and stout. Just add bikes. Kash will be parking bikes.

The People Dimension of Public Space, a discussion with Dr. Jan Gehl and Allan Jacobs, moderated by Dean Macris, SF Director of Planning.
Tue., Apr. 4 | 5-7pm, City Hall, South Light Court

Songs in the key of bike

A simple podcast of bicycle inspired music. (NO QUEEN!)

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Bicycle by Pfilbryte.

I took the soundtrack from a film about the 30,000 strong Budapest Critical Mass for one song.

Senior Coconut covers Tour de France by Kraftwerk.

Sambaguru, featuring Katia Moreas will be playing in Studio City next week.

Mireille Mathieu, Les Biciclettes de Belsize

You can't have a podcast like this without a song like Cars by the Desperate Bicycles

Slow Down... a sentiment cyclists understand.

Send a letter to Arnold, the governator via the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's website to get a bike lane over the Bay Bridge in our lifetimes.

Mona Caron's Market Street Railway Mural

Here's another installment in Bikescape's ongoing examination of San Francisco's main stem, Market Street. Every city has a Market Street where people, communities and history collide daily in the battle over the commons.

This time we rejoin muralist Mona Caron as she guides us on a tour of her landmark mural that asks the question. What is a street for?


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If you can't make it to the mural in person, tour it (and her other work) virtually at Mona's website.

If you haven't already heard the podcast on Mona's other mural, the Duboce Bikeway Mural, you can get it here.

The Shaping San Francisco historical project is mentioned as a source for some of the images in the mural.

Reverend Billy preaches against rabid consumerism in the mural

Check out the inspiration for the project.

The Tour of California website is here and it has video, rss, email updates, etc.

On Valentines Day New York State Supreme Court Justice Maichael Stallman repudiated the City of New York in their bid to outlaw Critical Mass.
Download the pdf of the judges decision

We like our bikes

All cyclists have a love affair with their bikes and they'll be happy to tell you all about it if you ask. Bikescape went down to Pee Wee Herman Plaza to talk to folks about their rides before setting off on Critical Mass.

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The folding bike I had trouble describing is pictured here.

Box Dog Bikes was mentioned as the source of an old tandem with twenty inch wheels.

Bamboo bikes!

Jim Swanson shot a couple of seconds of Critical Mass streaming down Lombard Street a few years back.

Fossil Fool the bike rapper supplied the closing music and sells great low rider style lights for your bike.

Ken writes in with this link about a recumbent coffee cart.

Sarah Tucker's untimely hit and run death was covered in the local press. Police are looking for a black Honda CR-V with a large scrape on the passenger door. Anyone with information is asked to call police at (415) 553-1641 or an anonymous tip line, (415) 575-4444.

Another bike related podcast to check out.

Dave Snyder – a velorutionary looks back

We talk this week with one of the founders of the modern San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. He was also the founding executive director of Transportation for Livable Cities and serves as Chair of Transportation Committee for San Francisco Planning & Urban Research, and as treasurer of the San Francisco Green Party. He's also active with the Thunderhead Alliance.

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Read a article about Dave that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle a few years back.

Some good bike related podcasts
The KBOO Bike Show from Portland Oregon
The Resonance FM Bike Show from London
Bike Talk Radio from KDRT in Davis California
LA's Gear Noise for mountain bikers
From Texas, Zen and the Art of Traiathlon will give you an audio workout

Bike the Strike!

Bikescape talks to New Yorker Naomi Renek and Jym Dyer about biking during the great holiday transit strike of '05. Then we look at domestic spying and the infiltration of New York's police provocateurs into political events including a fifteen rider memorial ride.

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While Transportation Alternatives counted a five-fold increase in cyclists at the bridges entering Manhattan, Times up! organized bike pools to help novices with their commute. Bike blog has pictures and accounts.

The New York Time's Jim Dwyer (not our Jym Dyer!) ran an exposé (subscription) about the situation. Video here. (click on the video link)

Listen to the Democracy Now! Piece about undercover police infiltration of Critical Mass and other events.

I-witness video uses video cameras to document police conduct at demonstrations and to deter police violence. They work with legal defense teams to support people arrested at demonstrations, and to support civil suits which may be filed against the police.

A trip down market street in 1905

This week Bikescape dabbles in found video. The 'scape is still primarily an audio show because I love radio and the challenge of conjuring up a world in your mind while you cook dinner or ride the bus.

But this time I couldn't resist sharing this old film shot from a cable car on Market Street, San Francisco's main thoroughfare back in 1905, just a year before most of what you see here is destroyed in the great earthquake and fire. There is a bit of bike content here but this podcast concentrates on the history of the street most San Francisco cyclistst use every day.

You can listen to my commentary or just turn off the sound and let yourself be transported to a time just before the rule of the automobile.

Best if viewed using itunes or quicktime. (I used imovie to assemble this and optimized it for viewing in itunes and on the ipod)

Watch the video

or to bikescape in itunes.

You can download a higher resolution version of the film in three parts and in various formats from the Library of Congress.

The very first Critical Mass style ride on Market Street took place in 1896, nine years before this film was shot.

The non-profit Market St. Railway collects and preserves old streetcars that you can ride down Market St. and beyond.

This article in the San Francisco Chronicle talks about Melinda Stone's 2005 remake of the movie to commemorate the original film's centennial. (All of the other sites I've visited had credited the film to "unknown" but this article attributes it to one Jack Kuttner.)

Here is a history of the ferry building with a nice sequence of pictures showing the it evolution over the years.

The music came from a treasure trove of old Edison cylindars from his old lab in New Jersey.

Transportation for a livable city

A balanced and sustainable transportation system, along with land use that will support it can turn cities into places where people actually talk to each other and community can flourish.

Bikescape visits Tom Radulovich at Transportation for a Livable City to talk about how to make it happen.

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Here's a link to the song from last weeks show.

Times Up! wants you to complain about the proposed NY helmet law. (Scroll down a bit)

Check out the Geary Blvd. Bus Rapid Transit Study. and take part in the e-workshop. Be sure to encourage them to consider bike lanes as a part of the plan!

Sebastien, the guy that performed the closing song is selling his cd's here.