Monday, April 07, 2008

Bicycling and the Law, Bob Mionske speaks at the SF Bicycle Coalition

Two time U.S. Olympic cyclist and 1990 U.S. National Champion, Bob Mionske went on to practice law and now advocates for cyclists. His new book Bicycling and the Law: Your Rights as a Cyclist is a must read for activists. Bob also writes the Legally Speaking column in the Velo News.

He gave a talk at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition last month and Bikescape captured it for you here.




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go to Bikescape in itunes

Monday, March 03, 2008

around the world by bicycle


As Bikescape marks its third birthday, Victor Weinreber sets out on a bike trip around the world that will take at least that long. We meet up with him as he finishes his warm-up trip across the USA and prepares to start the actual trek which begins and ends in San Francisco.




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go to Bikescape in itunes


Read Victor's journal and diaries of other long distance bike tourers.

Victor sent links about the tools he uses on his trip, such as his cool, home built LED lights, his water bottle/bidet, his 14-speed Rohloff hub, and his Hennessey Hammock tent.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

return of the scorcher

Podcasts are on hold while I my ibook goes through a permissions nightmare. In the meantime, this film from 1992 by Ted White that inspired the name for Critical Mass should keep you occupied...

Sunday, January 06, 2008

2007: a look back

Let's recap the year, shall we?


In this episode I collect all of the random recordings I made over the year but failed to include in any shows. We spend some time at last summer's Shake your Peace Festival where we met the B:C:Clettes, a bike ballet troupe and listened to a bicycle-based musical device called Antsy Pants.

Then we meet up with Critical Mass at (Peewee) Herman Plaza as the crowd gathers to discuss whether the ride is still relevant after fifteen years. We also check in with my six-year-old as she learns to ride on two wheels.

Next, we get updates on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's embarrassing memo from HR that forbade employees from riding their bikes in the course of their duties, as well as lots of other news from the two wheeled world.

The song, Bicycle by the band for kids of all ages the Jellydots can be downloaded here.




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go to Bikescape in itunes

Thursday, November 29, 2007

What we're up against

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is, according to their mission statment, "committed to achieving clean air to protect the public's health and the environment." Their stated goals are to:
  • Attain and Maintain Air Quality Standards
  • Increase Public Awareness of Positive Air Quality Choices
  • Develop and Implement Protocol and Policies for Environmental Justice
They're the ones behind the "Spare the Air Days" when we all get to ride transit for free so we can all breath.

I wonder then how they can explain this memo that was sent to their employees who, in the course of their duties have to travel around the Bay Area.

I guess when the Board members have their own reserved parking spots in the private garage its easy to become divorced from reality...

In other news, I've recovered the lost sound files for the long promised BORP episode. They need about six hours to be edited but they're next up so stay tuned!

Thursday, November 01, 2007

WNYC on biking in New York

WNYC ran an excellent segment on the bicycle renaissance in New York.

Listen here

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Parking or transit? The 2007 election in San Francisco

As a sleepy off-year election approaches, San Franciscans face a choice of adding momentum to its Transit First policy or gutting it to add 20,000 more cars to its streets, all in the quest for more parking. Bikescape goes to the Saturday mobilization, chats with Susan King of the Green Party and Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi. Then we head downtown to talk to Dave Snyder to get the big picture on the destructive power of unrestrained parking in cities.



Download the mp3 or
go to Bikescape in itunes

Proposition A will add $26 million to transit yearly and give more remove politics from the budgeting and planning process. The full text of the measure is here. (pdf)

Proposition H will allow significantly more parking in San Francisco, a prospect that runs counter to the city's entrenched transit-first policy, which uses land-use regulations and funding priorities to discourage use of the private automobile. Here's the text of the measure. (pdf)

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Walk San Francisco, Livable City and The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) are among the many organizations that support A and oppose H.

Donald Shoup wrote the definitive book on The High Cost of Free Parking.



Thursday, September 13, 2007

Portland, City of Bikes



Bikescape takes the family on vacation on its first bike tour with the kids. We visit Sunnyside Piazza, a grassroots redesign of a neighborhood intersection. Then we meet Todd Fahrner of Clever Cycles, go for a ride on a Dutch cargo bike and look over the unusual merchandise in his shop. Finally we check in with Portland denizens Meghan Sinnott and Ken Southerland and talk about the deep bike culture thay has taken root in their city.

Listen to the podcast or
go to Bikescape in itunes

Your go-to place on the web for cycling in Portland is bikeportland.org

Clever Cycles is a most unique bike bike shop in PDX. They sell the Bike Friday Tickets and the Brompton folding bikes as well as the Extracycle. And they have already sold over forty Dutch Bakfiets cargo bikes this summer.

Portland will host the The World Car-Free Network Conference in '08.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

the state of cycling in the uk


In this episode we look at biking in the United Kingdom. We chat with Jack Thurston of London's Bike Show on Resonance FM. Then we get Josh Hart on the line to talk about his take on transportation in the UK as an American expat student of urban planning in Bristol.

Jack spoke of London's success with their downtown Congestion Charge .

Join Josh and his friends at Heathrow Airport Camp for Climate Action as they protest the proposed doubling of the air traffic there.

Josh avoided cars and planes on his trip to Bristol to avoid undoing all of the good he's done by biking. More on your carbon footprint.

Check out the pictures of the life size mousetrap at the heavy pedal cyclecide bike rodeo this year where the contraption worked as advertised a record two times in a row!

Friday, June 29, 2007

North American Cycle Courier Championship, San Francisco

The North American Cycle Courier Championship brought messengers from around the world to San Francisco for this year's games. Bikescape was there to cover the action and put it in your ears.

Listen to the podcast or
go to Bikescape in itunes

There will be lots of links after I get some sleep!

Photo by Condition San Francisco.