Tag Archives: bike commute

Traffic Signal PDF

While perusing the City of Eugene today I was looking at the Traffic Safety Devices Page and found in the PDF for Bike Traffic Signal a photo I took of the signal on 18th and Alder. The city had asked to use it, but I just hadn’t looked at what they ending up using it for. It was nice to see that I had photo in there. 🙂

Bike Traffic Signal PDF

Original photo they used here.

I really like how the city has set up the Traffic Safety Devices, it also includes information about: bike boxes, buffer lanes, sharrows, back-in diagonal parking, stutter flashes in crosswalks, and green bike lanes.

Ride the City iPhone App

Screen Shot 2012-02-05 at 7.07.37 PMI was given the opportunity test out the Ride the City iPhone App and have a couple extra copies to share with my followers. (More about how to receive a free copy below the page break)** These are my first thoughts and initial write up for the app. I will write an in depth review on the app after I get to use it a little more. Some of you might be familiar with the Ride the City bicycle route map site. The iPhone app allows you to do the same thing, on the go from your phone. The RTC app has been out since April of 2010. They just recently came out with Version 1.5 which has a lot of great new features.
Weather:
• Check in app before your ride
• Fully featured weather forecast for the day
Layers:
• City bike routes, lanes, and paths
• Bike shops
• Bike share stations
Easy Drop Markers:
• Touch screen to drop start/end markers
• Great if you don’t know the exact address

The map and routing for the site and app is based on Open Street Map. Ride the City bike path and lane distinctions are a lot nicer than the ones Google’s Bike Routing feature does. Google uses light green for bike lanes, light green dashes for safer recommended routes, and dark green for off road bike paths and trails. So it tends to be a lot of green. The Ride the City maps use blue for bike lanes, blue dash for safe routes, and green for for off road bike paths and trails. Currently, the App only works for 38 cities, the same as the Ride the City site, which are all listed out after the page break.

The Ride the City iPhone App can be purchased for $1.99.
The Ride the City website itself is free to use.
Both are only currently available for 38 cities.

Chance to get the app for free below the page break.**

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Volkswagen, PeopleforBikes, Star Wars, Dogs

PeopleforBikes sponsorship with VolkswagenCars and bikes sometimes don’t get along that well, but car companies and bikes get along really well together. From sponsorships of race teams, to recently a couple different companies have featured bikes in their ads. Today Volkswagen of America announced the beginning of its 2 year sponsorship of Peopleforbikes.org, which is a good step in the right direction for all.

More about the sponsorship with Volkswagen and People for Bikes. Read it Here

Maybe this will also bring some inspiration from Deutsch, the advertising group that brought us the Star Wars themed Volkswagen at *Supper Bowl ad. This year they will be featuring a new ad with the same theme, and have released a teaser for it.

Volkswagen 2012 “The Bark Side” Teaser for upcomming *Supper Bowl Commercial.

Volkswagen 2011 “The Force” Commercial from last years *Supper Bowl.

*Due to trademarking you can figure out what the *Supper Bowl is.

“Shit Cyclists Say” Video


PeopleForBikes.org has made a “Shit Cyclists Say” video, inspired by the popular “Shit Girls Say” videos and all the videos that followed from it. This video is more roadie specific, but should still be funny to most cyclists. I hope someone comes out with a video for, bike commuters, touring cyclist, cargo bike, etc. As long as they are cyclist related I’m sure they will be funny.

There is also a “Shit Mountain Bikers Say” by IHTtwo.

New Year to Now: Collection of Photos

Here are some photos I like that I have taken since the first of the year. Including photos from today’s ride to West Eugene.

Big Fungi Mini Bulldozer
And this path goes where? Exit
Flakeboard - the other side of the Northwest timber industry. Angel and I
Pizza Night Sweet Potato Fries!
Beautiful Day for a Bike Ride with Angel Happy New Year with Top Gear and Naps

Review: Novara Arosa Bike Gloves

I got a pair of Novara Arosa Bike Gloves at the REI Year-End Garage Sale. The gloves MSRP at $29.50. I already have colder weather gloves, the Novara Stratos, but I wanted some suited for cool/dry weather wearing. They are built very similarly to the Stratos gloves. They have synthetic leather palms with nice grip, and a small amount of padding, with added grip on the finger tips of the thumb, index and middle fingers, to allow added grip on brake levers. These are cool weather gloves, so they won’t cut the wind, or repel water, like the Stratos but they are extremely breathable. There are large reflective accents across the whole back, and a nice amount of fleece on the outer part of the thumb for wiping your face. The cuff allows for a good fit, with no bulk or hassle with straps. They have a pull tab to help fit them on and elastic cuffs. They fit very nicely. These are size XL, the same size as the Stratos I own. I think these are great gloves and I am happy I got them. If you are looking for excellent cool and dry weather gloves, you won’t go wrong with these.
Novara Arosa Bike GlovesDisclaimer: I bought these at the REI Year-End Garage Sale so I got a  great deal on them, and paid a sale price of $9.83. I would still be willing to pay full price for them. The reason for return on them was “not warm enough”. They might not have realized they are cool/dry weather glove, and they are fine for me, and do what they advertise.  If you need gloves warmer than this, think about the Stratos.

Angel’s New Ortliebs with a Splash

Angel's Ortlieb Spash Design - close upOrtlieb has recently added some flair to their beloved Back-Roller Classic Pannier, as mentioned in a previous review on the panniers. (HERE) The new Back-Roller Design-Editions come in 3 new styles: Wave, Dot, and Splash. Each design comes in 3 different colors,  MSRP $170 per pair. Angel chose the Splash in the Aubergine (purple) with pink splash graphic. The Design set panniers are the same as the Classic panniers, other then the cosmetic changes, graphic, color, and Ortlieb logo now in the plastic clips. I will say it is  interesting to see a crisp, clean, new set compared with my well warn 2 year old set.
Angel's Ortlieb Spash Design - with bike
This color of pannier looks amazing on Angel’s Sky Blue Linus Mixte 3speed. Angel has wanted to get a set of Ortliebs for a long time, but didn’t love any of the original classic colors. And after seeing these new designs/colors, she knew she would get one of these. Angel loves them now, and hopefully soon she will get a Ortlieb Carrying System to use these more easily off the bike. These Panniers are sure to treat Angel well for many years, just like mine have.
Angel's Ortlieb Spash Design - box Angel's Ortlieb Spash Design - unboxed Angel's Ortlieb Spash Design - buckel
Here is a review I wrote on my Ortlieb Back-Roller Classic Panniers.

Travel Alder St Cycle Track in Minutes

Have you ever needed to travel up and back on the new Alder Street Cycle Track, in under 5 minutes? Well I actually can’t help you with that, but you can view its entirety of the cycle track right now from your computer. The other day I rode North and South bound lanes of the Alder Street Cycle Track in Eugene, Oregon, recording it with my new camera so more people can see it who haven’t been able to make it to the street yet, just don’t ride in that area, or are not from Eugene and can see what this cycle track looks like. This is a great way to view  it, or show it off and brag “my city has a cycle track and bicycle only traffic signals“. When I went out to film this ride; the streets were pretty empty due to students being home for the holidays, and because it was right before the 2012 Rose Bowl (the Ducks Won!) Normally this area is full of students riding, driving, and walking to and from the University of Oregon campus.

This is the first cycle track here in Eugene featuring: one way car traffic (South bound only), North and South bound bike lanes on one side of the road, painted buffer zone separating the car lane from the bikes, green painted intersections to denote “car and bike caution crossing zone”, green painted bike boxes for south bound lanes, bicycle only traffic signals, and center lane car parking between 12th and 13th.

Sorry for any added shakiness, speeding a 6min ride one way into about 2min adds some extra bumps along the way. Enjoy the videos and feel free to share them to show the new cycling infrastructure here in Eugene, OR.

North bound starting at Alder/19th ending at Alder/Franklin Blvd.

South bound tarting at Alder/Franklin Blvd ending at Alder/19th.

Read more about Eugene’s First Bike Only Traffic Signal

New Bike & Cellphone Laws on the Books

New Bike Stop Lights at 18th and AllderSome new traffic laws have come into effect here in Oregon pertaining to both cyclists and car drivers. The law were put into effect on 1-1-2012.

As mentioned in Eugene’s First Bike Only Traffic Signal, Senate Bill 130 has now taken effect. The main thing is that the bill adds  bike only traffic signal to Oregon’s list of traffic control devices that can be used. It also defines that bicycles must follow all traffic signals just like all other road vehicle. Most in Eugene might already realize we have these signals placed in on the Alder St. cycle track. Portland also has a couple of these signals around the city.

Here’s a biggy, House Bill 3186 amends ORS 811.507 which allowed cell phones to be used if “A person operating a motor vehicle in the scope of the person’s employment if operation of the motor vehicle is necessary for the person’s job“. With no way of knowing whether drivers were using their phone for work, there was basically no enforcement of the law. Anyone could use their phone if they just claimed it was for “work”. With HB3186 it removes this loophole, No drivers will be able to use a cellphone (with the exception of emergency vehicle drivers), and there is absolutely no texting by any drivers at all. Drivers can still use hands free devices while driving, but putting the phone on speakerphone doesn’t count.

These are 2 great laws that have taken effect, keeping all of the users of the roads safe for cars, bikes, and pedestrians.

For more about these and more about other traffic laws in effect read it here on Oregon Live.

Review: Moleskine Planner

Moleskine Planner - side
Moleskine is a producer of legendary notebooks. Originally handmade by French bookmakers, Moleskine has a lot of history behind them, being used by the likes of Oscar Wilde, and Vincent van Gogh. Sadly, in 1986 the Moleskine style notebook died out. In 1997, a small company started reproducing these notebooks, and in 2006 Moleskine became the company we know today. Making a wide range of notebooks, planners, travel notebooks, and other specialty notebooks. Now there is even a digital form of this beloved paper book as an App.

I have used a couple different notebooks, using the larger notebooks for drawing and note taking, and the pocket sized notebooks for ideas. But the one I use the most is my Moleskine 12 Months Weekly Notebook Diary/Planner, red hard cover, large. I have used this same planner each year for the past 3. Angel had given me tMoleskine Planner - 3 weeklyhe first one in 2010. I used it for it at first just for writing down events, but after I moved to Oregon in the spring and bought my LHT it has been used everyday to keep track of my miles and time ridden on my bike for that day.   Angel got her own extra small (pocket sized) Moleskine 12 months Daily Diary/Planner, with a black soft cover.

Moleskine consists of great features for useful planner. The first few pages consist of a list of international codes, holidays, conversion charts, time zones, and travel log. The pages are nicely organized, whether it’s a daily, weekly, or monthly planner in any size. In the back they have a small pocket to store loose notes. The larger planners come with a removable lined booklet that can be used for anything. When I got my first Moleskine planner you could get any color, as long as that color was black (a la Henry Ford). The red was special, so that is the one I got. In the past 3 years Moleskine has started producing planners and notebooks with covers in every color imaginable, as well as embossed designs to choose from, with multiple page layouts (graphed, lined, blank, ect.). So you’re likely to find one that fits your style and need.

Moleskine Planner - covers Moleskine Planner - open daily
Moleskine Planner - open weekly Moleskine Planner - used open