BU Bikes

Have you ever been “doored” while biking and not quite known how to handle the situation? After a near-death experience, in the frenzy of shock, anger and injury, it’s hard to tell what the best way is to hit the jerk up for money after he just hit you with his door. But now, thanks to the Massachusetts Bicycle Safety Law, just passed into effect in January, you can feel comfortable asking, along with any ensuing legal or medical costs, up to $100, which is the Massachusetts fine for dooring someone.

Senate Bill No. 2573 requires acts of common sense for drivers, such as changing lanes to pass bikers, not hitting bikers when they’re riding to the right of traffic and not opening your door when a biker (or pedestrian) is within striking distance. As stated in Section 12, “Whoever violates the proceeding sentence shall be punished by a fine of not more than $100.”

So depending on the scope of the damage, you can demand your rights as a cyclist. This can be expressed as: “Hey, buddy! You either hand over 60 bucks to me, or we can get the cops involved and you’ll owe $100 to the city!”

On the flip side, Massachusetts law already requires bikers to adhere to all applicable motor vehicle laws, such as coming to a complete stop at stop signs and using hand signals. Legally, bikers can now ride two abreast, but no more than two, and can only take up one lane of traffic. Imagine, instead of blocking rush-hour traffic as a huge clump, the Critical Mass parades of hundreds of bikers ride as two long lines stretching down the street, stopping at lights, filling up random blocks throughout the city.

Also, all riders ages 16 and under are required to wear helmets.  Bike rental shops must supply helmets. too.  And the bike registration law was repealed for being an unenforced waste of resources.

This is a great achievement for the grassroots cyclist organizations that have pushed this bill for years, writing and calling legislators and governors, asking to place accountability on drivers for dangerous and irresponsible conduct.

Of course, laws only go as far as they’re enforced, and we all know the relationship between bikers and cops has been a historically strained one.  So the law firstly applies to police departments by requiring a bike safety curriculum in their training. This may lead to more enforcement on the streets and cops understanding the trials of being an urban biker. Now, if we could only get some mutual respect of the law from the bikers, we’ll stand in good stead.

The thing that really gets me though is that it takes such a law and the threat of fines to get it into everyone’s head that people are getting hurt. Cars can be deadly weapons, and we’re talking about saving lives.  The real shame of the reality of cycling in Boston is the chance of death involved in choosing a bicycle as a mode of transportation. And each intersection with a “ghost bike” memorial reminds me — we have a long way to go.

check out the link to the Freep site: http://www.dailyfreepress.com/1.1568871-1.1568871

Short Notice!  Sorry!

MORE BU BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION (expect these posts daily…)

“The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) will be repairing the BU Bridge sidewalks. During the work, only one lane of Boston-to-Cambridge traffic will be open. Cambridge-to-Boston general traffic will be detoured over the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge. However, emergency vehicles and MBTA and Boston University buses will be allowed to cross from Cambridge to Boston.”

                        Monday night – Tuesday morning         

                        February 16 night – February 17 morning

                        10 p.m. Monday – 5 a.m. Tuesday

                        Wednesday night – Thursday morning

                        February 18 night – February 19 morning

                        10 p.m. Wednesday – 5 a.m. Thursday

So Watch Out!

Have you ever wanted to travel cross-country? To see this glorious land as it truly is, from sea to shining sea, redwood forest to Gulf Stream waters? The rolling hills of Ohio, Route 66, the Grand Canyon?

How would you do it? By car, shelling out cash for gas? By train, with Amtrak’s monthly pass? Greyhound, with its bus stations and potential decapitations? Hitching it by thumb? Hoofing it by leather? Or have you ever thought about traveling by bicycle?

I met a guy who biked from the United States all the way down to Argentina. The worst thing that happened to him was that he was hit by a car in the deserts of Mexico. The best thing that happened to him was that he got to experience the entire hemisphere by bicycle, on the ground, using his own two-wheeled volition.

Think about it: traveling at your own speed and with your own momentum. Your route — 20-mile days or maybe 100-mile days — going where you choose, completely independent. Think of the sense of accomplishment, making use of foreign public libraries, the chance to meet friendly locals who want to get you drunk, the lessons you’ll learn on “lightening the load.” Think of your desire for adventure. I once saw a sign that read, “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving.”

I have a couple of friends who biked across Europe one summer. In Ireland, they reassembled their bikes, cruised through Wales fueled by two liters of hard cider, ferried to Amsterdam, peddled across Holland — the Promised Land for bicycles — stopped in small Belgian taverns, ate local French cheeses, camped along slow Italian byways and didn’t stop until they swam in the warm waters of the Mediterranean. They stayed with bikers networked through WarmShowers.com, the bike community’s take on couch surfing. It only cost them what they could eat and drink and the occasional spare tube.

If I ever became nomadic, this is how I would go.

Of course, there are more organized, productive ways to travel long distances by bicycle. I have another friend who is part of the Bike and Build Program here in the United States; the program is a charity that helps combat the housing crisis. After raising $4,000 per person, she and her group of young adults will bike for five days, arriving at a destination and helping to build a house for a day or two before continuing with their journey. She’s about to graduate and was never able to do as much community service as she liked because of school and her part time job. Yet after coming back from Tanzania, she wanted to see our country’s terrain, its hills and valleys, its deltas and deserts, its cities and towns and highways and byways. She just got fitted for her bicycle and is so excited she’s practically bursting with anticipation.

It’s a bold plan. After deciding to travel 2,488 miles from Providence to Seattle, it kind of puts that one- to-two-mile commute to campus into perspective, doesn’t it?

check out the link to the Freep site: http://dailyfreepress.com/1.1360291-1.1360291

In addition to Galen’s excellent FreeP column about dressing for winter biking, we’re going to show you basic layering technique through a series of photos. If you already winter bike, ski or snowboard, this info may already be common sense to you, but do feel free to read on. Before we continue, a few things worth remembering: First, biking can be more of a workout than walking, even in the cold weather. As such, if you over-dress your body may sweat and overheat. On the other hand, it’s important to keep your body warm and dry, so finding a balance between number of layers and keeping comfortable is key. As Galen mentioned, wool is an excellent fabric to wear because it’s very warm and wicks away moisture from your body when you sweat leagues better than cotton does. The next best material is any synthetic such as fleece. Multiple layers of wool will keep you warmer and drier, but just a few layers may do. For the warmest of cold weather, some of what Galen mentioned might be excessive, but we want you to be prepared for Comm Ave’s wrath of bitter sub 30°F cold and sailing winds.

First, we have base layers. From the bottom up, our lovely club VP Sonya is wearing wool Socks, Synthetic ski thermal underwear, and a long sleeve cotton t-shirt.

Next, Sonya puts on winter boots (In case of salty slush puddles), though any shoes will do. She wears her normal pants and a wool sweater.

Galen stresses the importance of “bundling up” to protect yourself from cold wind, so Sonya has wool gloves to keep her hands warm and functional for braking. To keep her neck and entire head warm, Sonya is wearing a wool balaclava(not baklava), a full face/neck cover. She’s also wearing a scarf. However, with the balaclava the scarf is usually unnecessary. As a final outer layer, a wool peacoat.

Lastly, with just the eyes left to be covered, ski goggles work wonders to keep your eyes from tearing up in the bitter cold wind. As always, wear your helmet to protect your head and use a blinky to be seen at night.

As you can see, this carefully chosen multitude of clothing will keep Sonya warm and protected from the elements, even when it’s cold, windy, and seemingly miserable to the unprotected pedestrian. Although we offer you this guide, we’d encourage you to find what works best for you. Personally, I find that I only need a t-shirt, wool sweater, and windbreaker, down to about 20°F and sometimes find myself heated and sweaty wearing those. I have a thicker snowboard jacket for when it’s really cold. Wearing ski thermals, a wool balaclava, and ski goggles was a godsend (Sonya agrees). I use ski gloves which have an inner fleece liner and outer shell kept my hands toasty when it was 10°F. Just remember, when it comes to dressing for winter biking, wool is your preferred weapon of choice, and warm hands, feet, and head make the difference between a cold, miserable ride and a warm, pleasant, fun, winter ride.

For one day, the normally clogged, smog-filled, traffic jammed, steep streets of La Paz, Bolivia were free of cars. They were free of microbuses, free of taxis and mopeds and free of noisy intersections that would otherwise be polluted with the blaring sounds of horns and whistles from traffic cops. But on this one day, there was peace. To go out into the city was glorious, liberating, inviting and safe.

The excuse for a car-free La Paz was because the Bolivians were voting on a new national constitution. As mandated by law, they were all out at the polls. And as is also the law, for 24 hours, from midnight to midnight, all streets in the entire country must be clear of all non-official automobile traffic.

I’ve heard several reasons for this, the most compelling being “it’s to prevent election fraud” –– past incidents of bandits on mopeds driving up to polling stations and stealing ballot boxes have marred the processes of this young democracy. But I think the no-traffic rule is designed more to keep people in their neighborhoods, to encourage voter turnout and to keep stores closed on that Sunday.

The new constitution passed 60-40, and the result was that the local economy and neighborhood jubilation boomed! Fairs were set up on empty avenues, impromptu markets filled traffic circles, children raced on skateboards down La Paz’s slopes and everyone, from cholitas to mestizos, joined in the fútbol games. Best of all, people were out riding bicycles. Astounding! Biking in crazy ol’ La Paz! It seems like some fantastical dream of urban purity.

Yet this isn’t as implausible as it may seem. Many cities shut down their busy thoroughfares every once in a while and open them up to people, all for the sake of fostering urban solidarity. You might have missed it, but Boston hosts the Hub on Wheels, which allows bikers and pedestrians to legally take over Storrow Drive once a year. Cambridge closes Memorial Drive, from the JFK School to that insane Watertown intersection, every Sunday from April to November. And Jamaica Plain has its various street fairs, led by costumed clowns on stilts and sponsored by Spontaneous Celebrations.

The best example I know is Bogotá, Columbia, where every Sunday 120 kilometers of major avenues are liberated and volunteers set up sports, aerobic classes, music performances and bicycle races. It’s called Ciclovìa, and it brings the city out to dance, have fun and exercise together. Due to its popularity, the city has radically changed its transportation infrastructure, giving priority to public spaces, pedestrians, bicycles and mass transit. In Bogotá, the city’s attitude has progressed from hopeless urban suffocation to pride and unity. Much of the success can be attributed to former Mayor Enrique Peñalosa, who is visiting Boston this week to talk about his work, sponsored by the LivableStreets Alliance.

So now, imagine a car-free Bay State Road. Or a motorless Commonwealth Avenue. How far would that go to transform our isolated, fragmented Boston University community?

 check the link to the Freep site: http://dailyfreepress.com/mook_whose_streets-1.1321642

“The Spoken Wheel” publishes every Monday on page 3 of Boston University´s student independent paper, The Daily Free Press.  Keep your specs on so you won’t miss it every week!

Column 1: Winter of Discontent

Bikers, now is the winter of your discontent.

As temperatures drop to the single digits and snow piles push you into the street, you must not get discouraged. It is still possible, still convenient and still comfortable to ride throughout the winter. But only if you take the proper precautions.

I’ve asked several local bike enthusiasts for suggestions, and they sent me these tips on how to winterize one’s ride:

Resoundingly, the big issue is clothing, and for that I have but one suggestion: layers. The more, the better. A big savior is moisture-licking thermal underwear, which can be worn under classier, more fashionable attire. Consider multiple sweaters, multiple pairs of pants.  Wool hat, wool gloves. Three scarves ––  to wrap around your ears, your mouth and nose, and your neck and chest. And if that’s not enough, fold a small towel over your mouth so you won’t be breathing icicles. I’d even recommend aviator or ski goggles. Bundle up as if you’re trying to survive in the vacuum of space.

For tires, I heard tough, Kevlar cyclocross tires are good for their gripping treads. There are also studded tires, but most bikes can’t accommodate them. Wider tires with thick treads may be the best bet, with just a little dialing down of air pressure (say from 100 psi to 80 psi) for a bit of give when riding over rocks and salt. But if you have a road bike, which can be slippery on top of snow, then you may want the opposite advice of maintaining high pressure on skinny tires so they cut through the ice to the street.

Your bike itself should be as minimal as possible. Any extraneous parts can get clogged with ice and corroded with salt. If you can take off your derailer and gears, do it. And at least once a week, wipe down your bike to get the salt off. Come spring, you can give it a proper cleaning and replace all you’ve removed.

Heed my warning: leave no skin exposed. A Chicago messenger told me he used to apply Vaseline to his face to keep the wind out. I have a cautionary tale: Before biking, I’d cover myself in as much wool clothing as I could buy half-off from Urban Renewal. Yet still, my one piece of skin left bare to the world, the tip of my nose, did not make it out unscathed.  The black ball that formed one week later was a sign of frostbite the doctor said, but don’t worry –– it will grow out and fall off in a month or so.

The Boston winters are harsh, so know your enemy. Still, the net benefits of biking far outweigh the discomfort of being kept outside. I mean, this is Boston; you’ve got to manage the cold.  If we don’t suck it up and keep moving, we miss out on a third of the calendar year. Just keep warm and winterize your ride. Spring will be here soon?

check the link to the Freep site: http://dailyfreepress.com/1.1311782