BU Bikes

Last Friday, BU Sustainability hosted an event to promote awareness on climate change.  The event was held in collaboration with groups from around the world who are protesting the rising atmospheric carbon dioxide that’s choking our planet to death and raising global temperatures to dangerous levels.  The event took place ahead of the U.N. hosting a climate summit on a new treaty to curb global warming Dec. 10 in Copenhagen.

Of course, BU Bikes wanted to be a part of this awareness campaign, since biking is a zero-emission, low-impact, cheap, easy, and quick way to get around.  Especially in this city, full of transportation woes.

We formed the numbers 3-5-0, to signify the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that we need to achieve, parts per million.

You can see me, with the Jam Bike, at the bottom right of the “5,” and Tony and Greg are at the upper left corner of the “5.”  Then there’s Alex with a BMX bike in the “0″.

The Boston Globe published the photo (along with other photos from around the world)
the caption reads: Students and faculty from Boston University join together to form a 350 at Marsh Plaza, a special location on campus next to the School of Theology, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received his doctoral education. The 350 global campaign calls for a reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million (ppm).

Special thanks to Alyssa Benjamin for getting us on board with this, and to Dennis Carlberg and Susan Lebovitz from the Sustainability Department, and to the Environmental Student Organization for helping put this on, and to everyone who attended and help organize.

Seriously, we need to cut our emissions.  Otherwise it’s going to get ugly.

After attending the first night of the 2009 Boston Bicycle Film Festival yesterday, I now have a new-found appreciation for Louie Evans, the man you’ve probably seen riding around Boston, hand-built bike trailers, bike racing through the snow in Alaska, and the birth of the mountain bike and mountain biking as we know it. It was really wonderful to see how bicycle culture has evolved in so many different ways, and especially hilarious to see that “Performance” video that generated quite a buzz a little while ago.

Fortunately, almost all of these films are available for you to watch on the internet, so here are all the ones I could find (some are only trailers). I couldn’t find John Allen’s video critique of biking in a Manhattan bike lane.

Louie:

Louie from Brian Moore on Vimeo.

Doug’s Bicycle Trailers:

Performance:

Farm Raised

Bieks not bombs:

Commuting Study:

Fat Bike

Copenhagen:

Klunkers. The birth of mountain bikes and mountain biking. Here’s the trailer, and if you’re interested in watching the full-length feature please consider supporting the filmmaker by buying a copy of the DVD

Also, thanks to Mass Bike for providing excellent bike valet service during the film fest.

Just when I thought I was the coolest nerd around after navigating my bike tour to New York using an old camping GPS, Google Maps printouts while using my cell phone to text updates of my journey to twitter, (old) news of this guy comes along:

[via hackaday]
Meet Steve Roberts, who “sold his house and lived on his bike and in computer networks.” His “computing across America” tour bike tour wasn’t just a trip; he lived and worked as a freelance technical writer from his bike. Not only did his bike have GPS, but a laptop and wireless packet radio for pre-internet/cellular communication, allowing him to “live in the computer networks”. All equipment was powered by a solar panel, bringing the total weight of his bike to 275lbs. Talk about self sustainability.

Here are two videos of him describing versions of his bike and his trip at different points in his journey:

My favorite is the binary keyboard he designed and built into his handlebars so he could type text documents while pedaling, and the ultrasonic siren he included to ward off dogs.

What’s this guy up to now? Still traveling around the world with boatloads of technology, of course, but this time by sea with a Mac Mini on an actual sailboat, blogging and tweeting all the while.

BU Today, the prominent news and information website for BU, posted a feature on the group last Friday in their Campus Life section.  It’s called “Where Bicycles Get Fixed, and Celebrated.”  Subheadline: “Free Friday tool shops help rubber meet the road.”  It’s a great article, and even includes this video of Alex fixing the bike of Gina Daniel. 

Check out the full article here.

Thanks to Anna Webster (COM ‘1o) for coming up with the idea and writing the piece, and to Robin Berghaus for making this awesome and attractive video, and to Gina Daniel for letting Alex toss her bike on the stand.

Some of my favorite lines in the piece: “Answers to these questions can be heard ricocheting through the shop, provided by a handful of BU Bikes members.  One of them, Alex Boyd (CAS’10), props a bike on a stand and spins the tires, looking for wobble. Most Fridays his fingers are tinged with grease from hanging out at the tool shop performing free tune-ups that would cost $50 at a commercial shop.”

And I like how the last line encourages riders of any level to join the “pack” during our group rides.

Haarr-ooooo! (…must be October)

Last Friday we held our first October group ride. We gathered at Marsh Plaza on Friday before riding out to the Arnold Arboretum:

Taking the emerald necklace paths down, Galen brought his drum bike and led the parade until we arrived:

We rode to the top of Bussey hill, where we were met by strangers playing some strange music on strange instruments:

Soon the mosquitoes were whirling about and the sun began to set. We headed back to campus, where we successfully concluded our first group ride.

It was great to meet more new faces, and I hope more of you come on our rides!

The lovely ladies at the BU Womens Resource Center forwarded us a link to a blog post linking to an interesting article published in Scientific American titled “How to Get More Bicyclists on the Road”

“If you want to know if an urban environment supports cycling, you can forget about all the detailed ‘bikeability indexes’–just measure the proportion of cyclists who are female,” says Jan Garrard, a senior lecturer at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and author of several studies on biking and gender differences.

Women are considered an “indicator species” for bike-friendly cities for several reasons. First, studies across disciplines as disparate as criminology and child ­rearing have shown that women are more averse to risk than men. In the cycling arena, that risk aversion translates into increased demand for safe bike infrastructure as a prerequisite for riding. Women also do most of the child care and household shopping, which means these bike routes need to be organized around practical urban destinations to make a difference.

Last month volunteers for the Boston Bike Advisory Board helped bike count at major intersections and paths such as the BU Bridge and Esplanade near Mass. Ave. Does anyone know if gender was taken into account by people counting? If it was, it will be interesting to see how the results of those counts turned out compared to other cities such as New York.

And it might also be interesting to do more on-campus BU counts. I wonder if there’s a gender difference between students who ride in the bike lane and those who ride on the sidewalk on the way to or between classes on Comm. Ave.

Walking through the Marsh Plaza arches today an unusual sight caught my eye:

What happened to all the bikes normally parked to these railings, like these bikes I took a photo of a few weeks ago?

A closer look reveals that BU Parking and Transportation has affixed new signs to each set of handrails with a message prohibiting bike parking.

Oh. Well, a quick visit to the other arches also reveals that even with the signs people are still locking bikes up to wooden benches:

while some others have either overlooked or disregarded the signs completely:

There used to be a whole lot more bikes parked to these railings on a daily basis. I wonder what alternatives people who don’t lock up here anymore have chosen after seeing these signs.

It will be interesting to see if similar signs will appear on the tree railings outside CAS soon and what effect, if any, those signs might have on bike parking behavior.

Last Sunday, thousands of riders showed up to Hub On Wheels, Boston’s annual bicycle celebration group ride. Altogether 21 members of Team BU Bikes raised $981 which will go towards Boston’s “Technology Goes Home” program.

Upon arriving to the starting line, despite the air being close to 55 degrees and rainy, City Plaza was buzzing with excitement as Mayor Menino thanked us for coming out and the ride began. I noticed I was one of the youngest riders there.

The highlight of Hub On Wheels, of course, is that ten miles of Storrow Drive is closed off for bikes. I had fun watching packs of roadies furiously racing to the front despite the Announcement at the starting line stressing the ride wasn’t a race.

It was pretty awesome to see every lane of Storrow Drive filled with bikes for the first time when I reached the turnaround:

Quite a few people I passed coming back into Boston had flats in the first mile:

I arrived at the first stop, the Arnold Arboretum, where I met up with other BU Bikes members and stocked up on water, bananas, and fig newtons. Melody affixed speakers to her rear rack for music during the rest of the ride.

While I snapped a photo of this family on a bicycle built for three:

Off in the distance we heard the faint sound of drumming approaching. Indeed, it was Galen on his bike banging on the bucket, cowbell, and cymbal he affixed to his handlebars.

Who not only brought his drum bike, but a few friends from Boston Rickshaw, who were going to complete the entire 30 mile route with us while hauling some friends as passengers.

Seeing foliage as we left the Arboretum was a refreshing reminder that Autumn was here:

A father-daughter duo pushing uphill on a tandem bike built for two:

Even though Rebecca, this rickshaw passenger, was smiling:

I couldn’t help feel bad for the rickshaw cyclists as we climbed our first hill. Though, it was great to see a rickshaw outside its natural concrete jungle habitat.

But all was well, because as soon as we reached the top of the hill we stumbled upon a man whose rear wheel had seized up, rendering his bike useless. Boston Richshaw came to the rescue to haul him and his bike to the next rest stop.

And together we became one big bike drummin’, people haulin’ parade of absurdity:

Later, as we crossed a bridge, it was nice to see that carpet had been put down for bikers crossing a metal grate over this bridge:

which Galen stopped at to drum while cyclists crossed it:

Just a few miles from the finish, we stopped at the last rest stop as they were packing up. Each of us took a box of leftover fig newtons to take home:

Passing the ICA, a familiar sight:

Arriving at City Hall Plaza at 2, we were welcomed with cheering and cowbells, and a goodie bag.

Like 100psi, I had doubts as I rolled drearily out of bed at 6am about whether riding out in the rain would be worth it at all. Those doubts quickly vanished when I remembered that Hub On Wheels would be epic and that I had ridden in the rain for 8 hours in colder weather before on my trip to New York.

But at the end of the day, my first Hub On Wheels experience turned out to be uniquely fun and interesting. Sure, we were riding so slow that we were passed by hundreds of other cyclists and ended up being the very last riders to arrive at City Hall before Hub On Wheels packed up, but seeing the smiles of those riders as they saw the rickshaws and galen drumming with his silly hat on made riding out that miserable morning worth it.

Over the next few weeks BU Bikes will be gathering on Marsh Plaza at 5pm on Fridays to go for a bike ride! All are welcome, especially BU students new to biking in Boston!

Tomorrow we’ll be taking it slow on the Emerald Necklace bike paths down to the Arnold Arboretum park. It’ll be a slow, relaxing ride. Galen will be laying down beats on his drum-bike so we’ll have live music to make the ride fun and awesome. What better way to spend a Friday afternoon than enjoying the foliage with a bunch of people on bikes?

Yesterday I whipped up a poster that I’ve hung up around various dorm buildings.

which I soon realized had to make literally stand out in order to stand out on the free expression boards.

If you’ve arrived here because you saw one of these posters, welcome! I hope I see you on the ride tomorrow!

p.s. the first commenter to correctly identify the spacecraft in my poster wins a cookie.