The Soleri Bridge

Yesterday, I rode Hardiboi over to Scottsdale to attend the dedication of the Paolo Soleri bridge. I took several photographs, but only one of the striking, primary pylons:

Nuts! It's the old thumb-in-the-lens trick!

As luck would have it, another Arizona bike rider (and a better photographer than me), John Romeo Alpha, was also there for the dedication and put up a spectacular post about it in his blog: Soleri Bridge Dedication in Scottsdale. In addition to the great photos and videos, JRA did a terrific job of outlining Soleri's philosophy.

JRA's blog, One Speed: Go!, is one of my favorite places on the web for an even more important reason than either his marvelous photos or his excellent writing. The way he approaches the Argument-for-Bicycling is much more effective than mine. I tend to skewer the bicycling opponents with facts and logic, and while this works great for winning the argument it isn't very good for convincing those non-riders who are on the fence about whether we should spend tax money on bicycling infrastructure.

JRA's style is typically one of gentle admonishment. If you come away from any of his on-line discussions about bicycling without believing we should devote much more money to bicycling infrastructure, well, you're a hard-hearted, illogical SOB who should be charged extra for every gallon of gasoline you buy!

Where Did YOU Go Today?

This morning, I was sitting outside one of my favorite haunts: Starbucks ...

I was utilizing the Official BluesCat Communication System to surf the Web, visiting one of my favorite web sites: the Recumbent Riders Social Club. One of my buddies there, Rydabent, who lives up in Lincoln, NE, was bemoaning the fact that it was 28° up there and his Stratus recumbent was gathering dust. When I got back to the house, I couldn't help but rub it in when I replied:

"I feel your pain, Rydabent! When I read your post, it was a bone-numbing 63° F!

"After a couple cups of hot coffee and a hot Panini sandwich, I gutted it out and rode up to the bike shop ...

... "where I bought a pair of knee warmers in preparation for commuting at 5:30 AM during January and February.

"'Do you want to wear them ... now?' the gal asked, with a really strange, quizzical look on her face.

"I looked down at the thermometer on the bike computer of Bluetiful. It now read 68° F.

"'No,' I whimpered, 'I think I'm good.'

"(Sorry guy, the blast furnace that is a Phoenix summer does weird things to your head; I can't help but revel in the gorgeous fall and winter temps around here.)"

Keira's First Trailer Ride

Took my 1-year-old granddaughter for her first REAL ride in the Schwinn Scout trailer. We've put her in it before, but she really didn't look comfortable, so we stuck to wheeling it around like a stroller.

Since she doesn't yet have a helmet, I kept the bike down around 5 mph and just went up and down the street while her mom waited nervously up on the porch.

This time she absolutely loved it, and was all smiles (Which served to calm her mom down). She waved to the crowd like a beauty queen in a Fourth of July parade:

I told her we'd go a lot faster once she got a helmet. In the meantime she'll stick with hamming it up by blowing kisses to the audience:

What a cutie, eh?

Pizza Delivery Bike

Stopped off at California Pizza last night to pick up dinner. Saw this parked out front:

When I went in, I asked about where they made deliveries with the electric bike, and the hostess said they used it to take orders to a lot of the stores in the tony shopping mall and even to some of the multi-million dollar homes in the area adjacent to the mall.

I would ride that bike! Especially if it meant meeting a hot celebrity in the bargain!

Shocking Arizona Statistics

Some folks on the BikeSpeak forum are still insisting that I'm advocating unsafe cycling practices. Some even have agreed with the non-biking "experts" that the "fact" that "3.8% of bicyclists hit from the rear" is a negligible statistic that we really can't do anything about.

I've alway been suspicious of the 3.8% "fact." It never seemed to track right with my personal, anecdotal experience driving and biking in Phoenix. So, I went to the AZ Bike Law Blog - 2009 NHTSA Statistics.

There were a total of 25 car/bicycle fatalities in Arizona in 2009. I confirmed that in 11 of those accidents the rider was hit from behind. There are 3 other accidents which are sort of sketchy about what actually happened because, of course, the bicyclist is dead and there are no other witnesses. In only one of those 11 accidents did I find that the bicyclist was at fault because he swerved into traffic (although the reason he swerved is unclear). In three of the those fatal accidents the bike rider was in a marked bike lane.

Okay, so if you discount those three accidents in which my brief research could not discover the accident particulars, and even take out that one where the bicyclist swerved and "was at fault," that STILL leaves 10 accidents out of 25 when the bicyclist was in the "right" --- even riding in the bike lane on three occasions --- and was hit from behind.

But no matter WHO was at fault, that statistic means 44% of the bicyclists killed in Arizona in 2009 were hit from behind.

Does ANYBODY STILL want to argue with my contention that sometimes yer just flat safer on the sidewalk?

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Most traffic laws were created by people who drive, but don't bike; as a result those laws do not take into account the special vulnerability of bicyclists, pedestrians and even motorcyclists.

Hey! My fire extinguisher is still FULLY CHARGED!