BICYCLE CLOWN BRIGADE "TICKETS" POLICE CAR(S) ILLEGALLY PARKED IN THE 2nd AVENUE BIKE LANE (ppolnews.com)

127 Hours, Cast Away, Resident Evil: After life, The Road merupakan jajaran film ber-genre survival yang menarik ditonton. Entah itu based on true strory atau fiksi. Film-film itu seakan mengajarkan pada kita bagaimana cara bertahan hidup ketika terdesak suatu kondisi. Ya, seperti halnya ketika kita bersepeda sehari-hari. Kita harus bertahan hidup dari ‘pemangsa’ jalanan. Mungkin agak lebay jika saya sebut pemangsa, tapi memang mirip. Di jalanan seolah kita membuat sebuah rantai makanan yaitu: pejalan kaki dan pesepeda dimangsa pengendara motor, pengendara motor dimangsa pengendara mobil, pengendara mobil dimangsa kendaraan yang lebih besar (misal; bus). Aksi saling srobot, saling pepet seolah manuver wajib disetiap harinya.

Sedikit cerita keseharian saya bersepeda;

Pagi hari mulai berangkat kerja ketika sampai di gapura komplek, sudah agak susah untuk keluar karena kendaraan bermotor melaju kencang padahal bukan jalan besar lho. Ketika masuk ke jalan utama, mode survival pun diaktifkan . Dipepet bus kota atau taxi yang berlomba mendapatkan penumpang tanpa melihat kondisi sekitar. cari makan ya cari makan tapi gak usah nyikut orang yang berangkat cari makan juga bung!.
Sedang asik di lajur sepeda, ada mobil parkir disitu alhasil harus menghindar ke kanan, kalau yang dari belakang sigap sih aman saja tapi jika sedang lengah, srempetan tak terhindarkan. Agar tetap selamat, saya harus sangat lambat atau berhenti untuk memastikan aman untuk menghindar ke kanan.
Maksud hati tertib lalu lintas di lampu merah tepat di atas ruang tunggu sepeda, tapi ketika lampu berganti hijau bahkan belum, beberapa kendaraan ‘asik’ membunyikan klakson. Akselerasi sepeda tergantung kekuatan pengendaranya jadi wajar jika agak lambat. Lalu, apa gunanya ruang tunggu sepeda yang ada di setiap baris depan lampu pengatur lalu lintas?
Obstacle terakhir adalah menyeberang atau pindah lajur. Karena sepeda termasuk kendaraan lambat, jadi harus berjalan di sisi kiri padahal saya akan belok ke kanan jadi harus perlahan-lahan pindah lajur sisi kanan kemudian berbelok. terilahat mudah memang, tapi tidak. Kendaraan bermotor melesat kencang setelah lampu hijau menyala, ironisnya disitu ada zebra cross dan kawasan perbelanjaan, sekan tak kenal ampun untuk terus melaju menjadi yang terdepan. Maka, harus menunggu ada jeda atau belas kasihan dari motorist yang memberi kesempatan untuk menyeberang. Mungkin perlu dibuat zebra cross untuk pesepeda?
Akhirnya sampai kantor, tapi penderitaan belum berakhir. Parkir sepeda yang semula sudah baik malah ditata sangat berdempetan tak ada ruang bahkan saling disenderkan satu sama lain. Ya.. alih-alih hemat tempat untuk parkir motor. Hadeh…
Sebenarnya tidak di kantor saja melainkan ketika berbelanja di toko atau pusat perbelanjaan lain, biasanya hal serupa terjadi. Apa mungkin tidak dikenakan biaya parkir? seandainya dipungut disamakan sepeda motor, saya juga rela kok. Asal perlakuannya sama baiknya.

Maka dari itu, kita harus pandai-pandai mencari celah untuk selamat sampai di tujuan karena rambu lalu-lintas adalah ornamen kota, sedangkan marka jalan adalah karya seni mural.

Jadi takut bersepeda? tidak, asal kita berhati-hati maka akan selamat. Semua sudah diatur yang di Atas.
Selamat bersepeda kawan

Cara di atas tadi menurut pengalaman saya lebih efektif. Biasanya akan dimulai dengan pertanyaan kalo gowes dimana?, harga sepeda berapa ya?, aku pingin tapi gak ada teman? dll. saat itu lah kita baru mengucapkan “Ayo bersepeda aja dulu pakai sepeda seadanya, nanti aku temenin deh. Ya itung2 hilangin stress n syukur2 bisa nambah sehat”. Sekian.

Anda punya cara lain?

foto: http://wwbpa.org

P.S.  da, e parcarea firmei.

Confortul este o chestiune la care poţi să renunţi atât timp cât ai alte valori. Şi eu am alte valori. Am ales să nu poluez, am ales să nu mă enervez în trafic, am ales să nu-mi pierd timpul stând aiurea la cozi şi cu nervii la limită, am ales să fac mişcare mai mult decât să stau pe scaun şi mai ales am ales ca fiului meu să-i arăt că există şi altă viaţă decât cea din maşină, că maşina nu este totul (…). Cred că mersul pe bicicletă merită orice sacrificiu, nu aş lăsa bicicleta doar ca să am un costum.

(Adrian Nanulescu, director, bucureştean, familist, pasionat de offroad, biciclist )

Citiţi în ziarul Gândul restul articolului, e interesant!

(via Bikepress)

în Londa, pe site-ul london.gov.uk – “the official website for the Mayor of London”, pe prima pagină este descris proiectul Cycle Fridays. Este adresat începătorilor ce nu au curaj să iasă pe strazile Londrei, pentru a-i familiariza cu traseele, pentru a le reda încrederea în mersul pe bicicletă şi pentru a socializa cu alţi oameni. Un fel de bikewalk-urile şi promenadele noastre, numai că sunt oficiale.

În speranţa că aceşti oameni vor folosi şi pe viitor bicicleta spre serviciu, plimbările organizate au loc în fiecare vineri, timp de 8 săptămâni.

Mai mult, anul acesta, primăria din Londra împreună cu Transport for London si London Cycle Campain au propus un proiect ciclistic în valoare de 111 milioane lire sterline, pe care locuitorii oraşului îl pot vedea în premieră la Cycle Show. Până în 2010, proiectul trebuie să documenteze hărţile cu trasee de biciclete, magazinele de închiriere şi reparaţii biciclete, cam ce şi-a propus şi BateSaua prin harta-velo. În plus, au loc foarte multe manifestări outdoor menite să atragă cât mai mulţi oameni pe biciclete spre serviciu sau pe traseele cicloturistice din jurul capitalei britanice şi să mărească gradul de siguranţă în trafic.

Am norocul să am piste de biciclete în drumul meu şi le folosesc, aşa proaste cum sunt. Pe unde nu pot, o iau pe stradă, cu atenţie. Din experienţa firmei mele, montarea unui rastel şi amenajarea unei cabine de duş a crescut considerabil numărul celor care vin cu bicicleta la serviciu. Să nu crezi că toată firma vine, dar de la 3 la 16 e ceva şi numărul e în creştere!

Din discuţiile cu alţi colegi, alte firme…infrastructura e problema. Dacă stau într-o zonă aglomerată, cu mult trafc şi nu au piste măcar pe o porţiune din drumul lor şi nici la serviciu nu pot lăsa în siguranţă bicicleta…astea sunt motive clare să nu vină cu ea. De exmplu, o zonă foarte tranzitată este de la Piaţa Unirii la Romană – dacă bucata asta e în drumul tău, ţi-a pierit tot cheful de pedalat. E extrem de aglomerat şi pe şosea şi pe trotuare. Nu ai practic pe unde să mergi cu bicicleta şi pe bună dreptate eşti apostrofat.

Situaţia actualelor piste e dezamăgitoare, am de multe ori sentimentul că lucrurile au fost făcute de ochii UE -sunt de mântuială, făcute româneşte, fără logică. Uite aici ce spune despre piste dl Ion Dedu, directorul executiv al Direcţiei Transporturi, Drumuri şi Sistematizarea Circulaţiei din cadrul Primăriei Generale. Dar în tot interviul nu am văzut menţionat nici un proiect, nici o asumare a greşelilor şi nici un punct de lucru pentru a remedia situaţia.

Dacă avem vreodată şansa să ajungem ca danezii şi olandezii ? Am un zâmbet dulce-amărui când mă gândesc la asta. Nu cred, trebuie să mai treacă nişte generaţii de politicieni care să ia în consideraţie bicicleta ca mijloc de tranport alternativ. E nevoie de planuri de dezvoltare a infrastructurii, în paralel cu mărirea taxelor pentru folosirea maşinilor poluante în oraş, bani alocaţi anual pentru proiecte de sprijinire a ciclismului urban.

Copenhaga face la fiecare 2 ani un studiu despre câţi biciclisti sunt în oraş, ce probleme au, cum pot să îi ajute…şi pe baza raportului îşi construiesc un plan pentru următorii ani. Problema lor majoră acum sunt parcările de biciclete, nu de maşini. Observi, suntem pe dos. Găseşti în postul ăsta linkuri către planurile lor : din-copenhaga.

În alte ţări, organizaţii neguvernamentale sprijinite prin parteneriate cu firme private sau chiar primăria locală dezvoltă proiecte de analiză şi dezvoltare a ciclismului urban. Iau ca exemplu oraşe mai dezvoltate din acest punct de vedere şi încearcă să le urmărească modelul.

Anual, în unul din oraşele bike-friendly din Europa au loc conferinţele Velo-City în care, timp de câteva zile, se discută despre metode de sprijinire, promovare şi îmbunătăţire transportului ciclistic. Iată programul, în mare:

• On 1st day 12 May Velo-city conference was opened by European Commission Vice-president Antonio Tajani. In his opening speech he said: “The bicycle must be a central part of a European urban transport policy”
• On day 2 the conference focused on the benefits of cycling. As explained Mrs Franesca Racioppi from the World Health Organization “Cycling has strong positive impacts in the field of environment, transport and health. It creates therefore a clear ‘Win-Win-Win’ situation”
• On day 3  the participants reflected on marketing and communication strategies related to cycling. One of the strategies underlined by the speakers was to deliver a message that cycling is “chic” rather than focusing on environmental or health reasons.

Acum întrebarea e…participă vreun angajat în departamentul d-lui Ion Dedu la aceste conferinţe ? Din surse sigure, răspunsul e NU!

Because I don’t like being stuck in traffic. Because I like to know how long a trip will take. Because Bucharest’s public transportation stinks (literally). Because I want to get in shape and be a healthier person. Because I want to start the day with a huge grin on my face.

This is why I ride my bike to work.

(Wandering Dreams – by Ruxandra Ion)

De ce recomandăm organizarea unei Zile a Bicicletei?

• Pentru promovarea unui transport alternativ mai sănătos şi mai eficient
• Pentru încurajarea celor care nu au încredere
• Pentru dezvoltarea unei culturi propice protejarii mediului
• Pentru a da un exemplu pozitiv: bicicleta = sănătate + economie + relaxare
• Pentru a putea amplifica efortul de transformare a oraşului nostru într-unul curat, aerisit şi liniştit
• Pentru a vă mai distra un pic…

Dacă lucrezi într-o companie şi crezi că poţi să-i convingi să monteze un rastel sau să sprijine „Ziua Bicicletei” la serviciu, BateŞaua îţi arată cum. Informaţii, pliante, afişe, seminarii, cod rutier, sfaturi, ture de iniţiere, teambuilding…pe toate la găseşti la BateŞaua şi Geo te va ajuta să organizezi un astfel de eveniment în departamentul tău sau chiar în toată firma.

Pentru început, printează materialul informativ de aici şi dă-l colegilor tăi sau trimite-l pe mail prietenilor, vezi care sunt reacţiile .

The peddle came off! And not just ‘oh dear it’s come unscrewed’ but the threads completely sheared off in the crank. So I was faced with a choice, pay to repair the old bike, give up cycling, or buy myself a new bike.

Well I’d been planning to buy a new bike anyway, I just wanted to prove I’d keep at the cycling first. But this forced the issue and so I ordered myself a Carrera subway LTD commuter bike. Fortunately it was 20% off, so at least something good from the accelerated timescale.

It arrived on Tuesday and I had the fun of assembly. I wasn’t sure how hard this would be. I turned out to be pretty easy. The bike arrived with the bike frame and backwheel assembled with gears, chains, derailers etc in place. The controls were attached to the handle bars, which just needed to be bolted onto the mount point. The saddle came separate and needed to be inserted in the frame and tightened at the appropriate height.

Peddles needed to be screwed onto cranks and the front wheel needed to be put in place with its quick release mechanism. All pretty simple stuff. The most complicated bit was checking the settings of the disc breaks. Though really nothing that you wouldn’t need to be able to do in owning the bike anyway.

The quick release wheel is useful as it means I can hang my bike up as I had been with Kat’s old one, but rather than loosening the handle bars to flatten things against the wall, and have to reset it every morning. I can now just whip the wheel off, and it’s easy to replace.

I inflated the tyres and learned that my foot pump has a broken pressure gauge, that tops out at 40psi. I thought it was failing to add more pressure, but when I switched to an electric pump it’s gauge showed pressure was about right, up at 60psi, so just the gauge had been rubbish.

My first ride on Tuesday was great, I took it easy on the way to work; and everything felt good. I particularly like the stopping power of the disc brakes. Good when hurtling down hill, to know you can stop reasonably well.
On the way home I pushed it (in the rain) and was pleased to make it in about 35 minutes.

I’ve continued to track my journeys with my n810, and have seen a peak speed of 34mph and a best average speed of 12.4mph.

After 2 days in a row, I really needed a break to let my body recover. The saddle region in particular needed some respite. But I’m hopeful that I’m still on an improving path. If I can get to work in the morning in 40 mins, and not feel dead at the other end, I’ll be happy. But some serious training required first.

In the time since I got the bike, I’ve added lights, rear mud guard, kick stand, rear pannier rack, panniers, under saddle bag and of course a bike lock.

None of which are cheap. All told I’ve probably spent 40% of the bikes cost again on accessories. I had really better keep at it now!

The mud guard was a faff, I specifically asked if it was ‘compatible with disc brakes’, the pannier explicitly claimed to be. The Halfords bloke said yes, they were the ones to use… Well to be fair I have used the rear one. It just took a lot more fiddling than I expected. The disc brakes get in the way of the metal supports the bolt to the frame and go to the mudguard. However the pannier came with long bolts and shrouds to allow it’s ‘legs’ to come wide of the disc brake mechanism and bolt in.

this meant I could mount the metal mudguard supports similarly wide. but then I had to bend an couple of kinks in it so that it would enter the clips at the correct angle. The instructions do mention needing the wires bit to enter the clips at the right angle, but don’t mention anything about bending to achieve it.

I’ve still not mounted the front mud guard, since I do not have bolts/shrouds that will widen the mount point. I’ll have to figure something out. Though I was more concerned with the rear guard.

The kick stand I’ll have to take back. I hadn’t checked before hand, but the wire that controls the rear derailer passes under the bottom of the frame and up through the hole I’d need to bolt the kickstand through. Nothing to be done there, I didn’t really need a stand, it was just cheap and I was carried away accessorising.

I’ve not done a commute yet with the panniers, I’m hoping it will really make things easier. Carrying laptop and stuff in a bag on my back takes its toll over the journey. My posture ends up all wrong and my shoulders/neck were feeling it. I did take the bike into town yesterday just to pick up some shopping, and it did make things nice and easy. So looking forward to Tuesday when I next commute.

Overall I’m really getting into this riding to work thing. I’m still not sure how much I’ll continue if the weather is bad, but in the sunshine it is nice. I also like the mechanics of the bike. Yesterday I adjusted the rear derailer, as it was skipping between the top 2 gears. Basically in the penultimate gear, the chain was skipping between the correct gear and the top gear. Adjustments made I shall see how it goes. But there are loads of bits and bobs to play with, and unlike a modern car, it’s all easy mechanics which are user tweakable and that’s cool.

Some of the sponsors, Bike to Work day

I went to the site located in downtown Santa Cruz. You could get free Jamba Juice smoothies, coffee, bagels or cinnamon bread, bananas and cereal bars.

Waiting for a massage --leaf pants matching real tree leaf. Check out the bike with a surfboard rack behind me

Nice guys from a bike shop downtown (Spokesman bicycles) tuned your bike –just like this little kids’ bike! Aint’ that cute???

Sweet smile :)

Here we are! Fixing the kid's bike

"cute ladybug socks!"

Ok, now is time to go to school

Massages were offered by amazing massageuses…

My massageuse was Melinda, at the far back. She was great.

  You could also hop on a big truck and sit on the driver’s seat to learn which are the truck driver’s blind spots. It’s crazy! Every bike rider should have that experience… I’ll sure be more careful around trucks (though I always tried to avoid them altogether!)

Dalam rangka pencanangan Gerakan Penghematan Energi Nasional, merupakan kehormatan bagi Komunitas B2W Indonesia karena gerakannyalah yang pertama kali terlintas di pikiran seorang Presiden RI untuk menjadi gerakan yang sangat relevan dan patut disosialisasikan.

Untuk itu, Presiden RI, Bp. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono beserta jajaran menteri Kabinet Bersatu secara khusus mengundang Komunitas B2W Indonesia untuk bersama-sama melakukan “Kampanye Bersepeda Untuk Beraktivitas”  pada hari Jumat, 20 Juni 2008.

Seperti dikutip dari website resmi Presiden SBY , Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono bersama dengan Ibu Negara Ani Yudhoyono bersama beberapa menteri hari Jumat (20/6) pukul 06.30 pagi, berangkat menuju Monumen Nasional dengan menggunakan sepeda tandem. Dalam rombongan SBY tampak antara lain Mensesneg Hatta Rajasa, Menpora Adhyaksa Dault, Menristek Kusmayanto Kadiman, Menhub Jusman Sjafii Djamal, Menneg LH Rachmat Witoelar, Mendag Mari Elka Pangestu, Seskab Sudi Silalahi dan Juru Bicara Presiden Andi A. Mallarangeng.

Jalanan masih terlihat lengang ketika Presiden beserta seluruh rombongan berangkat menuju Monas melalui kawasan Medan Merdeka Barat. Sesampainya di Silang Monas Barat Daya, SBY beserta rombongan kemudian bergabung dengan tim Bike2Work yang dipimpin oleh Ketua Umum Bike2Work Toto Sugito. Mereka kemudian langsung bersepeda bersama melalui rute Pintu Silang Monas Barat Daya – Area Monas – Pintu Silang Monas Tenggara – Jalan Ridwan Rais – Jalan Medan Merdeka Utara, kemudian melalui Pintu Air Mancur Sekretariat Negara untuk masuk menuju kawasan halaman tengah Istana Kepresidenan.

“Yes, we are more healthy with Bike2Work,” ujar Presiden SBY sesampainya di kawasan Sekretariat Negara. Ketua Umum Bike2Work menyerahkan bingkisan foto Bike to Work berukuran 70 cm x 40 cm kepada Presiden SBY. Foto tersebut sangat unik, karena merupakan gambar stasiun pompa bensin yang tidak berisikan bensin, namun berisikan air. Air tersebut dimaksudkan agar dapat menjadi bahan bakar bagi para “bikers”.

Ketua Umum Bike2Work mengungkapkan bahwa seluruh anggotanya terdiri dari office boy hingga pemilik perusahaan, sangat bersyukur karena bisa bersepeda bersama dengan Presiden dan diterima di Istana. “Kami juga berharap Presiden SBY dan para menteri akan mendukung kegiatan kita ini sehingga cita-cita kami akan tercapai,” ujar Toto. Sebelumnya, dijelaskan oleh Toto bahwa seluruh anggota Bike2Work sangat concern pada lingkungan karena tingkat polusi yang semakin tinggi dan banyak sekali kemacetan di Jakarta. Oleh karena itu, muncul inisiatif dari para anggota untuk menggunakan sepeda sebagai alat transportasi.

Usai bersepeda bersama, Presiden SBY dan Ibu Negara menjamu seluruh anggota Bike2Work dengan sarapan pagi khas Istana yang menghadirkan berbagai panganan kaki lima seperti bubur ayam, tahu goreng, tempe goreng, aneka rebus-rebusan dan aneka buah-buahan(mit)

Semoga langkah ini dapat diikuti oleh rekan-rekan Komunitas B2W di wilayah-wilayah luar Jakarta bersama dengan pemerintah daerah masing-masing. Komunitas ini beraksi langsung tanpa banyak berucap. Bukan hanya berucap tanpa melakukan tindakan nyata. Planet tua kecil bernama bumi ini sedang sekarat dan tidak butuh wacana. Dengan “menyelamatkan” diri sendiri melalui usaha meningkatkan kesehatan sambil melakukan penghematan, anggota komunitas ini secara langsung berkontribusi nyata untuk menyelamatkan bumi.

Komunitas Pekerja Bersepeda Indonesia pada kesempatan ini juga memohon maaf sebesar-besarnya kepada masyarakat umum apabila pada hari Jumat pagi tersebut beberapa ruas jalan ibukota menjadi tersendat akibat lebih dari 1000 orang pekerja bersepeda melakukan konvoy bersepeda. Semoga apa yang dilakukan komunitas ini tidak menimbulkan pandangan negatif dari segenap warga ibukota yang terkena dampak kemacetan karena secara murni tujuan komunitas ini  adalah gerakan moral demi tercapainya diri yang sehat serta terciptanya udara bersih dan lingkungan yang lestari.

Kepada seluruh rekan2 pekerja bersepeda yang pagi tersebut menyertai RI-1 bersepeda bersama, tiada kalimat yang dapat menggambarkan rasa syukur, haru dan terima kasih pengurus komunitas atas kesertaannya. Semoga apa yang secara ikhlas kita lakukan bersama pagi itu menjadi tonggak sejarah bagi terwujudnya apa yang kita semua cita-citakan, yaitu terciptanya  fasilitas bagi pengguna sepeda, seperti juga didukung oleh orang no. 1 negeri ini. Pengurus Komunitas B2W Indonesia juga memohon maaf atas segala kekurangan yang ada pada pelaksanaan perhelatan ini. Dengan segala keterbatasan yang ada pada kemampuan dan sumber daya pengurus, disadari bahwa tentu banyak kekurangan dan kelemahan yang timbul sehingga tentunya akan sulit memuaskan banyak pihak secara sempurna.

Pagi itu komunitas ini telah menggebrak Jakarta.
Pagi itu komunitas ini diterima di halaman istana, area yang memiliki nilai sejarah seperti diucapkan oleh Bapak Presiden. Area yang biasanya digunakan untuk resepsi kenegaraan, tempat diterimanya tamu2 kehormatan dan orang2 yang berprestasi di negeri ini dalam rangka mengharumkan nama bangsa.
Pagi itu rasa haru dan bangga memenuhi rongga dada para pekerja bersepeda negeri ini karena apa yang dilakukan didukung penuh oleh presiden negaranya.
Pagi itu tonggak sejarah baru komunitas B2W Indonesia telah terpancang.

Untuk diri,
Untuk bumi,
Untuk generasi penerus.

(Dikutip dari situs http://www.b2w-indonesia.org.id)

I think that we Canadians, hell everyone in the global community (developed nations in particular), should take it upon ourselves and make our own One Tonne Challenge. To reduce our personal emissions by one tonne is actually pretty easy so we could even go for the Two Tonne challenge and meet a more significant portion of our Kyoto commitments. To help people track their progress we could even setup an online application to track everyones progress – maybe even share or trade some fictional “Kyoto Kredits”.

Anyhow, there are some really simple ways to have a big impact on your climate change emissions. Forget all that crap about “check your tire pressure”, “plant a tree” or “recycle” – there are a few things you can to make a big change.

1. Replace all your light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. CFLs use about 60% less energy than regular light bulbs so hop to it. That doesn’t mean that you can just leave your lights on 60% longer either – make sure you turn off any unused lights in your house.
2. Eat local. Forget about eating hoity toity (not sure how you spell that) organic food. Organic food is good of course since it is not sprayed with so many pesticides or fertilizers that come from fossil fuels but eating local is even more important for the planet. Unless you are a “my body is a temple” wanker type then quit eating your organic avocados flown all the way from New Zealand.
3. Use a clothes line. Your clothes dryer is a big energy hog so put out your clothes on a line. If you are unlucky enough to live somewhere like West Vancouver where clothes lines are illegal (so unsightly to see the neighbours knickers outside your window!) then just ride your damn bike down to Canadian Tire or Rona (not Home Depot) and get one of those sneaky retractable lines.
4. Eat less meat. I love a good steak now and then but you don’t need it every day. Cows and the like are a good use of land when the land is not useful for growing crops but they spew out methane gas like there is no tomorrow. Global methane emissions are plateauing now, however, so I just say eat less meat and try to keep the methane to a minimum.

Those are some good points but now we are on to the real important ones.

1. Turn down / up the thermostat. In the winter turn down your thermostat a couple degrees (get a programmable thermostat if you can) and in the summer turn it up a couple. This alone will pretty much reduce your emissions by a tonne for the year.
2. Stop driving. Road transportation is responsible for ~25% of global warming emissions in Canada and this holds fairly true in most developed nations. In particular, take public transit for commuting since you can easily plan for your commute. This has the added benefit that with more people riding on transit the service will only get better. Sure drive to the store on the weekend if you have to but damn it all just stop driving when it is so easy to use public transit! Even better, ride your bike. In Vancouver you can get farther on your bike in 30 minutes that you can in a car! Oh yeah, don’t support building more roads for more cars either.
3. Stop flying. If you need to fly at all then go to Main and Hastings to get a fix, but whatever you do stay out of airplanes and make sure you oppose any airport expansion. Flying is the worst thing you can do for the environment. The emissions are release at high altitude which means that the impacts are far worse. In addition to carbon dioxide, the water vapour emissions (note that water vapour is inherent in any sort of combustion so it is really tough to avoid) are a very potent greenhouse gas. Although the contribution in terms of greenhouse gas emissions is low (~1%) the impact is very much higher (~10%). Remember, a single flight across the Atlantic is more personal emissions than regular car usage for an entire year!

So forget about the Tories and their arcane approach to the environment with Ms. Ambrose at the helm.

If you really care about climate change then don’t rely on the government and actually do something about it!

Btw, if anyone knows Rick Mercer maybe ask if he would do another commercial for the Two Tonne Challenge

Being fairly mechanical I thought that it would be no problem to change the front knobby tire to a nice new slick tire. I first started with the removal of the knobby, which was extremely tight. In the process of fighting to get the rubber off I pinched the tube and putting two little holes in it. I fought the rest of the rubber off and slipped the new slick over the rim. I had a couple of what I thought where really cool patches. Self adhesive and everything… Unfortunately I didn’t realize they were temporary. They were only “enough to get you home patches”. I finished getting the tire on. Filled it up and was excited to bike to my uncle’s the next day.

Great ride there, 22 degrees with no wind either there or back. Half way back my patch gave out. So on the side of the Old Banff Coach Road in the wild rose bushes raking my ankles I patched the tube for the second time. 15 min later back on the road. Deciding that the patches that I bought had a limit use, I bought some good patches to fix the tube and a couple of extra tubes. At that point I found that all Presta valves are not the same in fact it seems like most bike shops and even MEC didn’t realize that Presta valves come in different lengths.

When I bought my bike the dealers at Bow Cycle forgot to mention that I needed extra long valves for the Kona Jake. So after buying 3 tubes at 2 different locations I finally made my way back to Bow Cycle where they apologized for the lack of information and gave me a deal on new tubes. They also showed my a couple of tricks on how to replace the tube and fill it correctly. I was thankful for their advice and decided that come Hell or High Water I would bike into work today.

Well the gods must have hear me and the morning ride was through big drops of freezing cold rain, tomorrow’s supposed to snow. It wasn’t so much of a problem except when I had to stop for red lights my glasses fogged up. My bike and I arrived safe and in one piece a little damp (to say the least) in a short 25 minutes. I’m kind of looking forward to the damp ride home. My bike is great and it makes riding something that I want to do.

Plus I think that I’ll have to ride all year to recoup the cost of the bike in the gas saving. Day one of the bike ride went well hopefully going home will be just as good.

I really had no choice however. Although busy with work and writing, I read an article in the Globe and Mail the other week that I just couldn’t keep quiet about.

It was picked up in a few places.

At any rate, I thought that I should respond to the article on behalf of all users of alternative forms of transportation.

If I were going to argue in facour of using cycling or public transit over personal automobiles, I can think of a few more reasons than simply the fact that it helps to preserve our precious environment as the author tries to convey. Buses (commuter trains even more so) achieve a far higher passenger density than cars and therefore require dramatically smaller and fewer roads. If more people were to take transit then the BC government would not want to spend over $4 billion on new highways that will only bring more cars to the edge of an already clogged city. Just imagine if the transit infrastructure was improved by that amount – just for an idea the Canada Line, which is a train / subway that will connect Vancouver to the airport and Richmond, will cost less than $1.5 billion. There are even more mundane arguements such as the fact that buses are in far fewer accidents, which results in lower overall transportation costs as well as less emotional and physical injury for all involved. I won’t even get into the hidden costs surrounding automobile industry tax benefits or, more importantly, wars waged for automobile fuel.

If one compares an average bus with fuel economy of 5mpg to an average automobile with fuel economy of 20mpg it is hard to agree with any of the conclusions made in the article. Of course electric buses have even higher equivalent fuel economy and the ever popular SUV weighs in significantly below 20mpg. So, if anything, this is skewed in favour of the automobile traveler. While cars are generally single occupancy (averaging about 1.3 persons), it takes only four people on a bus to increase the person-mileage above that of a car or, even more easily, an SUV. The idea that a bus has lower fuel efficiency than an automobile is simply ridiculous. The only thing more unbelievable is the idea that personal automobiles are more fuel efficient than buses due to new technologies. Yes if you compare a bus to a Toyota Prius – as the authour conveniently mentions – the mileage differs by a factor of ten; however, let’s not forget that in the reality of the world we live in most people do drive very inefficient cars and it takes a conscious choice for someone to buy a Prius. On the other hand, bus technology, like car technology, is being continually improved and if one bus is replaced with a more fuel efficient model you are increasing the energy efficiency of all the people on that bus – this is something not possible with personal automobiles no matter how much marketing Toyota does. Similarly, it is far more convenient to have a fleet vehicle such as bus use a renewable fuel like biodiesel since distribution costs are significantly reduced and, again, an advantage of localized resources rather than distributed. I do agree that only about 20-30% of automobile usage is for commuting, however, commuting is predictable which makes it easy for people to use and enables transit authorities to better plan their operations. Being able to bank on commuters using public transit is a good step towards enabling the improvement of public transit networks.

With regard to commute times via car and public transport, according to the recent study on commute times to which the author refers, transit does at first glance seem to be significantly slower. However, one must ask the question of who are the people that use public transit? I would venture to say that the people who use public transit are the lower-income earners in our society – the very people whom the authour so smugly suggests _just_ need to purchase used cars. At any rate, not only can these people not necessarily afford a car (maybe the author did not realize that one also needs to pay for insurance, fuel and maintenance to name a few???) but it is highly likely that to afford the rising housing costs in Canada they need to live in distant (and undesireable?) suburbs and thus making their public transit trips are far longer. When discussing these issues we should also not forget about the systematic dismantling of commuter rail systems across North America by car companies such as General Motors.

Finally, the author’s quoting of seemingly respectable academic figures is highly suspicious. Although I could not find out what their sources of funding are, both of the quoted academics subscribe to the ideas of Bjorn Lomborg whom has become famous for being among the small group of climate change nay-sayers – all this despite the overwhelming agreement in the academic community that climate changes is indeed a reality.

Just my $0.02.