2009 First Six Months - It's Not the Car Payments that kill you...It's the Car.

(Map Below)
Although in this blog I try to retain an upbeat tone to the benefits of decreasing our dependence on cars, I do have to highlight something the auto companies try to hide, and that is the sheer number of casualties; both fatal and non-fatal, related to autos. In memory of all victims of traffic fatalities I try to make mention of those who left us just to show you how vulnerable we all are to traffic fatalities. As I have mentioned before I have allready lost three high school classmates (one who lived several doors down from us) and several friends. When I tell people that I ride a bike the usually response centers on the dangers of cycling, without ever realizing that for most males under 30 years old, traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death.

This rememberance actually started the moment I became car-free when someone responded with the usually "bike=danger" response.  I figured that if people actually saw a visually representation of a traffic death in their neighborhood they might just be a little more careful in how they drive. I also try to hightlight the young age at which many auto-victims leave us. 

Two Things To Note

The high frequency of bicycle and/or pedestian incidents that involve a hit and run is both shocking and embarassing.  Asleigh Jackson is just one example of a cyclist who along with her boyfriend where "just riding along" when they were struck by a late model BMW of Highway 9 and Fruitvale Ave. in Saratoga, CA.  (flyer courtesey of Alto Velo)This criminal has not been caught yet, highlighting another reason to keep this on everyone's radar.

The other troubling statistic is the number of train vs. autos, bikes, and pedestrian accidents.  I beleive in the first part of this year the number has grown to 16 in the Santa Clara valley.  I am currently research this statistic to come up with some reliable data.

Victims 20 and Under


1-5-2009     Skylar Feather, age 18, driver
1-22-2009   Man Ly Yeung, 18, pedestrian
2-1-2009   Ivy Carrasco, 15, "Go-Cart" Driver
2-3-2009   Issac Young, 6, passanger, killed by DUI driver
2-9-2009 unidentified solo driver, killed in rollover incident.
2-22-2009 Maura Avalos Garcia, 20
3-7-2009 Rafael Narajo, Jr., 20 driven by 20 year old Adam Mendoza charged with  vehicular manslaughter, felony hit-and-run and drunken driving
3-11-2009 unidentified 17 year pedestrian
5-8-2009 Seth Adam Koller, 16, pedestrian
5-16-2009 Paul Benabides, 20, car occupant
6-5-2009  unidentified passenger, 22
6-18-2009 Shawn Miller, killed while crossing VTA Light Rail Tracks.

6-18-2009  Simardeep Bathia, passenger, 20
6-21-2009  Filipe Bergara, 20, driver
6-21-2009  Maria Jennings, 19, passenger of Filipe Bergara

Rest In Peace


View 2009 Fatal Vehicular Accidents in South San Franciso Bay in a larger map
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Spotted in The Glen

These two beautiful Electra "Hollywoods" spotted at Peet's Coffee in Willow Glen, San Jose, this morning.



-- Post From My iPhone

Park San Jose

This sign seems so natural for a city that boasts "Come Downtown to play. We have over 23,000 parking spaces".

Translation - Cars are are number one priority. Bike/Ped projects.....nah.....not on our list.




-- Post From My iPhone

Nice Surley Long Haul Trucker

Saw this nice Surley Long Haul Trucker today, fully outfitted for touring. Nice steel frame.


-- Post From My iPhone

Interesting Electric Bike

Spotted this bike parked in front of my local Peet's coffee shop. The owner said that max speed is 26 mph and it weighs about 60 lbs.

The logo on the frame looked like it said "E+". The battery is in the front oversized hub and the motor is in the back hub.


-- Post From My iPhone

Summer Bike Tour Recap

Just in time for summer. Here are some posts related to bike touring in Quebec.

Cycling in Quebec is an amazing experience for several reasons. Without having to travel to far you can enjoy a cultural experience unlike anything in the lower 48 states. In addition to the language and food; the historical apsects and the sheer enthusiasm for cycling are evident everywhere. In this first blog post of August 16, 2007 I describe "The State of Cycling in Quebec" .

The reason to visit Quebec by bicycle though is the recently inagurated "La Route Verte", a wonderful trail system that spans much of this French speaking province. As the website states:

Made up of over 4,000 km of bikeways criss-crossing the most beautiful regions of Quebec, the Route verte puts you on the right track for the vacation of your dreams. No matter which bikeway you cycle on—the Parcours des Anses in Lévis, the Véloroute des Bleuets encircling Lac Saint-Jean, the Berri Street bike path in Montreal or the Estriade in the Eastern Townships—you’re riding on the Route verte.

After flying in to Burlington, Vermont we headed north to the border to discover the Canton d'l Este or "Eastern Townships". Due to the Anglo influence in the area the town names are strickingly similar to their New England counterparts. Names such as Windsor, Sherbrooke, Sutton, and Bromtonville give an indication of the areas past. In the Eastern Townships a visit to the Benidictine Abby - St. Benoit du Lac is a must. The abbey is famous for their cheese and ciders which are all produced on site from the abbey's farm and orchards.

Definitly make it a point to visit either Montreal or Quebec City. Quebec City, being the only walled city in North America is a treat to walk around. Set up on a bluff overlooking the Saint Lawrence River is an absolute gem of a town. Also try to get in a ride to the Montmorency Falls about an hour by bike outside of town. Don't worry about not being able to find your way by bike. The trails on La Route Verte are very well marked and there is a Canadian Tourist Office in every town we visited. The staff in these bureaus are extremely helpful and friendly (and speak excellent English).

If you didn't find any of the area worthwhile the food alone will make you want to go. After sampling some of the local food; including Poutine, you really realize we are borderline third world when it comes to food.

Happy Travels

San Jose Bike Party Meeting

For those interested in helping with the San Jose Bike Party rides there will be a meeing at Orchard Valley Coffee in downtown Campbell on Monday, June 29, starting at 7:30. Check the website for more details.
www.sjbikeparty.org



-- Post From My iPhone

Green Mobility Sidewalk Project

While walking in downtown San Jose yesterday I came upon this construction project (right next to the PETA lettuce ladies street theater). I'm not sure what a "Green Mobility Sidewalk" is, but there building the "Green Project" right next to a 450+ car parking structure, a gas station, and a car wash.
Just hope when all is completed I don't get run over while trying to be green and mobile.


-- Post From My iPhone

Street Improvement on the Alameda Bike Accident Last Year

While out walking on the Alameda I noticed this project under construction. A women cyclist was hit at this corner over a year ago.

This appears to be a artistic stab at a traffic calming device to get cars making the right turn from the Alameda to slow down. Let's hope it works.





-- Post From My iPhone

Portland Sunday Parkways: A Second Great Year

Jonathan Maus over at BikePortland.org does a great job highlighting this years event. "Portland Sunday Parkways a Success: Thousands Enjoy Gift of Carfree Streets"

After witnessing firsthand last years Sunday Streets event, its great to see that the return to North Portland is a great success. It would be great to have a Sunday Streets/Ciclovia event in this area. If San Jose Bike Party can attract 1,500 riders in its second year riding until midnight I'm sure the demand is their when you include recreation starved families.

Bogota, Columbia started the whole idea by opening their streets to the city residents every Sunday over 10 years ago and the concept has spread worldwide. Clarence Eckerson Karla Quintero, and Aaron Naparstek traveled to Columbia to see just how successful their program is.

Photos: Cheryl and Rich (Flickr)

You said Party - So I wore my Party dress

One of many great things about mass rides is the growing awareness of bike culture and the diversity of riders. Stretchy pants or cycling chic they are all welcome at Party rides. All though San Jose is no Copenhagen (or Portland) as far as bike style is concerned this area is slowly coming around.

My favorite on this ride was a beautiful backless red cocktail dress with a superb pair of riding shoes, showing rather nicely that you dont have to have strectch pants and a loud jersey to sport the look. The only thing missing was a Copenhagen style skirt gaurd on the bike.

Light Rider Ride - San Jose Bike Party Ride

I am little groggy this morning as I write this post, after finishing my ride back to the house by about two only to wake up at 6:00. This is one of the biggest rides I've seen yet and it was confirmed by sjbikeparty.org ("Reflections on Ride #21-Light Rider!") ; there were over 1,500 riders on last nights ride, which started at Dick's Center and ended after 17.25 miles at the fountain at SJSU at around midnight. Read the post to find out more on the amazing growth of these rides.

The sheer numbers of riders show just how starved this area is for some type of organized ride where fun, socializing and some type of light physical activity happen while feeling connected to a larger group of riders. As you enter the street at the start of the ride and feel more confortable riding amongst cars; that on any given day treat you as just a road obstacle, it feels good to be with fellow riders enjoying the warm summer evening.

The diversity of riders is amazing; young, old, cruisers, lowriders, roadies, teenagers, families, boyfriends and girlfriends all come together just to "Bike Party". As we passed neighborhoods many cyclists shouted out to residents and families; "Grab your bike. Let's Go....BIKE PARTY!", encouraging them to join the travelling festival.

All in all ...Good Times...Good Fun....Lets's Go ...BIKE PARTY!

San Jose Bike Party - June at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Share and Plan your Trips

New iPhone App Review

Just recorded my second trip using the new REI "Bike Your Drive" app. Technically this app is nice from a couple of standpoints; the ability to take photos along the way using your iPhone and the ability to use your iPhone as a GPS bike computer.

The actuall operation is pretty straightforward. Open the app to the dashboard screen which displays speed, distance, etc., (see screenshot at left) hit the start button and your ready to go. There is a feature to lock the screen, (the button in the lower right portion of the screen) so if your like me and just stick it in your pocket you dont have to worry about the ride being aborted inadvertantly. I am not sure but I am looking to see if there are any iPhone bike mounts available but you can probably make one withuout any effort.

One of the best features of this app is the ability to take geo-locatable photos while your riding (button in the lower left portion of the screen). Very Cool.!

After your ride hit the stop button in the middle and it will prompt you if you want to save or resume the ride. If you decide to end the ride right there you can save the ride to a draft ride file or upload it.

If you save the file it will prompt you for a name (required) and a ride story if you would like to add comments. There is also a photo button to edit your photos (include:default, or keep and attach an caption).

Once your ready to upload just hit the upload button and you will be taken to a screen that shows you the upload progress. First the file will be converted to GSX a GPS type of XML, then the photos will loaded given you the progress of each photo such as "Photo #1 of #5". Obviously the more photos the more upload time so if you have more than 5 photos you may want to establish a WiFi connection first.

One other nice feature of the app itself (before moving to the next stage, everytrail.com) is the fact that you can describe the type of activity; road biking, nordic skiing, train, walking, etc. This app naturally defaults to the road biking activity.

EveryTrail.com

The other component to this app is the upload side of "Bike Your Drive". This app connects you to everytrail.com. You can view your trip via their site or embed the trip in your site or blog as I have done here. You can even get the same look and feel with routes and photo markers in Google Earth which is really nice. According to the sites blog recorded trips (using other types of GPS input of course) has reached over 100,000 publicly available trips.

Whats nice about the everytrail site is that you can browse trips by country, state and county. Currently there are 8,500 public trips for California. By clicking on the "World Map" Section of the top menu bar you can choose from over 25 different activities based on its world map location. Some of the more obscure are sightseeing, hangliding/paragliding, and skateboarding..

So in a nutshell here are the Goods and Not So Goods.

Goods

• Very simple and easy to use.


• Free App


• Taking Photos along the way is way cool.


• The abilitity to lock the app along the way.


• The ability to set the accuracy of the GPS to optimize battery life.

Not So Goods

• Screen is a shade of green with a white font which is very difficult to read in the bright California summer sun. It would be great if you had an option to change the screen background to black.


• Also the dashboard cold be a little more readable.


• I've used the app three times already and couldn't get the cummulative stats to work even though I have input my weight, cost of gasoline, and MPG.
  

All in all I thing this is a great app and its FREE and its use is not just limited to cycling, it would also be great as a photo log of tours, sightseing, hiking, etc.



Whole Foods Cupertino to Peets Saratoga at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Geotagging Community
Note: Author is an employee of REI

San Jose Bike Party Tonight

Tonight everyone's meeting at "Dick's place" near the Bascom Light Rail Station. The ride is scheduled to go thru the Rose Garden area to northeast San Jose and finish at SJSU. Last month's ride had over 800 riders , so please bring a light and obey all traffic signals. Represent cycling in a positive way.

-- Post From My iPhone

Get Paid Not to Drive

Whether you decide to go car-lite or car free you can get paid to park your car. Due to recent changes in IRS policy you have "pre-tax" benefits at your disposal.. Internal Revenue Code Section 132(a) provides for eight types of employee fringe benefits, including a transportation fringe. My employer uses Wageworks a benefits plan manager to administer the "back-office" portion of the plan,but it basically works like this:

I can choose any number of San Francisco Bay Area Transit systems, for example CalTrain or VTA. If I choose VTA; a one month Adult pass is $61.25 which is the amount deducted from my paycheck. At $735 for all twelve passes for the year that amount would be decucted from my wages saving some dollars at tax time. But thats not all. My employer reimburses me 50% of the VTA pass each month which means I am saving over 60% per month. When you also add the costs of gas, oil, maintence not incurred, your on your way to huge savings. For more information check 511.org - Commputer Tax Benefits page.

New Apple iPhone App for your bike

This app is called "Bike Your Drive" which is branded by REI allthough some else actually created the app.

It is actually very cool. Using the GPS and the camera in your iPhone it tracks your route, allows you to take pictures and upload the route to a website hosted by DeLorme. More on the app later. I just wanted you to see the results on a ride I took to take a look at the new Mary Ave. bridge connection Cupertino to Sunnyvale, California.

New Mary Ave. Bike Bridge at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Share GPS Tracks
Note: Author is employed by REI