Cellphone Driver vs. Cyclists - with a happy ending!

Last night two of us were riding after dark down Cypress. At the 4-way stop at Cajon and Cypress, we stopped and waited for the cars to go ahead of us.

As we started our turn into the intersection, a car came to the stop, barely hesitated, and kept going through the stop sign, then slamming on the breaks when they almost hit my companion.

This alone really ticks me off, but what made it worse was the lady driving the car was talking on her CELLPHONE!

My usual action, in this case, was to ride directly in front of her with my head to my ear, ie. her holding a cellphone, and wait until she got the idea. Usually, they don't get the idea, and they drive away as if I was the one causing the problem.

But this time, to my sheer amazement, she ended her call, put down her phone, looked me right in the eyes, and nodded in approval of my...well...disapproval!

Thank you for your understanding, mystery cellphone driver!

And please, stay off your cellphones while driving. It's not just cars on the road!

Google Maps bad data in Redlands

If you're looking for a good route from Olive Ave. to Brookside down Buena Vista, you'd better consider using your natural geographic intuition rather than Google Maps:


View Larger Map

There are quite a few problems with Google's 'new' data. Well, the long story is the data dates back in places to the 1980's, but since they've 'found' all this data, some of it bad, they can call it their own.

WEIRD!

Anyway, you can report problems with the data if you want. They still haven't fixed a few things I pointed out to them a while back.

The growth of Women's cycling in the IE

The Team PossAbilities Elite cycling team successfully put on a women’s cycling clinic back in the summer and have continued to work towards growing women’s cycling in our area. With the largest hurdle being to get women out riding bikes, luckily,a few of the PossAbilities women members would both lead and sweep a women’s only ride Wednesday. 5:45PM at Redlands Cyclery USA with the purpose to making sure everyone was having fun and learning. The ride intended to support all skill levels, but the group was usually focused on honing group riding skills and would ride out in the industrial area just north of San Bernardino Ave.

As the daylight is now scarce, so are the evening rides. However when we get the light back we will be out in full force again, so be prepared to see large groups of women riding around town.

Another women’s clinic will be in the works for next year so stay tuned.

We have started a Facebook group that if you are not a man and like to ride you should join! It's "Womens Cycling - Inland Empire".

Average U.S. Car Is Tipping Scales at 4,000 Pounds - The New York Times

Average U.S. Car Is Tipping Scales at 4,000 Pounds - The New York Times



So we were wondering recently - how many bikes could you build with the materials used in car?

The article above states that cars now weigh over TWO TONNES!

TWO TONNES of metal, plastic, rubber, etc...

Jonathan @ Bikecommuter.com states:

"If the average weight of a US car is 4000 lbs that means you could potentially make 133 bicycles each weighing 33 lbs with the very abstract assumption that 100% of the car's weight could be fabricated into the new bicycles."

133 bikes for one car! Amazing...

"An average car parking space can be retrofit to park 10-12 bicycles! Even assuming you fill the car with 4-5 passengers, you are still 2-3x more efficient parking bicycles."

Monthly Bike Meeting - first friday of the month

What: Monthy Bike Meeting
When: First Friday of the month
Where: Augies Coffee Shop
Time: 7:30 - 8:30/9pm


This coming Friday we'll start the first of a monthly group of meetings surrounding bicycling in Redlands.

Topics will include bike safety, community and government support for bike lanes, and generally making Redlands a more 'bike friendly' city.

The meeting will be followed by the infamous Red Asphalt Ride.

We hope to see you there!

Thoughts on 350 Climate Action Day - Life is just better without cars.

This past saturday marked the 350.org Climate Action day. Throughout the world, and even in Redlands, people gathered to voice there support of lowering greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere to 350ppm - a level deemed to be safe to the environment.

During the activities I was a part of here in Redlands, I had the chance to talk to a geologist on her thoughts regarding climate change. Let's suffice to say that she had some interesting arguments about what our emissions are actually doing the the atmosphere, and thus the debate could have gone on and on and on...

This conversation was the highlight of my day, however, as I was reminded just why non-motorized transportation is so important - regardless of what you think about emissions alone.

Every evening from Los Angeles to Redlands and beyond stretches bumper-to-bumper traffic over 60-80 miles of asphalt which connects to roads which connects to more roads which connects to streets which connect to parking lots and so on and so on.

What a waste of space.

This repeats the next morning, every day, 5 days a week. Each of those people are in their cars upwards of an hour or more each way - each day. Some do this by choice, but some - like my geologist friend - because they have to. Each hour you spend in that car you have your hands glued to the wheel and your mind focused on the cars in front of you.

What a waste of time and your mind!

Cars are not allowing us to have you any exercise. You sit. You can't read. You can't talk on your cellphone (thankfully, though not everyone is obeying the new laws). You can't interact with anyone else.

What kind of 'dream' is that?

So again, what is the purpose of cars?

Is it to get to work? Well, as bikecommuter.com's Jonathan Baty and I discussed last night, NO!!

Your place of work that you drive to every day is only there so you'll drive to it! This is car culture at it's finest, and it's a world wide problem. It's cheaper to build overtop our precious agricultural land (we can import food from somewhere else, right?) and make you buy a car just so you can get to work to pay for your car!! Meanwhile you're family wonders why you're late, and you have no time to actually enjoy the house you're struggling to pay the mortgage for.

This is the real fight - ending car culture.

I'm so lucky to live and work in Redlands. I don't use my car unless I absolutely need to go somewhere further than I can ride and carry the things I need with me. I get the exercise my body needs and wants, and my 'footprint' is extremely low. I support local business to get my food and services (most towns, including Redlands, still have everything within a few miles ride of home).

Generally, life is a lot nicer on a bike.

I wish this life for everyone on the planet, and that is the reason why I went for a ride on Saturday.

350 Day of Climate Action - A Ride Around Redlands, Trails at 10, and more...

Date: Saturday, Oct. 24
Time: 12:00pm
Meeting Place: Redlands Bowl
What: Bike around Redlands and tour some of the "proposed bike lane" streets. If you want, we'll then ride around in groups to spread the word of what we can do locally to fix the earth's climate.

Got ideas? Bring 'em!

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bikeredlands
twitter: http://twitter.com/bikeredlands


View Larger Map

Other activities happening on saturday:

Trails at 10 with the Redlands Conservancy
Oakmont Park
google map search: south lane & sutherland, redlands, ca
10:00am

Hope to see you at one of these events!

Loma Linda builds underpass to accomodate bikes!

Underneath Mountain View Avenue there is now an underpass for bikes along the San Timoteo creek path!

This is an important piece of infrastucture for connecting this trail up with the Santa Ana River trail, and we commend the action of the City of Loma Linda! Nicely done!!

Photo by Steven Christensen:

From bikeredlands / misc

Map:

View bikeRedlands in a larger map

Redlands with Bike Lanes! A digital mock-up...

What would a safer, more bike-friendly Redlands look like? The photos below should give you a hint! Donny and I cruised around town and took some pictures. I then "digitally striped" the lanes - just to see what it would look like.

All the photos are along the Proposed Bike Lanes the city has already approved. The roads seem wide enough to accomodate bike lanes...what do YOU think?

Brookside hearding East towards Center:

From Redlands with Bike Lanes (digitally added)

...down Brookside...

From Redlands with Bike Lanes (digitally added)

Downtown on Citrus:

From Redlands with Bike Lanes (digitally added)

Citrus by Redlands High School:

From Redlands with Bike Lanes (digitally added)

Down Colton looking West:

From Redlands with Bike Lanes (digitally added)

View the map of the photos:

View Redlands Bike Lane Mock-up in a larger map

Leave some comments and let us know what you think!

I hope to present these to City Council in the near future...

Trees Cool the Streets - Redlands' BikeCommuter.com proves it!

Jonathan Baty at BikeCommuter.com has proven that trees cool streets - by up to 50F degrees!