Bicycling story roundup

1. A few weeks ago Business Week did a story on folding bikes. I didn't write about it because the cost seems pretty high if you ask me (e.g., for bike commuters taking trains, why not just buy two bikes--one to ride to the station and one to ride from the station--as that would often still be less expensive than a folding bike). But they can make sense for situations other than mine, and you could take one on the train or plane when you are going somewhere else... Check out "A Commuter's Secret Weapon" and "Folding Bikes We Like," for more.

2. WashCycle clued me into a story in the Boston Globe about how the MBTA has made one railroad car into a bicycle transport car. See "MBTA unveils bike-friendly commuter car." This seems like overkill to me, but then unlike MBTA, neither VRE nor MARC run on the weekends. There is no question that in the DC region, we have "commuter" railroad services, not "regional railroad transportation."

Neither VRE nor MARC allow bicycles on board. I'd think that rather going the MBTA route as pictured below, you could have certain cars where they take out a bench seat, and bikes could be placed there. Yet, VRE and MARC are pretty full, and giving up seats over to bikes is unlikely.
The MBTA unveiled yesterday a commuter rail coach fitted with 39 bicycle racks. Officials also toured the first coach completed in a $23.5 million program to refurbish air conditioning units and old windows in 162 commuter cars. (William Moore/ Globe Photo)

3. Lucy Kellaway writes a column, "On Work," for the Financial Times on Mondays. (She also writes the Martin Lukes email column.) Last week her column was about how she has become a bicycle commuter, "Pleasures outweigh the perils of a more balanced commute." She says there are ten reasons to ride:

It will make you richer, healthier, possibly thinner and definitely less bokers. It will help you make new friends, it will make you feel virtuous. It will give you more spare time. You will be more productive at work and you'll also save the planet. If you are in your mid forties, you will lose a quarter of a century instantly and feel just like an undergraduate again.

She also writes:

I had stopped at traffic lights beside a fine looking man in an expensive suit not designed for cycling. We looked at each other, looked away and then he looked back at me intently. This sort of thing never happens to me these days (if it ever did) and particularly not when I'm wearing an oversized, fluorescent road sweeper's tabard and garish cycling helmet. Then he said: "I'm riding my bike today because of your article in the paper." ...

4. Relatedly, thm writes in a blog comment:

reading John Forrester's Effective Cycling, in which he argues somewhat convincingly that neither bike-only trails, nor especially multi-use trails, are good for cyclists. I'm less enthusiastic about Forrester now--he is a traffic engineer and I've learned not to trust traffic engineers, among other things, but I will say that I doubt I would have attempted to become a bicycle commuter in DC if I hadn't read Forrester's book.

Forrester's book, Effective Cycling: 6th Edition, or The Art of Urban Cycling : Lessons from the Street, might be worth reading.

5. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal had a story on single-gear bikes, and a sidebar on bicycles that automatically shift gears. Again, this seems too ascetic or dangerous to me. A regular old bike seems best suited to daily riding. The article did mention Richard "Fritz" Masoner's Cyclelicious blog. See "Look Ma No Brakes."

6. Speaking of hard core bicyclists, the kind who can spend money on a custom made bicycle, yesterday's Boston Globe had a photo feature story on bicycle builders in the Boston area, sparked by increased interest in bicycling around the time of the Tour de France. See "Frame jobs." No photos are in the online version but you can still snag a copy of the paper in vending racks til this afternoon, or at newspaper-magazine stores like "News World" at Connecticut and K Street NW, or "Trover Books" on the 200 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE.

7. I came across the Journal of World Transport Policy and Practice and their related New Mobility Agenda. A recent issue of the journal focuses on cycling, Vol. 12 No. 3. - Special Cycling Edition (PDF) .
Index Keywords: bicycling