Marginal Utility

by Tom Bozzo

Last year, John's chaser broke (irreparably, as it happens) at a joint that allows the long neck that connects its frame to the hitch to fold for easier non-bike transport. A lifetime frame warranty being what it is, it was replaced with minimal grumbling from the company that put its trade dress on the frame — this being the roaring zilches, the actual manufacturer is some unnamed Chinese factory making the bikes under contract.

Well lo, this morning I took a ride after dropping the boy at school and the new one broke in the same damn place! We may ride a lot, but this is getting ridiculous; chains and tires may be consumption items when one puts a couple thousand annual miles on one's bike, but frames?!1! This time, at least, it looks like it might be fixable.

It was all worth it though when John announced, as he was buckling his helmet this morning, that going to school by bike was "better than driving" because it "saves electricity." Well, close enough.

Labels: cycling, Kids

by Tom Bozzo

I'm pleased to announce that today was the first day of my 2008 bike commuting season. In 2006, my first year of serious riding, day one (documented here) was on 26 April; last year — with fifty fewer inches of snow — I started around 21 March.

This time 'round, I didn't bother to wait for the ice to clear from the neighborhood streets, and am also willing to ride with slightly subfreezing morning temps. This led to a Mutual Admiration Society event, as I patted my slightly younger brother (who turned 39 today) on the back for running a half-marathon after his triathlon training class on Sunday, and he reciprocated with me (the same age for 2-1/2 weeks) for what by mid-Atlantic standards is polar bear emulation. Needless to say, he's far ahead in the Actual Earned Credit department.

On the '06 ride, I'd felt glad that I was avoiding the $3.13 premium gas of the day. The last fill-up was for $3.30 before the usual reformulation spike, so I'm pretty sure I won't have trouble covering the variable costs of cycling this year.

UPDATE: Wow, am I out of step with the times; the University Avenue stations' premium unleaded prices are $3.53 today (12 March). I sure am glad I have a full tank and hardly drive.

Labels: cycling, just life

by Tom Bozzo

I'm probably the last person to have noticed, but MapMyRide is a pretty cool Google Maps-based tool, in part in that its point-and-click route creation is not much more time consuming than bashing out a text description of a ride in an e-mail.

Here's yesterday's after-work ride with my co-workers.



Not that it's perfect — Google Maps isn't Madison bike path-aware, which limits the usefulness of a street-following feature. But it's free-as-in-beer!

And I'm not sure what crazy person designated N. Sherman and Aberg Avenues on the northeast side as bike routes. (Yet the accordingly deserted Starkweather Creek path has lighting and the heavily trafficked Southwest Path doesn't. Go figure.)

Labels: Bigger Places Than This on the Intertubes, cycling

by Tom Bozzo

• Taxi rides during trip to D.C.: 2, to and from National Airport.
• Versus Metro, it did spare me the need to walk past the airport's 9/11 porn.
  
• This was followed by biking-home-in-the-rain atonement yesterday.
• Getting rained on once in a while really isn't that bad, though I feel like I can sense the (misplaced) pity from passing motorists.
• Madison's long-range bike planning includes considering bike route signs listing distances to major destinations and/or landmarks. D.C. bike routes have these, and they'd be especially useful for navigating through the sprawl here, since the edges of the city unfortunately were allowed to evolve with contempt for non-automobile traffic in the '80s and '90s and direct automobile routes are not for the faint-of-heart.
  
• Today will be my 90th commute by bike this year-to-date. Adjusting for days out of the office, this is the equivalent of biking every workday since the first week of May.
• An advocacy booklet passed out by Trek Bicycles on World Car-Free Day (Sept. 22, alas a noble failure) dangles the possibility of losing 13 lbs. in the first year of bike commuting. My sample observation is that this is optimistic, though I have so far lost a marginal inch off my waist, which may be just as good.
• The booklet was advocating the use of bikes for trips of 2 miles or less, a regime where cars are relatively inefficient and polluting. Somewhat ironically, Trek's two Madison stores are in suburban areas with heavy automobile traffic that are, or at least seem to be, at least two miles away from any significant residential areas.
• There should be substantial job opportunities for English majors in eliminating myth-fact framing from safety handouts. Based on the research Drek discussed back here, the American Academy of Pediatrics-sponsored handout "Bicycle Safety: Myths and Facts" could use rewriting. At least "Myth: I don't need to teach my child all of this bicycle safety stuff" may be less dangerous for being on the second page and thus likelier to be ignored by people who have trouble separating their myths from facts.
  

Labels: cycling, Random Bullets

by Tom Bozzo

Or, now I really need to get rid of my car.

Into every cyclist's life comes a flat tire now and then, by which standard mine was charmed as my bike turned 12 before my first flat. More to the point, the previous two years of regular pounding (*) on the commute to work were trouble-free.

I was just about to cross into the territory where my avoided fuel purchases had paid for the bike's 2007 tune-up and the repair first flat and were starting to recover the cost of some durable accessories when one of my other bike-commuter colleagues broke the news of the second. There was no more denying that my tires were done for. So two Continental Contacts later, I might just re-reach the break-even point on consumables by mid-fall if the weather cooperates. Ah, well. I'm not in it for the money — yet.


(*) In particular, pavement quality in the Village of Shorewood Hills is as crappy as the village is property-rich.

Labels: cycling, just life

by Ken Houghton

As inspiring as Tom's tales of cycling or Parke Wilde's liebenswagen* over at U.S. Food Policy are, I was pleased, momentarily, to learn that today is "Ride to Work Day" (h/t The Freaky Ones).

Until, of course, I clicked the link and discovered it's a motorcycle advocacy group.

Take all the cattiness in the first 'graf of this post at Environmental and Urban Economics and multiply it by four to gauge my current attitude toward the group.

(Title reference; yes, I am from the B&W days.)

*German not guaranteed accurate.

Labels: cycling, environmentalism

by Ken Houghton

I'm finishing this post on the way to Boston/Burlington. The family drove up a few days ago, so I opted for mass transit—in this case, the LimoLiner (from NY Hilton to Boston Back Bay Hilton), complete with wireless access, food and drink service, comfortable leather seats with leg room, and electrical supplies.* All for effectively the same price as Amtrak.

Following up to my post below, the U.S. Food Policy blog goes on a slight tangent to consider cylcing in Europe:

Even real cities like Geneva (just over the border in Switzerland) or Annecy have bike lanes all over town. The automobile traffic is usually considerate of cyclists. The countryside is full of regular riders of all ages and shapes, and also world-class athletes. My family got to see the latter race in the Criterium Dauphine. I also get to see them in teams, from behind, as they pass me on the roads cruising along at perhaps double my pace. Sometimes, they have a cheery word of condolence for me -- pointing out in French as best I can tell that the headwind is strong, as if that would explain why I alone am affected.

Every type of public transportation seems to accept bicycles. The inter-city bus driver will stop and block traffic in order to open the cargo area for a bicycle. On Saturday, my family caught a special city bus from Annecy to the peak of a mountain called the Semnoz. Fully half of the interior of the public bus was dedicated to hooks for mountain bicycles, and every single hook was filled. The cyclists have what looked to be a glorious reckless path downhill back to Annecy. Then, a couple days later near the Mt. Blanc range, there were kids with mountain bikes on a cable car ride!

Contrast this with Ruth's comment at that post noting the logistical disasters surrounding even an attempt to commute by bicycle in New York City.

This comes up again, of course, in the context of congestion pricing. My initial objections to Mayor Bloomberg's proposal have been, to some extent, answered. The Mayor has acknowledged that trucks don't have an alternative, and has proposed tiered pricing related to the truck's actual resource consumption and TCO.**

The recent objections has been rather more mundane. For example, Fern Cohen at Metroblogging NYC takes the NYT at its word (rarely a good sign):

William Neuman reports that some major subway lines are "maxed out"to a point that the tracks can't take any more trains. Especially affected are the 1,2,3,4,5, and 6 lines, which are part of the old IRT system.

So there we have it -- nowhere to put anyone. If we manage to divert drivers onto the subways, there is no room for them.

This, not to put too fine a point on it, was bollocks. Mentioned only as a throwaway in the final paragraph is:

Other long-term solutions are also years away, including a new Second Avenue subway and expansion of a computerized signal system that would allow the trains to run closer together, increasing the number that could run on the tracks.[emphasis mine]

The Second Avenue Subway is an NYT obsesssion that makes little economic sense. The computerized signal system, on the other hand (as noted elsewhere, not in the NYT) can increase the capacity of each line by approximately 43%.

Let's assume that's optimistic, and that the real number will be closer to 25%. So the subways will be around capacity.

But the streets will be emptier.

Buses and bicycles become even more valuable and have the same transaction costs. Walking will be safer.

The plan is to increase the viable options, not just the current ones. And the original plan has been improved enough that it is worth support.

*The only disadvantage is that the film selection for the day is Dreamgirls; clearly, someone in management wants to put the passengers to sleep.

**The pricing will not, in itself, pay for replacing current trucks. However, it will be influential in a decision, and have, therefore, a marginal, positive effect. And the differences will have to be managed.

Labels: congestion pricing, cycling, Trains Planes and Automobiles