Walk.Bike.Schools! is a blog, meeting (7pm Thursday @ Bryant Elementary library) and (hopefully) a movement to support and encourage parents and kids walking and biking to school.
Our mission (though calling it such seems a little grand right now) is to build a network of parents, neighbors, members of school communities, and yes, students, who can share ideas and energy around the goal of encouraging more kids and families to bike to school—at least some of the time.
Our loose group of ~6-8 parents has been reasonably successful—Bryant won SDOT’s Golden Shoe award for the largest number of students regularly arriving on foot or bike last year. But we know things could be so much better if we could tap into the collective intelligence of other bike and walk programs in our city and learn what as worked (and not worked) elsewhere. Continue reading →
(edit:I’ve been told that a shared definition of a Neighborhood Greenway would be helpful for some readers. We’re working toward our “ideal vision” but in the meantime check out the “What is a neighborhood Greenway” section in this post by Sally Bagshaw for the basics. -Tim)
The Carfreedays family is jumping into the hotbed of Seattle Greenways grass-roots activism and joining up with our neighbors in NE Seattle on the NE Greenways project!
Greenways fit with the kind of riding we do (parent and kid-powered transportation), and c0uld really be the key resource for making it safer and easier for kids all over this city to skip the minivan and ride bikes or walk to school!
We don’t claim to be Greenways experts but we have some strong feelings, nonetheless. We’ve been riding around Seattle for longer than we’d like to admit. We know this city pretty well. We know the terrain and the people and the baggage that comes with both. And we’ve been avidly riding the streets of PDX on visits for the past five years or so. We aren’t Stumptown natives by any stretch, but we have more than a passing familiarity of what it feels like to ride the Green Streets of our fair neighbor. Continue reading →
Daily Bike surfaced this beauty with the title “Most Awesome Wheelie ever.” While I won’t disagree with that assessment, I can’t help but notice the photo is chock-a-block full of awesomeness (like most-awesome everyday-cycling role model, most-active grandma, best Parisian folding-bike wheelie, and best Parisian cargo-bike wheelie, for starters).
What, you haven’t been to an afterparty since before you had the kids?
Lucky for you, our buddy Ryan, AKA Go Means Go, is throwing down his a 3rd-annual Pedal Party, an essential post-Expo opportunity to shed your Cascade-mandated yellow jacket, helmet and clicky shoes to slip into some sexy partywear (or at least some clean skinny jeans with a rolled up right leg) and SHAKE IT. Continue reading →
Maybe some of you parents can relate. One day your kid is on training wheels or a balance bike, the next they decide they can ride no hands.
It starts out simple enough–one hand up for a split second (see “the beginner in the video). Then two (for a split, split second). They start stretching it out. Longer and longer. The wobbles get bigger, and more dangerous because they aren’t going too fast to start out with and usually stop pedaling as soon as the hands come off. But still they wait even longer before returning to the safety of hands on. Eventually, they’ll realize speed is a good thing. It stabilizes the bike. But until they do … yikes.
The boy right now is in the early stretching-out stage. And it scares the crap out of me. Continue reading →
We got the sad news tonight that Val Kleitz (ie, Bike Pilot, the Instigator, Rolling Jackass, Dreadnought, former owner of Bike Smith, and all around amazing spirit), died Wednesday at age 51.
Val had been fighting cancer for about two years.
If you knew Val, even a little, then you know what kind of loss this is. And if you don’t know Val, here’s a little story.
My earliest memories of Val are tied to fast road bikes and hot pink Lycra spandex, circa 1990.
As Anne mentioned recently, we’ve been loving the Bromptons and the role they’ve helped play in letting us live car-light. Beyond the expanded Zipcar range, or the fact that a gorilla-sized dad and his 9-year-old daughter can ride the same bike, we’re in love with how easy they mix with transit. This is especially clear when bussing across the bike-hating 520 bridge (which normally requires us to ride a special—non Xtracycle—bike, and then hope that the bus bike racks are clear).
Altogether the Broms allow for some nifty, who-the-hell-needs-a-car-at least-when-it-isn’t-raining-three-inches-a-day options.
But if we lived in a real city, with real density and real transit solutions, well, the mind boggles at the imagined practicality of our little yellow folders.
Well, thanks to this fine video from the 2010 edition of theToward Carfree Cities Conference, in which the Little Green Brompton OWNS a freakishly hilly, dense-city commute in Genova (Genoa), Italy— I’m boggled no more.
(hat-tip to video creator Massimiliano Amirfeiz from the Brompton Talk list)
After watching this commute (for the 3rd time or so) I’m also struck by how little* Seattle has done to flatten our fair city for the non-driving folks. How about a Trampe up Queen Anne and Capitol hills, for example?
These motorized bike-lifts can flatten out the steepest sections of a city. Check out the video, but save yourself by muting the sound. If I was slapping them down around town, I’d also like another placed to ferry riders over Phinney Ridge.
I’m sure you’ve got some locations to nominate—0bviously West Seattle, downtown, and Beacon Hill seem like naturals—so let’s hear ‘em.
Of course I know this idea is fantasy. A mere mention of the option in San Francisco brought out the haters, who failed to see that this was an option to get non cyclists out of their cars and onto bikes, not a way to pamper already-riding hipsters who don’t want to “walk up the damn hill.”
I can’t imagine the spew and outcry such a plan would generate around here.
Sigh… at least the Brompton video was cool
-Tim
* Don’t get me started on the SDOT propensity to route bike lanes up and down hills when they don’t have to. Instead of forcing riders to sweat their way up the Dexter hill for a Fremont-to-Downtown bike route, why don’t we just bite the bullet and build better infrastructure a mostly flat and under-traveled Westlake Ave?
Hills like Dexter may be fine for the neon-clad Cascade fitness riders, but casual commuters— you know, the people who don’t call themselves cyclists, but still need to start riding if we want cycling to move out of the transportation fringe—are never going to do it.
The problem with having a single-topic blog (family biking in case you’ve forgotten … it has been a while), is that sometimes we run out of things worth saying out loud. Do any of you really need to hear about our heaviest Trader Joe’s run ever? Or that we finally sold our car? Or that we still love our Xtracycles (a lot)?
I don’t know about you, but for me it gets kinda old and preachy.
So we give it a rest.
But as the gap between posts grows, we start second guessing every potential idea (“it’s been a two weeks since we blogged. It’s gotta be something good” and “it’s been a month and a half since we blogged, better be AWESOME”). The larger the gap, the tougher to break the cycle.
Luckily, busting out of our slump this time is a no-brainer. Check out some amazing kids from Kenya and the fun & inspiring hip-hop bicycle music video they created video for the 1 Minute to Save the World video contest (yes, they won)!
I got Mark Ronson’s “Record Collection” a while back. Since then, this song pops into my head nearly every ride. But I kept forgetting to look for a video (I think I actually may have been a tad frightened of what I might find; at least after viewing the “Champagne Bike Party” video Ryan hosted on Go Means Go!).
But thanks to a timely Facebook update from my library school pal Abby (whose taste I trust implicitly), I’ve now got visuals— including some ’80s Brompton-based, retro-’80s Night Rider-style special effects, bicycles coming to life to stop a bike thief, and a parade of UK hipsters reveling in the joy of bikes—to go with a great song.
Beyond the cool factor of just being a good song about bikes, the The Bike Songs spins a really positive advocacy message, too. I especially appreciate this gem for every teenage boy who feels pressured into ditching his bike so he can get girls:
“I can’t understand it, but i can’t really stand them
Girls love cars, but cars cause harm to the planet
Don’t you wanna take a joyride on my tandem
Humming on a huffy, don’t i look so handsome
Bass to bikes they’re so nice they’re priceless”
That’s right, young man. Keep the faith. The ladies worth having are going to find your bike sexy!
-Tim
PS – Portland bike advocate/planner wunderkind Mia Birk at REI tonight. Maybe she’ll share a little Portland-style bicycle secret sauce? I’d be happy with some tips to help us take our local car v. bike rhetoric down a notch or two.
I’ll be heading down there w/ Julian from Totcycle. We’ll either be the dudes on the really big (Madsen/Xtracycle) or really small (Brompton) bikes. I bet Mia likes “the Bike Song!”
This insightful content is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License
Car Free Days is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, expressed or implied. Riding your bike is serious stuff. Riding with kids even more so (but always better than riding in a car). Obtain proper training, use a helmet, ride smart, have fun, wear clean underpants when appropriate (but not under cycling shorts!), laugh a lot, and whenever possible, stay out of cars.
@kentsbike @annesavvy Those or Blundstone-type boots are our normal choice. But the 12 y/o is looking for a little *more* than Keen style. 5 days ago
@annesavvy You mean besides Blundstones & Redbacks? Maybe some slingback pumps if you plan on dancing in LA, tho Keen sandals more practical 5 days ago
Salt Limit Report = Further evidence that US Medical-Industrial Complex has no clue about how we should be eating buff.ly/10BmcNO5 days ago
Yesterday MS trumpeted "GoogleTalk coming to Outlook,com!" Only to have Google kill GTalk (& open XMPP) w/new Hangouts product today. Oopsie 5 days ago
Looking to learn more about stoves for bike touring? Nice overview of options (DIY & purchase) at Bike Overnights buff.ly/12chUyC6 days ago
Our loose group of ~6-8 parents has been reasonably successful—Bryant won SDOT’s Golden Shoe award for the largest number of students regularly arriving on foot or bike last year. But we know things could be so much better if we could tap into the collective intelligence of other bike and walk programs in our city and learn what as worked (and not worked) elsewhere. Continue reading 
