Victory! Bikes Rule
Inspired by Streetfilms Bike Vs Car Vs Transit, the Car Free Days family took a challenge of their own: Bike Vs. Bus from our house in Ravenna to Westlake Park in downtown Seattle for a little holiday in the big city action.
The event:
A door-to-door speed test pitting Tim’s Xtracycle against Anne and 2 kids on foot to the bus stop, then on the bus to Westlake Park. Our departure times and routes were the same, but the outcome would be different Continue reading
Posted in bikes, extravehicular activities, seattle, streetsblog
Tagged Bike Vs Bus Challenge, bikes, bus, metro, Race, seattle
Seattle Skyline from jarnott at Flickr
It must be a lot of pressure to take the helm of one of the world’s smartest cities.
Car Free Days has high hopes that Mayor-Elect Mike McGinn will continue to listen to the citizens of Seattle while taking Seattle to the next level.
We have a feeling it’s going to be a little harder to connect with the citizens of Seattle as mayor than it was as candidate. As candidate he just had to listen. As mayor he has to listen, and then act in a way that pleases everyone. The pressure of trying to make everyone happy is enough to make a mayor wall themselves off behind grumpy power-broker staffers (Nichols) or crawl into a hole (Schell).
Still, being the optimists we are, we’re willing to look for positive signs that the new mayor will keep lines of communication open, such as his recent (and apparently ongoing) series of town hall forums. We’re also pretty stoked about the new Ideas for Seattle website. Continue reading
Posted in bigger than here, Human Powered Politics, news, seattle
Tagged change, Ideas for Seattle, Mike McGinn, politics, seattle
photo courtesy of Worldchanging
Worldchanging is hosting two events at Town Hall this Wednesday, November 11th and Thursday, November 12 featuring Seattle’s own –Alex Steffen, executive director and co-founder of Worldchanging, publisher of best selling tome on sustainability and internationally renowned speaker.
What’s not to like? Food and drinks provided by Skillet, promises of live music, introduction by mayor-elect, Mike-likes-bikes, McGinn and a free glass of beer from Fremont Brewing Co. We’ll be there on Thursday – come on down and join us!
Click the event link to get the scoop and buy tickets Continue reading
Posted in alternative transportation, bigger than here, bikes, Human Powered Politics, seattle
Tagged Alex Steffen, events, mayor, Mike McGinn, seattle, Town Hall, Val Kleitz, Worldchanging
We miss election day. Most of you probably voted weeks ago and we’re just getting around to opening our ballots. It’s not the same since Washington went to an all-mail system.
So it’s probably not to going to help most of you that we’re putting in a last minute endorsement in our otherwise a apolitical blog for Mayoral Candidate Mike “bikes” McGinn.
As you expect, our pro-bike support of the pro-bike candidate is pretty obvious. Joe Mallahan also makes it an easy choice for a family who takes their voting seriously. Even if Mallahan didn’t promise to run the city like a phone company, he’d still fall short with us for his personal voting track record.
The fact that he’s missed 13 (thirteen!) elections since 2001 means we won’t be sending any hanging chads in his direction (Susan Hutchison, by the way has fared poorly, missing eight in the same time period).
You may have different hot-buttons and may make other election choices; that’s OK with us at Car Free Days.. Just whatever you do, don’t be like Joe and Susan. Vote. Make your voice heard.
-Tim
Posted in bigger than here, Human Powered Politics, seattle
It was raining so hard when I got up Wed. morning I didn’t ride my bike to work.
Don’t worry, I still got there on the Xtracycle, but like most days, I found it made more sense to take my time getting underway.
My morning (many mornings, in truth) went something like this: I got up. It was raining. Had my Grapenuts and coffee with the kids. Raining. Helped them get ready. Raining. Said goodbye to the kids. Still raining. Shower? Yep, still raining.
Yet 10 minutes later I was on my way to work dressed in my normal (non-bike) clothes, rain gear safely stowed in the Xtracycle Freeloader. Rain-gear optional is a a pretty usual way for me to roll (and maybe the reason I can still justify owning my hideously ugly purple/pink/black, 18 (!) year-old REI Turismo jacket/pants
I’m not saying all this to sound like a total time-challenged-douche-bag-schedule-slouching-weather-rock-star or something—though if you got soaked yesterday you might think I sound like one of those. Nah, I just want to share my two simple tools (well, three if you count the merino wool and four if you count fenders, but everyone knows that one, right?) for staying dry this winter. Continue reading
Among many other things lately, Parking Day completely snuck up on us this year.
Originally created by Rebar, San Francisco art and design collective, PARK(ing) Day is an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens independently but simultaneously temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks.
We at carfreedays think subsidized on-street parking is a waste of public space. That makes it easy for us to get excited about PARK(ing) Day. Green space where a stinky car would have been waiting between trips? We’re all for it.
I had a few free hours yesterday, a lovely Seattle end-of-summer kind of day, so I took some time to ride around and check out some of the impromptu “parks” in South Lake Union and downtown Seattle. I enjoyed a mini-South Lake Union complete with picnic area, sailboat and kayak, tried my hand at a putting green, albeit badly, 
and enjoyed a delicious Michou sandwich at Pike Place Market (not a PARK(ing) day site but a prime location for car- freeness).
I intended to ride up to Capitol Hill where the bulk of Seattle’s “parks” were set up but I ran out of time.
What was your favorite PARK(ing) Day site?
How was PARK(ing) Day in your city?
more photos here
– Anne
Posted in bikes, Human Powered Politics, neighborhoods, seattle
Tagged open space, PARK(ing) Day, parks, seattle
In addition to the weather, Tim and I love to talk about bike parking, bike racks and anything related to parking and racks. If you ride a bike, you need to have a secure parking spot for it upon arrival at your destination.
SDOT wants to know where on-street bike parking is needed around the city. So go ahead and send them your suggestions! Email requests to bikeracks@seattle.gov.
I already commented, telling SDOT to expect some from me. But unless you only want them in front of cafes, bars and restaurants (when I ride a bike, I get hungry, thirsty and I need a place to park my bike!) you better submit your spots, too.
– Anne
Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, Rack that Bike, seattle
Tagged bike parking, bike racks, on-street bike parking, seattle
An Every Day Adventure at the Bicycle Music Festival
We just returned from a day of family Xtracycling. If you’d asked where we were going when we left the house, we probably would have mentioned something about the Bicycle Music Festival. Sure that’s where we were headed, but in reality we were out for a dose of every day cycling adventure.
In the course of an hour or so on the bikes we picked up the youngest from a play date, helped a friend install a basketball hoop, took some photos, stopped at the library, saw a ton of boats and houseboats, took some more photos, and picked up some excellent free stuff on the road near said houseboats (some BRAND NEW Ikea LED lights plus some high-quality nickel-plated light fixtures with sconces that will go nicely in our bathroom. SCORE!)!
And that was just on the way to the music festival. Continue reading
Faster, the Night is Catching Us
It feels like Summer is fading around here.
Quickly.
Maybe it’s the way it changed from tank-top weather to sweater weather in about two hours this afternoon. Or maybe it’s the way I’ve decided that lights are now a prudent addition to my evening commutes.
Whatever the reason, the Car Free Days family is feeling some serious pressure to do something, anything, fun in the last couple weeks of summer.
Luckily for us, the Seattle bike scene has stepped up to provide some pretty family friendly, bike on music action this weekend. Continue reading
photo courtesy of Cliff Mass Weather Blog
We’re wilting up here in the Northwest. After a week of warmer than usual weather, we broke the record today and surpassed 100F. It’s definitely too HOT for us!
Just last week I read about New Yorkers and Floridians who are unplugging their air conditioners to save energy and some cash. Meanwhile, we’ve had one week of hot weather in the Northwest and stores can’t keep air conditioners on the shelves. Continue reading
Posted in bikes, seattle, weather
Tagged heat, Northwest Weather, riding in the heat, seattle
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Anne & Tim
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Anne
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