0 comment Tuesday, April 29, 2014 | admin
For those living at altitude, it is bike to work week everywhere else, and tomorrow is Bike to Work Day. The reasons for this scheduling conflict are summed up by several posts from a year ago marveling at the volume of snowfall still common in early May.
For the rest of the country, however, spring is in full, and nothing makes a cyclist more excited to embrace the coming months on two wheels as a Chrome bag full off free stuff. Though I don't own a Chrome bag, my week has already kicked off to a good start. The Swiss people, in their kindness, hosted an event for cyclists at their embassy last night. They had great gifts for those in attendance, pant-leg retention devices which we used to call "Slap Bracelets" in the early 90s, and better still, an 8 ounce 85% cocoa Lindt Excellence choco-bar! We were informed by one of the panelists that the Swiss consume 25 lbs of chocolate per capita. I find this highly unlikely since the Swiss use the metric system, but I could believe 12 kilos, which is a damn lot of chocolate.
The highlight was Earl Blumenauer stopping by, telling anecdotes, and once again calling for a bike lane on Pennsylvania Ave. That would be some precedent.
Tomorrow is the big day, and I'll be at Freedom Plaza bright and early for setup at 7:00 AM. Last year, Brendan and I caused a controversy by calling BTWD "amateur day" or something. It's still a day for learning the ropes, but I will concede that I can be a snob about the process. I'm staying off the bike paths, mainly because I don't take any of them anyway, but also to provide a smidge more space for those just joining the bike commuting world.
Lastly, it seems like DDOT has been busy laying paint, and now we have a full bike lane from 18th up to 16th through Adams Morgan. I still don't know why there are huge gaps in the "network", I mean, when they paint new lanes, they must think about this, but maybe the political courage isn't there to take space from cars or parking in key spots. I'll just settle with a mild "meh" on the new stuff, and hope it all gets connected within the next year or two.
For the rest of the country, however, spring is in full, and nothing makes a cyclist more excited to embrace the coming months on two wheels as a Chrome bag full off free stuff. Though I don't own a Chrome bag, my week has already kicked off to a good start. The Swiss people, in their kindness, hosted an event for cyclists at their embassy last night. They had great gifts for those in attendance, pant-leg retention devices which we used to call "Slap Bracelets" in the early 90s, and better still, an 8 ounce 85% cocoa Lindt Excellence choco-bar! We were informed by one of the panelists that the Swiss consume 25 lbs of chocolate per capita. I find this highly unlikely since the Swiss use the metric system, but I could believe 12 kilos, which is a damn lot of chocolate.
The highlight was Earl Blumenauer stopping by, telling anecdotes, and once again calling for a bike lane on Pennsylvania Ave. That would be some precedent.
Tomorrow is the big day, and I'll be at Freedom Plaza bright and early for setup at 7:00 AM. Last year, Brendan and I caused a controversy by calling BTWD "amateur day" or something. It's still a day for learning the ropes, but I will concede that I can be a snob about the process. I'm staying off the bike paths, mainly because I don't take any of them anyway, but also to provide a smidge more space for those just joining the bike commuting world.
Lastly, it seems like DDOT has been busy laying paint, and now we have a full bike lane from 18th up to 16th through Adams Morgan. I still don't know why there are huge gaps in the "network", I mean, when they paint new lanes, they must think about this, but maybe the political courage isn't there to take space from cars or parking in key spots. I'll just settle with a mild "meh" on the new stuff, and hope it all gets connected within the next year or two.