I don’t do roundup posts too often anymore. They’re hard.
But in the last week, we’ve had a spate of exposure outside of Commute by Bike.
Tom Bowden has a Dream
In Tom Bowden‘s guest opinion in Richmond BizSense, he dreams of the ultimate cycling paradise city. A city that would make Portland, Boulder, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam jealous.
In my Biketopia, you would ride to work down wide, straight, two-lane, one-way streets through neighborhoods of quaint turn-of-the-century homes, shielded by a canopy of trees. Or you could ride to work on trails or quiet roads along a beautiful scenic river. Not bad, eh?
What if your morning commute took you through the campuses of two major universities? What if one university's nationally ranked sculpture department viewed bicycles as a form of art and created a bike frame workshop, fully equipped and stocked with esoteric tools and materials? You might even expect such a city to be the natural location for national exhibitions of handcrafted bicycles as the epitome of functional art.
No, he’s not dreaming of Galt’s Gulch. In fact, he’s not dreaming.
Denied Entry to Nature Reserve without a Car
Remember Keith Earickson? He wrote a review of the Lazer Krux helmet for us, and then promptly disappeared from site.
He’s been bike touring around the country, including his home state of Oklahoma.
Keith didn’t really get exposure, as in media exposure. In fact, he was saved from exposure to wild dangerous animals by a concerned ticket-booth operator. Yet he seems ungrateful.
He was denied entry to a nature reserve because his vehicle “did not have an internal combustion engine.”
The nature reserve is Woolaroc, the legacy of oil industrialist Frank Phillips, founder of Phillips Petroleum.
The parental advisory on Keith’s site is well-heeded. You’d have to put half a beer in me before I’d start throwing F-bombs the way he does. I’ve edited the following quote, because, you know, this is a family blog.
So I ride 14.5 miles out to this [nice] museum, it’s hilly, it’s hot, and when I get there the [nice lady] at the [nice] gate surprises me with this news, “I don’t know if they’re gonna let you in on a bike.”
[..]
She manages to call for clarification and yep, I don’t get to go inside because the buffalo have babies or some [explanation] like that. She even rubs it in my face that motorcycles are okay but bicycles are a no-go because of baby buffaloes.
I called Woolaroc to check out Keith’s story. And indeed, it is true: No bikes. There is a two-mile stretch between the main entrance to the property and the main grounds where travelers are exposed to buffalo and deer. They want visitors in cars, or on a motorcycle, presumably because a motorcycle can outrun a buffalo stampede.
Still, Keith’s account is very funny. I’ll do what I can to get him to write for Commute by Bike again.
Commute by Bike and She Rides a Bike:
Two of the ‘Top 50 Most Influential Cycling Bloggers: Celebrating the "˜Cycle Chic' Movement’
Extanz.com has published a list of the “Top 50 Most Influential Cycling Bloggers: Celebrating the "˜Cycle Chic' Movement” and Commute by Bike made the list at number 23.
This is a case of credit where no credit is due.
Seriously. I am not worthy. The person behind that list has never seen how I dress.
That’s me on right with last year’s tie clip. How embarrassing. You’ve got to question the credibility of the rest of the list.
But I alone am not Commute by Bike. Credit goes to our predecessors, including Arleigh Jenkins (a.k.a Bike Shop Girl) who covered cycling fashion without sarcasm before I became the editor here.
Nowadays, our token fashionista is Karen Voyer-Caravona, and it’s probably thanks to her that we retain any fashion credibility. Her blog, She Rides a Bike also made the list–and deservedly so.
Thanks, and congratulations, Karen.
Josh and Ted Interviewed on cdmCyclist
Frank Peters of The Frank Peters Show and Corona Del Mar Today, interviewed Josh Lipton and me on cdmCyclist recently, and the interview went live today.
Frank gives me partial credit for the removal of the anti-bike sign in Corona del Mar. Possibly another case of credit where no credit is due. I guess I put a fire under Frank by asking, “How does your town say ‘No Bicycles?’”
We also go into a discussion of recent problem with American Express, which doesn’t seem to differentiate between a successful small businesses working for a sustainable economy and any other type of small business.
So their business is growing and they're capturing lots of mind-share in the blogosphere, but then an accounting error occurs and American Express yanks their line of credit on short notice. One strike and you're out! They're in a cash crunch.
You can listen to the entire interview here: