Show up. Get herd. This Saturday.

The following just showed up in my inbox.  The topic is near and dear to your heart, and it's an opportunity to show up on a damn bike and shout Complete Streets.  Who's with me?  I'm planning to pack a picnic lunch.

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Congressman John B. Larson &
Congressman Bill Shuster, Chairman of the
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

Invite you to a Transportation & Infrastructure Forum

With a variety of landmark legislation facing the 113th Congress, it is crucial that Connecticut be kept at the forefront of the national discussion on transportation and infrastructure. Larson is hosting Chairman Shuster to discuss local, statewide and national issues including the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), the East Hartford-Hartford levee systems, aviation, mass transit and other Connecticut transportation and infrastructure issues.

Who?

• Congressman John B. Larson
• Congressman Bill Shuster, Chair of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee
• Congresswoman Elizabeth H. Esty, member, Transportation & Infrastructure Committee
• Congressman Joe Courtney
• James P. Redeker, Commissioner of CT Transportation 
• Representatives from the transportation and construction industries
• Members of the Connecticut Congressional Delegation

Where & When?
Riverfront Boathouse, 20 Leibert Road, Hartford, CT 06120
Saturday, June 8th, 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

RSVP HERE OR CALL 860-278-8888

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This will be a well spent Saturday morning, and I've been looking for a reason to pack a picnic lunch.  The monsoon rains will have passed and we can bask a bit in the sun after making a statement (with a rack full of bikes) and making some noise (by asking intelligent forum questions that shape the conversation).

See y'all there. Read more!

Comrades. It is time to act.

Bill SB 103 now in Transportation Committee: AN ACT REQUIRING BICYCLISTS TO RIDE SINGLE FILE ON A PUBLIC ROAD. We need a united action to prevent this bill from progressing to the next step. Ask senator Witkos (nicely) to retract the bill before the Friday deadline by calling 1-800-842-1421 and his legislative aid, Patty Askham at 860-240-0436.  You can also contact state senator Witkos electronically here. 

Senator Witkos introduced the bill and represents the eigth district, which includes Avon, Barkhamsted, Canton, Colebrook, Granby, Hartland, Harwinton, New Hartford, Norfolk, Simsbury, and Torrington.  Simsbury, oddly, was Connecticut's first Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community.

Reason why - The current statute already addresses the issue. The current law states "Persons riding two abreast, as provided in this subsection, shall not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, and, on a laned roadway, shall ride within a single lane." I agree with Sen. Wilkos that is is a problem if somebody is trying to pass side-by-side riders and also give 3 feet. But the current law already addresses this -if we are not going the speed limit, then we are impeding traffic if riding 2 abreast (with the exception of some unusual circumstances), so we should courteously move to single file to allow the faster vehicle to pass. They don't need a new bill, that causes unnecessary restrictions for responsible cyclists. They could address the sponsor's issue by enforcing the current statute.

Let's get this squashed!  Spread the word to your cycling friends.  Tweet.  Facebook.  Smoke signals.

Read more!

cars kill more people than guns

The automobile, a tool invented to safely transport people with all its crumple zones, airbags, seat belts, safety glass, computers and various safety systems; kills more people every year in the United States than the gun; a tool invented to kill.

Huh? WTF? Yep.....the automobile is more deadly than the gun. Wake up! Scary huh?

It is true. Over the last few decades, roughly speaking.....

every year fire arm deaths are in the 30,000's and motor vehicle deaths in the 40,000's, check it....

year........fire arm deaths.......motor vehicle deaths

1999...........28,874......................41,717
2000..........28,663.....................41,945
2004..........29,569.....................42,836
2007..........31,224......................41,059

You might be saying this can't be true. I got my facts from Wikipedia and the CDC. I first read this in BikeSnobNYC's book (a great, great great read by the way!)

Automobile Deaths in the United States


This is a screen shot from the CDC website. There is no way to link the actual page due to the way the information is collected, but if you click here you can access all kinds of statistics.

Soooo. How is this possible? Its a symptom of how the whole paradigm is whacked! The police and politricks are full of "safety first" and "protecting people" with their rhetoric, while the real problem goes unchecked. There is a rarely enforced 3-foot passing rule in this state as well many others. There is no patience. There is no true regard for life and health. Where are the police? Where are the elected officials "concerned" for our safety?

Anyone can get a freakin' driver's license and go out and terrorize and maim and kill. Hmmm...lets get all crazy and Patriot Act about this. Lets compare to how many Americans die yearly from terrorist acts versus from automobiles. Think about it.

No, really, think about how whack the system really is. Safety is a mostly a bullshit buzzword. The reality is laws, attitudes and behavior put many, many things above safety. How many drivers swerve or drive or park in the "bikelane"? How much do politicians speak about gun-control and gun danger and guns and the young? How often do they speak of driving safer? Driving with more respect? It makes NO SENSE. None.

Ride safe. Remember that beeping revving car has absolutely no more right to the road than you. The fact that a car is more deadly, heavier, faster or more powerful than a bicycle does NOT give it more rights. The fact it costs more than your bike or may be in a hurry does not give it the right to bully you off the road. Call the police. Report bullying. Report unsafe driving. You have the right to be safe and pedal in peace. Ride Safe. Ride Smart. Read more!

Pubic Herd

The MDC's public hearing on the future of recreation on their (our) lands was last night. Unsurprisingly, everyone who spoke was in favor of keeping the trails open. It's clearly a hot button political that has attracted numerous Democratic candidates (and people who are already elected): Blumenthal, Glassman, Slifka, Rep. Baram (D-15), Rep. Fleischmann (D-18), Syd Schulman, and Malloy, Wyman and Cotto in absentia. There are obvious a lot of voters in the West Hartford and reservoir-abutting towns. They talked about the imperativeness of keeping public lands open to the public and the necessity of amending the statement's municipal recreation liability statute. The public, myself included, talked about the same thing. I also delivered Hartford's keep-the-trails-open resolution to the commissioners (which I think is a pretty kick ass resolution).

A few people assailed trial lawyers, though not as much as one would have thought. That surprised me, because I figured there would be Republican candidates there to take that position. I mean, Linda McMahon's office is right in West Hartford, mere yards away. I guess she doesn't either hates public land, the woods, mountain bikers or all three. There was one sort of crazy, Republican throw-the-bums-out member of the public, who spoke after me. For reasons I don't understand, he singled me out as a lawyer who was to blame that the CGS hadn't been amended after Conway v. Wilson. Since, I'm not a lawyer and didn't represent myself as such and also didn't talk about that case at all, I'll assume that he's just out of his mind.

While I was waiting to speak, I emailed my state rep, Hector Robles, and asked him to cosponsor Rep. Baram's proposed bill (though, yet to be written). He consented, which was nice.

So, I guess mountain biking and democracy go well together. I'm cautiously optimistic about all this now.

Read more!

Pubic Hearing

Lots of emails have been flying around email distribution lists that involve trails and land lately, so you've probably already heard about it like eighteen times, but... The MDC public hearing on the future of recreation on our rate-tax-payer-funded land is tonight at 5:30pm at the West Hartford town hall. Come, sign-up, speak and hopefully the commissioners will listen to us and maintain status quo.

I rode at the Reservoir this evening, it'd be a shame if they closed it.

In other news, I got a new phone/camera, so I can take pictures again.

Read more!

Summers and Governors

First day of summer! Yay! In its honor, we should go mountain biking. So, meet me at the Reservoir in the rt. 4 parking lot around 5:30. It's the longest day of the year, so we can ride late. I'm assuming that no one is going to read this and show up.

Also, I got an interesting email from Mary Glassman's campaign outlining the campaign's bike policy. I like Mary Glassman a lot, so I would expect nothing less than her being the only candidate proffering a bike policy. (Admitedly, I haven't been super impressed with her running mate's campaign so far and I worked for that guy in 2006). Here's a link to the policy.

Read more!

First Fairy Ride of the Year: Ride to PRIDE

My Jenny would have been the perfect conversation starter if that's what I was looking for at this year's PRIDE. She got a lot of lustful looks, nearly straddled by an exuberant broadcast media icon of the queer world, and photographed by one of those "Page Six" type publications. Since Jenny's owner is as much of an attention whore as she is, this was welcome, harmless fun.

It was also another chance to feel smug. There were not many other people who bothered to walk or bike to the park. Not having to deal with finding parking when thousands of people are downtown? Awesome.







This guy was riding with a kid on his lap. I didn't want to get him in trouble by taking a picture of his face. People can overreact.

My basket makes hauling freebies so easy. Notice the fancy condoms that were given away. Why be limited to a mere handful of free condoms when there is a whole basket that can be filled with them?


Read more!

Calling you back to action

If you read the Courant, check out Rick Green's column today. It takes a much dimmer view than the positive rumors I've been hearing lately about trail closure at the Reservoir. It also makes mention to public hearings, to which we all must go.

If you live in a member town, you have commissioners who are appointed by your city council. There are also commissioners who are appointed by the legislature and the government. While not elected, these commissioners are supposed to be accountable to us, so we need to let them know what we think. Here's a list of the commissioners. In checking the agendas, I don't see anything yet about any ordinance changes pertaining to mountain biking.

Maybe we should be like Salem and make plans to move to a libertarian state like New Hampshire.

Read more!

Post-lawsuit Reservoir

I went on the CTNEMBA RAW @ MDC WH Res, or the Connecticut Chapter of the New England Mountain Bike Association's Ride After Work at the Metropolitan District Commission's West Hartford Reservoir. Living in the post-lawsuit mountain biking landscape, I was worried that I'd get there and have my bicycle confiscated. So, I rode my mean looking 29er. I met up with Don (from whom I bought my Kona, coincidentally) and Gary. Well, actually, they'd already left, so I rode to hopefully catch up. Not surprisingly, there were a lot of people riding in groups, so I kept asking each group I saw if they were the NEMBA group ride. Eventually, I caught them.

Nice slow pace and I was shown some cool new trails. Who knew that I'd keep finding new trails at the Reservoir. Also, lots of speculating about which gate was involved in the lawsuit.

Anyway, for the past few weeks there have been these strangely placed and confusing "trail closed" saw horses and they're still there. I don't know if they're related to the lawsuit, because they've been there since before the verdict was announced. Some are there because it looks like they're working on drainage stuff, but others don't make any sense.

After the ride, Johanna and I headed back into the woods for a five mile run. I slept well last night.

Not really any new updates on our beloved Reservoir. Hopefully status quo prevails. Read more!

Call to action!

If you live in the Hartford area, ride a mountain bike and read the paper, you've probably been following the story about the $2.9 million awarded to Maribeth Blonski of Rocky Hill. Ms. Blonski crashed her bike into a gate at the reservoir, broke four vertebrae in her neck and sued the MDC.

Mountain biking is an inherently dangerous activity. I've hurt myself mountain biking at the Reservoir, because sometimes I'm not very good at staying upright over rocks, but I wouldn't sue over that. Conversely, I feel that if someone is willfully negligent and creates an unsafe environment, a lawsuit is warranted. So, I'm sort of torn here, because a gate is a man-made (so, a created dangerous environment), but hitting a gate indicates a lack of control over one's bicycle. I'm going to stop there, but I don't know any more details in the case. I'm sorry Ms. Blonski got hurt.

However, as I freaked out yesterday, so did Rick Green. As someone who pays for MDC water, I want mountain biking kept legal at the Reservoir. I hope you do too. Please, contact the MDC and let them know your thoughts by email, stanguay@themdc.com, or by phone, 860 278 7850. Rick says there's a meeting of the personnel, pension and insurance committee tonight. These meetings are public, as far as I know, and are at 555 Main St. in Hartford.

CT-NEMBA chimes in, too.

Read more!

Tax dollars at work

Obviously, we here at the beat bike blog are far too skilled and extreme to ever ride on rail trails. We're not so skilled and extreme that we don't pay income tax, however. In some news that makes me glad, it appears that some Federal DOT stimulus money is going to central Connecticut rail trail improvement and expansion. Here's the article in today's Courant.


ps. We actually do use rail trails and bike paths. I'm kidding!
pps. Photo credit goes to our friend Heather Brandon at urbancompass.net. I hope she doesn't get mad that I stole her picture.
ppps. Johanna and I went to DC this weekend. No scuba diving in the Potomac:

Read more!

The John Boehner Tonic

I wonder if he rides the "Portland" so he can always be representing his district.


After Sunday's ire-inducing Face the Nation interview with John Boehner and the ire still smoldering with Will's post yesterday, I thought it'd be nice to post a link to an article in today's Times about Earl Blumenauer. It's repleat with such feel good quotes as this one from former Republican Rep. Sherwood Boehlert: "Bicycling unites people regardless of party affiliation". It's nice to think that Rep. Blumenauer is in the majority at this point while we're at the brink of a giant pork-barrel spending bill.

ed. note: Why do all these bike proponents and opponents have e's place in funny spots all over their last names?
2nd ed. note: I'm sure we're all also sad that Rep. Blumenauer didn't become Secretary of Transportation.

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Also, how come bike tires wear out after 3,000-5,000 miles while car tires go for 30,000-50,000? Bike tires are not 1/10 the price of car tires. This seems unfair.
Read more!

Horsey Horse

Horses are weird.

I try not to let my job and this blog overlap very much, but sometimes, I think this place is a good sounding board. Beat Bike Bloggers and their affiliates often find themselves in Keney Park. So, this is probably of interest.

There has been discussion for a long time (since the mid 1990s) about the development of an equestrian center in the northern part of Keney, specifically near the Barbour street entrance, a wooded area. It would be around two hundred acres (slightly less than one third of the park). I'm not going to express my opinion here, but I'd like to know what others think of this plan. What is the role of a 19th century, woodsy, and at times underutilized park at the beginning of the 21st century? Are the present Greater Hartford equestrian centers inadequate? Should parks be retrofitted as economic development drivers?

There's a meeting tonight of the Public Works, Parks, and Environment committee at 5:30 in the Council Chambers at City Hall to discuss this. The plans and more information will be available there. Maybe you should stop by. Read more!

Spoooooky goings on in the Beat!

Alright...so we messed up in joining the Hooker Day Parade on Sunday. We had a plan, we had a theme idea. I was in Vegas, Joel found himself in Wethersfield, El Prez in New Haven, Karma was most likely working, Chillwill is in Cali, Ken was confused, and I think I heard that Brendan was ready to go. Oops. Well, it sounds like the parade was a lot of fun, and it got people in Hartford excited, so that's always a good thing.

But what's on tap now that fall has fallen, you ask? Good question! Here's some things for your calendars for the next 1.5 weeks:


Friday, Oct. 31st.

Bike to Work??
Old State House, 7am - 9am
last Friday of the month
Hmmmm...this event appears on the BBB calendar over there on the right. It does not appear on the CCBA Bike Everywhere calendar. There it says that they ended in September. I know last year, they had "Icebike to work" things for the colder months. I'll look into this in the next day and report on the status, and I'm sure future scheduling will occur after the next Bike Everywhere meeting in a couple of weeks.

Critical Mass, Halloween Edition!!!
Meet at 5:30pm, Bushnell Park Carousel.
It’s the last Friday of the month! Celebrate with riders around the world for this global, grassroots celebration. Join a hundred of your newest friends on a ride around the city at a chill pace for about an hour and a half. Check old posts to see past rides. The summer’s rides were wonderful, and now we can REALLY freak out!!! It's October 31st! All Hallows' Eve! Helloween! The last ride in Daylight Savings Time! Dress up yer bike! Dress up yerself! Bring some candy! Get some candy! By the time we push off, it'll be dusk, the leaves will be flying, and it'll be extra spoooky! Seriously, feel free to ride in costume. Creativity encouraged. Anything can happen!
http://critical-mass.info/


Tuesday, Nov. 4th.

Progressive Happy Hour (PHH), Election Night Edition.
Kenny's (Red Rock), whenever to whenever.
Holy Shit. HOLY SHIT!!! Really??! The election?! We've only been exposed to this election cycle since about 1971. That's what it feels like. You know...Canadians held a national election in October. Guess how long that took from the time they announced it to the time it was over. No seriously, guess. 30 days. By law. Anyway...hell, here it is in the US of A. Obama. McCain. Nader. Barr. And the rest, with Palin & Biden popping in to provide comic relief. Polls in CT close at 7 pm, so I'm thinking of getting there early to start drinking the pain away while we watch the pundits on the teevee make big asses of themselves. I'll probably be making up the drinking game as the night goes on and others are welcome to join in. Early rules I've thought of are 1) sports metaphors, 2) calling a state before 20% of precincts have reported, 3) unnecessary and excessive use of expensive touch-screen zoomy maps, and 4) any appearance of a dry-erase whiteboard. I'm also going to bring presidential games and activities. Points to those who show up with trivia about our lesser-known presidents like Millard Filmore. Anyway...show up. And for cripes sake: VOTE. Or exercise your right not to vote. Freedom, baby.

Wednesday, Nov. 5th

BBB English/Irish Pub Bike-Crawl
7 pm - 11 pm
After the success of Beat Biketoberfest, it was suggested that we try some sort of irregularly scheduled bike-based pub crawls around the Beat. Well, my first thought was to try to do them on some sort of occasion. November 5th is known in the British empire as "Guy Fawkes Night" (aka "Bonfire Night") in commemoration of some catholic extremist dude with an unfortunate name who tried to blow up Parliament with gunpowder on that date in 1605, but was a complete douche and failed miserably. So the Brits, with no 4th of July celebration because they lost that whole silly affair in the colonies, put this as their holiday to blow shit up. Well, we aren't going to blow shit up, so I'm leading a tour of popular English/Irish drinking establishments in the area to mark the date. I think the order will probably go: Vaughan's, McKinnon's, Half Door, & ending at the Corner Pug, unless someone can come up with another viable stop. Yeah, yeah...it's a school night, so it won't be a big blow out all-night affair, but a classy traipsing affair as our first public pub bike-crawl. We'll start at 7 pm at Vaughan's on Pratt Street in downtown Hartford. All are welcome. "Remember, remember the 5th of November!"
(someone want to add this to the blog calendar, please?)

Saturday, Nov. 8th

THE EEL
Charter Oak Landing, 3 pm
A gentleman's race along the river that is both on the road and off. This is so going to rock. Any further updates and promotion will be provided by Brendan.

Read more!

Shared Parking/Bike Lanes

I would totally ride this drunk.

A co-worker and fellow cyclist, Jennifer, brought something to my attention today. She is an Asylum Hill resident and frequent user of Asylum Ave. As some of you may know, Asylum Ave has grown some new lines. Instead of being a four lane road with overheard arrows and x's to cause motorists to get confused on crash, they've made it a two lane road with a center turn lane to confuse motorists and make them crash. They're also added shared bike/parking/death lanes on the side. Some drivers (whom I'm pretty sure are all from West Hartford) have been outraged and the City is considering scrapping the new lanes going back to how it was. Jennifer thought I might be interested in fighting that decision because the street now includes a bike lane.

It's an interesting situation for the small segment of the population that thinks about this. We all (well, a number of us) don't like these shared lanes. They're far from the ideal and create a number of problems. So, the question is: "Would we rather have no bike lanes or bad bike lanes?" Personally, I vote no bike lanes over bad bike lanes. But what do others think?

As an aside, I also like that Asylum Ave has become the most dangerous road around. There was the guy inexplicably tried to run me off the road last month and then the nine car pile up the next week. It finally lives up to its name as a crazy road for crazy people.

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Also, remember that we're cleaning the river this weekend. A guy emailed me and he's bringing a canoe. I love canoes! Oct 4 11am - 2pm (or 10am if you're super gung ho) @ the confluence of the Park and Connecticut Rivers. Wear pants!

Read more!

Encouranging things

I stole this from BikeBlog. It's an article about Barack Obama talking to Bikes Belong about committing to funding cycling and pedestrian initiatives when he's elected president. I think it's good that we keep this blog most a-political, but when a politician/candidate does some bike-friendly, there's no reason not to write about it. I tried finding something about John McCain with a bike, but the best I could do was this and this.

I guess it's Mayor Daley who generally gets to take credit for all the bike lanes and that sort of stuff in Chicago, but Obama is a Senator for that state (and from that City).

In semi-related news, Vernon isn't all bad.

Anybody take a good ride this weekend? Read more!