Well, after over 20 years of spending hours a day at a computer keyboard (albeit a more ergonomic one), it’s all finally caught up to me. This week, out of nowhere. Typing, or doing most anything, has become painful and I need to give my arms a rest for a bit. How long? I have […]
Unplanned time off
Looking back at the year in bikes
Posted onIn January, 2011, I made some predictions about what was in store for the year ahead in bikes. Now that those 12 months have gone by, I thought it would be interesting to look back and see what actually came to pass. Bike sharing I predicted that 2011 would be the year that “bike sharing […]
Dinner and Bikes tour: Charming videos a...
Posted onI’ve been continuing to book dates for the Dinner and Bikes tour this spring, and getting increasingly stoked about the places we’ll be visiting. A couple of weeks ago I posted about a few expected highlights. Since then, I’ve kept finding more reasons to be excited about the various cities we’re stopping in. Kevin Buchanan […]
Photos of freeways
Posted onBeing a (mostly) carfree person in (relatively) freeway-lite inner southeast Portland, my encounters with freeways are limited. Whenever I do spend time on or near them it’s an occasion, like visiting the ocean, and I try to take photos. Here are a few of the freeways I’ve met in the last few years: On a […]
Ways to read Taking the Lane
Posted onThis is a very quick note about how to get upcoming Taking the Lane zines (what are these?) as well as some blog business. I’m testing out a new online storefront. It’s easy to use and I’m happy with the way it looks. Better photography coming up the next sunny, dry day. [Update: The new […]
Hey bike industry, we aren't Barbie doll...
Posted onAn excellent post on the excellent blog Sociological Images today pointed out a number of spot-on examples of ways companies assume that men are their standard market, but label products marketed to women as such. For example, you can often choose between a small t-shirt or a women’s small t-shirt; at my long-ago high school, […]
Bikes and the candidates, round one: Oba...
Posted onIn the last Presidential election, looking for bicycling connections with any of the candidates led only to that photo of Mr. Obama riding with one of his daughters on city streets, helmeted, earnest, and a little dorky, especially in comparison with then-current President Bush, who liked to lycra up and go for adrenaline-producing mountain bike […]
Our Bodies, Our Bikes
Posted onIf you’re coming to this blog for the first time looking to learn more about my Our Bodies, Our Bikes, zine, welcome! You can get a copy of the zine – they’re only three bucks! – right here. Or you can learn more about it, as well as checking out my other publications (and subscriptions!) […]
How not to lock your bike
Posted onI have half a draft of a write-up filed away somewhere with directions for locking your bike well. But there’s honestly no single right way to do it, and no truly secure way to do it … and just writing about how it’s done bores me to tears. Reading it probably wouldn’t delight you much […]
What do conservatives want (from bicycli...
Posted onEarlier this week I attempted to make “the conservative case for bicycle transportation.” Before writing it I spent some time thinking about political discourse in the U.S. and trying to put myself in conservative shoes. And responses have been mixed — completely all over the map, actually. Two people wrote comments in right off the […]
Heading down South on the Dinner and Bik...
Posted onLast fall’s Dinner & Bikes tour went so well that the three of us decided to do it again this year. This spring we’ll be headed South – from Kansas to Texas to Georgia and back again, with many stops in between. We have an emerging schedule and plan on our new tour site. Our […]
The conservative case for bicycling
Posted onBicycle transportation is a truly bipartisan issue, or should be. Back in 1971, it was Republican politicians in Oregon who passed our landmark “Bicycle Bill” which is partly responsible for funding the infrastructure that has allowed bike culture to flourish in Corvallis, Eugene, Portland, and around the state. Today’s the bicycle caucus in Congress is […]
People reclaiming the streets and other ...
Posted onThere’s a lot of bad news in the world right now, so I’ve been trying to think instead for a day or two about the news in the past year that’s been most inspiring and hopeful. The best of it has involved people around the world stepping up and making public spaces their own, joyously […]
How I make these zines
Posted onPeople ask occasionally how I make my zines, so I thought I’d write about that process. First, why publish a zine? I do it because I want to get my and others’ writing out there in the world, and now. A zine is quicker and cheaper to create than a book or magazine, and slower […]