Bikenomics came out a year ago on December 1st. It’s hard to believe it’s been such a short time. The book has sold 7,000 copies, sparked friendships, taken me all over the US and the world, and in at least a few instances has helped to genuinely change a few communities for the better. Here’s […]
A while back I wrote a fact-check of the $308 figure that gets bandied about as the annual cost of bicycling in the US. As I discovered, the number is entirely false; it’s based on an old data entry error that quietly persisted until it became taken for granted as a fact. I found (as […]
Back in 2010, I published my very first zine, which was funded with my very first Kickstarter project, and coincided with the process of booking my very first tour. I couldn’t have done any of these things without a lot of help from a lot of people. One of these people, pictured here, is Sarah […]
In my late teens I got a job in a video store in Hamden, Connecticut and worked there on and off for five years, standing behind a computer and renting movies. It happened to be the only good video store in the region, so we had a lot of customers make the 4 mile drive […]
Happy new year, everyone! Maybe it’s all the apocalyptic-flavored movie previews and social media talk, but waking up to this new year feels extra significant. I wasn’t exactly holding my breath for the world to end, but today my breathing is a little easier and my shoulders are a little farther from my ears. Still […]
Walking to the grocery store yesterday, I passed by two teenagers who were smoking and drinking 40s behind the taco joint next to the club across the street from my destination. As I got close to them, the one with his back to me glanced at me and then back at his friend, who took […]
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 […]
Before someone uses my computer to look up a bus schedule or check their email, I try to remember to switch it back to normal. But often I don’t catch them until they’ve begun to type and are staring at the gibberish on the screen in baffled frustration. “Your keyboard is broken,” they sometimes say. […]
David, Elly, and April. Photo by Theo Elliott Yesterday, this happened after spending six and a half hours riding a hundred kilometers through beautiful back roads. This photo was taken just before we found out we’d made it in three minutes before the cut-off. I was just happy that the cold, wet day of riding […]
On Thursday night I quit Facebook. The instant I decided, I put on my hat, made my excuses to the friends I had just met up with, and got on my bike and rode home to click through the process before removing my hat or setting down my bag or saying more to Joe than […]
The folks at Freakonomics don’t always nail it, but they I love the way they tackled the economic benefits of hitchhiking, debunking the myth that it’s a huge risk, and suggesting we bring it back into the mix as a part of getting our financial feet back under us. I hitched a lot during my […]
As the Occupy movement grows, I’ve been thinking more and more about a topic that’s already been on my mind for some time – how do we build a viable economy on a human scale? At the same time, I’m still struggling to build a viable living on a household scale. As I work and […]
I’m posting this mostly as an excuse for the photo. The article it goes with, profiling several women in Portland’s bike industry, is really nice as well, and worth a look. The article is in up and coming Portland online news source Neighborhood Notes. And it’s written by Melissa Reeser, a poet, blogger, and the […]
(Photo © Jonathan Maus) Yesterday was Sunday Parkways in southeast Portland—our neighborhood. I pedaled the 6.2 mile course with Joe in tow on our long dreamed-of Futon Bike. He was filming footage for his documentary. The entire way, people laughed, pointed, and yelled. In a friendly way. Mostly.