Despite my reservations about the real utility of bike lanes here and in other cities, I think it is fair to assume that they are constructed with an interest in encouraging people to ride bikes to their jobs and other destinations.  But what happens once the cyclist arrives at that destination?  Where do we lock up our trusty steeds?  A light post or a parking meter would work, I suppose, though a bike rack would be nicer.  And what if all the parking meters are taken?     

Monday night, I was waiting for Rob prior to the hockey game at VerizonCenter.  So there I was, waiting in the new pedestrian walkway between Gallery Place and Verizon Center where, in the space of about 15 minutes no less than 3 pairs of individuals attempted to lock their bikes up to whatever they could find – that’s 6 bikes in all! – and each one of them were informed by the security guard that locking up their bikes is expressly forbidden.  I was amused when I observed a bike messenger locking up his fixed gear to a pole behind the back of the security guard even while he was giving one couple his standard speech. 

I don’t blame the security guard – he’s just doing his job, and The Man’s told him to impose this stupid rule.  But with all this encouraging of bike riding, isn’t it time for facilities such as this to provide something so obvious as a bike rack?  There’s really no excuse for this outrage – the new pedestrian walkway has plenty of space, and a few parked bikes simply will not get in the way.  Direct action is clearly needed here!

-- posted by Chris (photo from Flickr, Octavio_DC)

http://www.cicle.org/cicle_content/pivot/entry.php?id=1189

dolph may look tough but clubber lang and apollo creed were so much better.

the revolution rolls along.  clothing order has been finalized and initiated.  a goodly number of new members have stepped up to the plate.  that pleases me.  some are solid racers and i think we'll field much more respectable teams in the races we choose to do as a result.  we also have a number of cycling advocates who i am hopeful will help us initiate and accomplish some off-the-bike goals as well.  please take some time to welcome our new brothers to the vanguard.

tonight is the sort of unveiling of a new idea for bike commuters.  details are below.  i'll be there a bit after six and will take some pictures, find out what i can, and post the results up some time later in the week.  If anyone is interested in coming, drop me a note and we'll arrange to hook up. 

You are invited to attend a public meeting on the design of the Union Station Bicycle Transit Center (aka the Bike Station) on Tuesday, December 12, 2006 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm in Room 1107 at One Judiciary Square (441 4th Street, NW), 11th floor, south elevator

The Bicycle Transit Center will provide bicycle parking, rentals, repairs and accessories in a new state-of-the-art building at the west end of Union Station.

The design is 65% complete and we are looking for additional input on the design and operation of the facility. There will be a short presentation followed by questions and answers. Background information is available at www.ddot.dc.gov/bikeprogram

Hope to see you there. Contact me directly if you have any questions. Feel free to forward this to anyone who might be interested.

We will also be holding a daytime meeting for organizations that might be interested in bidding on the contract to operate of the Bicycle Transit Center. Please contact me if you are interested in attending such a meeting.

James R. Sebastian
Manager, Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Transportation Demand Management Programs
Transportation Policy and Planning Administration
District Department of Transportation

i'm working up a post on the holiday light displays i see when i commute home at night.  the pictures are not great but the displays sure are.  more to follow....

- - - sg

updated below.....

compare and contrast the dire news:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/10/AR2006121001113.html

with the valuable services that are being provided:

http://www.wmata.com/bus2bus/smartbenefits/pages/Metro_start.html via this link.

we talk a lot about how the current travel infrastructure is "broken": entirely car based travel -> congestion -> sprawl -> need for more roads -> less green space -> more development -> more congestion -> more sprawl -> more need for more roads -> etc -> etc -> etc...  what we do not talk about as much is the need to have alternative transportation be all the more appealing.  this is somewhat counter-intuitive.  one would naturally assume that as commutes get longer and longer, less and less pleasant, and take up increasing shares of your life, that alternatives would seem more appealing. 

but this is not, in practice, how things work.  people who have hellish commutes will read this metro news about financial shortfalls and smile to themselves.  for them, it only serves to confirm the idea that mass transit and alternative transportation won't work very well for them, since it clearly isn't self sustaining.  i currently reside slighty west of the vienna metro stop.  if i were an average commuter, i would park at the metro, and then ride it into dc.  parking is $3.75 and let's just assume the metro fare is $3.70 each way for the trip which would put you near center city.  that's $11.15 a day or roughly $223 a month (20 workdays a month) or roughly $2,453 (48 work weeks a year).  could you operate a car for that?  in some cases, yes.  looking at insurance and wear and tear and gas, it would be tough for most of us.  you could take the bus to the metro and save a lot.  but hey, that's asking a lot of our commuters.

you're probably thinking that i'm going to tie up this post with a call for alternative transportation to conduct itself in a more becoming manner, to earn the respect of drivers and to work to be an appealing option and for jurisdictions to fund metro to a greater degree.  well, that'd be great but i don't see it happening.  no, i'm going the other way here.  we're going to the mat on this.  the problem is not necessarily metro: in all likelihood, it is no more inept or corrupt or inefficient than any other company or transit group anywhere else in the country.  no the problem here is that people (read: drivers) will read this article and smugly conclude that those great unwashed masses who don't sit for hours on our public thoroughfares are saps, and that they (the drivers) are beating the system and doing the right thing.  but they are drawing the wrong conclusion.  under my normal philosophy of put up or shut up, i proudly unveil my solution.  i will give away $10 in metro fare each month to some random winner. 

my preference is that you give it to a friend or neighbor or relative and ask they to try commuting by metro one day for free.  if you are a cyclist, you may certainly use this to get your bike to a group ride, or for some other purpose (take the kids to the national zoo for instance) but do it on public transit, not in a car.

here's the deal.  all racing union members are automatically entered in each month's drawing, because, well, because they are good peoples.  anyone else in the dc metro area who would like to be considered may send an email to metro_hook_up@racingunion.org with your email address and i will add you to the database.  all drawings will be at random and since i do the drawing, i will not be eligible to win the prize.  all i ask is that you send me a photo (same address) with you and the metro cash or a note by email on what you did with it.  but that's optional.  get those email addresses in.  drawing will take place shortly for december.  if the program goes well, i may expand it.  more on that later.

- - - posted by scott

update: before i dogged taking the bus up above, i didn't realize the true revolutionary powers of bus drivers.  you can witness it here, courtesy of one of the greatest geopolitical thinkers of our time.  this must have casued some sort of cognitive dissonance.  you can cause revolution and upheaval, but only by supporting the rights of striking workers.  can you picture it?  must support toppling of hardline, clerical, anti-american regime....but...cannot support striking unionized workers.....but must support toppling of hardline, clerical, anti-american regime....but...cannot support striking unionized workers.....  and on it goes! 

a commendation for ncvc: the order of the red star from the supreme revolutionary council for change in cycling and the social order.

this commendation is awarded for the very generous opportunity that ncvc is handing to us.  a chance to get out, drink beer, see a movie premiere and mingle with our fellow cyclists and citizens.  the union will be in full effect to show their gratitude for ncvc's kindness.  a hearty huzzah for all the early six day racers and for those who help us to remember those who went before us. 

information on the event can be found here: http://www.ncvc.net/

information on the film can be found here: http://www.sixdaybicyclerace.com/the_film.htm

thank you notes can be sent here: http://www.ncvc.net/contact.php

- - - posted by scott

i was getting some static about my zeal for the union cause and in discussing it with a friend, i came to realize that there is a tremendous similarity between the supreme revolution in cycling and the social order, and the dadaist art movement.

Hans Arp tells how he and his friends used to make rounds of the bars, opening the door of each and saying in a loud, clear voice: "Long live Dada!" The patrons would open their mouths in amazement, dropping their forks and their sausages.  --http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19191

i would say that this anecdote is entirely consistent with the union ethos.  you probably saw it here and here.  our movement echoes theirs in refusing to be contained within ordinary categories.  in fact, our very presence and actions form a powerful refutation of categorization itself.  beyond boundries, surmounting the challenges of orthodoxy, and reducing the status quo to one of those shivvery fruit and jello salads your aunt makes for every family get together.  so from this grandest of pinnacles, i offer a short poem:

i have killed the union through art.  the union is dead.  and through death lives on in lore, song, verse and memory.  long live the union through it’s death. ever greater glory beckons…

the union is dead! long live the union!

the union is dead! long live the union!

- - - posted by scott

i simply must admit to being ever so slightly less judgemental about the evils of sponsorship after reading this article.  lemmy, doing it for the kids. 

i reaffirm my general belief that the forces of money and amateur sports do not enhance each other in a positive way.  but how boss is it to say that lemmy is backing you.  he's an old softie.  please note that if you are reading this article and your name is rob halford, ronnie james dio or don dokken, this sentiment does not apply to you.  do not pass go, do not collect the kharmic equivalent of $200 US.  rollins on the other hand most certainly ought to be doing this.

- - - posted by scott with thanks to josh for the link!

this makes me sick to my stomach.  be careful out there.  don't assume that you can control the situation or that the "system" will look out for you.  i'll take suggestions for a more appropriate judicial sentence in the comments.

- - - posted by scott, link from bryan

- posted by Chris, with commendations to the photographer, Joel Gwadz (http://www.gwadzilla.blogspot.com/)

there are some times when you read something and you just know that people will take it as certain evidence for their worldview.  the eggheads call this "conceptual goggles" but the rest of us call it what it really is, intellectual laziness.  there are probably a ton of interesting and hilarious jokes that could be made about this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15947626/?GT1=8717

"what, no more hennessy?  no more wide format director's cuts?  this means war!"

rather than try to mine this for comedy gold, I'll share with you my own piece of intellectual laziness.  i see this as sure proof that regis debray was right all along when he said that "the revolution revolutionizes the counter-revolution".  the man is trying something new.  during the cold war, america tried to tackle the revolution head on through armed combat and spy vs. spy silliness.  by the eighties and nineties, we attempted a stealthier approach of economic destabilization and producing armed paramilitary groups that looked like authentic revolutionaries.  and now it's come to this.  why mess around with big budget diplomacy or arms shipments or a school of the americas.  just cut off the congac.  no more luxury cars, no more ipods, no more segways.  how will they possibly endure?  this alone has an uncomfortably elitist undertone: "you  know old boy, they simply can't get by without the finer things."  but at least it shows some adaptability and a remarkable amount of depth in that these sanctions won't affect the average citizen in the slightest.  how about that?  the counter-revolution is slowly being revolutionized. 

- - - posted by scott, link by chris.

sort of close, and then in the end, not really so much.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/?id=2006/woodland_sponsors

amateur athletics does not benefit from the dumptruck loads of cash that are poured into it each year. 

rediscover what amateur cycling is all about.

it starts here.

- - - posted by scott (link from mike)