Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Hollywood Writers and General Motors Employees on Bikes? Whaaaaattt?





It has been a week of strange changes in the world of cycling.  Good things are happening.  Really good things.  Which is a little anxiety-provoking.  After all, I am used to playing the cycling underdog.   About what will I complain?  Yikes.

For example:

In Hollywood, people drive around in cars.  Expensive cars, weird cars, but cars.  Enter Tom Smuts, Mad Men Writer.  He biked to the Emmy Awards.  (How many reasons do you really need to love this guy?)  I hope that he does not fall victim to some Hollywood mob like the one in Nathaniel West's The Day of the Locusts.  The idea of someone biking down Wilshire or Sunset boulevards during evening traffic to accept an award from possibly the most shallow of industries is too much to conceive.  #tomsmutsrocks
http://la.streetsblog.org/2014/08/26/eyes-on-the-street-mad-men-writer-tom-smuts-bicycles-to-the-emmys/

Lanes:

Some people worry about how to keep cyclists off the sidewalk.  I do not.  But how do you keep them off if you care about that?  According to a note in the Sacramento Bee newspaper - the one started by a skeptic named Twain- the answer is to Improvise.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/24/6647726/editorial-an-improved-biking-network.html



Then there is this story which must be a gag:

Houston is getting its first protected bike lanes.  Isn't that an oil, cattle, feedlot big enough to ruin the ozone kind of state?  Why are all my belief being attacked by facts?
http://streetsblog.net/2014/08/27/downtown-houston-will-get-its-first-protected-bike-lane/

Share:



If I told you that General Motors had started a bike share program on its campus in Warren, Michigan, would you think I had lost my gourd?  Me too.
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-general-motors-bicycle-sharing-20140826-story.html

Seattle's bike share system is up and running.  And guess who is moving back to town to take advantage of a talent pool?  Yup a big company that might have something to do with lumber and stuff.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/08/26/seattles-brand-new-bike-share-program-welcomes-its-first-members

Policy and Advocacy:

If the draft rules pass, construction companies is DC will have to make accommodations to cyclists when they block the bike lanes.  This is unsettling.  Now what will I have to complain about? #developersthatcomplywillnotsuck
http://www.waba.org/blog/2014/08/ddots-safe-accommodation-rules-are-pretty-good/

If General Motors wants about 19,000 of its employees to ride around on bicycles, and this is not a happy dream, what does that mean for other large companies?  What will it mean to the automotive sector?
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-general-motors-bicycle-sharing-20140826-story.html

Yup, Weyerhaeuser is moving from its remote suburban campus to downtown Seattle to attract a more talented people who ride bikes.  Wait?  Is that exactly what they said at the press conference?  #weyerhaeuser  #bikesandsmartpeople  #whythehelldidthesepeopleevermoveanyway
http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2024394215_pioneersquarexml.html

Safety:

LAPD is backing a hit and run alert system that may tag motorists that hit cyclists and then speed away.   #surveillancewecanalllove
http://www.losangelesregister.com/articles/-603960--.html

Random Notes:


A Vimeo on the global BMX project that is worth a 31 minute view.  I know you might think BMX is for exploitive parents and tattooed 'tweens who are just a few short years from developing a life-destroying meth habit, but that is not necessarily true.  #BMX
http://theradavist.com/2014/08/make-happen/

Great News:

Momentum Magazine has voted Bicycle Space, a great little shop in DC where I have spent a ton of money with consistently good results, one of the five best.  #bicyclespace
https://twitter.com/bicyclespace/status/504661685081485313?refsrc=email

So if I see you in the bike lanes, let's be smug.
Elisa P.

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