Does A Bikeway Access Gate Closing Alone In Los Angeles Make Any Sound?

Maybe not, but this cyclist makes some noise about it. My friend Stephen Box, tireless cyclist and cycling advocate and founder of the Bike Writers Collective (BWC), attended what he related the next day on the LAist blog to be something of a contentious March 18 meeting of the L.A. Transportation Committee regarding Councilman Bill …

Easy Like Friday Afternoon

Though channelized since the 1930s the concrete banks of Ballona Creek can be surprisingly serene — especially the stretch flowing across Culver City near Overland Avenue. Many have been the times I’ve pedaled through there along its bikeway either on my way to work or on my way home and I’ve wanted to dismount and …

Fargo Rhymes With Whoa

I gotta admit, I’m just not all that fired up at this late date. I know: just as I did in 2006 following my first failed attempt, I totally vowed after last year’s disappointment to bring my chapped hide and bruised ego back to the base of Fargo Street and make my third attempt the …

Falling Down

I upset Susan yesterday when I told her how on the ride home last night after hearing something deragatory shouted at me I doubled back on my bike to the four kids all wearing white t-shirts and blue jeans sitting at the bus stop at Washington and West boulevards. Susan does not like when I …

Me-Mail

Occasionally after posting something — especially something that required such deep rummaging around in the nostalgia bin as my post about my 1989 birth as a bike commuter — I find a note in my mental inbox wondering what all that was about? It’s a contrivance I call me-mail: Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 :23:01 …

A Third Of The Way There

I’ve rolled past my first thousand miles today, finishing up with this evening’s commute home at 1,005 for the year to date. Only 1,995 more to reach my goal for 2008. Here’s a moment somewhere around mile 880 during the bike tour March 2; this macro of the cheap thumbnail image courtesy of the first …

The Birth Of A Bike Commuter

It was a dark time in my life, at 25. My soon-to-be ex-wife was pregnant with our daughter Katie. We were indebted up to our hairlines. I tipped the scale at close to 280 pounds — 60 of which was polyunsaturated self-loathing, the rest mostly Domino’s pizza and Reese’s candy. For jobs, we barely sold …