There are bike lanes in Las Vegas

In Las Vegas for the holiday and this morning it comes rolling across the bottom of the morning news program that my uncle is watching, UPS is going to use bicycles to deliver packages this holiday season along the west coast. There was a statistic on how much money they expect to save for every 3 bicycles in use. Having not finished my coffee, I do not recall it.

But imagine it, a fleet of brown-shorted men and women delivering packages! I wonder if they will use trailers? I wonder if they are training current employees or hiring new ones. Will they modify the uniform? Brown spandex? I must investigate.

We've taken a bit of a hiatus here at this blog. We've been slowly tinkering with metal brackets and getting more and more familiar with riding around Austin. I completed a hilariously poorly planned but very fun long ride (almost accidentally took a second trip onto the freeway sans mass crowd) and I now fully agree that it is more difficult to move east/west than it is north/south in this town.

Anyhow we promise we're working, be it slowly. Jonny and I are both heading to Portland for a spell here real soon. Assuming I can secure a bike up there (I've been assured that I can) I might try and get in on a bike move. Bike Portland had some awesome pictures of a move in the rain a few weeks back so I doubt the inclement weather of December will keep those folks down. In any case I plan to talk to North Westerners about all this bike haul business, track down and take pictures of bike delivery UPS men and women, and report back.

Developmental Progress Achievement Status Update: Shuffling through Late-October

There has been a bit of a lull here on the trailer building front. I blame it on graduate school and home depot being out of all standard sized cobalt drill bits (fifty percent off sale, blessing or curse?). Some fault, at least on my end, can be attributed to Halloween and my crafty moments going towards a costume that is dangerously close to being bike impossible.

But today I got out the hacksaw, ponied up some money for a not-on-sale drill bit, and got part of the way towards making brackets. If this design becomes one we want to use again I think we are going to need to find a better way to cut metal. Hand hacksaw just isn't cutting it (sorry).

I also need to start carrying my camera around. The other eve as I was biking up red river, my friend and I were passed by a man hauling a very calm looking dog in a rear-mounted, wire bike basket. The dog had to sit up pretty straight to even fit but he seemed solid.

It looked a lot like this actually.

Making Commuters out of Naught

One of the pieces of advice offered by the Portland Move by Bike group is that “you might need to rent or borrow a truck to finish the job.” As much as this may seem counter to the idea of moving by bike, it is important to remember, as Laura has reminded us in her posts, that living a car-free existence is made easier by occasional access to cars. It’s ok, though, because biking isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition, and reducing car usage and increasing bike usage is pretty rad for all the same reasons that eliminating car usage is rad. Basic idea.

On that note, I wanna bring to everyone’s attention that the Smart Bike system is up and running in Washington D.C. now, and is the first such system in the U.S. It’s based on other bike rental systems (kinda like a Zipcar for bikes), the largest one being Velib in Paris. Here’s a really good video of Velib that outlines the program. In D.C., you pay a $40 annual membership and get to rent a bike as much as you want for no additional charge (I think). Bikes are kept in various locations around town where you can show up, swipe your membership card, and take a bike. Other U.S. cities have talked about doing this type of program (Portland, Boston, New York, Chicago), but I don’t think any other city has a system very far along in the works. Wish I could be in D.C. right now, but oh well. A wise man once said, “the seaweed is always greener…”

However, in a classic case of “we have the pudding and you’re a fat kid who wants it,” we found a link on the amazing Bike Portland blog that suggests that Texans may have an opportunity to get more commuters on bikes that people in other states covet. The post talks about MileMeter, a company that allows drivers to purchase auto insurance by the mile, rather than by the month or year. This allows people who don’t drive very much but do own a car to pay less for insurance. Since it’s a pay-as-you-go system, it encourages members to drive less (bike more yay!). From what I can glean, companies like OnStar do offer pay-as-you-go plans, but if you care about things like privacy and live in Texas, you’ve got options (Mile Meter also doesn’t use credit scoring or collect Social Security Numbers in an attempt to respect privacy of customers).

So, these are both systems that can hopefully bring new people into the ranks of bicycle commuters. This is good news. Building trailers + helping people move by bike = good news too. Ok, gotta go grab some wood now. That we saw on CraigsList.

Human hauling: bike ambulances

I imagine the mention of bicycle ambulances in my last post might have caused some of you take pause. Perhaps you had the thought, if there ever was a time for a motor vehicle the transport of my broken/bleeding body is surely it. This is not a point I am prepared to argue (if you will remember I was driven to the doctors for only pinkeye).

I think, to form a model of a car free existence that is a viable option for everyone, it is important to be aware of the ways in which your world makes it possible for you to choose to be without a car. On some levels a "car free" existence relies on the existence of cars. I can feel secure that if I need one I will have a high speed motor vehicle, an ambulance, at my disposal.

From this vantage the bike ambulance idea is perhaps more conceivable in the context of a rural area, far from medical facilities, and where existence is de facto carless.

The organization BEN Namibia currently runs a project devoted to providing bike ambulances to Namibian towns where the need for patient emergency transport is great (HIV/AIDs rates hovering around 20%) and resources required for such transport inadequate. From the community bike cart design website.

BEN Namibia’s work delivering bicycles to home-based care volunteers in the North has demonstrated that there is an enormous need for emergency transport solutions for care of people living with HIV/AIDS. In other African countries where bicycle ambulances are in use, there have been increases in access to health care and marked declines in infant and maternal mortality rates. Because our ambulances are being used through HIV/AIDS HBC networks, we anticipate a high percentage of transports to be HIV/AIDS related. BEN Namibia is addressing the need for data on transport of HIV/AIDS patients

BEN Namibia places the cost per ambulance at around $530. If you are in need of a worthy cause to donate some cash to, I'd check them out.

The problem with biking with pastries: We don't want no pinapple upside down cake!

So we are chugging along. We've purchased some more tools and I spent a good chunk of the morning cutting and bending metal with a hacksaw and our new vice. I produced nothing usable and my hands now hurt. But it was good in that I have a clearer idea of what we need to do.

I admire the scope of Carry Freedom's project. They aim to provide instructions followable by anyone without assuming a common language, skill level, or access to sophisticated tools and/or supplies. With this aim in mind, their instructions rely mostly on pictures and I spent a bit of time trying to figure out what type of wrench I was looking at (it was labeled a "spanner" and I've only heard that term in conjunction with pedal wrenches and such). Going through the instructions I realized I just needed a crescent wrench that would fit my nuts and bolts. It is ambitious to rely on hand drawn pictures to communicate across cultures and skill levels. I only understand that the drawing of "saw" actually means "hack saw" by looking through all of the steps and seeing it cut metal. For that matter (assuming I cannot read, English or otherwise) I only understand that the drawing of sheet metal is in fact metal by seeing it bend after it has been cut (this seems potentially confusing). But it is easy to complain and Carry freedom asks for feedback as the price of using their "free" plans. The set of instructions we are using is the project's second draft. Hopefully we can come up with ideas to make them better. Mostly I am a word based person and not good at visuals (I have the same problem with my bike maintenance handbook and it uses mostly photographs).

Last night Jonny and I had a potluck during which our project came up more than once. Someone suggested we might have more difficulty conducting bike moves going east/west vs north/south. This was something I hadn't thought of and I might make some strategic scouting missions, hopefully with a loaded trailer, at some point.

Our friend Emily revealed she is doing some blogging of her own in a similar vein. Her blog chronicles her venture into going carless starting from the sale of her car. Most non bike commuters I've spoken to have cited fear as a large part of their hesitancy to bike. Biking in an urban environment for the first time can be harrowing. Getting set up can feel humiliating as there is still lot of machismo in the biking world. Emily's blog gives a nice account of all of these things and I think can serve as a resource for anyone trying to take up biking, or to wean themselves off of their automobile.

The night ended with some bike hauling of humans as our friend Scott ferried Gesse home on his extracycle. Gesse had left her bike at home in order to carry a pie to us on the bus (A bike hauling conundrum: how to get a pie, intact across town?).


Jonny loaned Gesse a helmet, as we promote safe hauling and the whole thing got me thinking about human cargo: bike ambulances, pedicabs, biking with kids. Perhaps a future blog post(s) is in order.

Developmental Progress Achievement Status Update: Strides Made In Mid-October

Hi everyone,

So this is my first post —I’m JonnyGrass, the other half of this operation.  We’ll see how this post goes.  So Laura and I did some good stuff today worth mentioning.  Who and why is it worthy to do?  I’m glad you asked (in that sort of disjunctive, unhealthy way that you did).

We have thus far:

• Secured plans for the construction of a bamboo bike trailer

• Secured and stripped preliminary bamboo samples.  Feast your eyes! 

• Secured starter tools that will soon grow into a large enough arsenal to facilitate our trailer needs
  
• Engaged in discourse with Chris Rouxel from the Orange Bike Project at UT who was really receptive to our project and the possibility of joining forces (the Orange Bike Project was responsible for last week’s screening of Quicksilver at Spiderhouse; if you haven’t seen it, you need to)

I hope y’all are as excited about these developments as we are.  We’ll keep you posted as more come along.  Also, I’d just like to give a shout out to Greg Dalbey in pdx who drew the amazing Bicycle Farm logo on the right side of this page.  If you happen to be lucky enough to live in Portland, you might notice that his band Ferocious Eagle will be laughing at the horror of being alive at Rotture on Wednesday the 22nd.  If you see him, give him a hug.

Ok, that’s all for now.

Moving without a car

I have never owned a car and for the most part this has never been a problem. In Portland I had friends with cars, a great bike infrastructure, and a sound public transit system. I biked everywhere but when I got pink eye my roommate drove me to the doctors office, when I needed to look pristine for a job interview on a rainy day I took the bus, and when I needed to move my worldly possessions from N to NE Portland after the house I was living in was sold and slated for destruction I borrowed my grandfather's truck.

I moved to Austin with my bike and a suitcase, steeling myself to sleep on the floor. The past couple of months have really driven the point home that life without a car while liberating, is not exactly always easy. The things I took for granted in Portland (mainly access to the cars of my friends)became obvious.

Jonny and I have been lucky. A week in we scored mattresses from the front yard of a house not but six blocks away. It was 100 degrees and we certainly cursed our way home but it was a manageable distance to carry. Every week since that has pretty much presented its own craigslist or garage sale treasure. We've carried home a desk, a dresser, and a chair (and I have had the sore muscles to prove it). A reluctant truck-driving, garage sale bystander brought us home our couch. The chair I am currently sitting in was biked home on our housemate Spike's cruiser Joan.


While our luck has been great, our slow setting up of house is not an example what I would call an optimal model for a car free lifestyle. We've made concessions because we can stand a month or more of sitting on a floor, piling our clothes in a corner, and doing our writing at coffee shops. I suspect that most people would not make such concessions and I'd like to live in a city where choosing not to would not necessarily mean obtaining a car.

Going car free is in many ways a privileged decision. I am able bodied, childless, and live within a reasonable distance of a grocery store. Our project is aware of these very real barriers and we encourage others to think about them as well. Our intention is to attack one barrier, transporting large objects, in once city, Austin, and in doing so to hopefully provide a very visible example of people thinking outside of a moving van. I like to think a crew of people passing by on bikes, boxes, couches, and beds in tow might expand someone's conception of what it means to be moving about in this city.

Cargo bikes and heavy hauling trailers

In my perusal of the nets to generate some bike haul ideas I came across these snazzy sites.

Bikes At Work Inc offers some very heavy duty bike trailers.

At $520 this trailer seems a bit out of our means (and we are planning on building!) It is advertised as maxing out at an impressive 300lbs and is certainly inspiring.

Also out of our means is Portland, Oregon's Metrofiets .

The cargo bike concept makes a nice marriage of bike and trailer. I am also a sucker for craftsmanship and marketing aimed at my progeny.

Finally there is A.N.T. from Holliston, MA. Here are some folks dedicated to commuter style bikes that scream, my bike is my primary vehicle. Check out their lovely take on the cargo bike.

Call for wheels!

To get our venture off of the ground we are in need of supplies. Our first plan of action is to study up on various manners of trailer/cart making. We are currently cart-less so our supply gathering is going to be limited to what we can walk or strap to our backs/bike racks. With this in mind our preliminary environmental scan suggests that we are going to go for a bamboo cart design. Check out this nifty project for a bamboo bike trailer . Our biggest need is wheels. Kid motocross 20inch wheels would be ideal but considering we aren't about to cannibalize our own bikes for parts, we'll take what we can get. Feel free to contact us if you've got anything to donate.

In the future we're going to be needing some other things so if you've got a hack saw, power drill, or a propane torch you could part with feel free to send it our way. But for now the word is wheels and the word is good.