I’ve had a post draft sitting in my WordPress box for a while about the ups and downs of bike commuting, because I wasn’t convinced I had anything substantive and new to say about that subject. Today I had an experience that integrates what I was trying to say into a larger context. When I […]
Category Archives: Transportation Alternatives
Bike+hike
Whenever I do Portola loop on my bike, I always pass the entrance to Windy Hill OSP, and I have thought many times about riding up there and hiking, but today I finally did it. I wasn’t sure if it would work well. I thought I might be too tired, but that turned out not […]
The journey is part of the fun
One of my favorite things about not having a car is that it reminds me to think of my journeys as part of the fun of my trips. Journeys take more of my time than they do of most people’s, so if I don’t enjoy them and look for ways to spice them up, I’d […]
On any given day, where would you rather be?
The radio was on this morning in the shuttle, playing various things, including a traffic report. It was almost like it was calculated: 101-S is a complete mess in two different places, as is 237. Aren’t you glad you’ve been on the train? But of course, on any given day, you might rather be on […]
Thank heaven for email notifications
Alaska Airlines helpfully sent me an email notification today reminding me to check in on the web before my flight. I elected to click their helpful link to do so (note to Southwest: you could learn something from this) and was conveniently reminded that my flight leaves from SJC, not from SFO. Oh yeah, right […]
Margaritabike and more questions than answers?
Salon’s even picked up the Xtracycle story. I’ve gotta get one of these soon. There’s a story that I want to tell, too, which has nothing to do with cycling, but does have to do with a lesser-known vehicular interest of mine: identifying and comparing car models. For someone who doesn’t drive, I pay an […]
Toronto: transit
My experiences with transit and cycling in Toronto were almost uniformly overwhelmingly positive. If only it wasn’t so cold there, I’d totally want to live there. When I first arrived, I got a GO bus and then the TTC subway into downtown Toronto. This had two complications. One, GO and TTC are different systems, so […]
Followup: gas in Canada
I have quite a bit to say about Canada, but just as a quick followup to my last post, gas was indeed very expensive. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a car from my relatives, but my side trip of 194 km (120 mi) one way (so 240 miles total) cost CDN$73.30 […]
Slow Life International
This week is the Towards Carfree Cities conference in Portland, and Kent & Christine and Beth both have lovely things to say about life without a car. So many lovely things to say that they’ve said everything I could imagine saying! My favorite line: As Peter once told Kent, “I don’t ride my bike because […]
LAB Road I class experience
One of the things I’ve done the past two weekends (in addition to a 50K ride, a 14-mile ride, and a birthday party) was take a local League of American Bicyclists-certified Road I class. The goal of a Road I class is to take any cyclist who can ride a bike and teach them basic-to-intermediate […]