utterly opinionated

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a weekend bicyclist, “might consider keeping his head down and his helmet on” suggests the Huffington Post this morning.  ”A backlash is brewing over his new bicycling policy.”

LaHood blogged that he is ending the era of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.   “The new policy has vaulted LaHood to superstar status in the bicycling world. Bike blogs are bubbling with praise. A post on Ridemonkey.com calls him “cycling’s man of the century.” The Adventure Cycling Association’s Web site calls LaHood “our hero.” says Huffington.

He’s my hero too.

Endless miles of freeway have always irritated me.  They plow through neighborhoods, dissecting blocks and turn well worn paths and local connections into dead ends.  Instead of sustaining cities they perpetuate sprawl.

Someone in Melbourne must be thinking the same thoughts.

While riding a 20 mile loop through Melbourne’s close-in neighborhoods, I found myself riding UNDER a freeway.  This creative solution, while not a pretty ride, re-connects the neighborhoods on either side of this freeway and gives back what it took away.  I rode for miles with the sounds of fast-moving traffic above, on a smooth concrete deck, hung by steel straps from the substantial freeway structure above.

Brilliant.

While I write this at four in the afternoon, in Pittsburgh the day I have just enjoyed has not yet dawned.

A week ago I made my way half way across the world.  First, bright-eyed,  from Pittsburgh through Minneapolis St. Paul to Los Angeles.   Then, bleary-eyed from LA to Melbourne in Australia.  Every time I make this journey I am determined to spend the horrendously long travel time well and at first I do.  I read, I write and I work.   By the end of the first fifteen hours, when I board the plane from LA to Melbourne, my resolve crumbles and the remaining hours are spent dozing while watching bad movies.

When I arrive I fight my way through the fog of jet lag (ferocious since the time difference is sixteen hours) to reconnect with my parents, my sisters and my nephew.  Family visits crammed into two weeks always leave me feeling dissatisfied.  They are both too short and too long.  I vow I won’t eat too much so I don’t have to wrestle the pounds back off when I get home.  But the food is a reminder of the home I grew up in. For two weeks I am tempted by the tastes that I cannot take home with me.  Milk bars, laksa, licorice, ginger beer, turkish bread and tropical fruit are all stronger than me.

Although I am Australian by birth, by now I have spent half my life in America and I am caught forever in between.  My strange half Australian half American accent  marks me.  Interesting in my adopted town.  A defector in my country of birth.  Quizzical looks wherever I go.

A few years ago I set about finding a way to fit in on these visits to Melbourne.   The trail that runs beside my sister’s house loops its way through and around the city.  This has become the starting point for my visits.  Two days after I arrive, my head still slightly foggy, I pull out her ancient bike and cautiously ride down the trail that was once unfamiliar but now belongs to me.  Here I fit right in. On a bike my strange accent is barely noticeable.

Here, on the trail, I am surrounded by people of every ethnicity.  This is where the people of the city congregate, on its trails and in its parks.  This is where differences fade away.  Just like in Pittsburgh.

Scott Bricker of Bike Pitsburgh at Union Station

DC loves its bike commuters.  

Four million dollars were spent to build this stunning, all glass, “smart building” right outside Union Station.   A membership parking garage, the facility will house 130 bicycles in 1600 s.f. of space that includes lockers, changing areas, a retail shop and bike repair and is heated and cooled passively.  Members will have 24/7 access and the station will be staffed 66 hours per week.    

If you live outside DC, you can park your bike at the station, commute in and troll around town on your bike.   

I want one of these in Pittsburgh. 

We deserve it, don’t we?

Yesterday, my bike ride took me from Downtown Pittsburgh to the far reaches of both the North Side and South Side river trails. 23 traffic free miles bar a few blocks right in the middle of Downtown.  You can see my GPS tracks on the map.

I’m not afraid of riding in traffic. Maybe I should be. Vehicles are not very kind to bicycle riders in Pittsburgh. They drive a little too fast and a little too close.  As I rode I couldn’t help but think about alternative routes that might make a traffic free combination of all the river trails possible for everyone to enjoy.

By 2020 the Three Rivers Park will provide a continuously accessible waterfront park system.    This is an admirable goal, but by 2020 i will be eleven years older, and patience is not my strong suit.

So here’s my idea.   Dedicate one lane in each direction on the Boulevard of the Allies to bicycles, on Sundays only.   Since  the Boulevard has two lanes in each direction, and traffic is very light on Sunday this would have very little impact on traffic flow. It would, however, have an enormous impact on the traffic free accessibility of the river trails.   

And it would put us a step closer to placing us on the top ten biking cities in the United States.

Is anyone listening?

Today, something fantastic happened. Something I have always dreamed of. We closed the streets of Downtown Pittsburgh to cars, and bicycles took over. Now, I know that was not the intent of the G20 security measures. But it was certainly an interesting, and positive, side effect.

It was quiet and peaceful. It was fun exploring the city. It was a chance for people who normally won’t fight the traffic to enjoy the incredible downtown we have.

Maybe we can plan for this more often? Minus the police of course.

I’ve had the good fortune to meet the unabashedly pro-urban Enrique Penalosa.

A former Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, Peñalosa was responsible for numerous radical improvements to the city during his term. He prioritized access for children and public spaces and restricted private car use. He built hundreds of kilometers of sidewalks, bicycle paths, pedestrian streets, greenways, and parks. And he organized Car-Free Day in 2000, for which he was awarded the Stockholm Challenge Award and rewarded by a referendum vote endorsing an annual car-free day and the elimination of all cars from Bogota streets during rush hours from 2015 onwards.

This is radical urbanism at its best!

Back in October, the great Venture Outdoor GAP bike tour.  From Connellsville, PA to Cumberland, MD, ride with me along the gorgeous Great Allegheny Passage trail.  We’ll wind our way along the Casselman, Youghiogheny, and Monongahela Rivers, visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and Ohiopyle State Park and see brilliant fall colors. Photograph breath taking sites, enjoy delicious food, and share the company of other cyclists like you that see life as an adventure.

This trip is perfect for cyclists and non-cyclists alike. Each day you have an option, ride a lot or ride a little. With Venture Outdoors vans for support, you can always skip some riding to take extra time for a walk, photograph wildlife, or fall asleep next to a lazy river.

Sign up here …

RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Ride Across Iowa) is a week long ride from the west to east end of Iowa.  Every year, in the last week of July, 15,000 riders participate.   Seriously.  15,000.

My friend Seth Gernot rode it last week with VIRGIN tattooed down his calves.  It was his first time, but definitely not his last.   The 450 mile journey crossed Iowa from the Missouri River to the Mississipi.   Although the days are long, the intent is not to finish them fast.   ragbrai is a celebration first and a ride second.

The towns on the route were small, as small as 2,000, but they rolled out large quantities of food and alcohol.   Seth ate 13 different kinds of pie on the ride.  He stretched the limits of his spandex shorts.

15,000 tourists in the state of Pennsylvania wouldn’t be bad would they?   They could ride from Pittsburgh to Philly and visit every country fair and hamlet on the way.    They could eat pierogi, hot italian sausage sandwiches and drink local beer.

I want to stretch the limits of my spandex shorts.  I’ll do it in Iowa if I have to.  But I’d love to do it in Pennsylvania first.

From August 20 to 23 I’ll be biking the Great Allegheny Passage with Venture Outdoors.  I made the trip all the way from DC to Pittsburgh last year.  August’s trip starts in Cumberland and ends in Pittsburgh, the easiest, smoothest and prettiest section of the trail.

We’ll  pass through historic coal towns, wind our way along the Casselman, Youghiogheny, and Monongahela River, visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and Ohiopyle State Park. Sleep under the stars (or in a B & B), eat wonderful catered meals, and share the company of other cyclists that see life as an adventure.

Will you join me?  We’ll have a blast!

Here’s one vacation day and  24 miles of biking on Nantucket, tracked in blue on John’s GPS.  It’s equivalent to a round trip from Downtown Pittsburgh to the Southside Works and then to Millvale Skate Park and  back. I saw a lot of trees and a little water on this ride in Nantucket.   It was beautiful, calm and homogeneous.  I missed the rivers, the bridges, the gorgeous architecture, downtown, the grit and the unexpected beauty of Pittsburgh.

There was a traffic jam on Pittsburgh’s South Side this Sunday.  This one was new and different.  Between 1:00 and 2:00 pm I passed 227 people on the riverside trail.  There were young, very young and not so young  all jammed together.  Most of them were on bikes and some were runners and skaters, elbowing their way through the crowd.

Three years ago I would have been lucky to pass fifty people on the trail.

Now bikes are everywhere, but not everywhere enough for us to rank as one of the top ten great biking cities.  We should aim to be in that top ten.  Cities that are bike friendly are cities where we want to be.  Bike trails, bike lanes and friendly drivers are golden assets that bring new people and new life.  Here, in Pittsburgh, we have all the pieces we need to get onto that list.  There are three rivers, six river fronts and miles of trail connected to distinctive and authentic neighborhoods.  We already have what many cities are now struggling to create.

My favorite list of the top ten bicycle cities is Wired Magazine’s. It wanders all over the world.  Beginning with Amsterdam it ends in Basel, passing through a host of great cities in between.  Four US cities make that list: Portland, Boulder, Davis and San Francisco.  

National Geographic lists their top five as Portland, Davis, Tucson, Madison and Boulder.  The Washington Post likes Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Davis, Tucson, Madison, Chicago, Austin and Philadelphia.  Some cities are repeats.  Some are on everyone’s list.  Pittsburgh is on none.

A study is in order.  Someone needs to send me to study these cities. I’ll figure out what makes them great.  I’ll put a plan in place to inch Pittsburgh up that list.  And I’ll try not to have too much fun doing it.  This is serious work.

So, Mr. Mayor and Mr. County Executive, get rid of those gaps in the trails.  Finish those last connections.  Get those shared lanes painted.  This is economic development at its best.  Quick, inexpensive with the potential for extraordinary results.

double wide grill, a restaurant in Pittsburgh’s south side

Every now and then I feel like I’m glued to my chair, glued to my computer, glued to my life.   It’s hard to change gears but by now I remember the way it feels when I do.

Woolen bicycle shirt, comfy shorts, keen sandals and my ipod are all I need to break away.  Just 300 feet and I hit a trail.  Once I’m on my bike and I ride the gorgeous Pittsburgh rivers I’m unglued.  Completely.  Mesmerized by Leonard Cohen, the rhythmical motion of my legs and the seemingly endless trails, the 20 miles go fast.

At the end, the reward is great.  My bike leans up against a fence.  My helmet is on the table.  The air is warm,  The food is here.

I’ll be joining Councilman Bill Peduto and others for an educational bike tour along Pittsburgh’s downtown streets and riverfront trails. We’ll talk about Pittsburgh’s history, unique architecture and urban planning, with a slight political twist.  

Join me?  Sign up at Venture Outdoors.   Bring your own bike or rent one.  You won’t regret it!

Some people get energy from a quiet weekend in the country. I soak up energy from a new city, and that was the purpose of this weekend’s trip to Toronto.

A little advance research indicated that Toronto has a decent number of bike trails and streets that connect them. I dusted off my German Birdy bike, folded it up into it’s tiniest folded form, threw it in the back of our car, and off we went. I figured I could cover more ground and explore the city more completely with a set of wheels.

My travel mate fretted that I wouldn’t be safe, so I set off cautiously on my first day. I discovered quickly that I was one of thousands on bikes in Toronto. Bikes are everywhere. Every size, age and shape can be seen on a bike. Most bikes have big commuter bags or baskets attached to them. There are city bike posts everywhere and plenty of bikes chained to them. Bike commuting is clearly a standard way of life in Toronto.

This is the first time I’ve ridden in a city where drivers are polite and give way to cyclists. You have the sense that bikes come first here. Yet Toronto, at 2.5 million residents, is the fifth most populous municipality in North America. It’s extraordinary that a city this size is able to cater so successfully to the everyday person on a bike.

Toronto gets it. Will we?