Column: Breakfast’s goal is to unify area bike commuters
The Herald Sun
February 24, 2005
“Bicycle Commuters Unite” says the flier Alison Carpenter has been passing out recently. She’s trying to get the word out about Durham’s first Bicyclist Breakfast.
From 7:30AM until 9AM Friday, bicycle commuters will be stopping by Ooh La Latte Coffeehouse, 1116 Broad St., on their way to work.
Who’s invited? Anyone who loves bikes.
Carpenter, Durham’s new Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Coordinator, hopes the get-together will become a regular monthly event, something to bring “cohesion, solidarity to the downtown [bike] commuting group.”
Bikers’ breakfasts have been successful in towns like Charlotte and Boston, and are as much about diversity as about unity. That’s because people rides bikes for a lot of reasons. About the only thing they’ll all have in common tomorrow is a love of the bicycle. That and helmet-hair.
Bicycle commuters, simply by virtue of their mode of transit, are often seen as self-reliant people. Solitary figures, hunched over their handlebars, negotiating with tons of steel for a few feet’s width of pavement. It’s an image to make Ralph Waldo Emerson proud.
But it’s no fun to bear the weighty burden of autonomy all the time. Aristotle, recognizing us as social animals, characterizes the most meaningful life as one with elements of both self-reliance and friendship. Sometimes even the independent folks want a little company.
What’s on the agenda?
“Eat, drink, be merry, and talk about bikes, of course,” says Carpenter. Actually, there is no agenda. It’s not a meeting; the Bikers’ Breakfast is just an excuse to meet some of your fellow cyclists and ponder the big questions in life: aluminum or carbon fiber? (”Steel is real” someone shouts out from the back.) Fox Forx or Marzocchis? A backpack or a messenger bag? In the interest of getting to work on time, however, we may have to agree to disagree.
So stop by tomorrow morning, refuel with caffeine, conversation, and camaraderie, then head on to work knowing that you’re part of a community.
Column: TTA has rescue plan for bikers
The Herald Sun
February 10, 2005
On the one day you forget to carry a spare tube, patch kit, or pump in your pack you feel your front tire roll unsteadily around corners.
You arrive at work as the remaining useful psi’s escape with that dreaded hiss. A shard from the broken bottle on the side of the road that you didn’t see until the last minute, catches the sunlight from where it sits halfway in your tire.
Anxiety over being stranded at work by a flat tire, a broken chain, or unscheduled overtime is a big reason that people don’t try bike-commuting.
Until recently, cyclists had to rely on sympathetic co-workers or their own wallets/purses to get them home. But now, if you register for the Triangle Transit Authority’s Emergency Ride Home program, TTA’s got your back.
Here’s how it works: TTA issues registered users a voucher good for “a reliable, emergency ride home on the day the person has used an alternative mode of transportation to get to work.” When you find yourself stranded, call one of the transportation providers that TTA has partnered with — a taxi if your ride home is less than 20 miles, a car rental if it’s more than 20 — and the voucher is your payment.
It’s that simple. But you have to be a registered user, so sign up now. Don’t wait until there’s an emergency.
TTA’s not just there in emergencies; they’re helping bikers get just about everywhere they need to go with a bike rack on the front of every bus. The $1.50 fare (going up to $2.00 in March) will get you and your bike anywhere within the Authority’s region of coverage — from Franklin St. in Chapel Hill to New Bern Ave. in downtown Raleigh, from Duke to Garner.
Since DATA, Chapel Hill Transit, and CAT also have bike racks on the fronts of their buses, you can use TTA to travel between towns and the municipal systems to travel within them.
But most of the time, the greatest help to a cyclist isn’t a lift in an automobile, it’s camaraderie.
If you’re looking for someone to ride with on those cold mornings, TTA has partnered with Share the Ride NC to help you find other cyclists who share a similar route and destination.
Linking from TTA’s website, you can access Share the Ride NC’s database of bicycle commuters interested in sharing their morning or evening commute with other two-wheeled companions.
Commuters enter basic information like starting point, destination, and approximate time you leave or arrive at work. The program matches you with other cyclists in your area.
Besides, a good riding buddy will carry spare tubes and pumps even when you forget yours.
Route maps, fare information, and registration forms are all available on TTA’s website. You can also request registration forms by calling 919-549-9999.
Column: Railroad plan no boost to bikes
The Herald Sun
By choice, Caleb Southern doesn’t own a car. He lives and works downtown, walking just about everywhere he needs to go. You might think, then, that he’d be excited about the N.C. Railroad Co.’s proposal to close the railroad crossing at Blackwell and Corcoran streets to automobile traffic. In place of the street-level crossing, the railroad has proposed a 65-foot wide pedestrian underpass.
Southern adamantly opposes the plan.
“I believe the best solution,” to the imminent increase in train traffic at this crossing “is to improve the Blackwell Street railroad crossing at grade.”
Many readers of this column have asked for my opinion as a cyclist. I agree with Southern that closing the crossing to cars is not in downtown’s best interests. Nor the best interests of Durham’s cycling community.
Here’s why.
I’m not sure where it comes from, but there is an assumption that cyclists and drivers are at odds with one another. Occasionally, a driver resents slowing down to pass a cyclist, and sure there is a small but sometimes vocal community of cyclists who proclaim that gasoline consumption is tantamount to global devastation. But for the most part cyclists and drivers are happy to share the road with one another. Think about it, most cyclists are also drivers.
Sharing the road is what urban cycling is all about. A well-designed street is one that keeps traffic - in all modes of transportation - flowing smoothly and safely.
Many Durham residents have long complained that the downtown loop impedes downtown’s ability to attract businesses because the loop diverts traffic around the district. City transportation planners have listened and rethought downtown’s streets.
For example, the city plans to realign the Foster/Corcoran Street, Chapel Hill Street intersection. Coupled with this will be a new bicycling route through downtown. The Downtown Trail will connect the South Ellerbee Creek Trail with the American Tobacco Trail. It will follow Foster and Corcoran, cross the railroad tracks, and continue on Blackwell Street.
I believe downtown’s renaissance depends on growing downtown from the center, out. As I’ve said before, Durham is already a city divided into bike-friendly islands. Closing the Corcoran/Blackwell railroad separates downtown physically and visually from its newest resource - the American Tobacco Campus.
As Southern says, the railroad company’s “plan will clearly impede the continuity of the Downtown Trail for cyclists and pedestrians and further separate the two sides of the tracks.” Finding an attractive and safe street-level solution will unify Durham’s downtown and preserve the flow of Durham’s contribution to the East Coast Greenway - the 2000-plus mile cycling trail from Maine to Florida. If cycling traffic at the railroad crossing is disrupted in any way, Durham may lose its best opportunity for bicycle tourism.
The proposed closure of the railroad crossing shows that cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians share more than the road; we also share the desire to get from here to there as safely and efficiently as possible.
Column: Falling just a beneficial part of bicycling
Phillip Barron
The Herald-Sun
January 11, 2005 9:09 am
DURHAM — All cyclists have stories about accidents: the first time, the worst time, the most recent time. Falling, in my opinion, is just part of cycling. For the most part, especially if you’re wearing your helmet, falling isn’t so bad. It gives you the chance to get back up.
On the way to work a few months ago, a familiar corner of the last 50 yards of my commute revealed itself as unfamiliar. Rounding the corner, I tried to keep as much speed as possible for the climb up the steep hill on the other side. The corner, a sharp right turn, is the only thing standing between me and the momentum I need to coast up at least a quarter of the hill. My 9-mile commute is not hard, but by the time I get to this hill, my feet are heavy.
Seeing how fast I can take the corner is one of the risks I take to challenge myself on my way to work. Every morning I go a little faster, lean the bike a little more, and make myself a little more vulnerable. But, this morning, I rode a little too fast or leaned a little too far. It was tropical storm season, and the suddenly clear blue sky belied the fact that it had rained persistently for three days. Although the roads were dry, under the canopy of the trees the trail was still wet.
Wet pavement, hit at an angle and with enough speed, can be slick as ice. It doesn’t take much mud, wet grass, or algae slime to pull a wheel out from under you. Especially if you’re braking into the turn. I should have finished braking before the turn, so that I could accelerate through it. But, my confidence was off and I was still braking while turning. Probably because I was afraid of falling.
The front tire slipped first. The bottom of the front wheel kicked out and to the left. The rest of the bike, not prepared to follow the front wheel’s new direction and keep a 200-pound rider on top, laid down on its right side. By the time the rear wheel was sliding, the handlebars hit the path, bounced, and skidded down the hill. The bike came to a stop about 15 feet away from where the front tire slipped. With a smoothly worn bar-end, the bike faired better than I.
I slid across the pavement on it. The sliding didn’t hurt, even though skin was tearing. It hurt only afterward. While you’re falling and sliding on pavement, it’s almost like it’s not happening to you. You don’t have time to think or feel.
When I stood up, I began to feel. Yeah, my shoulder hurt from the jarring impact, but it didn’t dislocate. Yeah, my hip hurt from slamming into pavement, but I had no trouble walking. Yeah, I was bleeding from my elbow, but not badly considering what just happened.
What I felt most was relief. Relief that I was OK; that my fears didn’t come true. Later, I was even glad that I had fallen. I felt like I had accomplished something important.
As we age, we grow more fragile. We lose the adept strength, flexibility, and elasticity of our childhood physiques. But our habits accelerate the biological inevitability of aging. We are less active as adults than we are as children. We value play less; we value physical activity less. We surround ourselves with safety features like airbags, surge protectors, carbon monoxide detectors and surveillance cameras. For many of us if we play, we tend to play it safe.
This is something to think about. We’re not just growing more fragile as we grow older, we’re also growing more conservative. Some of us take fewer risks because we see risk as a health care liability or a threat to job security.
What are we afraid of? Maybe we’re afraid of falling because we don’t fall often enough. We fear falling when we forget that falling is about healing, about recovering, about learning.
If we fell more, we’d be a little bruised, maybe a little bloody, a little more sore. But, we’d be better prepared for what comes next. Where we fall and bounce back, where we risk and succeed, where we work through fear, that’s where we find meaning in life.
CHANGE
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