Friday Five
Five cycling links for the week.
Action Man
Today is a high activity day:
- Cycle to work.
- Yoga.
- Cycle home.
- Cycle to the dojo.
- Practice. (Both classes?)
- Cycle home.
Total miles: 25
Falls taken: many (but not from the bike)
Unclipping
Barbara found a piece by Grant Petersen asserting that the benefits to using clipless pedals and cycling shoes are largely illusory, and that there are tangible benefits of not using these devices.
Being retrogrouchy myself, though not, perhaps, to the same degree as Grant or Barbara, I listened to Barbara's summary, then went back to read the article myself.
As an aside, I think the term retrogrouch was coined by the cycling community, but the Urban Dictionary allows it to be applied more generally. I realized that there's a certain retrogrouchiness about my black terminal window, command pipelines, text-based email client, and text editor. But back to the actual topic...
Repeitive stress injury, Barbara intones ominously. Bad knees!
Okay, my knees crackle a bit, and there was that time we thought Barbara was going to have to summon the Coast Guard to pluck me of the cliffs on the Cornwall coastline, but on the whole I don't think my knees are that bad.
What's more, I think Grant overstates the risk of repetitive stress injury as a result of clipless pedals, at least with regard to knees. Even if my feet move around a little, my knees are still doing the same thing and undergoing the same stresses over and over. The trick is keeping the knees aligned with the feet, and this is more about proper frame size and seat height than about being clipped in. So basically, [citation needed].
What I tend to agree with, though, is the idea that special clothes are not required for day-to-day riding. Today, I commuted in regular shorts, a cotton t-shirt, and shoes with no cleats. In fact, I took extra care not to kill myself, or treat my commute like a time trial. I used a lower gear, spent more time coasting, and didn't not actively overtake other cyclists like I usually do. The result wasn't too surprising: I got to work in about the same amount of time.
I have developed the habit of wearing cycling-specific clothes to commute in, like a wicking jersey and cycling shoes and shorts, figuring, since I'm going to change clothes anyway, I might as well wear clothes designed for the activity. Well, my Brooks saddle is more comfortable without the chamois between it and me, at least for six miles, about the distance of my commute, so why bother with shorts? Eliminating cycling shoes means I don't have to carry shoes to change into (or keep a pair in my locker), which makes the logistical gymnastics simpler—a good thing.
Learning About Moving Around
Lincoln is not LA or NYC, but we share some concerns. The scales may not be the same, but the issues are similar.
A planner talks about transportation issues and bringing about change:
LA and Lincoln share an entrenched auto-centric culture, both in their citizens and public officials. People desire the freedom provided by automobiles: freedom of time and freedom of location. You can go where you want, when you want. Particularly elected officials are sensitive to this, because their constituency may not care for public transit or transportation reform, even if that is the best thing for the city.
It was interesting to here Ms. Whitaker's opinion that traffic engineers cling to the status quo. We can't change because we've done it this way for so long.
Also, the idea that providing free parking encourages auto-based transport was something I hadn't really considered before. In fact it's a feedback loop: the vast parking lots we use to store our vehicles as we move around cause destination structures to be farther apart, making it more attractive to get to them by auto, requiring parking.
She also talks about improvement by baby steps
. Like she did,
I want to see world-changing improvements, but those are unlikely to
happen, either because of expense or just because they are out of the
mainstream. Small changes, though, can make things better, too, and over
time, they add up to big changes.
(How much time do we have, though?)
An ethicist talks about the imporantance of livable streets
:
...[I]f you live anywhere but a few cities and you want a quart of
milk, you have to take the car.
Lincoln is one of those cities
where, in general, you currently have to take the car.
Mr. Cohen describes indiscriminate use of cars as selfish
for
various reasons, but the question for us is, in Lincoln, what other
choices do we have? We aren't as compact as Manhattan, with neighborhood
groceries, etc., and we don't have the public transportation system
enjoyed by some other municipalities.
Discussion of the parking placards used by officials in NYC allowing them to park wherever they care to reminds me of some of our elected officials and their attitude toward bus service and public transportation. In New York, officials may not perceive parking and pedestrian friendliness as high-priority issues because they typically drive from place to place, and can park wherever they care to. Members of Lincoln's City Council may not put stock in public transportation simply because it's not useful to them.
No solutions here, just questions to think about.
Bachelor Weekend
I'm pleased to report that my butt did not grow into the couch while I watched DVDs over the weekend while Barbara is away, as was predicted by some. [Cough!]
Our first arguably spring-like day happened Saturday, so I took the opportunity to get out on the bicycle. After getting a few chores done around the house, I used it as incentive to actually go to work and get ahead of the curve on an imminent deadline.
Though I usually prefer heat and sweat, it was a nearly ideal day for cycling. Pleasantly cool, nice breezes (especially when I was headed north instead of south), and sunlight. On the way home, I bumped into Oliver Banta on the Rock Island Trail; he's apparently taken up road cycling fairly seriously. I'll have to watch for him now, because he told me he's seen me commuting. I was embarassed that I had not recognized him. I managed not to bump into the folks strolling on the path who insist on stopping to chat with people they know blocking both lanes of the trail.
Barbara's in South Carolina, visiting her mother who is undergoing treatment for cancer. I would have liked to gone along, but the situation at the office is such that it's hard for me to take the kind of time away that Barbara wanted to spend with her parents.
On Sunday, a cat I have never seen before appeared on our back porch soliciting hand-outs. At first I thought it was Lorenzo, but this fellow's stripes were more black and gray, less tan. In fact, he looked very much like Penelope (aka Dr. Girlfriend), whom we took to Milwaukee to be adopted by Kelly and James, right down to the distinctive shape of his head.
He was neither collared nor neutered.
I tried to make friends and get a picture of him, but he was too skittish—probably not domesticated. Lorenzo was none too happy that he was around either, and that didn't help things. I managed to stay between them so no fight broke out while the other guy made his way off of Lorenzo's primary territory, but there was growling and hissing all the way. Fortunately, Lorenzo elected to return to the back porch instead of giving chase when the other guy finally ran off.