Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition

Gary Brustin spoke last Thursday about Bicycling and the Law, and I have to say it was a really great talk. I personally learned a lot, and I took some notes to share with folks who couldn’t make it (make sure to come next time!).

I turned off the unregistered commenting. There seems to be a flurry of spam activity coming out of Russia, and our comment queue was filling up and making it difficult to find legit comments. So, for the moment it will be off.

If I hear that some folks really, really want to comment without registering an account on the site, then I will consider setting up something like reCAPTCHA.

For those of you who want to subscribe to RSS feeds and are not using a feed aware web browser, I just put up a page that contains the useful feeds on the site.

http://bikesiliconvalley.org/syndication

As it says there, those aren't the only feeds on the site. Whenever there is a list of posts somewhere a feed is generated. You can find those feeds by looking for the orange RSS button at the bottom of the navigation bar.

For those of you that weren't able to attend Saturday's Memorial unveiling ceremony in Cupertino, here's a bit of what I said and some other thoughts...

"This was a very tragic incident. Although in some ways it was a freak occurrence it did highlight that even a law-enforcement professional, a person whose job it is to protect the public, considered it OK to get into his car and drive, even though he had gotten little sleep, and was extremely fatigued. This is so typical of our attitudes about driving... that it takes no effort and requires minimal concentration... that we can do it while talking on the phone, playing with our iPods, combing our hair, eating a sandwich... we can practically do it in our sleep...

SVBC has set out on the daunting task of trying to change this attitude with our "Share the Road" Campaign. As part of the campaign we aim to educate motorists to understand the legal rights of bicyclists, and to understand how vulnerable cyclists are, how important it is to drive with your full attention, and to recognize that a bicyclist could be on any road, just around the next bend..."

I did not know Matt and Kristy, but as cyclists we all share a bond knowing the intense joy, and vulnerability of being a cyclist. Anyone who was present Saturday can vouch that I had a hard time keeping it together when I stepped up to the podium. It didn't help that Cupertino's Mayor Dolly Sandoval, herself in tears, invited me up to speak right after we heard from the families of Matt and Kristy. It also didn't help that Kristy's Grandfather was in attendance, for a dedication of a Memorial to his Granddaughter, something that just seemed to amplify the depth of the tragedy. It further didn't help that, looking out into the crowd, I saw nothing but a sea of tears, a majority of them dripping down onto bright yellow Roaring Mouse jerseys, a sea of crying cyclists looking at me and perhaps secretly hoping that I'd come to tell them that this was all a joke and that Matt and Kristy would be riding up momentarily to join us for a ride up Montebello Road. And of course, it really didn't help that the backdrop for this whole scene was a perfect, crisp fall morning, in a gorgeous location, on a road I started riding when I was in Middle School and have easily ridden over a hundred times since. The whole event was just so unbelievably tragic and sad, and would have never had to happen if things had transpired just a tiny bit differently on that Spring morning earlier this year.

Please be safe out on the road folks, whether you're in your car, or on your bike. Pay attention, and if you're tired, don't drive! Goodness, I don't want to do another one of these.

Photo by Bill Bushnell, full copyright.

My buddy Steven Brewster in the SJ Office of Economic Development just sent me an interesting piece about the different cycling cultures in NYC:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/09/fashion/20081009_BIKES_index...

I have always prided myself on being able to hang out with pretty much any type of cyclist and fit in fairly well--obviously a good quality to cultivate in my position. The racers have been the final frontier, really, and thanks to the Webcor cycling folks for inspiring me to cross that line.

A friend told me about this alleycat race presented by the Bike Kitchen: Tour de Cupcake!

I know we have a lot of health nuts conscious folks in the cycling community, and cupcakes may not be the best impetus to join... but that just leaves more for me!

Anyone else planning on attending? I would love to cruise around with some SVBCers and chow down on cupcakes. Sounds glorious! ^_^

Check their website for details 'n' stuff.

Some thoughts on the Bicycle Commuter Benefits Act, specifically it being part of the bailout package. Read more to hear the ranting of a web geek. ^_^

The disclaimer: Of course this is my opinion, and not that of SVBC, as it well should be. This is a weblog, not an official channel for SVBC policy. That being said, I would love to hear what you have to say on this subject, so make sure to leave a comment, okay? ^_^

Before we get into it, here is the video (embedded below), and here is the videographer's weblog set up around this event:

http://caltrain-arrest.blogspot.com/

It is a little over 7:00 minutes. I'll wait.

Okay, did ya get all that? Groovy.

All the discussion in the last few months about bicycles aboard Caltrain got me thinking. What is the real potential? How many cyclists could potentially use Caltrain? I decided to a little investigating.

You can add your photo to your account, and it will show up on your profile and next to comments you make. And it supports Gravatar, as well!