[oldbikechick]

They should be careful that the balance bike is big enough if they decide to get one. We had one, but it was too small for our daughter by the time she was four, even with the seat adjusted up as high as it would go.

[oldbikechick]

I think another big issue is that people think of cyclists as crazy, or at least see cyclists doing things that they would consider crazy, such as riding in the dark, or in bad weather, or on a very busy road. So, they may consciously or unconsciously have the attitude that “well, they are doing something crazy, they get what they deserve if they crash, get hit, etc.” I think this problem is only helped by there being more cyclists around doing these things, which would make it seem more normal. It also doesn’t help when cyclists do really crazy things, like speed through red lights and stop signs without a glance, or weaving between cars, etc.

[oldbikechick]

@Steve O 97154 wrote:

When I lived in Center City Philadelphia, there were many households without cars. These “city carts” were common for carting groceries and other stuff. Given it’s only 1/2 mile, that’s within easy walking distance. And, unlike your bike, you can dispatch your spouse to the grocery with it, too!
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Those carts are awesome! I spent a lot of my life not having a car, or even a bike. When I first came to DC I used to walk to the grocery store with a backpack and ration my purchases of heavy things. I once moved apartments by bike, not because it was cool or trendy, but because I only had a bike. Luckily they were furnished apartments, but it still took many trips. The next time I moved, I had a paying job and was able to rent a car. There are definitely many ways to be creative and use your own two feet or two wheels if you don’t have a car. But, I do have a car now, so…. Of course, in those old lean car-less days, I was also at my fittest. Hmmm.

[oldbikechick]

So, speaking as a former female bike commuter and temporarily stay at home mom, to me it comes down to the infrastructure, the choices you make (ie. make some compromises to live close to work or not), culture and kid duties. I am not a die-hard by any means, I bike only when it makes sense, but I take into account the exercise, fresh air and mental re-charging I get from biking into the equation. Taking all that into account, it almost always made sense to commute to work by bike – takes the same amount of time and my alternative is public transportation. I also only had myself to worry about crashing, freezing, etc. On the occasions that I had kid drop-off duty on the way to work however, the equation changed. Safety and comfort standards increased a lot. The timing did not work out. I could not make the equation add up and I always drove to drop off, although then I biked from free parking to my office Saving $18 a day in parking definitely supports the biking equation.

Now that I am home, I bike to and from pre-school when it makes sense – ie. the weather is decent and I’m not running terribly late. I feel a pang of guilt every time however since there is one small unavoidable section of the route that worries me in terms of safety. I would not think twice about it on my own, but with the precious cargo back there, I’d rather there were fewer cars and more separation. More Dutch-like infrastructure and enforcement would help the equation here. However, MOST times going to the grocery store, for me it makes sense to drive so I can carry all the stuff back, so I do, even though it is only 1/2 mile away. I learned my lesson during freezing saddles when I decided to ride to the grocery store “to pick up a few things” and could not fit it all in the panniers and ended up careening back through the neighborhood with several grocery bags swinging to and fro on the handlebars hoping none of the neighbors could see me.

I think in the Netherlands people are only biking when it makes sense as well, but with way better infrastructure and a biking culture thrown into the equation. Everyone grows up biking (no school buses!) so biking is naturally considered as a viable option. The infrastructure is great, and with the urban set up (denser towns, more difficult parking) biking often makes more sense. But when it doesn’t makes sense to bike, I don’t think anyone thinks twice about driving if it’s an option or taking a cab, or whatever other option works best.

As for the premise that it’s our US work-life balance and lack of a living wage that is the issue, I had to chuckle at that logic putting cycling at the center of the universe (would it be a “Pedalemaic system?”). The idea that to improve the numbers of women on bikes we need to basically solve all our social ills in the US seems to look at things a bit backwards. It would be great to solve all those issues, and maybe it would also have some good side effects, like getting more people on bikes.

[oldbikechick]

It was a really fun ride! It was great to listen to the kids as they rode along exclaiming as they passed each monument or cool feature. “ooh, look at this river/bridge/tunnel/Washington monument (or “the pencil” as it is known to my youngest)” Thanks so much for organizing.

Here are a few pics[ATTACH=CONFIG]6630[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]6631[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]6632[/ATTACH]

[oldbikechick]

Thanks everyone for the ideas!

[oldbikechick]

This is what the “bike shop” looked like where I spent the summer at the beach in Turkey. People park their cars outside of the beach community and everyone bikes or walks around inside the community, so there are bikes of every kind in every state of disrepair (and it is awesome!). This guy keeps them all running. His shop is a clearing in the woods. If you look closely, there’s a carpet that he uses as his work surface. There’s a hammock for slow periods and a huge pile of junk bikes for parts. He charged us $5 to repair a flat and adjust a brake while we waited. When the patch didn’t take, we brought the bike back the next day and he re-did it for free and delivered the bike back to our house. I will miss this place!
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[oldbikechick]

My commute is not long or strenuous (8 miles downhill on the way in) so I’ve never had a problem eating after I get to work, shower, etc. I also think your body gets used to whatever you do. I found I don’t get hungry until my usual time to eat. However, once I get hungry, nobody better get in between me and my breakfast!

[oldbikechick]

+1 for preparing the panniers the night before (although for me that was less for motivation and more for not forgetting something essential).
+1 for riding even when feeling crummy and realizing that as soon as I leave home/office and get into fresh air, I feel much better. 9 times out of 10 riding the bike makes me feel better.
+1 for biking being preferable to the alternative. I hate riding metro and when I bail and ride the metro, I always regret it.

The challenge is if the alternative is not so bad. The alternative to my previous bike commute was a drive that was shorter than my bike ride and I had free parking. Plus, my bike commute was kind of lame, along a busy road choked with stop and go traffic and lots of fumes and capped by a very steep hill to get to my office building. It was hard to motivate for that. What I ended up doing was finding a different route and that was a game-changer. With just slightly more distance, I had a fabulously picturesque commute through farms (horses! sunflowers! stone hedges!), a 500- year old village, and if conditions were right, I would come around a corner and see glacier-capped Mont Blanc in the distance. That route was worth getting up earlier and making the additional effort to bike.

[oldbikechick]

Sorry to have missed this last ride – looks like fun! We could do the Father’s Day ride as long as it is not a requirement to have a dad with us (since he is otherwise engaged that day)

[oldbikechick]

I’m pretty sure there is an evil bike sensor on the light at the intersection of Yorktown Blvd and N. Harrison St (at the bottom of a hill).. The light always turns red when it senses a bike approaching so you cannot use any of the momentum from coming down the hill to help you up the next hill. The designer of this sensor must be the same person who put “bike routes” on the hilliest streets in North Arlington…

[oldbikechick]

Is anyone interested in a coffee club on the later side, say starting at 9:30? A PPDOCC (post preschool drop-off coffee club) at Buzz Bakery in Ballston? It’s long shot but I figured it’s worth a try since it is a coffee club of one right now

[oldbikechick]

@lordofthemark 86533 wrote:

I take it to mean that as soon as the ped signal turns white, I can go IN THE GENERAL TRAVEL LANE. I try to do that (though the LPI is so short, at least at places where this benefits me like Eye and South Cap, typically by the time I have actually started rolling forward the traffic light is green) and I do not consider that I am doing an Idaho.

I used to do this at the intersection of 14th St and C St SW where there is a generous LPI to cross 14th. I did so from the travel lane so as to not ride on the sidewalk to get to the crosswalk since it is a gauntlet of people exiting doors and parking garages. Until one day a colleague witnessed it and was horrified at the scofflaw death-defying stunt (which to her looked like going through a red light at a busy intersection). So, I went back to the truly death-defying stunt of riding down the sidewalk, or waiting for the green light in the traffic lane and turning onto what is essentially a highway on-ramp together with three lanes worth of cars. Now that I know it is actually NOT scofflaw behavior, I will go back to shocking my colleagues!

[oldbikechick]

Back in my day, my parents made the local paper for taking the family on vacation by bike (it was a very small town). Everyone pretty much thought they were crazy. We wore no helmets and we rode on the shoulder of the road for 150 miles over 3 days. I was 10 and I had a blast. Not sure how much fun it was for my parents though since we never did another bike vacation after that As a parent myself now I can appreciate the level of planning that must have gone into it, especially in the days before internet.

[oldbikechick]

@Geoff 82832 wrote:

This must be why some people avoid crossing there at all costs.

Yes, this is the main reason for me. A pedestrian was actually killed while waiting to cross at the crossing, by a vehicle that was swerving to avoid cars that had stopped. She wasn’t even in the crosswalk! http://www.arlnow.com/2011/04/20/jogger-hit-by-truck-on-gw-parkway-dies/

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