Bike to Work Day 2018

6:30 in the morning at the Shirlington "pit stop" for Bike to Work Day in Arlington, VA

I was surprised to read in the Wikipedia entry on Bike to Work Day that it was created by the League of American Bicyclists in 1956. I would have guessed much more recently.


From BTWD ride in 2011 - it doesn't always rain on BTWD

I have a somewhat ambiguous relationship with BTWD - I commute almost religiously; that is, I hardly get to and from work any other way than by bicycle. In theory I want more people to ride because it is the logical thing to want, but I have found in fact that so far for my commute, increasing use of the Mount Vernon Trail in particular has not led to significant improvements in the trail's usability. Most of the asphalt is the same as it was 20+ years ago - and this isn't because it is aging well or that there is enough of it (in terms of the width of the trail in particular).

Also, my sense is that the DC area BTWD has had amazingly bad luck in terms of weather - that is, more often than not, it rains. And in fact it rained yesterday for BTWD 2018 and it was fairly steady and heavy enough to keep many from riding. I had signed up and stopped at the local "pit stop" in Shirlington to get a free BTWD 2018 t-shirt (as I did last year, when the weather was better) as a way of showing interest and support (I suppose). It is inspiring (or something along those lines) to see the volunteers there, even at 6:30 am when it started. I was amused to see a small "convoy" of riders there right as they opened. A few seemed underdressed to me, given that it was wet and not really May warmth. (This turned out to be a ride where at the start the rain was light, but over the 10 or so miles it got more and more heavy, to the point that upon arrival at work I was pretty well soaked. Fortunately I have my own office and it is fine to have a clothes line, more or less. Well - fine with me, anyway.)


Another slightly out-of-focus shot

I was glad to get my yellow BTWD 2018 t-shirt. During the past year I have been amused how many times I have seen people wearing the lavender colored BTWD 2017 t-shirt - amused that I recognized it, as much as anything. I suppose eventually they will give away the 2018 t-shirts somehow but I assume most were not picked up by riders on the way to work, because I think many people took a pass on riding yesterday. Still, a good souvenir of what was not a bad ride - it was just another ride. The rides - they're all good.

Copenhagenize: The Definitive Guide to Global Bicycle Urbanism (Book Review)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mikael Colville-Andersen has a strong set of views about urban cycling - I'm not sure I agree with all of them but it seems good to have a person able to voice a positive approach for urban cycling infrastructure and changes in attitudes so clearly.

http://www.copenhagenize.com/ the web site for Colville-Andersen's cycling infrastructure consulting company (in English) gives some flavor for what the book is like. Colville-Andersen is Danish but grew up in Canada, so he writes in English (as well as Danish . . .).


Photo of Copenhagen bicycle "superhighways" - CC license by Colville-Andersen from his Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine

Here is the table of contents - the book is in three sections.

Introduction
1. The Life-Sized City
2. Bicycle Urbanism by Design
3. The Bicycle's Role in Urban Life
4. The Redemocratization of Cycling
5. Taming the Bull in Society's China Shop

The Learning Curve
6. Copenhagen's Journey
7. Climaphobia and Vacuum-Packed Cities
8. Arrogance of Space
9. Mythbusting
10. Architecture
11. Desire Lines & Understanding Behavior
12. A Secret Cycling Language
13. A2Bism
14. The Art of Gathering Data

The Toolbox
15. Best-Practice Design & Infrastructure
16. Prioritizing Cycling
17. Design & Innovation
18. Cargo Bike Logistics
19. Curating Transferable Ideas
20. Communication & Advocacy

Conclusion


Colville-Andersen speaking at a TEDX conference, from Flickr user TEDx Zurich

Most of the positive examples are taken from Europe, with some mention of Japan. From north America, Montreal and Washington DC are mentioned the most - I don't think either Seattle or Portland OR are mentioned. (The book does not have an index.)

As an American who favors development of better infrastructure for cycling along the lines of what is described here, the distance we have to go to get there is distressing. Also, according to Colville-Andersen, as a bicycle nut I am not the ideal advocate - that advocacy for cycling does better when it comes from "regular" people. Hmm.

Much of the current DC area bike cycling measures do not meet Colville-Andersen's approval - in fact, the center-0f-the-road bidirectional cycle track on Pennsylvania Avenue is specifically taken as an example of what not to do - of what is done by people who think they know what to do but who have really really bad ideas. DC provides several other such examples, alas - I agree with his analysis completely.

It was fairly late in the book, but there is some discussion of "vehicular bicycling" which was a theory from the 1960s onward that advocated strongly for cyclists to use the same infrastructure as motorists - which he dismisses easily enough. He also has a brief discussion of e-bikes - he is generally not thrilled with their typical use at relatively high speeds, creating a new hazard for other cyclists and even more so for themselves.

There is a brief discussion of bikeshare as a good "last mile" measure but dockless bikeshare is so new (outside of China) that it isn't mentioned - suggesting to me at least that even though bicycles have been around for more than a hundred years, we are having a period of change or evolution. Interesting.

The books is readable. The author as noted has strong views, but doesn't (in my view) hit the reader too hard over the head with them.

An odd complaint - the typeface used in the text for the book has very fine lines and I discovered my lighting setup for reading in bed wasn't enough to let me read this book comfortably, which was a surprise. I felt it was a kind of ironic statement that a book that advocates simple intuitive designs in one area (urban cycling infrastructure design) failed the test of simple access this way, making the book more difficult to read because of some font-fashion decision. (I read a lot - this is an unusual problem for me to have.)

There is a lot here to try to get one's head around - I should likely read this again in a few months.


Photo of cargo bikes racing - CC license by Colville-Andersen from his Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine

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Crawford Bicycles Poster (1896)

Title-Ride a Crawford Bicycle
Summary-Young couple with bicycles pause by side of road.
Created / Published-1896.
Notes
- Chromolithograph by Strobridge & Co. Lith., Cincinnati-New York, 211 x 102 cm.
- This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Medium-1 print (poster).
Call Number/Physical Location POS - ADV. 19th c. - Bicycles. S778, no. 7 (in 3 parts) (D size) [P&P]
Repository-Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
www.loc.gov/item/2002719169/

The summer of 1896 was the height of the "bicycle craze" of the 1890s - a price range of $60 to $75 at that time was fairly good (that is, inexpensive) compared to Columbia bicycles that were offering their most expansive models for $100.

"For Health & Recreation" is an amusing slogan to feature on this poster, given that the couple seems mostly to be enjoying one another's company. Also, the width of the byway upon which they are traveling seems fanciful - not realistic one suspects for the time (or any time, in fact). Still, cyclists were (ahead of motorists, who didn't yet exist!) leaders in the "good roads" movement. Well - some cyclists along with some bicycle manufacturing companies. There had to be some good roads in order for the product to be useful.



A modest ad for Crawford Bicycles - see how it appeared here: archive.org/stream/cyclinglife00test#page/n759/mode/1up in "Cycling Life," a trade journal. This small ad ran frequently in 1896-1897.

Crawford Bicycles had its factory in nearby Hagerstown MD. (Nearby from the perspective of the Washington DC area.) In 1902 the Crawford brothers sold their bicycle business to a larger bicycle company and proceeded to start up an automobicle manufacturing company, Crawford Automobile.

Seattle PI Newspaper and Cycling in 1897

Newspaper sponsored cyclists riding from Seattle to SF

The Page devoted to cyclist interests in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer of 1897. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for 16 May 1897.

According to Biking Puget Sound (2nd edition) by Bill Thorness published in 2014 Seattle in 1900 had 55,000 residents and these 55,000 had 10,000 bicycles. Pretty impressive!

In looking at Seattle papers online, I see evidence of the interest in cycling with occasional full page coverage of the subject.

Here is the article's text:

SEATTLE TO SAN FRANCISCO

Arthur W. Whaliey, W. W. Ewing and Arnet Johnson, three well-known Seattle athletes, are now on their way to San Francisco by the pedal route. They left the city Friday afternoon at 2:45 o'clock on the steamer Flyer and commenced their long ride from Tacoma, intending to follow the telephone line to Portland. After leaving Portland the stumbling block will the Siskiyou mountains, but as their trip is not made on a wager or for the specific purpose of breaking down their constitutions by overexertion, they may be able to ride over the difficulties.

Prior to the completion of arrangements for the trip it was mutually understood that it was merely a pleasure jaunt, to end at San Francisco, providing the roads were !n good condition, and the riders did not play out. If the journey proves too hard a strain on one or all of them, they will take the first train and ride the remainder of the way, free from the companionship of the first relay of tramps.

The riders have followed the common-sense plan of reduicing the weight to be carried to the minimum. Every article that Is not absolutely necessary to their welfare has been discarded. In fact, the only supernumerary is a kodiak. which might be called a necessity tn this latter part of the nineteenth century.

The Hardmen: Legends and Lessons from the Cycling Gods (Book Review)

The Hardmen: Legends and Lessons from the Cycling Gods by The Velominati

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Apparently the idea is to celebrate tough guy cycling, mostly road racing figures, mostly (but not entirely) men. The point of view, according to the dust jack, is one of "(ir)reverance." Well, perhaps.

Each of the 38 chapters focuses on a particular cyclist. The chapters are not long enough to say that much. The tone is . . . well, it might be fine for a blog, but it seems a little much for a book.

I suppose as much as anything I was annoyed when the chapter about Rebecca Twigg said she attended Washington University in Seattle. Of for God's sake, it is the University of Washington. Washington University is not in Washington state. Geez.

There is a snarky attitude towards dopers such as Tyler Hamilton or Mr. Armstrong, but the casual thumbs-up, thumbs-down approach of the collective authors disregards the historical complexities of this topic. To take just one example, the same Rebecca Twigg won a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics in part because of admitted blood doping, which at the time was merely discouraged and not forbidden - the chapter doesn't mention this.

The intent of the book seems good, and the person chosen seem interesting enough, but the execution could have been better.

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"Bike" or "Bicycle" or Weak Automated Recognition

If you search for "bike" in the Library of Congress materials in Flickr, there is a considerable amount of noise. It seems to be a result of Flickr's automated recognition of certain things and automated adding of tags that is often incorrect when it identifies "bikes" in particular.



The tags for the above photo added by Flickr include "bike" and "vehicle."



Again, "bike" and "vehicle" (and also "outdoors)" - it appears it is the spokes that confuse things.



A motorcycle is arguably a kind of bike - tags added by Flickr here were again "vehicle" and "bike."



This is in fact a bicycle - this photo has same automated tags "vehicle" and "bike."

If however you search for "bicycle" in the Library of Congress metadata, a different, but complementary, pattern emerges.



As with many photographs in Flickr of bicycles, the spokes are not that visible. Here there is no automated added tag for either "vehicle" or "bike." Instead there is a tag that was manually added for "bicycle" providing access. And in fact, the overlap between items with both "bike" and "bicycle" is quite small, only 14 items and for several of those, both the "bike" and "bicycle" tags were manually added.

In conclusion - searching for historic photographs of bikes and bicycles can be a noisy process.

"Bicycle Riding in the District Runs Back Quite a Number of Years"

"High Wheels Launched Bicycle Riding in the District - Stories of Early Experts are Recalled by Washingtonians Who Admired Their Skill, Century Runs, Hill-Climbing and Rough-Riding Contests Between Popular Events for Young People"

Newspaper article from the Washington Evening Star Newspaper from 1929. Article starts on this page, filling the entire page, and continues to the next page, also taking up the entire page.


Illustration with article showing an early member of the Capital Bicycle Club with a "high wheel" bicycle

From the article:

Credit is given to Charles G. W. Krauskopf for introducing the modern bicycle in Washington in 1878 This machine was known as the “Ariels," and had double spokes and 46-inch wheels. With a desire to learn something more about this pioneer rider, the City Directory was consulted, and the only per son of this name found was Charles G. Krauskopf, who kept a hotel and restaurant at the corner of Tenth and E streets northwest, over which he resided. He had obtained the machine from the British vice consul stationed at Baltimore.

Naturally Krauskopf was kidded and guyed as he rode the “new steed” through the streets. But the bicycle had come to stay, and .it was not long before William C. Scribner ceased managing the Gazette, at 931 D street northwest. and opened a bicycle store around the corner at 1108 E street, and if he was not the first one in the city to engage in this business, he at least was one of the earliest.

Though Krauskopf was the subject of much chaffing and joking, yet it was not long before he had company, and soon other Washingtonians became infatuated with the vehicle which was to become so immensely popular in such a brief space of time.

Soon Frank G. Wood, Max Hansmann, Fred D. Owen. L. P. Einolf, Herbert S. Owen and Louis N. Jesungofsky were proudly riding the silent steed, and it was these gentlemen, with Mr. Krauskopf. who organized the Capital Bicycle Club on January 31, 1879.

So the first "modern" (that is, high wheel, or penny farthing, type of bicycle appeared in Washington 140 years ago. And the first DC bicycle club the following year.


Another illustration from the same page, from 1897 - showing DC cycling history