Cover of a program with text: WTS PUGET SOUND ANNUAL AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS GALA. Celebrating the people Making Waves in the Puget Sound transportation industry this past year. March 12, 2024, The Westin Seattle. The text sits above a stylized representation of waves in medium blue, light gray, green and white that swirls up at right to surround the WTS logo.

A Thrilling Night

Tuesday night brought an incredible event I have to capture: The Women in Transportation Seminar Puget Sound chapter named me Woman of the Year! I want to share my comments from the stage, or at least the version I had…Continue Reading

An old black and white photo showing two Black women and two Black men posing with bicycles. The women are wearing high-collared white blouses with dark mid-calf skirts (or possibly bloomers). The men are wearing dark suits. All four are wearing hats and looking straight at the camera.

Bike Books I Recommend: Women on Wheels

Women’s emancipation* and the history of bicycling go hand in handlebars. I’ve had the privilege of meeting so many outstanding women leaders in the movements for better bicycling and safer streets; I just wish each and every one of them…Continue Reading

Photo taken looking into a car's rearview mirror showing the side of the car and a unset on a flat horizon behind, with the headlights of another car some distance back.

How We Get Where We’re Going: Transportation Poems

I’m beginning to think I’m editing a poetry book, what with all these poems on transportation I’m collecting. The images of being on a journey, the physical acts involved with driving or riding a motorcycle, the human relationships and interactions…Continue Reading

No Thanks for No Sidewalks!

You know what people who drive can take for granted 100% of the time? Having a system of roads connected all the way from starting point to destination. I can start from my driveway in Olympia and go all the…Continue Reading

Shared Streets: A Vision

Years ago in Spokane, I saw the future of bicycling and human-centered transportation on an outing with my family, and it looked great. Here’s what I saw: People of all ages, stages, sizes and colors putting up with each other’s…Continue Reading

Graphic of Intercity Transit System Map. Routes are color-coded to distinguish one line with 15-minute service from other lines that have 30-minute or 60-minute service.

Thank Heavens for Kind Strangers and Transit

Ride #1 of 2024: Sunny, happy, delightful. Ride #2 of 2024: The reason I’m glad Olympia has transit. A few days after ride #1 I set off in the sunshine for a trip to a meeting with Lee Lambert, executive…Continue Reading

Photo of octagonal green wire bike cage. Inside several bikes hang vertically. One door is open with a peach-colored bike sticking out at an angle with a blue bag on the front handlebars.

First Ride of 2024

Today I pedaled along East Bay Drive, smiling because I was riding my bike in the sunshine. So far this month we’ve had days of rain interspersed with sun and I’ve been getting in some long walks in Squaxin Park.…Continue Reading

Image of a penny farthing bicycle (the kind with the giant front wheel and tiny back wheel) against a blue sky with the words Hello January! above it in a typeface that resembles the shapes of a penny farthing.

Riding Down Memory Lane: January

Some blog posts are evergreen, some a flashback to events I haven’t thought about in quite a while. Rolling back through the archives, month by month, yields this round-up of posts written in Januaries past. This isn’t every last January…Continue Reading

2023 Greatest Hits (and ones that should be)

Some posts roll, some get a flat tire not long after they head out into the world. I write to share thoughts and information, not to try for a huge following, but it’s still instructive to review which posts gain…Continue Reading

Cover of a book. White background, big black block letters BIKE ART, below that the subtitle in smaller letters, Bicycles in Art Around the World. At right, an image of a mass of leafy growth covering someone riding a bicycle, all rendered in shades of a medium-dark purple.

Think of this list as the liberal arts major roundup on my bookcase. I keep my bike books sorted in categories: travel, history, policy. And then there’s this group of books that got shelved together in part because some are…Continue Reading

Alas, you can't see how the two peachy pieces on top complement each other. But you can see the snow on the ground. Luckily I don't have to ride in it with my skinny tires!

Riding Down Memory Lane: December

Don’t assume December will be too wet, cold, icy or snowy to ride. Even living in the four-season climate in Spokane I often rode on bare, dry roads in md-December. If you have the right clothing to go for a…Continue Reading