Image of the band Queen with their faces highlighted against a black background. Below it the words "Queen-Bicycle Race".

Bike Song Playlist: Tunes to Get You Rolling

No, I’m not talking about songs to elevate your heart rate while you work on your cadence. I’m talking about songs that celebrate the bicycle and riding for any old reason. What favorite would you add? Mark Ronson, The Business…Continue Reading

#Coffeeneuring 2023: Success!

I mean, how hard is it really to go for a bike ride and get some coffee? Seven times in just over six weeks. With no more than two trips per week. Always to a different venue. OK, so, yes,…Continue Reading

Photo of a path through flat, empty land with hills and pinkish clouds in the distance ahead. Text on the photo: “If you are in a bad mood go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk.” – Hippocrates

Walking Poems

“Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.” –Steven Wright Walking comes up so often in poems it’s nearly a cliché. Poems inspired by taking a walk. Poems about things noticed on a walk. Odes to walking, the original…Continue Reading

Wheeling Sea to Sound, Day Three

Day three: A delightful finale to a thoroughly delightful Sea to Sound ride! One notable difference between this and many large bike events: There wasn’t any emphasis on finishing quickly, or first, or at all, if that wasn’t within your…Continue Reading

Wheeling Sea to Sound, Day Two

A longer, harder day, and a new perspective from which to view a trail: That was Day Two. Longer and harder meant 27 miles with a lot more climbing. That’s where Zelda the e-bike shines, though. Both yesterday and today…Continue Reading

Photo of folding bike with bags on back rack parked in front of giant metal sculptures of a banjo. In the background, stairs and escalator in front of glass walls and a high cement ceiling.

Setting My Own Pace

Bicycling offers a unique combination of attributes in the array of transportation modes: The ability to choose your pace while getting places efficiently. This came to mind as I pedaled slowly home from an appointment that I had pedaled toward…Continue Reading

Photo of a man and two children with darker skin walking down a dirt road lined with trees on either side. All 3 are wearing dark shorts and light-colored shirts and the sun is shining. At the bottom, text with a quotation from Ram Dass: We are all just walking each other home.

Why I Walk

This post first ran on my personal blog, BikeWalkBake Barb, where I’ve been chronicling my walking habits. Since I’ve been writing about multimodal transportation here, I thought I’d add the post to these archives as well. Walking, like riding my…Continue Reading

More Poems on the Bike Rack

“The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets.” — Christopher Morley Those bicycle poems keep showing up. I rounded up a first post and within about two days spotted the next one. I don’t…Continue Reading

Bike Books I Recommend: Policy Edition

For obvious reasons (if you know what my professional life has been since 2012, that is) these types of books take up a fair amount of shelf space at my house and occupy memory on my e-reader. Buy these at…Continue Reading

Yes, Even More Transportation Poems

Just yesterday at a local bookstore that sells used books and rare first editions I happened across a find: Poems in Motion, 100 Poems from the Subways and Buses, the result of a collaboration between MTA New York City Transit…Continue Reading

Graphic of swirling gray and black curls expressing concept of wind

Riding Thoughts: Privilege Is a Tailwind

I’ve written before about the many ways that privilege I’m not always conscious of underlies my bicycling. Riding my road bike Sweetie and thinking about how that differs from riding my e-bike Zelda gave rise to these thoughts about structural…Continue Reading