Biking Is the Spice of Life
I have missed many things while driving for transportation thanks to a broken elbow (with recovery complicated by a frozen shoulder). To name just a few: Exercise (hello, +10 pounds) Sense of connection to my surroundings and the people along the way Flexibility — the ease with which I can change my mind, navigate to […]
Personal Safety and Privilege: A Vignette
Setting: A separated trail running between the Duwamish River and a corridor thick with truck traffic spilling over from the Port of Seattle, part of my regular route to work. A row of bushes and trees and an active heavy rail line separate the trail from the road on the west side of the trail. On […]
#30DaysofBiking, #30words, #30pix
In the major leagues batting .500 would be worth millions. In 30 Days of Biking, it means I didn’t get on my bike every single day in some of my attempts in the past couple of years since I heard of the event and started signing up. That’s okay, because some things really are bigger […]
Zen and the Art of Bicycle Riding
A Zen teacher saw five of his students returning from the market, riding their bicycles. When they arrived at the monastery and had dismounted, the teacher asked the students, “Why are you riding your bicycles?” The first student replied, “The bicycle is carrying the sack of potatoes. I am glad that I do not have […]
One Word for 2014 Bicycling
A related post of mine appeared on the Washington Bikes blog and another one on my personal random-life-and-stuff blog I haven’t made New Year’s resolutions for years because I recognize how quickly those good intentions start paving a road to somewhere. A couple of years ago I decided that as an alternative I would focus on three words […]
What Biking Gives Me
What a bike ride home gives me at the end of the day: exercise fresh air direct experience of neighborhoods I don’t live in and wouldn’t otherwise see up close the chance to smile at a little kid holding his dad’s hand an overheard snippet of another dad coaching his tween on skateboard skills enjoyment […]
It Is Always Better to Ride than Not to Ride
The tough part of 30 Days of Biking for me isn’t the workdays–those rides are long-established habit. The tough part is the weekend. That’s the point, really. It’s easy to settle into habits of whatever kind and committing to doing something every single day will shake things up. Setting up any kind of challenge, whether it’s […]
5 Behavior and Culture Hacks to Get People to Ride Bikes and Walk
Serendipity gives me lots of blog fodder, in this case the coincidence of reading a piece on GOOD about how to get people to eat less meat within 24 hours of being directed to the elevators inside the Cannon Office Building on Capitol Hill during the 2013 National Bike Summit.* Let me ‘splain, Lucy. (Source attribution: […]
On a Roll with Michelle S, Olympia
The occasional “On a Roll with” series started with women in Spokane since the blog originally focused on biking in Spokane. Now that I have a statewide role at the Bicycle Alliance of Washington I’ve expanded the geography to feature women from all over the state. If you have a woman to nominate (and please do nominate yourself!) drop an […]
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
An article in the New York Times on the psychology of change got me thinking about how the belief that we won’t change might set up the belief that we can’t change and how that affects our transportation choices. They are choices, you know. Just because we’ve all gone through the rite of passage that is the […]
A Small Moment
At a certain point in late spring a couple of flowering trees on my usual route home fill the air with sweet perfume. They stand in a most unlikely spot on Sherman Avenue just north of the freeway overpass. Not a scenic location, not a spot where a lot of pedestrians pass by to appreciate […]
