Strike A Pose

Building Empires

The MinusCar II...

...litters a cityscape.

Big Bike

The Dad

What's In The Box?

Big Box

That's A Big Truck

Some Of My Favorite People Are 70

Wendell Berry has long been a hero of The MinusCar Project.

“When we talk about these characteristics, that happen to be characteristics of good agriculture — diversity, versatility, recognition, and acceptance of appropriate limits or getting the scale right, and local adaptation — those ideas, it seems to me, put us in reach of work that we can do. To assume that all experiences like that oil well can only be handled by experts at great expense is a mistake, I think.

What we need to do is to get it to where we can have a say in it. If we don't then we lose the personal ground of hope and the next thing is we all go around saying things like 'it's inevitable, there's nothing you can do about it.'"

It's why I garden. It's why I buy so much food from the people who grow it. It's why I transport myself as much as I can with my own body.

It's hopeful. It's not inevitable. There is something that can be done.

Watch the full episode. See more Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

Diversity.

Versatility.

Recognition, and acceptance of appropriate limits or getting the scale right.

Local adaptation.

6/7 Transportation Donut

I haven't done The Twitter much but this week I'm totally riding the Tour deKota and the Race Across America vicariously by reading peoples twitter-bits. It's great fun.

Mike Dunlap is predicted to arrive at Time Station #2 around 12:30 tonight in his RAAM. Know that if I awake in the middle of the night I'll be checking to see that he's through it. At that point he'll have 2,863 miles remaining.

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I have donuts to share!



Importantly The MinusCar sat in the driveway all week.

Unfortunately, I remained home Thursday and Friday giving the beat down to some high sinus pressure. So the bike miles couldn't quite push the car miles below 50%.

All in all it's a not a bad donut.

Car-free Sunday

I might have a new hobby...

Trip one was early for donuts and a few groceries with The Wife. We tacked a couple extra miles onto the grocery store loop. There were TWO people walking around the store wearing helmets. Weird.

The checker, "did you ride here?" I think my wife responded, "44,000 people die each year in car crashes. We wear helmets all the time." But she might have just said "yes."

Speaking of the word "just"...if you're at Starbucks and you want a chai tea latte, with soy, extra hot, no water and a couple other specifications, prefacing your order with "I just want a..." might be an oversimplification.

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Trip two was more of an excursion. More specifically a 3 1/2 hour geocaching excursion with The Boy 12. With that many hours outside we definitely put the tan back in tandem...


Here is where we went...


We experienced a BLFT. A Bike Lane Flat Tire is a flat tire caused by derbis brushed off the roadway by automobile traffic into the bike lane. It's one of many reasons that bike lanes occasionally should be ignored.

A quick tube change and we were back at it. I was a prepared daddy today.

I finally got to visit the 100 year old mostly forgotten Forest Home Cemetery. I've wanted to for a long time but never had enough of a reason to sneak in there...


Riding the tandem was pretty great. We did a fair amount of off-road riding. There were three grassy hills that made us prove ourselves. On one we experienced a fair amount of rear wheel slippage, which is rather exciting for passengers not familiar with such possibilities.

I wasn't aware that there was a view like this just feet from a road I commonly travel on. Maybe I'll get off that road more often when I have my mountain bike with me...


When I was more ignorant of geocaching (two days ago) I imagined hitting all the Sioux Falls geocaches by bike. Today I discovered this map feature of the geocaching website...


3 hours a Sunday isn't going to be enough.

Car-lite Saturday

We broke some new ground today.

I woke The Boy 12 up bright and early (actually it was cloudy with 80% chance of rain) so that we could mount the tandem bicycle and head out for some disc golf.



Just before our arrival we intermixed with the tail end of the Washington Pavilion Wellness Festival 10K.

This is the second full round of disc golf for The Boy 12. He's improved over last week. He tied me on a few holes at the end. I threw 10 times more than I did last week. In my defense it was very moist out. Slippery discs make for early releasing.



After we finished up the round we headed north to the Downtown Farmer's Market.



On this leg we intermixed HEAVILY with a walk event. Lots and lots and lots of "on your left"-ing. Lots and lots of folks not remembering their left and right. I can tell the ones who have trouble remembering because on the way by they say, "oh, I had to think..."

We got through without any entanglements.

It's nice having a passenger - in the midst of navigating the walkers the phone rang. I passed the phone back for him to answer.

At the market we met up with the rest of The Family for the multi-occupant vehicle ride home. I love the market.



This is Dakota Natural Beef ring bologna and sugar snap peas sauteed in oil and onions and various other spices. The Wife likes to try new things. I like to eat new things.

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I was called away twice while typing this. First for the best rainbow ever...



...and then for the cool sunset lit clouds.

Bicycles, Moving At Human Speed

Streetfilms interviews Traffic author Tom Vanderbilt.

Mark: [3:41] Let me see if I can find this in your book. "Vehicles are moving at velocities for which we have no evolutionary training. For most of the life of the species, we did not try and make interpersonal decisions at speed." We live in a city where you have this interaction between people moving down the street at pretty fast speeds and the people who are on that street, and how they're almost in a completely different worlds.

Tom: [4:08] You probably begin to lose eye contact at around 20, 25 miles per hour. That's exactly when the level of potential pedestrian fatality really begins to soar. At up to 20 miles an hour a pedestrian still has a pretty good chance of surviving a crash with a car. But beyond that, it really begins to accelerate. So just at that moment when we cut ourselves off from the eye contact is really that moment at which we're not evolved to be able to survive an impact. So just an interesting sort of suggestion that's been put out there.

0531 Transportation Donut

I flatted on Friday. I was unprepared to fix it. I walked a mile in my shoes. To the nearest shop. They were prepared to fix it. That was after I'd visited the dentist for a broken tooth fixup.

It was a good morning all around.

Seeking Sioux Falls, Iowa

Earlier this week The Dad sent me a Google Maps link with driving directions to Sioux Falls, Iowa.


(click for google maps)

That seemed to me like a road ride waiting to happen.

Tonight was the night. The Owner and I set out late afternoon in search of the mythical and elusive Sioux Falls, IA.

Sure we've heard of the place plenty, it often comes up during performances by national touring acts. Often the error is passed off as confusion between Sioux City, IA and Sioux Falls, SD - but no more. I believe now they've known of what they speak.

Because I have been there. Presenting Sioux Falls, Iowa:

Looking north.


Looking south.


Looking east.


Looking west.



Yes it's a gravel road. Yes, we were on road bikes. It's ok, we're both off-road riders at heart.

It was with no amount of sadness we departed Sioux Falls, IA and continued a loop that would take us 30 miles. It was a nice trip that I'll never have to make again.

I Had A Really Great Day...

...thanks for asking.

The bank. Pickle Barrel. The Long Range Transportation Plan Open House. The Plain Green 10 Conference de-brief. The Pheasants.

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On my way to work I got honked at (A FRIENDLY HONK) by a car full of goldfish, if you know what I mean.

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I heard a rumor that The City had re-painted and re-adjusted many sensor triggered traffic control devices. I happend upon a few of them in my travels today. Put your bike wheels on the circles and the red light will change to green.



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At the downtown library I found the LRTP Open House. I saw Snakebite. I saw CycleSD. I saw other friendly faces. I saw lots of data. I put my name on the sign in sheet.

Here's one of the most important slides. It's the fourth item that's groundbreaking.



The Local Daily featured the open house. I found a couple names in the article that I recognized.

The full report is available here on the MPO website.

I also got an answer to my question about the upgrade vehicle sensors. That was nice.

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On to Monk's for the Plain Green Conference 10 de-brief. Mostly I sat and was just happy to be there. Good people to sit and absorb words from.

I'm a little disturbed about the bike parking area outside Monk's.



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Departed early for the Pheasants game. I found the family car in the parking lot. Locked my bike to it and joined The Family for one beautiful evening of 11-0 good guys win baseball. We even left the stadium one foul ball richer.

Yes, I rode home in the car with The Family.

Today I Met Walter

First - HEY SNAKEBITE - that Long Range Transportation Plan Open House is tonight - assuming today is Wednesday. 4:30 to 6:00 at the Main Branch Library. The City put up an official webpage for the plan. Lots of detail - including some transportation thinking of the video recorded type from some regular citizens like um - me. You can even leave your comments right there on the page - but go to the open house too.

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Second - I watched Julie and Julia tonight with The Wife. I loved it, but what's not to like. She blogs the Julie and Julia Project and BONUS Julia's husband was played by Fat Cyclist blogger Elden Nelson who looks remarkably similar to Stanley Tucci.

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Most importantly, I met Walter tonight. We met briefly on 46th Street. I was stopped at a stop sign yielding to crossing traffic, of which he was one. 1 mile later we met on 32nd Street when I popped out of a cul de sac and he asked, "does that go through back there?" Why yes, yes it does. (Remember the secret passage from my riding to work video?)

Everything I know about Walter I learned from chatting him up over the next 10 minutes.

He lives within half a mile of my home...so the need to explain why I was following him home was thankfully alleviated pretty quickly.

He works within half a mile of my work.

He enjoyed Bike To Work Day pancakes downtown on Friday with 3 or 4 of his co-workers.

He's participating in Snakebite's Bike To Work Challenge.

What a great experience. That never happens when I'm in a car.

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The weather this evening is remarkable.

0524 Transportation Donut

Anybody want a donut?



That's one 33 mile bus ride. A fun part about being on the Southeastern Council of Government's Citizen's Advisory Committee for the Metropolitan Planning Organization is the annual bus tour of all the exciting road construction projects around The City.

The best part of the trip for me is being in the presense of the people who actually make decisions on a day to day basis. For example I can ask complex questions like, "Given that last year a traffic engineer indicated a switch to using a traffic signal vehicle sensor that was better at detecting bicycles, and given that you're reconstructing Elmwood at 12th Street where there is a traffic signal that detects the presense of vehicles, are you installing the new sensor at that intersection?"

For me the answer isn't important - it's that somebody was there to ask the question...year after year after year until it happens. Kinda like Sioux Falls Singletrack.

The single occupant miles were on Monday when I was on TV at 6:30am, had a meeting at 8:30am, worked out at 11am, helped my parents move furniture at 5pm and had to brought The Boys home from there.

Yeah, it's not an excuse. It's just be being lazy.

Did I mention I crashed last week? No? Oh sorry. I crashed last week. I'm not happy or proud of that.

Long Range Transportation Plan Open House This Week

The Long Range Transportation Plan Open House - featured in this MinusCar post - has been scheduled.

Wednesday, May 26
4:30 to 6:00pm
Main Branch Library

The official press release is here.

This is a public presentation of results from the preliminary survey to guide the LRTP process. One of four proposed guiding objectives for the process - as suggested by the survey administrator and based upon survey results - will be to increase opportunities for safe bicycling.

This plan endeavours to guide transportation development for the next 25 years.

I highly recommend local cyclists come to the open house and reinforce the guiding objectives by leaving appropriate commentary.

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This is the bright shiny newly renovated Main Branch Library. ANOTHER reason to attend the open house.

Women On Bicycles: An Indicator Species

To be sure - women on bicycles is an important measure of urban cycling culture success. Google "women bicycle indicator species" can explain why.

For all the applause places like Copenhagen and Amsterdam recieve for their women on bicycles - and particularly their photos of women on bicycles...

The Local Daily has a small photo gallery from Sioux Falls Bike To Work Day that contains these two photos that speak for themselves.