This Week's Best Reads, 8-26-11

The helmet vs. no-helmet controversy and the effects on bike sharing programs:

 http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-08-22-helmet-laws-get-in-way-of-bike-sharing-programs

Retrofitting the suburbs:  http://www.grist.org/cities/2011-08-22-levitt-to-beaver-suburbia-gets-a-mixed-use-makeover

Michelle Bachmann’s “logic” about $2/per gallon gas http://www.grist.org/list  

Pop-up urbanism: neon bikes in Toronto  http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/08/neon-bicycles-pop-up-toronto.php

Photo: Good

“Depaving,” complete streets and other ideas for cutting infrastructure expenditures from Neal Peirce: http://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/08/22/from-minneapolis-ten-street-design-solutions-to-transform-your-city/ 

The website for “River Time,” a film about my friend John Lane’s paddle to the sea from his backyard in Upstate SC:  http://rivertimefilm.com/   

Fifteen Thoughts While Riding to Work

1.       Why do people complain about traffic safety and drive dangerously at the same time?

2.       If you wave to other active commuters a couple of times, they become your friends.

3.       An 86 year old woman killed in a crosswalk? Really?

4.       Sometimes I wonder why I read these things before I get on my bike.

5.       I’ll say it again (and probably again): Roads are only safe when the users make them that way.

6.       The prickly pears on the beaver tail cacti I pass on the way to work are ripening.

7.       Urban orchards are a cool idea.

8.       Daily watering leads to shallow roots leads to weak grass.

9.       Even without bike lanes and traffic, I bet I win on short trips.

10.   There seems to be more chatter about helmets or no helmets lately.

11.   I wear a helmet for the same reason I wear a seatbelt.

12.   Arguing about helmets seems to avoid the greater issue of safe biking facilities.

13.   I wonder what it would be like to go for a run with Robert Frost.

14.   What kind of running shoes would Wallace Stevens wear? Firecats, of course.

15.   I run far. Other people run farther. This will not change.

Thirteen Thoughts While Riding to Work

1.       Drivers expect us to act like cars, and then get mad at us when we do.

2.       The center line of the traffic light trigger loop is the most sensitive.

3.       What if I left hooked you like you right hooked me?

4.       Riding on the left side of a one-way street is a little disconcerting.

5.       It’s nice to feel a little chilly today.

6.       If you’re late for work, do you have to take it out on me?

7.       Thanks for waving.

8.       Thanks for waiting.

9.       Thanks for not running me over.

10.   I go over the speed limit downtown.

11.   Should sheriff’s deputies model good driving behavior, or turn right on red despite the signs while talking on a cell phone?

12.   I still don’t understand why people insist upon watering their lawns with our drinking water.

13.   What’s your rush when I get to the traffic light when you do?