The Daily Commute

In our continuing celebration of Bike to Work Week (BTWW), not to mention Bike Month (May), below are some interesting tidbits I recently came across.

Fold-able...How About Row-able
There are numerous alternatives to the traditional frame bike if you are looking to join the ranks of the hard core commuter. But the Rowbike featured in the recent Outside magazine is something that will have you working well before you arrive in the office.

From the Rowbike website:
"For decades physiologists from around the world have agreed that rowing is one of the top three exercises, along with cross-country skiing and swimming. Working out on Rowbike gives you fast results: stronger abs, back and core muscles. And rowing is virtually stress-free on the whole body."

Progressive City?
In the long overdue category comes this story from the Boston Globe.

Boston is one of my favorite cities for many reasons, but it is also "known far and wide as one of the most inhospitable cities for bikers, an obstacle course of gaping construction sites, tire-popping potholes, and lead-footed drivers."

To no surprise, its only taken city officials 8 years, when Bicycling magazine ranked Boston as one of the worst biking cities (1999), to work on enacting any change. In July, the city plans to unveil designs for its FIRST designated bike lanes. Remember folks, change doesn't exactly come sweepingly in Boston [it took my beloved Red Sox 14 years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line (1945) to incorporate a black player, Pumpsie Green. They were the last team in Major League baseball to do so.]

I guess the moral of the story is, if you really want true bike advocacy for your city, have your mayor (Mayor Menino; inset) go out and ride your streets.

Photo: Dominic Chavez (Globe Staff)

Only In LA
From the LA Times feature, ICU: LA Connections. The video takes "hitting" on a guy (or girl for that matter) to a whole different level. Not sure if its the best way to promote bicycle safety and sharing the road. [if the video starts automatically on page load, press pause and reset scroll bar to view the video from the beginning].