Yes, you can a ride a bike in a dress & end-of-week bits
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Drop Trou Commute Day, Improve Everywhere's annual (Photo/Katie Sokoler)
- BATA’s labor issues remain (we’re hopeful)
- TC Commission’s process for Division St.
- Bicycle/Ped safety laws pass in Boise, Idaho w/ 3ft of space to pass, ‘Idaho stop’ for bikes at stop signs
- “Health & wellbeing”, companies with Walk to Work policies
- Northern Express Editor’s walk to work
- And the TC couple living right & biking, a lot
- Teens: Worst drivers, driving more
- An American goes legal driving in Taiwan
- Promote walking & bicycling by Reducing traffic speed & volume (duh!)
- Bike Boxes work if only in our heads
- If small cars are the future, can we have smaller lanes and parking spaces as well? and
- Let’s start building light-rail, as $ is available for projects that pass “livability” test
- Who wants a Flying Bike Lane?
- And an Underground Bicycle Route in D-Town
- Life of a female bike commuter & what’s up with the gender imbalance
“The phenomenon of internalized power imbalances is hardly confined to gender, as I have reason to contemplate daily while riding around town,” writes Elly Blue on Bike Portland.
And, while we’re on the topic…a blog to watch: Girls and Bikes comes with a complimentary YouTube site. Pretty dresses and bikes are so hot…
Pashley Princess Sovereign explores Edmonton (watch for the garage scene at the end…)
And, if you get a chance & missed it last week, ‘Beauty and the Bike’
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Just one post today and it completes the second week. Are you still with me?
Are your wheels turning? Leave a comment. Cheers.
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Gary, January 16th. what a wonderful sunny, mild day for TC. I rode my bike to work in the morning, pedaled all over town in the afternoon running errands and was struck numerous times at how peaceful and quiet it was. Traffic was busy, as all Saturday’s are. I was cheered up by the song birds alnog Woodmere Ave.
This morning (Sunday), it dawned upon me….Why was Traverse City so pleasant, calm and quiet? There were no straight-pipe motorcycles out and about yesterday (or this morning).
Now, I’m the LAST guy to take away anyone else’s freedoms. However, motorcycles that make more noise than a car are just plain wrong. I am glad people get out on their bikes. I’m sure many motorcycle tourists come to our town. However, if we are to claim our city (or re-claim it) we, as a city or a region need to say, “be here and be quiet”. Many motorcycles are changed to make more noise, to garner attention, by their owners.
The general public revolt against noisy “jet-ski’s” has resulted in manufacturers building almost silent watercraft now. Noise Matters! Traverse City should claim itself now, in the winter, before the activity begins. Traverse City has a Noise Ordinance Officer, http://www.ci.traverse-city.mi.us/generalord/652.pdf
The surrounding Townships have one as well: http://www.michigantownships.org/mta9052653.asp
Portland, Oregon has dealt with it; http://www.noisefree.org/newsroom/archive/articleportland.html
The State of Michigan is quite clear about it too:
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(52n3eey5amgxnl55shszjk55))/mileg.aspx?page=getobject&objectname=mcl-257-707b&highlight=
Traverse City must exercise its laws, enforce excessive sound pressures and use it for revenue enhancement. Post on the City Limit Signs along with our proclamation of a “Tree City, USA” and a “Bicycle Friendly Community” that we are a “Quiet City, USA”. Motorcycles can idle through town. However, if the thoughtless, selfish rider chooses to make excessive noise, they get an expensive fine and a time out.
Something to keep in mind for sure, thanks. Have they really made jet-skis more quiet?
The last comment about “time out” reminds of a scene I witnessed in China in 1996. At the time they had what I called Street Nannies, typically an elderly woman, assigned to manage bicycle and pedestrian traffic. At a few places in Chengdu, adjacent to the Street Nanny, there was a box marked on the pavement. If you were caught jay-walking, inching forward at a red-light or any number of other infractions, you could end up in the time-out box for 10-20 minutes.
Not sure how effective it was and I haven’t seen it since, but I liked the idea.