Shek's Footprint

Today was officially my first day with heavy rains and a long ride on my bike. I was on my way to the Jacksonville Humane Society (JHS) where I volunteer every Saturday to walk dogs and the rains came crashing down on me. I was kind of prepared with an extra t-shirt in my OYB 5-way bag and a rain jacket on my rack. My shorts got wet though. I reached JHS a half hour late with no change for soggy shorts.

I had some time to reflect back on my misery during my ride back home. Not only was I late, I was also soggy and tired. I put myself into harms way by riding my bicycle on roads with no shoulders and bike lanes during low visibility conditions! This is where a Plan B would help. A bus route, sub way, light rail or even the presense of a car-sharing agency like zip car would make my day a lot happier (and drier). The easy way out was to have carried a spare pair of shorts and protective rain-pants but the safety issue is still unsolved.

The better Jacksonville plan (link here) was put into action with an extra 0.5% sales tax to make jacksonville a better city in terms of infrastructure. So, they proceeded to improve vital elements like expanding libraries but have been also spending a considerable amount of money in expanding roads. People have been expanding roads for a century now. What problem has that solved? It is insanity to do the same thing and expect a different result. The city seems to be doing a fast-paced effort towards starting commuter rail but that is limited in its scope. We need more light rail and street cars for intra-city movement if the city does not plan to expand roads indefinitely. We need a plan B. I need a plan B.

I want to successfully live car-free and it appears that the city has made it very difficult to get around without a car. Till the city gets its act together and till I am patient enough to not move to a smarter city like Portland OR, I will have to grow an extra pair of balls and be my own plan B.

I am fairly car light if you read my Car Dependency page. It is a pain to be paying what I do for my car. The car in question is a 2007 Saturn Aura XE bought brand new with minimal down-payment. The sixty month payment schedule is hefty but reasonable if I use it a lot. I dont. Moreover, I have only had car insurance since the beginning of 2006. There are no violations in my record yet but I havent established myself as a safe driver to get a sub-hundred dollar insurance payment. If you do some rough math, I am paying upwards of $500 to park the car under my apartment every month.

The best option would be to sell the car and use the non-existent public transportation of the great city of Jacksonville FL! My other anchor is Laya. She is a fairly large dog, just as female greyhounds are. I need some mode of transportation in case of emergencies. Once these problems are creatively solved, I will be able to live car free. There have been thoughts of selling my car and buying a sub-thousand dollar beater-car for emergencies but that line of thought is a work in progress.

I am reading “How to Live Well without owning a car” by Chris Balish. It is a brand new book borrowed from the library with my brand new library card. Lets see if I can pick up something creative from that book.

I bought a new bicycle today. It is a old city bike and a true city bike brought to the USA by a German gentleman. He graciously gave it away to a colleague of mine. My colleague spoke about it to me upon which I started diligently pestering him to sell it. Today, I brought it home for a princely sum of $40.

It is a very simple bike, single speed, front cable brake, rear coaster brake, generator headlamp and tail lamp, internal wiring. It has a rear rack with a book holder for those who still read books, definitely not recommended for mac books or kindles! I have emailed a ton of people with grainy pictures of the bike asking information about it. Better pictures are on their way. We will have our first senior (bike) photography session some time this week.

In this process of acquiring my latest treasure, I have depleted another treasure that we all are in so much hurry to consume: gasoline. My endeared colleague lives in another county, 36.5 miles away. That round trip coupled with an impatient desire to eat out cost me a few gallons of gas bringing me closer to that dreaded trip to the gas station for another bleedy fill-up. I have been doing pretty well until today since the last fill up was on 21 June. This is the sour part of my day.

Driving a car is starting to leave a sour taste in my mouth. I have to chug a couple of beers and take a hot shower to get the stink of air conditioning off my body. Well, I dont ‘have’ to chug a few beers but they sure help in the healing process. 

Disclaimer: Beers are chugged only after parking the car for the night (and hopefully for a few weeks). No drinking and driving is allowed or encouraged by Shek. Only light beers are used in the healing process. Regular beers cause more damage than good. Heineken Light is the prefered beer in Shek’s household (just in case you want to drop by for a chat).

Johny Jones was killed crossing a road on a bicycle in Jacksonville. Thanks to the efforts of Matt Uhrig, this accident has been brought to the attention of a news channel that was ready to do some real investigation contrary of this channel (please read their comments) and this one.

Please see the news report and video here: link

A ghost bike has been planted on the site as a quite statement to remind us of who we lost and to remind motorists to be more careful. More info on ghost bikes here: link

(picture courtesy First Coast News)

I am picking up this line from one of Ron White’s shows. It goes something like, “Marry intelligent! Plastic surgery is a wonderful thing but there aint a pill in this world to fix stupid!”

Bike Commuting Tips blog has this post earlier today: link

It talks about how accidents with cyclists have increased as more cyclists get on the road without adequate knowledge of bicycle safety. I read it in the afternoon and thought about all the safe steps I take, the safest of them all being knowing my bicycle and its limits. Controlling the lane when necessary is also very important. As I was coming back home at 8:45 pm (fairly dark), there is a section of road that is only two lanes, no shoulder and very unsafe sidewalk. Three or four cyclists were traveling in the opposite direction. No lights, front or rear which is against the law and no reflective strips and clothes. They were just asking for an accident to happen.

Not only an accident, they are also contributing to motorists discomfort towards cyclists that I have to deal with when I am on the road tomorrow. I do occasionally flip a bird at agitated motorists but it is not adding to their frustration. Then ones that blare their horns and pass me at impatient speeds have already decided that I am the scum that is holding them from going 40 in a 35. Flipping a bird is merely self satisfaction.

Another day, I saw a man riding his bike with a kid (10-14 yrs old). The boy was not wearing a helmet, neither was the man. They were riding on sidewalks and not even waiting for the walk signal. All this drama at rush hour traffic. I was waiting at the light to cross and yelled at them to get the child a helmet. Not only is that unsafe for the child but he is also learning bicycling the wrong way.

The irony is to talk about saving the planet when people arent going to take an extra step in their own safety!

Yehuda Moon has a funny article on this:

Why should we wear a helmet!