I organized a cargo bike picnic ride last Sunday. I wanted to promote the utilitarian aspect of bicycles so people can supplement some of their car trips on a bicycle.

Seven people showed up, including me. The excellent company made up for the lack of participation by far.

The ride was promoted paper free. No posters and leaflets. In the age of blogs, RSS feeds and feed readers, it is pointless to print posters. Ride information was shared on Urban Core and Bikejax, both very  popular websites. I also created a facebook event where 30 or more people agreed to attend in spite of the Tour de Cure going on. Lakshore Shwinn, a local bike shop that carries xtracycles also sent messages on twitter and facebook.

Many people who missed the bicycle ride are probably at work watch oil spewing out of the extraction site on bp’s live feed. They shake their heads in disappointment to bp’s lack of proper oil spill containment and to the damage done to sea life and beaches. They may even shed a tear at the sight of oil drenched birds. They prepare to end their work day and make their way home in the comfort of their gasoline powered cars. Over the weekend, they will probably make their way to the grocery store or a restaurant in their cars, run into friends and talk about boycotting bp, then drive their cars back home.

I like to hope that people would do something to lessen their usage of gasoline. It causes pollution, spills and war. It also supports the car tax. I hope they replace some of their trips with a bicycle. Even a short trip.

I have been riding two days to work and am upping it to three. I am supplementing my bicycle commute to work with my motorcycle. 14 miles is quite long.

I am also drooling on the pictures from the Cargo Bike Race in Copenhagen.

The first subjective thought was a resounding “Yes!” The objective engineer in me promptly took over and started analyzing this offer.

• I have not been riding regularly.
• Elisabet and her friend have been riding less than me. They work out though.
• We need someone on call either in Jacksonville or Gainesville or both in case something un-repairable breaks on the trip, namely a Plan B.
• It is 70 miles away. We are not even used to riding a third of that regularly.

Between Elisabet’s pleas of being spontaneous and my objective reasoning, I decided to sleep on it.

I have always wanted to tour. The three people whose tours encourage me are Ken Keifer, Russ Roca and Laura and The Stouts (who tour with two toddlers). I was skeptical about going on my first tour alone. This tour is an opportunity to have company and do a short trip. I also had some strong candidates for a Plan B.

Between the conflicting subjective and objective thought processes, I managed to find quality in this adventure. First thing the next morning, as early as it is allowed to send text messages, I replied,” Fcuk it! I am doing it”.

Desperate emails were sent to Russ Roca and Jack “Ghost Rider” Sweeney. Their tips are very much appreciated and summarized below the map.

We leave on Saturday morning, reach Gainesville by evening, rest, then leave the next morning and arrive in Jax the same day. This is the route that we have decided on.

View Jax to GNV by bike in a larger map

Some good advices:

• Take three spare tubes
• Make sure the valves on the tubes match the air pump
• Start with a big breakfast which will help you power through the first twenty miles
• Stop every ten miles to snack
• Eat apples, peanut butter
• Plan for a good lunch that you can look forward to
• Use padded mountain biking shorts

I am outfitting the Xtracycle with luggage. The heaviest items are food and water. This is my packing list:

Medical:
sun block
Tylenol
Antacid
napkins
after-shave (disinfectant for cuts)
bandage

Gear:
1 padded mountain biking shorts (wash and dry upon reaching)
4 t shirts
1 long pants
2 compression underwear
1 pair of boxers
rain jacket
safety glasses (for riding in the rain or in the dark)
sunglasses
iPhone
iPhone charger
extra batteries for headlight and tail light
rag
cycling cap
Dr. Bronners liquid soap (good for washing face, hands, hair, plates, clothes etc)
paper map (in case technology fails)

Tools:
duct tape
swiss knife
2 adjustable wrenches
13 mm wrench
bike pump
3 tubes
Nylon rope

Food:
3 bottles of water
museli
cheese (Brie)
trail mix
roast beef sandwiches
sweet potato chips
Hot/Cold insulated bag (folds flat and lighter than a cooler)
Spoon

I plan to buy a cup of yoghurt and blueberries to eat with muesli Sunday morning before riding back. This I will do once I reach Gainesville.

I will try to post pictures on this blog as we go through our journey.

In order to pay for these basic necessities, we have devised a system of compensation for work or service that creates a product that other people want to buy. We go to work everyday, get paid, pay our taxes and so on. Sometimes, we have money left over that we try to save for a rainy day or retirement, take a vacation, sponsor our hobbies or just plain consumerism. These are indulgences.

A car is something we buy to commute in a safe and protected way, though the safety of commuting in a car is questionable. When you are made to buy a car due to the design of the city’s infrastructure, the car becomes a necessity. It is not a cheap necessity either. A brand new car kept for 10 years with insurance and gas will cost over $200 a month, usually more than utilities to power your home. That is $2,400 a year. Most people do not keep their car for 10 years. For the first five years, that car costs over $500 a month or $6,000 a year. This car puts us in a random environment of traffic, made random by the presence of other drivers. Random = increased risk of an accident.

Mass transit, though costs extra tax revenue, and in turn the payment of extra taxes take the human element out of the commuting equation resulting in a safer method of commuting. The absence of mass transit or an effective mass transit will compel people to have to spend on a car. Such is the case with the City of Jacksonville. They provide an infrequent bus service with insufficient routes to conquer the vase expanse of the city. They also insult us with a skyway system that starts at a parking lot in the middle of nowhere and takes you to a convention center with ample on site parking, a college and a few other businesses. It does not even take you to the sports arenas.

Therefore, the citizens of Jacksonville FL, mostly republican, pay the car tax because it is a necessity, a need, not a want any more. No one protests at a tea party.

The struggling citizen who work hard to make a living are left behind to fend for themselves. They have to chose between a budget for either gas, car payments and insurance or quality food to feed their children. They choose the high-fructose corn syrup laden preservative infused cheap foods. They would like to pay premium for food not car but they don’t have a choice. They are not given a choice. Who cares about them anyway?

Some people understand the severity of this issue and protest on a very popular website namely metrojacksonville.com. I wish to protest by not owning a car. I moved recently to a walkable part of the city that put me out of bicycling range to work but I did not buy a car. If I was to pay a tax and had the choice to decide how much to pay I will try to pay the least. I wanted my mode of transportation to be reliable and requiring low maintenance. I bought the cheapest motorcycle in the market for $3,000. The insurance on that cycle is $20 a month. It gives me about 70 miles per gallon. The monthly cost on the motorcycle is $100, including depreciation. This is my protest to the city. This is my protest against the car tax.

Having left work at 5 PM, I rode over to the ATM to pick up some cash. The rain was a little more than a drizzle but my rain gear was adequate. Cash in hand, I made it to the farmers market. After a quick browse, I started pickng up the vegetables. I think they were quite reasonably priced. It wasn’t organic but it was local. This means my vegetables did not travel a couple thousand miles to my kitchen.

Shopping at your Local Farmers Market is a good way to reduce your carbon footprint. The best part about shopping there is one gets to come home and make a delicious Tomato Sandwich. Toast a couple of slices of bread apply mayo while the bread is hot so the mayo can melt a little. Lay a variety of tomato slices on top. I like how the crunchiness of the green tomatoes compliment the taste of the red. Top with salt and pepper. Eat open faced.

Posted via email from shek’s posterous

I dont mind riding 12 miles to walk, mingle, buy art and eat food in the Urban Core. What I do mind is getting soaked during the one hour ride only to change into dry clothes and get soaked again at the remaining hour of art walk. That, in my opinion is a low quality evening. I could have tried a bus transit but that would involve me riding in the rain on the awful service road.

Tomorrow is First Fridays at Five Points. Tomorrow is the day I use JTA’s ‘extensive’ bus network to arrive at my destination. I can catch the B7 from the nearby Publix at 6:23 PM (next bus at 7:18 PM, 55 mins after), get off at The Landing, then ride my bike along the Riverwalk to Five Points. All said and done, I will reach my destination by 7:45 PM.

Pros:
Multi Modal commute
Free fare on B7
Weather proof ride till the Landing

Cons:
Riding on the Service Road at 6 PM
No JTA service to come back home (thankfully I have a ride)
55 minute wait time if I miss the bus

Lets assume that most people with an 18 mpg clunker “upgraded” to an SUV achieving 5 mpg more. They received $3500 from the $1,000,000,000 allocated funding. Some simple division later, approximately 285,000 clunkers were pulled off the streets (1,000,000,000 / 3500). Therefore, there are now 285,000 people or families on the road saving 5mpg (or saving 0.012 gallons per mile) more than they usually were.

An average family drives around 15,000 miles a year. This leads to 180 gallons of gasoline saved per family per year. For the 285,000 clunkers replaced, we save 51,300,000 gallons of gasoline every year. Increase the federal funding to $3 billion and we will save a little over 153 million gallons of gasoline every year.

If the average clunker is replaced by a vehicle achieving 7.5 mpg higher, with a $3 billion stimulus, America will save almost 205,200,000 gallons of gasoline every year.

The total consumption of Finished Motor Gasoline is 137,801,370,000 gallons (approximately 8,989,000 barrels per day in 2008. Data from http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html). Hence, a $3 billion funding, by saving 205,200,000 gallons of gasoline, saves only 0.1489% of total consumption. Not too significant in my opinion.

To achieve a 1% reduction in nationwide motor gasoline usage, around $20 billion (that is $20,000,000,000) needs to be pumped into the new-car market replacing over 5.7 million vehicles with a new vehicle achieving 7.5 mpg higher.

I wonder if gasoline consumption can be reduced by 1% by utilizing only $3 billion in bicycle infrastructure and alternate energy driven mass transit and rail infrastructure? The budget for this year’s Mass Transit infrastructure is $8 billion, $5 billion more each year for the next 5 years, not including operating costs. The Cash-for-Clunker’s $3 billion will be a nice addition to the mass transit budget and shave off 8 months from the 5 year proposal.

Further, evaluating the impact on a family, and assuming $3 billion in funding, these 857,000 families (285,000 X 3, assuming one clunker per family though there is no such rule) will save around 180 gallons of motor gasoline related expenses. At an average cost of $2.50 per gallon of gasoline, each family saves a measly $450 a year and gains $15,000 or more debt on a depreciating asset. With $3 billion in funding towards overhauling the streets to make bicycling actually and subjectively safe, families may be able to reduce from two cars to one, saving upwards of $4000 annually in car payments, insurance and gas.

My 50 year old mass produced dutch city bike, a text book definition of clunker, needs no replacement. At the most, it needs $50 of TLC. The next time someone tells me to get a registration for my bicycle, I’ll tell them at least I don’t need Cash for my Clunker!

So how is living car free in a part of town with an undesirable quality? Challenging would be my answer on an optimistic day. The grocery store is only a mile away. With a tiny bit of planning, grocery shopping is achieved in one trip on the weekend. The trusted Xtracycle is a fantastic grocery hauler. For that mid-week craving of Mexican food or to buy a critical grocery item I missed, I whip out the old single speed Dutch bike. Its front basket has plenty cargo capacity for a doggie bag or a case of Yuengling.

Zaxby’s, the only fried chicken restaurant worth visiting, is 5 miles away, mostly through deserted local roads. A trip there takes 30 minutes. I usually go alone as what I do with my fried chicken isn’t pretty. Riding back can be tad adventurous. Sitting on a hard saddle for half an hour after ingesting spicy buffalo sauce smothered chicken fingers isn’t ideal. The Town Center Mall with its departmental stores, pet food stores and Friday Farmer’s Market is within 3 miles away. In fact, I am hopping over there this evening for errands, all on a bike.

Dry cleaning seems challenging but easily solved if you ask the good Turkish people to fold your clothes into boxes. A trip to the movie theater dictates a longer route than one would take if driving but I chose to not ride on roads with a loosely imposed 45 mph speed limit. A trip to downtown is 12 miles long and a fairly pleasant one. A trip to the beach is 13 miles long and not so pleasant. Surprisingly, distance is not a challenging factor. I have gladly ridden 10 miles to a dentist, had her drill, scrape and clean my teeth and ridden back smiling, only this time with better teeth. On days with tighter schedules, I have hired a taxi cab.

So what is the challenging part, you ask? It is the people who meet you on the road through their protective shields of glass and metal. Living in a neighborhood with a walk score of 20 subjects you to people, who usually love their car-dependent life styles. They also have a patriotic attachment to things like big rims on their Kia and the roads they drive those low-profiles on. Most walkscore-20-dwellers will take the on-road-bicyclist-infringement without any patience. The bridged gap between walkable destinations and drivable ones is ugly.

I occupied my week long business trip to ponder over my position on bicycle advocacy. Lately, I have felt like a martyr when advocating for bicycles, I hadn’t seen any difference made both in the minds of bicyclists and motorists. I have strongly considered moving out of this bicycle hating neighborhood and moving to the urban core where bicycles are more readily accepted. My views about pushing pedals in this part of town have been more and more pessimistic.

I have been commuting on my bicycle for a year. Over this year, I have evolved as a bicyclist, in both range of trips and attitude. During my beginning months, I had a lot more gumption that masked a significant volume of incoming motorist harassment. The gumption to ride is still alive, proven by the fact that I am not tempted to buy a motor vehicle to alleviate the pain. The masking powers of gumption has dwindled. There are stretches of road in which I feel nervous when controlling the lane. To some extent, rage has taken over and I have been known to flip a bird when honked at, yelled at, spat at and lit cigarettes thrown at. The reaction portraying a higher quality would be to ignore but is easier said than done. A bird-flip has more instantaneous fulfillment. I am working on a non-reactionary attitude.

The uncomfortable encounter with a police officer left a foul taste in my mouth about the protectors and upholders of law that I pay taxes to protect and uphold. Unfortunately, some police uniforms come with a cape and an external underwear. They are the unnecessary evils similar to belligerent motorists, except they are armed with mace, tasers and citation tickets.

Bikejax has successfully managed to influence people to ride their bikes, which in return makes more motorists aware. Starting off with the volunteer support at the Jazz Festival, we have uncovered a few people that deserve a mention. My goal would be to bring more people under the spot light for commuting in this part of town. In the form of commuter profiles on Bikejax, we will introduce Rebekah Wallis, Jose Falqez, Jonathan, Matt Bishop and Matt Martin. They have an infectious gumption which inspires me. I also noticed an older gentleman riding his bike on the dreaded service road; not on the sidewalk but the actual road! Kudos to you sir.

As I type the last paragraph and get ready to bike home for lunch, I can not ignore the tiny knot in my stomach from nervousness and anxiety. Some scars heal with time and patience used to be a strong virtue. The days do look brighter after the brief hiatus.

Image courtesy Bikejax

The ride happened on a Florida winter afternoon

The cycle rickshaws are modified roadsters. They are comfortable for two people. Some are modified with facing seats for school children. There are no gears. The rear sprocket seems to be a larger one. The front sprocket looked like a 42-48 teeth.

The slide show has pictures of people in various forms of cycling around. The particular day this picture was taken was the morning of a holiday. Hence the crowd appears to be slim. There are pictures of multiple people on a bike, a cargo trike etc. 

A few things to notice: no helmets, no bike lanes, no stop lights and much more. All movement, pedestrian to cars to large trucks happen in a sort of mini critical masses.