Shek's Footprint

See more information here: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=51784

The Bike to Work Day in 2008 was one of the catalysts that got me thinking about riding a bicycle to work as a way to be healthier. I did not attend it but only read it on blogs and local news. This year, I am more matured as a bicycle commuter and I advocate it strongly. Not only that but I also advocate the proper method of doing it.

I have seen people buy bicycles and if it is anything other than a beach cruiser, they buy all this ‘gear’ with it: lycra crap, gloves, clipless pedal shoes and helmets. I will not make this a helmet-wearing-bitching debate, so let’s leave the helmet, gloves and clipless pedal shoes alone. Lycra alone puts up a professional face on bicycling that discourages everyday people from bicycling normally; to work, the grocery store, the local restaurant and the movie theater. There is a new term coined here: bicycling normally. It means bicycling as a part of everyday life in everyday clothes to perform everyday activities. Please see the rest of the civilized world for examples.

This preface brings me to this year’s initiative on the ‘Bike to Work Day’. The idea is to meet at various locations in the city and ride a bike to Hemming Plaza in Downtown. It is a good idea till the part where it says, “JSO will set up rolling road blocks on the routes which will join at the Times Union Center on Water Street”. WHY rolling road blocks? Will these be present when someone decides to ride that route the next day? The Bike to work day initiative will fail miserably because the city is making this particular day a special event and not a natural human activity. Moreover, the city will never find out how difficult commuting to work is in this city. Cyclists will add this day as just another ‘bike ride’ and motorists will let this day go by as an abnormality and will claim the tarmac back the next day like they are used to.

The website further has a comment by Mercedes Parker from the City’s Parks & Recreation Department, the organizers of this event. She says “We see the event as a way to promote bicycling Downtown and an opportunity for people to discover a new destination for bicycling. Families could bring their bikes Downtown and ride just like they take them to the beach”. I do not understand this philosophy either. It is flawed in its fundamentals. Per the planning department of this event, bicycling is also being promoted as an activity that you need to drive to before you can bike around in. Am I the only one who thinks this is completely ass-backwards and ridiculous? If we keep people cocooned in their cars for the most part, how do we plan to improve bicycle commuting in this city?

The initiatives and planning of this event shows a lot about where Jacksonville wants to be in the cycling-friendly-city maps…and they want to be nowhere on it. I even question the members of the BPAC (Bicycling Pedestrian Advisory Committee) if they commute to work on bicycles at all. I think it should be mandated on them to ride their bikes or walk to work or errands around town for at least 60% of their commute. That should be one of the minimum qualifying requirements for a position on the board. Otherwise it is similar to getting a Hedge Fund Manager to assemble a car. There is no relation. Talking the talk is not enough.

I have half a mind to boycott this day and go on with my normal activities.

I have been lightly active on twitter. Follow me on it to get more recent updates. It works like the status messages on Facebook, except that is all it does. I am beginning to like this application.

http://twitter.com/abhishek_m

I have been painfully absent from this website lately for which I sincerely apologize, to both my readers and myself. I have not stopped  bicycling yet. It has been challenging though. Braving the cold on a bicycle is a little daunting for someone who has never lived in a city as cold as Jacksonville. 

There have been days when I have almost given up on the day’s ride while walking Laya in the morning. The 25F to 35F temperatures would tempt me to call a friend to pick me up on his/her way to work. Some days I managed to man up and ride out. Some days, I have given in to a friendly neighbor who offered me a ride in the morning. Somedays it rained while the temperature was in the high fourties adding to newer challenges. I bought a rain jacket from REI that breaks wind upto 60 mph to combat the rainy and cold mornings. 

Yesterday, I attended the kid’s bicycle safety workshop hosted by Zombie bikes at the Jacksonville library. A burrito from Burrito Gallery later, Matt and I were off exploring the historic parts of Jacksonville. We went though Springfield, visited his friend who owns the Klutho house and  headed over to the S-line bike trail to see what it was about. Then we rode towards Riverside through neighborhoods that had some very eclectic and rustic buildings. After hopping into Jax E Bikes,  a quick chat with Dylan and a quick test ride on the top of the line E bike later we headed off to Memorial park. I have not hated Jacksonville’s sprawl this much till I watched the after glow of a post sunset evening on a clear florida sky across the river from San Marco. People stuck in concrete cul-de-sacs do not know what they are missing on a daily basis. After a quick ride through riverwalk, we got back to Matt’s truck.

All this on the new Hercules bike was a lot of fun. The total distance was around 10 miles. The roads included some bike lanes but mostly there were no spearate bike lanes or segragated paths. The S-line greenway was the only segregated bike path. I actually felt pretty safe on the roads without bike lanes. Those older neighborhoods are built on a more human scale unlike the suburban mess that I call home.