Month: November 2008

Via Transport Politic, some encouraging transit news from Iraq, where the mayor of Baghdad recently announced plans to move ahead with the city's first subway lines. The Guardian reports:

Enviro Groups Send Obama Their Transition Plan… (Grist, HuffPo) …Here Are the NRDC’s Recs on Transpo Policy (Switchboard) Another Map of Measure R Results (Bottleneck Blog) Antonovich’s Measure R Posturing Picked Up by Daily News San Francisco Considering Congestion Pricing That Might Actually Work (Chronicle) Goodbye Supervisor/Director Burke (Daily Breeze) Many Options for UCLA Commuters … Continued

Regardless of how you feel about Measure R, you'll get a quick chuckle out of this agenda item on today's county board of supervisor's agenda.  Hat tip to the eagle-eyed Damien Goodmon for noticing:

Liz Elliott: While this isn't exactly about me biking around town, but I do have this one very recent story that I love. We had two students show up at our "Learn to Ride" class a few weeks ago, each with a goal to become bike commuters. What was so inspiring is that neither of them really believed that they could learn to ride a bike--they just had this "crazy" dream. Lisa's boyfriend had tried to teach her on his bike, and just gave up. Ray's friends took him out for about 20 minutes and came to the conclusion that he was just hopeless. So when they started pedaling after only about an hour into the class, it was a huge celebration. This is our favorite class, and we always get emotional when they take off on their own. So much work has gone into getting them to that moment, and when they take off, you stand by like a proud parent filled with joy. Afterward, they were so excited and wanted to know what bikes they should buy. Now they've already advanced into our bike handling workshops and are becoming competent cyclists, and soon-to-be bike commuters. This is what we do, and it's my favorite story.

Watch this vid touting a contraption called the "SpeedFit," then get your punchlines ready. We like this one from the YouTube peanut gallery:

Come join the EASTSIDE BIKE CLUB on there Christmas Caroling Bike Ride. Show up at 3pm to decorate your bike, Check your air pressure and Brakes.

Join us for Casual Bike Rides thru the Street of LA

Other Cyclists Look at Friday’s Meeting (Biking in LA, Illuminate LA, Soap Box, Soap Box, Soap Box) Car Free Monday’s: Browne Molyneaux (Green LA Girl) LAist Goes Carfree to Santa Barbara Pictures from Last Night’s “Car Free” Night at Holiday of Lights Festival (Daily News) Metrolink Joins Google Transit.  Metro?  Not So Much (Bottleneck Blog) … Continued