Comments on: Make money by commuting on your bicycle

By: John of Pomona CA

John of Pomona CA — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 06:41:21 +0000

Great encouraging website! I started commuting last month using my second hand Wellington road bike coupled with whole body reflectors, tire patches, u-lock and cheap bike helmet, I became a road bike warrior. Seriously, biking gives you more health benefits, make you think better too. loving it every commute day!

By: look inside here

look inside here — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:04:29 +0000

It’s great to read this quality of information…

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:39:00 +0000

Urban planner Richard Register recounts meeting a bicycle activist friend wearing a T-shirt that said, “I just lost 3,500 pounds. Ask me how.”When asked, he said he had sold his car. Replacing a 3,500-pound car with a 22-pound bicycle obviously reduces energy use dramatically, but it also reduces materials use by 99 percent, indirectly saving still more energy.

From PLAN B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, by Lester R. Brown

By: Vicki Baker

Vicki Baker — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:31:44 +0000

If you look at the scenes from China in “Return of the Scorcher”, which I guess were filmed in 1990 or 1991, it’s just bikes - hundreds and hundreds of bikes. That’s a lot of change in 17 years, and not for the better IMO.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:33:46 +0000

I travelled to Beijing twice in the past 8 years, and watching the bicycles mix with the cars and trucks made me squeamish. And I’m a cyclist who often rides in traffic (in the u.S.). I could not count the number of times that a cyclist came within 6 inches of the side of a car or truck. I prefer them to be 3 FEET apart, thank you. They are some brave souls out there on those bicycles. I hope not too many of them get injured each day, but I fear the worst.

By: Vicki Baker

Vicki Baker — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:12:49 +0000

Scenes of bike traffic in China in Ted White’s 1992 film “Return of the Scorcher” were tremendously influential on bike culture in San Francisco and central California in the mid 90’s. The term “Critical Mass” as applied to a mass bike ride was coined from a description of how bicycle riders in Beijing communally choreographed their way through intersections.
It’s sad to hear how much has changed on the other side of the Pacific in 10 short years.

By: Xiaogou

Xiaogou — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:32:26 +0000

About 10 years ago there were tens of thousands of bikes in Beijing. Regular everyday bikes, tandem bikes, bikes pulling carts, and bikes with a covered rickshaw were seen everywhere. People were doing business out of these bicycles towing a wagon. There were roadways dedicated for bikes separated by a median strip and there were miles and miles of roadway streaming with bikes. Whole families were going not just around the corner, but across 80 to 100 miles to visit grandma in the nearby town. But as Beijing wanting to woo the Olympics to Beijing the government banned all bike traffic in the city and that was the end of the story. In many of the other major cities as the old China is being torn down to and a new and modern China is being built, bicycles have been banned and they are now paying for that with cities with a yellow haze over it that extends for miles around these major metropolis. By the way the nice blue skies over Beijing that is seen when you have the president or some other major dignitary is real and not touched up. The Chinese master this feat by shutting down all the industries in and around Beijing during that person’s stay in China. I am not sure what they will do when the Olympics are in town.
Even in the smaller cities the bikes are disappearing as more Chinese are becoming affluent and mopeds are becoming cheaper. But the price of gas which runs about $20.00 (This is roughly like paying a $160.00 in America for the same gas) a gallon so the situation is reaching a decision point of staying with gas using transportation or going back to the bikes.
By the way around where I live having a bike is asking for someone to break into your house. My friend has had 3 bikes stolen in just one year.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:49:00 +0000

For cyclists who don’t want to share the road with big dangerous motor vehicles, here is a site describing 6 long (more than 200 miles) trails. It makes you want to take a week off and explore one of them. http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001903.php

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 04:14:57 +0000

Here’s an article for Scientific American suggesting that if you are a cyclist who wears a helmet you are actually more in danger because motorists tend to drive closer to you. The researcher was quite dedicated, riding his bike long enough to allow 2,300 vehicles pass him. He was struck twice (though not injured) by two vehicles.

Another twist: if the motorists think you’re a woman, they give you a bit more space.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=778EF0AB-E7F2-99DF-3594A60E4D9A76B2&sc=I100322

By: projektleiterin

projektleiterin — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 17:36:35 +0000

Grumpy is quite enthusiastic.