Hatin' on the Fixies

OK, there's no love lost between me and the SF fixie cultists. But even I find this a tad bit strident:

"Early 1980's Eddy Merckx: Anyone buying this bike for a “fixie conversion” will be shot."

(via Kent Peterson, by way of BoingBoing.)

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Road construction again. Just because it'll be better later doesn't make it suck less today.

A big chunk of Duboce West of Church is dug up as of yesterday. The Westbound side consists of a) steel plates, and b) MUNI tracks. Both choices suck for a bike rider in the Irish Summer (50 degrees, foggy, drizzling) we're currently enjoying in SF.

Also, the Eastbound bike lane on Market was blocked off near Franklin this morning for some reason. Looks like I'm taking Page instead of The Wiggle for the next week or so.

Motivation

I've always felt that any effective training regimen requires that you get in touch with your Inner Asshole. This is the little voice inside your head that heaps abuse on you when you try to sleaze out of a workout.

By way of example, let's look at this morning. Freshly back from vacation, resolved to get on the bike every day this week, I woke up to find that it was damp and cold. Instantly, I started concocting reasons why getting on the bike this morning would be just a terrible idea:

• It's a steel-frame bike, it'll get rusty.
• Wet road surface: dangerous in traffic!
• Also, slippery MUNI tracks!
• Grey and foggy, bad visibility to cars.

Inner Asshole to the rescue! "There's a little water on the ground? Aww, WEEEAAAHHH, poor baby! GET ON THE BIKE, YEH FAT BASTID!"

Well, what do you know -- my Inner Asshole has a Boston accent. Just like my high-school gym teacher. Hm.

Wet Ones

Welcome to July in SF: cold and damp. Does that discourage the bike commuters? Not at all. I saw at least a hundred other riders out this morning.

As a side note, Mike's Bikes on Howard does great tune-ups. The brakes and shifting on my ride were as tight as two Scotsmen's grips on the same dropped farthing.

I still had the wet-weather tires on the bike this morning, and I was really glad of it too. I'm going to go ahead and pretend that's because I'm smart, and not just lazy.

SF Bike Accidents

This is incredible -- a Google maps mash-up showing all of the bicycle-related traffic accidents in the Bay Area over a ten-year period.

http://www.baycitizen.org/data/bike-accidents/

Check it out!

A Modest Proposal

A friend of mine was explaining to me last night about Portland's honor-based fare-collection system on its public transportation. "They have very few fare collectors, but they're very nice, polite... and very LARGE. They ask you nicely for your pass, and if you won't show it, three or four very large people come and nicely escort you off the train."

This gave me an idea. We have fare collectors in SF, too, and some of them are in fact quite large, and armed. The fines for fare evasion are steep: upwards of $100. Of course, most people don't pay them, since it's just like a traffic ticket, except without a vehicle they can boot.

I have a better system: public shaming, with clowns.

That's right: CLOWNS.


If you don't have a valid ticket, the fare collector sends in the clowns (or clown, or mime), who then PUBLICLY MOCKS you on the train to the other passengers. "Hey, THIS GUY here is riding free! That means ALL OF YOU paid for his ride! Let's give the freeloader a big hand, everybody!" (honks nose)

There are all kinds of benefits: free entertainment on MUNI, employment opportunities for clowns (because underemployed clowns generally turn to prostitution, and that's just disturbing.)

I'd bet fare collections would go through the roof. Nobody likes a public shaming. This is something we abandoned with the stocks, back in Puritan days, and I think it was a grievous mistake.

If the city is afraid of losing revenue from fines, well, they can collect it on the spot: "$100 cash, right now, or I send in the CLOWNS, pal."

I think this is a fabulous idea, and I plan to write to my supervisor, Bevan Dufty, right now to promote it.

If you agree, and you're an SF resident, please do the same!

Back In The Saddle Again

After a six-month hiatus spent mostly hating on the MUNI, I stopped procrastinating, dusted off the bike, and rode in to work this morning. Things are different. So different, I just have to say:

SF, I love you!

The new bike lanes are perfect, the Market St. closure means HUGE numbers of bikers are out, sharing the road with only a few buses, trains, taxis, and the very occasional truck.

It's so crowded, in fact, I had to bust out my best peloton manners, elbow-to-elbow with other riders in the middle of a mob, weaving around parked buses, right-turn lanes, and train tracks. I did see one rider go down after hooking his front tire in a track -- I hate it when I do that.

It's a gorgeous day, and I'm really looking forward to the ride home! MWAH!