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Ride Like a Mensch
Yesterday, I was riding along a local street, cruising a downhill section and approaching an intersection with all-way stop signs. Already at the intersection was a car stopped at the cross street. There seemed to be a family inside-two kids, mom and dad, with grandma in the back seat. Arriving at the intersection I came…
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The Portland Bicycle: Heretical Suggestion about Tires
Another entry in our series to design an entry-level commuter bike for design and manufacture here in Portland. A re-cap on the target market: – beginning rider – short trips, or used in conjunction with a bus for longer trips – ridden in street clothes – $300 or under Today’s topic is tires. Flat tires…
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A Report from our Japan Correspondent
Background: As part of my ongoing, seemingly single handed crusade to look at multitasking of sidewalk spaces for multimodal use I was awarded a grant from the Architectural Foundation of Oregon (AFO) to study the ped/bike zone of urban streetscapes in Japan. So… I am writing from my hotel room in Kobe looking out at…
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Time for More Diverse Vehicles
Biking to work this morning I passed a golf-cart like vehicle that was chugging down the street. I was reminded about how uncreative we are with our choices of vehicles. Most households have a couple of cars — and those cars are overbuilt for what they’re actually used for 95% of the time. They’re set…
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The Portland Bicycle: Gearing
A few weeks ago we introduced the idea of “The Portland Bicycle”, an entry-level commuter bicycle that would appeal to folks first entering the bicycle commuting realm, designed and manufactured here in our region. The discussion identified the need for commuting bikes at a variety of price/feature points, but we’d like to focus on the…