Nifty Blogs of Note

Here's a nifty blog, sponsored by PSTA:
http://ridepsta.wordpress.com/

Also, I love this idea:
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679580/gas-prices-too-high-have-you-considered-sewage

Back to the Bike

I have neglected my super-cool cruising bike, and, to a lesser extent, the scooter. I'm thinking about doing another car-free week, or month. My editor has also tasked me with writing a feature on people who take the bus in Gulfport. So I guess it's time to pump up the bike tires and dust off the bus pass.

Anyone care to try car-free living for a week or two?

Case of the Tossed Bike Helmet

So the kid threw his helmet across the yard and lost riding privileges for a day. Now I'll be driving him to school tomorrow. What to do, when punishment for the child is harder for the parent? Help me!

St. Petersburg Goes Danish?

I ran into a guy at the Saturday Morning Market last week who told me he was working with a group at USF St. Petersburg. He said they were working on getting city bikes, a la Aarhus or Copenhagen, for downtown St. Petersburg.

I gave him my information but somehow failed to get his. Does anyone know anything about this? I've long thought it would be a fantastic idea and, if I wasn't hallucinating, am thrilled to see it brought to the Burg.

Anyone?

Short video by the Dutch Cycling Embassy shows how bicycling can provide safe, everyday transportation.

comments from my son

My son, who is 10 and cannot yet post comments, had the following to say about my previous blog: "fast & efficiently you should get a bike!!!!!"

biking, tourism, city

My friend Jeff, in town for the weekend, wanted to celebrate his 50th birthday Saturday night with a Rays game. Tampa Bay won in spectacular fashion, blowing a two run lead in the ninth, then coming back in the twelfth to defeat the obnoxious and annoying Boston Red Sox -- but that's another story.

On Saturday morning, Jeff, his daughter Rachel, and I rode to the Trop to pick up tickets. Taking the opportunity to show off our fine waterfront, we cruised around the fountain at the USF St. Pete campus, stopped to admire the glass blob that slithers outside the Dali, bought tickets, and pedaled a little further down the Pinellas Trail to check out the pottery center. (Rachel is taking ceramics at school and was very impressed.)

On the way back, we hooked a right at the Dome, picked up a new trail through Campbell Park, coasted downhill to the Third Street bike lane, and made it home before a mid-afternoon shower hit.

Here's the point: St. Petersburg looks great on a bike.

Lately I've been reading David Byrne's book, Bicycle Diaries, which is as much about bicycles as it is knowing the world. The globe-trotting former Talking Heads frontman makes a good case that the best way to learn a city is to pedal it. And today's NY Times Sunday Review ran a piece on Bicycle Visionary Sadik-Khan, the transportation commissioner who has doubled the number of bike lanes in the city. Sadik-Khan has drawn no amount of scorn, as the article notes, but visionaries often do.

Long story short. Sleepy St. Petersburg has a chance to put itself on the cutting edge. Much has been made about defeats to light rail in the Tampa Bay area. And the current political climate gives little reason to hope for improvement to our woeful bus system. (Welfare on wheels -- more on that later.)

But biking is cost efficient, surprisingly safe in downtown St. Petersburg, and fun.

While riding through St. Pete with Jeff and Rachel, I could not help but feel -- dare I say it? -- civic pride.

Our local government has laid terrific groundwork for creating a bike-friendly 'burg.

Let's face it. Real transportation alternatives are not coming here anytime soon.

So why not direct energies towards expanded bike lanes? It's a solution that Rick Scott and garden-variety liberals like me can agree on.