Albany Bicycle Coalition

Okay, vacation over. Time to start churning out some content.

While my dream of taking a bike tour around Europe may be a ways into the future it never hurts to plan for it now. For this reason I have chosen my first stop on my grand cycling adventure, the Madonna del Ghisallo.

“According to the legend, the Medieval count Ghisallo was being attacked by bandits when he saw an image of Virgin Mary at a shrine. He ran to it and was saved from the robbers. The apparition became known as the Madonna del Ghisallo, and she became a patroness of local travellers. In later times, Madonna del Ghisallo (the hill) was made part of the Giro di Lombardia bicycle race.

A local priest, Father Ermelindo Vigano, proposed that Madonna del Ghisallo (the apparition) be declared the patroness of cyclists. This was confirmed by Pope Pius XII. Nowadays the shrine of Madonna del Ghisallo contains a small cycling museum with photos and artifacts from the sport. There also burns an eternal flame for cyclists who have died. One particularly notable artifact is the crumpled bicycle that Fabio Casartelli, a native of the region, rode on the day that he died in a crash in the Tour de France.”

–Wikipedia

Written by Chris Belsole

As I write this I am at home in Westchester sipping some tea with my mom and relaxing on the mandatory vacation I was made to take. Poor me. I wanted to tell you about an experience I had yesterday that really showed how far I’ve come as a bicyclists.

In my earlier, fatter, lazier days I still liked to ride my bike. I would take it up to the local Suncoast, a three mile trip, and buy a copy of Dragonball on VHS. Now I am dating myself. The thing is back then I would not be able to make it up the hills. I would walk my bike the part of the way that I could not climb.

Yesterday I went out to buy some groceries with my brother, hence the title, and I really got to see how far I have gone. First mechanically, I found an old bike in our garage, assessed it, and made it rideable for my brother. Thanks Mary Lou. Then structurally, I was able to climb those hills without incident. I wasn’t even in a low gear. Lastly, if my brother symbolized me when I was younger while he was wheezing and struggling to get up hills I wasn’t even breaking a sweat.

So I’ll leave you with these parting words, look back from where you’ve come so that you can appreciate where you are. Just remember to keep strait on the road.

Written by Chris Belsole

I couldn’t resist that one. From Bike Hugger:

The c-clip on the internal hub dislodged and suddenly Robert was unable to pedal or brake. We had a ride to do so I pushed him to Mellow Johnnys where they fixed the hub and we drank good coffee. Not shown is how I also pulled him back to stop. We looked like a couple of stooges at each intersection.

Of course this is not the first time a bike was used to tow something:

Written by Chris Belsole

I love the letter C.

People for Bikes is always coming out with new information about other cities in order to learn from their example and hopefully convince the nay sayers that what we are doing will not destroy their way of life. This city prospective comes to us from Seville, Spain where bike culture has grown dramaticly in recent years. Here are some stats for your reading pleasure:

• Seville added 100 miles of new bike infrastructure in 36 months between 2007 and 2009.

• 85% of the space came from removal of car parking and travel lanes; 15% came from pedestrian space (which was compensated for by major, new additions to public space in other places).

• The improvements increased the number of trips taken by bicycle from 0.4% to ~ 7%.

• In 2005, a major public plaza was redesigned to be more accessible to bikes and pedestrians:
  • removed 200 parking spaces
  • held 100+ public meetings, initial opposition to the plan was fierce from retailer organization and neighbors; now, 22% of customers arrive by bike and several new businesses have opened; retailers along the plaza are thriving.
  • incorporated a major stormwater management system into the design

• In 2006, Seville re-engineered a major four lane arterial road to be a shared plaza with streetcar, bike and pedestrian space. Initially opposed, the conversion is now very popular. “This defeats the myth that European streets have ‘always been this way.’ This amazing place is only five years old!” — Gil Peñalosa, Director of 8-80 Cities and Conference MC.

• City Council passed a law that limits auto access in the central city to residents only; the law reduced the daily number of cars in downtown from 25,000 to 10,000.

• “Great is the enemy of good.” The city’s infrastructure emphasizes network connectivity, not perfection. It’s far from the polished bikeways of Northern Europe, but the protected bikeways of Seville are safe, convenient and get you where you need to go without interruption.

• “This used to be a dangerous street for bicyclists and pedestrians. Now the biggest threat is getting hit by a falling orange.” Gil Peñalosa — on a redesigned street with protected bike lanes along a row of orange trees.

Written by Chris Belsole

The Big Easy, what does this Louisianian city have to offer bicycles? “Flat terrain (as in no hills, whatsoever), connected streets that offer alternate routes away from main thoroughfares, and a mild climate (except for a few months of blazing summer). All these make it possible to ride your bike almost year round.” Although the roads are not the best in the world there is apparently a thriving bike culture located south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Read the full article here.

Written by Chris Belsole