Sunday, May 14
| I was supposed to help lead Paul Mentag's
Heart Ride 2000 send-off
this morning, but the end of one of my rear dropouts cracked off,
my rear wheel was only held on one side, and I had to call my wife
to rescue me (with a car...). In the afternoon, we took some other
bikes on the Brookline Historic Tour. Nine-year-old Sarah, who rode
a Trail-a-Bike on the tour last year, has graduated to the back of our
Montague folding tandem; I captained, and my wife, Claudia, rode her
own bike. Sarah was great to ride with--when I called out, "Afterburner
on!" she stood up and we zoomed up some pretty steep hills. Marian
Lazar, who led the ride, seemed to know everything there is to know
about the historical, architectural, and geological features on the
route, and it was just a gorgeous day to be outdoors. After the ride,
I went shopping for a new bike.
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Monday, May 15
|
Everyone in Boston's bicycling community, and some from as far away
as Worcester, converged on Davis Square for
Redbones third annual benefit.
Chester Street was closed off, the valet parking area next
to the restaurant was filled up with bikes, the MassBike tent was up,
and the aroma of fresh barbecue filled the air. I met old friends like
Joel Bennett, with whom I biked to New York City 18 years ago, and
fellow builders of the
Neponset River Bridge, Milton Trimitsis and Michael Hering and
Mike's wife, Elizabeth,
and talked about bikepath funding and cosmology while eating chicken
and beef barbecue (they'd run out of pulled pork...).
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Tuesday, May 16
| The sixth annual
Broadway Bicycle School
Commuter Breakfast
brought together cyclists who live and/or work in Cambridge for some
great homemade
strawberry, blueberry, and chocolate chip pancakes and vegetarian sausage.
Commuter breakfasts are a good time to get together with the people
who are out there on the street with you every day. The City of Cambridge
was supposed to be handing out bike commuter goody bags this morning,
but none of the people at the breakfast, who had converged from all
over (as far away as Dedham) had seen one. Tonight, I picked up the
new bike I found at International Bicycle Center on Sunday afternoon.
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Wednesday, May 17
|
I biked in a bit late today and stopped in front of Cambridge City Hall
to visit the tables set up for "Commute a Better Way Day". I got all the
answers right on their commuting quiz and picked up a few bike and car
stickers. I rode my 30-year-old Raleigh Super Course instead of my new
bike because of the
Access/Boston
meeting at the Boston Public Library
in Copley Square tonight. It was a nice trip down the Charles River
Bikepath, though the inline skaters have really come out of the woodwork
over the past couple of weeks, and I had to slow down a few times.
At the Access/Boston meeting, Paul Smith of
Rizzo Associates talked
about what will be in the upcoming Boston Bicycle Plan and showed off the
study he did for the
Emerald Necklace Greenway
project which MassBike
is working on. In response to my question, he said the report should
be out as soon as the Boston Transportation Department and the Boston
Bicycle Advisory Committee (BBAC) have vetted it. We had a lively discussion
in a breakout session in which BBAC members assured other cyclists that
this time, bike proposals will be carried out. The presence of
Chief of Environmental Services Andrea D'Amato (who runs the streets
and parks of the city) through most of the meeting was encouraging, too.
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Thursday, May 18
| Car-pool day, and I had to pick up a sick kid, which definitely was
easier in a car than on a bike, since she is way too big to fit in a trailer.
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Friday, May 19
| No events were planned for today, though the steady rain would have
dampened turnout if they had been. I did put fenders, a rack, and a
bike computer on my new bike, so it got its commuting baptism in Real
New England Spring Weather.
|