planbike

Monday, September 28, 2015

Cycling Car-Free Paris: Journée sans Voiture

Back in August, I read that Paris would go car-free for one day: Journée sans Voiture (Car Free Day). I had always meant to go to Paris and seeing it car-free was irresistable.

GoPro video of cycling Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées during Journée Sans Voiture (Paris' car-free day). The Arc was not included in the car ban but some of us cycled it anyway.

Global Trend

The Journée begins

Like L.A.'s first Ciclavia in 2010, this felt historic. I had to be there to witness the city's high profile shift to the great pleasure of life with fewer cars.

Map of Paris Car Ban

Map of Journée sans Voiture

The actual city plan turned out to involve total closure of a very small subset of the city. The dotted pink line in the adjacent map shows the spots that would be 100% car-free. Other areas included were not contiguous with this center section.

The three key spots I most wanted to see car-free were the iconic:

Arc de Triomphe
Champs Elysées
Eiffel Tower

There are pictures below of each one of these with and without cars.

Journée sans Voiture: Grand but limited

SRO at the Champs Élysées

The actual event was indeed grand. It made headlines around the world with these kinds of iconic shots. Parisians savored with gusto their freedom to roam iconic spots like the Champs Élysées and Eiffel Tower without fear of cars.

However, there were suprising limits to the Journée sans Voiture.

Arc de Triomphe

Never Car-free

Arc de Triomphe avec voiture: boo!

Here's the Arc de Triomphe at night with cars. I had planned to make this a before shot with another shot from the next day showing the Arc "sans voiture". Unfortunately, the event did not include the Arc de Triomphe.

Excluded from Journée sans Voiture

A typical jam at the Arc

That's right, the Arc de Triomphe, perhaps the most iconic point of car domination in Paris, was excluded from the Journée sans Voiture even though it is literally feet from the Champs Élysées. All the pictures of the event make it look like the Arc was included but sadly it wasn't.

Only 99% car-free at dawn

99% car-free but only
at the crack of dawn

This photo from 6 a.m. Sunday morning, way before any official car bans, is the closest I got to a car-free Arc de Triomphe. Beautiful. How much more beautiful it would have been to see people picnicking all around the Arc de Triomphe. C'est la vie...

Belgians and I take the lane anyway

Belgians taking the lane at the Arc

Nevertheless, that didn't stop these brave Belgians (and myself), no strangers to car-free events, from taking the lane at Arc de Triomphe anyway, right in the middle of the day.

Fast but not furious

Although there were quiet moments around the Arc roadway, they were invariably interrupted by cars cutting this big circle as straight and as fast as they could, like this guy. It is a little frightening but to hell with it. The day of the Journée sans Voiture seemed a good day to die cycling.

Although they were fast, the cars were considerate for the most part. At least on this special day, I got a wide berth from cars and did not get honked or shouted at: fast but not furious.

Eiffel Tower

Mostly car-free already

Eiffel Tower sunrise on 9/27

I visited the Eiffel Tower early before the Journée started to see what it looked like with cars. The Eiffel Tower was included in the Journée sans Voiture. Although it enjoyed some road closures for the special day, it didn't look like it needed much.

Taken post Journée sans Voiture

It turns out, cars are already not much of an issue at the Eiffel Tower. Except for a major boulevard near one edge, the tower enjoys a healthy border around it, which in turn is surrounded by some relatively quiet streets.

Eiffel Tower: already
car-free

This adjacent pic shows one of the many gorgeous examples of roads that end at the park that surrounds the tower.

Avenue Gustav Eiffel indeed car-free

Avenue Gustav Eiffel getting a
bath before Journée sans Voiture

The one road closest to the tower is the Avenue Gustav Eiffel which separates the Eiffel Tower from the Champ de Mars, the large lawn adjacent to the tower. Not sure what it normally looks like but it was indeed closed and thoroughly enjoyed by the visitors who took the opportunity to get pictures of the tower from closeup vantage points not possible when you are dodging cars.

The Eiffel Tower is a truly spectacular place to bike and walk every day not just during the Journée sans Voiture.

Champs Élysées

Spectacular with cars, even better without

Champs Élysées on 9/27/2015

The Champs Élysées was almost entired closed to cars, except for the last few yards towards the Arc de Triomphe. Despite the exclusion of the Arc, this was still was huge and spectacular to behold especially as everyone filled the space.

Champs Élysées packed with cars

Champs Élysées: Journée sans
Voiture Eve

Here is the Champs Élysées the night before: stuffed with cars. Gunning your car or motorcycle seems to be a Parisian past time. Luckily, for these pedestrians on this saturday night, the traffic is so bad that speeding in a car is impossible.

Father and Son Can't Wait

The Champs Élysées moments after
temporary car ban.

Here is the Champs Élysées moments after they closed it to cars. This father and son couldn't wait. What a pleasure to see riders, skaters, strollers, et al. enjoying the car-free space.

Pique-nique sur les Champs Élysées

Picnic on the Champs Élysées

Here is a family that setup a little picnic in the middle of the Champs Élysées. So cute! Too bad it is only for one day.

Champs Élysées packed with People

The Champs Élysées shortly before end

of the temporary car ban.

Here is the space later in the day. Stunning! So beautiful to see such a huge turnout. Hopefully, the government feels rewarded for their decision and will expand both the geographic scope and the frequency of the the journée sans voiture.

A closer look at Paris' bike infrastructure here. A lot more pics on instragram and here for anyone interested.

Ironique ou tragique. Tu décides!

Connard!

Just moments after the ban on cars was lifted, down by the L'Hôtel des Invalides this guy decides to park in the middle of the bike lane. He couldn't resist tainting all the good will I guess. I'm using him here to highlight one of many advantages to protected bike lanes. He'd think twice if his oil pan was at risk of hitting a bike lane barrier.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Folding Bikes Part I: The Social Bicycle

Folding Bike on the Bay Bridge

To be truly bike-centric, in the still car-centric U.S., you need a bike that can work with the dominant infrastructure despite its limitations.

A Return to Cycling Hit Roadblocks

A few years back, I revived a huge passion for cycling and bike advocacy. My goal was to really use the bike as my primary, if not exclusive, mode of transportation. However, it quickly became apparent that this was impossible for the following reasons.

Bridge Bike Lane not yet even halfway.

First, in the bay area where I live, the two most centrally located bridges cater only to cars:

The San Mateo Bridge has no way for bikes to cross.
The Bay Bridge has half a bike lane that sits half finished. BART has scarce space for bikes at crucial times.

Second, meeting friends out somewhere meant the bike or I got left behind if they travel to a second location.

Bike lanes often stop at overpasses.

Third, inevitably, some trips were untenable for rigid schedules:

Finally, even off the bridges, car-centric infrastructure is pervasive. Many places are still designed for drivers and no one else. Technically, you can ride it but at your peril.

Limits to Bus, Train, Or Friend

Some of these issues were mitigated by heavy use of bus and train, and by inspiring a number of friends and family to create a network of bike racks on our cars.

Friends with bike racks are few.

Bus bike racks fill up quick.

Folding fits well with rush hour

Even then, having the bike all the time wasn't full-proof the way your primary transport needs to be:

Few friends had racks. Even then, bikes on them would get "racked" when we forgot and entered a garage
The few bike racks on buses were often full. So cyclists must wait up to an hour for another one which also might be full.
Train systems had varying restrictions:

BART, at the time, had outright bans on bikes during rush hour: when cyclists needed it. They've since revoked this. Nevertheless, it is a real challenge getting a full size bike on board.
CalTrain restricts bikes to two "bike cars" that are stuffed during rush hour. So cyclists are bumped to the next train like with the bus.

PlanBike 1.0 Failed

All in all, in using a regular bike for all transport just didn't work in a vast car-centric metropolis. I could not count on:

safe roads to the destination
enough time or speed for the hills and distance
enough rack space on a bus
enough "bike car" space on a train
enough friends with car racks

Folding Flexibility To The Rescue

What to do? The answer turned out to be getting a folding bicycle.

Overcoming Folding Perception

Bike Friday Tikit in Geeky Splendor

Though the latest folding bikes are quite fast and elegant, many cyclists still view folding bikes as oddly-shaped, slow, and flimsy, contraptions.

If even cyclists felt that way, it was a question how these could appeal to the non-cyclists I am still hoping to inspire. Nevertheless, they seemed to solve many of the issues I was facing so I gave one a try.

Barring a few missteps (more on that in future installments), the decision has been a great success.

The Catalyst for All Transport Modes

Folding Bikes in luggage Cars.

Folding bikes fill any gap in bus, train, plane, ferry, or car schedule while giving you full confidence you can keep them while you use alternate transport.

With a folding bike, you always have a ride on the other side of the bridge, road, mountain, or ocean, that is too dangerous or impractical for bikes.

They are the perfect catalyst to link all transport modes into a working solution. The only other transport mode that comes close to being this flexible are legs but legs are not nearly as fast.

The Ultimate Social Bicycle

Folding Bikes easily fit in cars.

With a folding bike, neither you nor your friends are left behind when you travel together, even if you used different transport modes to meet.

No matter what mode of transport you take as a group, the folding bike can fit. You are never bumped or banished from using any transportation resource.

For this reason, folding bikes are the ultimate social bicycle. They collaborate nicely with whatever transport your friends choose or with whatever safe/effective transport mode is available.

Welcome Inside Buses, Trains, Planes, Cars

Folding Bikes fly in a regular suitcase.

Once folded, your bike is welcome inside:

a bus
a train's luggage car
an Über or a friend's trunk
a water taxi or ferry
checked airplane luggage (for no additional fee)

Welcome Inside Buildings

Folding Bikes are welcome in stores.

Since a folding bike, once folded, is not much bigger than a stroller, another advantage is that it is often welcome inside:

coat check rooms
restaurants
stores
workplaces
small home closets

Added Security

Folding Bikes fit in tiny closets.

This ability to fit inside means the bike is less vulnerable to theft or vandalism at typically inadequate external bike storage. That is a huge relief to many cyclists.

Stealthy Performance

If all that weren't enough, folding bikes have evolved way beyond a mere contraption. They are now vehicles of considerable performance.

50km+ on a good Folding Bike is great.

Although I still get teased for riding on a "toy", I've kept up with relatively fast peloton's of road bikes on 50km rides with no problem. After that, the heckling stops and the questioning starts about what they weigh (8.6kg - 13.6kg) and what they cost ($500-$5000).

Folding Is My New Normal

Folding Bike down Lombard Street

Now, folding bikes are all I ever ride. The performance and convenience are too hard for a regular bicycle to match. They even look cool once you get used to the small wheels. If you've encountered the same commuter cycling challenges I have, they are worth a serious look.

Next time, I'll talk about which ones I got and why. There is a lot to consider.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Cycling Treasure Island: Part II: A Tran's Bay Bike Shop

This little bike shop on Treasure Island is inspiring art and transgender pride while inspiring cyclists to enjoy the island even before the Bay Bridge bike lane opens.

Treasure Island, a former U.S. Navy base and World's Fair venue, has spectacular views of the Golden Gate, San Francisco skyline, Alcatraz, and the east bay. It also has artifacts from its grand past and eclectic future around every corner. If that weren't enough, it is flat as a pancake and has relatively calm or sparse car traffic, making it a perfect place to tour by bike.

There are already a number of carless options for getting there. More on that here. Although the bike lane on the eastern span of the Bay Bridge won't be completed for a few years yet, the island is ready for cycling now thanks to A Tran's Bay Bike Shop.

In January 2013, Tammy Powers, a Long Island-born life-long lover of bicycles, opened A Tran's Bay Bike Shop. It is nestled in the basement of Building One, the first building you see on the island.

Unique Bikes

Tammy is an authorized Fuji dealer. She's also got a fleet of new beach cruisers for sale or rent, as well as assorted others including folding bikes (that fit anyone in seconds).

However, the bikes that really catch your eye are the gorgeous vintage Schwinn cruisers from the 60s and 70s and the stretch chopper bicycle! These are just for rent but so fun. I rented all three for a party on the island and they were a huge hit, as evident from some of these pictures.

To keep them all rolling, Tammy carries tubes and tires for 650, 700, and 26" wheels.

Unique Space

The bike shop is unique simply by being the only one on this very unique island. However, the actual space the shop is in is truly cool. "I love, love, love the space I'm in, there is no other space for lease on this island that is closer to the Bay Bridge. After my first 18 months in business, I doubled the square footage of my shop.", Tammy says.

"I didn't exactly 'choose' this space. Originally T.I.D.A. (Treasure Island Development Authority) was showing me other spaces around the island, and I couldn't envision any of them being the right place. T.I.D.A. almost didn't even show me this space. They figured 'who would want some place below ground level in the back of a historic building', but when they showed it to me, I knew it was the one!", Tammy says.

Given its unique position in the back of Building One, it can be a little tricky to find. Tammy can't have a permanent sign out on the road so it is only there when the shop is open.

Nevertheless, the bike shop is easy to get to once you know where to go. The first right you can take once on the island is into the parking lot for the Treasure Island Bar & Grill and the Treasure Island Yacht Club.

That is also the best way to get to A Tran's Bay Bike Shop because the entrance to the basement of Building One is behind the Treasure Island Bar & Grill and Treasure Island Yacht Club. In fact, the folks in the restaurant are happy to give directions when asked.

Given its central location to the island in general and to where cyclists will eventually be spilling down from the new bike lane, the bike shop is perfectly positioned to help both present and future cyclists enjoy the island.

Unique Art

The bikes and the space aren't the only attraction at A Tran's Bay Bike Shop. There's the art. Tammy, with the help of some local artists, has turned the cozy windowless space into a sprawling gallery of bold, colorful, art and artifacts.

On different walls there is:

the giant dragon similar to those found in Chinese New Year Dragon Dance
the giant peacock soaring over a banner of the official transgender flag
the psychedelic wall of geometric, scientific, and geographic icons stitched together with Van Gogh-esque pointillism
the excellent cartoon portrait of Tammy herself blazing along in flip-flops on a beach cruiser

The list goes on. Around every corner are really great giant works of art, some of which defy description.

There is also a great collection of Bric-à-brac such as:

the Buzz Lightyear and bunny pez dispensers
the photo of Robin Williams (avid cyclist)
the Maneki-neko (the beckoning aka waving cat)
the VW "Love" bus (based on a bus that really exists apparently)

All this stuff is waiting inside A Tran's Bay Bike to charm the heck out of anyone who enters.

Unique Owner

Tammy deeply appreciates how the artists can see what is not yet there. They have vision. So does Tammy. "I was simply visiting a friend on the island and while staring at the unfinished Bay Bridge, I had the epiphany of this island NEEDING a bike shop once the bike lane is finished.", she says.

She can't wait for the new Bay Bridge bike lane to open. "My entire business plan is based upon the massive amount of people that will be arriving once that bike lane opens... you bet your begonias I'm looking forward to it happening", Tammy says.

She also has a vision to be an example for transgender business owners. For her, the name on the bike shop says it all: "A Tran's Bay Bike Shop". Although she has other business names in mind for future projects, right now this one matters.

"I've been into bikes since I was a kid, pulled apart my coaster brake when I was 10 or 11 just to understand how it worked. I've worked at bicycle shops ever since I lived in Colorado...I am an excellent mechanic with superb customer service skills", Tammy says.

Unfortunately, "few people want to hire 'us'", she says with frustration, referring to transgender folks. So she hired herself by starting this business. Small wonder Tammy wants it known this is a transgender-sponsored, transgender-run, enterprise. She expects to be hiring in the near future and transgender folks will most definitely be considered.

Like the island itself, A Tran's Bay Bike Shop is a charming oasis for cyclists, whether they have a bike in need of service or they are bike-less and suddenly inspired to ride. It is also so much more. Definitely, worth a visit.