De-car-ing week: Bike me

This week's eco-topic: De-car-ing.

If you're driving from, through or to the Westside at any point, chances are you will get to your destination half an hour early or late. Yep -- traffic has gotten so crazy and unpredictable that there's pretty much no way to avoid wasting either your own or other people's time if you choose to drive.

Enter the bicycle. Travel via bike and you'll be able to predict your arrival time within 5 to 10 minutes.

I'm not a hard-core biker. I'm pretty wimpy, actually. I don't ride fast, and I don't ride anywhere or anytime that seems scary -- however subjective that designation might be. The farthest I've ever biked is to Green Drinks in Culver City a couple of times -- and that was only with other cycling friends. Still, I bike everywhere in my neighborhood in Santa Monica -- as well as most of Venice.

Live in any semi-dense area, and dealing with parking -- both finding it and paying for it -- becomes a real hassle. With a bike, I can just lock up at a meter and go. So I bike to the post office, the LEED certified library, Third Street Promenade, Main Street, and the like. And the farmers market is now easier to work than ever, since I got my bike basket.

There's the social factor too. With Critical Mass, Midnight Ridazz, C.I.C.L.E., and LA County Bicycle Coalition events (among others), biking friends are there for your meeting.

Getting a bike is not too hard or expensive. A bunch are on sale on Craigslist any day, and DIY bike-activist shops like Bikerowave and Bicycle Kitchen will help you fix up whatever you buy into the cycling machine of your choice at a cut-rate price.

I'll admit, though, that I paid a few hundred for my pink townie at Helen's Cycles -- I wanted the bike I wanted, and I wanted to buy it from people who could guide me to the bike of my dreams. Which is to say: If you buy your bike new, don't buy it from Wal-Mart. Go to a real bike shop.

Last week, I finally got a bike pump and oily stuff to keep my bike running smoothly from Helen's Cycles. When I stopped by, the people at the shop gave me a little tuneup, complete with putting little protector thingies on my basket so it doesn't scratch my bike frame, for free!

Photos by Siel

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Comments

[m]

The largest hurdle for me getting a bike is actually finding a place to store it. There are no bike racks in my apartment or nearby and we are not permitted to keep anything in the apartment garage besides cars (and we have been told to not keep bikes inside of cars). I also do not have a porch/patio or non-carpeted space outside of my bathroom and kitchen in my miniature apartment. Unless I want to sleep in bed with a bike every night, I really have no place to store it. (Wall/ceiling racks that include drilling holes in the walls are also out of the question since it's an apartment). Once I get to work there is a similar situation along with the fact that bikes are not permitted on the Metro trains when I ride during "rush hour" every morning and evening. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for bike storage at home?

[Peter O]

"biking in the first sentence should be "driving". C'mon LAT! quit firing editors.

[stevejust]

Triflow (pictured in the blog) contains teflon, among other hydrocarbon goodies. Works great for bike drive-trains, but not so great for the environment. There's lots of room for green lubrication products in this world. Other greases (not light oil like WD-40) might be better than Triflow from the perspective of them being relatively more biodegradable.

I'd suggest looking at:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/09/working_on_the.php

[the house of the hill]

There is something to be said for sleeping with your bicycle; one past print ad for Performance Bicycle Shoppes showed a woman sleeping in bed along side her bicycle-- both mostly under the covers; her husband was sleeping on the floor along side the bed.
As for apartment bicycle storage: think of your bicycle as wall-art; put a couple of towels on the floor and place the bicycle on the towels.
However, you can come up with a thousand reasons not to have a bicycle;
you just need to find one reason to have a bicycle.
Perspective meets motivation.

[hy]

Hey M, folding bicycles are allowed on metro trains at all times. Some of them are even allowed as carry-ons on airplanes. And they can be stored folded in an apartment closet. Here's a good starting point: http://www.transalt.org/features/foldingbike.html

[Kate]

I can't help you with the Metro trains, but our bike stand has feet and therefore doesn't require drilling holes in anything, and there are four bikes on it.. (And you can't keep a bike in a car? I'm not sure an apartment building can legally mandate that.)

[Daniel]

LA-land is sooooo bikable. Warm, dry and not too hilly. But please remember reflectors and lights. They will extend your use of The Noblest Invention. Huge props to Siel for mentioning Critical Mass! Which is tomorrow in nearly 300 cities world wide. So if you are looking for great people go the CM in your 'hood.