Friday, June 29, 2012

3 mile commute to work.

Fairly pleasant on residential streets.
Just long enough to even think about cycling.

I traverse three towns, a Us highway freeway, and train tracks (twice yes the same ones).


Bass Lake Road resembles a freeway (faster & shorter) no train tracks imagine that!
So I take 49th unless I want the express way home

I gave up the car for the bicycle. Rarely do I just ride (around the block).
My commutes to work is a pleasant exchange to the different environments I live in.


I am almost on my year so just a few more months.














Monday, June 25, 2012




Random goodness here.

Bicycle deliver sandwich man, who took my order in between.

Free water fountain via fire hydrant.  I see a future here.










Saturday, June 23, 2012

So herein lies an old gas station. Swift

Monday, June 18, 2012



18 JUNE 2012

The Big Hit & Run Killer

http://www.copenhagenize.com/2012/06/big-hit-run-killer.html
As Sergeant Joe Friday puts it:

"How much difference, for example, as far as moral guilt is concerned, is there between the following: #1 the man who plans a killing, takes up a gun, finds his victim and shoots him to death. And #2 the man who thinks he has to look out for no one’s welfare but his own, gets behind the wheel of a car, disregards the ordinary rules of safety and proceeds to commit homicide with a motor vehicle. Often times the crime masquerades under the guise of an accident. Morally, no matter how you spell it, it adds up to murder just as surely as if the person had taken a gun and shot his victim down."

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Some 4,834 cyclists and 59,925 pedestrians were killed by motor vehicles in the United States between 1999 and 2009 (the most recent year for which figures are available), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cyclists killed just 63 pedestrians, or about six a year, during the same time period.


 Source : After Death, Manslaughter Charge for Cyclist By MALIA WOLLAN Published: June 15, 2012 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/us/san-francisco-cyclist-charged-with-manslaughter.html?_r=1

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Metro Transit in the state of Minnesota is very progressive.

1. An Andriod apps allows me to see the next bus number, keep favorites, and display the next several buss frequencies for that stop.  Metro supplies the data and the open source community takes care of the code.

2. With added options to create a debit card rather than a monthly pass. So that my card can be read (on the bus)  to see how much I have left on it. Plust I get 10% discount if I use it. This speeds up boarding times as well.

3. Using the frequency to stop at a different place, but still serve the bus corridors.  Buses in the Metro county may have a letter after the number say 14G with a final destination on the front (led).
This allows bus service every half hour to have two different destinations but still serve the same line (roadway).
While most buses do go to the Robbinsdale transit center. They have one bus head out to Golden Valley, Yet still serves the same high density corridor of downtown and then destination of course changes as well. This allows service to more areas, but not really affecting service.

4. They increase bus service during rush hour and they charge more. Frequencies of ten minutes is the sweet spot.  I don't think it is not unreasonable to charge more.

5. They use Rapid Bus Service or BRT extensively. They were the first in the nation to place a BRT station on I  35W, so that the bus never leaves the Carpool lane. The buses also are *authorized to use the shoulders on freeways and some MN state roads. ( MN 7 for example has stoplights ) This was another first for the state of transit.

6. State laws give the bus another useful and powerful feature. If they have their blinker on, then all traffic behind them in that lane yields to the bus with their blinker on. ( so the bus never cuts anyone off and their is a sticker with a yield sign stating the law on the back of the bus.)

This makes sitting on the driver side interesting. As all these people with vehicles, will almost cause a collision by foolish driving.



* Authorize means they can use it if they want, so long it's a transit bus. Yet keep in mind #6 if a bus has their blinker on you must yield to them.