Biking Progress Report

TWO brakes!!

I have been riding a few times each week, mostly to SPEA, but occasional trips around Bloomington. Along with some help, I placed a back brake on my bike which is loads of help when I need to..brake. I also managed to crash into a few stationary things while learning how to use a back brake because response time is drastically slower than the front brake.  I screwed up a few times, cutting the plastic line too early (and then I manage to do it again, but oh well), and not wrapping my handle bars tightly enough,  but other than that, having two brakes is nice.

My Battle Scar

I’ve  gotten so comfortable with biking, that I proposed a Lake Griffy biking trip to Scott one sunny Sunday afternoon, which is only about 2.5 miles from where I live.  Besides, the massive construction zone on the bypass meant an entre lane just devoted to us bike riders. And it felt great, riding 2 miles on concrete with no lights, stop signs, or people and cars to look out for. Except there are things called curbs. Since we were biking on the road, we needed to hop a small curb to get back over the sidewalk onto the road that goes to the lake. Being a novice biker, I side-swiped the curb, resulting in my bike my bike going one way, and my body the other. Read: My body was the only successful thing going over the curb.  It was not fun. 

Standing in a very dry Griffy Lake

I decided to keep on going, despite my now-throbbing hand (I imagined little armies of white blood cells rushing to the wounds to create scabs). I really wanted to see Lake Griffy all dried up, surrounded by the fall foliage.  And it was pretty; definitely worth going out for. But what I had forgotten about was the fact that leaving Griffy Lake would require going up a massive hill. No, really, a massive hill. I also failed to mention earlier that although there are gears on my bike, there is no derailleur to change gears. Currently, due to chain size, it is sitting on the lowest gear. For you bikers out there, imagine going up a massive hill on the lowest gear. I got about 50 feet up the hill, and then I started walking; at least I made it up 50 feet!

I’m not going to lie and say that accident didn’t shake me up a bit.  I’m always a little hesitant to get back on after bike accidents. But  I always manage to get back on. Until next time, curb... I will conquer you. 

Bike Sharing

I will now offer a forewarning: I am going to talk about New York City again. I sincerely don’t mean keep talking about nyc, but since I’ve lived under a rock from most my life in the city, it’s fascinating to learn about all the sustainability factors the city currently does, or striving to do.

In “Bicycling Renaissance in North America?”, the authors write about steps to increase cycling in North America. All seven proposals seem fairly reasonable and although these proposals were meant to be seen on the national level, I surprisingly came across a city-wide initiative to increase bicycling in New York City.

Starting March of 2013, New York City will have the opportunity to rent out 10,000 public bicycles located at 600 self-service docking stations. The CitiBike initiative aims to provide bicycles where the demand would be high, such as near the ends of subway lines, major culture and tourist locations, and any other areas where there are gaps in the subway and bus system.  More than half of New York City residents make trips two miles or less on a daily basis, and the convenience of a bike share program will decrease the congestion that occurs in public transportation (especially during rush hours), and the amount of people hailing cabs for less than 20 blocks and paying around $10. And that doesn’t even include the reduced CO₂ emissions and health benefits from riding bicycles. An annual pass for unlimited use is only $90, and various rates depending on biking time.

As I’m reading about this ‘new and exciting’ program rolling out next summer, I’m thinking about if CitiBike will really be as successful as other bike sharing programs in other nations. Anne VanderMey from Fortune magazine clearly illustrates my sentiment in an introductory paragraph to an article about bike sharing in America:

In the Netherlands, there is such as thing as the bicycle school bus, a 12-person rig that children can pedal while an adult steers them to school. In Japan, cyclists deposit their bikes into curbside machines that subsume them into robotically enabled underground parking structures. In China, the government has made the development of electronic bikes -- bicycles with built-in mechanical assist -- a national priority. In America, however, it's not unheard of for people to drive to the end of their driveway to get the mail.

Yes, New York isn’t as car dependent as other areas in the US, but as the largest bike sharing initiative the US has ever planned on, this one in NYC, might not even work. Critics have argued that bikers and motorists fight over precious road space daily, and increasing the amount of bicycles on the road as a ‘fashionable niche interest’ is absurd.  Additionally, the health benefits, and reduced pollution don’t quite justify the amount of taxpayers money that goes into high capital, technological, and maintenance costs. Well, luckily, the CitiBike sharing initiative is all privately funded so critics can’t take a stab at the economic costs of introducing a city-wide  biking initiative (because gosh- the US can’t spend a little extra to reduce obesity rates, or the amount of CO₂ placed in the atmosphere).  Well, way to be pessimistic.

Bus Shelter, especially for those who like
dry seats for rainy days

If these were all the criticisms the critics can come up with, I can’t see why this share biking program can’t take off. I’m sure there are other details involved but as a former resident of the city, I would much rather ride a bike 2 miles to the post office than to take the train during rush hour. The mayor has incorporated bike lanes throughout major parts on the city, installed bike shelters, and the city has even handed out red light tickets to signify they mean business when bikers have the same rights and play by the same rules as motorists. There are Summers Street Festival days where streets are closed to motorists and the streets become quasi- fairgrounds.  

Buffered Bike Lanes! Bicycle safety should remain
a priority for NYC

Will this bike initiate change anything in the city? I like to think on the bright side, and say yes.  Will it change the bike culture around the nation? It’s getting there. Numerous other cities have bike sharing programs- DC being one very prominent program. In the next coming year, 17 new bike sharing programs will hit the US including San Francisco, Baltimore, and St. Petersburg.  Apparently, this is the year to look for bikes around your neighborhood. I would love to hear thoughts and experiences of those who’ve done bike sharing programs around the world, but even more so around the nation.

Bloomington Community Orchard

I couldn't resist eating an apple
in front of an apple tree

This past Saturday rolled around with relatively very few to-do things on my list, and the day was simply too gorgeous to be stuck inside catching up on my sleep or doing my textbook reading. So I headed over to the Community Orchard for their Saturday workday from 1-5. I was at the orchard last year during their Cider Festival and it was a perfect fall day to be out drinking hot cider, get my face painted, and watch young kids find ways to “beat the system” when bobbing for apples. Saturday was one again those beautiful fall days that you just had to be out and  about, and I chose the orchard to bask in the weather.  

I ran into one of the old IUOS interns, Amy, and she happily gave me the task of mulching patches of soil that had exposed cardboard. Exposed cardboard pulls out water from the soil, and by placing mulch over these areas, the soil can retain more water (especially necessary since the state has been getting so little water). So there I was pulling/ pushing a wheelbarrow of mulch around the circle of the orchard and meticulously looking for any signs of cardboard showing. It doesn’t sound very intriguing, but just being able to do such a simple task that can help the plants grow, felt great.   There’s something about getting away from campus, and being in a small nature environment that just calms the soul.

Side Note:

For those who had been following my personal project on biking around Bloomington with the help of the Blooming Community Bike Project, you would have found out that I’m getting better at riding to SPEA and back a few times a week. I went from learning to drive about 5 years ago, to re-learning how to ride a bike a month ago, to learning how to roll a wheelbarrow without tipping all the mulch to one side (which I will admit happened once out of 3 times). Fun times. 4 wheels to 2 wheels to 1 wheel. At least this time I wasn't actually riding a unicycle.

Future Pear Sanctuary

The orchard is just about 3 years old, and their apple trees are starting to shape up. I also learned that the center of the orchard is a circle of pear trees that is currently enclosed with a fence built by a local blacksmith. When the pear trees bloom, they will completely grow into the fence and create what I would image a pear sanctuary in the middle of the orchard- creative design indeed. So contrary to what I had previously thought, the orchard doesn’t grow just apples- it has pears, a fig bush nook, persimmon trees and choke bushes (choke berries are edible superfoods, despite their name, although you could have fooled me).

An Insect Survey-
Not a giant apple on a 2-yr  old tree

I also noticed a relatively large globe hanging from almost all the young trees. At first glace, I thought 'that can't already be fruit', but under further investigation, I realized that it was a sticky round ball, used to identify insects around the tree. The volunteers use this essentially as an insect survey- creative, isn't it?

I stayed at the orchard until it was time to pack up and leave, but I am positive I will be back. The people at the orchard are extremely friendly – someone even brought homemade sourdough bread and she made an open face treat with almond butter, sliced apples, and ginger spread- and yes it was delicious. Additionally, in between wheelbarrow rollings, I watched another volunteer’s dog sniff around looking for moles and digging up the mulch, determined the catch the critters. I would call that a well spent Saturday.

Finally, a quick heads up: the cider fest is occurring again this year at the end of October so keep your eyes and ears peeled for that!

Wasting Compost

I have attended my fair share of sustainability events throughout my life, and an event is not never complete without food. And as always, I crack a smile when the silverware, plates, and napkins are biodegradable and compostable. However, my smile fades a little when I realize (again) that 99.99% of these biodegradable and compostable materials at this particular event will end up in a landfill, many miles away from where I was currently scoping appetizers into my mouth.

In the meantime, in a land not so far away, San Fransciscians are happily eating off their compostable plates that will actually be composted. 

San Francisco was one of the first cities in the United states with curbside composting in 1996 when a study found that more than one third of the city’s landfill waste could be compostable. Today, the city diverts nearly 78% of it’s landfill waste through recycling and composting services.  Most Americans can recognize the black bin for trash, and the blue bin for recycles, but only the privileged can roll out their green compost bins for curbside pickup. The city provides residents with green wheel-able bins with lids to increase the ease of moving bins from the house to the curb. Information is scattered through neighborhoods with flyers in English, Spanish, and Chinese (know your audience!), that explains what items can and cannot go into the green bins, and perhaps  suggest the recycling bin, waste bin, or electronic recyclable center.  The city even has an educational component introducing the Food to Flowers program in schools that encourages students to compost their school lunches. Ultimately San Francisco is striving for a zero-waste goal by 2020. 

So if San Francisco can do curbside recycling, divert over three quarters of their waste from landfills, save valuable money and space, and still want to be zero-waste in less than ten years, why is it so difficult for all other major cities in the country to do the same thing? Well, it hasn’t been that hard.  Nearly 100 cities in the United States now have curbside composing including Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, and Boulder, CO.  But there are still many cities that do not offer curbside composting.

Why?

Politics (Surprised?). Politics is not the only answer, but a pretty dominant reason why.  The trash hauling industry, mostly led by the Waste Management company, makes a lot of money. The garbage company make $3.46 billion in revenue just in their second quarter of 2012. And how do these people make money? By hauling away as much trash as they can humanly possible haul away. The more the merrier. And with all these billions of dollars in revenue, the least Waste Management can do is give money to state politicians, who happen to lobby to keep yard wastes and recyclables  in landfills. Of course, Waste Management has argued that their business model is NOT about “the more the merrier”, and points to their methane capture systems can be one of the ways to best use organicmaterials in landfills. However, such methane capture systems are not active until several years after recyclables and compostable materials have already began building up- wasted years food scrapes and yard clippings that could have been composted and returned back to the soil from the very beginning. 

But have no fear. Even if your city does not offer curbside composting, composting is relatively simple to do indoors and outdoors. Most residents with limited spaces can buy plastic bins, and fill the bin up with newspaper, food scrapes, and worms. Even New Yorkers can do it in their miniscule apartments! For those who are financially endowed,  Nature Mill’s line of automatic bins look phenomenal. For the price of $250- $400, the compost bin heats, aerates, and turns an upper chamber. The compost is then dumped into a lower chamber where any individual can pull out a tray full of nutritious fertilizer. Now the question is what to do with all that fertilizer!

Composting needs to be viewed as the norm in most cities and states in the country, which is unlikely to happen because curbside recycling isn’t even available in all major cities. But that doesn’t stop people from recycling. The same should go for composting. After all, compostable plates should be composted, not tossed as Frisbees onto towering landfills.