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Somerville has been freshening up the bike lane markers. First they indicate where they should go:

Then they stencil the marker right on top:

Sometimes this makes it look like the iconic cyclist is wearing a cliché asian peasant hat

The narrow headed Somervillian riders make some of their skullish Cantabridgian counterparts look rather macabre in comparison:

Especially since […]

Road hazards that don’t affect 4-wheeled traffic
Loose gravel is bad. So are vertical discontinuities parallel to the road.
Other bikes where I don’t expect them
Riding against traffic or failing to obey traffic signals/yield right-of-way
Vehicles turning left across my path when I have the right-of-way
Vehicles nudging into the intersection are also scary; I can’t tell if they […]

I bought my fourth bike, a blue Jamis Tangier, #WLH3438M, on 4 September 1997.
A few days before its 10th birthday, the right chainstay cracked.

I dug up the original receipt (from DC’s awesome City Bikes) and did a little calling around. It seemed likely that Jamis would honor the lifetime frame warranty, but it also seemed […]

I try not to complain too much about drivers who jeopardize cyclists through inattention or malice (or for that matter, the cyclists who enable them by flagrantly flouting traffic laws), but yesterday I had a particularly tough day with several drivers of monstrosities from Cadillac, Lincoln et al.
I had a brief daydream about […]

I was initially tempted to consider Kerry Healey’s veto of “An Act Relative to Bicycle Safety” a parting shot of willful malice, but reading her note, it seems clear to me that it’s the result of cluelessness and incompetence: Healey thinks of bikes as a means of recreation, not transportation.
Given the price and environmental impact […]

the reluctant elevator
. . .made a feint toward outright rebellion this morning, stranding at least 2 parties before 10 o’clock this morning. Service technicians were quickly dispatched to break its will. I find myself surprisingly sympathetic to the elevator’s cause: goodness knows I’d be frustrated if all I could do all day was go up and down. […]

“Freshman [f-ing] faggot!”

I would have given good odds against anyone calling me a “freshman” ever again, and it pretty much made my day.
Er, I mean

“Come back here and say that to my face, you sophomore!”

On my commute, I see maybe a couple hundred cars, of which from 0 to 3 do something to piss me off on a given day. I see maybe half a dozen other cycle commuters (more if I go in late) of which from 0 to 4 piss me off on any given day. Hence:
You’re […]