Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
My ride in a driverless taxi confirmed my thought that machines are safer than human drivers. I had arrived in San Francisco to visit a friend in December, 2024. While walking through a neighborhood, I was encouraged when a driverless taxi stopped at a crosswalk (“Hallelujah!”).
A couple of days later, I hailed a ride using the “Waymo” app and enjoyed the ride (whose video is embedded below).
Waymo was spun off from Google and has made deals with Lyft and Über to work in partnership. The cars, modified Jaguars, are very expensive and currently operate in a couple of cities in California and in Phoenix, AZ. China and Singapore are also among the first countries to develop and use driverless taxis. Tesla plans to have two models available in 2027.
For anyone concerned about pedestrian and bicycle safety, these are a big step forward. Removing the human element greatly increases the precision of the driving. The taxi will drive at the speed limit or under, monitor sidewalks and crossings for pedestrians, (usually) avoid bicycles, and never engage in road rage.
Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
May, 2024, Gary Robinson, a seasoned bicyclist, was hit from behind by a Ford F-250. Gary was thrown 60 feet and yet survived without a broken bone. He was rushed to the hospital with bruises, blood loss, and road rash.
All that was bad, but soon Gary learned he was being defamed by the driver of the truck on social media. That hurt worse than the physical pain of the accident. Worse, still, was the vitriol from many of those who commented on the post. This distress was compounded when Gary read several comments to an unrelated Douglas County sheriff’s Facebook post on bicyclists. The reaction of the driver reminds me of an earlier post in which the man was hit by a motorcycle in Spain. After the man recovered from a traumatic brain injury he was unsuccessfully sued by the motorcyclist for damages to the motorcycle!
By some kind of grace, however, Gary turned this bad mojo around. Already, Gary was fully invested in the bicycling community, having founded the comprehensive web site Colorado Avid Cyclist in 2022. This site shows the depth of his passion for riding, replete with useful articles on many topics, including buying used bikes, the best bike locks, and making great meals.
Situated as he was and finding himself an object of hate in an accident that could easily have killed him, Gary reached out to the sheriff’s office in Douglas County, Colorado. He initiated a partnership with the sheriff’s office to educate both drivers and bicyclists ways to respect and not hate each other. The partnership is called Colorado Avid Cyclist Community Outreach Program. On that web page are three videos that report on both the accident and the partnership.
Gary refuses to allow hatred to poison his world and is glad that his purpose in life has been expanded to promoting not just bodily safety but social safety among the biking and driving communities.
The “versus” in the title of this article, then, is not fully accurate. Instead of focusing on revenge or self-vindication, Gary chose and chooses to negotiate the tricky and sometimes brutal interface between automobiles and people. Yay!
Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
Today is the very popular Peach Festival in Lafayette, Colorado. Our main street is closed to cars and is instead lined with booths where vendors sell anything from tee-shirts to peaches. The peaches are a product of the Western Slope, most famously from Palisade.
It’s a happy and busy day. Living, as I do, a few blocks from the main street, I open my door to see more pedestrians at a glance than I generally see in a week. They have parked in every conceivable slot in my neighborhood in order to spend time at the Festival.
As I step outside, I’m a bit dizzy, having been in bed for almost four days with COVID. Today, I must continue to stay away from people, but I’m well enough to go for a drive in the mountains, a rare treat. My street is packed with cars. I step into the street, unable to see any traffic because someone parked an SUV so closely behind mine.
Suddenly, a white pickup truck flies by me, horn honking, driver cussing up a storm. Shocked, I want to find out why he’s so upset, so I beckon him to stop. Not sure that was a good idea. He thought I was flipping him off.
Stop he does, with a skid. Well, now I’ve done it. I’m relieved he’s getting out of the truck because that means he’s not going to slam his truck into reverse and run over me. But of course he could have a gun. I know, I write a web log about such events. Recalling Coach Carter from seventh grade, I choose offense as the best defense and walk toward him. He stops walking but not swearing. Then I learn I’m an idiot for walking in front of him and, worse, a *@9%@* for flipping him off.
I attempt to explain that I had no intention of upsetting him. Yes, call me conciliatory. It turns out that when people are in the throes of anger, they are really bad listeners. He didn’t hear a word, and I stood my ground, one sick man looking down the block to another. What was his sickness? One cannot be sure of much except that he was definitely sick of me.
I didn’t take it too personally. He was, after all, scared. Mothers and fathers yell at their children all the time when they think the children are doing something dangerous. The children are sure the parents are mad at them. It’s only concern in emotional overdrive. Same with him. He hated the idea that he almost hit (someone as valuable as) me as he sped down the narrow street.
Perhaps he’s not filled with mother-love for me. Still, as he drives away I believe he will be thinking at some point in the day about the power differential between his 2-ton truck and my 180-pound body. That, at least, is how I envision him.
Skyline on peak-to-peak highway, unruffled.The Peach Festival (photo from The Denver Post).
Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
Last year, the young biker Magnus White was killed while training in Boulder County. This year his death was memorialized by over 3,000 bikes following a course that included the location of his demise: Ghost Bike (Memorial Ride for Magnus – Sunday 11, 2024, from The White Line)
While this post gives a personal perspective, the web site dedicated to work being done in honor of Magnus (and all bicyclists) provides information and opportunities for involvement for all who are concerned about auto-related deaths and injuries in this country. The site’s name, The White Line, echos both the last name of Magnus and the terrible consequences of crossing the white line on the shoulder of a roadway. (The site is worth visiting—the banner photograph of the white bike and the rainbow is remarkable, let alone the content.)
Among The White Line’s valuable resources are a series of videos documenting Lives Worth Remembering. The first video, “Episode 1: Christian and Michelle Deaton” demonstrates the sensitivity and relevance with which this series focuses on the humanity of the victims.
The ~13 mile ride signified for the moment the triumph of self-propulsion. It moved slowly and with only one significant hill (up Folsom to the CU Campus), so that nearly anybody could participate. This participation included at least two penny farthings, along with some cargo bikes, e-bikes, countless road bikes, mountain bikes, cruisers, gravel bikes, and the bikes I didn’t notice.
Afterward, a ceremony included talks by Magnus’ parents, Michael and Jill, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, and others (listed in Boulder ReportingLab”).
For me (and likely thousands) the memorial ride was like a dream…imagine it, riding down Diagonal Highway, the wrong way, without a moment of worry!
Pre-ride staging in a parking lot at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Photo taken by a guy named Don.Map of the out-and-back ride. The sky was wonderfully overcast the duration of the ride!
These two brothers and their radio show transformed the American automobile experience into a humorous discourse. The most practical advice I picked up from the show was this: in order to teach someone how to use a manual transmission, park the car on a level, empty parking lot and have the person depress the clutch pedal, put the car in first, and slowly engage the clutch without touching the accelerator pedal. It works (I tried it)!
The brothers referred to their merchandise as “shameless commerce,” including this cute mug, “No Factory Recalls. So far.”
Now, onto my shameless commerce! As my previous post declared, I reserved a car that I’d like to see on the road: Aptera home page
The reservation costs a refundable $100 and purchases a place in the queue in order to obtain an Aptera when they are produced (starting 2025). My friend, Marc, is #800 in the queue. I’m #70,000. I’ll let Marc debug the car so that mine is perfect when it rolls off the production line in Carlsbad, California.
Aptera sent me a link to share with you if you, too, want to reserve an Aptera. You get $30 off, and I get something like $100 credit toward my Aptera if I end up buying one. Deal? Click away—it’s simple. It’s fun, even if you back out before you include a form of payment. At least you get to see a well-designed web site along with the options available with every Aptera. https://lz953.isrefer.com/go/preorder/a124831
The Aptera is not in production but the prototypes assure me that it will look similar to this: Aptera — not sure the oceanside parking spot comes with it.
Trust me, it’s not the space-age look that excites me…the look is largely the result of the wind-tunnel design that allows the vehicle to get incredible mileage. The Aptera is solar powered, so if you park it in the sun one day (easily done in Colorado), the battery receives 40-miles worth of power. That’s nearly free driving if the car’s already paid for (or if you steal one). The battery you charge can provide 1,000 miles before it needs a new full charge (preferably with a charging station unless you want to leave the car in the sun for 25 days). The gasoline equivalence of the Aptera’s efficiency is approximately 350 miles per gallon.
How do you buy one? There’s a waitlist. I’m in that queue: #78,145, expected delivery, 2025 (prob. Dec. 31 at 11:59). The reservation requires a $100 refundable deposit. I’m tempted to reserve a second one for reasons I cannot find. The car will cost me ~$33,000 according to the current estimation. I selected the 400-mile battery because I don’t want to drive 401 miles or more in one spell. Also, I ordered a custom color so that I could get a brightly colored car to help the huge pickup trucks see me.
I’ll end this post with a list of advantages and a couple of optional videos:
The Aptera is classified as a motorcycle/autocycle and therefore requires…
a motorcycle license tag (cheaper)
motorcycle insurance (cheaper)
But doesn’t require…
a motorcycle driver’s license
Furthermore…
It seats only two people but the lengthy aerodynamic tail provides comfortable sleeping space, better than most automobiles (I feel like a salesman at this point)
It has an electric motor on each wheel which has advantages that I don’t understand
The plan is to put a QR code on almost every part of the vehicle so that you can scan and order a replacement part, installing it yourself or taking it to a local garage
It uses the Tesla charging hardware (which has now been adopted as the US standard)
It has a 5-star crash rating
It has all that smart-car stuff that will drive me crazy since I buy only manual transmission cars until now… but if you knock on the door or the trunk it politely opens automatically, etc.
It has a very convincing CEO as the following 49 minute video will show. Although my son thinks all CEOs are convincing, he never worked for some of the ones I have, but this one is:
Here’s a fluffier video (21 minutes with a test drive at minute 12):
Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
News of the Day? What day? It doesn’t matter, because the automobile news varies little for the self-propelled, including those who walk, run, bike, and require wheel chairs.
It’s been almost a year since I’ve posted on this site, a year of roads overflowing with automobiles, polluting the world with fumes, noise, and a never-ending ledger of injuries and deaths. Oil production continues in the face of climate disaster (which, by the way, has never been my motivation for this site). Electric cars (EVs), a bandage to the problem of over-individualized transportation, become more efficient while engineers, I assume, continue to search for better ways to bury or recycle the massive batteries.
But first, the good news, which, one hopes, is emblematic of changes beyond the Denver-Boulder area. A few days ago, CBS news reported: RTD approves new fare structure, will provide lower cost for adult customers. Currently the buses in the Denver area (Regional Transportation District) are free (July and August). In September, the fares resume, but have decreased from earlier this year!
Among the changes:
A new Standard fare ($2.75 for a 3-hour pass; $5.50 for a day pass; $88 for a monthly pass) for full-fare customers to all destinations except Denver International Airport. Airport fare, for SkyRide and A Line trips that begin or end at the airport, is $10
A single Discount fare ($1.35 for a 3-hour pass; $2.70 for a day pass; $27 for a monthly pass) that provides access to any RTD destination, including the airport, for seniors 65 and older, individuals with disabilities, Medicare recipients and individuals enrolled in LiVE, RTD’s income-based fare discount program
Zero Fare for Youth, a 12-month pilot program allowing youth ages 19 and under to use RTD services at no cost
Take that, you who have lobbied for the automobile industry at the cost of this nation’s health, beauty, and quality of life!
Today’s newsletter from The Daily Camera (a Boulder newspaper) brings the bad news. On July 29, 2023, a competitive bicyclist, Magnus White, was killed while on a training ride.
White was riding his Trek Model Emonda SL 7 bike southbound on Diagonal Highway just south of the 63rd Street intersection when he was hit by a woman driving a Toyota Matrix that had crossed from the righthand lane into the shoulder, according to Colorado State Patrol Trooper Gabriel Moltrer.
White was ejected from his bike and transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The Toyota driver — identified by Moltrer as a 23-year-old Westminster woman — was the only person in the car. Drugs, alcohol and excessive speed are not suspected to have been factors in the crash, Moltrer said.
The leading factor in the crash was an automobile that was in the same space as a bike. This is, among other things, an infrastructure problem: painted lines are too easy for drivers to ignore, to cross over. Studies have shown that even modest physical barriers deter cars from crossing into vulnerable zones. Massive barriers, all the better.
Update 8/11/23: I’ve been told by a reliable source “in response to his death they are going to create a bike path from Boulder to Longmont”—protecting the self-propelled one infrastructure change at a time!
There’s nothing new about this news, except to those who knew of Magnus, described as a “rising star” in several articles. Being a celebrity of sorts (young local man headed for junior championships in Scotland), his death seems more significant, and is in terms of the attention it gets. But every human run over by a car is equally significant to someone (especially him- or herself!). And for this reason, against all the miserable infrastructure spawned by the automotive culture, I continue to protest the over-use of automobiles while inveighing the under-use and under-availability of good public transportation—another problem against which isolated individuals are powerless.
Scenarios such as the following hint at the difference between use and abuse in the automobile culture. A car makes sense when…
going to an off-route destination (and there are unfortunately many of these in most cities)
covering multiple destinations in a day, particularly with a truckload of samples, tools, or lawnmowers
taking a car full of people somewhere (although a bus might be more enjoyable and safer)
Public transportation, even in the expansive United States, makes incredible sense when…
hundreds of people are traveling at the same hour, departing from the approximate area, and arriving at the same approximate destination
a person wants to read, text, or sleep en route
one is tired of remaining in his or her social stratum and would like to mingle with God’s plenty (as Dryden termed humanity)
one has a fear of becoming an accident statistic [1]
Picture almost any urban freeway or highway at eight in the morning or five at night. This redundancy cries out for a transportation reformation. One element of that reformation has to be convenience—otherwise it simply will not happen. Buses and trains should be so frequent that no one need consult a schedule, knowing it will be no more than a 15-minute wait.
And this happens in places. In Germany, for example, owning a car is not common, yet everyone makes it to work in a more timely way than many Americans who drive. Many videos by Americans living in Germany emphasize their new-found love of walking, biking, and taking public transportation. Here’s one from Dana, an American from Florida living in Munich, Germany:
____Footnotes____
[1] Deaths by automobile dwarf the number of deaths/mile traveled in buses, trains, and scheduled airlines. See the graph on this page (you may have to zoom in or view the PDF of Deaths by Transportation Mode – Injury Facts).
Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
Emission: There are 6 years, 47 weeks, and 5 days until the Climate Clock reaches zero (approximate).[1]
Why Cambodia?
My friends, Chris and Adrienne, taught their kids to give hope to an often-hopeless world. As a result, their daughter, Jenna, helps run a school in Cambodia. The school is called Asian Hope. Meanwhile, the school in Bournemouth, England where Chris (and sometimes Adrienne) taught English as a second language—that school shut down as a result of covid–19. As a happy result, Chris and Adrienne are in Cambodia, where, I think, the dad now works for the daughter.
My friends have always been environmentally conscious, at least to my knowledge. When in England, Adrienne would dry their clothes outside on a clothesline that needed frequent moving to keep it in the sun. Now they are biking and moving around in small vehicles in Asia.
Adrienne on their preferred mode of propulsion: recently acquired bicycle, with buffalo in the background!Adrienne getting into the Onion, an electrik tuk-tuk. What’s a tuk-tuk? According to the Internet: “Tuk-tuks, two-wheeled carriages pulled by motorbikes that can fit anywhere from two people to entire families, are a ubiquitous sight throughout Cambodia. While the official name is remorque, or ‘trailer’ in French, they are colloquially known as tuk-tuks, paying homage to their Thai counterparts.”Chris is ramped up for his first ride in an Onion! Chris is pretty tall, so he might have maxed out the leg-room in the vehicle.Here’s a family of three on a motorcycle. I venture that sometimes more than three load onto a motorcycle.After swimming, the mother likes to jump on a bike, while the daughter-in-law loads up the scooter! (Turns out the Robinson son and his wife also emigrated to Cambodia, a very happening place!)
No Bollard Today
Instead of the usual bollard, we have a video of Chris and Adrienne riding in an Onion (~3 minutes).
Many benefits follow the self-propelled person (who isn’t run over).
One benefit is easy access to neighborhood Lending Libraries (also known as Little Free Library, Little Library, Book Exchange Station, and Book Box).
Today I went on a run-walk and documented the lending libraries I frequent, along with some books that I’ve picked up. This post necessarily might be more interesting to those who live in my town (and/or like used books), but it illustrates something one might miss in a car.
Kimbark Street
This one is mostly for kids & I’ve never poked inside the mailbox.Kimbark Street #1 Library, near South Bermont Drive.
About three or four blocks west, we have: Kimbark Street #2 Library, near Snowberry Court.
Emma Street, West of 287
Emma Street #1 Library, near Aegean Drive.
Some books from there: Programming Books (went to my son)—I love the O’Reilly covers & would pick up those books even without the programming skills.
Waneka Lake Park
Waneka Lake Park Library, replete with bilingual signs.
Picked up this: Gentlemen of the Road, by Michael Chabon—a book I’ve not heard of though I’ve read Chabon.
Near Coal Creek Trail
Coal Creek Feeder Trail Library—see video below for a little guidance in case Snoopy is luring you. This location is strictly off the road, but conspicuous for the self-propelled.
Two. This: Bound to Last, ed. Sean Manning, subtitled “30 Writers on Their Most Cherished Book”—it was the foreword by Ray Bradbury that caught my eye—and its cover makes it look like a J. D. Salinger book. (Yes I judge some books by their covers.)
and this: Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling—one of my daughters told me to read at least one of the series…and I have yet to.
Back to Emma Street, East of 287 (yes, we are completing the loop)
By The Post (restaurant) Emma Street #2 Library, near South Roosevelt Ave.—near The Post’s bike rack.
And here I found… Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya—I sat under Rudy Anaya in a creative writing course at UNM in 1975 and only read the book this week!
On the Corner of Emma & South Longmont Ave. Emma Street #3 Library, near South Longmont Avenue—for this one you don’t need to read a book, you can just read the quotes on the outside.
Two. This: Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace—I’ve read two pages, which is progress. This copy looks unread. It’s not a simple matter reading this book as the donor apparently concluded.
and this: Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery—published 77 years before the unforgettable Megan Follows mini series.
And that completes the loop. Lending Library Loop – 5 Mile Loop, Counterclockwise.
Addendum: Lending Libraries from Everywhere
People liked the lending libraries. As you will see, we are adding to the collection below. So far, a couple of Boulder-based ones (the first accompanied by its proud builder, the second built of wood and bark) and a unique one from British Columbia—along with a movie library I’ve added. Please, everyone, keep your eyes open and your cameras ready. Email sightings to me, including full-size photos!
Carol sent this of her husband, Dennis, and the library he built. It’s on the bike path through Noble Park, located in Boulder not far from the Valmont Dog Park. (NPHOA—glad to see an HOA doing this!)The “FREE” is pennies screwed into place, with the tree bark on the side, giving it the natural look. Copper and bark with books inside.On Gaptor Rd. (near Baseline and Cherryvale), fits well into the landscape.From Jan P., in Sechelt, British Columbia: lending library of sticks for dogs!Free Blockbuster.orgIf you love “Stargate,” you might love this box: nearly every (or every) season of the show!
Today’s Bollard
Bollards stop cars, sometimes brutally, offering a kind of payback moment to those who frequently feel threatened by drivers. Likely, those whose cars are stopped by bollards get citations, but probably not in this case.
This video has an optional soundtrack (in case you want to mute it—I would):
— World Bollard Association™ (@WorldBollard) July 11, 2022
Optional Video (9 minutes of narration—very pedestrian by both definitions)
This is a knavish piece of work, which I dignify by quoting Hamlet who is disparaging a play he is producing. More and more, I watch videos at 1.25 speed, which brings this one down to about 7 minutes.
____Footnotes____
[1] This is the estimated duration until earth’s temperature rises 1.5ºC above pre-industrial temperatures. When a country makes headway against CO emissions, the times is extended. When industry makes headway against environmentalism, the time is shortened. Somewhere between an increase of 1.5 and 2.0°C, grim things are predicted. The fact that this is purely an estimate that is frequently re-calculated, the smaller increments of time (“seconds”!?!) are for dramatic effect.
The figures in this post are taken from the Wikipedia article “Climate Clock”. Several climate clocks exist. This one provides a more generous estimate (in case you are feeling anxious): https://climateclock.net/. This web log will present the Wikipedia estimate for the particular day for which any given post is published.
Publishing Info
This post was first published on: Jul 15, 2022 at 16:25. I change the publication date when making a substantial revision in order to bring the edited post to the top of my directory.
