http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress Encouragement, Education & Advocacy for Bicycling in the Real World Thu, 24 May 2012 19:12:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Encouragement, Education & Advocacy for Bicycling in the Real World Commute Orlando no Encouragement, Education & Advocacy for Bicycling in the Real World http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/04/19/inheritance-2/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/04/19/inheritance-2/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:43:53 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=7461 Occasional incivility is par for the course, I guess (though I hope we’ll be changing that). Most of the time it is harmless noise that can be shrugged off. But there is one type of territorial noise that sickens me. That is the sound of a child’s voice from a car, yelling at me to get off the road. Sadly, I’ve experienced that quite a few times over the years. I’ve also been harassed by drivers who had children in their cars. Children do what they see. That includes unsafe cycling as well as obnoxious driver behavior.]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/04/19/inheritance-2/feed/ 8 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/01/19/bringing-humanity-back-to-the-discussion/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/01/19/bringing-humanity-back-to-the-discussion/#comments Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:51:45 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=6213 Angie Ross writes today’s My Word column in the Orlando Sentinel: Recent articles in the Orlando Sentinel have highlighted the tensions between motorists and cyclists in Clermont, and I’m afraid my cycling team will feel the backlash. This is a problem because my team consists not of a pack of 60 roadies, but of my husband and daughters, ages 2 and 5. Instead of racing down highways, you’ll find us cruising around Orlando leaving a trail of giggles. more Angie, thank you so much for saying what needed to be said… as only a Mom could say it! You are a catalyst for change in this community! Go read Protect the trail of giggles, and leave a nice comment. Let’s see if we can make the Sentinel comments section worth reading for a change]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/01/19/bringing-humanity-back-to-the-discussion/feed/ 5 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/11/09/taking-kids-by-bike-faster-less-stressful-and-a-lot-more-fun/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/11/09/taking-kids-by-bike-faster-less-stressful-and-a-lot-more-fun/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:57:05 +0000 Angie http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=5573 A friend recently shared a cute Yehuda Moon cartoon with me in which the driver of an SUV pulls up to a bakfiets cargobike and laments not walking her child to school, but blames the weather and all of the school gear.  The tiny bike passenger responds, “Just because ya’ can doesn’t mean ya’ should!” As the matriarch of a bike-commuting family, I love this cartoon.  But in a way, I think it almost affirms a common misconception–that driving with kids and gear is easier and that biking is only a choice made because it’s the “right” thing to do.  We’ve discovered many surprising things along our journey to becoming a one-car family, but one of the most surprising realizations is that it is often easier to travel by bike with the kids than by car. An End to Marathon Mornings Take, for example, my morning commute to work.  A typical morning used to include me rushing to get myself and the girls dressed, straining my back leaning in the car to buckle my two-year-old into her five-point harness carseat, waiting for my oldest to buckle herself in, getting back out of the car upon discovering her door wasn’t shut [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/11/09/taking-kids-by-bike-faster-less-stressful-and-a-lot-more-fun/feed/ 32 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/09/17/jesse-the-human-engine/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/09/17/jesse-the-human-engine/#comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:55:58 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=4818 Jesse and Angie Ross and their two daughters are a one-car family. In January, they traded their SUV for an SUB. The family rides bikes to the store, church and for family fun. Jesse’s vehicle is a Madsen Bucket bike. I asked him how he chose the Madsen. “We were looking at the Xtracycle and the Yuba Mundo when we came across it on Google.” The price was good and the bucket holds a lot of stuff, plus has seats and seat belts for kids. He’s done some work on it and plans to do more mechanical tweaking, but he really likes it. He uses it to bring their two daughters home from daycare/preschool every day, and to haul mind-boggling loads from Costco and Home Depot. Robert Seidler and I had the pleasure of joining Jesse for his commute home on Monday. We met him at Colonial High School, where he teaches. Getting to Colonial High was a challenge. It’s a poster child for the metro area’s lack of connectivity—isolated from anything resembling a useful grid in the southeastern corner of Colonial Dr. (SR50) and Semoran Blvd. (SR436). The kind of teacher you never forget Mr. Ross is teaching more [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/09/17/jesse-the-human-engine/feed/ 30 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/05/22/hov-high-occupancy-velos/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/05/22/hov-high-occupancy-velos/#comments Fri, 22 May 2009 14:25:15 +0000 Rodney http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=3332 Totcycle.com has a wonderfully funny article about riding with the kiddos!  Mostly tongue-in-cheek humor, and the rest is just funny!]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/05/22/hov-high-occupancy-velos/feed/ 1 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/02/06/active-transportation-for-the-next-generation/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/02/06/active-transportation-for-the-next-generation/#comments Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:44:05 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=2126 New Mini-Grants Encourage Students to Walk and Ride to School Mini-grants totaling $30,150 have been approved by the Winter Park Health Foundation (WPHF) through its Community Health Policy Work Group to enable seven Winter Park, Maitland and Eatonville area schools to launch and expand programs that encourage students to walk and ride to school. Local schools were invited to apply for the grants following a How to Help Kids Walk and Ride Safely to School workshop sponsored by WPHF earlier this year. Both the workshop and grants are part of the WPHF Think~Act~Be Healthy Communities initiative designed to inspire community projects that will change the environment and/or culture in ways that encourage healthy behaviors. The schools receiving Winter Park Health Foundation grants include: Aloma Elementary School will receive a grant to support promotion of and prizes awarded in its monthly Walk ‘N Roll Wednesday event which encourages students to walk, roll, skate or scoot to school rather than riding in a car. Brookshire Elementary School will receive grant support to help revitalize a Safe Routes to School Program once established by a former parent. Plans call for monthly “Walk and Roll Wednesdays” and introducing The Walking School Bus concept. Dommerich [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/02/06/active-transportation-for-the-next-generation/feed/ 0 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/02/03/a-slow-street-movement/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/02/03/a-slow-street-movement/#comments Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:46:12 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=2299 This video has 3 of my favorite things: quiet-street connectivity, wayfinding signs and cyclists riding comfortably in the middle of the lane. In my years of riding around town, I’ve encountered 2 primary problems for slow-street bicycling in Orlando and Winter Park. One is the damned bricks. The other is you need a GPS to navigate because there is no consistent grid. The upside of the lack of continuous parallel streets is the reduction of cut-thru traffic. If you are a good navigator, you can enjoy a lot of nearly car-free space on some of these streets. And you can make your way from one end of town to the other. There’s also an incentive to gain confidence to venture onto more direct routes. I have nothing nice to say about the bricks. I’m not a fan of traffic calming infrastructure. I believe sane speed should be governed by a sense of RESPECT for others (culture change). In the meantime, relentless law enforcement would do the trick (there’s a reason motorists don’t speed through school zones). I’m biased against traffic furniture by some really awful stuff I’ve seen around here. That said, some of the Berkeley traffic calming approaches look [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/02/03/a-slow-street-movement/feed/ 11 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/02/03/american-kid-hauler/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/02/03/american-kid-hauler/#comments Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:10:33 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=2293 Here’s another cool multi-purpose kid-hauler. This one’s from an American company. From their website: The Company’s first product is the Zigo LEADER™, a lightweight, foldable bicycle with an integrated child carrier and four distinct operating modes: As a three-wheeled carrier bike, with an adult cyclist turning the pedals and one or two children in the forward-located Child Pod™, it is the ideal vehicle for transporting children or recreational cycling; while riding, parents can easily keep an eye on their kids in the forward-located Child Pod™. The Child Pod converts in seconds to a jogging stroller suitable for use on multiple surfaces. The Child Pod is also configurable as a maneuverable standard-format stroller with caster wheels, allowing the LEADER to be used around the neighborhood, in the mall, or on a boardwalk or walking path. Finally, the urban-style bicycle is light and maneuverable, with or without the detachable Child Pod. The device converts easily between these formats and folds compactly for storage. Tip of the helmet to reader, Dennis, for sending this one.]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/02/03/american-kid-hauler/feed/ 0 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2008/09/10/teach-your-children-well/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2008/09/10/teach-your-children-well/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:43:30 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=603 This is just one of 3 full bike-parking areas surrounding the Dommerich Elementary building. Photo by Julie Fletcher. This morning was the kick-off of Walk n’ Roll Wednesdays at Dommerich Elementary in Maitland. It was a sight to see! Despite the gloomy, sticky weather this morning, scores of students and parents walked, biked and scooted to school together. Based on the Walking School Bus concept, the program encourages students to use their own energy to get to school. The ultimate goal is to create a culture where children who are not eligible for bus service walk or bike to school. Congratulations to Michelle Sartor, Jody Lazar, Jeanie Redmon and the Dommerich PTA for a terrific program and successful kickoff event! If you’d like to create a program like this in your neighborhood, the Winter Park Health Foundation is hosting a free program, How to Help Kids Walk and Bike to School Safely Workshop from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. September 23 at Leu Gardens in Orlando.  Dommerich parents Michelle Sartor and Jody Lazar, who launched Walk n’ Roll, will talk about their experiences. RSVPs are required for attendance at the workshop – email RSVPs to wphf@wphf.org The workshop is part [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2008/09/10/teach-your-children-well/feed/ 0