While most of the members of BikeDenver also own or have access to cars, I believe it is safe to say that none of our members depend on their cars to meet their daily transit needs.  Between our bikes and the public transit system, we can all get to and from work, stores, and to our various personal and professional commitments (in style, I might ad).  Join us in recognizing Fridays as a special day to prove that you don’t depend on foreign oil to survive in America.  It will be a statement of independence, solidarity and national pride.

1. Philadelphia, PA
2. Chicago, IL
3. New York City, NY
4. San Francisco, CA
5. Tucson, AZ (tie)
Portland, OR (tie)
7. Denver, CO
8. New Haven, CT
9. Cambridge, MA
10. Austin, TX

The big mystery this year… Where’s Seattle?

I think this also indicates that our bike culture is big enough and awesome enough to have thieves preying on our equipment, so you see, there’s a silver lining after all.  So why don’t I just get to it and tell you how to best avoid getting your bike lifted:

-NEVER LEAVE YOUR BIKE UNLOCKED IN A PUBLIC PLACE - seriously, don’t do it if you want to keep it.

-Lock Your Bike With A U-Lock or Heavy Duty Chain or Cable - descending degrees of protection in that order

-Get the lock around the frame of your bike - no, the seatpost doesn’t count.  Get the lock through the frame so only cutting the lock or cutting the frame can free it.

-If you want to keep your wheels and seat post, get rid of the quick releases - sure they are convenient, for thieves too.  Upgrade to locking skewers if it’s going to be left outside for any duration of time.  You can also try locking your front wheel with the lock if there is room, but lots of posts are too wide to get your frame and wheel within the lock.

-Don’t abandon your bike for more than a day - I see a lot of bikes still chained to a post, but missing any component that can be stripped (what thieves would carry bottom-bracket tools?).  Don’t leave anything you treasure outside, or it could be picked clean by vultures.

-Lock your bike inside your garage or apartment bike room - If a thief gains access, your bike is as good as gone if it’s unlocked.  This happened to my roommate when she left the garage open and unattended for an hour, her bike was gone… but, guess whose bikes were safely locked with a long cable through all the frames and were still there when she got back… that’s right, lock your bikes in any detached structure… if it’s in your bedroom under your covers, it’s probably OK unlocked.

It was good to see many of you at our table in Civic Center Park.  I hope you got a chance to rub elbows with the mayor, the governor, or the director of public works.  If you happen to see any of them  in person, do us a favor and tell them how much you love the new Sharrows, and how the town would be perfect if they’d only paint them on such and such street.  These first sharrows took a long time to get approved and painted, let’s keep the momentum up.

Thanks to everyone for buying up all the new 2008 DBTC maps we had on hand, I know we ran out, so if you want to buy one, place your orders here, and we’ll mail them out this week.

Have fun riding out there today, and if you are frustrated by the new people who don’t know the ropes yet, please take the opportunity to help these nascent bike commuters ride safely and efficiently on our roads and bikepaths.  Happy Riding.

-Will

As per the press release, we will soon get sharrows on:

* 14th Street - Blake St to Civic Center
* 18th Street - Curtis St to Glenarm St
* 12th Avenue - Sherman to Speer
* Sherman Street - 12th Ave to 16th Ave
* Cleveland Place - 16th St Mall to Webb Building
* 19th Street - Arapahoe St to Broadway
* 16th Avenue - Broadway and Lincoln

If there are any areas you feel would warrant the Sharrow treatment, please send your requests to both the Mayor’s office at MileHighMayor@denvergov.org as well as BikeDenver at info@BikeDenver.org.  We are trying to make a big push for these traffic markings, and your local knowledge of your neighborhoods is important to this effort.

The best candidates are roads that bikes and cars have to share, where the cars can get a little, er… pushy, and where it would be helpful to show them how the road should be used.

This bold experiment, modeled after a popular street shutdown in Bogota, Colombia, is timed to a conference starting today in Portland where hundreds of planners from around the world converge to discuss how they can create cities with no cars.