Author Archives: Melissa | Growing Green Nutrition

Apathy and inattention on our roads — Part 1

Two things happened last week: 1) I was the victim of an inattentive motorist (while in a car), and 2) the L.A. County D.A. announced that a police officer who killed a bicyclist with his car will not face charges (depending on reports, Deputy Andrew Wood was “distracted by a mobile digital computer” and/or “texting from a personal cell phone” [while driving his patrol car] when he drifted into the bike lane, hitting and killing Milton Everett Olin, Jr.).

If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention (and if you’re not paying attention, you shouldn’t be driving).  This affects all of us.

Mr. Olin joins thousands of others in the U.S. who are killed or seriously injured by distracted driving and poor drivers’ education and licensing standards every year.  Road traffic accidents are the number one cause of death for persons ages 15-24 and the number three cause of death for persons ages 25-34 (~35000 people in 2011 — note, this number includes ALL road users — most of these deaths are people in cars).

Even when charges are filed, penalties amount to little more than a slap on the wrist, compared to the crime.  A fellow cyclist commented, “There’s an open secret in America: If you want to kill someone, do it with a car. As long as you’re sober, chances are you’ll never be charged with any crime, much less manslaughter.“*

I thought this was a bit of an exaggeration until I read some of the relevant laws.  Take Iowa law, for example:

The safest way for a motorist to pass a bicycle is to pass on the left side of the road or an adjacent travel lane if clear of oncoming traffic.  Drivers involved in an a collision as a result of failure to maintain a safe and reasonable distance (321.281) face a $250 fine.  Drivers who injure a bicyclist as a result of unsafe passing (321.299) could face a $500 fine and a 90-day license revocation.  Drivers involved in a fatal crash with a bicyclist as the result of unsafe passing (321.299) could face a $1000 fine and 180-day license revocation. (source)

Meanwhile, in Ohio, a motorist who killed a young woman on a bicycle faces, “up to 90 days in jail and a $750 fine for the conviction, and her driver’s license could be suspended for up to two years.”

So, to summarize, in the state of Iowa you can KILL A PERSON with your car and the maximum penalty is $1000 and maybe having your drivers’ license revoked for 180 days?  But you might want to think twice in Ohio, because they also have jail time, and, oh, you can’t drive for two whole years (what do you want to bet she gets her license reinstated sooner?).  Are you kidding me???  Is that how little a person’s life is worth?

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Driving is a privilege, not a right, but our system for licensing drivers is far too lax — a friend refers to the U.S. driver licensing system as a “vending machine,” which seems to have turned into, “Step right up and get your license to maim or kill.”

This “license to kill” is both too easy to obtain and too difficult to take away.

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On Sunday, I was a passenger in a car that was stopped at a stop sign.  As we were about to proceed through the intersection, a same-direction driver slammed into the back of the vehicle I was in.  This was in broad daylight, with no adverse weather conditions.  The impact was such that I’m not sure the at-fault driver realized there was a stop sign.

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We call this an accident, but collision would be a better term.  I can only assume that the driver “didn’t mean” to hit us, but did she NOT mean to hit us?

What I mean by that is, was the driver doing everything in her power to be attentive to the MOST IMPORTANT task you have while operating a motor vehicle?

The answer almost certainly has to be “NO.”  Otherwise, how could you not notice a vehicle stopped at a stop sign in the lane directly in front of you?

In this case, I can only speculate on the cause of distraction and inattention.  Given the driver’s age (and the age of her cell phone), I’m assuming she was not texting, though that certainly does not rule out other cell phone use, including dialing, answering a call, or simply talking on the phone.

Or maybe it is time for this older adult driver to hang up the keys.  There’s a loaded topic — but why?  If a person gets to a point where, due to impaired cognition and/or diminished reflexes, he/she is no longer able to safely operate a machine that is capable of KILLING people, why is this even a discussion?

To be continued (with action steps and ideas for change) . . .

*In addition to recent events, this post was inspired by a discussion in a Facebook group for female cyclists.  Thanks, ladies!

 

DIY midtail cargo bike

UPDATE (9/10/14): Matthew rode this fully loaded (i.e., Gabriel in the seat, plus loaded panniers on the rear rack) yesterday, which turned out to be too much weight in the back. He was fighting to keep the front wheel on the ground. So, this set-up works with either a child OR loaded rear panniers, but not both at the same time.  Matthew is looking into adding a front rack to the bike (for the panniers) to even out the weight distribution.  Until then, he’ll avoid riding with Gabriel and cargo, which means he can’t use this bike to drop G off at school on the way to work.

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As I mentioned yesterday, Sir started preschool this week.  He’s been waiting to go to “Baba’s school” (my MIL, Sir’s “Baba,” is his teacher) all summer, and thanks to our trial run in the spring, we were pretty confident it would be an easy transition for him.

So far, so good.

In some ways, it’s probably a bigger transition for Matthew and me, and I’m not talking the emotional, “my baby’s going to school” thing, but rather the very practical “getting Gabriel to and from school” issue.

G’s preschool is about four miles from where we live, and I’m already mourning the loss of the super easy half-block walk to childcare that we enjoyed for the past 14 months.  It really doesn’t get any better than that.

Fortunately, G’s preschool is more or less on Matthew’s way to work, so the general plan is that Matthew will take use the longtail and handle both drop-off and pick-up on most days.  But there will invariably be days (including this past Monday), where there’s a scheduling conflict, and Matthew either has to be at work early or stay late, and the timing for child shuttling will not work for him.

We realized almost as soon as we got the longtail that, in an ideal world, we would have not one, but two Big Blues for such times.  (Since we sold the trailer, the longtail was our only way to transport G by bike.)

But alas Big Blue cannot clone herself, and we really can’t justify purchasing another bike right now (though that doesn’t stop me from looking and dreaming — n+1, right?).

However, when we were going through the whole Yepp child seat debacle (in which I bought a “standard” model on EBay, when we needed the Easyfit for the Edgerunner), we noticed a particular accessory, the Easyfit Carrier XL, which claimed to extend a regular rear bike rack so one could fit both a Yepp child seat and panniers.

With this accessory, we could use the single Yepp Easyfit child seat on multiple bikes.  After a bit of discussion, we decided to adapt Matthew’s back-up bike (a Giant hybrid) for this purpose.*

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What you need

  • A good bike — you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars, but visit a bike store instead of a discount store.  You’re going to be transporting your child, so you want something that is safe and reliable.  Matthew took his bike in for a tune-up to make sure all was in working order before adapting the bike.
  • A heavy-duty rear rack.  Most rear cargo racks are meant for loads under 50 pounds, and some are only rated for 25-30 pounds.  If you’re carrying a preschooler plus other cargo, you need something that can handle more than 30 pounds.  Matthew found this Axiom Journey rack — reasonably priced, with a capacity of 110 pounds.
  • The Yepp Easyfit Carrier XL, along with the Yepp Easyfit Seat.
  • Panniers that work with the rack (more on this below).

Optional

  • When Matthew took his bike in for a tune-up, the mechanics mentioned that he was probably due for new wheels.  Given the heavy (and important) load he’s planning to carry, he opted for a more expensive, heavier-duty wheel.
  • Matthew also added a center [two-legged] kickstand.  This is not nearly as stable as the center stand that is on Big Blue (where I can leave G unattended if necessary), at least for short periods.  It will help make the bike a sit more stable when loading and unloading, but Matthew will still have to be there, helping support the bike, anytime that G is in the seat.

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The Easyfit Carrier (silver) bolts onto the rear rack (black), and the seat quickly and easily snaps into the port on the carrier (similar to the built-in port on Big Blue’s rear deck).

After getting everything set up, we discovered that Matthew’s basic grocery bag style panniers did not work when the child seat was attached.  The built-in hooks that attach the pannier to the top bar of the rack were too widely spaced (to work with the child seat in place), and not adjustable.

While new panniers were not part of the original plan, Matthew has been wanting something different (waterproof, with a built-in rain cover) for awhile now, and Ortlieb’s roller-bag panniers fit the bill (their clips for attaching to the top bar of the rack are adjustable).

This is not a free, or even a super-cheap, way to transport a child, especially if you don’t already have the Yepp seat, but for us, it made a lot of sense.  If you already have a decent bike, it’s a lot more affordable than going out and buying a midtail or longtail.

Now I can, say, use Big Blue to drop G off at school in the morning, leaving both the seat and his bike helmet at school, and Matthew can use his pseudo-midtail to pick G up in the afternoon.  This does, of course, involve some planning ahead: Matthew remembering to ride the correct bike and me remembering to leave the seat and helmet.

We still don’t really have a plan for dealing with weather (i.e., pouring rain, thunder and lightning, or icy/snowy roads) other than using the car.  Matthew can easily take the bus to/from work in these conditions, but, sadly, the bus route is not convenient to G’s school, so we may still find ourselves car-bound a bit more than we prefer.

*This set-up is still, technically, in testing mode.  Matthew’s used it for a few short rides around our neighborhood with G, but it has not been proven over time and distance.

Crazy days

When it rains, it pours, right?  Well, that was certainly the case during yesterday afternoon’s surprise thunderstorm, and it seems to apply to life this week!*

Picking up where we left off . . .

Collision aftermath
. . . I wasn’t expecting to hear anything about the bike until Wednesday, but the insurance adjustor pushed things a bit, and by late Monday afternoon I received word that Baby Jake’s frame was bent.  Bike totaled, case closed.

The driver who hit us was insured, and I should be receiving a check for replacement cost of the bike.   Which means I need to decide on a replacement.

Easy answer is replace with current model year Kona Jake.  The 2014 frame is orange, which, just, no.  Fortunately, the 2015 frame is a lovely blue.

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Stock photo of 2015 Kona Jake from konaworld.com

The stock photo is odd to me, because it looks nothing like my fendered, smooth tired, commuter ready (rear rack, milk crate, etc.) Baby Jake, but I guess that’s the bike, underneath it all.

But of course there’s the voice in my head saying, “Do I really want the exact same bike?”  There are so many options out there . . . .

Twelve hours after the accident (around 1:00am on Monday morning), it became clear that my bike wasn’t the only thing injured in the collision.

Turns out that being in a car that is rear-ended is pretty much a classic cause of whiplash, and my neck wanted me to know it.  So now there’s a medical/bodily injury claim in addition to the property damage claim.  I’m hoping some physical therapy will get things back on track with no lingering effects.

Preschool and car trouble
For his first day of preschool, Gabriel traveled by car, rather than by bike.  Not what I had planned, but I was driving the car anyway to drop Baby Jake off at The Hub (perhaps the one and only time after Sunday that I won’t be paranoid about having the bike on the back of the car — it was already pretty messed up, what was another hit going to do?).

We were ready for the second day of preschool, though.

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Shortly after I took this photo, I was headed for yet another car trip (more than usual this week), when I noticed that one of the car tires looked suspiciously under-inflated.  After ten minutes and five complete cycles of the air compressor at a nearby gas station, I finally managed to get the pressure up to around 20psi (35psi is recommended for our tires), and I admitted defeat.

By that point, I had an appointment that I was in danger of being late for, and no great way to get there other than the car (would have had other options if I’d planned ahead).  I wasn’t sure I should be driving on the tire, with whatever was going on, but it was a relatively short trip [by car], so I went for it.

Fortunately, I found a gas station with a repair shop just a block from my destination.  I dropped the car off and made it to my appointment.  Meanwhile, the mechanics removed a nail and plugged the tire.  I breathed a big sigh of relief when I got the call that all was well (car trouble really stresses me out — I hate feeling so helpless!).

We’re due (or overdue?) for new tires anyway, so this incident just provided a little nudge.  For some reason, I thought my Kevlar-lined bike tires were as expensive (per tire) as our car tires, but that’s not quite the case.  I think a car tire is a bit over twice as much as my bike tire of choice.  Anyhow, after tomorrow morning, we should have new tires on our old car.

My plans for today include not leaving the house, and I’m hoping that’s the end of the excitement for the week (knock on wood)!

*Note to self: Self, you were right to be paranoid about parking the car under those big, old trees across the street.  Fortunately, with that in mind, our car was parked on the nearby cross street (away from big trees) when yesterday’s storm tore a big ol’ branch off of one of said trees.

Hot bikes and unfortunate events

Who says you can’t ride a bike when it’s 100 million degrees outside? (Spoiler alert: I should have stuck with the bike and avoided the car.)

For better (we had a bunch of great students!) or worse, our cooler than average summer lulled us into thinking we could get away with an end-of-August CyclingSavvy workshop.

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We did get away with it, but it was HOT.  With forecasts for actual temperatures just shy of 100°F, and heat indices of up to 110°F, we made a last-minute change, and instead of doing both on-bike portions on Saturday, as originally planned, we split things up to take advantage of the “cooler” (you know, just 90°F and 110% humidity) morning temperatures.

So, on Saturday morning, I biked about 5.5 miles to our class location.  I’d looked up bus times in case I wanted to bus part of the way home, but we finished up right around 11am, and I was still feeling pretty good.  I made it home, where I planned to wimp-out and drive the car to our class starting point on Sunday.

For context: Saturday’s session (Train Your Bike) involved a lot of on-bike time for students, but, other than demonstrating a few things, not much on-bike time for instructors, so even with biking both ways, I probably topped out around 12 or 13 miles on Saturday.  In contrast, the Road Tour involves everyone (instructors and students) biking 10-12 miles.  These are very slow miles, with a lot of long breaks throughout, but still.  If I biked both to and from class, plus the route, I would have logged almost 25 miles on Sunday, including the return trip at peak sun and near-peak heat.

Sunday dawned, and Matthew really wanted the car to take Gabriel out to Cedar Hill to see his cousin and her new baby.  I reluctantly ceded the car, and biked the few blocks to the bus stop.  The bus-bike combo halved my time on the bike, leaving me just a couple of miles through Forest Park to our meeting point.

Unfortunately, the bus doesn’t run all that often on Sundays, and while it worked to get me to class, I wasn’t confident the timing would work as well on the way home, especially because we didn’t know exactly when we’d finish.

I was concerned that by the time the tour ended (around 12:30pm, after I’d put in about 18 miles in the heat), I really wouldn’t be in shape to safely bike home.

So I decided to bum a ride, and asked a student who doesn’t live too far from me if he’d mind giving me (and my bike) a lift, at least as far as his place.  He kindly agreed.

We rolled back into the parking lot just after 12:30pm.  It was HOT, but everyone made it! After a bit of finagling, we managed to get both bikes on the [trunk] bike rack on his car, and we headed out, both ready for a shower and some A/C.

We were stopped at a stop sign when, WHAM! Rear-ended.*

I’ve always been paranoid about transporting my bike on my car for the very reason demonstrated yesterday.  If you have an accident while your bike is on your car, you potentially lose TWO (or more, if multiple bikes) of your vehicles in one swoop!

In this case, it was not my car, but the guy who was giving me a ride home was not so lucky.

Fortunately, all of the people involved are okay-ish (though my neck is not so happy today), but the bikes, not so much.

I dropped Baby Jake off at the shop this morning.  They’ll give me an estimate for parts and labor for repairing the [significant] damage (it will be in the hundreds), and we’ll go from there.  They will also check to see if the frame is bent — if so, it’s replace for sure.  If not, we’ll see how the repair costs look.

The irony, of course, is that with the way events unfolded, I neither got home faster, nor spent less time outside by opting to ride in the car instead of just biking home (we could have waited in the car, but it didn’t have A/C, so sitting outside in the shade was cooler).  And now my bike is out of commission.

*The circumstances seem pretty cut-and-dried to me, and all indications are that this will be resolved quickly and easily, but I’ll follow advice I was given to not go into too many details of the collision until all is said and done.

Pacific time — What we did in Portland

It took a good 5-6 days of being stuck between Central time and Pacific time (so, Mountain time, technically), but we’re more or less back to our regular routine around here.  Now it’s time to review our trip before I forget anything important.

Lodging
We stayed in four different houses/apartments over the course of eleven days in Oregon.  We started in a VRBO house just southwest of Mt. Tabor in Portland.  After three nights, we moved to a VRBO apartment in the Buckman neighborhood of Portland.  We loved this location — very central for biking, plus some things within walking distance — and we were here for five nights.

At that point, we headed out of Portland for a couple of days.  Our road trip took us to a VRBO cabin in Prospect, Oregon, just south of Crater Lake.  That was our home for two nights as we explored both Crater Lake and the abundance of amazing waterfalls in the area, many of which are quite easily accessible (i.e., short walks/hikes that were relatively easy for Gabriel and my MIL).

We stayed in Portland at my SIL’s apartment for the final night of our trip.

Transportation
While in Portland, we mostly got around by bike, other than the trip from and to the airport.  We shared a rental car with Matthew’s mom.  My MIL shouldered most of the work of shuttling other people around in the car, and we enjoyed most of our time in Portland car-free.*

Over the course of six days (not counting the bike-free day when we drove to Silver Falls), we put in 60 bicycle miles in Portland.  Our highest mileage day was 14 miles, and our lowest was 9 miles.  If anything, I expected those numbers to be higher.  It felt like we were all around the town.  I guess the lower than expected mileage is a testament to Portland’s density?

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We covered a lot of southeast Portland, some of northeast, and a bit of northwest.

For us, the rental car was essential for our day hike at Silver Falls State Park and the side trip to Crater Lake, and it was nice for getting to/from the airport (but we could have taken a cab), and otherwise a huge PITA (long wait for pick-up at the airport, then arguing that we had reserved/needed a 4-door vehicle vs. the 2-door they were trying to stick us with, then having to swap cars after two days due to brake and electrical issues).

Food
While we were in Portland, we were on the “bakery-a-day” plan (good thing we were doing all that biking!).  The bulk of our pastries came from Ken’s Artisan Bakery and St. Honoré Boulangerie.  At Ken’s, we love the Oregon croissant (though we weren’t quite as impressed this trip, compared to last time), the vegetable quiche, and the cannele.  At St. Honoré, we love the mirliton (a small tart, filled with almond batter and fruit — two years ago we had pear; this trip, they had cherry, which was amazing!) and the cannele; we also had a nice chocolate croissant here.

We tried one new bakery this trip, Crema.  Matthew liked their fruit danishes, though I wasn’t amazed (not enough cream cheesy filling and too much of a sweet glaze — I like my pastries barely sweet).  I enjoyed a piece of their chocolate espresso bread (heavy on the chocolate, light on the espresso).

Outside of bakeries, my favorite food came from Pad Thai Kitchen (on SE Belmont), Boke Bowl, and ¿Por Que No? Taqueria.  We ate at another Thai place and a French place that were okay, but not remarkable.  It is quite possible that we spent as much money at bakeries over the course of the trip as we did on food at restaurants.

Vegetarian rice bowl at Boke -- the tofu in here was amazing!
Vegetarian rice bowl at Boke — the tofu in here was amazing!

The other food highlight that I should mention is the delicious paella served at my SIL’s wedding, from none other than a catering place that makes only paella.  They knocked the vegetarian version out of the park with delicious white beans, mushrooms, artichokes, and other veggies.

Because we had full kitchens at all of our places, we also did a decent bit of eating in, which helped budget-wise, and nutrition-wise, too (ensuring we ate at least some beans and had some grain variety).  This option was also very nice in Prospect, where dining options were limited (grocery options were also quite limited in the area around Crater Lake, so plan accordingly).

Things to do
So, what did we do other than riding our bikes from bakery to bakery?  Mostly lots of low-key stuff.

We visited a couple of playgrounds with Gabriel — easy, free, and fun way to pass time with a little one.

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Playground at Dawson Park in N/NE Portland

Other than renting the Bullitt, our only paid entertainment was a visit to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), which felt like a blend of the Science Museum and the Magic House in St. Louis (paid admission, unlike our Science Center).  You could probably spend an entire day at OMSI, but our visit was limited to just a couple of hours, which, after torturing Gabriel by walking through the [to him terrifying] dinosaur exhibit, were mostly spent in the Science Playground, a wing just for the 6-and-under crowd.

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The Science Playground had a sandbox!  With construction equipment!  Sir was in heaven.

We did a bit of shopping in the stores around the 3500 block of SE Hawthorne, as well as a quick visit to Powell’s books in downtown Portland.  (I was disappointed to discover Powell’s was not just used books, but rather a mix of new and used.  They also don’t have a “used” section; rather, the used books are mixed in with the new, and, at least for children’s books, their offerings seemed to skew heavily toward new.)

Most of our remaining time was spent with family and new friends, celebrating my SIL’s wedding (for which Gabriel was a ring bearer).

That’s all for now, though I have at least two more trip-related posts, one on Crater Lake and one on bike infrastructure in Portland (I made myself take pictures this time around!).

 *Between the rental car and the borrowed bikes, we didn’t end up using public transit, but a friend told me that Portland has a great app that makes it very easy for a visitor to use the system to get around (assuming you have a smart phone).