The following list of 41 don’ts for female cyclists was published in 1895 in the newspaper New York World by an author of unknown gender. Special thanks to Brainpickings.org for compiling the list!
Don’t be a fright.
Don’t faint on the road.
Don’t wear a man’s cap.
Don’t wear tight garters.
Don’t forget your toolbag
Don’t attempt a “century” [a 100-mile ride]
Don’t coast. It is dangerous.
Don’t boast of your long rides…. Read the rest
With so many gentle and safe trails, biking in Contra Costa County can truly be a family affair. But a safe and properly fitted bike for your child is an important first step. If you plan to buy online, this is particularly important. A good bike shop should be able to help you with this in person. The folks at Ibike offer this sizing guide:
Approximate Age
Child’s Inseam
Wheel diameter
2-4 years
14-17 inches; 35-42 cm
12 inches
4-6 years
16-20 inches; 40-50 cm
14 inches
5-8 years
18-22 inches; 45-55 cm
16 inches
6-9 years
20-24 inches; 50-60 cm
18 inches
7-10 years
22-25 inches; 55-63 cm
20 inches
9+ years
24-28 inches; 60-72 cm
24 inches
What should you look for in a kids’ bike?… Read the rest
Dec 2011. Can it actually save you money to take transit? Obviously that depends on a lot of things, and varies by person, but a lot of research finds that yes, on some trips, transit is the cheaper option. What can you do to reap some of these rewards?
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics estimates that in 2005, the average annual cost of owning and operating a car driven 15,000 miles a year was about $7,800, or 52 cents a mile…. Read the rest
TRAFFIC ADVISORY:
EVENING RAMP CLOSURES
Oakland, Calif., – Below is the scheduled upcoming closures associated with work on the Caldecott Fourth Bore Project.
Please note that fog and inclement weather would impact the schedule.
Contra Costa County:.
Westbound Fish Ranch Road On-Ramp: Planned closures between the hours of 9 p.m. Monday, November 21 and 5 a.m. Tuesday, November 22; and between the hours of 9 p.m. Tuesday, November 22 and 5 a.m…. Read the rest
Few things are more heartbreaking than coming back to find your bike is missing. It happens to the best of us, but there are extra precautions we can all take to protect our rides.
1) Lock both the front wheel and the frame.
Do you have a quick release front wheel? Make sure any piece of your bike that could come off is secured to something. If you’ve ever seen an abandoned bike missing its front wheel, or just an abandoned front wheel – it used to belong to someone that should have locked their wheel and frame together…. Read the rest
Daylight Savings Time ends for most of the United States at 1 AM on Sunday November 6.
As we fall back the sun will set earlier in the evening. By by the end of November, the sun will set as early as 4:51 PM. This means a lot of people will be commuting home in the dark. Though fewer miles are driven at night relative to the day, more than half of all traffic deaths occur after dark…. Read the rest
If you haven’t heard, we’re big fans of the East Bay Regional Parks District here at 511CC. The District has dozens of beautiful preserves, parks, ranches, valleys, hills, points, trails, and bays, including over a dozen right here in Contra Costa County.
If you ever need a reason to hop on your bike or lace up your walking shoes, look no further.
Let’s take a look at three of the parks…. Read the rest
What a blast from the past!
Did you know Californian’s were already biking across the state as early as 1896? As we discuss in our History of Transportation – Bicycles, more efficient and precise manufacturing technologies allowed bicycles to be made cheaply, more safely, and they proliferated!
Bicycling was so common, it made people realize the impracticality of corsets. In 1896, Susan B. Anthony said that “the bicycle has done more for the emancipation of women than anything else in the world.”
See the full sized version here…. Read the rest
The only thing more fun than a bike ride is a safe bike ride. Follow these rules from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to make sure you get home safely.
Bicyclists:
Must obey all traffic signals and stop signs.
Are lawfully permitted to ride on certain sections of roadway in rural areas where there is no alternate route.
Must ride in the same direction as other traffic, not against it…. Read the rest
If you’ve been following BART, you might have heard about a Facebook effort to keep trains running later on weekends. A Facebook group named Make BART Trains run 24 Hours has over 24,700 members, and urged BART to study the possibility of later trains on Friday and Saturday nights.
BART studied the impact of keeping the trains running an hour later on Friday and Saturday nights. Unfortunately, BART has a single set of tracks (unlike New York City’s metro, and others), so trains have to be shut down for maintenance every night, so keeping the trains running one hour later would require an equal delay the next morning…. Read the rest
