‘The Red Bicycle’ by Jude Isabella

In North America, a young boy, Leo, saves the money he earns by doing work for his neighbors so that he can purchase a new bicycle. When he outgrows “Big Red,” his beloved red bicycle, he donates it to a bike-relief organization that transports it to the West African country of Burkina Faso.

“Big Red’s” story is told in The Red Bicycle by Jude Isabella with illustrations by Simone Shin (Kids Can Press, 2015).

This book offers an informative look at what can be accomplished by bicycle, when the luxury and privilege of automobile driving simply do not exist.

Take back the tap for ‘environmental justice’

Ashland Food Co-op in Ashland, Ore. has eliminated the
sale of single-serving bottled water.
Photo from the Ashland Food Co-op website, www.ashlandfood.coop 

Continuing with my suggestion that a nonprofit organization focus on individual impacts as part of an “Environmental Justice” campaign, “taking back the tap” could be another essential plank in an “Environmental Justice” platform.

‘Environmental Justice’ campaign must emphasize personal choices

In correspondence to an organization planning an “Environmental Justice” campaign, I urged that it consider the role of individual choices made by organization members.

Transit agencies honored as ‘Bicycle Friendly Businesses’

The League of American Bicyclists has released this year's list of Bicycle Friendly Business awardees. Most interesting to me are transit agencies profiled among this year’s awardees. In the words of Rob Borowski, sustainability officer with Capitol Metropolitan Transportation Agency, “It’s only natural” to connect bikes and transit. “It’s the best way to expand the transit shed, and it greatly increases the flexibility of both modes of transportation.”

MicroLED lights for night bicycling

Winter holidays coincide with the year’s fewest hours of daylight and it gets dark ever earlier. Fortunately MicroLED lights lend a festive flair to my rides. They were an early Christmas gift from Jonathan. Add a bright yellow-green reflective rain jacket from the local hardware store and I’m confident that I’m doing the utmost I can to make myself visible to motorists.

Oregon drives less, reduces CO2s

“Making a difference ... one trip at a time” was the latest Drive Less Connect headline, paired with an email subject line that emphasized collective impact. Drive Less Connect declared this year’s Oregon Drive Less Challenge a success, with a total of 777,119 miles in bike, bus, train, carpool, vanpool and walking trips, plus teleworking reported in 14 days.

Its newsletter notes that if those miles were driven alone, in a single-occupant vehicle, those miles would have resulted in 548,457 pounds of CO2 emissions. So those are 548,457 pounds of emissions not created, because people walked, rode their bicycles or took the bus. It feels great to be part of the solution, every day, every week, all year.

Blog posts classified with Dewey numbering

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been researching Dewey Decimal classifications for the subject tags in my blogs, beginning with my blog about library service and now extending to “Librarian on a Bicycle.” The project seemed thematically appropriate, with both blogs’ emphasis on librarianship.