Oregon ranked No. 1 for bicycle commuting

Oregon is ranked No. 1 among U.S. states for its percentage of bicycle commuters, 2.5 percent, according to a community survey data report issued by the League of American Bicyclists.

Easier to walk when I shelve every day

For years I worked in a job that involved sitting at a desk. I really wanted the kind of job I have now: physically active at a library.

Yes, I ride a bicycle. Yes, I use a cane

My bicycle gives me mobility
(and it’s yarn-bombed too).

I can relate to the sentiments of Shannon Des Roches Rosa when she says her vehicle’s disabled parking pass is none of disapproving strangers’ business.

“Folks don’t have the passes if they don’t need them, and as they go through an official process of applications and approvals to get that pass, your opinion is irrelevant -- even if you can’t tell what the person’s disability is.”

The situation I encountered this week wasn’t entirely the same, but it involved a stranger’s unsolicited judgement about my supposed disability.

I parked my bicycle Tuesday evening outside the Ashland library and retrieved my cane (which was secured across my back by a really cool, over-the-shoulder, upcycled-T-shirt braided strap).

Caturday project: Starfire ‘helps’ with Sharrow jacket

Starfire ‘helps’ me work

Assisted by my “helper” Starfire, I upcycled T-shirts into a “Sharrow” Share-the-road bicycle design on a hoodie jacket.

My first step, with a paper template, was to cut out the sharrow pattern. Starfire was highly interested in the proceedings and I had to watch her carefully lest, when batting at the sharrow template, she end up with a pawful of pins.

Back view: The finished jacket

As I began assembling pieces for the sharrow design on the back, Starfire burrowed into the discarded T-shirt.

Starfire managed to shove her entire face into the sleeve. She reared up and was surprised by the effect.

Once free from the shirt, she was oh-so-dignified as I continued with my work.

The back of the jacket features an appliqued sharrow design against a floral background. I also attached a floral sharrow motif to one side on the jacket front.

‘Books on Wheels’: Library bicycle delivery

From the Arizona Daily Star, reprinted at ILoveLibraries.org, the Pima County Public Library offers a once-a-month bicycle delivery service for home-bound library patrons.

Books on Wheels is offered in partnership with Pima County Bike Ambassadors. Could a similar program operate in the Bicycle Friendly Community of Ashland, Oregon?

Yarn-bombed bicycle for Fourth of July

A knit-swatch seat cover for my yarn-bombed bicycle

An ankle injury sidelined me from riding during goRogueValley.org’s Go By Bike Week in May, but I was able to resume riding in time to participate in the Fourth of July parade.

The Web-sters yarn shop in Ashland, Oregon provided swatches and yarn for crafters to decorate their bikes. A bicycle yarn-bombing party took place Tuesday at Lithia Park in downtown Ashland.

Walkscore ‘neighborhood pages’

With its “neighborhood pages,” announced this week, Walkscore.com has assembled “all of our quantitative data about transportation and places with tens of thousands of photos and comments.”

Umm ... No.

The move only makes sense and will hopefully compensate for misrepresentations that rely on walking scores alone.

Case in point: our family moved from a rural community to a metropolitan area. If its walking score accounted for a greater proximity of bike trails and public transportation, our new place easily rates a 95, where most daily errands do not require a car.

Instead, Walkscore rated it 52, only “Somewhat walkable.”

Even though our past residence, “very walkable” at 75, was close to a few businesses, a post office and library, it was geographically distant from employment centers. People had to commute by car or rely on public transit that ran every 2.5 hours. Bicycle commuting was not feasible.

In our new community, again supposedly a “52,” we are less than 500 feet from a central bus line that runs every half-hour to 20 minutes. A bicycle path is only a few blocks away and connects us to a central downtown where major roads have dedicated bike lanes and connector streets have “sharrow” shared-roadway markings.

Acquiring a bike score for our community would require city planners to contact Walk Score. As of Dec. 12, bike score data was available for only 25 U.S. cities.

Neighborhood pages, according to Walkscore.com, assemble Walk Score ratings and heatmaps for more than 10,000 neighborhoods, Restaurant “ChoiceMaps” for more than 10,000 neighborhoods, Transit Score ratings and transit maps for more than 3,000 neighborhoods, Bike Score ratings for more than 5,000 neighborhoods and photos of almost 2,000 neighborhoods.