Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Cargo Bike, Car Go!



Would that it was quite so simple but almost 2 months ago I put the Wald Giant Delivery Basket on Stella. Since then, I carry my messenger bag almost daily, a few occasions bags of dog food (40 and 20 pounds), a 12 and 6 pack of beer, 2-6 packs plus picnic fixings and a gallon of water and a melon. It's very stable and it makes the bike mega-friendly.

A Sacrifice to the Gods of Petrol

I've been thinking a great deal about the automobile this summer, with preparing to sell our truck, "An Inconvenient Truth" (Laurie and I rode our bikes to the theater to see it.) and now, 3 cyclists killed by drivers. We seem willing to accept an inordinate amount of collateral damage in order to keep driving.

The death of Audrey Lindvall seems metaphorical in this context. A young beauty is killed by a fuel truck. As Americans, we are willing to sacrifice the most precious parts of, well, America, to maintain our way of life. We send our young people to die in the desert. Our children suffer from an epidemic of asthma and obesity. We lose our sense of community, our humanity, just so we can keep driving.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

In preparation for going "Car-Lite"


Here is the final version of the trailer, inspected by our good friend Kenneth Walker.