San Francisco to Tax ‘Google Buses’

• 
  

• January 6, 2014, 7:27 PM ET

San Francisco to Tax ‘Google Buses’

ByJeff Elder

AP

San Francisco will tax the “Google buses,” a little bit, anyway.

The luxury buses cruise the sometimes cozy streets of San Francisco’s neighborhoods, picking up and dropping off commuting techies. They’ve become symbols of the growing resentment around gentrification and rising rents in the Bay Area. Many companies  in Silicon Valley to the south pay for the bus service, but the derisive nickname “Google buses” has stuck.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced an 18-month pilot program Monday to charge the shuttle companies fees based on the number of stops they make in city bus zones. The shuttle companies would be charged $1 per stop, which the mayor’s office estimates will bring in approximately $1.6 million in total revenue for the entire pilot. That total is intentionally limited: State law limits such fees to the cost of providing a service or policy. So all of the fees will go into policing the program.

The city and Silicon Valley companies including...

Read more at the Wall Street Journal

Go Get 'Em, Girl! Ava, Baby Skateboard In the GoPro Spotlight

Have a laugh and scoot along the beach with Ava, the super-cool, super-cute baby skateboarder!

Shot 100% on the HD HERO3® camera from http://GoPro.com.

America's Most Walkable, Cyclist-Friendly Cities

More people walk to work in Cambridge, Mass., than any

other large city in the country. Wikimedia Commons

The Most Walkable Cities and How Some Are Making Strides

Nationally, only a small fraction of people walk to work. But some cities' policy and planning efforts are making walking an everyday means of commuting. View data and maps for dozens of U.S. cities.

by Mike Maciag | 

 

Densely populated neighborhoods, commercial district city squares and multiple public transit lines all span the city of Cambridge, Mass., creating an environment ideal for walking.
The most recent Census counts estimate nearly a quarter of the city’s residents walk to work, far more than any other larger U.S. city.

Many localities across the country are continuing to push policies and planning initiatives aimed at making communities more walkable. Recent census figures depict a wide variation in commuting habits among the nation’s urban centers, showing some have done much more than others.

Read the Rest at Governing

-

#Cyclist Friendly and Auto-Free: Check out Sunday Streets San Francisco!

Discover auto-free, cyclist-friendly fun at:

http://www.sundaystreetssf.com

Off Roading on Segways? Why Not?!

"SegwayNM shows X2's and i2's Off road, jumping hills, going down stairs, dropping off ledges and more. Ever wonder what a Segway will do? Watch this video, and find out, these guys push the limit on a Segway."

Swedes Develop Invisible Bike Helmet

Leave it to the Women: 2 Swedish Women Develop Invisible Bike Helmet

 

You know what kind of sucks about riding a bike? Other than all that pedaling? Bike helmets. Sure, they keep that overrated "brain" from getting splattered, but they take a lot of the open-air-joy out of things, and they're not comfortable. A pair of Swedish women have developed a remarkable solution: the invisible bike helmet.

Tired of strapping ugly, uncomfortable styrofoam-and-plastic turtle shells to their heads, the pair came up with a pretty revolutionary solution that does manage to give you full head protection without, remarkably, wearing anything on your head.

I'd like to just come out and tell you the secret of how their Hövding helmet works, but this video does such a nice job of building suspense I kind of don't want to ruin it. So I won't post any pictures showing the operation, and don't follow that link to their site if you don't want to spoil a minor surprise.

Once you see how it works it all makes sense, and is a very clever solution that draws from a number of technologies that are well-established and familiar.3

Read the rest at JaloPink.com

Check out the video!

Santa Would LOVE This Kind of ELF!

Dig On This!
The Velomobile ELF electric assist recumbent three wheeled bicycle...

-

New way to go Electric-assist trike sports solar panels, cover and a trunk

The ELF, which comes with two cloth shopping bags to hang in a carrying compartment in the rear, weighs less than 150 pounds, carries a load of up to 350 pounds, travels up to 20 mph on battery power, recharges in less than an hour by charger or seven hours by sunlight, and has a battery range of 20 miles. Organic Transit’s logo on the back of the oversized tricycle even makes it look like you’re taking the T when you’re riding in it.

“You motor to work, you don’t get there all shvitzy, and on the way home have your workout,” said Rosenberg. “That’s the thought behind it. How brilliant.”

To get started, you climb in over the aluminum frame, which supports a recycled-plastic shell, and climb into a slung seat which puts the driver about level with automobile drivers. Since there’s no reverse gear, backing up means using your feet on the ground a la Fred Flintstone, then start pedaling and click on the battery to boost as needed.

Goldman, who also ordered her green ELF on Kickstarter, found Rosenberg and Talmage realizing that shipping the velomobiles in protective crates was seriously driving up their costs. She tracked down others that could be delivered to Pennsylvania and New England on a truck with the vehicles tied on back, and as soon as hers was delivered Wednesday, she loaded it down with bread for the Amherst market.

“It’s fun,” said Goldman, who on Thursday used it to get to the South Hadley farmers market, then to a concert in Northampton, and finally back to Amherst, learning the need to maneuver around potholes and bumps, for which her mountain bike is more forgiving.

[Peter] Talmage, an engineer who’s had electric bikes to ride to his teaching job at Greenfield Community College, said, “The ELF offered the opportunity I could use in all sorts of weather. I’m amazed at what they put together, and at the completeness of what they offer.”

The trike comes with a 10 amp-hour, 48-volt battery, that’s one-third the weight of a car battery with a little less storage capacity, but should lasts 10 times longer, Talmage said. And the vehicle’s 60-watt solar panel is lightweight and replaces a roof panel “as a simple way to regenerate a lot of electricity while you’re just parked in a parking lot somewhere.”

Read More at The Greenfield Recorder

Transbay site work reaches milestone

by Jessica Kwong

Sixty-five feet below ground level between Mission, Howard, Second and Beale streets, crews working on the Transbay Transit Center project reached a quiet milestone.


A 10- to 12-hour concrete pour completed Saturday was the last one necessary until excavation wraps up early next year. That makes 10 mat slab pours to date, each between 4,000 to 6,000 cubic yards of concrete. Rail tracks will eventually sit on the slabs.

“This is achieving a big milestone for our project,” said project superintendent Jordan Smith of Webcor/Obayashi, the general contractor, at the site Wednesday. “Essentially half of the project has mat slab. What that allows us to do is continue on schedule on the walls and columns and rebar on one side.”
Construction has made good time, with the foundation for the western half of the 600,000-cubic-yard hole in the ground already set with mat slab.

The multilayer process started in early September and involved drilling 65-foot-long micropiles on the dirt base to anchor the coming structure, four inches of concrete slab, a waterproofing layer, another 4 inches of concrete slab, rebar reinforcement and finally 5 feet of mat slab that Caltrain and high-speed rail will arrive on.

Dirt is still visible in the easternmost portion of San Francisco’s biggest hole in the ground, with excavation slated to end in mid-January. The final mat slab pours will occur in mid-February.

Read more at SFExaminer.com

Support Your Local #Trans Bike Shop: #ShopSmall Savings Extended!

A TRAN'S BAY BIKE SHOP:

 LGBQ Trans* Inclusive Mechanics and Community

#ShopSmall on Small Business Saturday

at A Tran's Bay Bike Shop!

Super-Cool Savings Through the Tra-La-La-La-Holidays, All Season Long.

Great Gifts, Rentals and Repairs for Gear Heads, Brand New Cyclists,

And All Folks Living and Loving Active Living and The Growing Trend of 

Eco-Friendly, Alternative Transportation.

Click Here For Coupon Savings

Bay Area Holiday Deals: All Bike Tune-Ups Half Off: 

New Deals on New and Used Bikes and Rentals!

See You Soon,

A Tran's Bay Bike Shop

Happy Holidays! Co-Cycle Vacation, Anyone?

Co-cycle participants, courtesy of Co-cycle

Cooperative Tourism

Take a Co-cycle tour across the US while visiting and learning about cooperative working and living spaces. It's a fun, but rigorous touring schedule that's best for avid cyclists. The deadline to apply is April 8th. Or kick back and relax at Breitenbush, an affordable hot springs resort in Oregon run by a worker cooperative/intentional community that so co-op it hosts the Western Worker Cooperative Conference. While you're there, stop by Portland, Oregon to get a broad taste of sharing culture and visit local worker coops while biking around a model bike friendly town. Take a tour of the San Francisco Bay Area's beautiful coastline, hills and redwoods, and while you're there, see how many worker coops you can hit up using this map. For more participatory fun, stop by any one of the many collective bike kitchens in the Bay, and Noisebridge a famous hackerspace. If Europe is your thing, visit Mondragon Cooperative Corporation, the famous worker cooperative complex in Basque, Spain and learn how to create an autonomous cooperative economic region. See this video about Mondragon - what could be more inspiring!

Read the rest at Shareable.

 

Check Out the Bicycle Blue Book

From the Website:

Bicycle Database

Find Your Used Bike's Value!

  The Bicycle Blue Book Marketplace from Bicycle Blue Book on Vimeo.
Learn how to use the Bicycle Blue Book Marketplace to sell your new and used bikes.
http://www.bicyclebluebook.com/Marketplace.aspx

-

Bicycle Blue Book knows what your bike is worth. We've compiled data from years of transactions (that adds up to millions of sales) to give you the most accurate valuation of your used bike. Got one you're looking to unload, or just curious to know what one is worth? Use the filters below to find the value of your bike. Whether you're just looking for your next road bike, or the value of all Cannondale's over the past 5 years, we've got all the data tucked away just waiting to be pored over.

Snag Your Local Bike Thief: Project Freeride

Project Freeride

by Danielle Baker  

If you ride bikes then you have had a bike stolen or know someone who has. This is a fact. Bike theft is rampant. This summer we have seen an elevated profile of bike theft in the local media both with police work and vigilantism. August alone saw Dunbar Cycles team up with police on an undercover operation that recovered their stolen property, police recovered seven bikes through their bate bike program, and a local Vancouver woman steal her bike back from a thief when she found it for sale on Craig’s List. And these are only the stories that have been publicized.

Items found by police in a bike thief's backpack by police.

Bike theft falls into an ugly category of property crimes, the perfect storm for thieves; it is an easy crime with a value low enough to excuse any real punishment. Theft under $5000 in provincial court will garnish a slap on the wrist for first time offenders, fines ranging from $100-$400, suspended sentences with probation, or where there is prior related criminal behavior, short periods of jail time. With the frequency and growing popularity of it, bike theft was up 20% in Victoria last year and 38% in Calgary, we have ended up in a situation where insuring for actual value or claiming with the threat of rising deductibles often leaves us bikeless and bitter. In the past, reporting our bikes stolen to the police has felt like an exercise in futility. Often dismantled and shipped out of province before you pick up the phone, the chances of ever seeing your ride again are slim to none. But with a combination of the growing popularity of mountain biking and the rising value of our bikes, the police are taking a more pro-active approach and it leaves us, the bike owners, in the hot seat. Are we helping bike thieves and hindering police work?

-

More from the article:

For all of your rides, record the brand, model, color, serial number, and modifications. Lock them up, and then lock them up again. Be aware of your surroundings. Stop Stravaing your rides from your house. Be smart, think about the bigger picture. While Kayla Smith 'stole' her bike back, and we all love a good vigilante story with a happy ending, the thief has probably already stolen a few more bikes since then. Adam Mantle from Dunbar Cycles teamed up with police and using his online research they were able to arrest and charge Wesley John Devries. He has not stolen a bike since. If your bike is stolen, by all means look for it on Craig’s List, put in the time and be proactive, but team up with police when you find it. While myopic actions can be sensationalized, they will do nothing to progress a solution for our community as a whole. 

Read the rest of the story here

BART Strike Commute Alternatives: Bike-to-Bus, to Work!

BART Strike Commute Alternatives: Buses, Ferries, Telecommuting

With a BART strike looking increasingly likely, here are some alternatives for getting around.

 

By Sasha Lekach, Bay City News Service

With the likelihood of a BART strike effective [shortly], many Bay Area commuters will have to find alternate ways to get to and from work and other destinations with the strike possibly extending into the weekend.

BART will provide a limited number of free roundtrip charter buses at nine East Bay BART stations starting Friday morning. Buses will pick up ticketed passengers at El Cerrito del Norte, West Oakland, Concord, Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Dublin/Pleasanton, San Leandro, Hayward and Fremont stations starting at 5 a.m.

BART officials said there will be five to 15 buses at each station. The buses will drop off passengers at San Francisco's Temporary Transbay Terminal. On the return trip, riders will board buses between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the terminal. Those buses will go to West Oakland, where transfers can be made to other buses heading to various East Bay destinations.

[See Patch's list of transportation alternatives in the East Bay.]

Excerpt reblogged via Patch.com.

Please Read the full story here.