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Archive for the ‘Videos’ Category

Join trail advocates on a tour of a railroad trestle bridge on the alignment of the planned Three Creeks Trail

The Los Gatos Creek trail from Lexington Reservoir to San Jose is an important corridor for recreation and human-powered transportation, providing complete grade separation through the cities of Los Gatos, Campbell and San Jose with easy crossings past a number of high traffic roads.

This trail ends on Meridian Avenue in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood, about two miles short of downtown San Jose. Just blocks downstream of this trail end, the Los Gatos Creek intersects with the planned Three Creeks Trail, which mostly runs along the alignment of an abandoned Union Pacific rail right-of-way. Trail advocates in Willow Glen envision a regional, unified trail system linking Los Gatos Creek, Three Creeks, and the Guadalupe River System for enhanced biking and walking opportunities. A bridge where Three Creeks cross the Los Gatos Creek trail is a vital part of this conenction. Although city officials plan to replace the wooden rail trestle with a steel pedestrian structure, community advocates say this historic trestle bridge can be converted for trail use.

Although the city is moving forward on the Three Creeks Trail, the San Jose city council voted to have this trestle destroyed and replaced with a standard steel pedestrian bridge. Trail advocates hope to convince city officials to reverse this decision. You can see this trestle bridge for yourself by joining Dr Larry Ames on a tour of the Willow Glen Trestle Bridge this weekend.

Dr Ames will begin the tour this Saturday, May 25 2013 at the corner of Coe & Leona (one block east of Lincoln) in San Jose. Ames believes the existing bridge can be the crowning jewel of a trail system that he hopes will eventually link to downtown San Jose. He hopes to encourage people to show up at the city’s next public meeting on Three Creeks, which takes place on Wednesay, May 29, 2013 at the Willow Glen Senior Center on Lincoln near Curtner.

For more information, visit Save the Willow Glen Trestle website.

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1. San Jose: Extraterrestrial Ride this Friday
2. San Jose Kidical Mass!
3. San Jose Tour of California viewing

A selection of Bay Area transit service notes for Memorial Day on May 27, 2013.

I’ve sampled the Google Transit schedules for Monday for a handful of these agencies and it appears Google correctly chooses the Memorial Day holiday schedule for VTA, AC Transit, BART, Capitol Corridor and Caltrain. If you test the other services I’m sure somebody would appreciate a note.

• VTA: Sunday / Holiday schedule.
• AC Transit – all local and transbay service: Sunday schedule.
• Caltran: Sunday schedule.
• BART: Sunday schedule.
• SF Muni: Mostly a Sunday schedule with some exceptions.
• Golden Gate ferries and buses operate on a weekend / holiday schedule.
• Blue & Gold Fleet ferries run on a weekend / holiday schedule.
• The San Francisco Bay Ferry (operated by the Water Emergency Transportation Authority) makes mention of Memorial Day operation on only a couple of their individual individual ferry route pages, so I don’t know if their ferries will run on a weekend or weekday schedule on Memorial Day.
• SamTrans: Sunday Schedule.
• Contra Costa County Connection : No service.
• Marin Transit: Holiday schedule for West Marin Stagecoach and local buses operated by Golden Gate Transit; no service for community shuttles.
• Altamont Commuter Express (ACE) train: No service.
• Amtrak Capitol Corridor: Weekend / holiday service.

Memorial Day service for transit agencies in the Monterey Bay Area:

• Monterey Salinas Transit (MST): Sunday schedule with limited lines in operation. The 55 to San Jose will run on a Sunday schedule. Route 78 to Santa Cruz isn’t on the list of buses running on Memorial Day.
• Santa Cruz Metro: No service on Memorial Day, with the exception of the Highway 17 service to San Jose which operates on a weekend schedule.
• San Benito County Express: No service.

Have a good weekend!

Related posts:

1. Bay Area transit and Martin Luther King Junior Day 2013
2. SF Bay Area free transit New Year’s Eve
3. Bicycling tourists in San Francisco

A pair of writers for Slate — one a pedestrian, the other a cyclist — come together and create a list of common sense rules to avoid conflict between the two groups.

I call them ‘common sense,’ but in online discussions I get the impression that joggers, for example, seem to think they’re not inconveniencing anybody by running against traffic in the bike lane next to busy traffic. Sidewalk cyclists are often pushy and rude, blasting through crowds with no regard to the safety of the more vulnerable users around them.

In urban environments, roads and intersections are a shared space where multiple modes of travel interact. Sure, there’s a flow, but those of us on bikes are still capable of startling walkers and it won’t usually kill you to slow down for a walker.

Remember the Golden Rule – treat others as you expect to be treated. Everybody who reads Cyclelicious is above average in this regard, of course, but if you need a refresher, go read this refresher by Laura Anderson and Aisha Harris. Let’s all go along to get along.

Related posts:

1. Cyclist harassment: Less common than we think?
2. Pedestrian
3. Santa Cruz County railroad to enforce track trespass rules

Mike Sinyard said “Aero Is Everything” a few times in the last couple of weeks and everybody anticipated a new product launch.

Instead, his company launched something a little more interesting — their brand new wind tunnel to test bicycles, accessories and apparel in Morgan Hill, California.

Specialized engineers will hold a live, online Q&A session beginning at 4 PM California time just 45 minutes after I post this). Tag your questions with #aeroiseverything on Twitter.

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1. Specialized launches US sales for Turbo eBikes
2. 2010 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR
3. General Motors buys Specialized Bicycles!

Don’t you hate those scofflaw, law breaking drivers? They should make them get registration and take driving tests to learn the rules of the road before they kill somebody.

Just the other day, Bill Walsh was just riding along on Pennsylvania Avenue with his helmet cam when a cab driver pulls a U-turn directly in front of him and next to a “NO U-TURN” sign. Walsh stops to avoid bumping the cab door. To his surprise, Walsh hears a siren behind him. A cop had witnessed the whole thing and pulled the taxi driver over.

Stupid question from me: Can the FBI police enforce DC traffic regulations? They normally do security type work for FBI facilities in the District.

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1. Bicycle proximity siren when cars are too close
2. Colorado cyclist hits bear
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Jamis announced their 2013 Hudson Sport and Sport Deluxe with Slidepad single lever brakes.

A single lever controls both front and rear brakes. The cable runs from the lever to the rear brake. when the brake pad hits the rim, the brake pad moves forward which, turn, pulls the cable for the front brake.

Hudson Sport was designed to ease the transition from non-cycling to cycling for those who haven’t been on a bike in some time. The townie-style bike features a laid back seat tube and lowered bottom bracket height allows riders to position their saddles for efficient leg extension and still easily reach the ground while seated for balance when stopped. The longer chainstays and wheelbase in tandem with the lower center of gravity offers a very smooth, stable ride.

Although this geometry makes it difficult to flip over the handlebars, Jamis goes a step further with the Slidepad brakes. Slidepad’s idea is to remove the fear of end-over crashes. The video shows how it works.

Experienced cyclists often pooh-pooh the idea of this single-lever system. Something like this can come in handy when I’m riding fast while shooting photos, and there have been a few occasions where braking both wheels with one hand can come in handy. Or I could just get a coaster brake bike with a front hand brake.

Besides the Slidepad brakes, the Hudson Sport features ProMax forged alloy direct pull brakes and Tektro alloy comfort lever; a seven-speed Shimano twist-shifting single chain ring drivetrain is available on the Sport and the Nexus 5-speed internal geared hub upgrade on the Sport Deluxe. The Hudson Sport’s lightweight aluminum frame is available in six sizes, including two step-through. It comes with Jamis Sport Comfort tires with whitewalls or skinwalls, and the Jamis Comfort Sport seat with memory foam and synthetic suede top, and a near all-alloy parts reducing weight, adding value and is rust proof. The Sport Deluxe (MSRP $ 550) is available in Azurite Blue, Candy Apple and Gloss Black and the Step-Through in Cucumber, Grape Jelly and Tiger’s Eye. The Sport (MSRP $465) is available in Candy Apple, Electric Blue, Gloss Black and Tiger’s Eye, and the Step-Through in Daiquiri Blue, Lemonade, Pearl White and Sage.

Related posts:

1. Jamis Commuter with NuVinci N360
2. Kate Hudson rides a bicycle
3. Jamis Commuter 4.0 review

May is both national bike month and Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. In California, this means Caltrans posts “Watch for motorcycles” messages on their electronic Sigalert highway signs.

What’s the impact of this enhanced safety awareness? Motorcycle groups applaud Caltrans for raising awareness, bicycle groups grumble “What about us?” and drivers continue killing and maiming motorcycles and cyclists around the state, including this nimrod who pulled a u-turn directly in front of a CHP motorcycle officer and sent him to the hospital.

A driver killed a San Jose teen biking to school this morning near East Capitol Expressway. This fatality occurred just four miles from another collision that killed a five year old girl walking to school last week.

It’s not just motorcyclists, cyclists, and pedestrians who are hit and killed, of course. I saw the aftermath of this rollover crash at Camden Avenue and Highway 17 in Campbell, CA over the weekend. And North (Monterey) County Fire Chief Chris Orman tells the Mercury News his views on the number of auto crash fatalities in his jurisdiction:

This county averages 20 to 30 fatalities per year on these roads. If a commuter jet with 20 to 30 people crashed every year, there would be no limit to what our lawmakers would do to investigate and prevent this terrible tragedy. But because the deaths are one or two at a time on the roads, and, well, you’ve seen the roads, right? Well, what are you going to do?

Orman believes State Highway 156 is particularly dangerous. 156 links U.S. Highway 101 with State Highway 1 to provide access between San Jose and Monterey. Orman says he leaves a truck and its crew parked on the side of this highway on busy weekends in order to cut response times for the inevitable collisions on this very congested route. The Transportation Agency for Monterey County (TAMC) suggests converting 156 into a toll road to pay for improvements to speed traffic and improve safety. The reader comments following the toll road story are universally negative. I guess these communist welfare liberals who use this highway believe Orman and his paramedics work for no pay.

Monterey County has no local transportation tax, and California’s state gas tax is partially divied out to counties based on the number of registered vehicles in the county. I don’t personally have an opinion on 156 as toll road or not, but it seems reasonable to charge a user fee for the huge number of visitors from out-of-county using this highway and other local roads.

Speaking of road projects, Mercury News transportation columnist Gary Richards comments on a couple of other California road projects. One of interest it the Highway 108 bypass in Sonora: he says the $53 million project will save about five minutes of travel time for travelers on their way to the eastern Sierra Nevada region from the Central Valley.

To recap: Watch for motorcycles, okay? And bicyclists and pedestrians while you’re at it. Because one of them might be the mayor of Portland participating in a crosswalk sting operation. Or, just as importantly, it might even be a neighbor’s kid. Please be careful.

Related posts:

1. Test your awareness and perception skills
2. Mulholland Highway motorcycle vs bicycle
3. MAP-21 performance measures and cycling fatalities

I spotted the famous “Oreik Et” bicycle at San Jose Bike Party last Friday night.

Oreik Et is Te Kiero backwards. Te quiero is one way to say “I love you” in Spanish.

The owner of this bike is known for building crazy machines like this in his secret workshop somewhere in San Jose. iMinusD has a little more about the builder and his crazy bikes over at their blog. You can view my slideshow of the Bike Party “Safety Ride” here.

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1. SF Bike Expo
2. Powered by beans
3. Ladies Ride in San Jose

Mari Lynch tells me that Ciclovia Salinas — Monterey County’s first open streets event — will take place on August 25, 2013.

Keep up to date on the coming Ciclovia Salinas at their Faceboke page and on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Sunday Ciclovia Clearwater Florida
2. Bike activities for Monterey County
3. The second bicycle music video of 2013!

Start photos from Friday’s professional women’s individual time trial race from Bailey Road to Metcalf Road in San Jose

Click on each photo to ID the riders.

Related posts:

1. Pro women’s time trial today in San Jose
2. Beijing Olympics: Individual Time Trial
3. Three days of pro cycling in the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend