Guest Blog: The Ten Commandments

Dear Fellow Challenge Riders,

Anyone see this in the paper?

One of the largest of the world’s religions has handed down some rules of the road. Even though I consider myself a committed humanist, I’m listening to the Pope on this issue. And I hope, very much, that people from all religions read these commandments.

As a cyclist, I appreciate numbers 2, 5, 9, and 10. I especially like number 2. I sure wish that all of us enjoyed the roads and pathways as a venue for “communion between people.” Those who pine for wider roadways and less traffic calming see the roadway as a means of the fastest possible commute. I think the Vatican does a brilliant job reminding us that roads are a great place to greet your neighbors. And if you agree, you may also agree that it’s hard to hug or shake hands when you have an SUV wrapped around you – non-motorized communion is much better.
With gratitude to the top-down management crew in Rome, I present to you some new rules of the road:

The Vatican's 'Ten Commandments' for Driving

1. You shall not kill.
2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.
3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.
4. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.
5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.
6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.
7. Support the families of accident victims.
8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.
9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.
10. Feel responsible toward others.

Source: Associated Press

Don Lubach
Captain, UCSB Team Ding Bell

Guest Blog: An Uneasy Coexistence?

Dear Fellow Team Riders,

I was distressed to read this letter to the Montecito paper published on June 14th. The writers express some valid concerns, I think, but also an amazing naiveté about who owns our roads. I have drafted my own letter of response and encourage others to chime in via a note to the Montecito Journal.
Attention: Letters to the Editor
tim@montecitojournal.net

Meanwhile, navigate well -- there are some confused people sharing the road with us.

Don Lubach
Captain of UCSB’s Team Ding Bell

>==========( begin letter )==========
>
>Coexisting with Cyclists
>
>I have a question: does anyone else in Montecito have a problem with
>cyclists? My wife and I have lived here two years now and have not
>heard anyone complain. I know we live in a beautiful area and
>community, that's why we moved here, but I don't feel like jeopardizing
>my family¹s life every time I drive on East Valley, Toro Canyon,
>Sheffield and Ortega Ridge Road because a cyclist thinks he owns the road.
>
>All of these roads have very limited visibility, with no bike lanes and
>the cyclists expect you to break the law by having to cross over a
>double line, which is illegal, when you can't even see if there is
>oncoming traffic. This is an extremely dangerous situation and it
>happens everyday. I am in constant fear of being responsible for
>hitting a biker just because I want to stay safe in my lane.
>
>Since there is no shoulder, a single cyclist is bad enough, as they
>refuse to stay on the white line and ride in the middle of the lane,
>but if there are multiple cyclists they insist on riding side by side
>and taking the whole lane. You have no choice but to break the law and
>endanger your life to get around them. They have no fear of cars and if
>you honk you get a hand gesture as if you are the problem, acting as if
>it is their road and I am inconveniencing them.
>
>I had thought before I moved here that cycling required a bike lane but
>I guess that is not true. Why do we have bike lanes if they can ride on
>roads with no bike lanes and even more with no shoulders and no room
>for a cyclist? They have spent millions on bike paths lately and some
>roads in our area do have them; why can't we restrict cyclists to roads
>with bike lanes, which do exist in the area?
>
>I spoke to a Sheriff¹s Deputy and he told me that cyclists have the
>same rights as a car, which I understand, but if I was in my car doing
>5 mph in a 35 mph zone I would get a ticket for going too slow. The
>deputy also told me they have problems all the time with cyclists and
>not long ago a group of them almost attacked an officer for approaching
>a group of cyclists that were causing trouble. I thought cyclists were
>mostly good people; they obviously care about their health so why would
>they think they don't need to worry about cars? I have heard stories of
>many people in the area hurt or even killed cycling by a car.
>
>I would like to not just complain, but to do something about this. Can
>anyone tell me what we need to do to fix this problem? What can we do
>to stop this?
>
>Mark & Adriana Shuman
>Montecito
>
>==========( end letter )==========

Guest Blog: One Man’s Dream-- Class One All the Way to Gaviota

Fellow Team Bicycle Riders,

The weekend is coming and it’s camping season. It’s the time of year for one of my favorite forms of recreation—the hyper-loaded bicycle tour. Santa Barbara County is not only among the best places in the world to ride to work, it is also a great location to ride to play. The modern cargo-bike and/or bicycle trailer bring us a whole world of touring possibility.

On Friday, I’ll be bicycling with friends to a local camp ground. We’ll gather round the fire, laugh, observe a grunion run, sleep under the stars, go for a morning snorkel in the kelp forest, and then ride home. One of my favorite things about this type of ride is to see just how much stuff I can carry.

I invite any of you to join me in a vision that could easily come true in less than five years:

Don’s VISION of a perfect weekend:
Get off work at 5pm. Ride home and greet the family. Ride north to Refugio or El Cap (or perhaps to a bicycle-only campground along the coast). Set up camp, cook, eat, play, read, rest, adventure about. After breakfast, break camp and ride all the way up to Gaviota on a beautiful trail just for bicycles and other non-motorized users. Stop often to enjoy the views. Camp at Gaviota. Wake up the next morning, have breakfast and pack up. Then ride all the way home to Santa Barbara on a safe, scenic, and well-designed path.

It’s not impossible you know. What Vie Obern did to create trails in the 1970s was far more difficult than this. If we could get a class-one all the way to Gaviota, tourists would come from all over the world to ride it and I, for one, would enjoy meeting them and hearing their stories as we gathered around the campfire.

If you share this vision, you’re already helping to make it happen by riding your bicycle to work during the Bicycle Challenge. The next step is to join one of the many groups working to preserve the Gaviota coast and the groups working to extend our amazing alternative transportation infrastructure.

If you belong to one of these groups, I hope you comment on my post and give us all a link so we can join.

Now…I gotta go decide if I can fit my free-diving weight belt onto my rig for tomorrow’s trip.

Guest Blog: A little rain trumps a big automobile

Dear Fellow Riders,
Monday brought a lot of morning mist to our commutes. I like to boast that my daughters love nothing more than riding in all conditions and at all times...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=v_Kh9gz71bE

..the truth is, they can protest. On rainy days, they beg for us to use the car. Sometimes, we do. But if the rain lulls or it's just a bit of mist, we ride. The girls like to use an umbrella if it's misting. On Monday, they were tipping it back, drag-parachute style and I had to pull over and caution them to "stop that or we'll go home and take the car to school."
Their behavior improved and, mist-or-no-mist, we made it to school.

Guest Blog: Friends on the Path

Bike path conversations are one of my favorite forms of discourse. NEVER could you pull alongside your old friend while driving down 101, lean half-way out your window to enjoy a good chat. I’m sure it has been attempted.

Along the miles of SB County bicycle trails, the most civilized highways in America, good conversations are taking place as I tap out this note. People are waving and greeting each other the way bicycle commuters always have.

Just this morning, I was at Patterson and the Obern and heard a familiar voice. It was Santa Barbara treasurer, Geoff Green. If Green ran for most any office, he would automatically be my top choice; he has the one-two combination of great listening skills and incredible smarts. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to see him out for a morning loop on his hybrid-style bike. Geoff kindly slowed down to ride along with me for two or three miles and we talked about life, philanthropy, and some of our mutual friends.

I arrived at work feeling, once again, grateful that my mode of transport is high in both function and sociability.

I’m wondering if any of my fellow team-challengers have a story of their favorite bicycle path conversations.


Honored to be riding with you all,

Don Lubach
Captain of UCSB Team Ding Bell

Guest Blog: A Mighty Wind...

Fellow Team Bike Challenge Riders,

On Day 6 of our tour, we have experienced something rare here in our fair city—weather! It’s windy. I was just out looking at the ocean and trying to remember my Beaufort Scale. I think we’re at force six. It’s blowing.

Bicycle commuters quickly learn that it is very easy to ride from point A to point B in this fine town. One can ride everywhere without breaking much of a sweat. There’s no need for expensive spandex outfits and titanium bicycle components. AND YET, once or twice every year, we find ourselves fighting a big wind or beneath a heavy downpour.

I can’t speak my fellow riders but I, Don Lubach, welcome a pattern-breaking turn in the elements. My life as a knowledge worker rarely has me doing anything resembling a physical challenge. I surf but I don’t extreme surf, I walk but I don’t climb the world’s peaks, I skateboard but I think of an “Olli” as Stanley’s companion.” Most of the time, I sit in my office tapping on a keyboard listening to music. So the few times I’ve ridden home in the middle of a big, Pacific storm, I’ve felt a huge thrill.

When was the last El Nino? I think it was about five years ago. The end of my work-day arrived and I looked outside my office window at sideways rain. The sky was black and even the car-drivers in my office looked pensive as they headed for the parking lot. I think every person who passed my door offered to give me a lift home. But I made the decision to ride and wasn’t going to display the brewing regret that I was starting to feel about my decision.

I loaded up my bicycle and sealed my electronics inside plastic bags. I put some plastic bags over my work shoes and fastened them around my ankles with some tape. Following some good advice from Art Ludwig (a local author and eco entrepreneur) I changed into shorts (“your legs are waterproof,” wrote the wise Mr. Ludwig). I cinched down my helmet and took off into the storm looking less-than-fetching. The ride home involved dodging tree branches, getting my ears cleaned by sideways rain, and the roar of Aleutian-born winds. My favorite thing about that ride was the hill at Goleta Beach. On a windless day, everyone glides down that hill gathering smooth, easy speed. On this El Nino evening, I had to stand up and pedal—hard—just to get down to the bottom where, as a reward I got to cross a 6” deep puddle that had whitecaps on it. Because nobody could hear me, I yelled, “Splash down!”

When I arrived at the house, I felt victorious. Even the nerdy knowledge worker needs an adventure now and again and, once safe-at home, we can also can use a hot shower and a soft, warm towel.

May today’s wind push you along to your destination.

Don Lubach
UCSB Team Ding Bell

Guest Blog: Any Fixed Gear Commuters in the Challenge?

About ten years ago, I experienced my first "fix" -- I tried out a fixed gear bicycle. My buddy had a new Ibis Scorcher and we went for a ride to a coffee shop downtown. Other cyclists recognized that this was a fixed gear bike even though, to my eyes, it just looked like a nice, clean, single-speed bike. It surprised me that they not only recognized the gearing (or lack of gearing) but they also looked at the bike the way a car fanatic might look at a new Porsche or Mazarrati. "That thing is sweet!" was a common comment.

Many years have gone by and I still don't fully understand the allure of the fixed gear bicycle. I admire the simplicity and elegance and how the rider has to work on his/her technique in the same way that cross country skiiers study and practice in order to make their way along the trail. But I admit that I don't fully appreciate the popularity of these bikes. I'm hoping that someone will post about their own experience as a fixie commuter.

My own, complicated bicycle is like a long, rambling ode while the fixed gear is a haiku.

Fixie Rider
You seem to know a secret
As you spin past

Don Lubach
UCSB Team Ding Bell