Wednesday night I went to the Bagdad Theater to hear David Byrne talk about Biking around the world. His novel The Bicycle Diaries should be an interesting read. Books that David said inspired him were 20 Minutes in Manhattan, The Death & Life of Great American Cities and The Timeless Way of Building.
One of his best points was that if you ride your bike, you will have a closer reference point with your surroundings. He says that you will be more inclined to stop and enjoy the environment and get to know the people in your community along the way.
I was even luckier though, there was an entire panel of speakers at the event. One person I found thoroughly interesting was Mia Birk. You should check out all she has done to get biking into the forefront of Portland's concerns.
This was an interesting evening with a lot of great talk about biking in Portland, Oregon.
So, why not park your car for a day and try biking around? Let me know if you start to feel like an 8 year-old again. Flying through the air, on two wheels. . .
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6 comments:
I started biking again this summer after a 30 year hiatus. It has been GREAT! I love biking around my little town to run errands.
Tomorrow, my 11 year old daughter and I have plans to bike to the farmers' market, the library, and a few other places. I'm looking forward to the exercise, but more importantly, I'm looking forward to the time with her.
Unfortunately our community isn't set up so well for bikes... We have a short driveway so my kids have to be supervised to go on a road to the culdesac in the neighborhood. But I do walk a lot in our neighborhood and enjoy nature and the sights! ;)
Enjoy biking in the city!!
I love biking! When Patrick and I went on our little vacation in Fort Bragg we brought our bicycles to doour exploring and it was so much fun! Faster than walking and much more intimate than driving. We ended up meeting some real characters and got some exercise in too. Here where I live, luckily most everything I need is within walking distance. I love that.
I wish for safer paths--if I had access, I'd NEVER drive a car! Fortunately we can at least WALK to our school!
I have heard Portland is the best biking city! But the traffic does scare me. I know two people hit in the past year in Portland. Still, it is a beautiful place!
TTWC: Portland is constantly trying to make biking safer. We have full bike lanes, which are as large as the car lanes in downtown Portland. Still, there's always going to be accidents. That's what keeps me from biking to work everyday. I wish they'd make half the sidewalk a bike lane - like they do in Copenhagen. Maybe one day.
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