Slow Streets are ending in Early 2022 We sadly received notice that Oakland’s Slow Street program was being discontinued in last January/Early February 2022. The threat of being hit by a car is the biggest safety risk for anyone riding a bike with a child. Slow Streets helped by reducing (but not eliminating) automobile traffic, and by promoting a sense of belonging for people who want to use shared public space to walk, bike, jog, and play. We’ll miss these slow streets. We’ve seen 10-20 children learn to ride their bikes on slow streets, and we use them for our monthly Bike Parades. They were integral to giving our child confidence to ride their bike on the road, and to giving us the confidence to safely ride bikes with our child. Oakland Slow Streets Video We ride on these multiple […]
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My choice for children’s bike lights: Inexpensive (less than $15!) but effective bike lights for night riding
Getting a set of children’s bike lights probably worth it for your kid. You can get a functional set for $10-15. It’s an easy safety upgrade if you ride in anything but normal daylight. Bike lights for children’s bikes Your kid might need bike lights if you do anything more than recreational daytime rides. A lot of people view riding a bike as recreation. That’s fine. But if you’re also riding your bike to get from point A to point B with your child, sometimes you will have to ride in the dark. It starts to get dark around 4:30pm during the Bay Area winters, so you may need lights even if you’re not staying out late. Our school day ends around 3pm. If you have scheduled any after care, you’ll be coming home in the dark for at […]
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Bike safety flags for being extra visible while riding a bicycle, even in the daytime
Bike safety flags can help keep bicycle riders visible The greatest risk for someone riding a bike on roads with automobile traffic is being hit by a car. I strongly support infrastructure improvements that physically protect someone riding a bike. Dedicated bike paths and protected bike lanes can help a lot with this. I don’t like putting the burden of safety on the more vulnerable in general. At the same time, if there’s a low-effort way to improve safety, it’s probably a good thing to do. According to the NHTSA, the 2nd leading factor in bicyclist deaths is “Not visible (dark clothing, no lighting, etc)”. Vehicles are getting bigger, which causes more line of sight problems for other users of the road. Adding a flag is an easy and low-cost way of improving visibility, but it does have a few […]
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A beautiful two-toned Klein Quantum
On the way home after school dropoff a little while ago I saw a sharp-looking two-tone Klein Quantum. I can’t help having a soft spot for now-vintage bikes like these. My heart always beats a little faster when I see nicely-restored (or well-kept!) vintage bikes. The USA-made Kleins were known for having meticulous attention to detail, fantastic paint jobs, and impressive frame stiffness. Or follow along for updates:
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New Bike Bridge! A great first ride on the new Emeryville Pedestrian and Bike Bridge
I took my first ride across the Emeryville bike and pedestrian bridge recently. It just opened on December 3rd. According to the Emeryville Eye, the idea was first officially conceived in the 1980s. It’s amazing that it has taken this long. But it is very nice. The South Bayfront Bike and Pedestrian Bridge Its official name is the “South Bayfront Bridge” and it has been a work in progress since 2002 and cost $21 million. At one point, the city of Emeryville had to sue the state to recover funds for the bridge. The bridge connects the Bay Street shopping area on the west (and even has an entrance to the parking lot from the ramp up the bridge) and Horton Street on the east side, just south of 53rd street. The bridge makes crossing the railroad tracks much much […]
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A replacement Trail-a-bike hitch seatpost shim to help fix your trailer
Trail-a-bikes We use an Adams Trail-a-bike (aka Tag along, as some people call it) to tow our child occasionally. It is kind of like a tandem bike attachment for kids. The steel hitch slides onto a seatpost, and clamps on via 2 bolts and a hex-wrench. The other end of the hitch has a square-shaped key and a hole for adding a retaining pin to hold the trailer in place. There are spacers included that fit in there for different seatpost diameters. We have a Weehoo trailer as well, and this shim should fit that hitch as well. This may also work for other tag along bikes, like the Weeride Co-Pilot and the Kazam Co-pilot. Both of those clamp onto the seatpost of the adult’s bike. We sometimes swap the trailer between bikes. Unfortunately, the bikes have different […]
Continue readingBike gift ideas for kids and others who started biking during the pandemic (2021)
Hi, I’m making a quick list of gifts that I recommend for kids who bike. I also have gift ideas for people who have recently started biking during the pandemic. For some gift guides, bloggers or writers solicit ideas. I’ve compiled this list based 10+ years of bike-commuting experience and daily rides with my child. I’m also finding accessories and other bicycle-related gifts that make riding more fun. My goal is to help make it easier to bike where you need to go. I hope that this gift guide will make it easier for your intended recipient to do so too! Bike accessory gift ideas Lights I recommend lights for anyone who might be riding when it’s starting to get dark. Lights also help when it’s very cloudy or raining. Important factors for me are: size, ease of […]
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Bike navigation for cyclists – what’s important
The topic of bike navigation for cyclists came up recently, especially with the release of some new features for Google Maps Lite: With lite navigation, cyclists can quickly see important details about their route without needing to keep their screen on or enter turn-by-turn navigation. At a glance, you can track your trip progress, see your ETA update in real-time, and even know the elevation of your route so you can keep your focus where it needs to be — on the road. Why is dedicated bike navigation important? And what features do cycles need that are not available in turn-by-turn car map apps? There are a few main factors that affect navigation for people who are traveling by bike. The safety of the road and protection from automotive traffic is probably the primary factor. It’s critical for a bike […]
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Neighborhood Bike Parades That Help Kids Learn to Ride Together
The kids bike parade is a way to let kids play, ride bikes together and learn to ride safely. Children and adults make new friends and build community by bike. How did the bike parade start? Earlier on in the pandemic, we learned that COVID spread mostly through poorly-ventilated air. We tried to think of ways to still foster social interactions between children with a lower risk profile. Our family and a lot of others have gone with their kids biking to spend time outdoors. We started by turning a birthday party into a evening bike ride. Kids had fun biking together and being able to see each other not on a computer screen! Parents got a chance to ride with their kids and others. Neighbors were treated to a lively mini parade. A few parents loved the […]
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Flat tires suck
Flat tires suck. I took my child to get a flu shot the other day (not a great experience!). On the way out, we had to hop a curb because there were no curb cutouts nearby. My child went off the curb and then said “Daddy, there’s a problem.” I looked back, and indeed, the rear wheel was completely flat. That’s some insult-to-injury type stuff right there. It was kind of funny though. Luckily, I usually carry a tool kit with a patch kit and a pump with me, so I was able to fix it pretty quickly. On flats in general I don’t know if it’s just Oakland and Berkeley streets, but two friends have gotten flat tires recently on their cargo e-bikes. I saw one of them on the sidewalk on the way to school pickup. He was […]
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