Under previous tax legislation, business owners were allowed to select for company use one of several light-truck models weighing more than 6,000 pounds fully loaded and write off most, if not all, of the costs on their tax returns. The law allowed for an immediate deduction of up to $100,000. Sharp-eyed business operators were quick to notice that most of today's sport utility vehicles met the weight limit. Soon, Hummers and Escalades replaced sedans as the business vehicle of choice.
What is a “century?”
A century is a word people who ride Serottas and Cervelos equipped with mountain bike pedals and compact cranks use to describe what the rest of us just call a long ride. There’s also something called a “metric century.” Riders use the same type of bicycles, but a metric century is shorter and probably involves more camelbaks and helmets with visors on them.
What is a “training ride?”
This is how roadies describe what the rest of us just call a ride. It can be long, short, fast, or slow. It can also be intermittently fast and slow, which is called “intervals.” Roadies call rides “training rides” so people know that they race. In fact, roadies only do two kinds of rides: training rides, and races. Any other type of riding is considered “garbage miles,” or “junk miles.” Garbage miles include any miles ridden offroad, any miles ridden for purposes of commuting or transportation, any miles not ridden in full team kit, and any miles during which the rider has any fun.
I believe strongly with what Tim (from Swobo) says. We vote with our dollar and companies listen to that.
That is the reason we’re seeing “organics” in our food and now in our apparel. It’s also why you see all the friggin “green” car commercials (who the heck are they kidding? 28mpg is fuel efficient?)
If it weren’t for the potential profit, all the larger companies would give a rats ass about being green or environmentally friendly. It would be businesses as usual, making things as cheaply as possible without regard to people or nature.
That is why I am willing to spend a little more for a better product coming from a good company. I always try to buy my bike and camera gear from local companies first, because I know if I don’t, all that there will be left are Best Buys and Walmarts.
I’ll buy products from Planet Bike (25% to bike advocacy, solar powered building), Xtracycle (has a non-profit called Xaccess), Bike Friday (moved to greener building practices), Swobo (for all the reasons mentioned in the review), Patagonia (for being on the leading edge of responsible production), Rivendell (for their practical approach to bicycles) and I may even consider Trek now (their two wheels one world campaign…still not sure where that’s going :). I do this because I want to acknowledge and encourage what their doing, and also send a message to other companies that they should follow suit.
Yes, it may cost more sometimes. Yes, I’m fortunate that I have some financial flexibility. However, I have found that these things cost less in the long run because you don’t have to replace them.
I have a simple motto when it comes to purchasing: Buy it right the first time.
And “right”, for me has often meant getting something of quality from businesses that are as serious about their products as they are about their profits.
BICYCLE BULLY-VARD
Russ Roca
Mon. January 14
Less traffic, noise and pollution is a good thing…isn’t it?
When I heard about a meeting at Bixby Park put on by the city to explore the possibility of creating a bike boulevard on First Street, I was ecstatic. First Street, between Junipero and Loma, is a beautiful, spacious street and a prime candidate to be converted to a bicycle boulevard given its low traffic and wide lanes.
Now, for the uninitiated, let me first tell you what a biycle boulevard is not. A bicycle boulevard is not like the recreational trail that we have on the beach. It is not a special separated lane that will traverse through the city like a 405 for bicycles. It isn’t even a bike lane.
What it is is traffic calming. Ahhh. It just sounds so nice to say, doesn’t it? Bicycle boulevards, which could just as easily be called walking/jogging/strollering/biking boulevards, are streets where certain features such as curb extensions, street trees and traffic circles have been added to slow and divert vehicle traffic, thus making it safe for everyone. Bicyclists benefit from it because traffic moves at a slower clip, but so do pedestrians, joggers and mothers with strollers. Residents get the added benefit of lower air and noise pollution.
Bike boulevards attract utilitarian cyclists because, unlike the beach path (which has few access points and is below the bluffs), you can actually use it to get somewhere you need to go and it is integrated into the infrastructure grid....
I went into the meeting thinking it was a win-win situation. What better way to start off the new year than supporting something that could benefit myself, as a cyclist, and the community at large.
This was not to be the case.
I passed the sign-in clipboard to the woman standing next to me who, I deduced, was obviously a displeased 1st Street resident by the sneer she gave me after she saw my helmet.
The night was more or less a tennis match with 1st street residents saying they didn’t want their historic district soiled by “all those people coming to their street.” And all the cyclists wondering, who exactly did they mean? It kept on and on with the basic insinuation that those people, cyclists, would bring in a reign of two-wheeled terror and decreased property value.
Some of the objections to the Bike Boulevard seemed so absolutely ridiculous they verged on conspiratorial.
One 1st Street resident said that she was opposed to the bike boulevard because bikes were just too noisy!
Another resident said that the traffic in the city wasn’t bad enough that the city should do anything to encourage bicycling. In 10 years when it was worse, then they should do something about it.
Somewhere a baby glacier is crying…err…melting.
Another resident expressed his concern for the safety of joggers and women with stollers (think of the children!) who might be hit and injured by runaway cyclists.
Another woman was totally up in arms because she knew, she just knew, that the state was going to print a map of all the bike lanes in CA (as a cyclist I could only hope for such a map!) and people from around the country would single out the those twelve blocks of 1st Street to drive their trucks, loaded with bikes, take up the parking spaces and spend all day riding up and down 1st street like gyspies.
Ludicrous.
At one point I couldn’t take it any more and walked to the front of the room and introduced myself, “Hi. My name is Russ Roca and I’m a bike commuter. I have a college degree. I don’t have fangs and I’m not going to steal your children in the middle of the night.” To which I was told, “that’s not what we meant at all.”
What did they mean then?
