Tribunes

International Herald Tribune from Greenpeace and the Yes Men.

Another from Tribunes of the People in LA. Story here.

The California Bike Road

The above is a quote from Frank Barron, my psychology professor who said it in class over 25 years ago and it’s stuck in my head since. One of the reasons it’s stayed with me all this time is, quite simply, it’s right. There’s really almost no downside to bicycling, and its swift adoption as an alternative to cars would combat not just pollution, global warming and dependence on foreign oil, but obesity and diabetes as well.

The downside to bicycles is of course their relative lack of speed and cargo capacity, and that they require physical effort. Not to mention the chance of getting instantly killed or permanently disfigured by a car. As it is, the biggest drawbacks to bicycling are that it takes place right next to automobiles, and if we want people to start using bikes to any meaningful extent, we have to separate them from automobiles. One of the best things we could do as a society right now would be to start building bike roads between all our major cities. Not lanes, not paths. Roads. Roads built specifically for bicycles, and designed to take fullest advantage of prevailing winds, terrain and gravity. Imagine if we built wind tunnels for bicycles alongside urban freeways, or gondolas up to mountaintops with perfectly graded downhills running along the ranges and foothills. Imagine if those gondolas, or simple tow ropes, were powered by windmills. Imagine the things we could do if we put our minds to it.

Since the election I’ve found myself with a lot of free time, much of which I’ve spent biking between San Francisco and Los Angeles, trying to find the quickest and overall safest route. This is what I’ve come up with:

Following the 101 inland instead of the coast cuts out a lot of traffic and unnecessary climbs and takes fullest advantage of the prevailing winds through the Salinas and Santa Maria Valleys, which are considerable. Although not quite as scenic as the coast it’s a hell of a lot quicker, less strenuous and less dangerous, and if we ever do build a bike road between SF and LA, I can just about promise it’ll follow this route. (which I’ll detail in later posts) Though most of it takes place on quiet country roads, there are a few hellish sections where you have to go on the freeway, and those are the parts I’d like to fix up first. My goal is that one day parents will be able to take their children on this ride in relative safety, without having to deal with cars.

I’m not sure how I’m going to pull this off just yet, but I figure the best way to start is to get other people thinking about it too, so you can expect to see more signs like this appearing here in California.

Los Angeles

A friendly reminder to the Pasadena Freeway

from the Tribunes of the People.

Update: This sign stayed up for six days over an average of 82,000 cars per day (110 @ Stadium Way, divide by two.) It was eighteen feet long and took less than a minute to post.

Memorial Day, Tampa

More Here.

Freewayblogging Republican Style

Scarlet, You should put up some signs like these.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=98724

-El_Khem

Dear El_Khem, Thanks for the tip. I mailed a link to freewayblogger.com to Mr. Farah so if he really wants to get the message out, he'll know what to do.

Unfortunately, like most of the controversies surrounding Barack Hussein Obama, his lack of a valid U.S. birth certificate didn't seem to gain much traction among voters, proving that Americans would rather have a Foreign-Born Black Muslim Terrorist Sympathizer as their President than another Republican. For the time being I'm afraid you'll just have to add "Americans" to "Republicans" and "White People" on the list of groups that the Bush presidency has politically destroyed.

Thanks for keeping me posted on this billboard campaign: I love the thought of y'all having to pony up 25,000 dollars for something a single patriot could accomplish on a slow afternoon.
Yours, Scarlet

San Rafael, LA, Tampa

Marin Independent Journal

100 Days

(Picture Photoshopped)
Although I'm taking heat for it, I'm calling it at 100 days: Best. President. Ever. Here's why: I wasn't around for the first 35 or so, and while I've heard great things about Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln etc, it's all been pretty much passed along through middlemen such as history books, documentaries and the like, and none of them have really offered the kind of real time as-it-happens accounting I've gotten from the presidencies that have occurred during my lifetime. I was too young to appreciate Kennedy while he was around, and as for Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, the Bushes and Clinton, well, I'm sticking with Obama. So far everything he's said, done and, most important, the style with which he's said and done them has earned my unwavering political allegiance and vote for Best President Ever.

Friends on both the right and left have pointed out that this is a radical departure from the sort of high-minded critical thinking we've all come to expect from the Freewayblogger brain trust, and to them I say "Damn Right." I look at Obama as being a sort of Reagan for Liberals. It doesn't matter what he says or does or what mistakes he makes along the way, I'm standing behind him 100%. Just like Reagan created huge deficeits, sold anti-aircraft missiles to the Iranians, supported apartheid and helped the rivers of Central America run red with the blood of the campesinos without his supporters so much as blinking an eye, I'm prepared to offer the same to Obama: reason, common sense or even outcome be damned. To my friends on the right it's called "Your Own Medecine" Let me know how it tastes.

(Note, this stance becomes null and void at such a time it can be reasonably determined that Obama has baked a cake for the Ayatollah of Iran: that's where I draw the line.)