Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- Time for a TurnaroundWell, my friends, things are finally looking up, and good timing, too, since I’m sure you’re all sick of me bitching. Recent bike build, including wheels… fun! In what feels like a fairly short time, I’ve come from sitting around … Continue reading → […]
- This Raised My PulseHey, baby… wanna ride? I may be injured, but I’m not dead yet. I can still have racy thoughts. Here’s more info. In other news, UBI was an awesome success! I had a blast. I highly recommend it. Overhaul day…. … Continue reading → […]
- Time for a Turnaround
- Edgy Veggie
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Well-known Estes bull elk killed illegally
A poacher killed — slowly, inexpertly and with a single arrow — the bull elk widely recognized as the current largest elk in the area. Now, officials are offering a reward for information leading to the poacher’s identification:
“This was probably the biggest bull in the Estes Valley,” said Rick Spowart, district wildlife manager for Estes Park. “For about a month, I saw him every day on the golf course with a big harem, bugling and doing the whole rut thing. Whoever did this stole a great watchable wildlife opportunity from all of us.”
RTD’s 2011 rate hikes will hit Boulder, but service cuts won’t
Price hikes and service cuts — a delightful combination. RTD approved ‘em both, and here’s the rundown:
The service cuts include reducing the frequency of some light-rail routes after 9 p.m. on weeknights, and increasing the interval between 16th Street Mall shuttle-bus trips from 6:15 to 8:20 a.m. on weekdays to every 150 seconds from 75 seconds — the current interval.
The mall shuttle handles about 47,000 passenger boardings daily.
RTD staff had proposed that directors eliminate route 63X bus service linking the Littleton Mineral light-rail station with Lockheed Martin’s Waterton complex because of low ridership, but directors chose to retain the route.
Local buses will cost $2.25 and express buses will cost $4.
Um, also, there’s a whole story on the RTD website about a couple who met on the 10 bus and now they have a cake shaped like a bus together or something. I might be missing some details.
Tired of biking up the Hill?
This is a little ridiculous, but I can understand certain applications for it — here’s a video of a bike lift in Norway.
In the university town of Trondheim, Norway, this bike lift pushes people up “the very steep hill Brubakken in the historical heritage part of the city center.”
And here’s a noisy video of some foreigners trying it out. Yikes.
Two greenish ballot issues get tangled up in early voting
Three-hundred and twelve voters using voting machines were given incorrect text for much-discussed Boulder Issue 2B in early voting:
“The machines showed the correct title for Boulder Issue 2B, ‘Five Year Utility Occupation Tax to Replace Lost Franchise Fee Revenue,’ but the text was from County Issue 1B, which asks voters for a tax increase to support open space.”
Kids learn eco-tips in battle with supervillains
Katherine Lapp, left and Lindsey Jamison, right dance with Tim Hillman, as Doctor Drafty and Corrie Williams as the Kilowatt Kid as the play a song to finish the energy information visit to Flatirons Elementary.
I read somewhere that in explaining motives for action, it’s useful to have a villian. Well! How about a supervillain?
Friday was the third of five times the Kilowatt Kid (and some surprise evildoer) is scheduled to visit Strife’s class. The pilot program, which is being tried in eight classrooms across the Boulder Valley School District, is being supported by part of the $25 million in stimulus funds that Boulder County received earlier this year to expand local energy-efficiency efforts.
Terrifying bikes for winter (or war?)
I’ve never really bought into the car vs. bike vitriol.
Based on casual observation, I think it’s pretty easy to see that cars, bikes and pedestrians all make poor decisions pretty frequently — but not as frequently as they make good decisions.
Still, there are two things that make me wary of riding the bike: heavily-trafficked roads and winter. If I can avoid 28th St., I do it. If I can avoid ice or snow, I do it.
But if I were to take on one or both at once, maybe I’d want one of these Frankenbikes:
You’d kind of want to point that flamethrower straight ahead, I’d think. You know, to melt snow. Probably have to set it off to the side, though. Read more
Wetlands area in eastern Boulder scraped without permit
It’s almost funny to hear the word “wetlands” in such a dry place, but it’s true, we’ve got ‘em right here in Boulder. You can see where with the wetlands layer of the city’s interactive map.
Here’s a quick preview:
Wetlands areas are highlighted in green.
That map might look eerily familiar to you if you’re a bike commuter in Boulder, and that’s because a lot of our bike paths run along greenways here. For example, you can easily make out part of the Goose Creek greenway trail there between 26th and 28th Streets in the bottom left of the map.
Well, if you want to do anything to these areas, you’ve got to go through certain protocols. Apparently, the city didn’t do that before going in to clean up a wetlands area northeast of 47th and Valmont. They’ll be paying a little extra to replant in the area as a result, but it sounds like the work would have been approved if they’d gone through the rigmarole.
Boulder commuting stats: Driving alone still preferred method
Just over half of Boulder commuters drive alone to get to work. Compared to the rest of Colorado, that’s pretty impressive, we’re also built better for it in the city, so we probably should be comparing ourselves to other cities that are bike- and bus-friendly.
The other number that sticks out on this data from the 2009 U.S. Census American Community Survey is our work-from-home number — but we already knew that.
Here’s some of the relevant data:
|
. |
Location | Drive alone | Carpool | Public transportation | Bike | Walk | Work from home | |
|
. |
Boulder | 51.2 | 4.8 | 9.8 | 12.32 | 9.66 | 10.26 | |
|
. |
Longmont | 80.7 | 6.2 | 3 | 0.7 | 0.59 | 7.15 | |
|
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Boulder County | 64.9 | 7 | 5.3 | 4.77 | 4.33 | 12.05 | |
|
. |
Colorado | 74.3 | 10.1 | 3.3 | 1.4 | 3 | 6.74 |
In Amsterdam, they take more trips by bike than by car. Consider that!
In Portland, bike traffic constitutes 20 percent of the traffic on some roads, leading to bikejams.
Until we’re having bikejams — or until I have to stand up for part of my bus commute — it seems like there’s still a lot of education to be done. (But please don’t cut bus service to artificially make this happen. Here’s a great post from our neighbors to the south on that line of thinking.)
Note: When I lived on the Skip line, I did have to stand up — often.
Desert tortoise no longer lost in Lafayette
UPDATE: LUCY HAS BEEN FOUND!
Have you seen this desert tortoise?
EARLIER: Lucy the desert tortoise usually goes out for a spin during the day and comes home. A stranger thought he’d help her out by getting her across a highway but, well, let’s let the Denver Post take it from here:
A good samaritan rescued her and lifted her across the highway so she wouldn’t be hit by a car.
Then, said Rockley, Lucy — who is extremely friendly, follows people, and answers to her name — followed her scent back to her Westminster home near 144th Avenue and Huron Street.
The 7-year-old reptile, who usually suns herself during the day and then knocks on the back door when the sun sets so she can sleep inside the house, actually got to the home last Thursday, said Rockley.
Because no one was home, Rockley said that Lucy saw some movers at the house next door and started following them, much like a family dog, perhaps hoping they could help her into the home.
Rockley said one of the movers picked up the tortoise and took her to his home but the mover’s wife didn’t want to keep Lucy.
On Saturday, Rockley was able to contact the mover who said he had taken Lucy to a pond located near East Emma Street and South Burlington Avenue in Lafayette.
Keep reading about Lucy the desert tortoise… I wish she knew about public transportation, like this great English dog or these Russsian ones!
The ultimate commute: no commute
Business consultant and real estate investor Eric Lipsey supports his daughter Ajna, 10 months, while sitting at his work computer at their Broomfield home in August. | Photo: David Jennings, Broomfield Enterprise
Hey, some of us can get pretty satisfied with our short, carbon-light commutes. At the moment I’ve got a slightly-broken bike and a slightly-mysterious foot injury, so I’m off of two thin wheels and onto four big, fat RTD wheels in the mornings (and, by the way, I’m starting to miss the sun!).
But that’s nothing compared to the people whose commute is… nothing!
Boulder County leads the state in telecommuting, and the percentage of workers here doing their jobs from home doubled over the last decade, according to an analysis of data from the American Community Survey.
Those working from home — or “working from anywhere,” as one business owner put it — say technological changes have made it easier to take a pass on commuting, while worsening traffic has made it more appealing.
The large number of small businesses and high-tech start-ups in Boulder also contributes to more people working at home.
The American Community Survey, an ongoing study of economic and social conditions conducted by the Census Bureau, found that in 2009, the year for which survey data was recently released, slightly more than 12 percent of Boulder County workers worked from home.
Twelve percent! Holy mackerel!
