Bikescape Videos

After nearly three years of stalemate due to a court injunction, the San Francisco Bicycle Plan has its environmental impact report unanimously certified by the Planning Department and is adopted by the Municipal Transportation Agency. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition turned out over two hundred supporters for the MTA meeting to speak in favor of the plan. Friends of Bikescape, Nancy Botkin and Mike Smith joined me and my partner Karen Franklin to discuss how the meeting went and how bike advocacy has changed over the last decade. Interspersed in this informal discussion are audio clips from the meeting. Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes Photo from the sfbc flickr pool by Rhonda Winter

While you wait for my take on last week's MTA meeting that approved the log stalled San Francisco Bicycle plan, here's an hour long round table discussion that aired this morning on KQED's Forum. Guests were • Charlie O'Hanlon, owner of Charlie's Place on 17th St. in San Francisco • Jamie Whitaker, vice president of the Rincon Hill Neighborhood Association • Judson True, media relations manager for the San Francisco MTA • Leah Shahum, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition • Rachel Gordon, reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle • Rob Anderson, party to the litigation of the EIR, blogger and anti-bicycling activist

Another year goes by and another bigger and better Bike to Work Day beats expectations. We visit the San Francisco City College Campus and chat with Gus from The Bikery. Then we bike across town to hand out goodies at the Chinatown energizer station where we meet San Francisco's only car-free supervisor, Board President David Chiu. But its not all about bikes! It seems that across the nation, just when transit use is unprecedentedly high, fares are going up and service is getting cut. We go to protest SF's transit budget and meet with Supervisor John Avalos as we walk to confront MTA Director Nat Ford. Also, we've got lots of news about upcoming events such as Sunday Streets in the Mission. I dropped in som audio from the last Sunday Streets event where we encountered the piano bike. Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes Photo by Greg Z

Recently I was in Sacramento where coincidentally the Amgen Tour of California was holding its opening time trial. I stopped into the R-16 bar to have a few beers with some of my favorite bloggers. It was noisy. There was beer. Still, I think the conversations I had with Paul Dorn from the Bike Commute Tips Blog, (right) Fritz from Cycleicious, and David Bernstein, voice of the Fredcast (left) are worth a listen. (That's your host with the headphones!) Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes Photo on left by Andrew Conway. The one on the right by Fritz

A visit with family offers a chance to report from Hong Kong. We visit the densest square kilometer on Earth then ride in bike paradise Lantau Island. Along the way, we meet Martin Turner of the Hong Kong Bicycle Alliance and stop in at the stylish RodaFixa bike shop. Then back home in San Francisco, The Bicycle Coalition kicks off the Big 56 Campaign as the long awaited Bike Plan awakes from the court injunction. Pictured: Brian and Woods from hkfixed Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes

In this episode we welcome the legendary Gary Fisher to the show for a long, rambling chat. We talk about growing up in Marin County during the dawn of mountain biking, the growth of the industry he and his friends started. We also touch on the future of bicycling as the business gears up to tap the new markets that want bicycles for every day transportation and the massive infrastructure changes that will be necessary. After the interview there's an update on the Octavia Blvd and Market Street intersection where the Metropolitan Transportation Authority want to remove a hard won bike lane. Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes Photo courtesy Fisher Bikes

Tim and Cindy Travis have been on the road on their bikes since 2001. They checked in with Bikescape when they passed through San Francisco. Here's the interview. Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes Visit Tim and Cindy's website to stay in touch with their travels and order their books here. The first chapter of The Road That Has No End is available in audio format! Bikescape is now a member of the Streetsblog Network! Transportation for America is the antidote to the Freeway lobby.

Our Mayor Newsom just uploaded a set of videos as a state of the sity speech with forty minutes devoted to transportation and another forty to the environment. Sorry Gavin, but your show just doesn't hold a candle to what they're doing in Amsterdam where they make a serious investment in sustainability. (ht to Pascal at Velomondial)

Last Halloween I met with video documentarian Clarence Eckerson of Street Films and Bike TV and we had a great and sprawling discussion about the role of internet-based video and blogging in transportation activism. Street Films is a part of Streets Blog, both of which are produced by The Open Planning Project. Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes After our chat Clarence went out and shot this, the definitive film about Critical Mass, capturing the essence of the ride on a balmy San Francisco Halloween.

In this episode we ask the perennial Bikescape question: What is a street? Is it a place to travel through to to go to? For thousands of years streets have been a place for friends and strangers to meet, a place where the threads of community are woven, the commons. Somewhere along the way, around the time of the rise of the automobile, the purpose of the streets narrowed and they lost their sense of place, becoming instead a conduit for traffic, where each person passes through without consideration of the space, cocooned in his warm leatherette pod. At best. At worst, its a dangerous battle zone or an inhospitable, unhuman world. Fortunatly, as the post-car era dawns, cities are waking up to something new, yet as old as the first village - streets where anything can happen. The first modern car-free streets or ciclovias appeared in Bogota twenty years ago. There, over ninety km of urban streets close to cars every Sunday for a few hours. Now, we are seeing the meme progress into Paris, Portland, New York and, at last, San Francisco. Bikescape, rides and walks the first Sunday Streets experiment on a lovely San Francisco day to see what develops. The Bike Kitchen was out in force, along with some clowns from the Cyclecide bike club. I promised a link to Don Byron who performed an album of the music of Raymond Scott. Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes

Sao Paolo activists open Bicycle Plaza As every cyclist knows biking creates community. Instead of sitting in a tin can, cyclists are out in the world, reacting to their surroundings and interacting with the friends and strangers they meet along the road. Imagine the effect of even a small Critical Mass ride in a country that has been stultified by dictatorship for forty three years and robbed of its civil society? In another in a series of podcasts from the Towards Car-free Cities Conference in Portland, we attend a talk by Brazilians Thiago Benicchio and Eduardo Green about how it is to ride a bike in their country. The slide show that accompanied the talk can be seen here and here. Apocalipsemotorizado is in Portuguese but you can see the babelfish translation here. Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition leads a protest on the steps of City Hall decrying the slow pace of progress on the environmental review for the Bicycle plan as a court injunction drags on. Then we go inside City hall to knock on doors to promote the car-free Sunday Streets trial on Aug 31 and Sept 14. Finally (at 44 mins) the SFBC hits the streets to set up a photo booth to take pictures of cyclists and their bikes to deter theft. Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes

In yet another in a series of podcasts from the Towards Car-free Cities Conference in Portland last June, we examine the transformational power of human fueled machines on the urban landscape. I recorded a workshop on Pedicabs with Steve Meyer of Main Street Pedi-cabs, Peter Meitzler of Manhattan Rickshaw, filmaker Frederic Choiniere, and Jonathan Magnes of PDX Pedicabs. Hat tip for the photo to cycleseven Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes

I tracked down Frederic Choiniere. He's the film maker who presented his work at the pedicab workshop during the Towards car-free Cities Conference in Portland. Here's his film about the politics that swirl around New York's pedicab industry.

Gil Peñalosa kicks off the World Car-free Network's first ever conference in the United States with an inspirational Keynote address. Bikescape recorded it and attended the press conference that followed. As Commissioner of Parks, Sports and Recreation Peñalosa initiated Bogata Columbia's trailblazing Ciclovias, where each Sunday ninety one km of streets are returned to the commons for non-motorized use. 1.5 Million people use the ciclovias each week as the practice migrates to Paris, Portland, New York and San Francisco. Gill has spent five years in Mississauga Canada as commissioner of Parks and Recreation coming up with the thirty year Strategic Placemaking Initiative. He is a senior associate with The Project for Public Spaces, The executive director of Walk and Bike for Life, a senior consultant for Gill Architects, and sits on the boards of American Trails, the City Parks Alliance, the International Sport and Culture Association and the advisory committee of America Walks. Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes

Another in a series of podcasts from the Towards Car-free Cities Conference in Portland Oregon, Bikescape recorded a presentation about mobility and land use politics in San Francisco. From the origins of Critical Mass to the ascendency of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, the story is told by writer Chris Carlsson, Dave Snyder of San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, the SFBC's Leah Shahum, and CSU professor Jason Henderson. Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes

Movie by Elizabeth Press of Streetfilms The opening event at the Towards Car-free Cities Conference in Portland, Oregon was the depaving of a 3000 sq foot parking lot. In its place will grow a community garden along with bike parking and a water catchment system. We cover the asphalt removal, then go on a tour of past depaving sites. Bikescape was there to cover as much of the rest of the conference as one little podcaster could. Stay tuned for many more posts on this important get-together. The closing song, Chicken or Beef was written and performed by Reptet at the bike art show at Portland City Hall. I traveled with two San Franciscans who are blogging about the conference. Steve Jones is with the San Francisco Bay Guardian and is posting on their politics blog and Brian Smith runs the excellent Car Free USA blog. Download the mp3 or subscribe to Bikescape in itunes

Bikescape goes to a community meeting of the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Authority as the city solicits public input about the stalled bike plan. We encountered vociferous opposition from parents at three schools on Broadway who feel they must drive their kids to school each day. This begs the question: Why are double parkers considered "stakeholders" and why are their dangerous and illegal actions considered a "reality we must deal with" while all the while demanding harsher enforcement for "scofflaw bicyclists." Download the mp3 or go to Bikescape in itunes Be sure to voice your opinion with the MTA! Read former Bogata Columbia Mayor Enrique Peñalosa's op ed in The Sunday NY Times Stay tuned for coverage of the Car-Free Cities Conference and Pedalpalooza in Portland

Bikescape revisits the March killings of Kristie Gough and Matt Peterson during a training ride in the Bay Area by a sheriff's deputy who crossed onto the wrong side of the road and hit them head-on. We speak with bicycle lawyer and Velo News columnist Bob Mionskie about police bias in this case and toward cyclists in general. Next, we meet with San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Leah Shahum to get to the bottom of the shameful blame the victim attitude taken by the mainstream media and how we can shape public attitudes. Then we look at a new podcast by James Howard Kunstler and check out the events calendar. NEW!! Leave voice messages about burning issues with Bikescape and be on the show! Just open Skype, call user name Bikescape and talk! Mionskie's column on Velo News is here. Download the mp3 or go to Bikescape in itunes Photo of Leah courtesy Martin Krieg Photo of Bob courtesy Andy Thornley