2012 SJ/SF to Boston Eagle, Busycle NBG Mayors' Ride

Like Steve Jobs, Our Task at the NBG is to Read Things That are not yet on the Page

Steve Jobs, with accolades that included CEO of the decade and person of the year, was routinely voted one of the most influential and powerful people on the planet. In catapulting Apple to the world’s most valuable and leading technology company, he successfully decided what it was that we needed before we even knew. 

Consider the following words in the context of our National Bicycle Greenway :

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Some people say, "Give the customers what they want". But that is is not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, "If I asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me a faster horse. People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.

                                                                                                 Steve Jobs

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Long have I pushed for people to understand that we need an interconnected network of bikeable roads and paths that link the coasts. And long have I known that we won't know how we got along without the National Bicycle Greenway  until it becomes real. The virtual NBG that I am pushing the business plan (a synthesis of my upcoming books, rides and mapping API) for , is a powerful step in that direction..

                            THX 4 all of U!! 

Posted by Martin & Virginia Krieg 

The Science of Riding a Bicycle

The following video which also includes an understanding of how the HiWheel bicycle is balanced, seems an appropriate follow up to the previous blog post here where we talk about bike building in the 1940's:

Posted by Martin & Virginia Krieg 

How a Bicycle is Made

Posted by Martin & Virginia Krieg 

Bicycle Man's HiWheel Header

The first time I rode my high wheel (1879 patent date Gormley & Jeffrey American Champion)  a passerby asked how do you get off and it occurred to me, I did not  know! So I rode back home and yelled for a friend to phone another friend who had several high wheels to find out.

Up and down the road, I pedaled.  A while passed. He came back outside and told me  there was no answer. But that he did leave a message! 

 

Wondering what to do next, I kept riding.  On a 60" wheel, I was almost a foot taller than most high wheel bikes when it solved the problem for me. It fell off. It was then that I learned what a header was when I  flew over the handlebars....

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Story nbg-irelandtrainingrides.posterous.com

 

 

Posted by Martin & Virginia Krieg 

"How America Can Bike and Grow Rich" - Why Bicyclists Are Better Customers Than Drivers for Local Business

Far and away, the biggest reason business owners resist the addition of bike infrastructure is that they’re afraid it will limit parking. Once they realize they can get 12 bike parking spaces for each car spot, sometimes they begin to change their tune.

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Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster understands the value of bikes: “I see parts of the city on my bike that I would never even notice if I was just driving,” he said. “It’s a way for me personally to get closer to the city.”

That closeness has a dollars-and-cents value. Cyclists travel at what Portland Bike Coordinator Roger Geller calls a “human-scale speed” that allows them to “stop and buy something.” Besides, Economides said, if you’re car-free you’ve got an extra 4,531.04€ jangling around in your pocket that you otherwise would have spent on gas and car maintenance (actually, 6,627.4€ if you believe AAA). According to researchers with Intelligent Communities, a program of the National Building Museum, only 16 percent of household car expenses stay within the local economy.

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“Open Streets,” or ciclovias – events where streets are closed to motorized traffic and become the domain of bicyclists, pedestrians, skateboarders, rollerbladers, jugglers, dog-walkers – are another way to bring money to local businesses. Washington University in St. Louis was able to quantify the economic benefit of Open Streets programs: 73 percent of Open Streets participants spent money at a restaurant or store on the route, and 68 percent became aware of a restaurant or store that was new to them.

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After all, in downtowns turning car lanes over to people can be a great moneymaker. Its most stunning success, perhaps, has been Times Square, “the ultimate end vision of how to pedestrianize the most pedestrian-heavy place in America,” according to Mike Lydon of the Street Plans Collaborative. According to a recent study commissioned by the local BID, Times Square helps generate more than one-tenth of the city’s economic activity– on less than one percent of its land.

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“Bicycling, just like walking, helps make a Main Street more vibrant,” said Economides. “It adds more eyes and ears to the street, so it makes it safer. So think about a mom pushing a stroller. She’s going to want to walk down a block that has more people walking and bicycling; she’ll feel safer. And you do want to attract women and moms. We’re a pretty important shopping base.”

Rory Robinson of the National Park Service found many other examples of bicycling spurring economic revitalization, like the opening of the Mineral Belt Trail in Leadville, Colorado, which led to a 19 percent increase in sales tax revenues, helping the city recover from a mine closure in 1999. The 45-mile long Washington & Old Dominion Trail in the D.C. suburbs brings an estimated 5.29€ million into the northern Virginia economy, nearly a quarter of that from out-of-towners. And downtown Dunedin, Florida was suffering a 35 percent storefront vacancy rate until an abandoned CSX railroad track became the Pinellas Trail. Storefront occupancy is now 100 percent, Robinson found. “Business is booming.”

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And as I've already shown you:

Add to that the fact that bike lane construction creates about twice as many jobs as road-building for the same amount of money, and you’ve got yourself a great economic argument to take to local leaders and politicians when you ask them to support walking and biking – even (or especially) in tough economic times.

I will be plugging these factoids into the Power Point for the Google Map API I began in 2007. They will help justify investment in the business plan I will be calling attention to with "How America Can Bike and Grow Rich" and  my upcoming Eagle/Busycle ride across America. 

   THX 4 all of U!! 

 

 

Posted by Martin & Virginia Krieg 

They Did Not Give Up - Nor Will We!!

From my training rides blog, this and many other pictures of the Irish riding turf can be found HERE.

They Did Not Give Up

A Paris art dealer refused Picasso shelter when he asked if he could bring in his paintings from out of the rain. 

As a young man, Abraham Lincoln went to war a captain and returned a private. Afterwards, he was a failure as a businessman. As a lawyer in Springfield, he was too impractical and temperamental to be a success. He turned to politics and was defeated in his first try for the legislature, again defeated in his first attempt to be nominated for congress, defeated in his application to be commissioner of the General Land Office, defeated in the senatorial election of 1854, defeated in his efforts for the vice-presidency in 1856, and defeated in the senatorial election of 1858. At about that time, he wrote in a letter to a friend, "I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth."    

Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He was subsequently defeated in every election for public office until he became Prime Minister at the age of 62. He later wrote, "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never, Never, Never, Never give up." (his capitals, mind you)   

Socrates was called "an immoral corrupter of youth" and continued to corrupt even after a sentence of death was imposed on him. He drank the hemlock and died corrupting.    

Sigmund Freud was booed from the podium when he first presented his ideas to the scientific community of Europe. He returned to his office and kept on writing.    

Charles Darwin gave up a medical career and was told by his father, "You care for nothing but shooting, dogs and rat catching." In his autobiography, Darwin wrote, "I was considered by all my masters and my father, a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of intellect." Clearly, he evolved.    

Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything." He was fired from his first two jobs for being "non-productive." As an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?" Edison replied, "I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."   

Jack London received six hundred rejection slips before he sold his first story.

An expert said of the legendary football coach, Vince Lombardi: "He possesses minimal football knowledge and lacks motivation." Lombardi would later write, "It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up."

Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he succeeded.

Posted by Martin & Virginia Krieg 

"How America Can Bike and Grow Rich" - Introduction Draft

This book began eight years ago. It was then that the e-book or digital devices such as the iPhone, Android, iPad or Kindle Reader that can so easily read on line text did not even exist.  Nor did the social media that can so readily disseminate those many  parts of our offering that provoke thought or inspire people to act. Armed now with the ability to keep the information about the National Bicycle Greenway (NBG) movement we are building fire for current, we are publishing not as printed matter that ends up in a landfill,  but electronically  as a manifesto that will remain dynamic, virile and alive.

When you consider that for several decades the first automobiles were dismissed as recreational toys for the well heeled, there is always an adjustment period before society takes advantage of  the latest advances in technology.  From refrigerators to telephones, televisions and computers, all these innovations were met with initial resistance until they combined in just the right way with  all of the other latest and greatest products the people of their era were using to gain acceptance.

Allowing my imagination to wander for the future of bicycling, I knew our time was coming when the Internet first began to appear. I knew I had to be on its leading edge if I wanted the NBG dream to be taken seriously. So in 1995 at a time when the web was brand new,  I transferred promotion of the NBG  from my Cycle America book publishing company to BikeRoute.com. Now with "How America Can Bike and Grow Rich" (HBGR), we can directly reference our massive web site with active links to a lot of  the work we have done on line including all the  video, podcasts and blogs we long have been producing.

Since society benefits whenever we make it possible for greater numbers of us to make use of the most advanced technology  available, I will show you how this has impacted transportation. It is for this reason that we will take a look at all those inventions that have enabled a wider cross section of people, including the weak, the young and the old to be able to travel greater distances. And do so with greater ease and efficacy.

Read the rest of this post »

Posted by Martin & Virginia Krieg 

New Report: Biking Trail Projects Create More Jobs Than Highway Work

Posted by Martin & Virginia Krieg 

NBG Vision of Two-Wheel Unity

Imagine being on one of  the many tree shaded parts of a  path that cycle tourists, bike commuters, those out for a family ride, and people of all ages, abilities and nationalities can come together on to  have their biking needs met. On the Greenway network we envision, hear laughter, the faint sound of gears clicking and birds chirping merrily away. And as you let your mind wander, feel the wind blowing on your face as you whisk away on a system of safely bikeable roads and paths that showcase the best of all those areas that give purpose to your wheels.

In the urban parts of this network, marvel at the quiet that soothes you as cities busy about not far beyond.  In the neighborhood parks you pass through  let the smell of fresh cut grass innervate your mind's eye you with all the ways people can use bikes to make a playground of this world. Once beyond the centers of population, allow  the   newly plowed earth in the farm fields that lie not far beyond, inspire  you with the sense of renewal that good biking infrastructure can bring to the quality of our lives. 

And know that if you dare to adventure, the sunsets you can expect to see in the plains and in the deserts along your way will fill a sky so huge you will feel released from the world of limits. And as you are, your troubles will all fade into the nothingness from which they came. This as you celebrate the out of the box thinking that is helping  make the  biggest  of your cycling  dreams come true.

On our Greenway, besides being encouraged   to explore your imagination as you renew your connection with the planet, your brothers and with your body, your basic travel needs will also be met. Water and bathroom breaks will all be interspersed at intervals your legs can easily manage as will food, lodging, rest, supply and bike repair  areas. The regular incidence of mileage markers, info kiosks and interpretive signs describing the history or notable features of the various locales through which you pass, will give you the feedback you need to always know where you are at.

While all of the foregoing may sound too good to be true, for the last half century, we have regularly experienced the effects of the car's highest art form of utopia, the interstate freeway system. In numbers that are staggering, our  love affair with the automobile has divided neighborhoods, shattered lives,  slaughtered countless people and small animals, blighted cities, suffocated once fertile land and left in its wake a litany of environmental pejoratives so numerous they could fill books.

The cost to our mental well being has also been incalculable. As metal boxes plod along on America's freeways as a duty bound procession of lifelessness, the distance between all those encapsulated inside of them  continues to grow. Unwittingly, car drivers long have found themselves  pitted against against one another and the planet itself in what has been a daily exercise in survival, On this Nation's motor ways, as a result  of the way they were designed, the motorists on them can't help but implode the  sense of separation that they feel from the earth beneath their car seats and from their fellow man. It is this battlefield they  must leave behind when their cars deliver them to places where they shop, recreate, work or learn. Is it no small wonder that even well beyond the road, random acts of violence and other forms of indifference are so common place in America today?

In getting to this sad state of affairs, it was the motor industry's plan that backfired on them. In the '40's and '50's, their leaders  teamed with corporations and their lobbyists to get our country's resources, best human talent and billions of dollars committed to making their dream of a fast moving car utopia real. In the glorified name of "progress", 'if you build it, they will come' became the new mantra for the interstate freeways that much of the nation blindly rallied around.

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Posted by Martin & Virginia Krieg 

Martin Krieg's National Bicycle Greenway  Media Journey

Here is some of the press I have collected over the last three decades:

(download)

Click here to download:

untitled-AkFcfGuHhatFocbgwCvz.zip (16.6 MB)

Nor am I anywhere near done. With a  foundation such as this, all the Cycle America Regional Directories and other NBG books I have published, my autobiography, "Awake Again", and all the books that will soon be finding their way on to your E-Book reader,  my upcoming Eagle journey across America can't help but drive the public consciousness toward the bicycle heaven of the National Bicycle Greenway  we foresee!!

            THX 4 all of U!! 

Posted by Martin & Virginia Krieg