2023 in Advocacy and Action

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I can’t believe 2023 is over and we’re already well into 2024. Recapping 2023, the most significant interventions we participated in were the Mayoral Transition process, including drafting the Transportation and Infrastructure Transition Report, and fielding candidates for the executive directorship of DOTI; riding in and celebrating ¡Viva! Streets; fighting for bike infrastructure, both in the physical sense like showing up for the 7th Ave. Bikeway, and also in the policy sense, spearheading the effort to restore funding to Vision Zero and Safe Routes to School. We also selected a new Denver Bicycle Mayor, distributed food, medicine, and clothing to migrants and refugees who have arrived in the coldest months of the year, and more.

Denver has been receiving busloads of migrants (mostly Venezuelan economic refugees) from states like Texas, where the governor is weaponizing their plight by sending them to “sanctuary cities” in some kind of interstate one-upmanship. They arrive with no warning, no coordination, and often with no idea of where precisely they are. As a result, they come here totally unprepared for the environment. What really gets me is seeing the children at the camps. Denver has been housing most arrivals in hotels-turned-shelters, but once they time out they’re kicked out onto the street and thus makeshift tent camps have sprung up around them. One is very close to us, about a mile away and we’d been watching as the tents started to fill out the sidewalks in orderly lines. Our local community has stepped up to assist in amazing ways. Highlands Moms formed an ad hoc response group to deliver food, clothing, and medicine, as well as help guide the newcomers to available resources. They have truly gone above and beyond. Our family is part of the group, although we have been less active in recent years, but once I saw their call to action, I knew I had to help in some way, too. We had already collected winter clothes for a donation drive through a local high school, but we did another sweep of the house to gather more items. I emptied the spare toiletries drawer where I had stockpiled all my hotel shampoos and soaps from business trips pre-COVID. We found coats that we weren’t using anymore and children’s medicine that we didn’t need. I cooked a big pot of lentils and carrots and split it into plastic soup containers and piled all of this into the box bike to bring to the camp. The older kids rode their own bikes, the youngest on the Tern GSD, while I had the goods in the Yuba Supermarché. We were all a bit nervous going down, but I also wanted the kids to see the challenges these families were enduring so that their children could be educated in American schools and have a shot at the American Dream.

It was all a bit overwhelming. A church group had just arrived before us and were distributing 200 boxes of prepared meals. Piles of discarded (probably wrong season) clothes were piled by the sidewalks at different points. When folks began to realize we were distributing items, they started to come up to ask us what we had. Curious about my ethnicity, they asked my wife if I was Korean and when they learned I was ethnic Chinese, I started hearing a lot of, “¡Chino! ¡Chino!” as people gathered. It was clear there was a lot of need and not a lot of organization in the camp. Some children crept up, curious about us, but not being assertive like some of the adults. I handed one girl a bear-shaped bar of soap we had gotten as a souvenir from Yellowstone, and she showed it to her mom, smiling. When parents realized we had children’s medicine, you could see their eyes light up. The close quarters and lack of hygiene facilities meant respiratory diseases were tearing through the camp. I had my mask, but kept it down for most of the visit because I was so busy I forgot, and by nightfall I felt something in the back of my throat.

My Spanish is terrible, but my wife remembers her Spanish better, and being Filipina-American, she probably seemed more approachable, so she helped interpret and navigate the crowd for us. By the time most of our supplies had run out, we had rolled our way through the length of the camp. Later on, Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval announced that cars doing the same thing had almost hit a child in the street. We also had to deal with several cars trying to come up behind us and through the camp. Being on bike was much better. Since there was a lot of food distribution there already, we didn’t hand out the lentils. But as we started back up the hill towards home, we encountered a girl and her younger brother. We caught eyes and they double-backed to tell us they were hungry, miming rumbling tummies. We were able to give them most of the soup containers for their family of 5, plus some shredded queso, and spoons. The lentils were still quite warm, since I’d put them in an insulated bag. She was probably around the same age as my daughter and the boy about the same age as my older son. It was heart wrenching. They asked us if we were selling or giving (“¿Regala?”) the soup. We had to reassure them it was all a gift!

Then we had a new bike mayor. June Churchill is probably the first trans Bicycle Mayor in the United States, just by virtue of there being so few bike mayorships in this country. She has really been a driving force in our relationship with Council members and other policymakers. Her degree is in Astronomy, but her vocation is parsing budgets and guiding lawmakers through their own processes. She and Joel Noble were star players during the Council budget hearing public comment session and brought together a coalition of Council members to propose two amendments that would restore Vision Zero and Safe Routes to School funds, which had been inexplicably cut by $500,000 each when they were already woefully underfunded. She has been extremely effective in her role already, including being part of our international diplomatic corps meeting with the Dutch consul general and his entourage when they visited Denver.

She’s continued doing great things for DBL and biking in Denver, but some of that is still hush-hush. We’ve had amazing opportunities to interact with city leadership on issues we care deeply about and we have high hopes for continued high-level engagement. As we continue to build relationships throughout Mayor Johnston’s administration and beyond, I am confident June will be a driving force in getting effective change on the agenda. Go nerds!

Pomona Paid Off…

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I went to Pomona College for undergrad over two decades ago. Yesterday, the last of my federal student loans were forgiven thanks to executive action from the Biden-Harris administration. My outstanding balance was pretty low by this point, but I am grateful and hopeful that younger generations will have a greater benefit as they become eligible for this program. One odd feature of a Pomona education, it turned out, has been running into fellow Sagehens in random places and causes. I’ve encountered two such fellow alums in the Denver safe streets advocacy scene, including our very own Queen of Sidewalks, Jill Locantore, who was “instrumental” in getting car-free Viva Streets this summer.

Pomona was not a particularly elite or glamorous school for undergrad, but it did instill a certain importance of aligning life pursuits and values. I don’t pretend to speak for everyone who passed through the College gates, upon which is carved the inscription: “They only are loyal to this College who departing bear their added riches in trust for (hu)mankind.” But for a formerly Christian school, this was one of the only bits of Calvinist-style guidance we got. I think it speaks to that ethos that Pomonans have been drawn to reforming our city towards safety, equity, and the dismantling of car supremacy.

In my case, it helped that I was a Public Policy Analysis major and had a wonderful senior year elective on “good design” from a visiting professor to Harvey Mudd College (a sister college), Langdon Winner, who also happened to be a former editor of Rolling Stone. In his class we had one assignment where we had to reimagine some element of downtown Claremont and I repaved the crosswalks to improve pedestrians’ visibility. That experience made it okay to reimagine my city’s design henceforth. As a grad student at UC San Diego, I TA-ed for a class on the history of American suburbs and learned how drastically the country was redesigned to enable car supremacy. And now I’m in a position to push for changes at the local and state level to undo that legacy, thanks to folks like Jill, who share this imperative to protect people navigating their city and create a more just and vibrant community. With my final bit of student loans resolved, it seemed appropriate to reflect on how a Pomona education has impacted what I do and who I hang out with!

A New Era for Denver

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There is a palpable sense of excitement in Denver right now, because for the first time in 12 years, we have new leadership in the city: former-state senator and DBL ride-along participant Mike Johnston. I was asked to serve on the Mayor-elect’s Transition Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in June, along with fellow DBLers Rob and Allen. We just wrapped up what was a highly compressed schedule of meetings, homework assignments, and outreach. Yesterday we had an in-person meeting with the new mayor where he personally thanked us for serving on the committee and heard our best “insights” from the process.

[I’ve had a year-long hiatus from updating this little blog, not because there wasn’t material to write about, but because we were getting more insight into how the city actually works and I didn’t want to rub anyone the wrong way. But with fresh political winds blowing, I feel like it’s time to come back to recording my thoughts.]

The Transition was an eye-opening learning experience. We had extremely able leadership from our co-chairs, former-councilman and city council president Albus Brooks, and Jill Locantore, executive director of the Denver Streets Partnership. Albus brought a lot of wisdom and insight into all aspects of the city from his time in politics, as well as a healthy dose of humor. Jill was, as always, a font of knowledge and wisdom from big picture vision to tiny minutiae of city operations; as well as an able taskmaster who kept all 18 of us heading in the right direction. I’d gladly see either of them as the executive director of DOTI, but that seems unlikely.

The transition was not without controversy, though. The Transition organization asked us to sign NDAs to protect the process and particularly any details related to personnel decisions. That did not go down well with some in the media and the community. Denverite put out a piece decrying the seeming inconsistency with Mike Johnston’s pledge of transparency. The Transition made clear to us, however, that we were allowed and encouraged to continue reaching out to our networks to help craft our recommendations to the Mayor-elect. I saw no conflict and we did accomplish much in concert with DBL members who also serve in other capacities. In fact, much of the language we submitted came from internal deliberations amongst ourselves, something our little rag tag group should be proud of.

For my part, I also worked to bring forward the stories of those lost to traffic violence. Equity is a huge concern and a watchword in politics nowadays, but that often does not include the inequity of survivorship bias. The people “who aren’t in the room” but from whom we should hear are the mothers, fathers, children, and community members who have been torn from their families by the inhumane design of our streets and the recklessness of our drivers.

I was so gratified that the families stepped up to bear witness for their loved ones in a public setting. Cindy Stepp, the bereaved mother of Ainslie O’Neil, came to the Public Engagement Forum to address the group. It was a powerful moment to hear her words and it brought into sharp relief what truly mattered as we finished debating mundane issues. Her remarks made an impression and may have steered the coverage of one media outlet from focusing on cars and traffic to instead focus on Vision Zero and the imperative for safer streets. Teddy Bounds, whom I have been privileged to know for a few years now, also wrote a letter to the Mayor telling him about Alexis and their boys. There are more families like theirs who have lost loved ones, but not everyone is up for telling their story publicly. Reliving the trauma is daunting and I know I ask a lot when I go to these families. I’m very grateful to them all. We must keep them in mind and in the minds of decision-makers.

Yesterday, as we met with Mayor Johnston over beers at Improper City (funny name for a new mayor), we wrapped up with me dashing up to him with a manila folder in hand. He took the letters graciously as I told him, “These stories are a touchstone for me, and I hope they will be for you, too.” He promised to read them on the way to his next event. When neighborhood RNOs start clamoring at his door he will have these stories to fall back on and remember. He also has what Hancock did not have at the beginning of his administration, an organized group like DBL to counterbalance the reactionary minority fighting against any change. We’re ready.

The City of Denver as the sun sets behind the Rocky Mountains.

Bike Camping with Kids

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For the first time since we had child Number 3, we attempted a bike camping excursion to a local campsite near Denver. We had a very different experience this go around, and despite some things going wrong, it still ended up being a good trip. Our destination was one of the yurts at Bear Creek Lake Park, about 20 miles on mostly bike trails and some streets.

Yurt camping in Bear Creek Lake Park.

I’d been prepping the bikes and gear over the week, but still ended up in a mad dash of packing and unpacking at the end, tossing out all my checklists as we tried to cram everything that we needed. We brought one kayak, one inflatable boat, two bows (but left the arrows behind), sheets, towels, cooking gear (but forgot the fire starting equipment), gallons of water, etc. Plus, I had to tow one kid bike and a second was stowed in the trailer.

Laden with bikes, boats, and babies.

It just so happened that Mike Johnston’s inauguration was that morning, along with all other municipal elected officials. I rode down with the boys for the DBL rally and as a VIP attendee, but I’ll focus on that experience later. Suffice it to say, we had to rush home before the ceremony ended to try and get out the door and on the trails. It was a sweltering day and we were heading out shortly before noon. We took plenty of rest stops in whatever shady spots we came across, but still there was some feeling of heat exhaustion from hauling so much gear. It didn’t help that we were trying to conserve our batteries as much as possible, because the yurts don’t have electrical outlets and we weren’t quite sure where we’d recharge the bikes.

En route.

South Platte River Trail is pretty urban, as it passes industrial land, highway roads, and a power plant, so the kids all rode as passengers aboard the Yuba Supermarche or the Tern GSD. But once we turned onto Bear Creek Trail, it got a lot more natural and shady, so we deployed the two older kids on their own bikes. The problem with going to a campground behind a dam is there’s inevitably a big elevation change as you approach. The hills through Fox Hollow golf course to get up and around the Bear Creek Lake dam were some extremely grueling switchbacks while hauling gear, but we were rewarded with views of Denver in the distance, the heart of which we’d just been in a few hours prior.

Downtown Denver from atop Fox Hollow golf course.

Fortunately the kids were reenergized by the downhill from the summit as we coasted into the campground proper. We unloaded our gear and set up the yurt for the night. The camp host graciously offered to start our fire for us, since at that point I realized I had left my fire kit; and he let us charge the batteries at his RV. Had the group camping site been empty, there are electrical pedestals along that loop, so I was planning on just plugging in there if I could. The cabins have electrical outlets, but we had stayed there before and wanted to try the yurts. We slept fairly well in the yurt, even with the wind shaking the tent fabric at times. The skylight didn’t open all the way, so the natural chimney effect was reduced, making it pretty stuffy inside at times. The two bunk beds just have mattresses covered in plastic, so we had to bring linens and pillow cases to stuff.

This bunny lives under our yurt.

In the morning we set out early for the swim beach and launched the kayak and the inflatable boat. We spent the morning out on the water, as it gradually became more and more crowded. The Explorer 200 was a $11 Prime Day deal so I wasn’t expecting much out of it, and the kids were pretty frustrated with how to paddle it, since they’re used to kayaks. Unfortunately their kayaks are hard bodied, so it’s not practical to bring them with us that far. Hence, the second inflatable.

Any day out on the water is a good day.

After lunch we were hit by the heat and the prospect of another night and day before heading home. We had planned to leave the next morning, but stewing about we all sort of decided that we should just break camp and head home immediately. That suddenly lifted the kids’ spirits. So we packed up quickly, but this time the bigger kids would ride on their own out of the campsite. I didn’t expect it, but they actually biked the entirety of the 20+ miles home. It was truly impressive.

When we left, the sweltering heat had broken and there was cloud cover and even some drizzly rain clouds helping to keep things cooler, which helped immensely. That initial ascent out of the valley and back onto the dam nearly killed my motor. I was towing the trailer on the return trip, since I didn’t have to tow a bike. On the steepest part of the grade, my motor just decided to stall out. There was plenty of battery power left, but it just didn’t want to run, maybe from overheating, so I had to walk it up to the summit. Fortunately it recovered and I was able to ride the rest of the way with assist.

We made good time, and the kids were buoyed by the prospect of sleeping in their own beds and probably their Nintendo Switch waiting at home. We stopped at Andy’s Frozen Custard for a pit stop and to wait out some lightning. That final push as we neared our familiar biking routes closest to our home was hard, but the kids powered through. It’ll be a while before I get the hankering to bike camp again, I think, but it’s good to know that the kids have the tenacity to stick with it. I was a doughy space nerd of a kid and would have been completely trounced by such an arduous bike trek at their ages. I’m sore from the ride a day later, but the kids bounced back after a night’s rest. At least this will be a memorable summer excursion for them, knowing it’s a rare thing to bike from the feet of the Rocky Mountains into the city of Denver for kids of their age.

We got a lot of curious onlookers along the way.

Thirty Mile Preamble

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I just returned from a 30 mile recon ride in preparation for an epic bike camping excursion tomorrow to Bear Creek Lake Park. I got lost a couple of times, but that was the point of doing the ride now instead of getting lost with kids and gear in tow tomorrow.

Tomorrow is also the inauguration of Denver’s next mayor, Mike Johnston. For the past five weeks, I’ve had the privilege of serving on his Transition Committee for Transportation and Infrastructure, along with colleagues from DBL and DSP/BC. It has been an incredible learning experience and a testament to how many dedicated and talented people truly want good things for this city.

With Taylor Swift’s two nights of sold-out stadium concerts this past weekend, it also feels like a time of celebration and change in Denver. In any case, Mayor Mike will have a short window of opportunity to capitalize on the excitement and energy surrounding this change of leadership and drive results.

We’ll be watching most closely at the choice for who leads DOTI going forward. The incumbent, Adam Phipps, was the city engineer before becoming interim executive director, then director. While his initial impressions were pretty bad, saying that building bike lanes might require “eminent domain”, he has since shown some evolution in thought from traditional engineer-brain. Still, we need someone visionary and transformative, who is both equipped to manage a large agency and unafraid to lead. We’ve suggested some stellar names from across the national landscape of progressive transportation planners. It’ll be up to the new mayor to attract one (or two) to execute this mission.

A Month of Media, Policy, and War

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Now that some time has passed, I can say this month so far has been packed with developments. It’s not often one appears in local and international news within a week. We also had surprise (to me) e-bike subsidies launch in Denver, courtesy of the 0.25% sales tax increase devoted to the Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resilience Commission established a couple years ago; and a ride to the Capitol to escort the Colorado Safety Stop bill for the governor’s signature.

The day before we had the grand opening for the Alexis Bounds Memorial Bikeway on Marion, I had an article published in Jamestown’s China Brief on the relevance of the war in Ukraine to China’s military. This was a topic I had been thinking about actively as soon as the war began on February 24th, and this framing has been taken up by many authors, since. China Brief is a very niche publication, mostly geared for the China watching community to talk amongst themselves, although it gets readers from across the world. One of those readers was based in Bangkok and approached me for quotes for an Associated Press piece along the same lines, but more for a generalist audience. The readership on his subsequent article is quite a bit wider than CB, not only national syndication, but the piece has popped up in tiny village newspapers, as well.

Then on Wednesday, DBL was invited to participate in a group ride–a short one–to escort the bill sponsors of the CO Safety Stop to the Capitol building where it would be signed into law by Governor Polis. We showed up, even though it was a frigid and windy day. It was midday, and I decided to just stay out and pick up the kids. While waiting, I got a text from a reporter who heard the news about the bill’s signing and wanted to feature it in the evening news. So we arranged to meet on our ride home where he could grab a few shots and quotes about the new law and expected behaviors from bike riders. Despite the hue and cry from drivists, they really shouldn’t notice much impact at all, since we will have slipped through the intersection when no drivers are present.

Then a few days after that we heard that CASR was officially launching their program to subsidize e-bikes, e-cargo bikes, and a bunch of other climate-friendly interventions, like household heat pumps. The launch date was scheduled for Earth Day, April 22nd, and folks were lining up their e-bike orders at local shops even before. The pot of money for this program is about $325k, with a maximum subsidy per individual at $900 unless income qualified, where it is +$1,200. Depending on uptake and speed of payouts, we could see several hundred new e-bike riders on our streets and trails by Bike to Work Day in June.

Along with this, I have been preparing our school for Bike to School Day, working with the campus staff and the city’s SafeRoutes to School team. They don’t seem well-supported, but enthusiastic. They helped develop some bike route maps specific for our school, based on input from a few biking families. We are designating a remote “walk/roll zone” for kids who are driven to school. As a public charter that draws from across the city, that is an important feature and one that has been missing from past lackluster BTSD programing. Hopefully the city will be on hand on the day of to feature our efforts.

Alexis Bounds Memorial Bikeway Designated

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This past weekend we celebrated the completion of the protected bike lane on Marion Parkway and in a slight bit of subterfuge, we, as the Denver Bicycle Lobby, unofficially officially designated the stretch as the “Alexis Bounds Memorial Bikeway”. It was an event co-hosted by DBL, Denver Streets Partnership, and the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI), our city authority for street design. As part of the ceremony, we heard from Councilman Kashmann, the district councilor, Teddy, Alexis’ husband, Molly, policy director for DSP, and Amy, MBAC president and DBL rep. Oh yes, we also heard from Emily Gloeckner, the city’s Chief Engineer. Everyone else had a strong, emotionally resonant message to deliver. Emily read some weird stuff off her phone about technical details of the route? Like that it connected Wash Park with Cap Hill? I mentioned to my colleagues that it was curious that we got the chief engineer to come out, at all. We’d never heard a peep out of the previous chief engineer until he became the acting director, now appointed director, of DOTI. So on one hand, I’m glad she was out in public, on the other hand, her remarks were a bit perplexing.

Had Eulois still been the director, I’m sure he would have been there. I had cornered him two years ago to ask of him exactly what we did here: name the new facility in honor of Alexis. DOTI refused to do it, despite him promising he’d develop a process for memorial designations. Rob had red ribbon and novelty scissors for just this kind of occasion, so we did the thing ourselves. Teddy and his sons were the ones to cut the ribbon. It was very meaningful.

How it started…
Photo credits: Rob Toftness

The event was a great gathering with great energy. We were encountering bikers on their way to the ghost bike all along the way from our house. We ran into other DBLers who formed up with us. We passed unfamiliar bikers toting kids’ bikes, who were coming as well. The children at the event took the colored chalk and renewed the inscription we had painted on the sidewalk two years ago. It was a beautiful symbol of commitment and resilience. The butterflies in the street had been paved over, and the paint on the sidewalk had weathered over time. Alexis’ family were in town, and they had decorated the ghost bike and memorial bench. DSP had paid for barricades to be erected in the segment of side street by the ghost bike. It was a special space and a special gathering.

After the ribbon cutting, we rode as a group down the new lane and overflowed into the main travel lane, as well. The kids were mostly the ones taking the protected bike lane, which runs along the center median and is buffered with low concrete risers. We went down to Washington Park and did a loop of the entire park. It was so crowded with volleyball players covering the main field, plus tons of joggers and other bike riders just coming through. Upon returning to the memorial site, I declared that with this inaugural ride, the Alexis Bounds Memorial Bikeway was opened. DOTI may some day come around, but we don’t have to wait for them. Media coverage picked up on this dynamic and used the designation in their reporting, so it’s already becoming part of the civic cultural fabric.

Hopefully that becomes more of a thing as the various community and civic leaders we had at our event get on board the bike train. We had two city council members present. We had some potential candidates running for council seats in the crowd. We had two out-of-town, newly moved to Denver, bike community celebrities there as well–one from DC and the other from Oklahoma. Most of all, though, we had a lot of energized citizens, change agents in their own right and in their own ways. The city has a lot of ground to cover to fight back against the tide of fatalities that is sweeping over us right now. I think in the same weekend some five different pedestrians were struck and either killed or seriously injured. And on the way home from the event, at least two DBLers had incidents with drivers or bad road design that resulted in conflicts.

All that is to say, the process of healing and of fighting for change continues. The process of renewing our own reservoirs of hope, anger, and determination continues. We must turn that energy into action, hold accountable those who impede progress, and take their seats, thanks to the growing wellspring of advocates bubbling up all around us.

Direct Action

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The pandemic rages on, yet the City has just ignominiously ended their Shared Streets program, which carved out meager accommodations for pedestrians, bikers, wheelchair users, and scooter riders on a select few streets to use social-distanced without the fear of getting mowed down by vehicularists.

Frankly, the DOTI spokesperson is known for her great skill at spinning any issue for the department, since that is her job, but she went way over the line on this one. In the 9News piece, she uses the beginning of the school year as the excuse that these streets must be unshared for safety. Ironically, DOTI is the steward of the city’s federally-funded Safe Routes to School program, but you’d hardly know that given her privileging of school commutes by motor vehicle. I was livid, and I responded with a picture of my old box bike mangled by a truck driver while I was on my way for school pick-up and another from our first day of school. I want to thank our excellent DBL champion Nicole McSpirit for organizing a crew to film a final ride on the 11th Ave. Shared Street before DOTI ripped out the traffic circles and other interventions there, and engaging the media on this.

The Shared Street near Sloan’s Lake stayed on for another day or two, but was also removed. Fortunately, Stuart is a narrower residential street, unlike 16th and 11th Aves. in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and the residents along Stuart supported the intervention by placing their own cones out to supplement the Type-III barriers from DOTI’s contractor. I believe the social habits fostered by the yearlong shared space was worth preserving. Other residents seemed to share that sentiment, as I observed shortly after the decampment of the Type-IIIs, new orange looper poles appeared to replace them, reinstating the Shared Street condition to some degree. This type of direct action has popped up elsewhere in problem areas around the city, as well.

The W. 23rd Protected Bike Lane is long overdue, having been slated for completion in summer of 2020. The last time DOTI updated us on the status of this important arterial route into the city was in late-2019. Their delays have spawned frustration as the paint has corroded to nothing and delivery drivers habitually use the lane as a loading zone. The proprietors of the taqueria are militantly protective of this ill-gotten loading zone. Despite the placement of looper poles defending the lane line, they have actually gone to the trouble of removing them and secreting them in their kitchen.

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Undaunted, the cones have not only grown in number, they’ve also grown fatter. And this has not gone unnoticed by the many users of this bike lane, including an Edgewater city council member, and a friend of Megan Hottman, The Cyclist Lawyer, who posted his appreciation on Instagram. Funny enough, the City of Denver was credited for the intervention, but that’s great. It puts pressure on DOTI to actually start protecting vulnerable road users. Just this morning, I saw three family bikers, with young kids in tow, at this intersection, making full use of the added protection.

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In the grand scheme of things, we can’t rely on a recalcitrant municipal government to do the right thing until there is a fundamental leadership change, from the Mayor to the City Council to the department executives in charge of implementation. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us regular citizens to step up and step in where bureaucrats fear to tread. DBL was founded with an element of edginess that gives us a certain degree of freedom of action that more establishment organizations like Denver Streets Partnership or Bicycle Colorado might not feel they have.

The purpose of these temporary interventions is twofold, 1) to improve safety for bikers, obviously; but also 2) to engage in a conversation-of-sorts with vehicularists. As they negotiate these ad hoc reinforced bike lanes, corner bumpouts, and hardened intersections, they must contend with the legitimate rights of bikers, walkers, and other vulnerable road users, physically manifested. Most will become acclimated to these newly asserted rights, some will react with malice and violence, as is their wont.

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But rather than become discouraged, such behavior emphasizes how necessary actual protection is on these streets and helps raise awareness–some might say radicalize–more of the city’s residents. DOTI’s provision of half-hearted infrastructure (paint-and-post) must be criticized until they agree to use bollards and actual vertical deflection that would protect against a vehicle strike. Until then, the ad hoc equipment is easily replaced, and within 48 hours, this temporary protected bike lane on the freeway bridge was fully reconstituted and back in service, despite how bad the carnage appears above.

Direct action works and is necessary while the city equivocates for years, possibly decades. Their latest effort is a 2050 planning initiative called Denver Moves Everyone, which ignores the decade-plus of fallow planning documents already on their docket. Until they win back the trust of those they have failed for so long, they can expect more guerrilla interventions across the city.

Hello again

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I’ll level and say I stopped updating here because of some controversy with local politicians reneging on their commitments to safe streets. I didn’t want to say anything on here that might jeopardize our working relationship, but that ship seems to have sailed.

We put in a lot of time and energy to document conditions on a major bike route that would encourage many more users, especially women and children, if it had protection. I even hand-delivered a letter of support for the city’s plans to build protected lanes there. It fell on deaf ears. The project was sabotaged and is now in limbo. Then, a drugged up driver sped down a major commercial street, going the wrong way, and slammed into a car, flipping it, and killing the driver and severely injuring a little girl in the backseat. This happened on a weekend afternoon with lots of pedestrians out and about. A makeshift memorial went up immediately, and neighbors rallied around the family. I didn’t know them, but they were part of Highlands Mommies. I did a TV interview at the memorial site and talked about our efforts last year to close this stretch to car traffic, working with the shop owners along the street. If we had succeeded, barriers at the cross street might have stopped this reckless and homicidal driver. The news reporter saw fit to also interview our local politician and again our appeals for street safety were met with directionless babble. The only action from them was to ask the city to study the area some more. No urgency, no outrage. When I made it clear that I am doing this for the safety of my children, and not for a “cause”, from the nonchalant response, I knew that it wasn’t a policy difference here. We had a difference in ethics and morality.

Yet, other councilors have been more receptive to the need to curtail car supremacy. We have been convening monthly with another council office on multimodal issues. I feel like we’ve developed a good rapport on issues not naturally in their wheelhouse. With an emphasis on social equity, I’m hopeful that these efforts yield results for the residents of a long-neglected quarter of the city. What’s more encouraging, this format has served as a template for other council districts, and we have local DBL members spearheading constructive dialogues with other city council members. We may not agree with everyone’s agendas all the time, but engaging constructively is better than more concern trolling.

Right now we are taking some refuge up in the mountains from a wave of heat and massive smoke from Western wildfires smothering Colorado. We haven’t escaped the smoke any, but the heat is less oppressive up here. We’d bought some kids’ kayaks and both of the older kids have taken to them. They paddled at Lake Dillon and at home at Sloan’s Lake. However, with the heat came an algae bloom so Sloan’s has been closed for a month. The reality of climate change and the desertification of swaths of forest and scrubland in the West is clearly happening. These fires are happening too frequently and massively for new growth to make up the loss. Nowhere is safe now and still we dither about the most modest measures for bikes and other multimodal options.

There’s been a lot more happening with the rollout of vaccines, a string of local biker killings, a resultant Critical Mass, and more, but I’ll recount those in subsequent posts that will hopefully follow shortly.

Yuba Supermarché Hacks and Tips

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We’ve had the Yuba Supermarché for almost two years now and it’s been two years of constant tinkering with the rig. I’ve received multiple inquiries about the Supermarché, recently, and I am here for it. The more cargo bikes of any variety out there, the better, but I am especially fond of the Supermarché, given how well I’ve come to know it. To make this as concise as possible, I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.

1. Canopy grommets and stays

The canopy was an important factor for choosing the Supermarché for us. The Urban Arrow’s Rain Cover is not fully enclosed (but for €100 more now they have a version with a back) and a Bullitt canopy had to be custom made and is also open (now they offer an enclosed one for an eye-watering $850). The Yuba canopy is fully enclosed, although the box itself is full of holes (go figure). However, the hem of the canopy rides up and flaps when in motion (see the first pic). To keep the canopy snug against the box, I punched grommets in the middle of the hem on each side and used existing holes in the box to hold down the hem on screws. The screws and plastic caps were extras from bottle cages. Punching grommets is actually very easy. I bought a grommet kit at my local craft store, cut roughly circular shapes in the fabric about 1/2″ in diameter, applied electrical tape to reinforce the openings, then slammed the grommets on with the punch and a rubber mallet. These little extensions also provide some scratch protection if the bike tips over and hits asphalt. Bonus tip: be very careful parking in a gutter zone, because the roadbed is the most askew at the edges.

2. U-lock mount

Next, the lock mount. Originally I was using the Yuba wheel lock. Don’t do it! The pin lock has a nice integrated bracket where you store it (first pic), then when you arrive, you unlock it and re-lock it to another set of lower holes that go through your rear wheel spokes. In theory that’s great, in practice it is terrible. The fat end of the pin lock hit my heel when pedaling quite often. You can’t keep the key in, like on a café lock. Then after arriving, having to reach one arm around the whole bike to aim at a little hole you can’t see clearly is very frustrating, especially when you’ve got children running about. And if you forget you’ve locked it and start moving, you’ve now probably bent a spoke or scraped the rubber off the pin lock, which I’ve done. It’s also not at all equivalent to a café lock, which one can basically operate with one hand. So I went back to my trusty U-lock and added a steel cable (kept in a pannier). I wrap the cable around a post and U-lock the cable to the frame and wheel. I also use the U-lock as a café lock by locking the wheel and frame together at the bottom of the seat stay. I use a combination lock, not a keyed lock, so it is very easy to do that. I store the U-lock in a little-used space between a pedal arm and the frame. There’s just enough width for the U-lock bracket to mount to one of the frame support posts (second pic). The end of the lock rests on the bottom bracket housing, which I layered with electrical tape (love the stuff) to prevent scuffs. Whereas I’d hit the pin lock all the time, this setup does not infringe on my pedaling at all. Plus, I really wanted to have panniers. This is a cargo bike, after all.

3. Panniers/Bag-and-Drag

Speaking of panniers, I first reported that it was impossible to mount them given the thicker gauge of frame tubing Yuba used and the lower 20″ rear wheel making it a small space for standard panniers. I found a solution in a double-pannier, where they are connected by fabric going over the rear rack. These are cheap-o panniers with no brand recognition, so I was concerned that they’d rip at the seams overhanging the rear rack. I placed a sheet of plastic, likely a kid’s old placemat, and attached it with bottle cage screws into the upper deck (Yuba thankfully put brazons everywhere). That now acts as a flexible support membrane under the fabric, so that the weight is more gradually distributed. The rear rack is wider than standard, so the panniers hang a little tightly, but it is hardly noticeable in daily use. And as demonstrated above, we can bag-and-drag the kids’ bikes very easily (a 12″ and 20″), using this setup. We do this when heading down to the local pump track or car-free park, for instance. Bonus tip: carry a couple garbage bags so that you can wrap up muddy tires instead of getting your panniers messy, when doing this.

4. Rear fork hitch

Last summer I found myself taking my regular bike to the shop for repairs multiple times and I didn’t want to take it there by car, so I simply laid it across the box of the Yuba and tied it down with moving straps. This was less than ideal, in terms of both handling and preventing scratches, so I decided that I would try to install a fork mount on the rear rack. The Rocky Mounts Hot Rod (3.75″ separation) hitch was a perfect fit on the existing Yuba brazons for James Huang over at CyclingTips, but I mistakenly bought a Rocky Mounts Lo-Ball (4.25″ separation), instead, and had to drill out a new hole in the aluminum to make it fit. That sucked, but it worked, and now I can carry a full sized bike in tow. There’s something particularly poetic about carrying a bike on a bike to the bike shop, I find.

Obviously, there are a bunch more little hacks and mods I’ve made to the rig, but I’ll save it for another post. Hopefully this helps some of you decide on a cargo bike. It doesn’t matter which kind, but if it’s a Supermarché, just know that it has proven to be very easy to work on and customize to your particular needs.