In his 1973 essay ”Autopia,” the Dutch novelist Cees Nooteboom wrote that Los Angeles ”mixes images of vulgarity and vitality” and ”conveys the feeling that it stretches to all sides around you, but never looks down on you or presses you down, an open world that forms itself as a unity despite its fragmented appearance.” (NYTimes) I recently traveled to Los Angeles for the first time and found that my favorite way to explore this city, just as any city, was by bicycle. From the Bicycle Film Festival to Critical Mass to solo outings and museum visits, the city designed […]
The Outspokin’ Cyclist: Mountain biking helps Durham youth stay focused
Phillip BarronThe Herald SunJune 12, 2008 WAKE COUNTY — “This is my first race, and I got third place,” says Edgar, a sixth-grader at Brogden Middle School in Durham. Out of breath, Edgar just raced a mountain bike through lakeside trails of Harris Lake County Park at the TORC Spring Skills Clinic He wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Andrea Hundredmark. Hundredmark, a science teacher at Brogden Middle, launched this school year the Triangle’s first chapter of Trips for Kids. Trips for Kids, she says, is a program for disadvantaged youth. Whether you call it drop-out prevention or leadership […]
Bull City Bicycles
March 7 – 28, 2008, the exhibit Bull City Bicycles gathers historic and contemporary photography of bicycles in Durham, North Carolina. A celebration of the aesthetic simplicity, utility, and joy of bicycles, this show documents Durham’s sense of place from two wheels. Durham has a culturally rich history, beginning with its role as an early hub of the post-Civil War tobacco industry. There later developed an adjacent (eventually annexed) locale that, according to W.E.B. DuBois was a rich example of a separate and thriving residential and business community run entirely by African-Americans — the Hayti community. Hayti’s fame and financial […]
Women’s liberation through cycling
Phillip BarronThe Herald SunMarch 6, 2008 For many, the nineties were a time of political advancement and financial success. The economy was doing well, failed policies from previous administrations were being turned back, manufacturing was on the increase, and progress was the buzz-word in board rooms and parlors. This national excitement had something, more than a little, to do with the fact that the 1890s were also the height of the bicycle boom in the United States. In 1897 alone, approximately three hundred manufacturers in the US sold more two million bicycles, doubling production from the previous year. The bicycle […]
The Outspokin’ Cyclist: World needs your old bicycles
Phillip BarronThe Herald SunFebruary 7, 2008 In Ghana, the availability of a reliable bicycle turns a 2 hour walk to school into a 25 minute ride. In Guatemala, it means that someone who previously could not carry their wares to a market now has a way. In Namibia, where specially equipped bicycles become pedal-powered ambulances, it can be the difference between life and death. “Bikes empower people to change their lives,” says Merywen Wigley. As an HIV/AIDS professional working in international health, Wigley has witnessed personally the difference two wheels can make. An avid cyclist before ever stepping foot in […]
The Outspokin’ Cyclist: Durham man to pedal for peace across Israel
Phillip BarronThe Herald SunJanuary 17, 2008 When Martin Luther King said that true peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice, he had in mind the idea that lasting, real peace is possible only when we actively take responsibility for it. Marv Axelrod is tired of hearing promises of peace in the Middle East only to be later disappointed by the dissolution of dialogue. He’s tired of all the news coming out of Israel being about conflict. Axelrod is not someone who complains about something he is not willing to help solve. “I want […]
The Outspokin’ Cyclist: Driving the kids with a bicycle
Four days a week, Teddy Salazar takes his son Theo to school just like most parents. Instead of a car seat, however, Theo rides in a trailer towed behind Salazar’s bicycle. Weaving around potholes and climbing hills along four miles of west Durham’s streets, Salazar tows his son to and from pre-school. Hard work though it may be for Salazar, “it’s actually lots of fun,” he says. “We wave to people on their porches on Carroll Street. We get all sorts of comment like, ‘Look at that!’ or ‘How cute!’ when we ride by Duke. It’s really easy to stop […]
The Outspokin’ Cyclist: Cyclists don’t like concrete islands
Phillip Barron The Herald Sun Willetha Barnette, of Durham, rode her bike in traffic for the first time on October 4th. Encouraged by her friend Cynthia Ferebee to join the Critical Mass ride, a monthly group bike ride through the streets of Durham, Barnette said that she enjoyed the freedom to ride on the streets in safe numbers, but that she would not feel comfortable riding alone. As the group made its way down Anderson St, Barnette said, “it’s uncomfortable. Drivers don’t seem to be used to sharing the road. They seem annoyed, frustrated that we (cyclists) aren’t going as […]
The Outspokin’ Cyclist: Hybrid car pitch a step backwards
Phillip BarronThe Herald Sun September 14th marked the 108 year anniversary of the first pedestrian death at the hands of an automobile in the United States. On September 13th, 1899, Henry Bliss stepped from a streetcar on Central Park West, in New York, and was struck by a taxicab. He died of his injuries the next morning. The event was reported on the front page of the New York Times. In 2005 alone, 39,000 automobile crashes in the United States accounted for 43,000 deaths. Given the anniversary of Bliss’ death, it’s appropriate to think of September as an automobile awareness […]
Jack and Anne: Bull City Bikers
Jack Edinger, a fellow board member at the Durham Bike Co-op, and Anne Fairchild are the next Bull City Bikers. What bike(s) do you own and ride regularly?Anne: Trek multi track 730 w/ plastic crate attached!Jack: Currently ride a 1983 Trek 630 fixed-gear conversion. I also have an ever-changing fleet of frames and project bikes. I counted nine bikes in my workshop this morning, four of which are built up. What’s your primary flavor of riding?Anne: Commuting, tooling around town, occasionally for fitnessJack: Daily commuter, weekend errand-runner: road bike flavor. I occasionally do some mountain biking, but it’s been a […]