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 […]
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: 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 […]
Bike Lane point/counter-point
A few weeks ago, a local listserv debate over the Constitutionality of bike lanes devolved into a rather asinine comparison between vehicular separation and racial segregation. In an effort to raise the level of discussion over whether bike lanes are good for cyclists, local cyclist Steve Goodridge and I wrote point/counter-point Op-Eds for the Herald Sun. Enjoy. Lanes do their job Phillip Barron Guest columnist, The Herald-Sun Just two weeks ago, Main Street was one-way through downtown Durham. City officials closed the street Saturday and reopened it for traffic going in both directions. How do drivers know the difference? City […]
The Outspokin’ Cyclist: New Durham cabs are pedal-powered
On a recent Sunday, while I was dropping off some donated wheels and frames at the Durham Bike Co-op, two of Durham’s newest taxi cabs stopped by for repairs. MarcDreyfors parked his cab on the sidewalk, jacked up the front end to remove the front wheel, and brought the wheel inside the Co-op for aligning. After a few minutes in the truing stand, his wheel was straight, and he popped the front wheel back on his pedal-powered taxi cab. A pedicab, as it is known, is basically a giant tricycle. It looks like a regular bicycle in the front (with […]
The Outspokin’ Cyclist: Repaving N.C. not right for Durham
Phillip Barron The Herald Sun David Hartgen’s plan to repave the state of North Carolina might be accepted in some towns, but not in Durham. Hartgen, a professor at UNC-Charlotte, recently released a study of transportation planning that looks at urban areas around the state. His conclusions simply amount to statistically backed reasons why urban areas should reduce transit spending, divert saved funds to highway construction and road widening, and embrace the private automobile as the keystone species in the ecology of economic progress. The 200+ page study is available for download from the John Locke Foundation‘s website, and I […]
The Outspokin’ Cyclist: Taking on toxins is worth it
Some winter mornings, while riding in Cornwallis Road’s new bike lanes, I can smell Counter Culture Coffee roasting those fairly traded coffee beans two or more miles to the south. The same still air that pools summertime ozone over the region’s largest employment hub wafts the unique smell of coffee beans expanding in heat, releasing their caffeinated oils. Whenever I ride through one of those invisible, aromatic clouds, I breathe deeply. Problem is, I can also smell the exhaust from the surrounding cars at every intersection. No doubt, on-road cyclists are more vulnerable to their environments than drivers. It’s not […]