Monthly Archives: September 2014

Waialae Ave Bike Lane Celebration

Local officials gave brief remarks about how the community and government worked together to get this project finished.

Local officials gave brief remarks about how the community and government worked together to get this project finished.

This evening, a number of local organizations gathered in Kaimuki to celebrate the new Waialae Avenue bike lane.  This is a project that’s been years in the making, and one that makes the ride between Manoa and Kaimuki much safer.  A number of local organizations and officials gave brief remarks, but the best and most stirring were from Mayor Caldwell.  He talked about the efforts of the cycling community–such as those of us at the gathering–to help push this through, and how they’ll need our help to keep going with future projects.  The King Street Cycle Track is already under construction, and the best thing we can to do help future projects is to ride.  Motorists aren’t going to like losing car lanes to add bike lanes, and it’ll be that much harder to push through future projects if the current ones aren’t used.

Cyclists gathering before the official inauguration of the new Wailalae Avenue bike lane.

Cyclists gathering before the official inauguration of the new Wailalae Avenue bike lane.

This is something that we’ve already thought about.  Once the King Street Cycle Track opens, my plan is to take a jaunt down it every day after work.  It’ll be a couple extra miles, which will make my sub-3 mile commute a little more worthwhile in terms of exercise, and will help show that people are using it.  In the Mayor’s vision, eventually we’ll hit a tipping point with enough protected bike lanes connecting to enough locations that people will find it better to ride than to drive.  We’re certainly looking forward to that day!

A poor attempt at a mosaic of the group of cyclists and local officials gathered to celebrate the completion of the Waialae Avenue bike lane.

A poor attempt at a panorama of the group of cyclists and local officials gathered to celebrate the completion of the Waialae Avenue bike lane.

Introduction

This is actually my second attempt at an introductory post.  Looking back, I started the first one last spring when I first setup this site, but never finished it.  The idea came to me after attending a workshop presented by the League of American Bicyclists and the Alliance for Biking and Walking, and hosted by the Hawaii Bicycling League.  The workshop dealt with mostly governmental-type topics such as how to secure federal funding for cycling and walking projects, but for us it served as a great motivator.

Lisa and I met people who are directly involved in maintaining and improving the cycling infrastructure here, who we can talk to and provide input and insight for new project development.  We also met a number of people from the local community who are almost role models–people who live in Honolulu and don’t own cars, who work in non-profits to advance access to new alternative transportation projects, or who strive make this a better, safer, and more sustainable community for everyone.

I wanted to include all of this in my first post, but never got around to finishing it.  In the following months, I kept running across topics that I’d like to write about, but felt I couldn’t because I didn’t have this initial introduction out of the way.  (Yes, I really can come up with any excuse to procrastinate.)  For whatever reason, I woke up this morning and felt the urge to get started.  Maybe It’s because a job vacancy at work closes at the end of the week and I should be working on my application instead of this.  (Bart Simpson:  “Ooo, Algebra!  I’ll just do a few equations…”)

What’s with the name?

Even though I had the concept of a site focused on cycling experiences (both local and in general), I had some trouble coming up with a name.  Early attempts involved bad puns, which, while normal for me, didn’t do much for long-term professionality (not that that’s even a word).

I remembered an episode of the TV show Life, where a prison inmate mentioned that it was earthquake weather.  In the show I thought that sounded like a warning, like the other prisoners were planning a riot.  (That didn’t happen, but later in the series there was an earthquake, just after the prisoner in question had been released.)  That started me thinking about the tornado weather that we saw growing up.  It’s something that Lisa even mentioned yesterday, when it was humid and still.  In Michigan those were the conditions you might see ahead of a cold front that would bring severe weather, but in Hawaii yesterday it meant that the subtropical ridge was overhead and we lost the trade winds.

At first I envisioned “Cycling Weather” to be focused entirely on cycling, but with the name applying on different levels.  From a literal standpoint, the weather is always favorable for cycling in Hawaii.  However, from a figurative standpoint, the climate for cycling is not as friendly as it could be, and this may be a forum to help change it.  Now, after talking with people following Hurricane Iselle earlier this summer and after considering some of the articles I’ve written for newsletters through work, I figure I’ll take the name even more literally (considering I am a meteorologist, after all).  So, expect articles about both “cycling” and “weather”.  Cycling Weather.  Hope you find it worthwhile!