Found at http://www.BoingBoing.net
"It's spring! Time to watch some videos that will teach you how to tune-up and repair your own bike<http://bicycletutor.com/>. (Not that I would need a pre-spring tune-up, of course. I've totally been riding all winter. Yeah. Totally.) - Maggie<http://www.boingboing.net/author/maggie-koerth-baker/> "
http://bicycletutor.com/ The purpose of this site is to help people learn how to fix their own bikes. With over 200 videos you're sure to find what you need.
Cheers
Stacy Matwick
Information Centre
International Institute for Sustainable Development
161 Portage Ave. E., 6th floor
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 0Y4
Voice: (204)958-7755 Fax: (204)958-7710 Email: smatwick(a)iisd.ca<mailto:smatwick@iisd.ca>
IISD Research Library web page: http://www.iisd.org/ic
SD-Cite: IISD Research Library database: http://sd-cite.iisd.org<http://sd-cite.iisd.org/>
GENERata web-magazine: http://www.iisd.org/generata/
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read" Groucho Marx
Pedaling away from the health care crisis
by Elly Blue <http://www.grist.org/people/Elly+Blue>
28 Mar 2011 11:36 AM
[
http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-03-28-pedaling-away-from-the-health-care-c…
]
*This is the third column in a series focusing on the economics of
bicycling. Part 1 is "How bicycling will save the economy (if we let
it)<http://www.grist.org/article/2011-02-28-how-bicycling-will-save-the-economy>."
Part 2 is "Tearing down freeways to make room for a new bicycle
economy<http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-14-tearing-down-urban-freeways-to-make…>
."*
* *In the United States, we have the most expensive health care system in
the world.
We collectively invest more than 15 percent of our
GDP<http://www.visualeconomics.com/healthcare-costs-around-the-world_2010-03-01/>--
that's around $2 trillion, or $5,700 per person -- into health care
every
year.
The tragedy of these enormous numbers is that they fail to stem the tide of
our increasing ill health. "Most of the money we're spending on health care
is going to treat preventable chronic diseases," Michael Pollan told
Grist<http://www.grist.org/article/2009-11-06-michael-pollan-on-agriculture-and-h…>in
2009. Our poor diet, he added, is responsible for most of those
illnesses.
But it's not just about what we eat. The other part of that equation is our
national and increasingly desperate need for physical activity. We need to
rethink our transportation system and built environment on the same scale as
Pollan and others have reconsidered our agricultural system.
It has become obvious that we can't afford to keep doing things the same old
autocentric way.
For a fraction of the cost of the world's most expensive health care system,
we could all enjoy the world's best bicycling and walking infrastructure --
and with it much, much better health than we enjoy now.
Even minor investments in quality bicycle and walking transportation
infrastructure, particularly at bottlenecks like bridges, leads directly to
increased physical
activity<http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2008/may/12/bridge_pedestrian_lane_raise>for
people who live nearby.
A recent analysis of the health savings resulting from the bicycle
infrastructure in Portland, Ore, came up with stunning
results<http://bikeportland.org/2011/02/04/research-by-2040-portlands-bikeway-inves…>.
If the city builds out only the infrastructure it currently plans, the
researcher found, it will break even by 2015. By 2030, Portland will have
saved $800 million -- partly in fuel costs but primarily in health care and
the value of reduced mortality. For every $1 we spend, $5 is saved.
And that doesn't take into account a multitude of other factors. It's been
shown again and again that the benefits of bicycling outweigh the
risks<http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/info:doi/10.1289/ehp.0901747>,
that not bicycling is more
dangerous<http://www.ecovelo.info/2008/06/06/the-dangers-of-not-cycling/>in
the long run, and that being sedentary is worse
for your health than nearly anything
else<http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2009/05/05/sitting-death-rate.html>.
When kids, particularly, don't get enough physical activity and good food,
they are set up for a lifetime of ill
health<http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/March/22/Obesity-Type-2-Diabet…>
.
Then there's the mental health factor. People who bicycle and walk to work love
their commutes<http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2006004/pdf/9516-eng.pdf>[PDF],
whereas everyone else is
stressed <http://www.vtpi.org/traveltime.pdf> [PDF], even
pathologically<http://www.grist.org/article/2011-01-20-new-report-quantifies-just-how-much…>so.
* *Stress is often overlooked as an indicator and
instigator<http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/archives/2011/03/stress-may-alte.html>of
poor health.
And bicycling isn't just good for your personal health. There's also a
significant public health benefit to having fewer people driving.
Air quality is a big one. Cars produce secondhand smoke that none of us can
avoid. A parade of studies over the last few decades have steadily linked
living near freeways to heart
disease<http://www.justmeans.com/Freeway-proximity-can-put-you-on-road-heart-health…>,
lung cancer <http://www.ehjournal.net/content/6/1/23>,
asthma<http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/11614.html>,
impaired lung development<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR200701260…>,
and even autism<http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/16/health/la-he-autism-20101217>
.
Even being sealed in a car doesn't protect
you<http://www.velorutia.ro/blog/util/1281-road-user-exposure-to-air-pollution.…>from
the perils of concentrated
car exhaust <http://www.icta.org/doc/In-car%20pollution%20report.pdf> [PDF].
Car crashes cost the country $230
billion<http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130350&page=1>in 2000
alone. Only $33 billion of that was spent on medical costs -- but to
put that in perspective, that's the same amount as that year's federal
highway budget. Worse, in 2009 car crashes caused nearly 34,000 deaths and
2.217 million injuries <http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2010/dot16510.html>, many
of them serious enough to prevent victims from navigating our car-oriented
landscape in anything *but* a car.
What do we do about this? How do we address the health care crisis through
reforming our transportation system?
We'd be much healthier, we're always being told, if only we could get more
physical activity. Bicycle transportation is uniquely suited to fill this
requirement. Bicycling is uniquely suited for quickly and flexibly getting
around a city designed for cars. And riding a bike for transportation is as
good a workout as exercising at the
gym<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10694139>.
The cost, time, stress, and inconvenience of exercise evaporates with the
bicycle.
If only we all could take advantage of it. We are blessed in this country
with a chorus of voices urging people to exercise more and try riding a bike
-- but very little is being done to make that option safe and comfortable
for everyone.
I know, because I grew up in suburbia, that people don't eat unhealthy food
and sit on the couch all day out of laziness. They end up falling into those
behaviors because the options aren't there, or the cost -- in money, time,
and stress -- of living differently is simply too high.
Of course we want better
options<http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/qa-transportation-secretary-on-bi…>.
As many as 60 percent of Americans would like to ride
more<http://streetsblog.net/2010/12/20/wooing-the-hesitant-cyclist/>,
and most of us already have bikes stashed in the basement or garage. But we
don't feel safe, and often that's because there aren't safe or convenient
routes for us to take.
Fortunately, that doesn't stop everyone from getting on a bike. And the more
people out there riding, the safer *everyone*
becomes<http://bikeportland.org/2011/01/27/not-just-safer-for-bikes-fatal-car-crash…>,
whether or not bicycling is an option for them individually.
It would be absurd to suggest that bikes will solve our health care crisis
or that they can eliminate the political and economic machinations that
continue to deepen it. But bicycling, like food, is one of the few areas
where people can directly and concretely address the health care crisis in
the context of our community.
By improving our own health and working towards healthier cities, we're also
taking money from a health care system that doesn't improve our health. In
this light, bicycling for transportation isn't so much a lifestyle choice as
it's a form of civic action.
Green Action Centre will be hosting a local group viewing of the following
APBP (Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals) webinar on how to
increase the number of women cycling for transportation. If you would like
to join us, please let me know at *beth(a)greenactioncentre.ca*. Hope to see
you then!
cheers,
Beth
925-3772
p.s. Sorry for the late notice -- we just heard about it this morning.
------------------------------
Webinar: * How to increase the number of women cycling for transportation
*Date: *Wednesday, Mar. 30th, 2:00-3:30 p.m. CST *
Location: *EcoCentre boardroom, 303 Portage Ave, third floor* (enter via
elevator inside front doors of MEC)
*Description*
Learn how to increase the number of women cycling for transportation in your
community. This webinar builds on last year's APBP session, "Writing Women
Back into Bicycling". Five speakers offer compelling insights about cycling
projects run by inspiring women, illuminate what women told APBP they want
in a cycling environment, and suggest best practices to help you make a
difference in your community. Don't miss the stories of some of the
wonderful women leading the cycling movement, and results of APBP's 2010
survey on Women Cycling.
*Journal of Physical Activity and Health
2011, 8(Suppl 1), S49-S58
Costs and Benefits of Bicycling Investments in Portland, Oregon
Thomas Gotschi*
http://journals.humankinetics.com/jpah-pdf-articles?DocumentScreen=Detail&c…
*Background: *Promoting bicycling has great potential to increase overall
physical activity; however, significant uncertainty exists with regard to
the amount and effectiveness of investment needed for infrastructure. The
objective of this study is to assess how costs of Portland’s past and
planned investments in bicycling relate to health and other benefits.
*Methods:* Costs of investment plans are compared with 2 types of monetized
health benefits, health care cost savings and value of statistical life
savings. Levels of bicycling are estimated using past trends, future mode
share goals, and a traffic demand model.*
Results:* By 2040, investments in the range of $138 to $605 million will
result in health care cost savings of $388 to $594 million, fuel savings of
$143 to $218 million, and savings in value of statistical lives of $7 to $12
billion. The benefit-cost ratios for health care and fuel savings are
between 3.8 and 1.2 to 1, and an order of magnitude larger when value of
statistical lives is used. *
Conclusions: *This first of its kind cost-benefit analysis of investments in
bicycling in a US city shows that such efforts are cost-effective, even when
only a limited selection of benefits is considered.
--
*Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options
<http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action
Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/>
<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/>
3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us
here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/>
Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living.
Support our work by becoming a
member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>
Nice to see this article given some recent backlash by a select few in NYC
where they are setting new standards in bike infrastructure for other cities
in N.A. -Beth
[
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/new-yorkers-support-bicycle-la…
]
*
NY TIMES - City Room
March 18, 2011, 4:55 pm* New Yorkers Support Bicycle Lanes, Poll
Finds By MICHAEL
M. GRYNBAUM <http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/michael-m-grynbaum/>
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News
The Bloomberg administration’s new bicycle lanes, the subject of one of the
more heated civic controversies in recent memory, are supported by a
majority of New Yorkers, according to a poll released on
Friday<http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1302.xml?ReleaseID=1569>by
Quinnipiac University.
More than half of registered voters — 54 percent — said they believed the
expansion of bicycle lanes had been a positive development for the city.
The only demographic groups opposed were Republican voters and, by a smaller
margin, residents of Queens. Over all, 39 percent of respondents said they
were unhappy with the lanes, and 6 percent said they had no opinion on the
matter (or did not answer).
The survey question was fairly stark: either that the bike lanes are “a good
thing because it’s greener and healthier for people to ride,” or “a bad
thing because it leaves less room for cars, which increases traffic.” The
poll asked which statement was closer to the respondent’s point of view.
“On balance, people like it,” said Maurice
Carroll<http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x2011.xml>,
director of the Quinnipiac University Polling
Institute<http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x271.xml>.
“It’s not overwhelming, but it’s a plus.”
Support for the lanes was strongest in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Voters in
Queens disapproved of the lanes, but by 48 to 45 percent. Only 35 percent of
Republicans supported the lane, while 59 percent of Democrats approved.
Support for the bike lanes seemed to wane with age. Voters between ages 18
and 49 supported the lanes by wide margins, but support fell below 50
percent among voters older than 50. Still, supporters outnumbered opponents
in each age group.
The poll, which surveyed 1,115 registered voters earlier this month, had a
margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Hundreds of new bicycle lanes have been installed since 2007, part of the
administration’s plan to encourage environmentally friendly modes of
transportation that cut down on traffic congestion.
Arguments for and against the bike lanes typically go into more detail than
the survey’s questions. The city’s Department of Transportation, led by its
commissioner, Janette
Sadik-Khan<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/nyregion/06sadik-khan.html>,
argues that carving out street space for bicycles has resulted in slower car
traffic and, in turn, fewer accidents.
Critics of the lanes complain about lost parking spots,
additional difficulty in driving in the city, and the risk to pedestrians
from bicyclists who disobey traffic laws.
Some opponents have also faulted the Transportation Department for
installing the lanes without sufficient community outreach, and not
disclosing all the relevant data related to the lanes. Those are among the
arguments in a lawsuit filed last
week<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/nyregion/08bike.html>by a group
of well-connected Brooklyn residents who have called on the city
to remove a two-way bike lane along Prospect Park West.
Biking advocates cited Friday’s poll as evidence that the city should
continue expanding its bicycle network. “Whether they drive a car, ride a
bike or get around by train, this poll shows that New Yorkers understand
that bike lanes make our streets better for everyone,” Paul Steely White,
executive director of Transportation Alternatives, wrote in a statement.
The survey also found that New Yorkers were unhappy with a plan to rename
the Queensboro Bridge<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/nyregion/09bandt.html>for
former Mayor Edward I. Koch. Nearly two-thirds of voters opposed the
plan, proposed last year by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, with opposition
particularly pointed in Queens.
Please circulate widely. Thanks! -Beth
*****active adult workshops*
*****city cycling: commuter cycling skills*
*****new!* Start commuting by bicycle or just feel more comfortable riding
your bike. CAN-BIKE certified instructors from Bike to the Future will
clarify the rules and teach you how to ride on the road with confidence. You
will learn the skills you need to ride just about anywhere your bike will
take you. The course includes both in-class and on-road training. Each
participant will receive a free copy of the***** new* 2011 version of the
Winnipeg Bike map.
*****Fee:* $36.00 1 day
Sport for Life Centre:145 Pacific Ave.
*394547 Sat May 14 Noon–4:00pm*
*394548 Sun May 29 Noon–4:00pm*
You can find it on page 81 of the guide or at: *
http://www.winnipeg.ca/cms/Leisure/pdfs/leisureguide.pdf*<http://www.winnipeg.ca/cms/Leisure/pdfs/leisureguide.pdf>
Pass it around!
[While reading this article, note that Winnipeg got its first cycletrack,
i.e. physically separated bike lane, late last fall on Assiniboine Ave! -
cheers, Beth]
Cyclists shouldn’t ‘share the road,’ they should have their own
by Elly Blue <http://www.grist.org/member/386213>
14 Feb 2011 1:14 PM
It's long been the most controversial issue in bicycling:
Should people on bikes ride in traffic with cars, using the same
infrastructure and following the same procedures (a style of riding known as
"Vehicular Cycling")?
Should we ride on the sidewalks and off-road paths, with pedestrians?
Or should we have our own place to ride that's designed specifically for
bicycling?
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/pwkrueger/5134415882/in/set-72157625160007617/>
[image: Cycletrack-Vancouver(Paul Krueger copyright).jpg]
A physically separated bike lane in Vancouver, BC. Looks nice, right? Photo:
Paul Krueger<http://www.flickr.com/photos/pwkrueger/5134415882/in/set-72157625160007617/>
--
Like Goldilocks, we've tried all these options. Riding with faster, heavier
cars is hard on us. Riding with slower, roaming pedestrians is hard on them.
Only when we have our own place in traffic are things anywhere near just
right.
Or so says a study released last week in
Montreal<http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Separated+Montreal+bike+paths+lower+ris…>,
which shows that not only does dedicated bicycle infrastructure work in
North America, it borders on negligence for cities *not** *to build such
infrastructure. (You can download the entire study
here<http://gobiking.ca/risk-of-injury-study.pdf>[PDF].)
We're not talking about the old, familiar bike lane, marked by a line of
white paint -- which so often functions more as a symbol and reminder of our
right to be in the road than as actual bicycle infrastructure. Car doors,
intersections, potholes, and misinterpretations by law enforcement are among
the many pitfalls of the old-school bike lane. But on any road where car
traffic is traveling significantly faster than a person can pedal, a bike
lane, flawed compromise that it is, is better than nothing at all.
Cities across North America have in the last two years been discovering a
better way to build a bike lane -- separating it entirely from motor vehicle
and pedestrian traffic alike.
It's called the cycle track. Though we recently discovered it, we didn't
invent it: It's been the backbone of the world's most attractive,
comfortable, safe bicycling environments for decades in European cities like
Utrecht<http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2010/05/cycle-rush-hour-in-spring-in-utrecht.ht…>and
Groningen <http://www.camcycle.org.uk/events/visits/groningen/> (see the
system in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AbPav5E5M&feature=player_embedded).
Cycle tracks, also called segregated bike lanes or separated bike paths, are
basically bike lanes that use the same right of way as a major street but
are set off from car traffic by a barrier more substantial than a single
painted white line. They may be separated by bollards, a concrete barrier,
or a curb. On many streets, parked cars provide the barrier. Some cycle
tracks are one-way and others carry two directions of bike traffic.
Unlike their more dangerous cousins, the off-road bike
paths<http://www.grist.org/article/2010-11-07-we-need-real-bike-paths-for-real-bi…>,
cycle tracks are for bikes only and are not intended to be shared with
people walking or running and more than with cars.
Montreal, the focus of the recent study, has an unusually large number of
cycle tracks for a North American city. Still, unlike their European
cousins, these are mainly two-directional and have what the study calls a
"less than ideal design," particularly at intersections.
Even so, the researchers found, these lanes enjoy 2.5 times more bicycle
traffic than alternate bicycle routes without cycle tracks. On Montreal's
cycle tracks, the risk of injury is 28 percent lower -- or to be exact, 10.5
crashes, but only 8.5 injuries -- per million kilometers bicycled.
Despite strong evidence from now two continents, the Montreal researchers
point out, United States federal guidelines actively discourage cities from
building cycle tracks.
Everywhere cycle tracks are proposed and built there is some amount of local
pushback<http://www.citycaucus.com/2010/10/why-are-separated-bike-lanes-so-controver…>.
We're seeing an extreme degree of this in New York City, where a powerful
group that includes the city's former transportation commissioner (who just
happens to be married to Sen. Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.]) have filed a lawsuit
to remove a successful two-way cycle track recently built along Brooklyn's
Prospect Park. The media has embraced the
campaign<http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/02/14/have-you-seen-the-latest-marcia-krame…>,
with a local politician contributing the most venomous and spirited
rhetoric<http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/01/24/markowitz-on-ppw-data-its-a-vast-biki…>
.
There is also a vociferous cadre of bicyclists who organize against bicycle
infrastructure of all
kinds<http://bicyclealliance.blogspot.com/2011/02/gravity-bike-lanes-and-limits-o…>,
with the slogan: "bicyclists fare best when they act, and are treated in
return, as drivers of vehicles." One such Vehicular Cycling organization in
Ottawa, Ontario is rallying
against<http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/Even+some+cyclists+oppose+cycling+lane/…>a
high-profile cycle track planned in Canada's capital city.
But as the research keeps rolling in, I suspect we'll continue to find that
real bicycle infrastructure is going to be an amazing boon to bicycle
transportation. For instance, we already knew that the air quality is
better<http://bikeportland.org/2010/10/28/study-cycle-tracks-mean-better-air-quali…>,
whether you're riding on a cycle track or walking on the sidewalk next to
one.
We know that, despite shopkeepers' fears, increased bicycling is
good<http://therecord.blogs.com/take_the_lane/2010/06/cyclists-are-good-for-busi…>for
business<http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/transit/2011/02/10/businesses-see-bi…>
.
We know that people will ride in greater
numbers<http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/blogs/greenlife/archive/2010/…>on
dedicated, separated bicycle infrastructure, and that with
numbers comes safety<http://www.grist.org/article/2010-10-11-theres-safety-in-numbers-for-cyclis…>
.
As long as we continue to allow our streets to be dominated by cars, we need
to go the extra mile -- or thousand miles -- to ensure that everyone who
isn't in a motor vehicle at any given time is still able to move freely
around the city. Separated infrastructure, like sidewalks and cycle tracks,
are necessary if a car-oriented city is to be navigable by unarmored humans.
Some day, I hope we don't need them. Until then, I hope we build them as
well as possible.
Elly Blue is a writer and bicycle activist living in Portland, Oregon.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Haynes <activetransportation(a)rogers.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 1:02 PM
Subject: Active Transportation Canada - March 18, 2001
Twenty (20) new items have been posted on the Active Transportation-Canada
Website today. A complete list of titles may be found in the "Blog Archive"
box, located on the right margin of the Website.
Some sample items:
1. Cyclists shouldn’t ‘share the road,’ they should have their own
2. Video - Cycling Options for various disabilities: UK
3. Estimating the Employment Impacts of Pedestrian, Bicycle, and Road
Infrastructure
Active Transportation Canada URL:
http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.com
A "Search" function is available on the site. You will find this at the
bottom of the page. With more than 1,000 items posted on Active
Transportation - Canada, there are links available to dozens of studies and
hundreds of news items from communities across Canada and the world.
If anyone has a problem reading this message, please let me know. I welcome
suggestions for posts, so if you have news items featuring your community,
please share them with the other subscribers from Canada, the US, and
Australia on Active Transportation-Canada.
Thank you.
Michael Haynes
Director
TransActive Solutions
[My new role model...]
<http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/trb.latimes/news/local;;ptype=s;slug=la-me-l…>
At 103, he's a three-wheeled wonder If it were up to Octavio Orduño, he'd
still be cruising Long Beach on a two-wheeled bicycle. But his wife insisted
he get a tricycle. The city wants to make him an ambassador for cycling:
'He's our poster boy for healthy, active living around here.'
By Esmeralda Bermudez, Los Angeles Times
March 14, 2011
[image: Long Beach 103 yr old tricyclist.jpg]
It's time to ride, but Octavio Orduño, stubborn as ever, won't put on his
glasses.
His wife, Alicia, insists: "But you can't see without them."
"No," he tells her. "I don't want to."
Then he starts to head off, on his way.
If it were up to Orduño, he would still be cruising the streets of Long
Beach on a two-wheeler.
But a few years back, Alicia insisted he add another wheel and get a
tricycle. After all, he was 100 and beginning to lose his balance.
He turns 103 on Monday, so he's probably the oldest cyclist in Long Beach.
The city, which wants to make him an ambassador for biking, likes to call
him "the oldest in the world."
Orduño lives half a block from the beach. Nearly every day, he toddles from
his third-floor condo to the garage where he keeps his red Torker tricycle.
On it, he pedals around the neighborhood — to the park, the beach and the
farmers market — in a ritual honed over nearly 40 years.
Not long ago, the city's bike coordinator, a gregarious, gray-haired Texan
named Charles Gandy, took notice. He befriended Orduño and shared his story
online, posting two
videos<http://acgallery.smugmug.com/Bike-Long-Beach/Octavio-Orduno/14894674_Lmmck%…>of
him coasting down the bike lanes, propped up by his self-installed
blue
velvet backrest. And that's only the start of Gandy's plan, if the old man
is game. He'd like to have him cut the ribbon at bike-friendly ceremonies
and appear in television and radio ads.
"He's our poster boy for healthy, active living around here," Gandy said,
just what people need "to shake themselves out of a rut."
Orduño loves the attention. But his riding around town isn't any sort of
campaign.
"It keeps me going," he said. "And it's better than sitting in the den all
day watching cars go by."
Alicia is right. With his glasses off, it's clear he can't see too much at
all.
No matter. He knows the six-block route to Bixby Park by feel. Aside from a
few potholes that rock his hunched frame and make him yell "Ayyyy!," the
voyage is smooth.
"I can ride this bike all day long," he says as the world whizzes by in a
blur: the grind of lawn mowers, the sour smell of garbage, two growling pit
bulls — one black, one beige — and a pretty girl in a flowery skirt.
The retired aerospace mechanic can't recall how old he was when he first
started riding. He just remembers it took him a long time to persuade his
father to buy him a bike.
The two used to argue all the time over school, which Orduño found boring
and pointless. So at 16 he ran away, hopping freight trains from Oregon to
Wisconsin to Chicago. For years, he says, he labored on farms and laid
railroad track, stashing his cash in an old tobacco tin.
When the Great Depression struck in 1929, the trains he rode filled up with
desperate men — former doctors and lawyers who had lost it all.
His first marriage lasted 20 years and gave him four children — three boys,
one girl. With Alicia, he had two more girls. Next year, the couple will
celebrate their 60th anniversary.
His kids, grandkids and great-grandkids are spread across California and as
far afield as New Mexico, Indiana and Missouri.
A few times a year, his son Eddie, 79, visits from his home north of Fresno.
At the sight of him, Orduño lights up.
"I don't know how many days he has left, how many months, how many years,"
Eddie said of his father. "But he's had a full life."
Alicia wants him to keep having one. There are days she has to scold him.
When he turned 100 and the state took away his driver's license, she thought
he'd be safer. But he returns from his tricycle rides scraped up from falls.
Not long ago, on his way out of the garage, his foot slipped going uphill
and he flipped over. His face hit the concrete. The bike landed on his leg.
He lay on the ground for half an hour before a neighbor came to his rescue.
Once, he and the tricycle* *came home in a police car.
"That time, I thought I was clear, so I let it roll," he says. "I think I
was going about 30 miles an hour when I went over the curb and some guys
came to help me."
A day or two later, he was back on the street, "like nothing ever happened,"
Alicia said.
A few minutes into his ride to Bixby Park, the grassy knolls come into view
and Orduño proudly calls out: "We're
here!<http://www.latimes.com/topic/economy-business-finance/media-industry/televi…>
"
He waits in a driveway for the light to turn green so he can cross busy
Ocean Boulevard. Just then, a giant Suburban comes up behind him, waiting
for him to move. But Orduño, caught uphill without momentum, can't get his
ride to budge.
The driver takes in the scene and laughs.
"Puchenlo! Puchenlo!" he teases out the window. *Somebody push him!*
At the park, Orduño speeds past the grass and the picnic benches, where
seniors lounge in the sun.
He goes straight to the back, to his favorite place: the skateboarding zone.
There, on an open stretch of concrete, young guys with shaggy hair and saggy
pants zoom around, grinding the ground with ollies and flips.
Orduño hits his brakes and takes it all in. His mouth drops open in a smile.
They return the favor, singing his praises.
"Hey, sweet ride, man!"
"Yo, check him out! He's down."
Nick Tarrant, a 21-year-old with a stubbly goatee and a low-slung action
bike, asks him his name, practically yelling so Orduño can hear him.
"Hey, it's OK. I'm deaf too," Tarrant tells him, pointing to his own
earpieces. The two talk bikes and hearing aids, and then Orduño says
goodbye.
He is ready to ride home, to Alicia and his usual dinner of beans, brown
rice and vegetables.
"Sometimes," Orduño says, as he reaches his block, "I feel stronger than the
year before."
With his birthday approaching, there's been talk of getting him an electric
wheelchair. Alicia thinks it will make it easier for her husband to get
around.
But Orduño has grown attached to his three-wheeler and has no plans to give
it up.
"Why would I?" he said. As for the wheelchair, "I think she can use it and
follow me when I ride."
*esmeralda.bermudez(a)latimes.com*