Organizers are pleased to announce the first annual Boston Bicycle Festival to be held on Sunday October 2, 2005, as part of Boston's 375 anniversary celebration. Novice cyclists, avid cyclists, and families looking for a day of fun will all enjoy the activities at the festival. The festival includes a 15, 25, or 40-mile tour through Boston, and an all-day bike fair held at Franklin Park. Leading up to the festival, there will be monthly bike rides of varying skill level (see next article).

Boston City Tour: See this old City like you've never seen it before! For both new and experienced cyclists, this ride is as relaxing or challenging as you choose. All routes have been designed with your safety and enjoyment in mind-- choose between the 15, 25, or 40-mile ride. Experience beautiful scenic parks and historic neighborhoods of Boston. Register as an individual or organize a team.

Festival at Franklin Park: Skill-building workshops and information booths; games and demonstrations; short family rides and art-bike parades; Active Lifestyles information-- health/ fitness/ wellness/ nutrition; bike rentals, music and food. For kids and adults, there will be something for everyone at the festival!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! Boston Bicycle Festival organizers are looking for volunteers that can help now with a variety of tasks, some can be done from home. Please contact jeff@livablestreets.info for more information.

Join us for the first in a series of monthly rides that are part of the upcoming 2005 Boston Bicycle Festival on October 2.

Riders will meet at 9:30 a.m. at the entrance to the Franklin Park Golf Course OR at 10:00 at the concession stand on Castle Island in South Boston, and will ride along the harbor and up the Neponset Trail if it is clear of snow. If the trail is impassable, we'll stay as close to it as we can. Total distance will range from 10 to 20 miles depending on the weather and stamina of the riders who show up. No lunch stop is scheduled, so bring a snack. Helmets are required.

This ride is co-sponsored by the Boston Bicycle Festival, Boston Natural Areas Network and MassBike. Email jeff@livablestreets.info for more information.

Like bicycling, transit is such an important part of life in Boston. Can you imagine Boston without the T? Anti-highway activists in the 1970's had the vision and energy to fight for transit instead of new highways.

Now it's our turn! The State of Massachusetts committed to expanded train service in the Boston area as part of an agreement to allow the Big Dig to move forward. Now they are trying to weasel their way out.

Your mere presence at this public hearing is critical! You can make a difference!

Monday, March 14, 6:30-8:30 pm
Somerville High School Auditorium
81 Highland Ave (Map)

The Boston Bicycle Planning Initiative (a project of the LivableStreets Alliance) continues to work with the City of Boston to push its message of Complete Streets, demanding that many streets are "incomplete" because they do not adequately accomodate bicycles and pedestrians. We have been meeting monthly with the Boston Transportation Department, in coordination with MassBike, to reestablish a working relationship between the bicycle advocacy community and the Department.

A complete street is safe, comfortable, and convenient for travel via bicycle, foot, transit, and automobile. We advocate that every road project in Boston, whether new or redesigned, create a complete street.

BBPI has also been meeting with the Department of Conservation (formerly the MDC) regarding improved maintenance of park bike paths such as along the Charles and the SouthWest Corridor.

Transportation Alternatives, a New York City sustainable transportation advocacy organization, recently announced CrashStat.org, maps and tables that show how many pedestrians and bicyclists were killed or injured, over a seven-year period, at every intersection and mid-block location in New York City.

It is no "accident" when a motor vehicle strikes a bicyclist or pedestrian. Rather, crashes are the predictable outcomes of poorly designed streets that do not adequately protect people from the errors in judgment that people routinely make. CrashStat.org shows that hundreds of New York City streets could be made more forgiving.

The best way to build forgiving streets is to slow drivers down to 20 mph or less. At slower speeds drivers can negotiate around street users, and in a worst case scenario even hit each other without serious injury. In London, recently introduced 20 mph zones have decreased fatalities and serious injuries by a whopping 57%. Imagine more than half of the tragic crashes in your neighborhood simply vanishing. That is what would happen if your neighborhood were to become a 20 mph zone.

The Boston Bicycle Planning Initiative has obtained raw crash data for Boston and surrounding towns and is in the process of creating CrashMaps for Boston. Stay tuned.

A "honku" is a haiku poem about cars and traffic. Transportation activist Aaron Naparstek realized he needed a way to calm his rage at the constant honking outside his Brooklyn, NY apartment, and started writing Haikus. Naparstek recently published a collection of more than one hundred hilarious and incisive honkus, termed "A masterpiece of automotive Zen."

Haiku is a traditional Japanese form of poetry. As it's typically written in English, a haiku consists of three lines written in a 5-7-5 format, totaling 17 syllables. A good haiku is subtle. It makes a simple and direct observation of something in nature, often leading the reader to a larger observation about the world as a whole.

Below is a classic haiku by the Japanese master, Basho-this may be the world's first honku:

This road -
no one goes down it,
autumn evening

The 17th century Japanese poets who began writing haiku found inspiration in the details of their immediate surroundings - the mountains and streams, the plants and creatures, the changing of the seasons. Similarly, the 21st century Brooklyn poets who began writing honku closely observed the flora, fauna and phenomena of their natural environment - the Mountaineers, Explorers and Escalades, the horn blasts of impatient cabbies, the wail of the 3:00 a.m. car alarm. Basho would have had a field day with this stuff.

Anyone can write a honku. Anything that drives you crazy while in or around cars, traffic, and the American motoring experience is fodder for a honku.

Honku is a road rage anger management technique.

The next time some jerk cuts you off, rather than succumbing to the rage, take a step back. Separate yourself from the moment and try to observe it with clarity and perspective. Then boil it all down into crisp and pithy 5-7-5 gem. That's a honku.

Click here for a 2002 New Yorker article about Naparstek's Honkus.