Today, I’ve got a post over on Utility Cycling about getting started with family bicycle commuting. Please take a look!

First, in a guest post on Hobo Mama, Rachel Jonat tells about her experiences in going car-less with kids in Vancouver, B.C.

And on YouTube, Stanford University’s graduate journalism program has posted a five-minute video featuring Dr. Maren Pedersen of Palo Alto, and her experience as a life-long bicycle commuter. Enjoy!

I know other parts of the country have much more severe weather, though. How are you getting around? Do you drive, walk, bike, bus? Or just stay home?

Here in Portland, we’ve had a bit of an uproar because a member of our State House of Representatives proposed a bill that would make it illegal for children under the age of 6 to ride on a parent’s bike or in a bike trailer. Yes, that really does mean what it sounds like it means. No toddlers and preschoolers in a child seat, or in a trailer intended for babies and toddlers, or on the back of an Xtracycle.

Huh? I mean, even if you’re not that into biking this has to sound a little crazy. Lots of people, normal, average people, take their little ones out on bikes!

Representative Mitch Greenlick (D-NW Portland), thinks young children on bikes are a public health risk.  He told BikePortland that he bases his concern on a study done by Oregon Health Sciences University, his employer.

We’ve just done a study showing that 30 percent of riders biking to work at least three days a week have some sort of crash that leads to an injury… When that’s going on out there, what happens when you have a four year old on the back of a bike?

Oy. Yes, the study exists. The injuries counted in the study included everything from a scraped knee on up. Cycling advocate Mia Birk has an excellent analysis of the study.

Greenlick says that if we can save even one child’s life, we should do it. But meanwhile, thousands of children die as automobile passengers each year, and I don’t see Greenlick proposing that they be banned from riding in motor vehicles as well. And I’m not proposing it, either! I’m just saying that there’s definitely a double standard here.

Cooler heads have convinced Greenlick to pull back; it’s now going to be a topic for further study rather than a potential law. But he certainly got a reaction from Portland’s family biking community!

But today, we had a bit of sunshine! People in various other parts of Portland and Vancouver, Washington were reporting SNOW, but we didn’t get any where we live; just more rain and then a bit of sun.

When the sun came out, I happened to be taking out some garbage and recycling. And I said “Hey! It’s actually fairly pleasant out here!” and I ordered everyone outside. My eldest child grudgingly went outside for maybe a minute, but I and the other two went for a short bike ride; about one mile.

Of course, the weather changed before we got home — we had a graupel shower! We were just a few blocks from home, so that was just fun, no big deal. And now we’re back to cold, wet and dreary — but we got outside!

Here’s a detailed post on How To Waterproof Your Xtracycle. I’m especially thinking about this because my SnapDeck is, in fact, showing signs of water-wear. Xtracycle is now offering a FireHouse Deck, which was designed by a Portlander with rain in mind; I’ve also thought of getting their FlightDeck, which is made of recycled plastic and has holes for bolting things onto it (extra carrying capacity!).

David in Bozeman, Montana, has a post on winter commuting for those dealing with sub-freezing temperatures and snow.

CycleWorks in Lincoln, Nebraska has great advice for those who are bicycle commuting with kids in winter.

I’ve pulled out my gloves, hat and scarf, but my hands are already getting too cold! I think I need to find some wool or leather gloves this year. Or maybe those funky lobster-claw mittens. And my eldest daughter keeps borrowing my hat, so I think I need to knit a new hat for one of us.

That’s one of my favorite things to hear, and not because it’s some kind of ego-gratification. It’s because I hope I’m planting seeds, like my parents and many other people did for me.

For instance, my mother breastfed and cloth diapered six children. Some of our neighbors did the same with their children (in the 1970s and early 80s). So when I had my own babies, I didn’t think this would be too weird. I knew that it was both normal and possible.

My father rode the bus to work. When I was 10 or 11, I was allowed to ride the bus downtown all by myself to meet him at his office and then go to the Rose Festival Fun Center (none of this Waterfront Village business back then). And after that, I was frequently allowed (or even encouraged) to take the bus to the mall, the library, etc.  And when I got to college, and I didn’t have a car, I didn’t think it was weird to take the bus everywhere. Some of my friends had never ridden a bus. I dragged them all over the San Francisco Bay Area on public transportation!

So I hope that someday, those kids who saw me riding to school will remember that it’s perfectly normal for someone to ride their bike to and from work! After all, Mrs. McDade, did it!

Thanks, Mom and Dad! And thank you to my co-workers who walk or ride their bikes, too.

Lights don’t really help me see any better, but they do make me more visible to cars. My batteries have been running low, so  unfortunately my lights were rather dim today. I made it home safely, and made it a priority tonight to freshen the batteries and add a couple of extra lights.

My current setup includes a bright headlight-style light in front, a flashing white LED on my helmet, and two red flashers in the rear. I also have front and rear reflectors.

I feel pretty confident with these, but what I’d really like to add (especially after being hit from the side by a car earlier this year) is a Down Low Glow light. Down Low Glows are neon lights that attach to the frame, providing side visibility as well as a bright light on the roadway beneath the bike.

Next weekend, daylight savings time ends. We’re all supposed to check the batteries in our smoke detectors. Why not check the lights on your bike, too? And if you don’t have lights, go get some!

If you live in the desert, you may not even need rain gear. You might be comfortable just driving or taking the bus on those few wet days.

If you live in an area with moderate weather, or you don’t commute very far, you can get by with normal-people rain gear. I live in Oregon, but I only commute about two miles each way. I’m still wearing a cheap, $10 rain poncho I bought at Target a few years ago. If it’s really wet, sometimes I put on an old pair of hiking rain pants and tie plastic grocery bags over my feet. And if it’s really, really bad — like inch-of-rain-in-an-hour bad — I get a ride.

But if it rains constantly where you are, or if you commute further, you might want to get proper cycling rain gear.

Here are some of my other posts on cycling in the rain:

• Bicycle Commuting, Kids and RAIN — a guide to getting everyone prepared.
• Naked Xtracycle — about cleaning up the Xtracycle so that it doesn’t rust.
• Rain, Rain, You’re Okay — finding unexpected joy while riding in the rain.
• Dealing With Rain — Yep, sometimes I just ride the bus or get a ride. It’s OK to do that.
• Holy Wet Slacks on a Bike, Batman! — And sometimes I just get wet.

So what was the point of doing the car-free challenge, then?  Well, at first I just wanted to do something to encourage other people to try going car-free. So I asked for volunteers to go car-free for one day, and I matched those days.

But it turned out that many of you are already car-free or car-lite, including some of the people who volunteered.

It was also a response to the BP oil spill. I’ve been deeply saddened in recent months by the price we (as human beings) pay in order to be able to drive motor vehicles and use oil (and coal) for other things.

Professor Amy Myers Jaffe of Rice University told NBC News that if every American drove 30 miles less per week, it would cut our country’s oil consumption by 20 percent. I think it’s do-able. And I hope that by blogging about my life, others will realize it’s do-able, too.

Which brings me to the benefits of having done the car-free challenge.

• Encouraging or inspiring others. Shetha said, “I have to say you’ve been motivating me to make more of an effort too.”  Other friends actually complimented me on sharing my frustrations — it’s somehow encouraging to know that I get frustrated sometimes, too. I hope that the car-free challenge series helped others as well.
• Increased fitness. I’ve been working on my personal fitness this summer anyway. I’ve been doing the Couch to 5K running program, rather than doing cycling workouts, but cycling to various places during the car-free challenge helped with my fitness level, too. And when I almost made it up the long hill without stopping, I really knew that my fitness level had improved.
• Time with kids. My kids like to ride,too, and I took one or more of them with me several times. They’re the main reason that I have an Xtracycle, after all!
• More blogging! I blogged every day for ten days because of the challenge. It gave me motivation to post.

What about the negatives? Well, I did get frustrated and sick of the whole thing. And I haven’t been making an effort to bike or walk anywhere since then. So maybe being 100% car-free is not for me. I know that I can do it if necessary. But I’d rather not.

We’d probably be good candidates for a car-sharing system, like ZipCar, but they don’t have any cars out our way (and yes, I’ve told them I’m interested and suggested locations).

Living in a different neighborhood might be better for us. We could move someplace with better access to stores and services, and/or where ZipCars are available. But most of those neighborhoods are also further from our workplaces.

So for now, we’ll be sticking with our current set-up: An Xtracycle, an assortment of kids’ bikes, and a minivan.

Thank you to those who participated in the car-free challenge. I’m working on rounding up comments and/or blog posts from all of the participants and will be posting or linking to those soon.

At The Daily News Online, Pamela Wright makes a case for investing in bicycle infrastructure in Longview, Washington: Time to invest in two-wheel travel. Among other points, she mentions that “the U.S. cities with the highest percentage of bicycle commuters are Portland, Seattle and Minneapolis, so we can’t really play the weather card with any credibility.”

BikePortland asked us this week, Is Portland (and America) ready for e-bikes?  That does mean electric-assisted bikes, by the way, not some kind of online virtual bike (which is what e-bike always makes me think of).  Some don’t like them, but others think it’s a way to get more people cycling.  Price can also be a barrier, with e-bikes starting around $1100 (close to the price of my Radish). I left my thoughts in a comment: “As far as the price barrier goes — I think the trick is to sell people on bikes, either e-bikes or non-motorized bikes, as a car replacement. Not necessarily to the point of being car-free, but at least as a replacement for the second and third cars used by many couples and families.”

Did you read anything good about bikes this week?