Haleakala Ride

Looking down at the clouds from the summit (Volcano tours)

Another activity that I enjoyed in my younger days may be outlawed.

A popular Hawaii tourist activity, Maui downhill bicycle tours offer visitors an opportunity to see stunning landscapes on a ride down the winding roads of Haleakala with little physical exertion.

The activity, however, comes with some risk, as bicyclists share the road with vehicles, whose drivers sometimes get impatient, and downhill speeds may cause a rider to lose control.

Throughout its history, accidents have happened. Some have died. Earlier this month, Jeffrey Hins, a 68-year-old visitor from Arizona, was killed while biking down Haleakala as part of a group. The Maui Police Department said Hins crossed the yellow double-solid lane into the oncoming lane and crashed into a vehicle.

A new law addressing the safety of commercial guided and unguided bike tours, Ordinance 5439, just went into effect last year to alleviate concerns about safety and disruption to local traffic.,,“There’s been some in the community who want an outright ban on this type of industry operating on the road,” Mike Molina told KHON-TV. Molina, a former Maui County councilmember, championed the new law...

Haleakala downhill bicycle tours started in 1983. Over the next 20 years, the industry flourished, as it was a way for visitors to see Haleakala National Park at sunrise, then do a fun experiential activity. By 2007, about 90,000 visitors participated in bike tours annually, and revenues were estimated at $11 million...

Last year was the first time in 15 years that a new law was enacted to regulate the industry. Ordinance 5439 limits commercial tours to 10 riders, requires a minimum age of 15 and restricts guided and unguided tours to between Mile Marker 3 and Mile Marker 9.5 on Haleakala Crater Road.

Only a handful of companies continue to operate the downhill bike tours today and have altered their itineraries to accommodate the changes.

Depending on the operator, guided tours begin with a van ride up Haleakala Volcano to 10,000 feet to watch the sunrise inside Haleakala National Park. Then, the van brings the group down to around 6,500 feet, where cyclists launch after a safety briefing. Bicyclists then descend on a winding road of 29 switchbacks, while the van follows behind.

Ordinance 5439 cut some mileage from the tours by prohibiting specific areas of road and excluding the town of Kula. Operators have improvised by adding a second bike loop of the switchbacks, a van ride through Kula or lunch stop in Makawao, before continuing on the bikes to ride down to Haiku or Paia, where the tour ends.

I've done the summit downhill a number of times, the most recent occasion being a corporate retreat in the mid-1990's. We watched the sun rise over the crater, then cruised to Paia without stopping. It was early morning, traffic was light, and this weekend bicyclist used the brakes often. However, it is easy to see how increased auto traffic, combined with unskilled bicycle tourists, made serious accidents inevitable. Like many things in life, I'm glad I got to do the Haleakala ride before it got regulated away.

I'll Go Back Inside

After generations of protected status the ducks have lost all fear of humans. They sleep in large groups, not caring about our presence. In the photo above, the ducks wouldn't move when the two strollers approached on the path. Eventually the ladies walked around the dozing birds.

The ducks waddle about, leaving their organic matter everywhere. Neighbors with decks fronting the lagoon have to hose them off weekly; the same goes for cars that are parked outside.

Often we see plumps flying overhead...caution! I have learned from experience not to gaze upward with my mouth open. (Is that where the phrase "duck and cover" comes from?)

Speaking of sharing space with creatures who have the right of way, the kids are back in class. Within a couple of blocks of a school, drivers really must slow down, breathe deeply and exercise patience.

Making it worse, the new bike lanes have encouraged more children and adults to try bicycling. With some using the sidewalk, and with many riding the lanes both with and against traffic, drivers have to keep their head on a swivel.

The coronavirus is nearly over. Nevertheless, I'll go back inside.

Berkeley Enforces the Law

Blowing through a stop in Berkeley (Chron)

Your humble blogger only rides a bicycle for weekend recreation, but even that limited experience enables me to understand why serious riders, including those who ride bikes for a living or use them to commute, hate to stop. A bicyclist expends some effort to build a full head of steam, wastes that effort by coming to a stop, and then has to start all over. Also, everyone has grown accustomed to cars' acceleration, and by comparison bicycle acceleration after a stop takes excruciatingly long.

Bicyclists--though not everyone, just to be clear--have long operated under the belief that the rules don't apply to them, for example, that they can ignore stop signs and stop lights if there are no cars, or even if cars are slow--often because of their presence! (Some states now allow bicyclists to yield at stop signs.)

However, the increasing crowdedness of our streets has made it more important that everyone follows the rules that apply to them, for example, pedestrians must use crosswalks and only when the "walk" signal is on, cars must come to a complete stop and proceed with caution when making a right turn on red, etc.

Now the City of Berkeley is strictly enforcing the bicycle laws:

Berkeley has taken a different approach to traffic safety: penalties of more than $200 for cyclists who roll through stop signs.

The enforcement campaign, carried out by police officers who patrol the city’s quiet bicycle boulevards on motorcycles, has caused anger to spill from Twitter into City Hall.

Police say they are trying to prevent collisions and fulfill the requirements of a $250,000 state grant to promote good behavior on roadways.

The progressive nanny-staters who are fond of passing laws--no plastic straws! no free grocery bags! penalties for not sorting trash!--to regulate everyone's behavior don't like it when they have to follow the law.

The Rationality Will Pass

Vice Mayor Sam Hindi and Councilmember Gary Pollard
install the first bike symbol in Foster City in 2017.

In California, where private citizens and businesses are subject to the latest whims of the one-party State--no plastic bags, no plastic straws, jail for using the wrong pronoun--the only effective pushback can come from another State government agency (as for the ineffectual Feds, two words: sanctuary city).

Scott Wiener, State Senator from San Francisco and incidentally the sponsor of the jailtime-for-wrong-pronouns law, wants to require crosswalks and bike lanes for new road projects. Though the proposal sounds innocuous, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) objects:

Caltrans estimated that SB127 would cost more than $1 billion a year, or $4.5 million for each mile of blacktop. Caltrans officials said the state may lose its federal highway funds if the bill passes.

What Wiener had pitched as easy-to-do striping and crosswalk geometry would actually require a significant investment, according to a memo from state transportation officials. Most state roads promote ease and convenience for motorists above other uses. It takes a lot of staff, equipment and money to redesign them. Caltrans estimated it would have to complete 105 pavement projects — or 599 miles — in the next two years to meet the bill’s requirements.

In a fit of rationality California, which spent billions on the high-speed train to nowhere, is applying cost-benefit analysis to a transportation proposal.

Not to worry, folks, this mood shall pass, Scott Wiener's bill will pass, taxes will go up, and California will have a shot at claiming the mantle of having the highest gas tax in the nation.

And I Don't Even Know What's SUP

I haven't even tried Standup Paddle boarding (SUP)--the placid Foster City lagoon is perfect for beginners--and the next thing, electrically assisted water bikes, is already here.

(Chronicle photo)

The bikes, which [Jessica] Schiller invented in 2013, resemble mini-catamarans: a standard bicycle frame suspended over two inflatable pontoons, with a drop-down propeller powered by pedals and a 750-watt motor. The pontoon design provides stability so users can ride the bikes without having to worry about tipping or getting wet.

There's a practical application for this invention. Residents of Alameda Island typically drive across bridges or through the Webster and Posey underwater tubes to get to jobs in Oakland and the rest of the Bay Area. The bikes are a way for solo commuters to traverse the Oakland-Alameda estuary.

Oakland (top) and Alameda (bottom)
are 200 yards apart (Google Maps)

Oakland and Alameda officials have given the Mill Valley entrepreneur the go-ahead to install a fleet of 25 electrically assisted water bikes that will allow commuters to ride between the Jack London Square area in Oakland and either Mariner Square or the Grand Street dock in Alameda.

As with the land-based scooters and e-bikes that fill the roads, commuters will use a mobile app to claim a bike on either side of the estuary, ride across the 200-yard expanse of water and surrender it on the opposite side, paying by the minute.

There's no practical commuting application here in Foster City, but I can see my neighbors getting these for their backyard docks, and yes, for some of them money is not a problem.

Like Children Again

Schwinn Meridian: the front tire kept rubbing against the
fender, which I eventually removed.

Though we are fortunate to possess fairly good health into our 60's, the handwriting is on the wall: our once proudly-independent selves will decline to mewling helplessness. Safety becomes more important than power and speed. We'll be like children, minus their energy and recuperative powers, again.

And so it was that I spent six hours assembling a Schwinn Adult Tricycle. Gone are the days of shifting into high gear along the biking paths. "Triking" at a walking pace is the new speed limit.

Being a novice assembler, I took my time putting the tricycle together. The trickiest parts were tightening the chain and adjusting the brakes and cables so that there was no friction while moving, with only a light squeeze necessary to begin the slowdown. The last touch was putting in the decorative front fender (picture), which despite numerous adjustments kept rubbing against the tire. Finally, I just took it off.

Various family members pronounced the ride "fun", so my inefficient labors were in the end successful.

BTW, your humble blogger had difficulty riding the tricycle! In bike riding one of the first lessons one learns is to "counter-steer" (i.e., when going left, turn the wheel to the right--on paper it sounds odd but is necessary to retain balance; after a few minutes one does this without thinking about it).

Counter-steering is precisely the wrong move when trike riding. If you are veering right and want to go left, don't turn the front wheel right as you would with a bike. I went off into the bushes several time until I realized that to go where I wanted, just point the wheel in that direction, as any 4-year-old knows.

We are going to be helpless as children again, but we may not be as smart.

Exercise Can Make You Sick

Norway has two million(!) sheep.

News item: Sheep poo makes Norwegian cyclists sick.

Of the 300 cyclists who took part in the TransØsterdalen race at the end of June in southeastern Norway, at least 50 were struck with fever, stomach pain and diarrhoea in the days following the competition, according to public broadcaster NRK.

"This is most likely a Campylobacter infection," race doctor Tor Halvor Bjørnstad-Tuveng told NRK, referring to a bacteria which is present in the intestines of many animals.

He said material from the sheep droppings, which have decomposed during heavy rain and projected on the bikers' route, must have sprayed onto their bottles, faces and hands as they rode by.

Ah, the great outdoors, just smell that....fresh air.

Your humble blogger's monkey mind hopped to this great moment in television from the 1960's:

Logical Extension

(Image from tribesports.com)

Bicyclists are pushing back against mandatory helmet laws for adults (over 18). They are claiming that overall societal health will be reduced because some adults will be discouraged from riding due to the hassle of carrying and wearing a helmet.

I happen to agree with that reasoning, but it's also clear that there will be additional head injuries without the law.

Statistics vary, but several studies show that wearing a helmet reduces the risk of head or brain injury by about two-thirds or more. An analysis in the Journal of Pediatrics of a decade of data concluded that bicycle-related death rates were about 20% lower among children in states with helmet laws.

Sorry helmet-freedom advocates, but such injuries will be a burden to society's health-care systems; therefore society's right to keep its costs down trumps an individual's freedom to decide. This is the same argument that was used to justify mandatory car seat-belt laws, which were upheld by the courts in the 1990's.

When you argue against someone else's freedom, even for what may be the "best" of reasons, you may be putting your own freedom at risk.

Larry's World

Oracle Team USA's comeback from an 8-1 deficit to capture the America's Cup was another feather in the cap for Larry Ellison, the richest and oldest member of the Bay Area billionaires' club. Over the past 35 years Oracle Corporation, which Ellison founded, has brushed aside and absorbed former high-fliers like Siebel Systems, PeopleSoft, and Sun Microsystems.

Last year he acquired most of the Island of Lanai and is transforming it into a laboratory for eco-friendly ways to live.

Oracle Team USA's come-from-behind victory was historic not only in the history of yachting but of all sports. For Larry Ellison it's just another chapter in a unique bio that includes both curfew violations for flying his Gulfstream over San Jose residences and a promise to donate most of his estate to charity. At the still-vigorous age of 69, Larry Ellison doesn't appear to be done yet. © 2013 Stephen Yuen

Keeping it Going

A few repairs needed

The tandem bicycle has been out of commission for over a year. I took it to Talbots for service. Replacement tires, brakes, and seats, plus other repair work, will cost about $200. That's a bargain when compared to the cost of a new bike, especially one of the newfangled $2,000 electric models that the WSJ featured this weekend.

The repairs will be done in ten days, and I signed the estimate. The bike should be perfectly satisfactory....at least until a certain tech company springs a surprise entry in the bike market.

Diagram from Patently Apple