Last week, the Temple Alumni Review published a nice article about my focus on making bike maps.  I’ve gotten lots of comments from people that I didn’t know were connected to Temple University.  Thanks Temple Review!

Related to work, I’ve been busy in New Jersey, working on a revision of the Burlington County Map and the New Jersey State Bicycle Map.  Public input is really important on the state map, so we’ve developed a user input website that I’m pleased with.  It will allow registered users to download drafts, comment, and then upload them.  There’s also a google map wiki for people to place points like bike shops and challenging intersections into an online database.  When the website is given the “OK” to go live, I’ll post something here.

Coming up later this month, I’m very excited to do some exploration of a bicycle tour route from Philadelphia to Washington DC.  I’m planning a fully supported bike tour for the week of September 12, 2011.  The daily mileage will be about 45 miles, giving cyclists lots of time to stop and enjoy national parks and sites along the way.  Just researching this is going to be wonderful.  I’ll spend a few days trying to find the most scenic, calming country roads.

This coming weekend is Jenkintown’s Arts and Brew Fest.  This should be the best Jenkintown Festival ever, and I’m looking forward to it.  As President of the Jenkintown Community Alliance, I get to work with some great people.

Coming up in October, I’ll be speaking about designing bicycle maps at the North American Cartographic Information Society’s annual meeting.

Pennypack Creek, Huntingdon Valley

Serenity is going on a short bike ride along quiet roads, sitting by a rushing stream, picking wild raspberries, and somehow feeling like you’ve been transported out of a mad traffic culture. That was a week ago already.

Having a farmer’s market in Jenkintown is also a wonderful thing.

Today at the farmer’s market, I had a nice conversation with a maple syrup vendor from near Green Lane Reservoir.  We were talking about tapping trees for syrup, shale drilling, the Perkiomen Bike Trail, and the financial aspects of owning farm land three hours away from where you live.

I also talked with Judy, who with her Husband Ed and son Matt, drive wonderful produce from their farm (Herrcastle Farm) to Jenkintown from Southwestern Lancaster County on Wednesdays.  Today’s harvest was really great, and I bought several cartons of golden cherry tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, plums, raspberries, fresh corn,  cantaloupe, etc.

My daughters really like raw milk for some reason… and cookies.  I guess you can’t beat this combination.  They also like the arts activities set up by the Abington Arts Center and the flute and violin music (especially the flute) of Erik and Jane Petersons.  I enjoyed their music too.

Farmers markets are a growing trend.  At the same time, I think there needs to be greater certainty that people will buy the great produce that the farmers spent all day harvesting and then another day selling.  I think it would be nice to help these farmers link up with my daughter’s daycare or with the Abington Friends School or with the Abington Hospital.  These are all places where people are going every day to work or pick up their kids, and if customers can order a bunch of produce online and pick it up someplace they are going anyway, the farmers wouldn’t be subjected to the weather fluctuations that affect sales.  If someone is driving three and a half hours round trip, and they are providing a great service to us, I hope they are selling what they’ve grown.

As much as I like our farmers market and bike rides, my focus is on my next bike map.  I’ve been researching and analyzing state bike maps, and I plan to present useful rough concepts for the New Jersey State Bike Map in a couple of weeks.  This will be a starting point for discussion that I think will lead to a useful, compelling map.

The D7 is unassuming in looks. It’s a comfortable commute bike, and it was inexpensive and came with fenders and a rack. There’s nothing fancy about this bike, but I’ve enjoyed long rides (50+ miles) on it. The bike is easy to maintain and has been dependable for about 10 years. It is also easy to lock the seat, making it a good urban bike.

The Speed TT is the bike I got in order to take to California when I was working on the San Mateo County Bike Map. At 23 lbs, skinny tires, 27 speeds, a shock absorbing hub, and time trial style handlebars, it has been a pleasure to ride. I got clipless pedals to use with it. The 2008 model that I have has handlebars that are a little narrow. The bike feels pretty quick. I’ve added fenders and a rack to it. If I were going on an 80 mile bike ride, I’d probably take this bike.

When I bought the TT, what I really needed was the TR. The TR is 10 pounds heavier and has fatter, lower pressure tires. The handebars are about 5″ wider. I bought the 2008 version and replaced the rear rack with the traveller touring rack that comes on the 2009 model. There’s a front rack for panniers as well, and a air pump built into the seat post. The TR has 24 speeds (a wider ratio than the 27 speed TT), and the front hub is a generator hub that will power the front lights or my iphone. This is the bike I can use to carry groceries without my heal hitting the rear grocery bag pannier. It’s also, if I have time, the bike I can go overnight camping with. It seems very durable.

I find all the Dahons comfortable, and they are simple enough that I can maintain them. They are also one-size-fits all, so I can loan a bike to a friend for a ride.

My other “folding” bike is a Bike Friday Family Tandem, which I find essential as a parent. This bike actually comes apart rather than folds. I’ve added a special crank attachment that essentially shortens the crank to better fit a kid. I attach a trailer-bike to it in order to travel with both of my kids.

Each of these bikes has functions best depending on the context. To sum it up:

D7 – Urban trips (to Center City, or keep in the trunk of my car).
TR – Suburban Shopping, Overnight Touring (bringing it on Amtrak, SEPTA or a bus).
TT – On-road rides of longer distances that aren’t touring. Likely involves a train ride.
Family Tandem – Daily trips with kids.

Map image on ipad

I’m getting ready for the Adventure Cycling Leadership Training Course, and I’m taking an ipad with me so I can keep in touch, work on on the train, and have reference maps of the Richmond Area.

Tonight, using the good GoodReader app on my ipad, I downloaded the Northeastern Pennsylvania Bicycle and Hiking Map onto my ipad.  When you have all these maps as PDFs on a computer, it’s phenomenal!

I download a pdf of the philadelphia inquirer onto the ipad as well. These are big pdfs, and they are easy to navigate.  I can use these in conjunction with the 3G GPS Mapping functionality of the ipad.

My thought is that, when I am going to take a trip, I should download lots of reference maps (like state parks maps) into the ipad.

Rain is always a consideration.  For the trip to Richmond/Pocahontas State Park, I’m making a 24×24″  area map and printing it onto Tyvek.

His philosophy is that he creates paintings that make him feel good. They don’t have to be perfect, but they help him express himself.  I find that this is what motivates me in terms of cartography.  It’s important for me to do work for others because I learn so much.  But I enjoy making maps most when I’m the driving force behind them.

So… I’m also really into the latest and greatest technology.  It is part of what makes work fun.  On Friday, I got the new CS5 Creative Suite after watching Mordy Golding’s Lynda.com videos about the new features.  This is the best Ilustrator upgrade in a long time, and I had ordered it awhile ago.

And… to watch lynda.com video tutorials, what better than to do this on a 3G ipad?  Right now, Lynda is interviewing Bert about the new bristle brush in Ilustrator CS5.  It looks great on the ipad.

In regards to the ipad, I think I’ll use it for web browsing, watching videos, MotionXGPS, and checking email, but not so much for writing. I’m not even bothering to put music on it since an iphone works fine for this.

Finally, last night was the Bicycle Coalition’s Annual Meeting.  This is a great event – always inspiring.

Perkiomen Trail and Single Track around Green Lane Reservoir

Later, she rode her sister’s smaller bike and got a better sense of balance.  She could put both feet down on the ground so she wouldn’t fall over.  Another short video:  “Easy to put feet down” method.

Fear is the biggest challenge in learning to ride a bike.  Creating a situation of confidence, as opposed to a challenge, leads to a happier little cyclist.  And, along with this, more relaxed parents.

• “You’ve got to try out this bike”
• “It’s so quiet”
• “The generator hub and ambient light sensors for the lights totally change my perception of night riding in the suburbs. It’s great. And look how they handled the wiring. It’s in the fenders.”
• “It’s very comfortable”
• “The 8 speed internal hub is nice, though the range could be a little wider.”

Basically, Breezer has paid attention to little details that make for a really nice bike.  It’s the kind of bike you’d want to ride to a business meeting – elegant, functional, and comfortable on a 1 mile hilly bike ride to Starbucks or a 10 mile urban bike ride to Mugshots.  It’s a bike people would admire, but it doesn’t call attention to itself (I’d like to think… though many people have noticed I was riding a new bike).

So… the question is, how do I get one?  My daughters and wife like the look of it.  This is a good start.  But we just bought a tandem last year, so the question becomes how one justifies buying a new bike two years in a row.

Basically, I think it comes down to budgeting about $5 a day for transportation costs.  And then the price becomes less of an issue.  It definitely beats driving a car or riding the train.  And with an awesome lighting system, the Breezer is a great bicycle for riding at night.

Today I was also looking at the Moorestown Bike Plan at communitywalk.com. This site is more oriented towards people drawing their routes in. Toole Design and Urban Engineers are using this service, which costs $4.95 month.

So, today I was asked if we can develop something like this communitywalk. We actually have developed some custom sites that are database oriented, but these focus on point data only. Now, with the NJ State Bike Map, we will have a project that can utilize greater GIS/Web functionality.

I’m excited about this.

Thanks Phil. Sandi and I love the "Amazing Race"

I have so much to write about, and this is the really busy season for me.  Thanks are in order.

First, to Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz and Earl Blumenauer.  I’m excited to see my Congresswoman team up with the esteemed Congressman from Portland, Oregon.  Below is a link of me with Congressman Blumenauer after we talked about bicycling to Baltimore and his upcoming trip to Philadelphia (and Jenkintown, I hope)

Short Video of Steve and the Congressman

Next, is the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and the League of American Bicyclists.  Sarah Clark-Stuart did a fantastic job coordinating things in DC.

Alex Doty, Breen Goodwin, and Hans Van Naerssen (the new League President)

Thank you to the Maryland State Bicycle Coodinator, Michael Jackson, for giving me a reason to bike 50 miles between DC and Baltimore.

En route from DC to Baltimore (a 4 1/2 hr ride)

Here is a link to the route I took:

Thank you to Pennsylvania’s First Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator, Dave Bachman. Brian Sanders is the new Bike/Ped Coordinator. State Representative Rick Geist, from Altoona, presented Dave with a citation. He didn’t read the whole thing, but it probably says, “Dave, you’re a cool dude, and you did a great job” (in official-speak, of course). Dave did bike across the US one summer.

Rep. Rick Geist with Dave Bachman

Thanks to google for coming out with google maps for bicycling. I find it really useful. And I look forward to incorporating this into my projects.

Google maps team member demonstrating the new bicycle routing.