More Ladies on city streets is always better.
Check out the new data from the League of American Bicyclists. Ladies (and Lady-lovers) commuting by bike are on the rise!
So many more Ladies! So many more smiles!
Lovely 
So hop atop two wheels and join the rest of the fabulous Ladies and Lady-lovers experiencing the beauty of commuting by bicycle.
As always, from coast to coast: remember to enjoy the ride, Ladies & Lady-lovers! XOXO
Lovely! Converting what we have into what we can imagine. More examples of great planning and adjusting exisiting infrastructure to benefit the city and community.
Increased foot traffic to businesses, decreased pollution, improved smile-to-frown ratios, and the added potential for street tango all night long.
Yes, please!
See an area in your city that could be transformed for the better? Tell us your vision here. And while you’re at it, tell us why you ride, because sharing stories helps us all connect over shared experience, and helps inspire others to get out and ride, too! We’ll be sharing best ideas and stories from around the globe right here on the blog.
Stretch of urban highway that could be transformed into a waterfront park ala Portland’s Waterfront Drive? Maybe a busy street with potential to become a vibrant business district with a pedestrian walking plaza? The sky’s the limit (well, actually the pavement, but you get the idea)!
Keep dreaming, riding, and smiling, Ladies!
XOXO
Today in East Portland, a family is receiving the news no parent is ever truly prepared to receive. A tragedy of which no sense can ever be made: the death of a child.
Last night in East Portland, a 4 year old girl was killed by no fault of her own other than walking in her neighborhood and living east of 82nd Avenue, where “back to basics” doesn’t include the basic safety of sidewalks.
What is more basic than a child’s life? Than the health and safety of those most vulnerable?
The young girl was killed by a car on 136th Ave; a stretch of road in a neighborhood often neglected and ignored, and the very street where a basic sidewalk project was slated by the Hales administration to be cut from this year’s budget.
This death was preventable. It is shameful that it takes a tragedy such as this to demonstrate the budgetary value of infrastructure for active transportation.
Our legislators and Mayor are currently pressing for an over $3 Billion highway expansion, but are willfully placing our children’s lives at risk by denying the necessity of basic infrastructure for all road users in all neighborhoods. Just how much is a child’s life worth? Ask their parents. Ask yourselves.
What are our priorities as a city? If we can’t afford to provide for the safety of our children, it’s time to reexamine where and how our money is being spent.
Thoughts and hearts are with the family, the poor children who witnessed what happened, the driver whose life is forever changed, and the little girl who passed. In the days ahead, we need to do everything within our power to ensure that this heart-breaking tragedy is not repeated. That her life and legacy will serve as an impetus for safer streets. That she did not die in vain.
This is a solemn wake-up call. Let’s hope our representatives are listening.
Ride and walk safely out there, Ladies (and Lady-lovers).
XOXO
Porn for a witty-Lady’s brain
The multitude of benefits for Ladies (and Lady-lovers) from simply enjoying life atop two-wheels. From creating more jobs per project than steel-box expenditures, to maintaining your fabulous figure and coordination. Not to mention the sheer joy of casually pedaling through the streets of your city.
<3
Keep riding, reducing back pain, and smiling, Ladies!
XOXO
More jobs and vibrant downtowns? Yes, please!
Good morning, fabulous Ladies! Welcome to our first post in a series we’re calling “The Commuting Chronicles”; stories and issues raised while traversing Lisa Marie’s and Annette’s daily two-wheeled commute.
Planners and city officials often bring attention to the idea of the “last mile problem”, meaning public transportation can get you within the vicinity of your destination, but the last stretch between public transit stop and end-point discourages transit use, leading to more people traveling via personalized steel-coffin. Combining bicycles and public transit? Voila! Problem solved!
In Annette’s case, “the last mile” was the inverse: a portion of her riding that felt unsafe and intimidating (and exhausting!). Read more about her conversion to riding, the anxieties and neuroses invoked by The Tram, and the joys of overcoming perceived road blocks (pun intended!).
I started using my bike for regular transportation as soon as I moved to Portland. Grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants. But I couldn’t bring myself to ride work, the place I go more often than anywhere else.
My office is on the top of a steep hill. I wanted to ride to work, but to get up this hill I had two options: either ride up the hill next to cars on narrow roads, or park my bike at the bottom and take the Portland Aerial Tram, a beautiful pod-structure dangling frighteningly from a line. To most new commuters, the risks of riding on twisting and heavily trafficked narrow roads would make the tram an easy choice. But I’ve always been afraid of heights. I’d never tried or even thought to change that about myself; avoiding heights was simply a rule I chose to follow, limiting me in a small way. So for too long, I put off deciding between these options and just continued taking the bus.
Duh-du-duuuuuhhhhh
At some point, though, I realized that this was silly. I knew this fear of heights was less than completely rational. I wanted to ride to work and didn’t want to be my own barrier to doing that. So I chose to give the tram a try.
The first couple weeks I rode the tram, I would get there after a joyful outing on my bike and then immediately switch to a state of fear. As the tram lifted into the air, I clung firmly to one of the interior poles, staring straight ahead but completely focused inward, trying to get a grip on the dizzy spells I’d experience when the tram swung back-and-forth. Based on what I’d seen of desensitization and exposure therapy on a couple disturbing episodes of A&E’s Obsessed, I was proud just to be able to ride it without drawing attention to myself, and grateful to face this fear outside of the gaze and judgment of a national audience (in any case it would have made for boring television).
During my third week of riding the tram, without thinking I scurried onto a crowded tram as the last passenger at the end of my work day. The cabin was stuffed with people, leaving me with the option of panicking and manically explaining my special need to access the pole in a sea of chill people, or just holding my ground. Social anxieties won out, and I decided to go for it. I braced myself as it swung, and felt surprisingly okay, familiar with my surroundings and the whole experience after weeks of riding the tram.
My glorious, and less anxiety producing, view from the tram
Over the subsequent weeks, I evolved to always standing without support, at times seizing a prime spot towards the front in order to look down at the city in action, or straight ahead to admire the stunning view of Mt. Hood. My awareness has gradually shifted completely from fear to appreciating the experience of riding the tram – even looking forward to the thing I’d once dreaded the most.
What’s been most surprising is how this change has opened my mind to trying new experiences I would have assumed would be too frightening in the past but have found thrilling — aerial silks and trapeze classes, snowboarding, etc. I had no idea how limiting this fear was until I’d tempered it to the level of a satisfying adrenaline rush, allowing me to stay mindful and experience the fun of these new and challenging pursuits. And I indirectly have my love of bicycles to thank for that.
Oh the things a Lady experiences… on and off two-wheels.
Keep riding and letting go, Ladies!
XOXO
All the bikey Lady-porn you could ever desire! All in one place. Home decor, beautiful bicycles & accessories, essential gear, photos taken commuting around Portland, and sentiments to ride by. Check out Two Wheels & A Lady on Pinterest!
Lovely commuting <3
Lisa Marie, Annette, and the Cycle Chic-ish Manifesto
Loyal Lady (and Lady-lover) readers of TWAAL – thank you for reading and riding! As I mark my 100th post as a blogging Lady, the blog will be expanding and improving.
Annette, a fellow Lady, will be joining the blog on a regular basis, and in upcoming weeks check-in with us for practical tips and discussion about living life joyfully atop two-wheels. We’ll also be adding a regular feature, “The Commuting Chronicles”, exploring the experiences and contemplations involved in daily bike commutes. Our stories, your stories, and the stories cities and streets help create. We’re building a community of Ladies (and Lady-lovers), and all of us are helping build happier, healthier communities of our own. One ride at a time. Keep it up, Ladies! And thanks for being a part of making our streets what we know they can be.
Lisa Marie – XOXO
And now, for Annette’s first post on the blog we introduce
The Cycle Chic-ish Manifesto: A Happy Medium
Why isn’t there a distinct cycling niche of ladies I can relate to?
As Lisa Marie put it, almost every bicycling subgroup fits into some type of EXTREME: “FIXIES!; cycling in outfits that cost more than the bike itself; speeding past life at 30 mph in spandex; drowning in neon yellow seated in a recumbant for commuting only.” Certainly, I value each of those subgroups; I only wish there was an additional one. I’m not an extreme fashionista who puts style above all else, but I’m also not an extreme athlete who puts performance above all else including style. You’re just not going to find me decked out in neon yellow or exposing designer clothes to a rainy commute.
I’m not riding to be seen, but I also know that while I’m riding I will be seen. I’m not riding just because it’s physically demanding, but I recognize that it is physically demanding and I like that. I ride because it’s super fun, efficient, and a healthy thing to do. With the existing subgroups, it’s difficult to fit cleanly in one group without compromising these values. And without an identifiable group, it’s no wonder more ladies like me don’t make cycling a staple mode of transportation year-round.
The Cycle Chic© Manifesto is everywhere – have you seen it? I can’t get over the disparity between what it promotes and what I value about cycling, the reality of the city I live in, and — more fundamentally — what I aspire to be. I present an alternative manifesto below hoping to represent a growing niche of chic-ish lady cyclists in Portland and beyond:
