The time is now for everyone to stand around the Festivus pole and air our grievances. I see it as my purging of the bad mojo before the start of a new year. As a highly cynical individual I have plenty of people and situations I would like to grieve, but for the purpose of this post, I will keep it to bike related items.

Rear Derailluer adjustment is for the birds….at least in my case. All other elements of basic bike maintenance I can now perform to at least an adequate level, but no matter how much I read, or how many YouTube videos I watch about adjusting the rear derailluer, I still struggle to make it function perfectly. When I do stumble into a perfect shifting situation…I can’t duplicate those adjustments the next time I do additional adjusting.

Infrastructure is starting to break down. We hear the reports on the evening news all to often about how the nation is going to require a huge investment in our national infrastructure, and this is even more evident when you are riding a bike. Crappy roads are even more apparent when you are not cruising over the gigantic potholes at 55mph in your steel cage. Ask anybody who is seeing roads and bridges up close and at a slower speed and you will know how bad the problem is really becoming.

Crashing – This can always show on the grievance list, but NOBODY likes going down (especially on the road) especially when it is actually the crumbling pavement that causes the problem. (see above)

Excessively wide roads in residential areas – Sure the wide road is nice when there isn’t a bike lane available, but research shows that wide roads also result in higher traffic speeds, regardless of the posted speed limit. Excessively wide roads can be found all over Austin, and the nation. My neighborhood alone has a couple of offenders where the car lane in each direction is over 18 ft wide. Even though the posted speed limit is 30mph cars are regularly traveling 45+mph, and because they are traveling so much faster, they often blow right through the stop sign directly across from the local elementary school (no wonder parents don’t allow their students to ride their bikes to school-more….on that later).

Car Advocates – As the city counsel considers options that will make 6th Street, and downtown as a whole, more pedestrian friendly, car advocates have come out of the woodwork to argue about how cars are key to downtown development. Not only is this short sighted, it isn’t even based in reality. Cities across the globe have taken back streets and seen an explosion in pedestrian/bike traffic, Austin has also dabbled in more pedestrian friendly areas downtown. Even if the argument about roads bring people into downtown holds up, it isn’t sustainable over the long-term. Gas prices will continue to rise, there is no more room to build additional roads into downtown, and the more space you designate to parked cars is proportional to the amount of space you take away from businesses that draw people to downtown in the first place.

Idiot Riders – This city is full of cyclist who are fully aware of the laws cyclists and cars are required to follow, yet they continue to just do whatever they damn well please. Having formerly worked in customer service, we were always told one unhappy customer leads to a negative perception for an additional 10 people. Idiot cyclist also have the same effect, but instead of an isolated incident that takes place at the customer service counter, the idiot cyclist is blowing stop signs, cursing out motorist, and generally acting like an immature middle school kid throughout his (and I use “his” here because I rarely see women riders acting stupid, although I am sure some do) ride, providing multiple drivers reasons why cyclists are idiots. Never mind the fact these drivers passed at least 10 additional cyclist who were courteous and law abiding throughout their ride. Don’t let the idiots define bike culture.

School planners – You want less fat kids, better learners, and less bussing expenses, then build schools in areas where kids can ride their bikes to school, and if possible partner with neighborhoods within your attendance zone to help provide safe ways for students to get to school that does not involve a line of giant SUV’s that have traveled less than 2 miles to wait in line to pick up their kid.

Helicopter parents – If there is a safe route or sidewalks all the way to your kids school, walk or ride your bike with them. I see parents who live less than a mile from school sit for 15 minutes in the car-rider pickup line, when they could have met their kid at the bike rack and returned home in less time than it would have taken to wait in the pick-up line. As an added bonus you get to spend 15 minutes hanging out and talking with your kid about their day. WIN WIN.