Well someone has to post something to this Somerville Community... So it has to be something about the community path obviously...

Google maps is always rubbish for bicycle navigation, but OpenStreetMap offers three different navigation systems for bikes, all of which are better. I'm most impressed with GraphHopper - 3 days into the community path opening will happily route you down the new path. It doesn't seem to know about the High School diversion, but that's realtively minor.

Its route for me to get to the Seaport from near Davis is pretty much what I would choose.

This is my rescued Marin Hamilton, that over the years has evolved into a modern take on the old English 3-speed. My former commuter was stolen, and at the same time this appeared, broken, rusty, and abandoned on the same office bike rack (coincidence?). I saved it before the office management sent it to the trash, and got it on the road again.

The wheel bearing races were pitted from rusty neglect and I find SS awkward in the urban stop-start, so after a failed experiment with an SRAM Automatix 2-speed hub I fitted a Sturmey Archer 3 speed. 3rd is a single-speed ratio, 1 & 2 are for hills and setting off. It's a sweet setup for my area and usage, and is almost as robust and low maintenance as SS.

A transportation bike needs fenders (Velo Orange Zeppelins - excellent, effective, silent). The original fork rang like a tuning fork on braking no matter what brakes or pads, so I got a $40 Marin fork off Ebay and converted the front to disk, and put on generator lighting at the same time.

And just now it got some luxury new tires - Schwalbe Marathon Supreme 700x50 on the label, but are actually 43mm, in typical Schwalbe fashion. Great tires though - light and fast and grippy and durable and puncture resistant.

It's a fast and comfortable city bomber. I have a little TSDZ2 motor and battery that I fit each year for commuting the hottest summer months, and then in winter it gets studs to get me through the ice and slush. For fairer weather riding I have a very similar derailleur bike and the pair of them get me around nicely.

In Cambridge, MA, USA, and nearby communities, bike advocates have made real progress with lanes and paths and general infrastructure. Also the city requires that new builds have a proper bike room. This building was recently gutted and fitted out and this is the bike room today - overloaded, and the building is barely half full... Looks like they will need to find more efficient bike racks!

Meanwhile in a recent commute I was in a queue of 30 bicycles at a light at which about 6-8 cars get through at a time. 10-15 years ago I was one of the few bikes on the roads at any time.

Hats off to the advocates and representatives of the local cities that have made this happen through continuous pressure and work over decades...

The lack of keyboard interface on Lemmy is killing me, but really what I want is a good client in Emacs. However, it's beyond my Elisp to design and start such a project, but I could probably help. Anyone on it?