More money for bike lanes.

Hooray,

According to this article we now will receive 2-4 million dollars for bike lanes.
Well we passed a new law. "the law passed by the Legislature during the past session could make the state eligible for $2 million to $4 million in federal money to establish bike lanes, bike paths and multi-use paths." (Star Bulletin 7/30/07)
Lets see if somebody actually does something to make Hawai'i a safer more bike friendly place.I would be surprised to see any improvements made to my daily commute.
I suppose that I am being greedy. I ride a $30 bike that I bought at a garage sale to a business that is known around the world, that pulls in millions of tourist dollars every year. I spend very little money in Waikiki, I try to support small local businesses, I hate cars. I really offer nothing to the lobbyists in Washington that really control our country.
All I want is a safe way to get to work. Maybe I should buy a Hummer.

Kona

Here is a video blog of our trip to Kona.

Laptop

I am making the excuse that I need a laptop for our around the world trip. Now I can watch the Tour de France and still be connected to my Mac. I love the Tour de France. I am cheering for Alexandre Vinokourov. Maybe because he is from Kazakhstan.
My dream bike is the Cervelo R3. I guess the movies that we made were not good enough for Cervelo to give me my dream bike. Oh well, I have a feeling that with all the shake ups in the local triathlon community, I may able to acquire one at a reasonable price. Then I can become more adamant about demanding bike lanes in Honolulu. I wrote this letter to the editor:

"As a cyclist and bike commuter, I am appalled to find out that Hawaii Bicycle League has no bike lane to its office. If you survive the harrowing ride to the HBL office at 3442 Waialae Ave., there is no bike rack to park your bicycle.

Of course, you can carry your bike up their stairs (no ramp for handicapped people) and ask them yourself why our roads are so unfriendly toward cyclists.

I am glad that we have a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting cycling, but I hope our government can take a more proactive stance on my safety. Please donate to HBL at www.hbl.org

And that my friends is my cycling vent!

Recycle

I am ashamed that our state must send it's rubbish to the mainland. Our state is decade behind the rest of the country (not to mention the world) when it comes to issues that are important to me. I found this in the newspaper recently:

"If private haulers elected to ship all 400,000 tons of garbage off island that they now delivered to the city landfill or power plant, the city budget would see an annual loss of $28 million"
Star Bulletin

It would also cost more than $10 million to make a facility that prepares the garbage. So what would I do with an extra $28 million every year? We could put that money towards a curbside recycling program, or give rebates to people that have the least amount of trash going into landfills. Maybe we could give jobs to the homeless people that already pull recyclables fom trash cans around the state.
Of course the other option is to find more space on O'ahu to create another landfill. What never crosses these people mind is to take the waste out of the waste stream. Let's recycle the trash! We should decrease the amount of solid waste and increase waste reduction and recycling practices by the citizens of and businesses located in the city.
Composting, worm bins, recycling at least HI 5 products should take place in all businesses. Other cities can recycle newspaper, magazines, sorted mail and office paper, cardboard, paperboard, telephone books, loose paper, glass containers, plastic containers, steel cans, aluminum cans and scraps, reusable clothing and household items, without a problem. I see NO recycling containers in Waikiki. People are forced to throw away recyclable items. Of course we have concerned citizens that are willing to dig through the trash to recover this lost treasure. Too bad our politicians aren't forced to do this.

With the cost of shipping our trash to the mainland being almost 3 times the amount of running our landfills, this is not so much a moral issue as an economic issue. What will it take to get people to recycle? Most cities charge their residents if they don't recycle.

Kauai

Wen, Molly, and I went to visit Danielle on Kauai. We got to ride horses, lay on the beach and even get in a little body surfing. It was a great weekend.