Winter biking basics!

As we’ve been sharing about our partnership with Urbane, we have so enjoyed what people have suggested as future blog ideas. One was ‘why don’t you bike in the snow!?’ and we totally had to laugh. Been there, done that, and will continue to do that! People think we are absolutely insane, and maybe we are. But honestly - it’s all part of the adventure, and it’s actually really fun. And not to mention a great workout!

So now, maybe you’re curious (or just want to see if we really are that insane). What do you need to know to get you on your bike on a beautiful Michigan winter day?

Gear: To Wear

It may go without saying, but we’re saying it anyway. WARM GEAR. Like, Army/Navy surplus-style. Pea coats are beautiful and great but NO. You need padding and layers and more layers. When you’re biking, the wind can whip up pretty chilly, but you also need to remember that when you are standing at a bus stop, waiting? It’s even colder. So don’t be shy, you can always shed a layer or two (just make sure to leave a little extra room in your bag).

One of our favorite added winter biking gear items is what we affectionately call the ‘creepy face mask’. It wraps around your mouth and nose, with appropriate cut-outs for each so, yes, you can still breathe, and fastens behind your head. And think about what this looks like with cold-weather breath. Total Halloween/Jason. No one messes with 2W4W when we are face-masked up. A public safety bonus! http://www.rei.com/product/725711/seirus-neofleece-combo-scarf

With all that extra padding from all those heavy winter layers (and delicious holiday treats), if you happen upon a patch of black ice? An easy bounce back!

Gear: On Your Bike

All you really need are wide tires and a good solid mountain bike. We both ride mountain bikes that we’ve had for years, and they are nothing fancy. But they are amazing, and have gotten us through many, many winters and many situations with very minimal falls (from sidewalks that are shoveled to biking through an actual mini-blizzard!). Just also make sure to give yourself a little extra time to get where you are going. Like driving, winter biking can be a bit of a slow-go!

Gear: In Your Bag

Three words: Kleenex, hand lotion and chapstick. Cold weather essentials that you are probably already used to keeping on hand, but they become even more important when it’s you + the elements.

Those one-time hand/foot warmers stashed in your bag are such a bonus. They don’t take a ton of space, and can be life-savers if you are stuck waiting at a bus stop longer than you had hoped. http://www.amazon.com/Little-Hotties-Hand-Warmer-Pack/dp/B000JJP0UM

Oh and a full flask. Keeping your insides warm is key, so be sure to stash some of your favorite warm-up drinks (we are partial to Jager and Hot Damn!).

The 2 Women 4 Wheels 2013 Gift Guide!

We had a great time shopping with some new bus riders at our Holidaze shopping event on Saturday! Staring at 13 & Woodward, we headed to downtown Royal Oak to visit the Royal Oak Farmer's Market where one of our bus riders was inspired to make her own granola as a gift for friends. Perfect! After checking out a few other local stores, we headed to Ferndale for an excellent lunch at Woodward Avenue Brewers. We then took a bit of a longer walk to Green Daffodil Studio which was not only full of locally-made & adorable gifts, candles, soaps and lotions, but it was their holiday open house so that meant cocktails and treats. Holiday merriment at its finest!

If you weren't able to join us on Saturday, we'd like to present the 2 Women 4 Wheels 2013 Gift Guide!

We are all about shopping local, so here's a sampling of some of our favorite gift shops and ideas.

***

For your favorite biker 

The Hub Detroit - not only is a great shop/repair spot, but all proceeds go to support their nonprofit mission of "working to engage, develop and inspire youth through bicycles while providing space for those youth".

Wheelhouse Detroit - maybe give a gift of one of their really fun bike tours?!

Macomb Bike & Fitness - really friendly bike shop, and be sure to check out their great events too!

Gift shops to cover everyone on your list (heading south from Royal Oak)!

Shine - candles, books, gifts, some baby clothes, books and a really great selection of fun cocktail napkins. A super nice owner!

Write Impressions - stationery, card and fun gifts
A side note: Julie literally emptied her water bottle on the floor of the store during our Holidaze event and they were super cool about it. And YES, that was pre-cocktails.

Naka - beautiful jewelry, baby gifts and Michigan-themed items

Green Daffodil Studio - vintage finds, handmade candles, soaps, lip balms and lotions. Amazing scents from lavender to cranberry orange to coconut lime to patchouli (ok, maybe that last one is more “Julie” and less “Melissa”. There’s something for everyone!)

City Bird/Nest - fantastic Michigan-made and Detroit-themed goods & housewares.

The Peacock Room - adorable new and vintage fashions/jewelry at VERY reasonable prices. Not to mention, Rachel, the owner, always has an amazing/sassy story to share!

Give the Gift of Exploring

Motor City Brew Tours - we joined Steven for one of his biking Detroit Brewery History Tours and it was a blast!

D:hive Detroit Tours - we've heard really good things about their tours!

Preservation Wayne - for the Detroit history or architectural nerd in you - GREAT tours.

Detroit Historical Society - we were able to join for a tour of Fort Wayne earlier this year and it was fantastic. Highly recommended!

***

Think globally, bus & bike & shop locally! 

Happy shopping :)

It's Giving Tuesday - Use Charity Miles When You Bike!

Yesterday was Cyber Monday and today is "Giving Tuesday" (we're not making this up). And we found a neat opportunity for you to give while biking and walking. Have you heard of Charity Miles? It is an application you can download on a smartphone to track your miles while you bike, walk, and/or run. For every mile you bike, walk, and/or run, a donation is made to a charity of your choosing. How neat is that?!

I’ve used it to track the miles I bike to the transit center, work, and downtown. I also use it to tra
ck the miles I walk and run during my free time.

It’s pretty easy to use. First, you need to download the app, which is free. Then you need to register. When you are ready to bike, walk, or run, go to the app, select the charity you want to support, and the app will track your distance with a GPS. When you bike, a donor will give $0.10 per mile that is tracked. For every mile you walk or run, a donor will give $0.25 per mile. The cool part is that you get to select the charity or charities you want the donor to support.

Charities include:

• Feeding America,
• She’s the First,
• Stand Up to Cancer,
• RED to Benefit the Global Fund,
• ASPCA,
• Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America,
• The Nature Conservancy,
• Every Mother Counts,
• Autism Speaks,
• Soles 4 Souls,
• Special Olympics,
• The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research,
• Habitat for Humanity,
• World Food Programme,
• Wounded Warrior Project,
• Leukemia & Lymphoma Society,
• Girl Up United Nations Foundation,
• Partnership for a Healthier America,
• Pencils of Promise,
• Shot @ Life United Nations Foundation,
• VisionSpring,
• Achilles International,
• NothingButNets.net,
• DoSomething.org, and
• Ironman Foundation.

As you can see, it is a long list of charities. Hopefully, there is at least one charity you want to bike, walk, and/or run to support. To learn more about “Giving Tuesday,” go to http://community.givingtuesday.org.

Bus Rapid Transit (What?)

Is bus rapid transit coming to metro-Detroit? Possibly.

We know that this system is working in Cleveland and Chicago. It might be a good form of transportation for Detroit. The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) will host a series of meetings to share information about the proposed system and to gather input from us, potential users of this system. Unfortunately, this is probably the worst time of the year to gather this input but nonetheless, this is our opportunity to explain what we want and need for public transportation in metro-Detroit.

What is bus rapid transit? Some refer to it as BRT. Basically, it is a bus-based form of mass transit. What would set it apart from DDOT and SMART if it came to Detroit is that the buses often get their own lane on the road, which allows them to move faster. In some cases, there are sensors on the buses that trigger traffic lights to go green, which helps increase the efficiency of the buses even more. Also, instead of paying the fee on the bus, you pay at the bus stop to save time. It also requires less construction than rail. It sounds like it might have some promise in our region. What do you think?

Will you attend one of SEMCOG’s meetings?
Here are the meeting dates, times, and locations. If you need help finding a bus to one of the meetings, go to SMART or DDOT’s websites. (NOTE: Unfortunately, DDOT’s “trip planner” is not working so the link goes to all the bus schedules.  Also, many of the locations are not immediately near bus stop locations, so plan accordingly.)

Tuesday, December 3, 2013, 6-8 p.m.

Beaumont Hospital Administration Building, 3711 W. 13 Mile Rd., Royal Oak, MI 48073 (Free parking in South Parking Deck; access through South Entrance, Coolidge Highway)

Thursday, December 5, 2013, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Berkley Community Center, 2400 Robina Ave., Berkley, MI 48070

Saturday, December 7, 2013, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

St. Joseph Hospital, Anthony Franco Communications Center Auditorium, 44555 Woodward Ave., Pontiac, MI 48341

Monday, December 9, 2013, 6-8 p.m.

Michigan State University Detroit Event Center, 2nd Floor, 3408 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48201 (elevator access through Erskine Street entrance)

Tuesday, December 10, 2013, 6-8 p.m.

NextEnergy, 461 Burroughs St., Detroit, MI 48202

Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 6-8 p.m.

Coolidge Intermediate School Cafeteria, 2521 Bermuda St., Ferndale, MI 48220

If you cannot attend one of these meetings, please send your comments and suggestions to Tiffany Gunter with SEMCOG. Her email address is gunter(at)semcog.org.

Transforming our transit system

As a part of our exciting week in rolling out this blog with the Urbane Life, we were invited to join a

Transportation For Michigan (Trans4M) Legislative Update Dinner at Atwater Brewery downtown. We decided to make a transit adventure out of it (of COURSE) and decided on the following bus/bike plan:

1. Meet up at a bus stop where we’d have a good chance of both getting our bikes on the bike rack (11 & Woodward). Note amazing bus stop art.

2. Bike over to Atwater after work

3. Bike back to Campus Martius to get to bus stop (beautiful views of the city & bike lanes on Atwater = whoo hooo!)

4. Take DDOT home – the Woodward 53 as far as the State Fairgrounds

5. Bike home from there (7 miles from the State Fairgrounds to home in Royal Oak)

So you can see – with our current system, surgical-level precision, planning and timing is key!

We were also very curious to see what this dinner would include. And no – we don’t mean the food (but it was catered by Slow’s and HELLO mac & cheese sent from heaven).

We arrive before the program starts and have the wonderful opportunity of being greeted by some fans of 2 Women 4 Wheels – and yes, there even was a fan photo. It was great to see all these awesome advocates of transit in one place, and to be a part of this community.

Onto the program peice of the agenda. Senator Bert Johnson and Representative Gretchen Driskell gave a legislative update, RTA Board Member R. Murphey discussed what’s going on with the RTA, Woodward Avenue Action Association gave an update on the Woodward Avenue Complete Streets Master Plan, MDOT discussed their study around the future of I-375, and M-1 Rail discussed progress on their public/private streetcar project.

Sounds really good, right? At a certain point, though, something hit us. We were listening to a question about how pedestrians were going to cross Woodward when the M-1 Rail is complete. This is a great question, no doubt. But the M-1 is slated to be complete…in 2016. And it’s a 3 mile start of (hopefully) a larger streetcar system up Woodward. All of these are great improvements, and we should be focused on progress & the big picture. One area of the big picture that we didn’t see presented in this meeting was the current system. What are some of the improvements that we can make NOW to the system? If the RTA could just navigate the politics between DDOT & SMART, working out those inefficiencies, we would have thought we’d died and gone to heaven (and there’d be Slow’s mac & cheese!).

We were also very tempted to ask the question – who here is planning on taking the bus home tonight? We were, but only because we had planned to do it in a very detailed way, as we highlighted. It involved a 7 mile bike-ride home from the State Fairgrounds, not ideal for everyone – but for us – biking is awesome & great exercise & worth it. Anyone else? Some folks were from Lansing and had a longer commute and, of course, in many instances, the system just doesn’t make sense. But, are there some things we can start working on today to help it make sense?

We think so. And these are the kind of incremental changes that are often the catalysts for bigger change.

Current bus route efficiencies.


SMART & DDOT become friends – or better yet – merge (that’s very specifically a ‘merge’ not an acquisition on either side. That wouldn’t be very friendly, right?!)

Round-the-clock service from DDOT/SMART (no more “peak”/”off-peak” hours).

Safety enhancements at the bus terminals – specifically the State Fairgrounds.

Regional transit pass.

These are the kinds of changes that would allow more people that were at that Trans4M meeting to ride the bus home with ease. More riders, more demand, ever BETTER service.

And then let’s start talking about how people will cross Woodward in 2016.

Bike Helmets - Do you really need to wear them?

I’ll be honest - wearing a bike helmet is not the most exciting accessory to wear; however it’s probably the most important one. While it may be annoying, it saves lives, right?! Seriously, it really does. And although I’ve never been in a serious bike accident, I wear my helmet every time I ride, even if it’s a really short ride.

I recently learned that I should replace my helmet every three years even if I wasn’t involved in any bike accidents. Did you know that? I had no idea. Naturally, this led me to visit Macomb Bike & Fitness for some bike helmet shopping (especially since I had a gift certificate).

Jim, who works at the bike shop, helped me select my new helmet and offered some advice: 1) It’s important to have a helmet that fits your head. 2) Make sure the color of the helmet is a lighter or brighter color so people will see you when you’re riding.

I also learned from Jim the proper way to wear a helmet. The straps should be joined just under each ear at the jawbone and the buckle or clasp should fit snugly under your chin. The helmet should fit flat on your head about two-fingers width above your eyebrows. If that’s hard to understand, check out this video made by the City of Chicago for a quick demonstration. You can also check out the dorky pictures of me trying to demonstrate this below.

Incorrect Bike Helmet!

Correct Bike Helmet!

In addition to having a bike helmet, I also learned that practicing safe-riding skills is just as important as riding with a helmet. Check out this pretty comprehensive guide by the League of Michigan Bicyclists, “What Every Michigan Bicyclist Must Know.” Basically, be alert and follow the rules of the road! 

Lastly, I know I mentioned earlier that the bike helmet is not my favorite accessory; however check out this new invisible helmet that was invented. It looks promising (when the price decreases).

Crash Course in Metro-Detroit Transit

How do you use and support public transportation to move around metro-Detroit? Well, grab a snack and get comfy while you read this "crash course" on transit in the region.

SMART
As you know, we live in the Royal Oak area and work in Detroit, so it is convenient for us to bike to Woodward or the Royal Oak Transit Center to hop on any of the SMART Woodward buses to head south at $2 per ride. The 450 and 460 have multiple stops and bike racks. As do the 445 and the 475, which are “Limited” buses - that means less stops and quicker travel time. SMART services Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne Counties.

Julie gets on the bus!

Unfortunately, a big challenge with SMART buses is that they ONLY travel in and out of Detroit during “peak” hours. What are peak hours? In the morning from 6 to 9am and in the evening from 3 to 6pm. As you can imagine, this greatly complicates happy hour for us. What happens if you need to get to Detroit during an off-peak time? You can take SMART south to the last stop on Woodward, which is at the State Fairgrounds. From there, you can pick up a DDOT bus and head south. Vice versa for heading north during an off peak time. (Special note - the buses are not linked very well so expect a 30 minute wait at the Fairgrounds. Check out a previous post where we we learned about this first hand.)

DDOT
The Detroit Department of Transportation services buses that run only in the city at the cost of $1.50 per ride for adults (slightly cheaper than SMART). We usually take the 53 bus up and down Woodward. It has bike racks (important note - not all buses have racks for bikes - boo!).

DDOT does have a unique “Text My Bus” campaign. That’s right - all you have to do is text 50464 the cross streets and you receive a fairly quick text back with times that the bus will arrive. Unfortunately, as we have learned by experience, the buses don’t have any tracking mechanism to provide accurate information of when it will actually arrive at the stop. Missed opportunity, right?! So for now, you get a text with the time that bus is *supposed* to arrive according to the bus schedule, which often is not the case.

People Mover
We don’t really use the People Mover but wanted to make sure to include it, as it is indeed referred to as public transit in the Motor City. Its three mile track circles downtown for just $0.75 per ride. For fun, check out this video as “Zelda and the Unibrows” test whether it’s faster to walk or take the People Mover. While it’s not the most appealing form of transit, it is helpful - especially during the cold winter months when you’re traveling downtown and just want to stay warm (however, moving the body and walking usually keeps you warm, too).

M-1 Rail
Another three miles of tracks are being built along Woodward Avenue to create a new form of transit, the M-1 Rail. What sets this rail project apart from the People Mover is that it’s linear and on the street with other traffic. The hope is that it will be the start of something bigger that hopefully in the future extends all the way north to Pontiac. Unfortunately, there are a number of concerns regarding this project including connectivity, bike accessibility on Woodward, and placement of the tracks on the sides rather than the middle (check out this video that explains why it might be better to have rail in the middle lane).

RTA
Why can't all the public transit options work together? Well, about a year ago, the Michigan State Legislature created the Southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority (RTA). One of the focal points is to facilitate that communication. However, it's been almost a year and we're not quite sure what is happening. We had it in our schedule to attend their board meeting earlier this week, but it was cancelled. We did recently learn that there is discussion of one single transit pass that could be used universally with SMART, DDOT, People Mover, and M-1. It's a start but we expect more as this region desperately needs a public transportation system that works!!!. (Stay tuned for future updates as Julie is on the RTA Citizen Advisory Council.)

Okay... this concludes your crash course on public transit in metro-Detroit. Are you still awake?! Keep a look out for future 2 Women 4 Wheels events inviting you to ride the bus with us! In the meantime, join us for our launch party with Urbane Media on Thursday, November 21 from 6 to 8pm.