Clitoral Mass Oakland
Saturday, May 25, 2013. 12:00pm - 7:00pm
Lake Merritt, Oakland

12:00pm PRE-RIDE ACTIVITIES (@Pillars)
- Safety checks and minor repairs 
- Yoga for cyclists

2:00pm RIDE OUT (@Pillars)
- RIDE

4:00pm - 7:00pm AFTER PARTY (@ Bandshell)
- ALL FEMALE DJs (bike powered sound system)
- FOOD VENDORS (bike powered, woman owned)
- KIDZ ZONE brought to you by the fabulous Young Oakland and Big Tadoo Puppet Crew with face painting by Marinette Tovar
- MASSAGE 10 min./$15 by Kamau B. Love and Yavette Holts from One Presence Massage
- FREE VALET BIKE PARKING by Binx Garage

sat in on the ACTC (alameda county transportation commission) board meeting today. because.. why not

some stuff on the under construction I880 HOV (high-occupancy vehicle aka carpool) lanes, and the WETA (water emergency transportation) about how cities with ferries should have a seat on that board.

I finally joined mapmyride and decided to map the routes I take to work every day. the 1. Telegraph Ave. and 2. Broadway-College Ave. routes I added using photoshop since I couldn’t figure out if there was a way to add another route on the same map. and sry the text looks messy, i forgot how to outline it.

1. Telegraph Ave. the most direct and quickest. but still 35 mins because of afternoon temperature, traffic lights, traffic, areas of poor pavement and no bike lanes, ac transit 1R long bus, traffic, traffic, traffic
2. Broadway - College Ave. still about 35mins, traffic lights, some traffic, and poor pavement on a part. but nicer because i get to go through Rockridge and Elmwood (my old neighborhood), and I can stop by Tara’s Organic Ice Cream :D
3. 14th St. - Mandela Parkway - Bay Trail. a little longer, maybe 40mins although it’s a detour (whaaat i never knew until now it was even 8 miles!), there are smooth bike lanes, then the bay trail, and bike blvd. very few traffic signals and conflict with car traffic. plus the breeze!! I take this route on hot days.
   — if you don’t want to go over the two small bridges and don’t want as much breeze, you can continue straight on horton though emeryville, follow the bike blvd signs, then left after the railroad tracks, then continue north into aquatic park (careful—poor pavement at the end of the bike lane)

after taking the bay trail, though, it’s difficult to ever want to take Telegraph Ave. ever again (in the northbound direction—I still take Telegraph southbound, though). Why deal with traffic?? drivers behind you stressing you out that they might honk at you for taking the lane because of potholes that they don’t notice.. so many frikking red lights and unsure whether to “run” them even though it’s a minor intersection because you don’t want to look like a “rogue cyclist”.. and it’s so hot!

look at the Bay Trail! it’s so pretty! you can even see SF and the Golden Gate Bridge on a clear day! ride relaxed as cars are driving on the freeway and on frontage rd, totally separated from you! and the bay breeze… ahhh…

have I convinced you yet to take the Bay Trail?? the scenic route? :)

*also, I hope this post helps anyone who is thinking of starting to bike from Oakland to Berkeley!

(Source: Flickr / dianneyee)

the second (!! since 2011) OAKLAVIA is on sunday, 9th june 2013.

the route is around lake merritt.

….. it’s the same date/time as SUNDAY STREETS SF in bayview/dogpatch. >___>;;;;

i can make it to both, right?? just BART back to lake merritt station with my bike..

automatic best yarnbomb in oakland. in front of dogwood.

love the (fancy) drinks here, but omg only one bartender—took so long I should have gone to make westing or radio instead, but I was already invested with my bike locked there.

@bike happy hour in old oakland.

ebbc program director dave setting up for bike happy hour in old oakland this evening.

cool thing #3 about Bike to Work Day:

you get a chance to ride with your mayor and/or councilmembers.

• if in SF, join a Commuter Convoy! 
  above photo: District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener riding into City Hall last year
• if in Oakland, join one of the Pedals Pools (map) to Downtown! Mayor Jean Quan will be pedaling from East Oakland to Fruitvale to City Hall. complete list of mayors of East Bay cities participating in BTWD here.
• plus, you can make new friends / bike buddies who have the same route to work you do. :)

any elected officials in your city cycling to work tomorrow? if not, tweet, email, call them and tell them to!

cool thing #2 about Bike to Work Day:

FREE STUFF.

• awesome ebbc volunteers have stuffed 10,000 bike to work day bags with great swag from local sponsors. stop by one of many energizer stations (map of stations in east bay, sf) tomorrow morning and/or evening and pick one up!
• oakland’s 20th annual FREE pancake breakfast provided by whole foods in front of oakland city hall! also raffles for great prizes!
• free FERRY RIDE to/from SF with your bike!!
  “In celebration of Bike to Work Day, anyone who rides a bike to work this Thursday, May 9, and commutes on the San Francisco Bay Ferry, will ride the ferry for free.”  also a #bikeacrossthebay photo contest.

i’m hella just gonna take a ferry ride to SF and back…

so that’s the route of the hill training ride (my first hill ride!) i did sunday morning.

shiiiit i went over the hills to moraga and orinda! on my bike!! fuhhhh

and on my vintage road bike, too! a couple people kept saying i should get a lighter bike with more gears.. yeah yeah whatever—i did it!

my first time on those roads, as well. there’s really no reason to ever go up the hills, and even less to go to orinda. that’s where rich white people live. and i’m not a “weekend warrior” all kitted out on a carbon fiber bike going out on 90mile rides down the coast or over the hills every weekend just for kicks.