Sometimes you can’t chase a song from your mind while riding. This can be a curse when “It’s a Small World” from Disneyland hijacks your music memory. Fortunately my New Year began with Jack Johnson’s song Good People playing on the clock radio. Appropriate.

The winter tule fog blanketed the San Ramon valley on the approach to South Gate. It probably kept some good people from joining a tremendous day on the mountain. Others were likely battling demons from New Year’s Eve celebrations. Many groggy non-bicyclists on the BART ride from Oakland to Walnut Creek were clearly suffering from over-exuberance.

Since taking over as New York City's Commissioner of the Department of Transportation in mid-2007, Janette Sadik-Khan has transformed that city, with innovative pedestrian plazas, bike lanes, and bus-rapid-transit (BRT) -- and even Ciclovia-style "Summer Streets" events. As seen in this video, the results are simply amazing.

Even more astounding is that this was accomplished in such a major metropolis in such a short amount of time. If it can be done in New York, certainly it can be done in the East Bay.

Warning: minimal advocacy content follows
I recently had my first opportunity to "ghost ride." A drawn-out meeting in downtown Oakland and BART restrictions at 12th St Station conspired to cause me to leave Blk Fug in an e-Locker and return to the office on BART, then ride a bus home sans trusty stead.

Local advocates and BART officials successfully defeated a proposal by Berkeley staff on December 8, 2008 that would have caused a setback in the Bike Station expansion plans and resulted in the loss of over $1 million in funding committed to the project.

Jubilant supporters assembled in the Berkeley City Hall lobby following unanimous council action to prioritize the Bike Station Expansion.

A street-level Bike Station will open in 2009.

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The 40th St/Shellmound Bridge that spans the railroad tracks in Emeryville underwent a road diet recently. There is now one lane of traffic in each direction. The result = a nice buffer for cyclists and pedestrians. Nirvana!

As told on the city's website: emeryville.org

The Cycles of Change APC Bike Shop will be hibernating from December 24th-January 23rd. We'll reopen on the 24th of January.

Buy a recycled bicycle and enable someone else to earn-a-bicycle!

Enjoy Michelle DeRobertis' lyrics performed by Mojo Deluxe for Music from the Velorution available at EBBC's office. Great bass line and Doug Cross on sax!

Bicycle riding is here to stay!

The Green Wave in Copenhagen from Colville Andersen on Vimeo.

The Green Wave in Copenhagen is in place with high levels of bicycle traffic. If you bicycle at 20 km/h, the traffic lights are timed so that bikes hit green all the way into the city center.

This video is taken along Nørrebrogade, a main arterial which (until a few weeks ago) was one of the main arterial roadways for automobiles, but now reserved for bike and bus through-traffic. While the East Bay bickers over exclusive bus lanes on Telegraph, Copenhagen is well on its way to reaching its goal of 50% bicycle mode share by 2015. Currently, they are at a whopping 36% -- nearly even with automobile mode share.