Other Projects

Preparing for Bicycle Season
During the spring, summer, and fall months, virtually all of my transportation in Chicago is done via bicycle.  This past summer, in particular, I rode on the lakefront trail from my northside home to Grand Avenue dozens of times and made longer trips to Hyde Park, Oak Park, and the Chicago Botanic Garden.  There is so much to love about city cycling--it's great exercise, really fun, and, particularly at night, comes with a sense of exhilerating freedom.  Chicago's flat terrain coupled with a fair number of bike lanes make it relatively bike friendly.     


That said, it can be rather treacherous, at times...one must be constantly looking out for drivers opening car doors into bike lanes, cars merging unexpectedly in front of cyclists, and a myriad of other hazards.  


These last several weeks my bicycling has been curtailed by low temperatures, as well as lots of snow and ice.  So, I've been engaging in a popular Chicago winter past-time: daydreaming about summer.  I was delighted to come accross this "Magnetic Yellow Card, cyclist-intervention."  It was designed in 2004 by Peter Hopkins Miller, an artist and filmmaker, living and making work in Vienna/Chicago.

Peter has generously provide this pdf of the Magnetic Yellow Card and made the project open source, meaning that anyone can make own magnets. So, you can self-produce as many magnets as you would like (though you must attribute any authorship of the work to Peter and you may not reproduce the work for commercial purposes).  Vistaprint will print these magnets very affordably, so why not pass those cold winter days by preparing for the upcoming cycling season.  While your at it, check out the safety is sexy campaign which my friend Lauren started, perhaps you've seen the "You'd be hotter in a helmet" stickers associated with her campaign. 


What's your favorite bicycle campaign?