Three Recent Bicycle Commuting Ideas and/or Resources

Three items caught my attention recently:

1. One is an article about the financial value of considering Getting Rid of that Second Car.   It has been more than 10 years ago that I made a similar choice.  I had an old but reliable and very inexpensive second car for our two person family, and yet once I got rid of that car there was a surprisingly obvious savings.  Car ownership has a way of being so organic to our way of living in the US that we really can't see all the true costs and impositions that are entailed.  The benefit I discovered by eliminating the car seemed much more than my calculations had projected, and even now it is hard for me to detail the reasons for unexpected sense of net savings.  As convenient as a low cost car is to own, maybe it also allows one a few too many wasteful options.  In my case I discovered that one of my job choices was ultimately more of a drain on my finances than a benefit, what with all the driving and moving about that the job entailed.  What I discovered was that by getting rid of the car and getting rid of the job, I saved money.

These other two articles are nice resources for bicycle safety information and bicycle safety improvement:

   2. Ride Smart

          How to avoid the 5 most common bike-car collisions.

    3. "Bikewise is a place to learn about and report bike crashes, hazards, and thefts. By     sharing our experiences with each other, and with researchers and relevant agencies, we aim to make biking safer and more fun. You can help by adding your reports."