Commuter's Eclipse

This morning, during my commute, the sun shimmered behind a gray scrim of clouds.  It was a white, almost silvery sphere that shimmered like the moon.

Then, as it drifted across the sky and, in the opposite direction, a curtain of grey clouds crept across its face, it seemed more like the moon.

This "eclipse", like a "real" one, ended not long after it began.  But it left the sky grayer and the sun dimmer, at times almost invisible.

Still, it made for a very easy last leg of my commute:  A slight, cool breeze tickled my back and the sun wasn't beating down on me.

Studying In Copenhagen

When I was an undergraduate, "studying abroad" usually involved foreign-language majors spending a year in the "home" or "mother" country of a language.  So French majors went to France, Spanish majors to Spain and, well, you get the idea.

Occasionally, students in other majors sojourned in other lands.  For example, art and architecture students might go to Italy or France, aspiring Shakespeare scholars trekked to England and some who were training in technical or scientific fields might spend time in Germany.  

In those days, nobody went to another country to study cycling, especially transportation or utility cycling.  Most American urban planning was auto-centric, and even though we'd lived through the '70's Bike Boom, forsaking two pedals and two wheels for one pedal and four wheels was seen as a milestone of maturity for a young person.

Well, it seems that things are changing, if little by little.  Three days from now,  seven Landscape Architecture and four Kinesiology students from Penn State University are going to Copenhagen to learn more about the Danish capital's cycling culture.

Specifically, those students will spend two weeks in a faculty-led program in which they will, according to the university, "observe bicycle infrastructure and multi-modal transportation solutions, learn from programs and policies that support biking, and learn about the role of biking in sustainable, livable communities."

Upon the completion of online course work, the students will earn three credits in their respective disciplines.  We can hope that the experience will help them to make or inform better decisions than most of the ones that have been made by planners who have made most of the policies and infrastructure we have here in New York and other American cities.

Losing Sleep In Seattle

Perhaps you've seen Sleepless In Seattle.

Well, over the weekend, something happened that's causing a few more people to lose sleep near Seattle.

In nearby Spanaway, a trailer was stolen from the Bethel Middle School.  That alone would upset some people.  But what makes this story even more troubling are the contents of that trailer:  20 shiny red bicycles.

I know:  They sound like some kids' dreams.  They probably are.  Those Specialized Roll Sport Low Entry bikes were used in Physical Education classes to teach kids how to ride safely.  I am guessing that some of those kids probably didn't have a bike of their own, or even access to one from a family member, friend or neighbor.  Even some of those who had bikes of their own, I'm sure, looked forward to the classes.

The kids aren't the only ones rattled by the theft.  Funding for the bikes, purchased from Old Town Bikes in Gig Harbor (each bike has a label from the shop),  came from the Cascade Bicycle Club and state grants.

The trailer, a 2016 Mirage Xcel with Washington State license plate number A8106C, was secured with hardened locks on its doors and a hitch lock, and was parked behind a locked gate.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department  (253-798-4840) would like to hear from anyone with information about the whereabouts of the trailer or its contents.

I hope everything will be found and folks will be able to sleep easily in Seattle.