Cult Classic 2009: Purposeful and Amazing

The first-ever Cult Classic SD which took place last Friday was amazing!

Days later, San Diego is still buzzing w/ positive energy generated from Friday nite's fun.

The event went off w/out a hitch; very well organized and attended.

The raffle was a huge success! Over $1,200 were raised from raffle tickets! Wow! There could not have been a better conclusion to the nite--all the money needed for Atip's Memorial ($600 for Encroachment Removal Permit & approximately $600 for custom bike rack) was raised in one evening!

Thank you to everyone who bought raffle tickets. Thank you to Leader Frames for donating the frame for the cause. And thank you to all the other awesome sponsors who were also incredibly generous in their donations.

We will keep readers updated on the step-by-step planning process required for the legal installation of Atip's Memorial, which will be in the shape of a customized road-bike shaped bike rack (read previous blogs for further details). If the City of SD Engineering Department approves our Public Improvement Project plan, and respects the motions of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition and the North Park Planning Sub-committee and (full) Committee, then the rack will be installed!

We've already come along way w/ this project. Just a few more loops to jump through before the plan is formally presented.

Look for updates in the near future, in regards to this matter.

Here are some pics of the evening which were taken by Matt Lingo
























Players picked up points for how well they finished in each of six categories--1 minute freestyle, footdown, trackstand twister, u-lock pick up, sprint races, and best trick.

Congrats to Isaac for coming in first overall and for winning the PK Ripper bike, as a result!
Congrats to Joe Kelley for coming in second. Enjoy the messenger bag. Thanks for your witty Texas-style indie-rap freestyle flows at the afterparties.
Congrats to Marcus for coming in fourth! You threw down well in every event and you made Chula Vista and South Bay proud!

Out of all the games, I had most fun playing footdown. S'pose I'm a footdown kinda guy. I ended up coming in 4th in footdown which I'm pretty stoked about. The other comp I placed in Top 5 for was sprint races. Here, I came in 5th! I'll take it.

Trackstand Twister easily takes the prize for 'most innovative' and 'fun to watch' comp.

The entire evening was a blast, full of laughing, excitement, and good times.

Big ups to Dan Arel, SD Fixed, and all the kids involved w/ putting on this incredible event. The positive energy is flowing. Let's run err ride with it.

Cult Classic SD! Tomorrow! Benefit for Atip's Memorial!

This is gona be a blast! And it's a great cause!

Hopefully, if all the paperwork for the Public Improvement Project planning goes well and if the City of SD approves, then we can get an Encroachment Removal Permit to have a permanent memorial installed at Park & Uni for our fallen friend Atip!

We already have the official written support of the North Park Planning Committee, the North Park Planning Subcommittee, the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition and the SD bike community! I'm looking at the permit paperwork as I type. That's almost like typing blind-folded. Woah!

The custom bike-shaped bike rack we (the kids "core-ly" involved w/ this project) have agreed on will be approximately $550-750 (depending on the level of "customization"). The permit which allows us to install something in the public right of way, like a statue, a bench, or in our case a bike rack, costs approximately $600. (These approximated figures according to the Executive Director of the SD County Bike Coalition).

The total costs for everything will be made completely transparent, obviously.

Come out tomorrow! Enter a raffle to win a Leader track frame! Win a D.C. track frame at the comps! Check all the sponsors. This issue is getting known and the support is growing!

Have fun and let's raise some benefit money!

Atip's Latest Ghost Bike Removed; Dangerous Intersection Now More Deadly

Atip's latest Ghost Bike has been removed. Apparentely, the Ghost Bike was removed on Tuesday, July 21, less than 48 hours after the bike was locked up.

When I rode up to the corner of the University Ave & Park Blvd intersection on Saturday, July 25 to take-in and appreciate the awareness that the Ghost Bikes have brought to that deadly, car-centric intersection, I was saddened to ride up to what turned out to be a bike-less, naked, grey corner. It's disappointing to see that people's well-intentioned methods of physically memorializing a human being that was killed at that site, can simply be scooped up, curbed, and tossed into the back of a City-owned truck like an abandoned shopping-cart.

City governments should be about protecting the well-being of it's citizens. Spending our tax dollars and wasting money to remove an awareness-raising work of public art is backwards. Thank you City of San Diego Street Divisions for spending money to make a dangerous intersection more deadly---all so you can hide the weaknesses of your auto-centric, car-first, pedestrians/cyclists-last philosophy.

It's clear; Street Divisions, a City of SD department directed by an automobile-traffic-engineer, is determined to remove anything from the corner that is mildly associated w/ Atip and/or bike-safety (Source on Deputy Director's automobile-traffic-engineer background: Personal phone conversation before the original Ghost Bike Memorial was removed, 2008).

Fortunately, a permanent memorial is in the works. An awesome and super-fun fundraiser-event is being planned! Details very soon.

News about Gathering for Atip Represented in "Pedal Consumption"

The PedalConsumption.com fixed gear news source showed some supportive Atip representation on their site, in lieu of the gathering which took place last Sunday, July 19.


A couple photos (including one above) taken by Atip's close friend Matt Lingo got linked up.

The caption reads as follows:

'Just a year ago, Atip Ouypron was struck by a truck and died on the morning of July 19, 2008. Its great to see him remembered with the support of those who rode with him... or just heard his name whispered.'

Well said.

The page can be seen here:

http://www.pedalconsumption.com/files/a_gathering_for_atip.html

Thanks, PC.

Community Gathers to Recognize One-year Passing of Atip; Ghost Bike Memorial Returns

Friends of Atip gathered on the afternoon of Sunday, July 19, to commemorate the life and death of our fallen friend.

It was clear, judged by the turnout, that positive and loving memories of Atip remain omnipresent in the minds of his friends, community, co-workers, and fellow cyclists fortunate enough to have known such a positive-thinking and influential individual.

A Ghost Bike memorial returned to the corner of the deadly Park Blvd. & University Ave intersection; the site of the high-speed collision which took the life of our friend on July 19, 2008.

Above photo taken by Matt Lingo.

Following photos taken by Skyy:









Atip will never be forgotten.

One-Year Anniversary of Atip's Death is this Sunday

Atip's close friends are organizing a gathering to take place this Sunday, July 19, 2009 in recognition of the one-year anniversary of Atip's death.

The vigil will take place at 5pm at the Park Blvd. & University Ave. intersection; the site of the collision which killed Atip, and the site of his Memorial Ghost Bike which arose in response.

More details to come.

Giving Lecture on Bike-Planning in an Oil & The Future of America course @ UCSD

I've been invited to give a guest lecture/presentation in an Oil & The Future of America course held at University of California, San Diego.

This will be my 3rd time guest-lecturing in this course, since it's relatively new existence. And it's the first time since the horrible weekend of July 2008.

Topics to be discussed later this morning include the following:

-The U.S. youth bike movement, w/ a focus on San Diego.

-Proven methods/examples of improving bicycle infrastructure/conditions in urban environments.

-Effective encouragement programs, ranging from local group ride coordinating, to UCSD's Bike Commuter Challenge, to Bogota, Colombia's weekly Ciclovia bike/pedestrian day.

-A brief and modern history of auto-centric, sprawled planning in San Diego.

-Auto-centric biases in the Level Of Service (LOS) system which rewards "Traffic Engineers" (i.e. Automobile Traffic Engineers) for designing roads which serve the highest volume of automobile traffic but does not reward those engineers for the volume of cyclists or pedestrians their engineered-road may serve. Essentially, the faster automobile traffic goes, which thereby increases the risk of death for cyclists/pedestrians, the more points the engineer gets and the better his/her career does.

Equality on the road, between cyclists and motorists, cannot exist as long as this policy which rewards engineers for designing high speed auto-centric neighbhorhood streets is in effect; all while offering NO (zero) L.O.S. incentives for bike friendly nor pedestrian friendly roads.

Not surprisingly the Senior Engineers at the City of San Diego Engineering Dept. wanted Atip's bike removed because it slowed down automobile traffic.

Remove the bias. Modify the deadly LOS. Reward safe streets for pedestrians and cyclists. Strive for safer, more livable streets.

LOS, in its current state, is a true loss for communities that want safer, livable streets for all.

-Complete Streets Act: California's new state-wide law which calls for local municipalities to improve infrastructure to increase safety for bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit riders.

-In addition, I will specifically discuss the community's attempt to Save Atip's Ghost Bike, a functional form of public art, all while dealing w/ an auto-centric, car-first, out-of-touch, City of San Diego bureaucracy; where LOS-philosophy clashed w/ Livable Streets philosophy (of which, the latter, was backed by the SD Bike Coalition, and the North Park Planning Committee).

-Bicycling resources

-Ideas for the future

Note: This will be my first time discussing the Complete Streets Act, Atip's Ghost Bike, and LOS-philosophy in this course.

In my opinion, Oil & The Future of America is one of the most important courses offered at UCSD. I'm an alumni of this course, and I'm honored to be invited back to offer a guest-lecture.

Atip's Memorial in Latest Issue of Urban Velo Magazine

The widely-respected urban bicycling magazine, Urban Velo, has represented Atip's Ghost Bike/Memorial in their latest issue.

In Urban Velo's issue #11, the primary focus is dedicated to Ghost Bikes across America, as you can tell by the cover.

The story itself was written by Portland's Rev Phil, who was in San Diego during the final week and final day in which Atip's Ghost Bike was present at the University Ave & Park Blvd. intersection, before it was dishonestly removed by Street Divisions, a department w/in the City of San Diego, who removed the bike despite wide public support and despite the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition and the North Park Planning Committee's official support for the presence of the Ghost Bike.

Rev Phil offers a somber conclusion, in his piece: "One behavior I have tried to curb is my referring to these incidents as "accidents." While I generally hope that most drivers are not trying to actively harm cyclists I feel that the automatic assumption of "best intentions" is wrong. Spilled milk is an accident. 43,000 deaths involving auto collisions is an epidemic."

Visit http://urbanvelo.org/ for more info pertinent to ghost bikes, bike advocacy, and bicycling culture in general.