This parade was the Beacon Bikes People Powered Park Parade. Iit was up on Beacon Hill and the Machine was not. So Friday afternoon, after a significant amount of logistical planning, my friend Aurilee and i bicycled to Beacon Hill, locked up our bikes at the light rail station, took light rail and the #48 bus to the Central District and met up with Ryan, Liz from Bike Works, and a cool group of folks in order to MOVE THE MACHINE. We needed to position it for tomorrow's parade. We only had to go 3 and half miles.
We climbed aboard and started figuring out The Machine.
This wonderful Machine was built by the amazing Haulin' Colin. It's built on the chassis of a Toyota pickup truck. It still has the wheels, breaks, drive shaft, universal joint, transmission, steering, even the speedometer. But the drive, the power, is the three upright and four recumbent cycling positions. The driver doesn't pedal, but she does shift for all of us. Getting into fourth was really nice.
From the start point we had to immediately head up a big hill and almost over the ridge before we could turn south towards Jackson St. When we started up the hill; i didn't think we could make it, it was HARD. But we did make it, and it was FUN!! Aurilee couldn't believe how much fun it was. We were all whooping with joy!
While we kept the speed around 3 or 4 mph much of the time, ocne we started down the hill on S Jackson St (a major arterial) we got going much faster!
Once we started up Beacon Hill we needed a little push.
Or two. John was just on his commute home from work when he found us heading up Beacon Hill. He pushed us for blocks!
Now i don't mean to sound negative, but if you had 9 people on bicycles, riding 4 or 5 miles per hour together, in a full lane, through rush hour traffic on a sunny Friday afternoon, i'm pretty sure drivers would go batshit crazy. They would hate us for just existing. We were certainly wondering what the reaction was going to be, especially because we were SLOW! It took an hour and a half to go 3.7 miles.
In fact we didn't get a single negative reaction. People waved and laughed and some just stared slack jawed in amazement. And hundreds of people took out their cameras and took photos!
Saturday morning was cloudy and cool -- no short sleeve shirts today as we pulled out to ride a block or two to Jefferson Park for the start of the parade. Now this seemed old hat, but i was still amazed at the way The Machine moved.
A couple of Seattle City council members were going to join us in the Parade. Here i am lobbying councilmember Tom Rasmussen for better bicycle transportation.
And we were off, with 2/7 of the city council pedaling. Councilmember Sally Clark is up front.
The parade wound through Beacon Hill neighborhoods, primarily following the route of the planned bike boulevard.
Behind us was a great neighborhood parade of parents and kids on bikes.
Arriving at Lewis Park!
The Machine, with Liz changing shoes.
After the speeches and the music we got to ride it BACK up the hill, which was equally fun. I had brought my own pedals and one came out of the crank arm on the way up the hill.
It was great fun!
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