Glenn Kubish

There is a quiet urge to sociability built into the open architecture of the bicycle. A bicycle is a pre-social media social medium. The bodily encounters invited by the bicycle are the short waves, hellos, peace signs, thumbs ups, quips, good mornings, traded remarks about the weather, nods, salutes, smiles, knowing glances, short conversations and other gestures and utterances that riders share and use to recognize each other as we go by. The openness of the bicycle—no windshield, no doors, no roof—suggests this way of dealing with each other. This sociability suggestion is enhanced by, call them what you will, protected bike lanes, cycletrack, separated bike routes. I call them "humanfrastructure." This is what I mean. I am not alone. I posted the video, which was shot on the downtown Edmonton bike lanes and on the Oliverbahn, a stretch of protected bike lane that animates the central Oliver neighbourhood. People replied. @bpincott from...

Thanks to Shaw, the Shaw Conference Centre, thanks to Winter Cities Shakeup 2017, and thanks to Edmonton NextGen for the chance to get up on stage and tell the story of a little movement called Coffee Outside. Thanks to Shelagh. She was in the front row and could have easily, had I blacked out, delivered the pecha kucha. She had heard me practise it in bed, on a plane, in hotels, in the living room, and you get the picture. And, of course, thanks to the women and men who make time for coffee outside Friday mornings in Edmonton. Everyone is welcome to stop by. More at  @coffee_outside on Twitter. 

Dear Land Rover, My name is Glenn. I'm the bicycle commuter you passed this morning on 102 Ave. I am writing you this short letter to remind you that you were supposed to turn right on 105 St. And then you were supposed to turn right on 104 St. And then on 103 St. And then I lost sight of you. You were trucking it pretty good. Take a look: You were supposed to make those rights because, at that time of the morning, the lane you were in, the curb lane, dictates that you not go straight through. Straight through at that time of the morning is reserved for buses, taxis, and, yes, bicycles. Times of the sign There are signs posted to this effect. They are easy to read and interpret. All you really need to know is the time of day. You have a clock on your dashboard to help you with this. If the time of day is, like it was when you zoomed passed me, around 7:30 am, then it's not legal to do what you did. And did. And then did again. These are the signs you ignored. (...