Gas stations and auto repair places: essential. Bike shops: not
 

In the Bay Area they've gone into "shelter in place". But it's not, tons and tons of exceptions, Tesla, for example. A long list of essential services that can stay open include gas stations, auto repair, and hardware stores. Oh, and apparently lawyers, because, yeah, they write the rules. But bike shops have to close down.

Folks, make sure you stock up on tubes, patch kits, and spare parts. Oh wait, most of us already have.

There's a MUP that runs right behind my property. If it comes down to it. I may have to put a sign up on it with "Atelier Velo" and an arrow pointing to my shop. I can take payment in eggs, booze, and kombucha. I have use for the first two, the last can be used to barter for other things, because Portland.

I THOROUGHLY approve your attitude and message!

I work at a bike shop in Vancouver, BC.

Have been reading in trade press about situations around the USA - including mandated closures in the Bay Area, shops going to 'appointment-only' operations, etc.

Mutual aid of the sort that an impromptu path-side 'Atelier' embodies might be just the thing in areas where bike shops are not allowed by local authorities to operate due to this kind of mandated business closure. I think it's hard to argue that transportation by bicycle, for those capable, is among the very best possible transportation options from a 'social distancing' perspective...especially for anyone who does not own or cannot rely on a private motor vehicle. Such an obvious alternative to public transit for short-to-medium trip distances, and better than car-share, taxi, or whatever app-based ride-sharing the kids are using these days for minimizing close interpersonal proximity/contact.

We're staying open for now, albeit with a whole lot of disinfecting going on (among other measures to keep things as safe as possible and do our part to contain spread of the virus).

I think for a lot of folks, access to someplace that can make sure their bicycle remains operational and safe is pretty 'essential'...

You could offer pre-cut and flattened pieces of inner tube as a reusable toilet paper. That'll get the crowds in.....

I was scheduled to pick up my wife's new bike this weekend in Hollister, which isn't quite bay area, but just issued a shelter in place order last night. i called them and they said they are planning on being there, unless they get rousted out of there by the authorities. Restaurants seem to be essential!
QUOTE:"The action takes place at midnight, with the city ordering all non-essential activities and businesses to stop until April 13.

They are also asking essential businesses, including restaurants, to reduce their occupancy by 50 percent to help with social distancing. Restaurants are encouraged to promote take-out options."

Wow, Hollister is going shelter in place? What's the world coming to when the Haybalers go that route...

Is the Casa de Fruta Cup Flipper on the essential list?

Well if you can't get your commutin' bike repaired there's always public transportation, Sniff..cough..cough! :eek:

Looks like Recycled Cycles in Seattle is open every, 10-6. Check out its facebook posts:

https://m.facebook.com/pg/recycledcy...ernal&mt_nav=0

Long drive from Portland. Community Cycle Center is our big co-op, and they're shut down right now.

We are in a virtual lockdown in Philadelphia, but bicycle shops have been deemed essential and allowed to stay open.

This is another type of issue where bicyclists and bike shops need to be assertive to their rights, or be trivialized (have rights trivialized) versus the car/truck driving populace.

My local discount grocery store, I hope doesn't end up being a local ground zero. Two days in a row I come across employees with a cough!

Tonight I went in to see the mgr, after getting over-charged (on qty for big potting-soil bags, and on per-item price on canned salmon fillets). I brought my receipts and got my $20 refund, ended up regretting the trip (on my bike) because after talking to the mgr she let out a cough.

I'm healthy enough where I more or less expect to contract this virus soon and just gut it out at home. I hope this isn't unrealistic (I haven't had the flu in over a dozen years).
I am starting to suspect a high infection rate at this point with most exhibiting minimal symptoms. I could be wrong if there is a cold virus making the rounds.

Today's group ride was cancelled yesterday, but four of us apparently hadn't yet read the email(?). Very cold ride start but a nice ride.
I went shopping for a coffin after the ride but found they were completely sold out.

It sure is a "car" culture when transportation servicing/parts places are approved for staying open but in the case of cycling shops they're forcibly shut down. Hard to believe the justification for "car shops" wouldn't equally apply for "bike shops" ... for the same reason: that people using the mode of travel need to keep their vehicles operable.

Gotta love government, sometimes. Just when you begin to pity the folks, they do something like this (orders/legislation) that misses the point.

More than seven billion people, a couple hundred thousand confirmed infections, a few thousand deaths ... and planet Earth's global economy is directed to be mostly turned off. I wonder what anthropologists and others will think of us in 1000yrs when they look back to this time.


Putting the final touches on a new-to-me bike I'm converting to an upright riding style for commuting. Going through all the parts to ensure everything's cleaned, in good shape, adjusted. A couple more parts, a bit more prep ... Almost there.

Good on Philly.

How do some of you guys think the tubes and whatnot get to the bike shops? By bike?

Doh.

I'm all for less traffic, less noise, less pollution, less crazy/impatient/distracted/take your pick drivers - but hey, if the trucks can't deliver the tubes and whatnot to the shop, there's no stock. No stock, no reason to be open. I'm sure there are lots of people - cyclists, too - who can't wait to see the next batch of trucks drive up to their local supermarket with a load of TP. I'm on of 'em :)

DD

"shelter in place"

Now that's a term designed by PR folks.

My background (38 years) is in the fire service and emergency management. The concept of, and the term, "shelter in place" has been in use for many years. It is the protection of a group of people where they are rather than evacuation and relocation.

My hope would be that crises like the current one would jar people and leaders to take action to build a better future. We can live better lives, but it takes commitment and action. Dumping a ton of printed cash into the economy is a poor bandaid in my opinion. How about investing in public transit, or renewable energy, or infrastructure, or education, or any number of things? When faced with the depression FDR mobilized the country to improve itself, and we’re still reaping the benefits of that work today.

The “business as usual” mentality just paves the way for the next crisis. I hope we can wake from our complacency and learn to do better. In the end the world isn’t an economy, it’s a biosphere, and our survival depends on it.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Me too. Worked my career in the chemical industry. Part of your emergency response plan was shelter in place. Fortunately we never had such an event. But pretty much every major refinery or chemical plant event has included shelter in place.


On this topic, for bicycle supplies, I have a ten year supply (left over from my heavy flipping days). My biggest challenge is with the co op closed, I have a truckload to donate and no place to drop it off. Goodwill is still running their collection services, but bike stuff there would end up scrap.

My second challenge is getting bike boxes for stuff I am selling.

I feel for my local bike shops, However, the gross over reaction is temporary, it’s all coming back, worst case a couple of months. There are online bike shops, you can get tubes, tools, and even a book, they still have those I think, to learn how to fix it yourself. Even though I tend to avoid, them, Amazon has all the same stuff, click of a button, all with no human contact.
Tim

Its been around for a number of years in federal government as a designation for a location in case of an "event" like an active shooter. Not only are there maps of how to exit the building but also SIP locations. They are typically an office or space that has no windows. For active shooters our building has the sign "run, hide, fight."

less traffic means faster drivers. was almost killed last night. me going 65-70 mph in the right lane, when all of a sudden I see a flash in my rear view mirror, it was a white car barreling down on me straight for the rear, barely had a split second to twitch my wheel to the right while he twitched his to the left & slammed on his brakes. missed my inches? he must have been going 15-20 mph faster than me

Boston drivers/....ugh Doesn't surprise me.

Glad you are ok along with your car ...

just occurred to me, just because I got 1 day a week cut from work, doesn't necessarily mean I should go ride my bike (on the roads) on that free day :eek:

Get back to us next week with with new numbers. Perhaps go online and find out about exponential growth.

The point is which is worse, doing nothing and letting several hundred thousand people in the US alone die and quickly get through the economic recovery, or stretch out the economic dread and limit the number of people dead? It may be that the number of people dying prematurely from economic collapse is as many or greater than the first option. A virtual Sophie's choice? I don't know the answer to that one. Our world is so intricately connected that I don't think anyone really knows what happens when parts of the economy completely collapse. Being in a manufacturing environment most of my adult working life I can't tell you how many times a part or assembly wasn't available for some weird reason - cleaning line was down due to a fire, raw material for a certain part is single sourced, a typhoon stops shipments for a week or two...it's a "kingdom for a nail" situation everywhere you think to look.

Edit: worldwide we're now at nearly 10,000 deaths.
Same could be said for grocery stores, except their inventory is a few weeks of food at best. Note, however, that right now bike shops have tubes and whatnot in stock and could keep bikes up and running while they still have inventory. Gas stations and auto repair stores will still be able to receive stuff, because they're considered essential, at least in the Bay Area, which was my example. I'd venture that almost all of us know someone who only uses bicycles for transportation, and may be only a broken part or flat tire away from being able to commute to work as a fireman, doctor, nurse, grocery store employee...

So, if auto repair stores can stay open, why can't bike shops? Philly seems to be an exception.

I started three responses to this but decided to just let it lie. All I've been hearing is the politics of this thing day after day and damn, I was hoping to get away from it here on BF. No such luck, I guess.

DD