Lance Armstrong and I have a few things in common. We both participated in the 1987 Hotter N Hell Hundred Century Ride in Wichita Falls, Texas, we both like bikes, and we both use Twitter, as do several other bike bloggers and bike industry people. Carlton lists several bike trade tweeters over at BikeBiz.com. If you’re in the bike trade and use Twitter, give Carlton a Tweet and ask him to add you to the list.

If you Tweet please feel free to leave a comment with your Twitter account here. I’d especially like to know about the enthusiasts and people who just like to ride a bike.

You might also like my silly Bicycle Tweets page, where you can find fun tweets like this one:

I hate it when I forget to bring a change of undies and have to wear my sweaty bike ones all day.

Or this…

I think I was ma’am’ed at the bike store. SERIOUSLY. MA’AM’ed.

Well, it’s almost a haiku. He just needs to swap his 2nd and 3rd verses.

Here are my last minute commentary on the various propositions and a few local measures on the 2008 ballot in California.

Proposition 1A: High Speed Rail. Support. Many environmentalists are concerned that HSR will open up more sprawl in the Central Valley — the fear is that High Speed Rail (HSR) will enable commuters to buy a home cheap in Fresno or Gilroy and take high speed rail to work in Silicon Valley. Those traditionally opposed to anything other than highway and air travel and who style themselves, oddly, as fiscal conservatives oppose Prop 1A because they believe spending should be reserved to expanding and maintaining only freeways and airports. I believe, however, that HSR is an intelligent and wise use of transportation funds and that there is sufficient travel demand between San Francisco and Los Angeles to make this endeavor more than worthwhile. As energy costs continue to rise (and they will rise), something besides highway and air travel needs to be available. My fear is that this already too late to build — we needed to plan for something like this three decades ago when land, energy and credit were cheap.

Proposition 7: Renewable Energy Initiative. Oppose. Prop 7 is poorly written and adds considerable expense to regulators and consumers while doing very little to actually encourage generation of renewable energy in California. Prop 7 will just make energy generation more difficult for all providers, make energy more expensive with no benefit, and could even shut out smaller businesses that are working to generate electricity from renewable resources. Read why the Sierra Club opposes Prop 7.

Proposition 10: Alternative Fuel Vehicles. Oppose. Prop 10 provides funding to implement “The Pickens Plan,” which borrows money to provide rebates for consumers who purchase natural gas powered vehicles. Taxpayers will subsidize the purchase of new vehicles with no new funding source, and the primary beneficiary will be owners of corporate fleets. Read why the Sierra Club opposes Prop 10.

Santa Clara County Measure B: VTA sales tax increase Oppose. This is the infamous “BART to Fremont” measure. VTA famously mismanages their generous funding. VTA can’t be trusted with even more money after their broken promises to county voters and persistently poor service to those dependent on their transportation services. VTA will divert funding from Caltrain and their existing transit services to pay for service to Fremont from San Jose. Much more info at No VTA Tax, especially this page. See also VTA Riders Union, 295Bus, and The Bay Rail Alliance. Those who actually use public transportation on a day to day basis oppose Measure B.

Santa Cruz County. There are no measures that directly impact transportation in Santa Cruz County. The perpetual issue of Highway 1 widening, however, will be discussed (again) along with other transportation issues by county supervisors and Santa Cruz city councilors who will be selected this week. People Power in Santa Cruz has their endorsements for representatives [PDF] with good discussion on the candidates’ positions, histories and qualifications.

San Mateo County Measure Q: Commercial Parking Tax. Support. Measure Q imposes an 8% tax on the gross receipts of commercial parking operations in unincorporated San Mateo County. This would affect many businesses who provide parking for SFO Airport patrons.

San Mateo County Measure R: Rental car tax. Support. Measure R adds a 2.5% tax on the gross receipts of rental car businesses in unincorporated San Mateo County, affecting many businesses who rent cars out to visitors coming through SFO Airport.

Redwood City development measures. Redwood City Measures V and W impact future development there. I haven’t been following these issues closely but read up on them to be educated on them.

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition candidate and issues endorsements are here.

Marin County Measure Q & Sonoma County Measure Q: Tax for Passenger Rail. Support. This is the proposed Sonoma-Marin SMART service.

Brookings Institute Report: McCain and Obama on transportation issues [PDF]. Via.

Michael Ronkin of Salem, OR will present “Complete Streets: Designing for Transit, Pedestrians, Bicyclists, and Cars” at the
Redwood City Forum on Thursday, November 6 beginning at 6 PM. $10 at the door.

Sorry for this late notice, but I haven’t been paying attention.

The San Mateo County Transportation Authority has created a 45 page draft of their transportation strategic plan 2009-2013 and they want public input by 5 PM Monday November 3.

Send input by phone (650-622-7845) or email tastrategicplan at smcta dot com.

Thanks to Margaret Pye for this info.

“Bicycle Today, Automobile Tomorrow” was released in 1969 and produced with input from the Inglewood, CA police, the Inglewood, CA school district and the Los Angeles Board of Education. The idea is that children who learn to ride their bikes in traffic will become better automobile drivers as adults.