Farmington River Trail nears completion
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National Bike Summit March 8-10, 2011 Grand Hyatt|Metro Center|D.C. ACTING ON A SIMPLE SOLUTION - NATIONAL BIKE SUMMIT There are more people riding bikes than ever. Yet half of all U.S. trips are three miles or less, and more than 90 percent are made by car. The National Bike Summit has improved bicycle-friendliness and livability in many communities, but the need and opportunity to improve physical activity, safety and livability in the U.S., while reducing congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on oil – remains greater today than a decade ago. These issues seem difficult to solve but the answer is simple. The answer is the bicycle . Now is the time to ask Congress to make strategic transportation investments that foster healthy people and healthy communities. Join us March 8-10 in Washington, D.C. to act on a simple solution – the bicycle. KEYNOTE SPEAKER ANNOUNCED Janette Sadik-Khan, the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, is the keynote ...
Holiday Meeting on the Winter Solstice
Come join us for an evening of remembering what we accomplished last year, and of dreaming about what we hope to accomplish next year. Food and drink is available, at our own expense (Steve says the beer is great, and the pasta is made fresh daily). It is meant to be an informal gathering of friends with cycling on their minds. Hope to see you on the longest night of the year.
Route Ride Vote a huge success
It was a cloudy, cool day, but the showers stayed away until the 100 riders, walkers and Segway users had a good time enjoying the 0n-road portion of the proposed trail. It was thrilling to see people on bikes riding through the center of town and to the end points at Norton Park or Cronk Rd.. Some were seen to relax afterwards on the new benches in the center (and perhaps dream of the day when there will be bike racks there). Two of our police officers were patrolling the route on bikes for the duration of the ride and did a great job of setting out traffic cones at key intersections to make the route safer for cyclists and motorists. We got some great feedback on the ballots about what folks liked or did not like about the route, and we will make that information available to the designers during the next phase of the planning. We had lots of volunteers and several donors to make this success possible. Our donors were AMP Radio, Walgreens, Tim Horton's and TD Bank. Our volunteers...
Time to Let Go
Remember when you were here (either as the child or the parent)? This brings so many memories to mind: the sense of freedom that comes with that first successful solo journey as a child, or the satisfaction as a parent at seeing your child begin to master the joy of cycling. This wonderful sculpture is located on the shores of Grand Traverse Bay in Traverse City, MI, one of my favorite places on earth. I biked here a few years ago on a trip around the upper part of Lake Michigan, and then visited a few years later while staying on the Leelenau Peninsula, home of wineries, cherry orchards and a big time bike race (Tour de Leelenau). The city is home to Horizon Books, a well established, traditional bookstore that is also a gathering space for people and groups functioning as a "great good place" for this community. The main street has loaner bicycles scattered about so that if you drove to Horizon Books, but wanted to pay a visit to the Cherry Republic store, you could grab a ...
National Bike Summit draws 700!
By any measure, this event was a great success. 700 participants from bike shops to bike trails and to bike friendly communities sharing their accomplishments and their disappointments. We were agog over Google's neat new map application that allows a cyclist to choose routes best for cycling. Try it at the link included below. We were treated to some great presentations, and some not so great. We met with our Congressional Delegation from CT (well, with one face to face; the other meetings were with aides), but Congressman Chris Murphy (D, CT 5th) said he had never received such a large group of constituents to advocate for one issue. For me a great highlight was seeing all these folks walking between and through the Capitol and the various Senate and House office buildings wearing these lapel pins. Various staff members admired them and recognized them as being part of the Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) effort to make the entire country more bike friendly, starting with Co...