Here is a photo she sent me that sums up a day in SD.  Aside from the coffee roasting, I hope to get back to Cali and live a similar and simple life as she.

Keep riding.

Keep riding and making our streets VIBRANT!

I read this fantastic article this morning: http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/index.php/site/blog/advocates_launch_effort_to_double_number_of_women_and_girls_who_ride_bikes/

I’d love to find time where I can mirror efforts like this here.  ’The needs and desires of bicyclists differ by gender.’  Couldn’t agree more.  Having more women become LCI’s (I’ll finish mine in April) and then using that knowledge to teach girls in school as well as other women who are interested but may feel a bit intimidated can make all the difference in the world.  Knowledge is power.  I’m so proud of  WobSoCal team!  All types of beautiful women making change!

During my commute home to G-ville, I caught this woman.  It looked as though this woman was headed to the grocery store??  Not sure but the fact that she appears to be running errands on her bicycle provides a great vision that multi-tasking via bicycle WORKS.

The photo below is a couple I caught riding down the bumpy and desperately in need of being repaved, Oak St.  Oak St. is another street with great potential of being an east/west bicycle path.  A safe, stress-free and separated cycle track would be a success

Keep riding.

..and yes, that is a Barbie on a bike – mounted on her handlebars

When I think of visionary and bold cities I think of San Francisco. New York City,  D.C., Los Angeles and Boston.  Why do I think of these cities??  I think of these cities b/c when it comes to their city’s walking and biking infrastructure – they are visionary; they are bold.

In 2006, an injunction was imposed for four years restricting any physical improvements for bicycles in San Francisco.  No bike lanes, no sharrows, no bike signage, nada.  An ‘environmental review’ was to be done to evaluate potential impacts from the San Francisco Bikeways Plan in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).  Once the environmental review was finished, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) approved the Bikeways Plan in 2009.  In 2010, the injunction was lifted.  In a matter of a couple months, 35 bike lanes projects were slated to begin and most of those projects have completed.  There’s been an increase in bicycle ridership of over 53%.  Their bold goal:  Connecting the City is by 2020 seeing 100 miles of crosstown bikeways and having individuals from eight to eighty bicycle safely through their city.  I use to live there.  I try to get there twice a year and each time I’m there, I’m in awe at their advancement and their vision to make bicycling a priority in their city.  It’s beautiful.

New York City – Janette Sadik-Khan.  For those who know her, she is NYC’s Transportation Commissioner and is kicking serious ass.  In four years, Janette and city leaders striped over 240 miles of bike lanes.  Bicycle commuting has increased in NYC about 44%.  Janette Sadik-Khan and PPS transformed Time Square and permanently closed Broadway to traffic re-creating the area completely around people.  ’Brass is good’  Janette stated in a video interview she gave about a month ago and I couldn’t agree more.  You can’t always choose ‘Vanilla’ just because you know its good and it’ll never let you down – sometimes you need to choose ‘Queen City Cayenne,’ to kick your ass and reinforce that you’re alive

D.C. currently has the biggest, baddest and boldest bike share system in the U.S.  with over 1,100 bikes and over 100 stations and more are due to be installed this year.  New York City will easily beat this by April of 2012 with 10,000 bikes and 600 stations.  Along with D.C. currently having the biggest success with their bike share, they have innovative and bold bike infrastructure – a cycle track down Pennsylvania Ave, contr-flow cycle track on 15th st and New Hampshire Ave and more bike lanes all through their city.  I was there last March for the Annual D.C. Bicycle Summit and the four days that I was there, I, with ease, used a different mode of transportation, every day (walk, bike, bus and metro).  I moved through D.C. with complete ease and NO car.

Los Angeles, I can say confidently is leading the charge and turning heads with their incredible attendance numbers from their ‘Ciclavias.’  The term Ciclovia is a Spanish term which means ‘bike path’ in English.  Ciclovia’s are exploding here in the U.S.  When a Ciclovia happens, a street is shut down to motor vehicles and is re-humanized for a few hours.  You bike, walk, skip, dance, play basketball, yoga, musicians, whatever you want, you can have; you just can’t have cars.  Ciclovia’s celebrate streets as public places and you get connected with your community, your surroundings as well as enjoying life in a slowed down pace.  LA has done three Ciclavia’s thus far.  The last one they did, they shut down over 10 miles of streets and humanized these streets with over 300,000 men, women, and children for four hours.  Those numbers are NOT a typo.  10 miles, throughout LA, one of the most congested cities in the United States – that’s BOLD.

These cities are taking chances.  They are using bicycle infrastructure that isn’t necessarily ‘approved’ in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).  which is a manual that engineers live and die by.  If traffic-controlled devices aren’t approved in the MUTCD chances are we won’t implement which brings me back to BOLD and VISIONARY.  These other cities that are kicking Columbus’ ass when it comes to bicycle ridership and infrastructure.  Why is that?  These cities are designing their streets and using infrastructure that may not be ‘approved’ in the MUTCD but these ‘best practices’ have been overwhelmingly successful in Europe hence, one of the main reasons why bicycle commuting is so much higher (some countries have close to 40% bicycle commuting).

2012 is going to be a VERY critical year here in Columbus.  I think our city and key decision makers really need to step it up and ‘walk the walk’.  If we want to be ‘Bike City USA,’ we need infrastructure.  We need to experiment with more bike boxes, buffered bike lanes, colored bike lanes, better signage, bicycle designated signals.  We need to re-allocated our roads so that cars don’t drive 45-55mph down our 5-8 lane downtown streets.  You design a street that’s inviting and makes people want to ‘stay,’ you get more eyes on the street, you get safer streets and you get a more ‘human’ street.  By the way…  the Columbus Commons WILL NOT SUCCEED if we do not slow down streets like 3rd and 4th.  The Scioto Mile, this summer the city should experiment with closing the street down for one Sunday a month to cars.  Create a pedestrian street like many other cities have already been doing.  Take chances.  Be bold.  Stop playing ‘follow the leader’ and actually BE the leader.

We’ve barely publicized our Connect the Core initiative and already we have over 800 signatures of people who support and want bike lanes and other on-street infrastructure.  If you’re interested in becoming involved / attending our next meeting, shoot me a response – we’d love to have you!  Folks are REALLY excited about this initiative and we’re really looking forward to leading.

We can’t be a viable, liveable and bikeable city if people don’t want to bike downtown OR walk.

Keep riding!

…to this:

Nice, eh?  She went from being scared of riding a bike and not feeling like she was confident enough to ride on the roads to upgrading her bike and riding on the roads  She also told me that she has put her car up for sale.  Stories like these make me incredibly happy.  People are figuring it out.  They are becoming more aware and taking the time to change their behaviors.  She also has a 6 yr old daughter.  If she can do it, anyone can.

Here are some photos of volunteers and riders at FCW and a couple from the Alley Cat post pandemonium.

Keep riding!

Pre madness of Alley Cat.  Photo taken by Patrick Maher.

The teen above was super engaged.  I loved watching him.  THIS is what I want to see…  more teens excited about bikes, learning about bikes and empowering themselves with the knowledge of fixing their bikes!

Kevin ‘Crime Stoppers’ Miles nicely representing all of FCW’s Code of Conduct.

Keep riding!