Bikes Belong has recently re-issued their booklet "Bicycling - Moving America Forward". The update expands on safe routes to schools, "complete streets" (a sore spot with me at the moment), bikes for basic transportation, and bike sharing (IMHO a nice idea that will ultimately be foiled by human nature - I must be getting conservative).
Per their site, Bikes Belong works to put more people on bicycles more often. From helping create safe places to ride to promoting bicycling, they carefully select projects and partnerships that have the capacity to make a difference.
They concentrate our efforts in four areas:
- Federal Policy and Funding
- National Partnerships
- Community Grants
- Promoting Bicycling
That's it. Be safe and have fun!
Why the sore spot with complete streets? Good post, didn't know about it org.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment!
ReplyDeleteWe have some obvious gaps in our shared lanes in Downtown MPLS, and my office is located in the middle of the bare spot.
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles/bikemap-sharedlanes.pdf
Construction has necked down the streets at a few locations as well, it becomes a pretty hairy experience for the last two or three blocks to the office. We do have a shared lane on Marguette Ave, but it is a one-way that goes against traffic and because it is the only shared lane going north or south for about 6 blocks, many bikers ride the wrong way on it rather than take their chances on the narrowed streets. Once you are of the CBD, there are all kinds of lanes surrounding it.
Apparently the Marquette lane is going to be re-done this fall so it might get better....
We tried (and are still trying) the shared-bike thing in Madison WI beginning some years ago. Apparently some of the bikes are still out there, but as a non-user my observation is that the thing seems to have been scuttled by (you said it) human nature. People want to be sure of transport, either at the start of the trip or at its midpoint; a non-governed shared-bike systems as we have here can't always deliver on that. Darn annoying to come out of a store and find your ride has been taken by another user. A good bike rental program seems a better bet.
ReplyDelete