Going’s On

Holy cats this week there are so many bike events in the area you can’t toss a 40lb Huffy without hitting someone at a bike event!

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The Metropolitan Planning Organization Bicycle Plan is getting some huge attention right now as planners and consultants are visiting and looking and plotting and figuring out how in the world to connect our city with three neighboring towns via multi-use trails.

All day today they met in Brandon. Tomorrow is Harrisburg. Wednesday is Tea. I think they might even be going so far as to get their shoes dirty to find ways to go places. In each of these towns there is also a public input event from 5:30pm to 7:00pm on their respective days.

I helped with the bicycle plan. I haven’t been able to get involved in the current efforts. I wish I could. One of the consultants plays at the national level. The company name appears in print often – now that I know to pay attention for it.

Imagine 30 years from now, when these cities have grown together the value of having a place to recreate where a person can go for miles and miles without crossing a road. It won’t matter so much then that Sioux Falls the town are connected by the trail. It will matter that that type of recreation is possible and it will be a big deal for those neighborhoods.

Here’s a bit of news about that effort - http://tinyurl.com/33ucmfp

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Tuesday morning The City makes a public splash of their Bike SmART program. This program finds support in the city’s bike plan. It seems like two years ago or more when the first call went out for artists to submit artsy designs for bike racks – and nobody responded, not even David Byrne (although I do know that some effort was put in to him submitting). A second similar request went out half a year later which resulted in some fruit. Now another year later and TWO racks are being placed (or maybe they’re in place) and The City marks the occurrence with a presentation at City Hall. Tomorrow. Ride your bike so you don’t have to park, pay and walk.

Here’s the official scoop on Bike SmART - http://tinyurl.com/2vcgbrb

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Friday is international Park(ing) Day. Sioux Falls Pedicab with the help of Landscape Garden Center will claim a metered parking spot near 9th and Phillips for the day with “grass”, a tree, and other fun items. From there free pedicab rides will be given to anyone who agrees to pull their bike out of the garage, dust it off, and go for a ride this week.

Another spot apparently will be claimed by a group from Architecture for Humanity. I’m not sure where but I’ll be looking for them.

Here’s some newsy bits about the pedicab rides - http://tinyurl.com/36eagja

Here’s the official scoop on International Park(ing) Day - http://parkingday.org/

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Does that seem like enough? How about today’s MinusCar statistics?

Single occupant automobile – 4.66 miles
Multi occupant automobile – 4.84 miles
Bus – 2.5 miles
Walk – 2.65 miles

I walked a 1/3 mile with The Boy 8 today to a bus stop. People really hate the inconvenience of not having a car. I really like spending time with my son with nothing to do but BE. While we waited for the bus The Dad came on his bike to tell us a few stories. That’s three generations at one bus stop – if you’re scoring at home.