Downtown Dining

I met a guy for lunch downtown today. Good times. Once I found this bike parked I knew I was in the right place. Isn't it purty?



I utilized the bus for the round trip to downtown. Good passenger counts! I waited with about 10 other riders to board. Somewhere along the route we got in trouble from the driver. He thought the guy next to me was playing some awful loud music.

The ol' ears are what they used to be. I redirected the driver to the back of the bus where the music was actually coming from.

It was just like high school.

That's More Like It

One way to not drive so much is to have a car that's in the shop a lot. It especially helps if parts are unavailable (or very far away) for said car.

Stupid car.

I almost needed a car today because it's my turn to fill the water jugs at work. Instead I took a vote and we decided to discontinue buying water at work. Lucky for me none of them read this.

Hey, LAB Traffic Skills 101 is going down in Rapid City the April 15 weekend.

Hey, LAB Traffic Skills 101 is also going down in Sioux Falls April 28, 29 & 30.

I know, everybody already knows how to ride a bike.

Recently some strange men were at my home taking moving pictures. Good times. Especially fun to see Snakebite playing the role of Boom Operator. I think he's got a bright future.

Awright, enough of this, I gotta go eat some more Goldfish.

The Car Computer Doth Protest...

I drove some again today. Oh yes, this is indeed my new non-permanent reality. Since the weekend The MinusCar II computer has been spitting out messages: service ABS, service Steering, service Traction Control, service Stability Control.

Methinks the computer doth protest too much. Perhaps the computer in the mirror could help it identify the problem. Or maybe my mechanic will service all those things for me...I guess I didn't tell him not too.

But I also rode some. Except when I headed downtown in the evening for a meeting with the men of Falls Area Singletrack. Yup, spring is upon us - we must gather members and calendars and dig dig dig.

Oh yeah, I rode some...and I realized I gotta be careful riding through my neighborhood. When I got home there were Goldfish in my bag.



I didn't realize I'd been moving that slow.

Catastrophic Failure

Made ya look.

I'm entering a bike in an April 16 triathlon. So I drove today with two bikes on the back of the car with the intent of one begin picked up by the triathlete and riding the other one home at the end of the day.

As I left work I found the Pugsley - not the one participating on the triathlon - had fallen over. Why? Because sometime during the day the tube had burst. Boom! I feel sorry for standers-by when that blew.

So I drove home.



Darn.

It's April!

It's clear that winter is in the rear view mirror.

It's important to keep reminding myself there are two months of cold and rain ahead.

I rode my bike a little bit today. Drove some and walked some too.



A few weeks ago I spent 2 hours sitting at a table in the bowels of City Hall with a police attorney, a police officer, a traffic engineer and a planner. Good times. I only disappointed myself once - and I was never officially arrested.

A hot steaming fresh Draft Rapid City Area Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan is now available. I've been anxiously awaiting it's arrival for a few months now. Consulting on the plan were Alta Planning & Design - a leading international bike and pedestrian planning organization.

Is that 18 miles of shared & signed roadways? If a tree falls on a bike plan in the middle of the Black Hills National Forest and the cyclists in the community give a collective "meh", does it matter that the plan ever existed?

Wouldn't it be cool if Rapid City - already with all the singletrack in the world - created national level urban cycling infrastructure?

Surprise! This Part's Closed Too!

For many months it's been known that this summer will be a bad one for bike trail closures. 9 of the 20 miles of trail will have planned closures.

* Yay! - downtown's shiny new Riverwalk which will open up lots of new public space.

* Yay! - the replacement of the Central Main Sewer line, originally a 3 year project, has been condensed to one season. After this is complete we should be able to discontinue the dumping of poop into the river - like we did so much last spring. Sadly the work won't be completed for this spring's thaw.

* Meh - the raising of the dike to save money on flood insurance. The new flood maps came out and many more landowners found themselves in flood plains. Raising the dikes will save rich people a gazillion dollars in flood insurance premiums.

Part of this project includes the building of a wall between the country club golf course and the bike trail. The wall building is underway. Hopefully our local graffitti artists will take this opportunity to improve their woefully lacking skills.



Remember kids it takes more than a can of spray paint an a 5th grade vocabulary to make art.

Surprise!

Last week our Mayor used some of his keen business acumen to call a press conference to explain to us good people of Sioux Falls that winter's record snowfall north of here could cause record flooding south of there, or here.

Today they announced another large closing of the bike trail to do some urgent reinforcing of the dike nort of Skunk Creek.

The red indicates closure.



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The Earth warms up, the air holds more moisture, the moisture falls to Earth and gets stuff wet.

A Bit Messy

Things got a little messy on the way home today. Let me suggest a Pugsley downside: the 4" tires can hold 2x mud. Sure is fun playing in the mud after two weeks of very intense work. Tomorrow's high 46. Masybe I'll pack some shorts for the trip home.

Lent

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Ash Wednesday. It was today. I saw one. As I'm wont to do during this season my mind wanders to days long passed. And today - because I'm thinking about Lent lots - I remembered this article. Biking as a Lenten practice - By Melissa Bixler

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Terribly sad news out of Champaign/Urbana, IL.

Meet: David and Cindy "have been married for 20+ years. Neither of them drive; she is blind. They live in those apartments and travel just about everywhere on that tandem."

Tragedy: "... were hit from behind last night. Cindy is gone. David is in critical condition and they’re not telling him."

Distracted Driving: "Police believe a driver who hit a couple Monday on a tandem bicycle, killing one, may have been distracted by reading a map."

What's Going On?

David: Michael wants to know what's going on. Marko, what's going on?
Marko: I don't know. What's going on, Paul?
Paul: Wait a minute. Who wants to know?
Dwayne: Michael wants to know.

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So much going on I'm having a tough time keeping track.

1. We put the key in and turned it. The 2011 Sioux Falls Bike to Work Day event started up. It's always the 3rd Friday of May. Come on out. Grab some celebratory food stuffs. Leave your car at home.

In an effort to get broader input for planning the day take a moment and PLEASE visit this Survey Monkey link. Answer our two question survey.

2. South Dakota Bicycle Coalition has put out it's first newsletter. It's true we're looking to actually pay someone to complete some administrative tasks. Really! Here's a link to a description of the help we're looking for.

We met a week ago in Mitchell to process the Bike Summit experience. One of the results of this meeting was the formation of some committees. I'm the board person pushing on the Bicycle & Pedestrian Education & Safety Initiatives.

Our friend Jim Books operator of Dakota Bike Tours will be a National Bike Summit panelist for "Creating a New Power Base – Organizing and Supporting the Bike Travel and Tourism Sector to Support Bike Advocacy." It is exciting to me to have a South Dakota cyclist representing at the summit.

3. Smart Cycling - I'll be teaching another section of Traffic Skills 101 April 28, 29 and 30 through School District's Community Education program. Here is a link to their information.

4. Falls Area Singletrack - Snakebite's Bike Swap is March 20. The poster is here.

Good. See you there.

Snakebite's Swap

It's happening again...

Holy Cow I'm Merging!

There's a spot on 41st St, right there by the busiest intersection in the state, where the sidewalk/pedestrian traffic merges with the right turn only lane on a 40,000 vehicle per day road.

Oh sure there's a myth worth of protection in that spot - a nice 5 inch wide white line painted from one sidewalk edge across to where the sidewalk continues after crossing a right turn only entrance and a right turn only exit from a Walgreen's parking lot.

I cannot believe nobody's died there.

It had to be this way. Without the pedestrian/motor vehicle merge there'd be no way to enter Walgreens by car, therefore there'd be no way to have a Walgreens.

I'm certain the traffic engineers did the best they could - but really, we must have a Walgreens and the Walgreens must be accessible by car.

Besides, people would be crazy to go to that place without 4,000 lbs of steel and glass for protection.

Sunday I arrived at that merge by bike.

By bike? On the sidewalk? DON'T ride on the sidewalk. That's a good way to get hit by right turning traffic. Ride in traffic. The safest place to be in that spot is behind the car in front and in front of the car behind. Where we can all see each other and smile. All friendly like.

Sunday I arrived at that merge by bike. I discovered an SUV turning right. I and the SUV may have gotten intimate - for just a moment.

Better hurry and get 41st a redesign. People would kill to get into Walgreens.

Crazy Kids

You get these youngsters on bikes and you never know what sort of danger they'll put themselves in.



I guess The Dad was pretty happy to be leaving work last Friday.

No, it isn't photoshopped.

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Looking for Valentine's Day content? Please check out Monday's Yehuda Moon.

Pugsley Took Me To Leaders

I took advantage of the beautific temperature today and headed out for a small adventure. I let the Pugsley decided where to take me and it soon became clear we'd be visiting Leaders Park.

By way of the I29 Pedestrian Bridge, Falls Park, DTSF, Caribou Coffee, and finally The Broken Chain - which isn't so much a venue but a state of drivetrain.

Leaders Park is the site of the singletrack build. Having not been there since October - and always holding a vision in my head of a dude standing over our bridges with a sledgehammer - I wondered how our bridges have been holding up.

I discovered bridge #1 still standing.



Bridge #2 was standing still.



Anybody seen my sunglasses? I swear I had them when I arrived at the park.

Gonna Need That

Snowblind

Women On Bikes: An Indicator Species: Celebratory Edition

January's South Dakota Bike Summit was remarkable for many reasons - but for me, one reason needs a little more mention - and today's just the right day.

Women. On bikes. Well, it was January so the few bikes that were there were very Pierre based. Follow me anyway...

First there's coalition VP Jessica - without whom there would have been no summit.

Friday night's social-ness was hosted by Amy, the other woman on the coalition board.

Of the three keynotes there was Ann Freiwald: Alta Planning & Design, Heather Brutz: Transportation for America and Ginny Sullivan: from Adventure Cycling.

Coincidence? Not fully. Planned? Not overtly. Good? Absolutely.

(Check out Ginny's review of our "Small But Mighty" summit on the Adventure Cycling blog.)

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Today. Sabbath. I'm getting some reading done and found my way to Esquire Magazine's profile of Janet Sadik-Kahn - New York City's Traffic Commissioner.

Curiously Janet was mentioned at our bike summit by a keynote - but only as whatshername in New York. Meet Janet Sadik-Kahn as she recreates public space in New York City - if it can happen there it can happen anywhere...

"In the most elementary terms, Sadik-Khan has plucked the city from under the chassis of the automobile and distributed it, Robin Hood — like, to runners and cyclists and mothers with strollers and large men with small dogs."

"Go find Sadik-Khan pedaling her Specialized Globe bike from her home in the West Village to her office downtown. Tell her you know, dammit, that traffic in midtown is worse. She will smile and say, Listen. If vehicles are going more slowly, then that's safer for everyone! She will say that vehicle-related injuries are down a tremendous 63 percent."

"Like Bible-thumpers and vegans, she has a million different figures memorized cold. She has them organized into trees. If you go this way, she will cut you off with this branch of reasoning. Head in that direction and she has a unique countering set of facts. Either way, it trickles down to the same end result. You have your tardy-to-work card, but she has just saved a few hundred lives. One argument is the clear winner, and it doesn't drive a Honda."

"But to anyone with a clear enough scent of human ambition, this is about more than New York. At the intersection of visionary and engineer you'll find the personal aspiration that is, often, what drives change like this. New York is a testing zone; Sadik-Khan is using it to show the world — the president — what the world city of the future could look like. "If you can do it here," she says with a smile, "you can do it anywhere."

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I'm off to find and read the new Rapid City Pedestrian & Bike Plan.

Ahhhh...Up The Temps

The Boys found their way outside today.

The Boy 8 built a snowman.



Then sent him for a ride.

KELO Thinks It's Cold Out!

Two of my favorite people ended up on the news last night. One for riding his bike in the cold. One for being an enabler.

Snakebite and The Owner keeping local cycling visible in early February.


Then there's the guy at the end. Please, just because he rides super-super-non-standard doesn't mean he deserves to be run over. At least he has a helmet on...

...his handlebars.

Sioux Falls MPO Multi-Use Trail Corridor Open Houses

Tuesday February 8 there are two open houses related to the multi-use path corridors that endeavour to connect Sioux Falls to Brandon, Harrisburg and Tea.

Harrisburg 4:30 to 6:00pm @ Harrisburg Community Library - presentation at 5:30pm

Brandon 7:00 to 8:00pm @ Brandon City Council Chambers - presentation at 7:15pm

The hard work of considering routing options and receiving community input has mostly been completed. This MPO report details the "most feasible" routes between the communities.

People who attend either open house ought to keep an ear open for approaches that Brandon, Harrisburg and Tea are taking to preserve the corridors until such a time when funding is available to build the facilities.

Why? I suspect that Sioux Falls will be slower to act on preserving the corridors than our neighbors. If this proves correct - pressure might be able to be successfully applied locally by pointing to the value of being good neighbors.

For me the big value of having these routes in place is not so I can ride my bicycle from home to Brandon. No. The big value of having these in place is, over the next 20 years as the land between these communities is urbanized, bicycle and pedestrian access to transportation will not be an afterthought. It will already exist.

When a Wal-Mart lands between here and Harrisburg they just might cater just a little bit to the bike route that already exists.

Atom: Increasing The Margins

Sometimes the blog posts write themselves. Other times the blog posts appear in my inbox already written.

I received the following reports today from The Out There:

Part I

Got up this morning...started my eggs and coffee...checked my digital thermometer...-12deg, wind unknown...

I continued the consumption of my eggs and coffee...got dressed...and departed approximately 6:50am...

I made it to roughly 10th / Cliff (my point of no return)...whether my bike was acting slow or I was acting slow, my conscience told me to turn around...

(He did.)

Part II



29" tall...2.1" wide...294 replacable studs...2lbs 10oz...pure ice / snow pack dominace...screw you 33rd and prairie...!

Part III

I think everybody should get e-mails like these. I think they'd ride more.

Tomorrow is going to be a beautiful day! Don't let it get away.

(I wrote this part myself.)