Bike to Work in Minneapolis - Friday, May 19

[syntaxjunkie]

MORC has joined forces with local bike shops and other businesses to sponsor the 2006 Commuter Challenge Bike/Walk Event. Join Pete Koski and I at the MORC table to help hand out goodies, greet your fellow bike commuters and spread the two-wheeled gospel to the masses. Free food and coffee, too. What more could you ask?

Here's the basics:
2006 Commuter Challenge Bike/Walk Event
Friday, May 19th—7:00-8:30am
Hennepin County Government Center North Plaza
300 South 6th Street, Minneapolis, MN

Get all of the details at:
http://www.mplstmo.org/pages/bikewalkevent.htm

We're also kicking around the idea of doing a group ride from downtown to the trails at Theo Wirth after work. if you're interested in something like this, post up and let us know. If it looks like we could have a good group, I'll put together an actual plan.

Ride on!

[BikerKitty]

I can help out. It sounds fun! I do all I can to try to talk people into biking to work. It's a great workout, it makes you feel amazing, it's cheap, and once you get comfy in traffic, it's pretty fun zooming past all the cars that are gridlocked. Biking to work is the best part of my day, second only to biking away from work at the end of it. :)

[DaveH]

This should be a great event I'll be riding in from Champlin, meeting riders from the 73rd Park & Ride off of 252, then joining the group leaving Webber Park @ 6:45am. Come & join us. I think there was over 350 riders participating last year & this years should be even bigger (more sponsors, more prize giveaways, even a chance to meet MORC leadership!)

Spread the word.... encourage those who haven't tried commuting to do it.... See you there.

[syntaxjunkie]

Thanks, Dave. For the record, this marks the first time in history that meeting MORC leadership has been looked forward to.

Over the past few months, I've talked to more friends and co-workers about commuting by bike than I can remember. While I wish it hadn't taken $3.00-a-gallon gas to make it happen, it's exciting all the same.

Looking forward to seeing a gaggle of people on bikes gulping down free coffee (good coffee, no less) on government property. If you've never tried riding to work, this'd be a great day to start.

[Kosk]

...meeting MORC leadership...

Do I really count as that??? whoa, that's scary.....

[Pandl]

I am thinking about doing this. Well, I have been riding the bike to the bus stop, bringing the bike downtown for safe parking, then busing back and riding further home. I live in Cottage Grove, and I think I have found a route along the river most of the way. Its about 25 miles. Thinking I would bus in and bike that on the way home. But, maybe bike both ways. :crazy2:

[berrywise]

I work in St. Paul but maybe I'll leave extra early and treck into Minne for the free coffee.

[Thewavebb]

i'll be there. I ride to work from fridley every non-rainy day. Looks like my company is one of the sponsers too.

[Pandl]

I think we are the same company.... along with Dave...

[syntaxjunkie]

The Cycling Commute Gets Chic

To Encourage Biking, Cities Add Paths, Racks and Lockers;To Shower or Not to Shower?

By KEVIN HELLIKER
May 11, 2006; Page D1

Commuting to work by bike has renewed appeal right now. On top of health benefits -- like offering a chance to exercise without taking extra time -- it saves on the growing cost of fuel and even carries a certain cachet at the office.

A growing number of cities are making it easier to ride your bike to work -- erasing hurdles big and small, from securing bikes safely downtown, to taking bikes on public transit, to finding a discreet place to shower.

Eager to reduce traffic jams and pollution, cities including Chicago; Louisville, Ky.; and Portland, Ore. are adding biking-policy departments at city hall, constructing bike lanes or building bike stations where riders can park and shower. A 2004 survey of American cities found that more than 80% planned to build new bikeways. A new contest over which American cities are friendliest to cyclists has attracted 160 municipal contestants, each bragging about its bike lanes and lock-up racks.

A NEW COMMUTE
Nationally, a bill introduced in the Senate last month would give employers a tax incentive to offer employees $40 to $100 a month to cycle to work, and a similar bill is pending in the House.

Buses and trains are allowing bikes to come on board in cities including Albuquerque; Washington, D.C.; and Boulder, Colo. In Chicago, Allison Krueger, a 26-year-old botanist, now can ride three miles to Union Station, catch a train to the suburbs, then cycle three more miles to her office. "The best part of cycling is the sheer joy of riding past people stuck in traffic," she says. Plus, she adds, "Biking is definitely fashionable in Chicago."

There are other signs that the cities' efforts are working. New York City opened a 17-mile bike trail on the West Side of Manhattan, along with bike paths on the bridges connecting the island to Brooklyn, in 2003 -- and has seen a 50% increase in cyclists since 2000, to 120,000 cyclists a day, according to advocacy group Transportation Alternatives. A three-year-old bike station in Chicago is poised to sell out 500 memberships for the third year in a row.

Since Louisville installed bike racks on its buses four years ago, cyclist boardings have nearly doubled to 91,000 in 2005 from 48,000 in 2002. And the percentage of commuters using bikes rises a point for every mile of bike lane added per square mile of American cities, said a 2003 study on bike lanes in the journal Transportation Research Record. The name of the study: "If You Build Them, Commuters Will Use Them."

One of the newest urban innovations: bike stations, which an increasing number of downtowns from various California cities to Washington, D.C., have added or are considering adding. Bike stations offer a safe place to park, along with lockers, showers and repair shops. The Chicago bike station, built and owned by the city, is run by a private company, which charges members $99 a year for showers, towel service and a personal locker. Denver, Seattle and Berkeley, Long Beach and Palo Alto, Calif., all have similar bike stations.

The rising price of gas is adding to the appeal of cycling. Shipments of bicycles in the last year have been extraordinarily strong -- one of the two best years in the past two decades, says Tim Blumenthal, director of an industry coalition called Bikes Belong. "There's a lot of buzz right now about high gas prices," he says.

"The 5,000 miles I'll cycle this year are 5,000 miles I'm not putting on my car's odometer and fueling with high-priced gas," says Eric Carter, an attorney in Portland whose two-wheeled commute has helped him knock off 30 pounds.

The rising price of gas is adding to cycling's appeal.

In a trend reminiscent of previous public-health fashions, affluent professionals seem to be leading the charge of commuters on bikes, just as they were among the first groups to embrace organic food, to stop smoking and to return to feeding babies healthier breast milk rather than formula. "So far, it's a white-collar movement," says Dave Growacz, a Chicago biking official and author of the book "The Urban Bikers' Tricks & Tips."

Cycling has some serious disadvantages. A cyclist may arrive at work dripping sweat and with helmet-mashed hair -- and that's in good weather. J.P. Morgan Chase Vice President Luz Byrne no longer cycles on rainy days. "I got tired of washing the mud out of my hair in a sink," she says.

Managing the logistics of work-out clothes and office apparel is difficult. Jerry Roscoe, a cycling attorney in Washington, D.C., arrives each morning in biking clothes, grabs a shirt and suit from his office, goes to a nearby gym to shower, then returns to the office ready to work. "It's complicated," he says.

Of course, many bikers don't shower upon arriving at the office. Mr. Growacz's book offers tips on how to wear a helmet without messing up your hair.

The biggest downside of cycling is wrecks, particularly with cars. Per kilometer traveled, a cyclist in America is 12 times likelier than a car occupant to be killed, according to a 2003 American Journal of Public Health article.

Yet the number of cyclists killed in America fell nearly 10% to 724 during the decade that ended in 2004, according to federal statistics. And studies show that as the number of cyclists increase, collisions with automobiles decline because motorists become more alert to bikers' presence. As cycling in London increased 100% from 2000 to 2005, the accident rate for cyclists fell 40%, according to Transport for London.

The danger of cycling is far outweighed by the benefits, says Rutgers University's John Pucher, a professor of urban planning specializing in cycling issues. Cycling builds muscle, deepens lung capacity, lowers heart rate and burns calories. "The health benefits of cycling outweigh the health risks by two to one, if not something like five to one," says Dr. Pucher, whose voice mail describes him as "car-free John."

[MisterClaw]

The biggest downside of cycling is wrecks, particularly with cars. Per kilometer traveled, a cyclist in America is 12 times likelier than a car occupant to be killed, according to a 2003 American Journal of Public Health article.

Here's a link to the study:
http://www.medscape.com/viewpublication/1014_toc?vol=93&iss=9
I'm curious how much safer/ more dangerous it is biking in Minnesota...I've actually have had very few close calls or collisions.

It looks like we have a lot to learn from europe!

[syntaxjunkie]

I was in London and Rome recently, and it was amazing to watch people blissfully pedalling bikes in the same narrow traffic lanes with double-decker buses and such. Motorized traffic in Europe overall seems much more accepting of cyclists, and anticipates them better. All of this in spite of the fact their roadways are almost without exception much narrower and usually a bit antiquated. With all the space we've got in urban and suburban areas, it shouldn't be so difficult to accomodate bike traffic. But as a nation, we're in love with the internal combustion engine in all its many forms, so much so that the very idea of sharing the road actually seems to aggravate some drivers.

[Thewavebb]

I think we are the same company.... along with Dave...

We sure do:)
~Ben

[Thewavebb]

I want to give this a healthy bump and word has it that Mayor RT Ryback is joining the Northern commute route into town. This would be a great chance to show your support for bike lanes and other forms of commuting to work.

~Ben

[DaveH]

The City will be Sweeping & Striping Bike Lanes down 2nd St through N Mpls in time for this event. Join us @ Webber Park (Camden area) by 6:45 am on Friday 5/19 for a ride into downtown to show your support (and get a fresh cup of Peace Coffee too. Checkout the route maps via link to the event @ http://www.mplstmo.org/pages/bikewalkevent.htm

[syntaxjunkie]

Just wanted to get this thread back out in the open. Pete Koski and I will be there bright n' early to point folks in the general direction of coffee and spread the good word about MORC, sustainable mountain bike trails and the beauty of all things bike. Had a couple members promise to drop by, so if you're in downtown Minny, ridde over and give us a shout. Pedal on!