They were riding Trek mountain bikes, and the interesting thing is that the bikes are gifts from the Republican National Committee. The officers said that 60 have been provided by the RNC for Minneapolis, and 60 more for St. Paul to help local police provide law and order during the convention. The bikes looked pretty nice: front suspension, disc brakes, SRAM components. The only thing is it sounds like there’s no plan to maintain the bikes. It’d be nice to see them well-tended and to see more police officers on bikes following the convention. Bicycle police are especially good for patrolling hard-to-reach places and are sorely needed to improve safety in the Greenway after dark. Here’s hoping they stick around, just like the Humana bikes.

“It’s free, it’s good for the environment, good for your health,” he said, beads of sweat collecting under his helmet and underneath his backpack, about 5 miles into his 12-mile ride. “And it’s a little dangerous, so you get a little thrill at the beginning and the end of each day.” He also gets satisfaction from beating cars across the bridge. “I love it,” he said.

Me, too.

Another thing I really liked about this article was that it actually mentioned the so-called invisible bikers: all of the recent immigrants who ride their bicycles to their jobs because that’s their only option. Bicycling Magazine did an article on this group of cyclists once, and it was very eye opening. The Times article correctly points out that a major challenge with this group is getting them to ride safely and adopt the rules of the road.

The other article that caught my interest was this one in the Wall Street Journal about the challenges of cycling in Los Angeles. It made me sad more than anything else.

The thing that I wonder is this: are we truly experiencing a cycling renaissance or is this just increased media coverage due to the price of gas? Either way, I enjoy reading about my favorite pastime in the mainstream press.

Here are my notes from the meeting:

There were about 20 attendees. The meeting started by going around the room and everyone stating what they wanted out of the new organization. These ranged from having a body that educated people on how to get out and ride to organizing all the disparate organizations that currently operate in the state to having an organization that could rally cyclists when key infrastructure was being built and it needed to be made bike friendly

The name Minnesota Coalition of Bicyclists is a throwback to the 80s. A steering committee has met twice now to talk about forming the organization. Originally they wanted to revive the old coalition, but given how complicated their bylaws are, it makes more sense to make their own bylaws, mission, and vision. They are also changing the name to: Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota. The acronym BAM is already taken, so the shortened term for, say, a website will be BikeMN.

The next phase of the meeting was to brainstorm committees and then vote on them. The four that made the cut were: Advocacy, Marketing & Communications, Education & Promotion, and Technical Advice.

The meeting ended with a few general announcements:

- Humana needs volunteers to help with the bikeshare program they’re sponsoring during the RNC.

- AMCO is testing a bike corral idea at an upcoming Lynx game and Twins game. You can get discounted tickets for this.

- The next meeting will be on Thursday, August 14, hopefully at the Midtown Bike Center this time.

Rackin' it in Paris

We’re not talking the failed yellow bike experiment in St Paul back in 1995.  However well-intentioned, we didn’t have the power of the credit card back then.  Now there’s accountability.  Once you swipe your card, you’re responsible.  And it looks like that’s been the ticket for the successful Vélib’ (“a contraction of vélo for bike and liberté”).  A popular New York Times article has profiled the successful bike rental program.  I think the coolest part is this:

And on July 27, at the conclusion here of the Tour de France, 365 lucky Vélib’ riders will be chosen to ride along for a while and cross the finish line.

Sign me up!

July 16 – 6:00 PM
Bloomington REI store

MAP:
http://www.rei.com/map/store/15
BIKING DIRECTIONS:
From southwest Mpls. take Penn to 73rd. Then cross 35W on the footbridge, head east to Lyndale and south to the store.
or
From the North take Portland over 494, then American Blvd. to the store.

AGENDA
Status of the new statewide bicycle advocacy organization, The Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota or BikeMN for short
- Organizational Structure
- Committees
- Goals
Launch Plan
- Focus Groups Meetings throughout the state
- Fall Events
Bicycle Education and LCI training
Complete Streets
Bikes at Republican National Convention
Thunderhead meeting and Pro-bike/Pro-walk Conference

I’m not sure that I’ll actually bike there.  There aren’t that many bike-friendly ways to get to that particular REI.

Bicycle Master Plan Draft Document

Bicycle Master Plan Presentation

Bicycle Master Plan Map

Personally, I found it a little bit overwhelming to digest, especially in a setting where you’re interacting with and talking to people, so I didn’t leave many comments, though I plan to email my comments to Don. For those of you who also found this a bit overwhelming, I am going to post the main documents on which people were asked to comment so that you have them electronically. Once I figure out how to do this, that is.

From The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/jun/14/9

With Bike Week starting today, it is a good time to tell bosses how they can have a fitter workforce – courtesy of the taxman. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) says employers can help staff buy a bike out of their income before tax and national insurance, with the company picking up the VAT – almost halving the cycle’s list price. Equipment such as lights and helmets can be added in. The main rules are that the benefit must be available to all employees and, broadly, more than half of their journeys are travelling from home to work. Employers can also pay staff 20p a mile tax-free for using their own bicycles for business travel.

The flip side of this is that I also notice all of the roadkill on my morning ride. It’s a macabre complement to the serenity of quietly rolling along a country road. I’ve also noticed that as the weather has gotten warmer, the usual line of dead squirrels and rabbits has been added to with many turtles. I don’t know why, but I get upset by this. Probably it’s because I’m just not used to seeing turtles crushed on the road. On Thursday I came across a magnificent snapping turtle on the shoulder of the Argenta Trail who had been hit by a car. The turtle was still alive, but it was bleeding from its shell and wasn’t moving much. I wanted to help it but didn’t know what to do.

After a phone call to 911 and a conversation with a conservation officer from the DNR, I figured out that there is a place in St Paul called the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota. They’ll take a wounded animal from you and care for it until it is healed and strong enough to be released back into the wild. But here is the catch that I encountered on Thursday night: you need to bring it in yourself. This is problematic for a cyclist. I couldn’t really put a bleeding snapping turtle into my messenger bag, and no one whom I got on the phone was willing to come get it. So I biked all the way home, got in my car, and came back to pick up the turtle (about an hour later). But it was gone. I am hoping that someone else, with a car, found it and took it to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. I wish there was an organization that had a vehicle to respond to calls like mine. Cyclists probably see more injured wildlife than motorists do, but they do not have the resources to get the injured animal to a place where it can be cared for.