5.06.2009

Code Pink cozy and the bike forum

Last week I finished and mailed 13 squares for the White House fence cozy that Code Pink will be using in their mothers' day vigil for peace. I was really hoping that this could be more of a community project with the local knitters, but unfortunately I only know about four locals who ended up participating. In fairness, this was due to lack of organization and follow through on my part.

Yesterday was the mayor's bike task force public forum at the central library. For those of you who don't know, Lexington received a bronze rating from the League of American Bicyclists and is aiming for the platinum rating (of course we need to get the silver and gold first.) A lot has to happen to raise our community to the level of Portland, Boulder, and Davis, California, but if we keep the momentum from the last five years we can definitely do it. Below I pulled out what I thought were the good and bad points from the meeting yesterday. I should preface this by saying that I am a commuter and not a recreational cyclist so these are the goods and bads from my point of view. If you would like to form your own opinions you can listen to the entire forum on WRFL from 4-6pm today.

The Good
  • Liberty Rd & Maxwell St will get bike lanes this summer
  • City's complete street policy will take bike lanes into account during any street revamp
  • More share the road signs to be added to our city streets
  • More community bike programs and hopefully the availability of safety courses (I noticed three commuter courses during the month of May)
  • Bike trail from downtown to the horse park has been funded and will be completed by the WEG in 2010
  • On a state level, they are working to have highway shoulders swept more often which means few flat tires from debris and more share the road signs
  • There are some really passionate people working to make all of this happen
The Bad
  • City police are not stopping bicyclists who violate traffic laws (i.e. riding the wrong way in a bike lane, no lights at night) which makes the roads more dangerous for other cyclists, cars and pedestrians.
  • South Broadway is still not a high priority on the bike lane list which means I will be walking or taking the bus to downtown for quite awhile (there are a couple other arteries into downtown that are also not bike-friendly, but with the narrow lanes and careless traffic I think S. Broadway is one of the worst.)
Resources
Bike Lexington 2009- There are lots of bike-related activities this month
LexRides- Underground bike events, includes the bike polo schedule
Bluegrass Cycling Club- Group rides, education, advocacy
Lexington Yellow Bikes Program- a $10 registration fee will give you a lifetime of free bike check outs.
Wildcat Wheels- UK students, faculty, and staff can check out bikes for free. They also provide a bike shop to help you learn to make repairs to your own bike (while the bike shop is technically for University staff and students, they won't turn people away who want to learn to do repairs.)

2 comments:

Mel said...

Good luck with the bike activism! I was lucky enough to go to UC Davis, and *it's true* - the city is VERY bike friendly, and the only inconvenience of biking around is when it's pouring rain in the winter (get some rain gear and bike fenders!). I wish Seattle was more bike friendly. I'm off to try out Portland's bike-friendliness this weekend for myself!

sarah said...

As long as they don't ticket me for riding on the sidewalk down Nicholasville Road! There is no other way out of my neighborhood and I just can't ride on that busy street.