I'm on tv!

Check me out, I'm on tv! http://www.heartlandconnection.com/n...7#.TtghubLGNuM
The new bypass has been the subject of controversy because of concerns about its safety. I went to the public meeting about it and I was one of very few who had anything positive to say about it. I just said it had great shoulders, and the rumble strips are properly placed in the stripes.

I suspect a lot of the concerns will prove to be unfounded, but the state rep has gotten some publicity out of it because he said at the ribbon cutting that he was concerned about a couple of the intersections-- and two hours later, that highway had its first wreck at one of those intersections. So it might get its overpasses sooner than originally planned.

I don't know how it feels to drive on, but I've biked on it and I'm very comfortable on it. Check out the end where I make a left turn in front of a semi truck. Something about the perspective of the camera makes the semi seem a lot closer than it actually was. In reality I had plenty of space to make my turn.

You look great!!!

Well done!

Pity about the rumble stripes though. That's something nationwide, isn't it? They're doing it here, too. Grr.

Great job! Thanks for being our voice.

Very nice, thanks for sharing! Good job!

Cute shoes! Thanks for being our voice. It's important for us to have people like you who keep our concerns heard nationwide. It's too easy for cyclists to be forgotten in this kind of planning.

Today I attended the city council meeting because the public input on the 2012 budget was scheduled for tonight. When they got to that section I stood up and they all looked...startled. As if no one had ever stood up to give public input before. Which, in fact, no one ever has.

I said that seeing as how the city is looking into adopting a Livable Streets policy, it would be a positive move to formalize some percentage of the transportation budget be spent on bike/ped. Preferably a slightly larger percentage than what we have been spending on that. Which is a little hard to calculate, because we've had SRTS and MFH grants lately, that have paid for sidewalks and bike lanes. And because some of it comes from capital improvement and some of it comes from transportation. If you look at it one way, it seems that the bike/ped budget is 13% of the total transportation budget. But if you were to take away capital improvements and grants, there is no way bike/ped gets 13% of transportation. We didn't discuss that exactly, mainly because no one knew that 13% off the top of their heads (I calculated it later with some extra information the Public Works Director gave me).

The really crazy part is that I had spent 15 minutes that morning reading the proposed budget. Mainly the transportation part. I wanted to know two things: What is the annual city budget ($25 million) and what is the annual transportation budget ($1.7 million). (It's a small city. Population 17K.)

My 16-yr-old daughter commended me for getting involved. :)