KA-Motion

[Melalvai]

We had our first ever meeting of the new bike/ped advocacy group, Thursday night. Despite the cold and that the city was still digging out from the storm, we had 13 people-- a satisfactory turnout.

My most important goal was to settle on our name. I've been calling us Northeast Missouri Walk & Bike (NEMO Walk & Bike) as a "placeholder" name. The placeholder name was a strong contender but the ultimate winner was Kirksville Area Motion-- KA-Motion! Such a cute name!

[Tri Girl]

That's great that you had such a good turnout considering the weather!
So what's next on the docket?

[Melalvai]

MU Extension has a grant to do Livable Streets workshops in communities around Missouri. They'd already been planning to do one in Kirksville, and I've gotten involved in that. We're going to use the workshop to launch KA-Motion. By March 29, we need to have a rudimentary website that has a form so people can join and subscribe to the list.

There is some bike-ped activity going on already, so we can easily jump on board with that. The Parks & Rec director was at the meeting, which was awesome because it gives us a stamp of legitimacy. She was already planning on doing bike/ped traffic counts and I was able to tell her about the National Bike/Ped Documentation resources.

We talked about an easy project to mark a trail out at the State Park. The markers already exist and would happily be donated for this.

I'd love to observe Bike, Walk & Wheel Week in May. I don't want to try to do a big production of it our first year, but breakfast stations for a Bike to Work day might be simple enough.

[OakLeaf]

Very cool!

[Tri Girl]

Excellent! I love that you're taking action and making things happen in your community! LOVE IT!!
Is your bike/ped community fairly large in your area?

[Melalvai]

The answer to your question about the bike/ped scene is yes and no. It's large for the type of community but it's a small, rural community. Kirksville has a population of 17,000 plus about 8000 students. It's the biggest town for 90 miles in any direction, so it's a center for the surrounding rural communities as well.

There is no longer any cycling club that I'm aware of, the university one doesn't exist. There is a thriving multisport club, and a couple races every month without having to travel too far, including the big triathlon in September.

There's also what I call the "hippie culture". I'm not sure if there is a more PC term for that. Sustainability or eco culture? Actual communes, as well as more mainstream things like the Farmer's Market. The university has a lot of sustainability initiatives, and the students formed a Bike Coop which alternates between thriving and struggling (a bit of both at the moment).

There is no bike shop anymore. Several people fix bikes, and one huge service KA-Motion will provide is listing these services on our website.