Cycling Friendly Community

[TrekTheKaty]

Thanks where I went to college--Kirksville

[Geonz]

I'll be sharing that
When I came to C-U in 1999, there were lots of people on bikes then... but genuinely Crappy and Dangerous so-called paths through campus.
I found some other people interested in making CHampaign County a really good place for bicycling, and we (mostly they) researched and brainstormed about how other "change your community" campaigns had succeeded ... lots of people did lots of work, and we're still doing it. People found grant funds; people went to city council meetings and found allies... when people write letters to the editor about bicyclists 'playing car' and not behign Good People and riding on the sidewalks, there's a small barrage of replies. And yes, we find things like the LAB's "bicycle friendly community," and politicians like to have their towns have those labels even if they aren't sure what a bicycle looks like. Then we have tow ork like crazy to make sure the execution is actually functional -- but very, very happily we have people who do the planning who *do.* Jennifer Selby ROCKS. Unfortunately, too often community leaders who really don't know biking infrastructure will do things that look good on paper, but when executed sometimes do more harm than good. We're lucky -- When a property owner downtown does a little campaign of her own so she can go to council and say "Look at all these business owners who don'tw ant bike lanes on Main Street -- it's just not safe for the bicyclists!" and presents her case effectively... unless you actually know the facts... they know to reply with the facts... and the other owners at that meeting end up pretty much changing their minds, especially when the real issue -parking spaces - was addressed.
That said, it's a *constant* fight. Even here, with a ton of bike riding students and people from countries where biking is part of the culture, Car Culture Rules. So the guy that actually painted the sharrows on my street has them hugging the right gutter... when we had a fatality and critical injury involving two bicyclists who were on sidewalks, a Champaign council man got on the news saying that cyclists needed to ride as close to the curb as possible... and oh, yes, if you get flat out run over by somebody downloading ringtones or looking at maps, gosh, that's a shame, you're dead, but it's "improper use of lane."
And, of course, a lot of the peopel who sometimes ride bikes are still imbued with car culture and/or are "guerrilla riders" who make their own rules. We're working on a campaign to put signs in busses and around the community to emphasize the importance of visibility and predictability -- but also emphasizing the fun and practicality of cycling.
I took a survey from "bikesbelong.org" and one of the multiple choice radio button questions had two choices: I rode on the street regardless of conditions or traffic or b: I would ride if there were separate facilities or bike lanes. No middle ground. Oh, and what kind of events did I participate in -- races of this length or that? Not a single option for good old centuries.
The Internet has been a huge help -- f'rinstance, when I blogged about a bike path and had pictures of some pavement problems, they were patched inside of two weeks. (Yes, I updated with thanks.) We have an active discussion board so we can bounce ideas around and prioritize where we're focusing our energies. It means that when, say, that business owner posts her views online we can have somebody ask her reasonable questions that point out the flaws in her logic (such as "you have said that cycling on the sidewalks endangers your customers; wouldn't bike lanes help that?") without getting silly or ugly.
Still, our IDOT people f'rinstance don't want to add pedestrian or cycling facilities to any of the ways to get over interstates, which means it's ***hairy*** to get out of town... or to the quickly developing parts of the community just over those overpasses. They've frustrated our local planners with their refusal to even support their attempts to get grants. They simply don't believe that people should even consider something besides a car to get across town -- that's for the hippie fringe or something. Sigh.