flatville fixie ride

(A secret ride, no less!  Now that it's over, I'm totally violating the organizer's imperative not to mention it on any forums or blogs, macro or micro!)

This morning, a group of The Bike Project's volunteers and friends rode 20 miles to Flatville from Urbana on fixed gear bikes.  It turns out Flatville's aptly named.  Its wikipedia page even has a flat tone:

Flatville is an unincorporated town in Compromise Township, Champaign County, Illinois, USA.

 ...and that's it.  But it's got a Lutheran Church, which kindly offered us sanctuary... and water.

The ride's organizer made some great corn-and-soybean spoke cards, to commemorate basically all of the scenery on the way:

Thanks Fred for organizing the ride and thanks everybody who rode along!

bikers vs. mosquitos

Today the Daily Illini featured an article about two UIUC students working as "mosquito abatement bikers" for the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District:

As mosquito abatement bikers for the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD), Kathleen Doran, recent graduate of ACES and Claire Keating, a senior in Fine and Applied Arts and Illini Media employee, travel around Champaign County to spread mosquito larvicide to help prevent the coming of West Nile Virus, a disease of the brain transmitted through infected mosquitoes. The CUPHD hired the two students as part of the district’s special program to reduce Culex mosquitos, the insects that cause the disease, said Jim Roberts, director of environmental health for the CUPHD.

Doran and Keating bike around C-U dumping larvacide into stagnant water, thus totally refudiating moquito breeding grounds and helping to fight mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile Virus.  Check out the article!

saturday: health and wellness bike ride

This Saturday, 17 July, join other families in Urbana on the Health and Wellness Bike Ride, organized by Champaign County Bikes. 

It's a self-paced, self-guided tour of Urbana beginning at 9am from Urbana's Farmers' Market and supported by organizations like the Urbana Free Library and Common Ground Food Co-op.  The ride aims to show just how easy it is to get around by bicycle in Urbana.

A drawing for prizes will be held after the ride on the porch of Common Ground Food Coop at Market at the Square. Prizes include gift certificates, pool passes, a bike helmet,  and t-shirts.  You can preregister for the ride at: www.champaigncountybikes.org.

urbana & champaign producing a bicycle safety video

At Smile Politely, Joel splogged (it's a special form of blogging) about a News-Gazette article about a bicycle safety video our fair twin cities are jointly producing:

The cities of Champaign and Urbana are collaborating on a bicycle safety video that will provide information to both cyclists and drivers on the proper ways to deal with various traffic scenarios.

They are working with a bicycle safety consultant with the League of Illinois Bicyclists, Donnie Miller, who has done bicycle safety training in Champaign-Urbana before. The cost of making the video is about $1,200.

Let's hope it includes something capable of teaching grumpy men in the passenger seats of Toyota Corollas not to curse at me for taking the lane beneath a bridge on Springfield as their young daughters watch everything from the backseat!  We are traffic, &c....

c-u fruit map

I already wrote about this here yesterday, but in an article about tomorrow's Tour de Fruit, Smile Politely featured a really great Champaign-Urbana fruit map, made collaboratively using Google Maps.  Here's what it looks like:

Here's a link to the interactive, reality-augmenting C-U Fruit Map.  Even if you can't make Saturday's group ride, the map's a good guide for other, well, fruitful bike rides around town!

"sharrows" coming to philo road

Later this week, Urbana will start painting "shared lane markings" or sharrows on Philo Road, as part of the Urbana Bicycle Master Plan.  Campus shop manager Joel wrote about the city's press release for our favorite local website.

Here's some good lines from the city's press release:

there are several purposes for the shared lane markings on Philo Road south of Colorado Avenue:

• Let motorists know they can expect bicyclists on the road;
• Help bicyclists position themselves in the travel lane (i.e. “take the lane”) since it is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel side-by-side in the lane;
• Positioning the bicyclist in the lane will encourage safe passing by motorists (if a bicyclist rides too close to the curb, they risk being squeezed by a motorist trying to pass without leaving their travel lane)

Bike Blender at the Bike Races in Urbana!

mmmmmm

tomorrow: ride of silence

Tomorrow night -- 19 May at 7pm to be precise! -- C-U will play host to the annual Ride of Silence.  The Ride of Silence aims both to honor cyclists who have been hurt or killed and to raise awareness that cyclists are by-right users of the roads, or, as the slogan goes, that "we are traffic!"

Here's some details from an email to The Bike Project's member listserv:

We start at the parking lot near the assembly hall at First and St. Mary's. The route will be N on first to Stadium Drive, then across 45 (Neil Street) to Randolph and through downtown Champaign, then South on First and then down Green Street, then a bit North on Busey to Main and through downtown Urbana, then South on Vine to ILlinois, then Goodwin, then Pennsylvania, Fourth and back to the lot. It's about 9 miles and we'll be going less than 12 MPH and regrouping whenever we get spread out.  (Note:  this is pending me looking at this on the map -- it's changed a tad from last year so we can ride a little on new bike lanes on Goodwin).

In the past we've had about 35 riders; if riders wear black armbands (a garbage bag cut into strips works) or have a sign on bikes indicating who they're riding for, then it communicates what we're doing to passersby.

The purpose of this ride is

• To HONOR those who have been injured or killed
• To RAISE AWARENESS that we are here
• To ask that we all SHARE THE ROAD; that drivers recognize that there’s room for all of us out here, and that a bicyclist may be around the next corner and has every right to be. 

We are looking for respect, not retaliation; for visibility, not vengeance. Let us show how to share the road by a positive example. Please follow the rules of the road. Ride as you would in a funeral procession; ride predictably.

Point out potholes and road hazards; signal turns and if you slow down. Momentary inattention is the number one cause of accidents -Be aware of what is in front of and BEHIND you, watch your line, and keep your hands near your brakes. 

We are riding as a group, silently but use your judgement regarding both. Allow for breaks in the group when it makes sense.

next monday: the bike project's volunteer mixer

Have you been staffing at The Bike Project?  Are you interested in starting?  Then you should come out to The Bike Project's volunteer mixer next Monday, 17 May at 7:30pm at The Bike Project's shop at the U-C IMC in Urbana.

There will be food and great folks to chat with about volunteering. If you're interested in starting to volunteer, or if you want to continue volunteering this summer, come prepared to let us know when you'll be available. We'll also be redoing some staffing hours and volunteer schedules, so if you'd like or need to switch days, this will be a good chance to do so.

Please let us know if you plan to attend so that we can get a head count on food.

Hope to see you there!

online petition to support a bike-friendly downtown urbana

Tonight the Urbana City Council will meet and discuss their master bicycle plan.  If you can make it to the meeting, you should come out.  If you can't -- and even if you can -- but still want to show support for a bicycle-friendly downtown Urbana, Champaign County Bikes has developed an online petition you can sign to express your support for keeping Urbana bike-friendly.  Here's the details:

For all Champaign County residents - NOT just citizens of Urbana! As Urbana is the County Seat everyone in Champaign County should fill-in this petition.

BACKGROUND
Urbana has been recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists. Creating an active transportation system for Urbana will improve our residents health, add economic benefits, reduce our carbon footprint, and give our community more choices in transportation.

WHAT IS NEEDED
The Urbana City Council approved the Urbana Bicycle Master Plan and an Urbana Downtown Plan that both call for the redesign of Main Street in downtown Urbana implementing a road diet that would improve safety, reduce traffic speeds, create a more attractive environment for shoppers and diners and provide better access for pedestrians and bicyclists. The Urbana Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission also approved this plan as did the Officers and Steering Committee of Champaign County Bikes. Road diets have been shown to slow and calm vehicle traffic and encourage bicyclists and pedestrians to shop and enjoy the downtown. We encourage the city council to proceed with implementation of these plans.

WHY
The Urbana Bicycle Master Plan was created with the assistance of the best professional bicycle and transportation consultants in the state of Illinois along with the City of Urbana staff and extensive public input. It's implementation will provide safe, affordable, and healthy access for bicycling as a regular mode of transportation. In 2008 this plan won awards from both the Illinois Chapter of the American Planning Association and the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, validating the very high level of expertise and the outstanding quality of Urbana's plan for bicycles in the city's future. Implementation of our excellent bike plan will benefit many generations to come and enhance the vitality of our downtown.

Thank You!
Champaign County Bikes

Please come to the Urbana City Council meeting this coming Monday evening, 5/10/2010.
Urbana City Building, 400 South Vine Street Urbana, IL 61801
Be there at 6:45. Meeting begins at 7:00PM

For more information about the street plan and for Urbana City Council contact information, please visit: http://UrbanaBikeLanes.notlong.com.

this monday: urbana city council holds public discussion on urbana's "master bicycle plan"

This upcoming Monday, 10 May, starting at 7pm in the Urbana City Council Chambers the Urbana City Council Meeting will include a public discussion about implementing Urbana's Master Bicycle Plan.  If you care about bike lanes in Urbana, come out and make your voice heard.  Here's some excerpts from an email to the Champaign County Bikes email list:

There will be an important Urbana City Council Meeting (of Committee of the Whole) next Monday, May 10 starting at 7pm in the Urbana City Council Chambers at 400 S. Vine St. in Urbana.  At this meeting, there will be a discussion about implementing Urbana's Master Bicycle Plan which calls for a road diet and bike lanes to be installed on Main St. in downtown Urbana. This plan is supported by Urbana City Staff, the Urbana Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Commission and the Officers and Steering Committee of Champaign County Bikes. It has also been endorsed by Ed Barsotti, Executive Director of the League of Illinois Bicyclists.

And yet there is strong opposition to the plan by some of the Downtown Urbana merchants would want to see more parking (angled) on Main Street and no bike lanes, despite the fact that there is an excess of parking space in the downtown area.

...we need people to support the plan to show up at Monday evening's meeting, especially Urbana residents and especially people from anywhere to shop and dine in downtown Urbana.

There are different ways for you to show your support of downtown bike lanes at the meeting, from the least involved and time-consuming to the most:

1. Leave a comment card with your support of the road-diet and bike lanes on Main Street in Downtown Urbana. You can then go home. Your name and comment will be read when the agenda item comes up.

2. Leave a comment card with your support of the road-diet and bike lanes on Main Street in Downtown Urbana. Stay through the discussion of the agenda item. I suggest wearing your bicycle helmet throughout the meeting as a very visible indication to the City Council of your support for bicycle infrastructure in Downtown Urbana (the helmet may also prove useful if an earthquake or tornado strikes Urbana during the meeting).

3. Leave a card requesting to speak as public input at the beginning of the meeting. And then speak. Comments are usually limited to 5 minutes, but may be shortened to 3 minutes of a lot of people want to speak. You can then go home.

4. Leave a card requesting to speak as public input when the item comes up on the agenda. Stick around (with your helmet on) and then speak. Comments are usually limited to 5 minutes, but may be shortened to 3 minutes of a lot of people want to speak.

All other things being equal, comments from those living in Urbana will have more impact on the City Council than comments those living outside Urbana. But comments from those who shop and dine in Downtown Urbana will have impact regardless of their place of residence.

In addition to encouraging bicyclists to come to the Urbana City Council meeting to show their support for the road diet and bike lanes in Downtown Urbana, Champaign County Bikes may be soon circulating a petition for signatures. More information will be provided about this soon.

But for now, put the Monday evening on your calendar and plan to be there if you possibly can. 

urbana named "bicycle friendly community"

Congratulations to Urbana for being designated a "Bicycle Friendly Community" by the League of American Bicyclists.  Here's the city's press release:

The City of Urbana is proud to announce that we have been named a Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) by the League of American Bicyclists. Andy Clarke, League President, said "Communities from all areas of the country, climates and populations see bicycling as an integral component of building livable communities. The Bicycle Friendly Community program is recognizing those leading the way."

Receiving Bicycle Friendly Community recognition was a goal of the Urbana Bicycle Master Plan as well as an Urbana City Council and Mayor goal. The City of Urbana recognizes that Bicycle Friendly Communities are places with a high quality of life, where people want to live, work, and visit. Building such a community can translate into a more connected, physically active, and environmentally sustainable community that enjoys increased property values, business growth, increased tourism, and more transportation choices for citizens.

The application process to become a Bicycle Friendly Community is rigorous. The BFC application provides a comprehensive picture of a community by asking questions across five categories often referred to as the Five Es - Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluation & Planning. A community must demonstrate achievements in each of the five categories in order to be considered for an award. Currently only 140 of the 359 total applicants have a BFC four-year designation. Urbana was the only city in the state of Illinois to receive BFC status this round and is the first downstate city to receive recognition (Chicago, Naperville and Schaumburg are BFCs).

tuesday, 4 may: c-u's very own bike to work day

If you're not already biking to work -- and, really, it's been so nice out that you should be -- next week's C-U Bike to Work Day might be just the motivation you need to get started.  Next Tuesday, 4 May, a generous group of sponsors (including The Bike Project) will hold our micro-urban shangri-la's celebration of car- and carbon-free commuting.

From 7-10am, C-U Bike to Work Day will have four stations set up around town featuring coffee and other treats for old and new bike commuters.  The stations will be located at

• Downtown Champaign - Neil Street & Main Street
• Downtown Urbana - Main Street & Vine Street
• University of Illinois - Engineering Plaza (Green Street across from the Illini Union)
• Savoy - Savoy Recreation Center (Prospect Avenue and Graham)

You can register for C-U Bike to Work Day here.  You can find out about the third and last in a series of classes on Bike Commuting 101 here.  And if you'd like to volunteer to help staff one of the Bike to Work Day stations, you can sign-up here.

...and you can click here for a great website all about commuting by bicycle!

this sunday: seminar on brakes

This Sunday, 2 May at 3pm at The Bike Project shop at the UC-IMC, we'll be holding an informal class on brakes.  We'll be tackling basic issues like brake pad alignment and cable adjustment.  If there's time, we might also speculate on the historico-material significance of the difference between rod brakes, cantilever brakes, and drum brakes.

(Hint: dialectically speaking, these differences are determined in the last instance by capitalism itself.) 

Bring your bike by the shop and we'll help you shape up your brakes!

three speed hub maintenance clinic tonight!

Yesterday's Bike Stroll 2 got rained out, but to make it up to everyone we're having an event indoors tonight:

Tonight, 27 April, at 5:30pm at The Bike Project shop at the UC-IMC, TBP volunteer Carl will be conducting a three speed hub maintenance clinic, focusing on maintaining and rebuilding 3 speed Shimano and Sturmey-Archer internally geared hubs. If you've never seen it, the insides actually look something like this:

(public domain image from Wikimedia Commons, which also includes a list of labels for each part)

That's just 45 things to learn about, multiplied by how it all fits together!

the official bike project deck

...and by deck, I mean slideshow, powerpoint style...

Tonight Campus Bike Project manager Joel will be presenting a slideshow at C-U's third Pecha Kucha night. Never heard of Pecha Kucha? Well...

PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.
It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

You can learn more about Pecha Kucha here. C-U's third Pecha Kucha takes place tonight, 16 April, beginning at 8pm at the Canopy Club. The Bike Project goes on early, with a slideshow about some basic bike repairs.

urbana city council to vote on bike lanes

On Tuesday, 19 January, starting at 7pm the Urbana City Council will be voting on whether or not to implement bike lanes by removing on-street parking on several streets around town.  The meeting will take place at the Council Chambers of Urbana Town Hall at 400 S. Vine Street.  From an email from the Champaign County Bikes listserv:

Tomorrow night (Tuesday) the Urbana City Council will be voting on the implementation of the bike lanes by removing the on street parking on Main St (between Glover and Grove), Philo, Washington, and Race.   There was a letter in the News-Gazette today condemning Urbana's bike lanes and advocating only using side streets to bicycle. 

If you are able to attend tomorrow night and speak in support of the Urbana Bike Plan please do.  The meeting starts at 7 p.m. and you can sign a card asking to speak or you can just sign a card articulating your support for the parking ban and installation of bike lanes.

If you want bike lanes in Urbana, this is your chance to speak out for them.  Tomorrow at 7pm at Urbana Town Hall!