Speaking of Cyclists...

Matthew Lee does it again, this time in celebration of the inaugural Carrboro/Chapel-Hill Cruiser ride three years ago.
While the ReCYCLEry does not host Cruiser Tuesdays, you will ind a lot of us participating! For more information, please
read the following:

CARRBORO BICYCLE PLAN WORKSHOP #2

WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2008

4:00 – 7:00 pm (DROP-IN FORMAT)

On CARRBORO TOWN COMMONS (at the Farmer’s Market)

Thank you for attending the first public workshop for Carrboro’s bicycle transportation plan, back on April 10^th. The second workshop will be held on July 23, 2008 on the Carrboro Town Commons, at the Farmers’ Market. Please stop by anytime between 4:00 - 7:00 PM to learn about preliminary recommendations (this will be new information from the consultants), talk to Town staff and project consultants, and provide more of your input to the process.

Today, Chris Richmond, Mary Lindsley and myself attended an awards luncheon and presentation at RTP Headquarters on Davis Drive.  We accepted the "Go Chapel Hill Community Cycling Award" which consisted of a brief introduction and a shiny new plaque and witnessing a good number of other worthy awards and innovative individuals and companies..  In order to conserve my time and effort in my purely volunteer role, I will simply mirror the post I just uploaded to the ReCYCLEry.info website, and I will follow up with a couple of comments following up on the recent BUB Is Up thread I recently initiated on OP...

Published online as "Award Winning BUB is up! ...not to mention gas prices":

Just wanted to share a great list-serv with discussions on commuting, whether by bike or foot or public transportation.  Discussions range from homages to injured community members to pending laws and legal issues to strategic routes in our local area.

RTP_bike_ped list-serv 

Information from the M.S. Fits Cycling Team website

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

What: A 5-mile loop, in silence, no faster than 12 MPH in honor of cyclists and others killed or injured while cycling on public roadways. The ride, which is being held during Bike Safety Month, aims to raise the awareness of motorists, police and city officials that cyclists have a legal right to the public roadways.

Where: Triangle Life Science Center Parking Lot (on Hwy. 54 just west of T.W. Alexander Dr. - former USEPA building), Research Triangle Park, NC...

The culmination of Bike to Work Week is Bike to Work Day on Friday, May 16th. Read more to find local links.

Local Activities:

• 7:00am - Raleigh Bikers' Breakfast and Bike to Work Week Celebration (NW corner of Fayetteville & Hargett, Raleigh)
• 7-9am - Bike to Work Brunch at the Research Triangle Park Headquarters (12 Davis Drive, RTP)
• 7:30am - Durham Bike to Work Day Gathering (The Mad Hatter at Broad Street & Main Street, Durham)

Carrboro touts its "walkability," and it is more walkable than, say, Cary. Yet one only need hangout downtown for a little while (e.g. on the lawn in front of Weaver Streer) to notice that most folks only walk as far as the parking lot holding their personal smogmobile. Carrboro, like the rest of suburban America, still obeys Kinsella's law of land use: "if you provide parking, they will drive." We seem to be caught in that old vicious circle: we provide parking, which reduces density (since parking actively competes with other uses) and discourages transit (by enabling driving, and most Americans will drive when given the option), which encourages driving, which "requires" more parking. So it was rather discouraging to see the discussion in Kirk Ross' piece in the Carrboro Citizen.