The Last Friday Each Month at 5:30pm
Community Bike Ride
...a convivial event for cyclists of all ages and abilities

May 28 at 5:30pm

Join your neighbors and friends on a group bike ride through Traverse City. Feel the joy at zero gallons per mile.

• Zero Gallons Per Mile
• Celebrate Community
• Increase Bike Awareness
• Fun for the Entire Family
• Enjoy Car Free Social Time
• Promote Bike Safe Roadways
• Human Powered Transportation
• Become the Change We Want to See
• Group Rides are a Safer Way To Bike
• Respect the Earth and Care for Your Body
• Riding as a Group "En Masse" is an Enjoyable Way to Bike

Join Us at the “Open Space” MAP
Downtown Traverse City past the north end of Union Street at Grandview Parkway.

Can't Make it by 5:30? No problem
Join us as we ride past “Horizon Books” on Front Street (between 5:50 & 6:00 pm). We'll be looking for you.

Rainy Day Information
If you wish to receive a mobile telephone text alert due to last minute weather cancellations, please click here. In the event this Community Bike Ride is rained out, our make-up-date is always the following Friday at the same place and time advertised.

You Look Wonderful in Your Helmet
If there is anything between your two ears that you care about (fond memories, facts, pop culture, trivia, etc.), consider protecting it. Please wear a bike helmet every time you ride.

Why Ride
Motor vehicle emissions represent 31 percent of total carbon dioxide, 81 percent of carbon monoxide, and 49 percent of nitrogen oxides released in the U.S. (The Green Commuter, a publication of the Clean Air Council). A short, four-mile round trip by bicycle keeps about 15 pounds of pollutants out of the air we breathe. (WorldWatch Institute). According to the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey, 25 percent of all trips are made within a mile of the home, 40 percent of all trips are within two miles of the home, and 50 percent of the working population commutes five miles or less to work. A Rodale Press survey found that Americans want to have the opportunity to bike to work instead of driving, with 40 percent of those surveyed saying they would commute by bike if safe facilities were available.

In addition to saving cash, did you know that you could keep approximately 19 pounds of CO2 emissions out of the atmosphere for each gallon of gas you don't use? Saving money and reducing the impact driving your car has on the environment is easier than you think. Use this Commute Cost & Carbon Emissions Calculator (from Stanford University) to calculate the financial and environmental benefits of alternative transportation.

Federal Bicycle legislation passes encouraging bike to work
After seven long years, the bicycle commuter tax provision has finally passed both the House and Senate. President Bush has said that he is eager to sign the legislation. “We are delighted that the bicycle commuter benefits act has passed after a lengthy and persistent campaign spearheaded by Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR),” said League President Andy Clarke. “Bicycle commuters will now be extended similar benefits to people who take transit and drive to work – it’s an equitable and sensible incentive to encourage greater energy independence, improve air quality and health, and even help tackle climate change.

SmartCycling: Traffic Skills 101
The League of American Bicycists has released a new version of our core bicycle education curriculum: Traffic Skills 101! Formerly known as Road I, the new manual has updated graphics, photos, and text to help League Cycling Instructors teach cyclists to ride safely and smartly. Instructors: Order your copy today!

Join the Bicycle Revolution - Become the Solution
From a personal standpoint the frustration is high as we ride around town and see how little acknowledgement there is for bikes and their riders. We're needing a bit more these days, especially in light of the current gas price situation and the long-standing nature of Michigan's economy. The time is right to push hard for change. Get our municipalities to acknowledge the importance of a non-oil infrastrastructure. At the very minimum, they should be held to task for creating safe and accessible routes connecting to and through the many locales that make up our community. Click Here

Complete the Streets
The League of Michigan Bicyclists and Traverse Alive ask the State of Michigan to:

• Require the State roadway system to accommodate safely all users of the public right-of-way, including pedestrians, people requiring mobility aids, bicyclists, and drivers and passengers of transit vehicles, trucks, automobiles and motorized cycles.

• Require all MDOT employees involved in planning, design, construction, maintenance and operation of the State transportation system fully consider the needs of non-motorized travelers.

• Require all recipients of Act 51 Funds to adhere to the state’s “Complete Streets”

Tell your Legislator to Support HB 6299 and HB 6300, make roads safer for cyclists
Representatives Andy Coulouris (D-Saginaw) and David Palsrok (R-Manistee) on June 29 introduced House Bills 6299 and 6300, which enhance penalties for moving violations causing physical injury or death to bicyclists and other vulnerable roadway users. A teen on a bike deserves the same protection as one driving a tractor. These bills will make Michigan roadways safer for bicyclists and all vulnerable users of our taxpayer-funded road system.

Bill Excerpts:
(1) a “vulnerable roadway user” is defined as a pedestrian or a person operating a nonmotorized transportation device (including but not limited to a bicycle).

(2) a person who commits a moving violation and as a result causes injury to a vulnerable roadway user on a highway who is in compliance with this act is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 1 year or a fine of not more than $1,000.00, or both.

(3) a person who commits a moving violation and as a result causes death to a vulnerable roadway user on a highway who is in compliance with this act is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 15 years or a fine of not more than $7,500.00, or both.

In town? Slow it Down!

I would like to announce a campaign for community wide support to limit the upper speed limit on ALL roads within the Traverse City, city limits to 25 MPH (or less).

It is unjustifiable by any logic to have traffic whizzing along at 45 miles per hour and often more, through neighborhood areas putting lives at risk. That extra minute or two added to your travel time will contribute toward the safe movements of our youth, differently enabled, and older adults.

Livable Cities and Political Choices
Consider a city with a speed limit of 12 mph to 15 mph for private vehicles, about the same speed a bicycle. This limit would let people use cars for local trips - for example, for hauling groceries home - but people would use higher speed transit for longer trips. Bicycles and small electric vehicles similar to golf carts could travel along with the automobiles in the main traffic lanes. Shopping streets would be quieter and safer for pedestrians than they are in today's cities. Residential streets could make traffic even slower, as the woonerfs in the Netherlands do, so they would be safe places for children to play.

8 / 80 : We Are The People of Traverse City
Our goal is to contribute to the creation of vibrant cities and healthy communities, where residents live happier and enjoy great public places. We promote walking and bicycling as activities and urban parks, trails and other public spaces as great places for ALL. These activities and public spaces improve our environment, advance economic development, boost and complement our transportation systems, make better recreation for all, and enhance our personal and public health.

Ray LaHood: This is the end of favoring motorized transportation
March 21, 2010—"This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized." So said US Transportation Secretary LaHood. Every transportation agency, including DOT, has the responsibility to improve conditions and opportunities for walking and bicycling and to integrate walking and bicycling into their transportation systems." It's time to push back at transportation engineers, whether they be local, regional, or state level who want to stay with the old paradigm of simply creating streets for the automobile. We know what works to create vibrant, 21st century communities. Let's do it.

AARP wants Complete Streets in Michigan too
“The safest place for a cyclist is to be in a designated bicycle lane,” said Unsworth, who has knocked on doors seeking signatures on petitions to make Lansing more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly. The stakes are particularly high for older residents. Thirty-five of the 114 pedestrians and six of the 25 bicyclists killed in Michigan in 2008 were 55 or older. “There needs to be a shift in thinking from speed to safety and accessibility, because speed isn’t always the answer,” said Karen Kafantaris, associate state director of AARP Michigan. “A complete street is a street that is safer for everyone.” Making streets safer doesn’t cost a lot of money, but it requires a new mindset for transportation planners in the car capital of the country. For instance, bike lanes can be added at little cost when a road is scheduled to be resurfaced anyway. The goal is to invest 5 percent of transportation dollars on pedestrian safety, Kafantaris said. The stakes are particularly high for older residents. Thirty-five of the 114 pedestrians and six of the 25 bicyclists killed in Michigan in 2008 were 55 or older.

Better Bikeways
To be successful bike route signage must accomplish two tasks: make motorists mindful of the presence & rights of cyclists, and provide useful route information to the cyclists themselves. Most current bike signage takes on the first problem (with decidedly mixed results) and all but ignores the second. The Better Bikeways system is an attempt to address these shortcomings.

Traverse City Makes “Complete Streets” a Top Priority
Yet another Michigan city has recognized the link between infrastructure and livability, and stepped up it’s commitment to safe infrastructure for walking and biking. Yesterday we heard from Traverse City Mayor Chris Bzdok, who wrote to inform us that the City adopted a new infrastructure policy in September — one that includes an emphasis on complete streets. The policy makes an expressed bias in favor of sidewalk and bikeway construction. See more over at http://www.ci.traverse-city.mi.us/Policy/InfrastructureStrategyPolicy.pdf The City will dedicate 10% of its infrastructure budget to sidewalks, bikeways and other people-friendly infrastructure, the highest known percentage commitment of any municipality in the state of Michigan. MORE IDEAS CLICK HERE

Support Our “Share the Road” Initiative in Traverse City
Riding on the roads around here is pretty darn cool. Generally we have good roads and our town is not so big and fast that we have to worry too much about crazy fast and reckless auto drivers. Still, it can always be better because we have a lot of big SUVs that hog the road and many roads do no have paved shoulders. Last February Dennis Bean-Larson, of the “Fixed Gear Gallery” decided to launch an inititive to increase awareness of bikes on the road, and to help promote an even more bicycle-friendly Traverse City. Commuting has increased on our roads tremendously and sometimes auto drivers just don't know what to do with us. So, we drafted a letter to our Assistant to the City Manager outlining several ways that we could improve this situation and ways that the bicycle community could help the city with all this. Please support the "Share the Road" inititive in Traverse City with your time and money. Contact Bob Otwell at bob@traversetrails.org

How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities
A growing number of Americans, mounted on their bicycles like some new kind of urban cowboy, are mixing it up with swift, two-ton motor vehicles as they create a new society on the streets. They’re finding physical fitness, low-cost transportation, environmental purity. In a world of increasing traffic congestion, a grassroots movement is carving out a niche for bicycles on city streets. Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities explores the growing bike culture that is changing the look and feel of cities, suburbs, and small towns across North America. MORE IDEAS CLICK HERE

Bikes Point the Way to a Sustainable Future
The bicycle has become a cultural signifier that begins to unite people across economic and racial strata. It signals a sensibility that stands against oil wars and the environmental devastation wrought by the oil and chemical industries, the urban decay imposed by cars and highways, the endless monocultural sprawl spreading outward across exurban zones. This new bicycling subculture stands for localism, a more human pace, more face-to-face interaction, hands- on technological self-sufficiency, reuse and recycling, and a healthy urban environment that is friendly to self-propulsion, pleasant smells and sights, and human conviviality. The bicycle has been enjoying a resurgence in the past 15 years. Daily bicycle commuting has expanded dramatically in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and other cities where the monthly seizure of streets by bicyclists known as Critical Mass has opened space and imaginations, and given people a safe and enjoyable way to reconnect with urban bicycling before venturing out on their own.team.