Why bicycle? Here’s why…

A brand new video for National Bike Month…

Get out and ride!

Small businesses may yet be lost to flood

Off the bike…

As if you didn’t already have enough reasons to buy local, read Dave Franzman’s piece about the lingering effects of the Flood of 2008 on many dozens of small businesses in Cedar Rapids.

After the flood

It would be interesting sometime to learn what else was swept down the river.

How many start-ups didn’t get started? How many other businesses that saw not a drop of floodwater were drowned anyway in the aftermath?

How many residents just up and left? Maybe we’ll know more about that when the counting is all done in the 2010 Census.

Cyclists identify county road sign priorities

Over the past several weeks, some of the cyclists who use Linn County roads suggested the priority areas listed below for installation of Share the Road signs.

Image by frippy via Flickr

These recommendations are being passed along to the C.R. Bicycle Advisory Committee (a few in-town roads are included on the list) and to the Linn County Board of Supervisors and county engineer.

• Airport Road
• Alburnett Road
• Alice Road
• Blairs Ferry Road between Cedar Rapids and Palo
• Buffalo Ridge Road
• C Avenue between Blairs Ferry Road and County Home Road
• Center Point Road between Hiawatha and Center Point
• Central City Road between Center Point and Central City
• County Home Road between Center Point Road and Highway 13
• County Home Road between Highway 13 and Stone City Road
• Edgewood Road over the Cedar River bridge
• Ellis Road
• Ely Road between Cedar Rapids and Ely
• Highway 94 between Cedar Rapids and Palo
• Lewis Bottom Road between Palo and Center Point
• Mount Vernon Road between Highway 13 and Mount Vernon
• Sutliff Road (X-20) between Mount Vernon and Solon

Have additional suggestions or thoughts on which of these should get signs first?

Comment here and I’ll pass the info along.

Pedal on.

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Cedar Rapids bike friendly? No, but Iowa City is, in a bronze sort of way

Cedar Rapids has been mentioned honorably by the League of American Bicyclists for its efforts to become bicycle friendly. The city came up just short of a bronze rating, the lowest Bicycle Friendly Community designation. (Iowa City did get a bronze, joining Cedar Falls in the BFC ranks.)

Downtown C.R.

Sounds about right.

Cedar Rapids isn’t bike friendly, but it is bike friendlier than it was a year ago.

The present City Council and the people who are responsible for the progress understand the value of becoming a better place for people to pedal where they want to go.

They know it will encourage residents to live healthier lifestyles and that one characteristic of a great place to live – the “vibrant community” of our city’s vision statement – is that it’s a great place to ride a bicycle.

They surely know that being recognized for the effort has value in marketing the community to potential employers, visitors and residents. Improving next year and the year after that will have even more value.

Congratulations on the honorable mention, but don’t be satisfied with it.

Pedal on.

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Busy mountain biking weekend coming in October

The Linn Area Mountain Bike Association is hosting a time trial at Beverly Park in Cedar Rapids on October 3, 2009.

The group is also hosting the Iowa International Mountain Bike Association Affiliates the same weekend, so several other events are scheduled. (I’m not sure what that “Affiliates” business is all about. Maybe someone can explain that.)

There’s more: Oct. 3 is also Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day, so there’s an event for kids at 2 p.m.

LAMBA could use some volunteers to help with activities, beginning with setup on that Saturday at 9:30 a.m. and for the race, which starts at 4 p.m.

Sounds like a fun weekend, starting with the Friday night Cedar Rapids Pub Crawl / Urban Ride featuring “Bikes Sites of the City.”

Contact LAMBA for more details.

Pedal on.

Map shows C.R. bicycle facilities

The Cedar Rapids Bicycle Advisory Committee seems to have saved me the trouble of figuring out how many bike racks there are within two miles of my home.

They’ve mapped that sort of thing, as they just announced on their Facebook page. The map is said to be a work in progress, and anyone can add to it.

Lots of schools have bike racks, but very few businesses seem to.

View Larger Map

Who ya gonna call? Lt. Jonker

The next time you get buzzed or otherwise harassed by a motorist while you’re riding your bicycle in Cedar Rapids, here’s what you do:

• Get the license plate and a description of the vehicle’s occupants if you can.
• Contact Lt. Tom Jonker through the C.R. Bicycle Patrol page or call 319-286-5338.

He will follow up as appropriate and will be compiling incident reports to identify problem areas. He’s a cyclist and recently joined the Cedar Rapids Bicycle Advisory Committee.

UPDATE: Don’t be surprised if you get a ticket when you run a red light or pedal down the wrong side of the road or do something else stupid on your bicycle. CRPD will be watching that more closely now, too.

(Info courtesy of Mrs. Smith, a member of the Bicycle Advisory Committee, who passed this along after the BAC meeting this morning. She also saw someone painting lines for bike lanes on Boyson Road. Progress!)

If you’re not in Cedar Rapids, report dangerous motorists to your own law enforcement people. Don’t let it slide.

Cyclists: Time to be an ambassador

A dozen or so people interested in becoming Bicycle Ambassadors for the City of Cedar Rapids showed up at this meeting Tuesday night.

That’s not enough.

To keep the hard-earned momentum going toward making this community more bicycle friendly, in fact as well as in name, more cyclists need to step up. You have another chance on August 17, 6 p.m. at the Public Works Building, 1201 6th St. SW.

Ambassadors will help with two of the five E’s of bicycle friendliness: education and encouragement. The time commitment is minimal, and you’ll get to talk to a lot of people about something you enjoy. How tough can that be?

You’ll probably get a T-shirt out of the deal, too, along with some good karma. That’s how they do it in Montpelier, Mrs. Smith tells me.

Spread the word.

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Pics from Cedar Rapids criterium

Great day for bicycle racing today, especially in downtown Cedar Rapids for the Gold Pointe Fitness Club Criterium.

Thanks to HBA Racing for putting on a great event.

A few pictures…

(Update 7/6: The Gazette allegedly had more pictures online but last time I checked there was only one – and part of the story was missing.)

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Trail repairs to start in August

Several more weeks and scenes like the ones below on the Cedar River Trail in Cedar Rapids should be history. Except for the encroaching weeds, the trail this morning looked pretty much like it did right after the flood in June 2008. It is officially closed from Sokol Park to Tait Cummins Park but often used anyway.

The bid letting date is July 2 for the city’s Trail Flood Repair & Levee Repair (AStreet SW) Project. That includes repairs to the Cedar River Trail, Ellis Trail and Sac & Fox Trail in addition to the levee. That’s all to be completed between early August and the end of September. (Thanks to Ron Griffith and Gina Weaver for that info.)