New bike-path opening ceremony

Via a commenter comes news from the Coasters Bicycle Club that on Wednesday the 8th at 6:00 p.m. there will be a ribbon-cutting to mark the opening of the Midtown Bike Path. The festivities will be at Otis Park, NW Corner of 13th and Market. I will be in class at that time, alas, but I hope some of you can make it there to show your approval of this newest addition to Wichita's cycling infrastructure.

I noted the announcement of this path back in October (you'll find a map of the route there), and a few weeks ago I rode the path for its then-completed length of Central to 11th. I'll just repeat here what I said in October: this is nice to see (and, I might add, in a part of town where numerous near-downtown people who don't fit the usual image of Bike-Commuters use their bikes for just that purpose). That said, a genuine need, for purposes of overall connectivity between/among the major paths already existing, remains a couple of east-west routes that intersect those routes and run into the urban core. As I noted earlier this morning, right this moment we have a perfect forum for voicing our support for this need: a period for public comment on the spending of federal money set aside for transportation. Make it to Otis Park Wednesday if you can and wave at/shake hands with the public officials there if you can; but don't forget to e-mail some folks about ARRA projects, too.