Bike Across Kansas

I'd missed this nice story in yesterday's Eagle which interviewed some riders as they passed through Towanda on Wednesday.

Nice passage, in keeping with your correspondent's constant linkage between cycling and the fomenting of community (as opposed to cars' insulating, isolating effects):

"The great thing about BAK (Bike Across Kansas) is you get to stop at places like this," Jim Hadley, another cyclist, said pointing at the cafe. "Yesterday, we stopped in Stafford and had pie and coffee for breakfast at 9 o'clock, but I don't care because we did 75 miles yesterday."

Eric Massanari, a bicyclist from Newton participating in his first BAK, said biking across the state provides a different experience than driving across.

"It slows me down. I tend to notice things that I don't normally," he said. "For instance this morning, the smell of a wheat field on a dewy morning, it's something in a car you don't think about."

Hither and Yon #4

I have been away longer than intended. I had intended to spend only the Memorial Day weekend in Topeka but ended up staying until Sunday, helping my father-in-law, as part of a big landscaping project at the in-laws' house, move lots and lots of rocks ranging from "inch-and-a-half" gravel to rocks the approximate shape and only somewhat smaller than the state of Ohio. And summer school began yesterday. I think, though, that now I'll be able to maintain something like a regular posting schedule for most of the summer.

A round-up of items regarding cycling and other livability/sustainability issues:

**Regarding my recent post about community bike shops, Mike James of the Wichita Bicycle Collective noted both in comments and via an e-mail to me that it's a long-term goal of the Collective to establish just such a shop. If you have bikes, bike parts or, most importantly, time to donate to this project, write him at "mike AT wichitabicyclecollective DOT org."

**Via the Kansas Transportation Online community comes an announcement of a free webinar on Complete Streets on June 11. The full announcement follows:

FREE COMPLETE STREETS AND CSS WEBINAR
-> According to the May 19th issue of PBIC News, "ContextSensitiveSolutions.org and the Federal Highway Administration will present a free webinar on June 11, 2009, from 2:00-3:30 PM EST to discuss the role of Complete Streets in creating Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) that provide safe and efficient transportation options for all users.
"The 1.5 hour-long webinar will provide an overview of the Federal Highways Administration perspective on Complete Streets, including a discussion on the importance of pedestrian and bicycle issues, and what federal programs and policies are available to support communities in their Complete Streets efforts."
Link to Join the Meeting: http://tinyurl.com/od5h9g
On the login page, enter as a guest by typing your full name and clicking the "Enter Room" button. Login to the conference at least 10 minutes prior to the start time to secure your space.
Phone Number to Join the Audio Portion of the Conference:
800-779-1509
Password: 4033692

**Some of you have mentioned seeing my letter to the editor in the Eagle that, at least online, appeared on Friday May 22. Here's the letter, in full:

Road partners

I hope Wichitans will come to consider cycling as not just for recreation but also as a legitimate and potentially significant mode of transportation in our city that should be planned for and encouraged accordingly. Streets that are safer for cyclists are safer for everyone who uses them, and fewer cars on the road mean reduced gas consumption and less noise, congestion and pollution.

I urge our elected officials and planning commissions to be more proactive in developing, prioritizing and implementing projects that conceive of cyclists as full partners in our city's transportation network.

And, in case you're curious, here are the responses it garnered:

they can't even get their regular road planning together. you think they they will find a way to fit bicycles in comfortably? maybe when kellogg gets finished. ha.

-----

AMEN, mr [B.]!! critical mass next friday, donut whole @ 5:30

-----

Mr [B.], there are few people as self absorbed and self righteous as bicyclers. You and others like you belong on the sidewalks, not in the streets. I am fine with bike lanes but any bike on the street proper should be ticketed, impounded, and the rider left to walk home. This is Kansas, not a high density urban city, even buses can't make money on our density! Please stay out of my street, I will not drive quietly behind you!

-----

[in response to the above comment] drivers like you are the problem, not the cyclists. You call Mr. [B.] self absorbed and self righteous and then exhibit the very characteristics you accuse him of!

Under the laws of the state of Kansas, bicyclists have the same rights and responsibilities as drivers of vehicles. Perhaps you missed that chapter in the drivers handbook.

-----

... and another thing... cyclists can be ticketed for riding on the sidewalk unless there are signs specifically permiting it, like downtown. Sidewalks are for pedestrians (hence the word "walks"). Bicycles are considered vehicles under Kansas law.

One quick observation: even the most vocal objector to my letter writes, "I am fine with bike lanes." So, s/he and I have more in common with each other than s/he thinks we do. My alleged self-absorption and self-righteousness aside, if this is the worst that the Wichita comment-o-sphere can offer up by way of vitriol directed at cyclists, I'd say those of us interested in seeing a bike-friendlier Wichita may be further along in changing people's minds than we know.

Bike-to-Work Day!

Well? Did you do it? How was it? I hope you'll leave a comment or drop me an e-mail.

The Eagle had a nice story in today's paper about Bike-to-Work Day (kudos to John Thompson of Start-Thinking for providing the great quotes and for being a bike-commuter himself. The comments are positive, though they also note the lack of on-street infrastructure for cyclists.

Baby steps/little victories, I know. Still, a good sign, all the way around.

More catching up . . .

The poster-art for Art of the Bicycle, to be held this year on July 31. Image found here.

Some links of possible interest, some cycling-related, some not:

Cycling in Wichita has now joined the Streetsblog network of blogs. Streetsblog is part of the Livable Streets Initiative, a grassroots movement comprised of bloggers interested in urban transportation and infrastructure issues. I think what joining means practically for this blog is that they'll link to the occasional post here. So, like, cool.

Sunday's Eagle had a nice story by Denise Neil on Wichita's one-man local-blog aggregator (and very good friend of this blog and my other blog), Bobby Rozzell of Douglas and Main. Go and read, and note the passing reference to a blog kept by "a passionate cyclist." Given my long hiatus, I confess to cringing a bit when i read that . . .

That same article also makes reference to "a pack of opinionated Delano residents." The leader of that particular pack would be Karen of Delano Wichita: the place to go for news about the Delano and discussions of Delano-specific issues. The big news from her blog is that she and others have plans to begin a Farmers' Market in the neighborhood with a tentative opening date of the first Tuesday in June. If you're in the area and would like to express your interest in participating as a vendor or a shopper, visit Delano Wichita and/or write Jill Houtz at "jill DOT houtz AT gmail DOT com"

Here are two great new-to-me resources for loftier discussions of urbanism and community. Via Cordelia over at The Phenomenal Field comes Where's "Introducing Urbanism: Top Books for Curious Novices". The titles are accompanied by paragraph-length assessments of their respective merits. Meanwhile, via my friend and local blogger Russell Arben Fox of In Medias Res comes news of Front Porch Republic, a group blog where really, really smart people (Russell among them) write out of the common assumption that "scale, place, self-government, sustainability, limits, and variety are key terms with which any fruitful debate about our corporate future must contend." A good place to start, and certainly a set of ideas this blog has come to take as givens.

Over at Carbon Trace, Andrew interviews two Springfield, Missouri, bicycle patrolmen. Pictures and Fun Facts, including--who knew?--the fact that Cannondale builds a bike they sell exclusively to police departments. They like their gig:

“Officers on bicycles, from a public perception angle, are far more approachable than an officer in a car,” [Carl] Schwartze says. The public even approaches bicycle patrolmen more readily than officers on foot. There’s something about a bicycle that makes them seem all warm and fuzzy, I guess.

Unless you’re a criminal, that is. Their attitude shifts in an interesting direction.

“There’s nothing more fun than a foot pursuit on a bicycle,” Schwartze says, grinning broadly.

Heh.

Finally, just a quick note to thank you for reading. I was gratified to see visits here jump dramatically when I resumed posting--indeed, and curiously, the jump actually occurred the day before I started up again. But all that has less to do with me than it does with the fact that this town's cycling community has grown just in the brief span of time this blog has existed. The vast majority of visitors here come from either Douglas & Main (thanks again, Bobby) or Google searches for, well, blogs about cycling in Wichita. This little blog, haphazard and inadequate, is where they land. Here's hoping that it'll become more worthy of their visits here.

An interview with a Wichita bike dealer

Hey! Have a look at this!

Bike sales are also brisk at Heartland Bicycle in Wichita's Old Town, said owner Byron Fick, a former Hutchinson resident.

"I haven't set any records, but sales have been up," Fick said. "There are seven bike shops in Wichita, so it gets spread around a little more than in Hutchinson. On average, we have the same amount of business."

Just like Harley's Bicycles, Fick's store has plenty of customers buying accessories or complete bikes and helmets to ride back and forth to work.

He likes to tell customers if they drive a large SUV, four or five tanks of gas would pay for the bicycle and some of the gear. Then when they've saved the money they would have spent on another tank of gas, they can buy shoes, a pair of glasses or something new for biking.

While some are probably spending their economic stimulus checks at the gas pump, Fick has also had customers using the check in his shop.

"I know six or seven customers who said that was what they chose to spend their stimulus check on," Fick said.

One customer in particular, coming from Salt Lake City, earmarked his stimulus check to buy a bike for his father.

The surge in business, and more people commuting to work, hasn't peaked yet, shop owners said.

That might come when gas sits at the $4 mark, said one salesman at the Heartland shop.

Meanwhile, Fick sets an example by commuting to work.

"Any rider starting out can ride 10 to 12 mph," Fick said. "Then, after getting used to the bike and interfacing with the bike seat, they can average 12 to 18 mph."

Wonderful to see, eh? Except: This article didn't appear in the Wichita Eagle but in the online edition of the Hutchinson [KS] News.

I myself found this story via the newsfeed for cycling news at Kansas Cyclist (thanks again, Randy)--see the nifty widget over in the right gutter I've added? But if a goal of cyclists here in town is consciousness-raising among Wichitans regarding cycling and cycling issues--as, in my humble opinion, it should be--it's a bit frustrating to see a piece like this appear in an out-of-town paper that, I suspect, even Eagle-readers are unlikely to run across.

Ah well. The journey of a thousand miles begins . . . with a kick of the kickstand.