You going to argue with this man?

"You will ride with us!"

Click image to enlarge. Photoshopping courtesy of the Mrs.

I in no way want to distract from Neil's effort over at Bike Wichita--do be sure to let him know that you'll be participating--but I got to thinking of Kansas-specific images that could be used to promote Bike-to-Work Week, and a little musing (along with my wife's skill) led to this. Hope you like it. If you do, credit where credit's due and all that.

Anyway--it was either John Brown or, uh . . .

Bike-to-Work Week in Wichita

"Recycle," a free-to-download image from Start-Thinking.

I confess to wanting to post a little something about Bike-to-Work Week, an event sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists to encourage and promote awareness of bicycle-commuting, to be held May 11-15, but just hadn't gotten to it. But today, via both Randy of Kansas Cyclist and prolific commenter Anonymous, I learned about a new blog, Bike Wichita, which appears to have been around for about a week and which, at the moment, is geared toward encouraging individuals and businesses to participate in and support Bike-to-Work Week. Neil has also provided links to other sites and posted other material intended to motivate and/or inspire.

Bike Wichita sees to be a project of a green-minded advertising and promotion firm here in town, Start-Thinking. Here's another of their images intended to encourage the viewer to think a little more greenly: As it happens, Bike-to-Work Week is also my school's finals week, which means that my schedule will permit me to participate: a first for me this spring. I hope some of you will head over to Bike Wichita, get inspired, do a little advance thinking about a bike-route to your workplace--highly recommended--and then saddle up on May 11-15.

KTOC

Thanks to following some links suggested by that most-prolific of commenters in the blogosphere, Anonymous, this morning I learned for the first time of the Kansas Transportation Online Community, a service of KDOT. KTOC has been up since January of this year (here is the press release); as you'll see, its intention is to bring together anyone and everyone, whether or not you're a Kansas resident, with an interest in transportation issues. Even ordinary mortals can join it, and--despite the fairly lengthy sign-up process--I want to encourage you to at least go have a look.

The Bike and Pedestrian section of the forum is in need of some conversation: before I posted something there this morning, the most recent post had been back in January. However, if the combination of increased traffic here at this blog and the more-numerous bike-commuters in my neighborhood that I've been seeing of late mean anything, it's that there's growing interest in discussions of securing a more prominent place for cycling-as-legitimate-transportation in discussions and planning for infrastructure. Maybe we collectively can begin to shape things in that direction.

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.

Catching up on e-mail; a future Readers' Ride

During my time away from the blogosphere, I fell waaaay behind not just on reading blogs but, even, e-mail. So, this being Lent and all, I want to send out a mea culpa to my regular e-mailer Mark who, unbeknownst to me, had written me on the 27th about his adventures on the new stretch of the Gypsum Creek path even as I was writing my own post about it. To read the e-mail and my post together, you'd think I was cribbing from his letter without acknowledging it: he even mentions the trickiness of negotiating the pedestrian bridge, just as I had done in my post. Had I read his e-mail in a timely fashion, I would have said something to that effect in my post.

Some time ago, my bloggy friend Moti, he of the excellent blogs Jewish Simplicity and Fed Reb, teased me that, being Jewish, he wouldn't know about that nagging sense of guilt arising from Original Sin. And, you know, lucky him. Still, while I'm not exactly wearing hair-shirts and hiding bloody scourges over here, some things need saying, you know? So: apologies all around for being a negligent correspondent and visitor to your various places. I promise to amend my blogospheric life.

Okay: enough atonement. I'm Lutheran, not Catholic.

While reading Mark's e-mail, I found myself thinking, Hey! Didn't Spring officially arrive two weeks ago?? Six inches of snow can blur memories of the daffodils and day lilies I had seen blooming only the week before. So, Spring. That means that a young (and, in my case, middle-aged) cyclist will turn to thoughts of . . . our first Readers' Rides of the year. Let's tentatively schedule them for the Saturday and Sunday after Easter (April 18 and 19). By then, we should be able to leave the sled dogs at home. Later, I'll post the particulars of times and places to meet, but it seems appropriate to me that our route be the Gypsum Creek path, including the new stretch. For new readers: last year we had these get-togethers approximately once a month during seasonable weather. The goals of the Readers' Rides are simple: 1) Visit and ride a bike path; 2) Meet and enjoy the company of like-minded folks--especially important in a town like Wichita, where the cycling community isn't exactly omnipresent (yet). Feel welcome to bring along spouses, family, Significant Others, and friends: this won't be a race but a relaxing rec-ride. Those who have done these in the past have told me they've enjoyed themselves, and I certainly can say the same.

As I said, I'll announce more particulars soon as I work them out. In the meantime, I hope you'll plan for those dates with the Readers' Ride in mind.

Chuck Dahlem's postiion on bicycle-advocacy issues

Charley "Chuck" Dahlem (e-mail; no website) is a candidate in the race for District 3 (southeast Wichita). Today he e-mailed his response to the e-mail I sent to all the candidates for City Council; below is his response in full:

Thanks for the information. In my opinion, I think it is an excellent idea that should be vigorously pursued. I would suppport such a measure with great enthusiam, in that it would promote physical fitness, as well as savings of fuel costs.

Keep in touch and thanks again for the information!!!

Charley "Chuck" Dahlem

Again: my posting of the responses I receive is in no way intended as an endorsement of the candidates.

Janet Miller's position on cycling-advocacy issues

As you may know, Tuesday, April 7 is election day for city council representatives in districts 1, 3 and 6. Janet Miller (link now fixed) is a candidate in the District 6 race, and last week I wrote her to ask her to speak to bicycle-advocacy issues and what if any measures she would support as a member of the council. This evening, I received her reply; it appears in full below. I should add that this isn't intended to serve as an endorsement of Miller's candidacy; I provide it here as a service to readers who plan to vote and/or for whom cycling issues are important:

Hi John –

Thank you for your inquiry about my position on making Wichita more bicycle-friendly. I am 100% behind efforts to move Wichita toward being a better place for cycling as an alternate mode of transportation. This includes supporting not only the addition of bike paths, but also moving toward the philosophy of “complete streets” that are bike/ped/car accommodating. As President of the Park Board, I have been actively advocating for this concept for a number of years. I think the City’s planning staff is moving more in this direction, but other City departments aren’t quite there yet. I am on a mission to help move us in this direction, which would include more bike paths, more on-road bike lanes, installing bike racks on public buses and in public spaces, and providing “share the road” education. Last fall, I participated in one of the local KDOT town hall meetings and advocated for the inclusion of bike/ped projects, funding, and incentives in the next 10-year transportation plan. I am also an advocate of the local annual “bike to work” event.

You certainly have my permission to print my answer on your blog, and I thank you for the opportunity to weigh-in on this important issue. My guess is that we have a number of acquaintances in common who enjoy cycling in Wichita (and who would enjoy it even more if we had the infrastructure to support it!) I look forward to meeting you in person one day soon. Let me know if I can answer other questions or clarify any of my answer.

Janet

Miller's opponent in District 6 is Bob Aldrich. I have sent him the same letter I sent to Miller; should I receive a reply from him before the election and have his permission to do so, I will post his reply here.

EDIT: In my District 6-centric frame of mind last week, it didn't occur to me that the candidates in the District 1 and 3 races might also have some thoughts on infrastructure as it applies to cyclists. Therefore, I'll be e-mailing those other candidates and posting their responses as I receive them, too.

Sunday Ride #6: New Gypsum Creek path

Veloroute map. I took my usual commute route to reach the eastern end of the route, took the new route as indicated (included here is my turn north along the Canal Route up to Mt. Vernon), then returned home via my commute route.

Greetings, all. It appears that I can resume something that resembles regular blogging here. Thanks again for the kind wishes sent the Mrs.'s way.

A couple of Saturdays ago, when it looked like spring had arrived, I thought I'd check out the new bike path I'd written about in my previous post. There is good and not-so-good to report.

The good: The path proper is concrete and is indeed complete from George Washington to Wassall. Being so new, it's of course in great shape. There are also places for benches along the path, and it appears the city will be planting some trees in a couple of places. From the path's western terminus at Wassall, it's a short one-block ride down Wassall to the pedestrian bridge that crosses I-135. Moreover, on the day I rode there, the city is putting a new, wider sidewalk in at the intersection of Pawnee and Minneapolis, which will make crossing Pawnee easier and safer. My teaching schedule this spring isn't conducive to bike-commuting (I have late classes each night), but some weekend I plan to take this new route to see how it might fare as part of my commute-route in terms of distance and time.

The not-so-good: as I have noted before about the Canal Route, this new stretch, naturally wend-y by nature because it follows the creek, nevertheless makes some bizarre arbitrary bends on perfectly-flat land. Thus, at times it created in me the sense of not covering much ground. Meanwhile, the pedestrian bridge seems designed to discourage cyclists from riding across it: I suppose one could ascend the ramps while astride one's bike, but they are too steep and turn too abruptly to descend safely. True, to cross the bridge on foot takes just a couple of minutes, but it's that disruption of getting off and then getting on again that strikes me as irritating.

The bad: One word--Plainview. It is no secret to most Wichitans that Plainview is a rough part of town; and, given that the entirety of this new path runs along that neighborhood's southern boundary, sometimes right along the houses' (often unfenced) property lines, riders are hereby alerted to this. On my ride, I saw a couple of pit bulls staked out on chains in backyards--I saw them because, as I said, some of these yards aren't fenced. Granted, their chains were short enough to prevent them from reaching the path, and I apparently was too boring to them to cause them to do much more than bark a couple of times at me; but it's not as though there are signs warning cyclists or pedestrians about all this. It may be that there are plans to install fencing or plant hedges along the route, but I saw nothing that would indicate such a thing. In short: it's a bit dicey down there, even in the daytime, and you need to know this in advance. All that said, though, the city is to be commended for building a path along that route. As I noted in the earlier post, bike commuters on the south side of town heading to the McConnell area should find this route to be useful to them, and it also provides a safe bike route for kids who attend the two schools the path passes. Most important of all, whether intentionally or not and slalom-y curves aside, it argues against the assumption most people (and city-planners) have of cycling as a middle-class recreational activity.

As my first commenter notes on the previous post, there are still more paths to come for the south side, most notably a path (construction to begin this summer) that will link the Arkansas River path's southern terminus at Garvey Park with this same just-completed new path. Good. But now: about that much-needed east-west route through the city's center . . .

Good news for southside bike-commuters

I'm not back here full-time yet (though the Mrs.' condition is improving--and thanks for all the kind wishes sent our way), but I did want to pass along this tidbit: that at least in one instance, those dotted purple lines on Wichita's bike-path map do indeed mean "funded"--very good to know, given the current economy.

At the point where George Washington Blvd. crosses Gypsum Creek (a little south of Pawnee) construction of a bike path along the creek is well under way: the dirt base looks to be steamrolled, but as of yesterday no actual pouring of the (concrete?/asphalt?) surface has occurred. Assuming the weather cooperates, though, it appears that could happen any day.

This stretch is part of a route marked "funded" that will run, eventually, from the southern terminus of the Canal path south along I-135, turn east at Gill Park and follow Gypsum Creek to George Washington, then head southeast along that street to the intersection with Oliver, where it will intersect with the Gypsum Creek path. I can't say yet whether construction is progressing along the whole route, but once it's completed a hypothetical bike-commuter who, oh, I don't know, lives downtown and works at McConnell would have a slightly-longer but safer route to work--and probably quicker as well, since it will be off the streets.

But still: a couple of east-west routes that run through the center and northern portion of the city are still on my wish-list. Given our topography and urban realities, such routes would require adding dedicated bike lanes to existing streets . . . and according to the map, such routes aren't even proposed, much less funded. Given the budgeting priorities of the Obama administration, perhaps that will change. A fella can hope, at any rate. While we wait and see, though, it's very good to know that at least some already-funded projects are getting built.

On indefinite leave

Regular visitors here have probably assumed by now that other things have been keeping me away from here, and that would be correct. For about a month now, my wife's health has not been good, and my concern for her has consumed an enormous amount of my time and energy and has even cut into time I need to do things I get paid for. So, I'll continue to be away from here for the foreseeable future.

This is unfortunate, given the times we live in. What with Wichita city council elections fast approaching and the just-passed stimulus package, there is much to think and write about at the local and national level regarding cycling and the related issues of energy, transportation, infrastructure and livable communities, all discussions which I would love to be contributing to. But I have linked to some useful places over in the right gutter that will be participating in those discussions, and I encourage you to explore them. I was just going to steal from them anyway . . .

I hope the decks will clear enough in a couple of months that I'll be able to be more regularly faithful to this blog's intent. Till then, I'll see you around.