Mark Stosberg, who is blogging around the Richmond area, has some nice posts on bikes as transportation. (H/t Chris Hardie). Though, his casual mention of traversing the hill on Niewoehner Road (near Richmond), twice, suggests that he is in far better biking shape than me. I haven’t seen the road in 10-15 years, so it theoretically could have gotten smaller, but as a kid, that was the ultimate hill. I recall that, as kids, my sister and I called it “roller coaster road” — mostly because we were on our way to King’s Island and had such things on our minds.
A subject near and dear to my non-driving heart. I lust after the bike lanes of Copenhagen – or hey, even just a little public education (“why I don’t ride on the sidewalk”). On a related note, I have been asking the people over at The Greenways Foundation about the possibility of “destination spurs” (their term) to take existing trails from an exercise focus to a transporation focus. They are very communicative and definitely have people that want to work in that direction. The Executive Director, Ron Carter, sent me an email with a suggested alternate route for one of my destinations which I appreciated.
I currently have two bikes; a road bike for exercise rides and for transporation to and from client sites as well as light errands, and a touring bike which is designed to hold 80 pounds on the back end and 40 on the front which I take when I’m doing big-time shopping.
Brenda, Thanks for the comment. I appreciate your sensibilities.
Through bikerichmond.org, we are just about to launch a city-endorsed but volunteer created and funded bike map of recommended routes bike routes which avoid the busier main roads.
I don’t know where you live, but because of the low cost (about $2,000 to print $5,000 maps), it’s definitely a project that could be easily replicated in other cash-strapped cities in Indiana.
You can examples of the “commuting_routes” PDFS here.
http://www.ecovelo.info/
This is another website dedicated to transportation biking. Also has amazing pictures.
Mark, I’m in Indianapolis and we do have the Indianapolis Regional Bike Route Map.
This was more a case of what I call “real” route assistance where the description includes “and then you can cut through the back lot of…”
Wow, your side of the state is rather under-represented on the Indiana Counties with Bicycle Road Routes issue. I admire you guys for your initiative in organizing one.