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Joyride: Pedaling Toward a Healthier Planet |
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Written by David Boerner
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Friday, 03 June 2011 08:44 |
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 Former Portland Bicycle Coordinator and Joyride: Pedaling Toward a Healthier Planet author Mia Birk is visiting Fort Collins June 9 and 10 for a bicycle planning workshop with regional planners. When Birk arrived in Portland in 1993, the city had 65 miles of bikeways, mostly unconnected, and several of which were a dirt road on the side of a hill in Forest Park (a great ride, but not very useful for commuting). When she left in 1999, there were 215 miles of mostly interconnected bikeways. In 2003, Portland was awarded the first Platinum Bicycle Friendly Community rating from the League of American Bicyclists. Today, Portland has the highest bike commuter rate of any big city in America.
Birk was instrumental in changing the attitudes of hundreds of planners, engineers, citizens, authorities, and commuters concerning cyclists. She got bike parking codified into Portland’s Planning and Zoning Code. She offloaded Bike to Work Day on a nonprofit organization so she could focus her time on the Bicycle Master Plan and create a system of bikeways. She helped to get most of the bridges accessible by bike. She played a major role in getting colored bike lanes installed on tricky or dangerous streets. She was involved in getting “sharrow” bike street markings approved and installed.
These days, Birk is the President of Alta Planning + Design - a bike-centric consulting firm - and spends much of her time traveling across North America working on bike planning with advocates and governments and working on bike plans. She’s also an Adjunct Professor at Portland State University, where she co-founded the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation in the College of Urban Studies.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 20 October 2011 16:03 )
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Free Bicycle Safety Class |
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Written by Rick Price
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Tuesday, 08 February 2011 17:42 |
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 As a part of its Master Cyclist "Train the Trainer" program the Fort Collins Bike Co-op has announced FREE bicycle safety training classes for anyone interested in improving their safety skills on the bike and in assisting with the following programs:
Ø Help to teach school children in the Fort Collins Safe Routes to School Program
Ø Assist with after school bike clubs
Ø Conduct Bike Camps and Bike Rodeos next spring and summer
Classes are scheduled on Saturdays as follows: February 12, 19, 26 and March 5. Participants attend only one of these dates.
There is no charge for the course.
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Swedish Army Bicycles Take to the Streets of the States |
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A review of the new Kronan
Written by Dan DeWeese for Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac 43-100
Friday, 10 December 2010
 For the past month, I have been commuting to and from work on a Kronan bicycle in a traffic-heavy downtown urban environment. It has led to a great many moments of bicycling pleasure. Example one: riding on a busy city street during evening rush hour, I was able — due to the Kronan’s heft, my pedaling, and a slight downhill stretch — to get the bike up to speed and then pass other cyclists and two moving cars while coasting. Passing people while coasting is obnoxious behavior, not something one should be so immature as to find any particular pride in, and also: totally fun.
Example two: The rear tire went flat once while I was at work. This was due to my having accidentally left the air nozzle (which is a Scandinavian set-up that is different than other types of valve stems you usually come across in commuting and/or racing bikes) slightly loose after showing the bike to a friend. A smartly-designed metal tube on the bicycle’s side hides a hand pump, though. At the push of a button, the metal cap on the end of the tube popped out, I retrieved the pump, and re-inflated the tire. When stored, the pump returned to being invisible, a transformation my son has found hours of pleasure and amazement testing and demonstrating.
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Greenware® US Gran Prix of Cylcocross New Belgium Cup Races Into Fort Collins November 13 and 14 |
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USGP Cyclocross Press Release
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
November 2, 2010 (Fort Collins, CO) -- Fort Collins, CO is home to some of the United State's best cyclocross racers - including Meredith Miller, Georgia Gould and the up and coming Skyler Trujillo - and next weekend it hosts the third stop of the Greenware® US Gran Prix of Cyclocross on November 13 and 14.
The USGP New Belgium Cup features two days of amateur and professional bike racing highlighted with a battle for the top step of the podium as the hometown favorites take on the country's top professional athletes in the marquee professional events.
Both the professional women's and men's fields are deep and promise thrilling racing each day. The women's race will see National Champion, World Cup winner and Colorado resident Katie Compton (Planet Bike/ Stevens) taking on confirmed riders: Kaitlin Antonneau (Cannondale p/b CyclocrossWorld); Meredith Miller and Teal Stetson-Lee (Cal Giant/Specialized), USGP Series leader Georgia Gould, Katerina Nash and Amy Dombroski (LUNA), Maureen Bruno Roy (Bob's Red Mill); Sue Butler and Amanda Miller (HUDZ Subaru). The men's field will see Series-leader and current National Champion Tim Johnson (Cannondale p/b CyclcorossWorld.com) and teammates Jeremy Powers and Jamey Driscoll dueling a strong field of pros. Among those seeking to break the Cannondale juggernaut's vice grip on the top step of the podium are: Todd Wells (Specialized Factory); Ryan Trebon and Barry Wicks (KONA); Chris Jones and Zach McDonald (Rapha/FOCUS); Canadian Champion Geoff Kabush (Maxxis/Rocky Mount); Adam Craig (GIANT); Jesse Anthony (Cal Giant / Specialized); Tristan Shouten who is having a breakout season; Troy Wells and Brady Kappius (Team Clif Bar) and many more.
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SINGLE-STREAM RECYCLING IS A WARM, FUZZY LIE |
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or “Bike Wheels, Bottle Caps, and Karma’’
Written by Charlie Malone
Tuesday, 05 October 2010
 Rob Martin from Rob’s Bike says “only 30% of the glass dropped into co-mingled recycling actually gets recycled.” Susie Gordon, Senior Environmental Planner for the city says, “that’s on a good day”. It’s often much less.
As we shuffle our recyclables out to the curb and the haulers shift, dump and transport it all, the glass breaks down beyond recovery; it gets embedded in paper, making the paper harder to recycle. Much of the glass ends up in the landfill helping to separate the rest our waste. This is a poor resting place for a recyclable, finite, natural resource. Susie reminds me “glass is endlessly recyclable; we can melt it down over and over again.”
An illusion bursts here, like a balloon punctured with a sharp shard of glass. Those neat, tidy bins with our rinsed beer bottles and plastic juice containers, our carefully flattened cereal boxes waiting outside our homes let us feel good about doing such a simple thing for the environment. And yet more than 70% of that glass still finds its way to the landfill.
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