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News, commentary and humor about bicycling and other topics of the day

 

Missouri gets a D in cycling

On Monday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote about the Missouri Bicycle Federation's recent report, "Bicycling and Walking in Missouri -- A Report Card" (PDF file).

"The overall grade for Missouri's walking and bicycling environment for 2007 was a D," Missouri Bicycle Federation Executive Director Brent Hugh said in a recent post on MoBikeFed's Web site. "We are quite frankly behind most other states in accommodating for safe walking and bicycling. With gas prices near $3.50 a gallon and rising, it's hitting us right in the pocketbook."

The Post-Dispatch quoted a St. Louis-area cyclist who thought the area deserved a grade of C+. I would have to agree that the St. Louis area has a better cycling environment than the rest of the state, but that's not saying much.

Here's a couple of areas of concern MoBikeFed cited:

• MoDOT stops meetings of Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee for over 18 months; essentially shuts down bicycle/pedestrian program for most of the year; fires bicycle/pedestrian coordinator; halts Missouri Complete Streets bill; over 95% of MoBikeFed supporters disapprove of MoDOT's handling of bicycling and walking.
• Numerous important transportation projects statewide continue to move forward without needed bicycle and/or pedestrian accommodations or with facilities that do not meet ADA requirements--including Hanley Rd in St. Louis County, Hwy 45 in Parkville, and Hwy 150 in the Kansas City area, and many others.

Having done the former Cycle Across Missouri Parks ride twice in the 1990s and having been a volunteer/rider on last year's Cycle Across Missouri, I can say that part of the problem is the quality of the roads themselves. Once you get out of the state's metropolitan areas, the roads often are barely safe for motor vehicles, let alone for cyclists.

The roads often are in poor shape with potholes, cracks and crumbling pavement. In rural areas, there often are no shoulders whatsoever, not even an extra foot or two that would make a big difference for cyclists.

Last year, I rode on Highway 116 in northwest Missouri. The road had no shoulder and plenty of fast traffic. On top of that, motorists were not particularly accommodating of me or other cyclists, and I was forced to bail onto the grass once because of that. I was happy to get off that road, except that turning onto U.S. 63 toward Lawson was even less fun. Not only was it narrower than Highway 116, the edge of the road was in extremely poor shape. I didn't have to bail off that road, but I sure was saying plenty of prayers!

Early on CAM last year, cyclists were forced to ride on U.S. 136 toward Bethany. I was glad I was supporting the ride instead of riding that day. Again, there was no shoulder on much of U.S. 136, and cyclists weren't happy about that or the refusal of some motorists to give sufficient space to pass them.

Part of the problem in rural Missouri that there are few options besides the busy roads. Many of the country roads are dirt and gravel roads totally unsuitable for cycling (unless you own a mountain bike). Illinois has its share of country roads, but at least a great number of roads have oil-and-chip surfaces, making them viable alternatives to the busier highways.

While I would agree that the Missouri Department of Transportation is behind the times when it comes to maintaining road, I also would add that they are hindered by a lack of revenue. Missourians enjoy some of the lowest gasoline taxes in the country, but I would argue that the quality of Missouri roads is a case of you get what you pay for.

I can only base this on anecdotal evidence, but many motorists in Missouri have the attitude that bicycles only belong on the Katy Trail, not on the state's highways.

Clearly, Missouri has a long ways to go to become a truly bike-friendly state, but at least MoBikeFed saw signs of hope: the successful 2007 Tour of Missouri bicycle race, the addition of more miles to the Bike St. Louis system and new connections to the Katy Trail.

Labels: advocacy, cycling, Missouri, safety

Roger 0 comments links to this post 8:49 AM

Saturday, May 10, 2008

CBS News to film St. Louis cyclists

CBS News plans to include St. Louis in an upcoming segment about Bike to Work Week. Here's the information I got from Trailnet Executive Director Ann Mack on Friday:

Help Trailnet show the nation a bike-friendly St. Louis! CBS News will be traveling through St. Louis on Friday, May 16. In recognition of Bike to Work Day, (CBS) will be filming at Trailnet's Bike to Work Day Refueling Station at the Missouri History Museum at 6:00 AM. The visual will be a sea of cyclists in brightly colored jerseys.

The correspondent will interview bike commuters, set up some shots and then would like to join a group of cyclists on their commute to work downtown. Please plan to participate and show your bike jersey colors. ...

We are hoping for a good crowd so please forward this to your friends and fellow cyclists. Don't forget: 6:00 a.m., Friday, May 16 at the Missouri History Museum Refueling Station.

I'm afraid you can count me out. Given that I don't normally get to bed until about 3 a.m. on Fridays, there's no way on God's green Earth that I can be up that early. I do, however, support the effort and hope those of you who can be up that early can join in on the fun.

The Missouri History Museum is one of 20 "refueling stations" on Friday, which Trailnet has designated as Bike to Work Day in the St. Louis area. Unfortunately for people who might be tempted to bike to work from Illinois into Missouri, there are no refueling stations on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. The closest station for Illinois residents is the Downtown YMCA at 1528 Locust St.

Labels: commuting, St. Louis, Trailnet

Roger 0 comments links to this post 12:33 AM

Friday, May 09, 2008

Trailnet changes starting point for ride

Trailnet's Bicycle Fun Club has changed the starting location for its Lewis and Clark Departure Days Ride planned for Saturday, May 11. The ride will now start at the Missouri entrance to the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge due to flooding. Registration for the bike ride is 8:30 - 10:00 a.m. SAG support is offered until 3 p.m., and secure parking is provided until 5 p.m. Vehicles must be removed from the Missouri bridge entrance parking lot by 5 p.m.

The reason for the change is flooded grass parking lots at the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site near Hartford, Ill. Days of rain have saturated the grassy areas of the historic site. Most of the ride is on roads and Madison County Transit trails in Illinois, and those have not been affected by flooding.

Labels: Illinois, St. Louis, Trailnet

Roger 0 comments links to this post 6:55 PM

Monday, May 05, 2008

Bike St. Louis expands

Just in time for National Bike to Work Week, May 12-16, the Great Rivers Greenway District is announcing the opening of 57 miles of additional on-street Bike St. Louis routes through St. Louis County and St. Louis City.

With the expansion, the Bike St. Louis system will today 77 miles of dedicated bike lanes and shared traffic lanes.

The dedication of the expansion will take place Thursday at three locations:

• 10 a.m. in Maplewood, Mo., in front of Schlafly Bottleworks, 7260 Southwest Avenue
  
• 11 a.m. in Clayton, Mo., at the MetroLink station at Central and Shaw Park Drive
  
• 12:30 p.m. in St. Louis at the intersection of St. Louis Avenue and Blair Avenue
  (a half-block block west of Crown Candy Kitchen)

Here's a brief excerpt from the press release (Word document) Bike St. Louis has published about the expansion:

The new routes are the first major expansion of the Bike St. Louis network since 2005, when the first 20 miles of continuous on-street bicycle routes were dedicated and connected downtown St. Louis to surrounding neighborhoods. Nearly 50 miles of the expanded Bike St. Louis routes are located in the City of St. Louis, providing connections from downtown to neighborhoods, business districts, educational, cultural and recreation amenities in North and South St. Louis. The new routes also provide on-street connections to the North Riverfront Trail and the McKinley Bridge Bikeway along the Mississippi River in North St. Louis, as well as the River des Peres Greenway and Christy Greenway in South St. Louis.

“In just a few short years, I have seen an important change in residents’ attitudes about bicycle trails and lanes,” said St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay. “What was suspicion and resistance five years ago is now enthusiastic support. A nearby trail is viewed – and, more importantly for our physical fitness, used – as an important amenity for city neighborhoods."

All Bike St. Louis routes feature highly visible customized designation signs, standard federal bicycle route signs and on-street pavement markings. In addition, Bike St. Louis maps are available online at www.bikestlouis.org and at many convenient area locations throughout the region. The maps provide information to assist riders plan their routes and feature safety tips and other pertinent resource information.

And if that wasn't enough, the Great Rivers Greenway District will hold the grand opening of the McKinley Bridge Bikeway and Trestle on June 7. After a major renovation, the bridge reopened to vehicle traffic late last year, and now the McKinley Bridge will link the Bike St. Louis system to the Madison County Transit Confluence Trail in Illinois.

Once the bridge is open, St. Louis cyclists will have four safe ways to cross the Mississippi River between the two states. The existing crossings are the Eads Bridge, Old Chain of Rocks Bridge and the Clark Bridge, which connects St. Charles County, Mo., and Alton, Ill.

Not surprisingly, I applaud the efforts to make the St. Louis area more bicycle friendly, and I hope the trend continues.

Labels: commuting, cycling, Missouri, St. Louis, trails

Roger 2 comments links to this post 12:10 AM

Friday, May 02, 2008

Hincapie to defend Tour of Missouri title

George Hincapie, longtime lieutenant to Lance Armstrong and winner of the inaugural Tour of Missouri, will return in September to defend his title in the state’s seven-day stage bicycle race, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday.

Organizers of the event made the announcement at a press conference Friday.

I would write more, but I better get a little rest before Tour de Stooges tomorrow!

Labels: cycling, racing, Tour of Missouri

Roger 0 comments links to this post 11:23 PM

Friday, April 25, 2008

Stooging, not blogging

I've been way too busy this week to do a lot of meaningful blogging, so here's a summary of the week so far:

Tour de Stooges: With the event almost a week away, most of my time not spent at the Belleville News-Democrat or in bed has been spent ironing out final details of the Tour de Stooges on Saturday, May 3, in beautiful Highland, Ill. We have well more than 200 pre-registered riders so far, and we expect a big rush before online registration closes at noon Wednesday.

Bicycle World: My old buddy Hal Leventhal at the Belleville, Ill.-based Bicycle World wanted a Web site, and now he has one: bellevillebicycleworld.com. The version I created for him is a rough draft just to get something on the Web. I'll be working on the real version of the site after Tour de Stooges dies down.

Roger's on Twitter: I decided to create a Twitter site. Why, I really don't know what I'll end up doing with that site, but I'll probably use it to promote items on this site plus briefly discuss personal things that don't really fit on this blog. So far, my only two followers are Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. I'm sure they really care what's going on in my life, but I'm following them just for the fun of it. If you have a Twitter site and want to follow me, be my guest!

Belleville News-Democrat: My employer has a knack of throwing special projects my way either in the weeks before Tour de Stooges or when I go on vacation, but both of these projects I'm working on are worth the effort I'm putting into them. I can't publicly discuss them at the moment because I don't want to tip off the competition, but they will be of interest to our readers.

Don't expect to see too much here in the coming week, but I hope you're keeping up with the news about Tour de Georgia on the news feeds in the right-hand column and seeing what other bicycle bloggers have to say.

Labels: Belleville, Tour de Stooges, Web site

Roger 1 comments links to this post 12:35 AM

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Kidical Mass

Cyclists from Oregon and Oklahoma are hoping that their new grassroots effort, Kidical Mass, will take root and encourage children and families to ride their bikes.

Why the effort? "To celebrate the fact that kids are traffic too. For family fun on vehicles that don’t hurt the future! Another excuse to get ice cream," The Kidical Mass site for Eugene, Ore., says.

In a recent story on the Bike Portland blog, editor Jonathan Maus explained the concept in a little more detail:

The city of Eugene has come up with a kinder, gentler, and younger spin on Critical Mass — “Kidical” Mass.

The idea came from bike advocate Shane Rhodes. Rhodes — who manages the Safe Routes to Schools program for a Eugene-area school district — says the idea came to him during an early morning brainstorm about an upcoming visit to his city by filmmaker Ted White.

“The bike movement has grown up, and now it has kids!”

The first Kidical Mass ride in Eugene was scheduled Friday night (April 18). Kidical Mass rides also were slated for Friday in Bend and Ashland, Ore., and Tulsa, Okla. The Kidical Mass rides began April 3 in Portland, and a Kidical Mass ride is slated for June 20 as part of Portland's Pedalpalooza event.

Promoters of Kidical Mass say it is a law-abiding easy ride in traffic. Helmets are required, and decorations and bike bells are encouraged.

I learned about the rides through the ChampaignCountyBikes e-mail list. There seems to be interest in developing Kidical Mass for the Champaign-Urbana area, but no definite plans have been made.

Roger 2 comments links to this post 12:52 AM

Friday, April 18, 2008

A bit of shakin' going on

Yes, we in the Midwest have earthquakes.

A 5.2-magnitude earthquake occurred at 4:37 a.m. CDT, and was centered about 115 miles east of Belleville, and six miles from West Salem in Edwards County, Ill. It was felt in Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis.

I managed to sleep through that earthquake, but I most definitely felt an aftershock from this morning's earthquake. It hit the region at 10:15 a.m., almost six hours after a magnitude 5.2 quake struck the Midwest at 4:37 a.m. That registered at 4.5 magnitude. Another hit two hours after the initial quake, at 6:55 a.m., registering 2.6.

So far, there aren't many reports of major damage. Here are some stories:

• Belleville News-Democrat
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch

While my part of the world isn't as notorious for earthquakes as California, we have our share here. The most famous is the New Madrid, Mo., earthquake on Feb. 7, 1812. That quake caused shifted the course of the Mississippi River and create numerous lakes. More than 4,00o reports of quakes since 1974 have been made in the region shown below:

Labels: Illinois, nature, St. Louis

Roger 2 comments links to this post 10:58 AM

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Driver hits bicyclist with gun

A Columbia, Mo., man was arrested Tuesday night on suspicion of hitting another man in the head with a gun after an apparent traffic dispute, the Columbia Tribune reports.

Nuvan F. Brown, 25, was arrested on suspicion of second-degree assault and armed criminal action, police said.

A 34-year-old cyclist told police he was riding his bicycle eastbound on Walnut Street between Second and First streets when a van pulled in front of the bicycle, and the victim told police he had to brake quickly to avoid hitting the vehicle. He said he slapped the back window of the van "to let the driver know he was there," according to a Columbia police news release.

The van then drove through the parking lot and cut the man off again on Second Street near Walnut, police said. Brown got out of the van, hit the victim in the head with a handgun and threatened to kill him, police said.

Brown is back on the streets after posting bond.

Labels: Missouri, safety

Roger 0 comments links to this post 12:38 AM

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Two rides for worthy causes

In recent days, I've received e-mails about two worthwhile charity rides.

The first is the Ride for World Health. R4WH is a national, nonprofit organization that advocates for improvements in the quality and accessibility of global health care. Each year, by utilizing a cross-country bike ride as a vehicle of communication, R4WH addresses this issue through political advocacy, fundraising and its unique Coast-to-Coast Lecture Series.

The riders currently are in Utah, and they're expected reach the St. Louis area in early May. Dr. Tracy Hall, the leader of the GEARS bicycle club in Greenville, Ill., asked me to pass along this bit of information about the R4WH stop in the Greenville area :

Ride for World Health, a charity cross country bicycle tour, will be stopping
at Greenville First Christian Church (1100 Killarney Drive, Greenville, IL 62246) on Tuesday, May 13, about 1 p.m., on the St. Louis to Kinmundy (Ill.) leg of their trip. The group is made up of doctors, residents and medical students. Please come and have a listen to the short presentation and meet the riders. Some of the GEARS riders are planning on accompanying the riders after the presentation.

R4WH is writing a blog about the journey, and the group is accepting donations.

The second ride is the 2008 Equal Parenting Bike Trek. Starting Aug. 7, five fathers will be biking 758 miles over five days between Lansing, Mich., and Washington, D.C., to raise awareness of a child's fundamental right to be loved, guided, educated and nurtured equally by both fit and willing parents. After the ride, the fathers will speak at the Family Preservation Festival.

Robert Peterson, one of the organizers of the ride, has been pushing bloggers throughout the country to write about this event, and he has done a amazing job in getting the word out. The site says more than 70 blogs throughout the world has written about the event, and now you can count mine among them.

The ride is seeking donations and sponsors for the event, and you can find out more at the ride's Web site.

Labels: charities, cycling, tours

Roger 0 comments links to this post 3:00 PM