m-bike.org

Author: Todd Scott

  • Help Increase Bicycling Opportunities in National Parks

    IMBA World Summit belt buckle

    The International Mountain Bicycling Association brings a huge amount of professionalism and energy to the table for all of us that use trails.

    Now it’s our turn to step up.  We need mountain bikers to contact the National Park Service.

    According to IMBA:

    The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) has proposed an important rule change that will make it easier for parks to open trails to mountain biking. IMBA urges mountain bikers to register comments in support of the new rule. We have been asking the NPS to make this change since the 1990s — we now enter a 60-day commentary period to make the change official.

    We know that several groups are working hard to defeat this proposal. It will take thousands of comments supporting the NPS to ensure the rule is approved. Please lend your voice to the discussion today.

    Fortunately IMBA has made it super simple to contact the National Park Service.

    And they’re also so professional about it.  As opposition groups rely on whipping up emotions and passions to get a response, IMBA writes a white paper that responsibly lays out the impacts of this rule change.

    A rule change will not diminish protections that ensure appropriate trail use. All regular NPS regulations, General Management Planning (GMP) processes, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) still applies. Absolutely no environmental processes will be shortchanged. The public will still have ample opportunity to comment both locally and nationally. The parks that have existing mountain biking have gone through the GMP and NEPA processes and the trails are signed, actively managed and documented in the superintendent’s compendium.

    If you want to support IMBA a bit more, by all means consider an IMBA membership.

    And if you hurry, you can still get the tax deduction for this year.

  • Snow plowing Copenhagen-style

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    In Boulder, Colorado, the bike lanes are plowed first.  That gives you an idea of where they put their priorities.

    And this is from a popular Copenhagen bike blog:

    We salt our bike lanes and roads here in Copenhagen. Sometimes the wide stripe of salt on the bike lane is my weather report. If I see the stripe I know that snow is forecast and the city is ahead of the game with a preventive measure to ensure that the bike lane is as clear as possible until they can get out with the bike lane snowploughs.

  • Making Detroit More Green

    detroit-gets-greenDetroit now has an Office of Energy and Sustainability.  Mayor Ken Cockrel made the exciting announcement yesterday.

    From Crain’s:

    Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. said Wednesday he plans to create green jobs and save the city money through a new emphasis on environmental issues.

    “Today, we are all a bit more sensitive to the environment,” Cockrel said in making the announcement, “in part because we know the importance of being environmentally conscious, but also because we can enhance economic development in the City of Detroit while generating new jobs by being environmentally aware.”

    This is great news from a cycling perspective since we’re obviously a very green solution.

    And, in fact, this office is somewhat of an offshoot from Mayor’s Green Task Force, and before that, the Council President’s Green Task Force.  It was the latter that helped us get Detroit’s non-motorized transportation master plan moving through city government.

    So, we expect this office has a role in making Detroit more bicycle friendly, and as a result, more green.

    MyFoxDetroit has a video story covering this announcement.  The Detroit News, Free Press, and ClickonDetroit also covered this event.

  • New Threat to Michigan’s Trust Fund

    dsc00022We mentioned this a couple days ago when discussing Trust Fund grants, but it’s worth further coverage.

    But first, we note that much non-motorized transportation road funding comes from MDOT (e.g. Transportation Enhancements, CMAQ) and the state fuel tax (a minimum of 1% of which must be spent on non-motorized facilities.)  But the bottom line is all road projects should routinely accomodate bicyclists — that is the Federal Highway Administration policy guideline — and facilities such as bike lanes and paved shoulders should be paid for through the same funding sources as roads.

    No legal road user group should have to bring their own pot of money to the table in order to get safe facilities.

    Now the Transportation Funding Task Force is recommending that the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund be diverted for transportation.

    It’s a terrible idea.  Michigan voters changed Michigan’s Constitution to prevents such diversions so it’s difficult to understand how or why anyone would make such a recommendation.

    Since 1976, Trust Fund grants have been a fundamental source for funding recreation and parkland acquisition in Michigan.  That funding has been used at the local and county levels, as well as by the DNR. Most of the area’s rail-trail projects are around because the Trust Fund helped purchase the land.  A list of Trust Fund projects is on-line.

    We recommend contacting Governor Granholm to let her know you oppose diverting the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund for transportation.

    Dennis Muchmore is the executive director for the MUCC also serves on the Trust Fund board.  He certainly doesn’t dance around the issue as his recent press release shows (see below).

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  • Greater Grace Temple’s ‘Bicycle Christmas’ Giveway

    The New York Times recently ran an article on Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple (“Detroit Churches Pray for ‘God’s Bailout’”.)

    Greater Grace, the largest church in Detroit, invited officials from the United Automobile Workers union to speak before Bishop Ellis gave his sermon, titled “A Hybrid Hope.”

    “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but we need prayer,” he said. “When it’s all said and done, we’re all in this thing together.”

    Bishop Ellis encouraged the congregation to pray, not that Congress would “do the right thing” and approve loaning money to the car companies, but that Detroiters would “make it” through these tough times.

    Some bike blogs (here and here) picked up the article, apparently didn’t read it all that well, and wrote that the Church was praying for the Senate bailout.  Or maybe that just made a better story for them.  Piling on Detroit easy these days irregardless of the facts.

    Bicycle Christmas

    But on a more positive note, Greater Grace Temple has been a major supporter of bicycling in Detroit through their Bicycle Christmas program.

    “For many people, one of their fondest childhood memories was to receive a brand new bicycle on Christmas morning,” says GGT’s Senior Pastor Bishop Charles H. Ellis III. “We want to do something to help those youngsters whose families who are hit hard by this economy and could face having little or nothing under the tree on Christmas Day.”

    The church will be giving away 250 brand new bicycles to children from financially struggling families on Sunday, December 21, 2008. The giveaway will begin after the 10:00 a.m. service (approx. 12:30 p.m. – 12:45 p.m.). The church partnered with Meijer Stores and Sinai Grace Hospital to make the giveaway possible. Donations also came from church members.

    Greater Grace Temple has given away more than 2,800 bikes to financially struggling families over the last 5 years.

    Wow!  What a great program and a great cause.

    If you are interested in helping or supporting this program, please contact the Greater Grace Temple.