Bikes Belong grant awards were recently announced.

Congratulations Flint!

This is a well-deserved nod for the regional bike efforts to make biking easier and safer in Flint. (And we’re jealous of you having sharrows — perhaps a first in Michigan.)

Five designated and aspiring Bicycle Friendly Communities will receive funds to help them make bicycling more safe, convenient and appealing places to ride.

These grants, designed to pinpoint specific needs outlined by each community in their Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) application, help pay for bike plans, technical assistance, pilot projects and innovative cycling initiatives.

Flint, Michigan
The Safe and Active Flint Coalition will receive $5,000 to improve bike safety and awareness through a Sharrow program. Flint received honorable mention in the last BFC round. They identified Sharrows—pavement markings encouraging cars and bicycles to share the road—as key to marking the first designated bike routes in the city.

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The Flint Journal recently ran an excellent article on bike commuter Doug Cook. Here’s an excerpt:

Before you complain about your miserable drive in Wednesday’s winter storm, talk to Doug Cook.

He was the guy on the mountain bike ducking the spray from passing cars in the dark at 5 a.m.
Weekend forecast

Nearly every day for the past year — no matter the weather — Cook, 49, has commuted to work on a bike from his Grand Blanc Township apartment to his job as a business systems analyst at the University of Michigan-Flint.

He does it on a steel-frame bike immune to road salt, three layers of clothing, a big halogen headlight and flashing green light on the handlebars, red flashers on his helmet and bike, and red tube lights on a reflective vest.