Ride Boldly!

As part of the opening of the National Bicycle Summit, the Bikes Belong Coalition introduced their new advocacy campaign: People for Bikes. The web site is live at http://peopleforbikes.org, and operates on the principle that there are 250,000 bicycle advocates, but 50 million cyclists.
The campaign aims to link the two.
Much of it was developed by [...]

Been pretty busy lately, but as the (first) thaw gets underway, there are goings on here in the tundra and elsewhere.

The Winona Bridge, about which I have written a billion times following its brief closure in Summer 2008, is now scheduled for ‘rehabilitation’ in 2014. Everyone gets to take their chances on this fracture-critical structure [...]

In winter, Minnesotans have meetings. Well, they do in summer too, but…
If you want to speak out for or against various plans surrounding cycling in the Twin Cities, a few more opportunities are upcoming:

Public Hearing for Bryant Avenue S Bicycle Boulevard (Minneapolis) – This will be happening on February 9 at Bryant Square Park in [...]

I think we all know the stats:

Drivers are 8 times as likely to get in an accident while texting than those, you know, paying attention
Driver distraction was reported to have been involved in 16 percent of all fatal crashes in 2008
An estimated 22 percent of injury crashes were reported to have involved distracted driving

(Source: USDOT [...]

There are a few upcoming events of note to cyclists in Minnesota:

January 21 – Design open house for the Highway 52/Lafayette Bridge replacement project, t the Wellstone Center in St. Paul. More info: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/metro/projects/hwy52-stpaul/
January 25 – Surface Transportation Reauthorization Outreach Meeting with Secretary Ray LaHood and Congressman Jim Oberstar in Minneapolis. More info: http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bikeadvocacy/minneapolis_mn_invite_01%2012%2010.pdf
February 25 [...]

The Met Council is looking at funding several trail projects in Anoka County – one to build a ‘missing link’ in the Rum River Trail corridor, and a second to build two canal-crossing bridges, from Anoka’s Mississippi Community Park nearly 2 miles up the river to the undeveloped Mississippi West Regional Park in Ramsey.
Meanwhile, Senators [...]