WUNC story on cycling for transportation

NC Voices: Growth & Transportation
Rose Hoban

As a part of our ongoing coverage of Growth and Sustainability — this week on Morning Edition we’re featuring a North Carolina Voices series on Transportation. One form of transit stands out for it’s energy efficiency, health benefits and fun – that’s people-powered transportation. But in the Triangle, that can be tough. It’s a place that’s been built primarily for cars — and many bikers says it’s just too dangerous to consider getting to work on two wheels or feet. Rose Hoban takes a look at the state of bicycle and pedestrian access in the area.

Download the mp3

Bull City Bicycles — art show

March 7 - 28, 2008, Bull City Bicycles gathers historic and contemporary photography of bicycles in Durham, NC. A celebration of the aesthetic simplicity, utility, and joy of bicycles, this show documents Durham’s sense of place from two wheels.

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Sources of photography include The Herald Sun, The Durham County Library, The Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University, The Smithsonian Institution, the North Carolina State Archives, as well as my own photographs.

Visit http://nicomachus.net/bcac/ or http://www.bullcityarts.org/ for more details, or download the press release.

crosswalk

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Durham Parks and Rec offers free bike maintenance class

Play More with DPR

Cycling is an amazing thing. It gets people outside and traveling the roads and trails of our community. Nothing beats the freedom and independence of cruising winding country roads or bombing down backcountry single-track…until you get a flat tire or your bike seems to be making the decisions on when to shift. That’s where Durham Parks and Recreation Adventure Programs’ Basic Bike Maintenance class comes in. This class is designed to give you the skills and knowledge to fix basic bicycle issues as well as teach you how to do routine preventative maintenance on both road and mountain bikes.

Join us on Thursday, February 21 at Spruce Pine Lodge (2303 Bahama Road) at 6 p.m. and you will learn how to keep your bike on the road. All you need to bring is a bike, some clothes you don’t mind getting a little dirty, and an Allen Wrench set if you have one. For more information contact Jordan Doctor at (919) 477-9918 or Jordan.Doctor@durhamnc.gov.

This class is free and open to the public.

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Inside Sid Rochelle’s bicycle (and motorcycle) repair shop, on the corner of Parrish and Corcoran, circa 1920.
(Photo courtesy of the Durham County Library)

A Ripon Velorution

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Over the last two years, both Duke and Carolina have initiated community bike programs. Through these programs, students, faculty, or staff of the universities can enroll in bike sharing (Duke Bikes and Blue Urban Bikes respectively), and “check out” a bike much like a book from the library.

Ripon College, a small liberal arts college in Wisconsin, has taken bike-friendliness to the next level. As the Washington Post reports, the school will give a new bike to each incoming freshman who opts to leave the car at home.

Wis. College to Give Bikes to Freshmen

The Associated Press
Thursday, February 14, 2008; 6:38 AM

RIPON, Wis. — A tiny liberal arts college here hopes it has found an answer to a nagging shortage of campus parking: a bicycle giveaway.

If incoming freshmen promise not to bring a car to campus for a full year, Ripon College will give them a Trek 820 mountain bike, a helmet and a lock _ a $400 value.

“We’re a residential college with a beautiful, historic campus in the middle of a small town,” said President David Joyce, an avid cyclist. “Paving it over was not an option I was willing to consider.”

He hopes the 1,000-student campus’ “Velorution Program” will protect it from building more parking lots.

“We obviously live in a car culture. That’s not about to change,” Joyce said. “But if a significant number of students learn that a car isn’t a necessity at this stage of their lives, that’s good enough for me.”

Last fall, for the first time in Ripon College history, the number of parking permit applications exceeded the 400 permits available, Joyce said. The city approved a measure to close overnight street parking on every street through and adjacent to the campus.

The college, founded in 1851 and located about 70 miles northwest of Milwaukee, teamed with Fond du Lac/Oshkosh Cyclery, Trek and other companies to start the bicycle program.

Friends, trustees and alumni donated about $60,000 to buy 200 bicycles to give away to an expected 300 incoming freshmen, said Cody Pinkston, a spokesman for the school.

Historically, about 100 freshman arrive without cars, so accepting the bike will be a “no-brainer” for them, he said.

“There is not a strong bicycle culture here with students. That is what we are trying to engender.”

© 2008 The Associated Press

Remember, the velorution will not be motorized.

snowy bridge

Reader Mike Halligan submitted this photo from his commute yesterday morning. He claims he made it over the frozen viaduct without falling.

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Nice photo Mike.

turrets

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Durham cycling map, revised (revising)

I had stopped working on the Durham cycling map that I put up more than two years ago. It remained popular, however. Now that Google has made it easy to create and save maps without the use of third-party software, it’s been very easy to go back and revisit this project.

This is a small version — the full size map is here.



My goal with this map is to make it a true community-driven tool. Anyone with a Google account can add routes, places to this map. If you would like to be added to the pool of contributors, please email me. pbarronATgmailDOTcom

As a side note, Google Maps now offers Streetview of Durham.

McCain’s hope…

McCain’s hope has got to be that he doesn’t run against Obama.

hat tip to Barry for showing me this one…

Durham’s bike racks

The second in a series on Durham’s unique bike racks, here are two photos of the bike rack that sits between Morgan Imports and Parker and Otis.

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Speaking of bike racks, the Durham City Racks bike parking program is a year and a half behind schedule. I spoke with Dale McKeel of the City’s Transportation department last week, and he says, “I hope to visit Ninth Street and the other locations over the next two to three weeks and finalize the locations. The contractor will then be contacted to do the installations, and this will be dependent on his workload. My goal is to have the installation completed by mid-March.”

Keep your fingers crossed.

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