Bike Summit: Information Station

Happy Monday, 2W4W fans!

I had the opportunity to attend the Bike Summit back in December at the Royal Oak Public Library.
A big shout-out to Tom Regan, our fearless Oakland County bike organizer, because this event was fantastic!

Standing room only.

Representatives from various local groups, companies, the county and SE MI cities sharing tons of great info.

People really rallying around this whole nonmotorized city thing = whoo hoo!

So, this is an information-sharing post highlighting ways you can kick off 2013 by supporting non-motorized transport in SE Michigan.

From Todd Scott, Detroit Greenways coordinator: 
Great news about biking in Detroit! 

Fun fact: 45 miles of bike lanes in the city as of year-end 2012, 70-80 miles total slated for 2013. NICE.

Bike share feasibility study at WSU: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/detroit-bike-sharing-service-share-program_n_1900951.html

Birmingham multi-modal public hearing, Thursday January 17th 8:00 pm, Baldwin library
If you live in, bike through, or walk through Birmingham you will want to attend this hearing.  A large, enthusiastic crowd at this hearing will boost efforts by city staff to build a walkable, bikeable Birmingham:
http://wearemodeshift.org/visioning-workshop-multi-modal-transportation-birmingham

Gran Fondo (Woodward bike event to be held this summer) - to be discussed at the Royal Oak City Commission Monday January 28th 7:30pm Royal Oak City Hall.
Birmingham's city commission endorsed the Gran Fondo.  Heather Carmona of the Woodward Avenue Action Association plans on speaking to the Royal Oak city commission again on Monday, January 28th.  Royal Oak has not yet decided if they will endorse this important community biking event.  Please join us at the city commission meeting at speak up during public comment to urge the city to endorse this great community biking event.

This event is causing some debate locally, here's some more background: 

http://wearemodeshift.org/gran-fondo-bike-ride-more-debate
http://royaloak.patch.com/articles/gran-fondo-big-ride-or-big-headache-for-royal-oak

Modeshift

Achille Bianche of Modeshift was one of the speakers at the summit, he wrote an article on it at the Modeshift website:
http://wearemodeshift.org/bike-summit-outlines-2013-advocacy-and-policy-efforts-woodward

Work at Beaumont?

If you work at Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital and are interested in joining their bike-to-work campaign contact Matt Faraday at faradayrn@gmail.com.

Facebook group

If you live in, bike through, or walk through Royal Oak, definitely check out the non-motorized Facebook group to stay informed on great events like this:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/116745178378727/?fref=ts

Bike Gadgets & Directions

Happy New Year!!!  In preparation for my first bike/bus commute of the year with Julie, I decided to install some bike gadgets I received for Christmas from one of my family members.


Despite feeling kind of badass riding around Detroit and the metropolitan area with my headlamp to light my adventures, I decided to install my first bike gadget, a new bike headlight.  It was pretty simple.  I started by taking the old one off with a phillips screwdriver.  An aside - I finally found where the spiders that created webs last year on my bike hung out - in the cracks of my old headlight!  Back to the story - after I took the old gadget off, I installed the new one without any tools.  It was a piece of cake and I felt super kick ass that I installed it in just minutes while also preventing future spiders from spinning their webs all over my bike in 2013.



Feeling pretty confident, I decided to install my other new exciting gadget.  It's one of those neat bike computers that calculates your distance, speed, time, and who knows what.  Well, it was neat until I went to use it.  Do you see the directions in the picture?  Unfortunately, they are not well written and I was lost within minutes.  Actually, the only thing that seemed to work was that the computer now kept time, which meant it was keeping track of how long it took me to figure out the directions.  AHHH!!!  The pressure!  After an hour and twenty-one minutes, I gave up and decided to write this blog.  The good news is that I didn't completely give up.  The better news is that I went to the manufacturer's website and found a very easy video to follow that has directions on how to install this gadget (thank goodness)!  In this day and age, they should have just saved the paper and wrote that on the box.  Hopefully, I can wake up early enough to install it in the morning before the big bike/bus commute of 2013!


Lastly - just out of curiosity - if you have a bike computer, how many miles do you put on your bike a year?  I'm not talking about the miles from biking on a trail for fun - I'm talking about commuting.  I ask because I want to set a goal for 2013.

Cheers to new bike gadgets, more bike/bus adventures in 2013, and a regional transit authority (that hopefully works)!