Twins' wonder

I came across this nice promo video for Minneapolis' Midtown Greenway, claimed from an old rail line, and this item about their new self-service bike repair kiosks.

Anyone ridden there? Aside from the Greenway itself, anyone know if the city's other urban bikeways are well-integrated? Meaning, once you drop back in with the cars, how well is the city doing on that front? Is the city ranked as the top biking city mainly for the Greenway, or for the whole picture?

Makes me wonder what in the hell is taking so long with DC's Metropolitan Branch Trail.

VA CaBi expansion

If you're in the DC-VA area and recognize Capital Bikeshare as the positive game-changer that it is, think about coming on out Monday night to a meeting about new stations planned for Arlington. Sounds like you can also make a pitch for a station on your block.

Hey, maybe the ArlingtonGOP folks will be there in full-throat against, per their recent anti-CaBi blog post. (Well, not so recent, April actually. In fact, seems that was their most recent post. Boy, just when I was feeling bad for MY periodic posting slow-downs.)

From the CaBi announcement:

Public Meeting on Capital Bikeshare in Arlington

Monday, June 27 at 7:00pm

Capital Bikeshare has exciting plans for expansion throughout the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor within the next year and your input is needed. The Arlington County Department of Environment Services cordially invites you to offer your feedback on proposed stations and to make suggestions for other locations. Nearly 30 stations are already proposed for the Rosslyn, Courthouse, Clarendon, Virginia Square, and Ballston urban villages. All were determined with the assistance of a Bikeshare Demand Map, which analyzed population and employment density, bike and transit facilities, and destinations to estimate demand for public bicycles […]. 

Yeah, it really should be a sidewalk

[from reader Herb C.]

With regard to the previous post on taking public space away from cars and giving it back to people: 

Here in Cleveland Park we're fighting the good fight to restore and pedestrianize the broad sidewalk on Connecticut that was destroyed in the 1960s to create the bizarre little service/parking lane that's now there. This block could be a vibrant public space with sidewalk cafés, etc. A recent poll on the CP listserv showed 2-to-1 support for the idea, although the usual suspects are unenthusiastic or opposed, on the grounds that our commercial strip can't survive without the couple dozen parking spots on the inside of the lane. 

The campaign is called "I Wish This Was a Sidewalk" (inspired by Civic Center's "I Wish This Was" project in New Orleans). 

http://www.iwishthiswasasidewalk.org

Please take a look and sign the petition if you're so inclined!

New Amsterdam

From my recent photo shoot for de Volkskrant, a Dutch newspaper. The pictures accompanied a commentary about NYC's evolving bikescape, this one was used as the lead (a layout PDF is here, look on p.4-5 for a couple of extra photos).

Part of the article's emphasis was on the 'rocky transition' and the 'uneasy coexistence' between bikes and peds and cars. Dunno, all seemed pretty right with the world, but I suppose the detente could have been due to the Memorial Day weekend.

And man, is NY doing an incredible job of taking public space away from cars and giving it back to people. Examples are all over the place. That was almost more striking than the bike lanes.