Jackson Bike Advocates

Dear Jackson Bike Advocates,

First, allow me to apologize for the lack of correspondence of late. The JBA has been waiting to move forward until we were certain about some news! And now we are!

Melody Moody, current President of the Board of the JBA, has been hired as the director of Bike Walk Mississippi! We congratulate her and look forward to working more closely with them! They have moved headquarters to Jackson so we will be seeing a bigger presence from them here.

Another big change is that Lizzie Wright, current Executive Director of the JBA, will be leaving us on September 28th to pursue her passion for insects and trees in the British Virgin Islands and then at the University of Missouri in January.

What does this mean for the JBA?

So the ground work has been laid. All of the paperwork to get Non-Profit status has been done, but not filed since Mel and Lizzie are leaving.

A lot of hard work has gone into the JBA and we’ve made a lot of progress. If you’ve paid any attention to the Jackson Free Press, the Clarion Ledger, Portico or Boom Jackson Magazine you will have noticed that bikes are on everyone’s minds lately. It seems that the formation of the JBA and the events that we’ve held have really brought the issue to the attention of Jacksonians. With the passage of the 3 feet law in Mississippi and the efforts of other bike groups like Bike Walk, Jackson Metro Cyclists, and other bike groups all over the state alternative transportation has a future in Mississippi.

If the Jackson Bike Advocates want to continue this work, two people need to step up to fill the roles of Executive Director and President of the Board of Directors.

If you are interested in either of these positions or would like to nominate an individual, please, contact us at jacksonbikeadvocates@gmail.com. We are also accepting general nominations for board members.

We are planning a meeting for September 8th for all members of the JBA! Please, come ready to discuss these issues and the future of the JBA. We need to know if Jackson is ready to move forward with bicycle advocacy! An agenda will be sent out a couple of days before the meeting.

We would LOVE to see the JBA thrive once Lizzie and Mel have left. So, please consider helping! We have detailed descriptions of the positions and have redefined the goals of the JBA now that Bike Walk Mississippi is more focused on Jackson.

We hope to see you on Wednesday, September 8th at the Jackson Community Design Center at 509 E. Capitol St. Downtown at 6:30pm.

Thanks so much!

Lizzie Wright
Executive Director
Jackson Bike Advocates
303-332-2949

Dear friends,

I grew up in Boulder, CO. Where every Thursday night they have a massive community bike ride. There is a theme for every week and everyone meets at Scott Carpenter Park. And then the whole group which ends up being anywhere from 100-400 or so people takes to the streets on their bikes in crazy costumes shouting and screaming “happy thursday!!!!!” to everyone they see.

It’s a huge group of people having a ball as they ride around town making noise. I believe we can create that here!!!!!! Where we are lacking in numbers we are not lacking in spirit!

I would like to see this ride crank up the spirit! Let’s get loud!! let’s start making people see us!! Let’s show people how much fun we can have!!!

SO!!! this month’s theme is “Live like it’s your last day on Earth and you want to leave your mark!!!” so bring noise makers and boomboxes! dress however you want! like your favorite super hero! in a bathing suit and a bowtie, in a tutu, in the most boring outfit you know if that’s what you would want to be wearing on your last day on the planet!

It’s time we let Jackson know we’re here! And show people how much fun biking is!

I will post some videos from the Boulder Thursday Cruiser Ride for your inspiration.

The ride will be about 8 miles or so and PLEASE BRING A FRIEND!

Thank you so much for your time and see you on July 30th!!

Dear Advocates!

This email is to announce two events!

First, this Thursday, June 24th, Boom Magazine has offered a special invitation to all who cycle to their Boom Party at the zoo. The party is invitation only. But if you ride your bike you are automatically invited! Here is the facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126502737381039&ref=mf
or email Lacey@jacksonfreepress.com

We will be riding to the event at 5:30pm and back at 8:30pm. We’ll meet at Hotel King Edward at 5:15 or so. Come if you can!!

The next event is the regular COMMUNITY BIKE RIDE!
It’s coming up this Friday, June 25th at 6:15pm.
We know it’s going to be incredibly hot. so this time the ride will be 6-8 miles long.

We are working on finding a swimming pool as an ending spot. will keep you posted on this!

we will meet at 6:15 and leave Rainbow at 6:30. We will leave ON TIME so please try to be punctual as the route is not predetermined. we never know where we’ll be!

We have yet to get more than 40 people. This month that is our goal. So if you come regularly, bring a friend or two. If you have always wanted to come on a ride please make this one your first!! Push yourself to try something new! we know it will be hot so the pace will be slow.

Remember to bring helmets, bike lights, sunblock, and lots of water!

See you there!

Hey all!! we need volunteers to help out and represent the JBA for the Next song cycle concert on Thursday, April 29th, the alley cat on May 8th and the concert on may 8th!!! If you help at an event you will get free admission!

Please contact Lizzie at jacksonbikeadvocates@gmail.com

thanks!

Upcoming Jackson Bike Advocates Events:
APRIL 29th: SONG CYCLES CONCERT SERIES continues at 8pm
on w/ Taylor Hildebrandand Jamie Weems and the Strange
Pilgrims at The Eudora Welty Commons. $6.
ALL PROCEEDS BENEFIT THE JBA

APRIL 30th: THE MONTHLY JACKSON COMMUNITY BIKE RIDE is the
Friday, April 30th. We meet in front of Rainbow Whole Foods
Co-op at 6:15 on the last Friday of every month!

MAY 8th: Followed by an ALLEY CAT at 7pm in front
of Rainbow Co-op (a scavenger hunt on bikes!)
then the last concert of the SONG CYCLE series featuring
Emily Baker and Horse Trailer. $6. Hal and Mal’s. 9pm
ALL PROCEEDS BENEFIT THE JBA

More info at:
jacksonbikeadvocates@gmail.com or
jacksonbikeadvocates.org

What is an Alley Cat?

An alley cat is a scavenger hunt on bikes.

At the beginning you get a booklet or what we like to call a manifest. The manifest details clues about the locations you have to hit up on the ride. You decipher these clues and figure out the best route!

Each location you go to will ask you to perform a task. You may have to answer a question, do a dance, draw a picture, etc. in order to get your stamp for that location!

Some locations are local Jackson businesses and will be offering discounts to participants during the Alley Cat so we encourage you to take your time and eat some food or have a beer and go with friends.

We give prizes out to those to those who get all the stamps including the bonus stamps! whoa what’s that?! There will be a cyclist or two hanging out at these locations. If you can determine who that person is based on the clues, they will give you a stamp!

The Alley Cat will take place on May 8th at 7pm in front of Rainbow Co-op. $10 will get you a manifest, discounts at different locations and into the door for the JBA Song Cycles benefit concert at Hal and Mal’s that night featuring Emily Baker and Horse Trailer!

The Double Decker Festival is happening in Oxford in a couple of weeks, and I will be there dancing to Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.  Along with the festival, Oxford Cycling is hosting the Double Decker Spring Ride.  Check it out here.

I found this blog post about Google Bike There.  Not much there for Jackson, but we may be able to help them by contributing feedback.

EDIT: This was originally posted at: http://www.cyclelicio.us/2010/google-maps-bike-there-real-soon-now/

The www.cyclelicio.us blog has a lot of good bicycle information, check it out.

Google Maps Bicycling Directions now live for the United States and Canada.

Here’s a screenshot for biking directions from downtown Santa Cruz to the Santa Cruz Wharf. Below the static image is the embedded map from Google.

View Larger Map

Interesting findings on the service:

• By default, when you select Bicycling directions, the map shows the bicycling facilities it knows about with green lines (as shown in the static image above). With bicycling facilities show, though, you cannot embed the map into another web page. You must click on the “More” button in the map and turn off the “Bicycling” checkbox for embedding to work.
• The trip estimator takes road grade into account for trip time. Google Maps tells me, for example, the 6.7 mile trip it suggests from my home (elevation 500′) to the beach in Santa Cruz takes 36 minutes (about an 11 mph average speed). The reverse trip takes 48 minutes (8 mph average speed).
• You’ll see in the embedded map above that the bike directions assign a very high weight (or preference) to bike facilities, especially off street bike paths. To get from downtown Santa Cruz to the Wharf, I normally shoot straight down Front Street and then straight to the Wharf. Google Maps routes me to the San Lorenzo River path.
• The map takes one way streets into account and does not route cyclists the wrong way down them. It doesn’t know about the contraflow bike lane on Beach Street in Santa Cruz, though. I haven’t tried testing some of the other contraflow bike lanes I’ve heard about.
• Google Maps shows a green line for the railroad trestle bridge in Santa Cruz next to the Boardwalk, but won’t route bicyclists across that bridge, routing cyclists a mile out of the way instead. Walking directions, however, use the bridge.
• Maps doesn’t know about the bike access across the Santa Cruz Harbor.
• The 25 mile bike ride from downtown San Jose to my office in Menlo Park in reality takes me about an hour and 20 minutes. Google Maps estimates over two hours for this trip with a 10 mph average speed. The routing for this longer trip is pretty lousy, giving strong preference to the numerous bike paths in Santa Clara County instead of sending me along the faster and straighter road routes.
• This one’s pretty bad for the South Bay: “Bike There” doesn’t seem to know that the Santa Clara County Expressways are the preferred bikeways for longer distance cycling. For the trip from Cupertino to the VA Hospital in Palo Alto, Google Map routes me onto some less desirable roads away from Foothill Expressway.
• Google Maps knows about bike paths and pedestrian bridges. It doesn’t always know about some commonly used shortcuts, however. There’s a cut through for walkers and cyclists on Ivy Drive in Menlo Park, CA, for example, that neither walking nor bicycling instructions take advantage of. There is a button for users to provide additional input to Google and let them discover these shortcuts.

In summary, Google Maps “Bike There” is very very very cool. I list the shortcomings above for informational purposes and to remind cyclists to always do an on the ground reality check so you don’t bike off of an unfinished bridge or something equally ridiculous, but honestly I’m amazed the service works as well as it does. It seems to work best for shorter trips (under about 10 miles), but that’s reasonable — people going on longer rides will probably want to be a little more thorough in their planning anyway.

Come one and all!! Everybody get to the Capitol tomorrow (Friday) morning!!! We must be there to show our support for the John Paul Frerer Bicycle Safety Act. It should be up for vote in the Senate in the morning!

Info on John Paul Frerer

Break out your rain cape!! ‘Cause we’re riding rain or shine tonight!!!!

Here’s some advice about riding in the rain:

Safe riding in the rain.

See y’all there!