Bike Reno

…ahem, allegedly.

I don’t normally post non-Reno related news here, but this is too juicy to pass up. If you’re tuned into bike news at all, you may remember Toronto mayor Rob Ford who infamously went on a rampage against bike lanes in his fair city, undoubtedly causing untold numbers of Toronto cyclists to wonder, “is he smoking crack?”

Well, it looks like he may have been. Ahh yes, savor this delightful schadenfreude like a fine wine my cycling friends. The guy who removed bike lanes in a major city was smoking crack! (allegedly)

Another Bike to Work Day and Week is in the books. Thanks to my new and much more distant job, I totaled about 75 miles this week which crushes every other weekly total I can remember putting up. I noticed a LOT of people riding today on streets I hardly ever see people riding. I’m interested to see if the community totaled more miles than in previous years. I also made it to the Reno Bike Project’s Pancake Feed and had some bacon pancakes.

It’s like an early morning sidewalk party

The goal of course is to get people to try riding their bikes to work to see how doable it really is. And that’s probably something I don’t mention enough here: riding your bike to work is not that hard. And the rewards are things you can’t buy. Good health. Pride. A smug sense of self-satisfaction. You can’t find that stuff at WalMart.

I just got word that the developer of the Keystone Canyon student housing project has pulled the application for the project which means it is no longer moving forward (for now). This means that there will be no representation from the developer or city staff at the Ward 5 Old NW NAB Meeting tomorrow night.

It always seems to creep up so fast; I think it’s because April only has 30 days. Stupid lazy April.

The Truckee Meadows Bicycle Alliance is organizing the annual Bike to Work Week which runs from May 11th to 17th. As always, you can register to be eligible for raffle prizes and enjoy perks such as free coffee and 10% off commuting gear at participating bike shops. You can also register your employer and form a team with your co-workers. Businesses are eligible for a $500 raffle prize to improve their bicycle commuting facilities.

Also, I don’t know who did the artwork this year, but I really like it. I got my hands on one of the promotional posters, and I plan on framing it.

Nice.

Riding in Reno is quicker than me and had the full flyer, so please go read it there.

Keystone Canyon Trailhead Threatened by Apartment Development

The annual We HeArt Bikes art show and sale happened on Saturday and was as big and packed as ever. It’s really outgrown the Holland space. Within half an hour of opening, you couldn’t hardly maneuver through the crowd, let alone get a good glimpse of the art. Speaking of the art, I thought it was really solid this year. I even bought a little piece for myself. See if you can guess what it was.

Yeah

Probably not the best writing table, but cool looking nonetheless

I love the mounting on these

At first I thought someone forgot to put the picture in the frame, but then I realized it was a chalkboard

A chainring (and chain) clock

Packed!

The 7th annual We HeArt Bikes art show will take place this Saturday, April 6th at 6:00pm. The venue this year will be the Holland Project space at 140 Vesta St in Reno. We HeArt Bikes is a fund-raiser for the Reno Bike Project.

I’m always impressed at the work I see there. There’s stuff made from bike parts, stuff made to look like bikes or bike parts, and a lot of stuff in between. To get an idea of what you might see (and buy!), take a look at my post from last year.

Just a head’s up in case you haven’t seen it. Riding in Reno has a good update on the Southeast Connector project. The designs are looking pretty good.

Yesterday, six IBM “Smarter Cities” experts presented their recommendations for economic development in the Truckee Meadows. Aside from the fairly obvious “regional governments need to work together”, I was intrigued by the following recommendation:

The cities and Washoe County should brand a vision, not a slogan for Northern Nevada. Basically, the area is no longer known for gaming and divorce and should now promote the University of Nevada, Reno.
…
The team also recommended the Truckee Meadows push for a “university town” image…

This caught my attention not only because I am a UNR alumnus, but because I had just seen a list of the 10 most bikeable cities in the U.S. according to walkscore.com. Coming in at #5 is Madison, Wisconsin which is well known college town. Not on the list is Davis, California which is not only super bike-friendly, but it also something of a college town. There’s a natural connection between being a college town and cycling. It’s an economic and effective way of getting around. I wonder if Reno decides to become more of a college town, will it put more focus on bike infrastructure?

I forgot to follow-up on the Kietzke Lane meeting last week. In short, it went very well. The proposed changes were very thorough—you don’t realize how many problems Kietzke has until you see a huge list of them—and I think NDOT has a good handle on the solutions. The public comment period after the presentation was a little tedious at times, but there were no angry luddites demanding that nothing be changed. In fact, there was no opposition at all; everyone agreed that the changes needed to be done.

The display boards stretched most of the way across the basketball court.