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The Alive wrote
Completing the cycle
By Chris DeVille
May 22, 2008
Columbus residents have plenty of reasons to get on a bike. The city has been promoting its Commit To Be Fit initiative for years. Environmental consciousness is on the rise. So are gas prices. In a car-dominated city, alternative modes of transportation are on the brain.
Last year the city decided to draft a plan to make biking safer and easier for novices and experienced riders alike. They hired Alta, a nationally known group on the cutting edge of bike-focused urban planning. The move caught the attention of Bicycling magazine, which recognized Columbus in the June issue’s “Best Cities for Cycling” feature as one of “Five for the Future.”
Comments
- itinerantfoodie: Not one mention of Huntington Park or their sparse advertising. (Seriously
- Liz Samuelson: Why can't they just pay someone to do it versus a contest? I really like t
- RichLauro: Awesome! Good for Justin and best wishes!!
- Liz Samuelson: @jpizzow – Thank you for the compliment, yes lots of potential and lots o
- Taz Devil: Oh, and it should be finished soon considering that they work late into the
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Completing the cycle : Two-wheel transit on the rise
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Great to see the Alive publishing pieces like this:
How to be awesome at sharing the road
:D
this is fantastic, im new to downtown and new to riding my bike around everywhere. i love it and i hope that more and more people will use this as an alternative to driving. also, keeping the cars off my back would be nice
Welcome to CU. If you haven;t had a chance, check out Consider Biking as well.
It is awesome to see these articles appearing. I believe this is easily the 6-7th story I have seen related to biking in the last week. Hopefully we see more out there on the roads.
Welcome to CU, ragazzomiles! The community of people here at CU is first rate. You will have fun getting to know them.
Its always nice to hear from other downtowners. I also live downtown and ride my bike as an alternative to driving whenever I can, just as you described. It can be a blast. I would have a really tough time going back to the suburban way of living at this point.
Welcome to the site!
:D
I rode to work yesterday for the first time and it was surprisingly fantastic!
I’d been riding around the neighborhood on little errands to get my bicycle legs back after a ~10 year hiatus.
It was a beautiful day to ride. Took me 25 minutes and that included a stop for a bottle of water after realizing I’d left mine at home. South Clintonville to north Downtown. I took Summit all the way down the jogged over to the 4th Street sidewalk rather than take the overpass. No problems, pleasant all the way. I was on a high when I first got to the office. Then was a little bit worthless for the first hour I was here, but really that’s not unlike any other day. :wink:
Looking forward to riding more, shooting for at least once a week, maybe more as weather/work schedule allows. I would encourage anyone to give it a try, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised too.
Depending on where you are going downtown, turn onto 1st/2nd and across High to Park St., you may have to ride a small stretch of High to get on the west side of High. Once on park, just follow till it becomes Front and take the appropriate street to your office. Pretty nice ride by the park, that way.
I just left London (the Europe one) and was amazed at the cycling density. Here is a world-class city with one of the most comprehensive mass transit systems in the world and they clearly recognized bike are an important part of the overall picture – see my avatar picture. Huge amount of cyclists on the streets.
Here is something for you, Roland, mon ami : Bikes can use bus lanes and the current mayor, a cyclist who doesn’t wear a helment, is proposing to let motorcycles do the same. Not a bad idea, I think.
I wish I had my bike while I was there. Like when I lived in NOLA, nothing beats cycling on streets loaded with history.
I am now in Cyprus with my bike. This should be an adventure. I suspect I will limit myself to mostly non-urban riding as even driving here is scary.
A.
And, even cooler, there is a bike store in the train station!
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Such enlightenment…
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Is that a bike shop or a place to store bikes? Either way – awesome.
A.
Is that a bike shop or a place to store bikes? Either way – awesome.
Was in a rush to catch our train, so I didn’t look. Now that I think and think about British usage of the word ‘store’, it was probably the latter (they would say ‘shop’). A storage area is even better though.
A.
Here is something for you, Roland, mon ami : Bikes can use bus lanes and the current mayor, a cyclist who doesn’t wear a helment, is proposing to let motorcycles do the same. Not a bad idea, I think.
A.
I’m not sure if this is a reference to “current” Mayor Coleman or maybe the mayor of London, but I biked part way to work with him a week ago, and he did wear a helmet. Very dashing!
We’ve got some serious challenges on making biking safer and easier in Columbus. But, I’ve been sitting out on a lot of patios lately and am pleasantly shocked at how many bikes are on the streets and parked at the racks all around downtown, GV and SN. The best way to create change is just putting the pedal power on the streets… visibility will change driver culture at the same time as other improvements start to be built, like the new paths, lanes and signs.
Here is something for you, Roland, mon ami : Bikes can use bus lanes and the current mayor, a cyclist who doesn’t wear a helment, is proposing to let motorcycles do the same. Not a bad idea, I think.
A.
I’m not sure if this is a reference to “current” Mayor Coleman or maybe the mayor of London, but I biked part way to work with him a week ago, and he did wear a helmet. Very dashing!
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Boris, current mayor of London, whose exploits from biking sans helmet to barring alcohol on the Tube are all the hot topics.
He is less dashing than our Mike, however.
A.
I wish they would put in more motorcycle parking downtown.
yep, and to re-hash. this applies to scooters as well. alleviate congetion and parking problems. some of the newer parking decks have moto prefferred parking, but lots of the older lots downtown need to update their parking plans to accomodate this growing segment of commuters.
yep, and to re-hash. this applies to scooters as well. alleviate congetion and parking problems. some of the newer parking decks have moto prefferred parking, but lots of the older lots downtown need to update their parking plans to accomodate this growing segment of commuters.
Yes, Yes, Yes
I can hardly believe that she said something I agree with! :D
I can hardly believe that she said something I agree with! :D
YAY :D .
There is way too little safe motorcycle parking downtown.
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Sounds great to me, until I get stuck behind the bus. :lol: