Sunday, Sunday! SUNDAY!!

Check the Outdoors, Inc. website for the official schedule and rules.

My friend Zac was hit

...in the face by a University of Memphis student. You can read the full article which appeared in Friday's Daily Helmsman here. There should be a follow-up on Monday with the offender's name, that is if University officials have located him. Though it shouldn't be hard to locate a 6'5" 250lb man if you have his license plate number, unless of course you don't want to find him. I'm just saying that the officials have the pertinent information and it shouldn't take a week to track down a student. Is the University protecting an athlete? Shouldn't having had your near perfect basketball season record stripped away be enough warning that you shouldn't try to cover things? This is all speculation and hopefully we'll find out Monday. If you can't get to campus to grab a copy you can always follow up with dailyhelmsman.com.

In reaction to this assault we are planning a bicycle rally on campus in the near future. Details are still being worked out but it would most likely consist of an early morning (8 AM) moderate paced group ride around campus (Patterson, Zach Curlin, Central), an information booth on campus throughout the day, then another moderate paced group ride in the afternoon or evening (2 or 5 PM).

If you are upset about the obvious lack of knowledge of the law (especially from Keitra Jones who works in Police Services) the please write a letter to the Daily Helmsman here.

If you need to reference City of Memphis or Tennessee State cycling laws you may follow the links we posted last year: Cycling Laws... Again

The Thursday Night Ride Flowers Reunion

Sorry to fool you with the post topic but Isaiah is not in town, we're just moving the meeting place back to the Flowers' abode on Philadelphia. Yes, you and I both wish Isaiah would come home, if only just to say hi and ride a bike a grace us with his joy-filling smile, you know the one where he hucks a little laugh, but I think we just might have to wait until the holidays draw near. So meet-up at 9pm and get your safety meeting on or relax in the hammocks; I don't know where we're riding tonight but it's dry, it's not too cold, and I'll be riding fixed for the first time in about 6 weeks, so you don't want to disappoint by missing out. See you out tonight!

If you don't know the location just be at Revolutions at 8:30pm. You'll find out from there.

Taking Suggestions From Others

In the comments section of a previous post (The Bicycle Lane Movement) maydaymemphis said that he/she rode the median of North Parkway to Broad and Tillman and suggested we all try it. It sounded like fun and seeing as how I have a cross bike, yesterday I rode the East Parkway median from Harbert to Sam Cooper/Broad. It was sloggy but def fun. The only "obstacles" were under the overpasses, in my case Union Ave. Thankfully traffic was light. Some of the intersections were also narrow because of turning lanes but others had cutouts like driveway access, presumably for city vehicles.

Later on in my ride I hopped on the Vollintine/Evergreen Greenway from McLean to Watkins and it got me thinking of how easy it would be to make the Parkway medians into a very similar greenway. I don't know how much money was spent on the V&E but there's really not much to it. It just seems to exist (I know that it was purchased) because people use it and volunteers take care of it. Paths are worn in and it's pretty hard packed, but not paved at all. There are bridges where necessary but I don't think you would need anything like that on the Parkways.

From Dunlap/North Parkway to Young/East Parkway is approximately 5 miles. If you want to add South Parkway you could almost double that. The city maintains the medians so all we have to do is start using them. For commuting purposes they don't suit my needs at all but the days that I don't work I would really enjoy doing a couple of out & backs to build my base miles. The Parkways are easy access for most midtowners and are in a large sense buffetted from traffic. Just don't ride or run through the flower M at Union.

Upcoming Events

Some of you may have heard that the Memphis Halloween Alleycat is not happening. True bummer. There might be a costume party somewhere but I'm not sure. I'll let you know if anything is happening. As for now, still plan on doing the regular Thursday Night Ride.

For a future event I'm looking for people to run checkpoints between East Memphis and Downtown. I think I have 5 set checkpoints but that number could change. The date is not set in stone but it will take place sometime in January. You'll want to put on some cross tires for this one.

That's all for now. Be safe.

Cyclocrunk Pictures

View more on my flickr.

The Bike Lane Movement

As I was voting last week (yea Wharton!) Emily was reading the Flyer. She spotted an article about putting bike lanes in Memphis, or rather, in a part of Memphis that would be more visible than a little stretch of Shady Grove. The Coalition for Livable Communites is working with our buddies at Revolutions in a seemingly never-ending struggle with the Memphis Planning Organization (MPO). The project is called Walk Bike Memphis! and they meet the first Monday of each month at Otherlands at 5:30pm. I'm going to try to go to the next one, November 2nd, but of course I won't get there until after 6. I know we all like to bitch about cars and drivers so I'd like to see a lot of people there. It reminds me of the line from Alice's Restaurant:

"And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in
singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an
organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said
fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and
walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement."

The Bike Lane Movement.

Personally I would like to know the best way to get the MPO to do anything. A gentleman was in the shop with his little boy the other day and asked when they were going to put a bike lane on Central. I've wondered this myself. (Let's Repave Central Ave) As he was leaving he said that if there was a petition he would sign it. And maybe that won't hurt, pushing a stack of signatures in front of the MPO.

Finally I'd like to draw your attention to this article from Urban Velo. The title is "Does Share The Road Work?" and they're talking about the slogan, not whether bike lanes are a good idea or not. Perhaps we can discuss this at the next Walk Bike Memphis! meeting.