Bosco's Bike To Work #1

Speaking of drinking, the Bosco's Cycling Team is having their first Bike To Work Ride tomorrow morning. Meet at Otherlands at 7:30am for a ride over to Bosco's for a second pick-up at 8:00am. From there the group will split and one will head downtown and the other will head East via the Greenline. Sadly this isn't a biking and drinking type of ride. If that's your thing you should check out the Road Popper:


That's if you have the scratch. These things are custom made to order so they cost a pretty penny.

Check the deets for the Bosco's Bike To Work Ride on facebook.

Bike To Work Day 2012

I promise that Hal and Josh are not squaring off in the second to last picture.

Volunteers Wanted For Bike To Work Day

Some of you probably have the idea that Em and I just sit around talking about bicycles and ways to make people more aware of bicycles. Let me assure you, that is almost completely true. In a recent conversation we had a nice idea that seemed easy to do and sounds like it will be quite effective. Part of having a good idea is getting it in the hands of someone who can implement that idea. We worked with Dawn Vinson of the Downtown Memphis Commission and now we want your help to make this idea a reality.

We want you to ride your bicycle around downtown. Easy! We want you to ride in business or business casual attire (bizness attire is, unfortunately, not what we're after). Super easy! We want you to do so with a piece of paper on which a QR code is printed. Can this get any easier! You can do it anytime between April 30th and May 17th at any time you choose (preferably during the day but nighttime works as well). Flexibility! If you are interested contact Dawn at 901-575-0555 or vinson@downtownmemphis.com.

Bike To Work Day 2012

We're getting ready to celebrate another year of biking to work by having a huge party downtown. The deal is that you have to register for the party, which you can do here. You get some sweet prizes if you register so do it. If you aren't able to make the party downtown at Court Square then let me know if you might want to lead a group ride to another area, like maybe if you ride to work going east on the Shelby Farms Greenline (*cough* Ty or Matt).


View Bike to Work Day in a larger map
There's so much more to this than just a party so keep checking back for updates!

Live Blogging on BTWD

Check out the new page at the top - Bike To Work Day 2011. Trying something new. Will periodically be updating that page throughout the day with whatever I deem necessary. Hopefully it will make you say, "Ooh, I want to go to there."

--Ride your bike downtown tonight! Plenty of bike parking at the warehouse and at the powerhouse across the street. If you have to drive there is car parking at the farmers market pavilion.



--Trophies for Bikesploitation. I just realized I uploaded a lot of pics in a smaller size. Bear with me for a day or two, I'll try to fix it soon.



--So this would probably be better if I could have a steady wifi connection that way you could get some real "up to the minute" updates. As it is you have to wait until I find somewhere that I can actually pull out the computer. So here's what you've missed so far: Marty making a smoothie, Phil Jones, and Sam Dunn with Drag'n Frozen Treats. Orange Sorbet. Delicious. After I got it everyone said they like the lemon better so I'll definitely try it tonight at Bikesploitation!

More photos on my flickr.



--We've checked in at the Church Health Center and the Farmer's Market Pavilion (above). We're taking a break at Bluff City Coffee right now. I'm not drinking coffee today - it's a diuretic, and I don't know where I can make pit-stops today.

Huey's tagged on as one of the sponsors for BTWD. Odd, since they don't support bike lanes on Madison Avenue. (they do have a bicycle rack at their Madison Avenue location...) Maybe they are changing their mind? Hopefully...

--Due to a scheduling conflict the bicycle expo has been moved to Civic Center Plaza. (Where the fountains shoot up out of the ground.)

Good Morning Memphis - Bike To Work Day

Bike to Work Day: MyFoxMEMPHIS.com

Toward the end of the segment you might see me riding with one hand. That's when Kermit called me to let me know he saw me on the news.

Bike To Work Day Filming

via Revolutions:

On May 19 at 7:20 a.m., Dawn Vinson from the Center City Commission and Marvin Stockwell from Church Health Center will be on Fox 13’s Good Morning Memphis to talk about Bike to Work Day. They’ll do the interview sitting on their bikes and then pedal off to work on camera. Wouldn’t it be cool if we had a legion of people there on their bikes to pedal off to work with them? It would be a strong statement that a healthy bicycle consciousness is really growing in Memphis. We talked to the producer and she thought it was a great idea.

So, anyone who wants to be on TV with us (no, you won’t be interviewed), please make plans to be at Fox 13 on May 19 at 7 a.m. (20 min. before the interview). The station is located at 485 S. Highland (across from St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, near the U of M).

And if you have friends who use their bike, please invite them to join us.

Emily and I will be there and we will probably get some Bro J's (Brother Junipers) breakfast afterwards.

Drag'n Frozen Treats

Last week you may have read on several blogs (like The Memphis Blog, Notes From Memphis, I Love Memphis, Hungry Memphis, Fertile Ground, Paul Ryburn, norococo are just a few) about the Food Truck Fare that took place in Court Square on Tuesday, April 19th. Unfortunately, this was a singularity for downtown Memphis, but with the city's updated ordinance, the likelihood of seeing this again is possible. Perhaps maybe for Bike to Work Day on May 20th, 2011? But enough about trucks. This is a bike blog.

Remember that post a few weeks ago where we talked about bicycle food carts at the end? Well, good news for my readers:

Sam Dunn is the proprietor of Drag'n Frozen Treats, a bicycle-drawn trailer which supplies downtown Memphians with a much needed cold treat. Sam was in the shop the other week with a yellow Cannondale road bike when he told me about his idea. His girlfriend Yvonne welded a trailer for him (Emily gushes aloud) and I was warning him of the difficulties of pulling a fully laden trailer with road bike gear ratio. As you can see from the picture, he has switched to a mountain bike which he finds easier.

I haven't been able to meet with Sam since our initial conversation. Our friend Martie was super awesome to take his picture while she was out today (she's great, really!). Hopefully we'll be seeing Sam and Drag'n Frozen Treats out at the Bike to Work Day Expo and according to his facebook page, he will be attending Bikesploitation (we know he likes Live from Memphis-we don't blame him either!).

Now if we can just get those gyros and hot dogs!

Bike To Work Participants Should Be Prepared

As you get ready for Friday's Bike To Work Day you should think about your route to work. You can now view some of the unofficial-official routes for the Center City Commission's Bike To Work Day Event at their website: http://www.downtownmemphis.com/biketowork. The map on the right will take you to a tutorial page. There you'll learn how to use the map: figure out from where and what time rides are being led, the location of the energizer stations, or plan your own route.

Also check this video for some "cycle chic" downtowners:

This was kind of weird seeing this video because I used to live in the same building in the medical district as Dale, one of the people featured here. I haven't seen her in about 10 years. I remember I was giving her a ride somewhere and she was all, "Hey Cort, play me some of that freaky white-boy psychedelic shit!" She really dug the intro to Sweet Jane by The Velvet Underground.

While there will be refreshments at the energizer stations and at the Church Health Center (serving fruit, coffee and juice from 9am to 10am, and Ursula Madden will be broadcasting live, I'm gonna try to get on TV!) riders do need to take into consideration the road conditions. The recent storms have sent a lot of water rushing down our streets and the water carries sand and debris with it. Be careful on turns and don't ride too much in the gutter.

05-17-10 Main Street 002
Originally uploaded by Kermit43

As if trolley tracks weren't hazardous enough: for anyone who will be biking to work downtown please take a look at Kermit's flickr stream. He's posted some pictures of the Main Street Trolley tracks that are in disrepair.

Two Thursday's ago we had a wreck onaccounta the tracks on N. Main of which a few of these pictures show the hazardous conditions. The picture to the side shows obvious danger of pinch flats and OTB injuries. Thanks to Kermit for the Trolley Tracks photos.

It's not too late to register for Bike To Work Day. But you do want to make sure you go ahead and get your tickets for the Bicycle Film Festival before we sell out!

Really, we are fixing Memphis

Bicycling Magazine just released it's list of the Top 50 Bike-Friendly Cities. Memphis is no where on the list. But a simple search for 'worst bike cities' on the website reveals Memphis as #2. You have probably heard about this.

What you may not have heard about is the work that everyone is doing to change that:

MATA (Memphis Area Transit Authority) has installed bike racks on their buses. The website says 34% but in a recent meeting John Lancaster said that about 136 buses or 85% of the buses have bike racks.

The Memphis & Shelby County Health Department Pollution Control, Air Quality Improvement Branch has set up a rideshare program that can now pair you with a bike buddy. Once you register you can even see how much money you save and your environmental impact by choosing how you commuted that day. forinstance, the 8 trips I've commuted in April have had a 33.74 lb reduction in greenhouse gases.

The CCC (Center City Commission) is coordinating a grand scale Bike To Work Day for May 21st. The goal is to help people make that first step and show them how easy it is to commute by bicycle. City officials like Councilman Shea Flinn are expected to ride!

And then there are columns in the Commercial Appeal calling for a "Motorist-bicyclist Utopia."

Cooper-Young plans to have the first real "in-city" bike lanes.

Greater Memphis Greenline, Inc. has already broken ground on a 6.5 mile section of unused rail lines to be converted to a hike/bike path. In the future they plan to use that greenline as well as others to connect Overton Park, The Fairgounds, and other midtown destinations to Shelby Farms and beyond.

These are just SOME of the efforts to make Memphis more bike-friendly. So it's not like Memphis is trying to be in last place. Changing takes a lot of people with positive attitudes. Get in touch with one of the groups above to see how you can help fix Memphis.

Google Maps - Bicycling

Seen on Candy Cranks.



This is a pretty rad deal that will come in extremely useful for those looking for a route to work, especially on Bike To Work Day. The problem is that Memphis is not one of the "hundreds of cities" that Google has mapped out for cycling. I entered my home (in midtown) and job (The Peddler on Highland) and it suggested I take Poplar. Knowing my route (in its various incarnations) by heart I was able to drag and change the route. Most directly (avec traffic) my ride is 4.4 miles; indirectly (sans traffic) 5.2 miles. I went ahead and reported to Google that Poplar was not suitable for bicycles, but it probably won't hurt if when you get directions, you report the same. Hopefully with more people making suggestions Google will have a better bicycling sense for Memphis.

Bike To Work Day - May 21, 2010

We've been working with the Memphis Center City Commission organizing a massive Bike To Work Day event. To my knowledge this has never been done in Memphis, especially on such a scale as we are planning. If you would like to get involved you can visit the CCC's website and sign up here: http://www.downtownmemphis.com/biketowork.asp.

Bike-To-Work Day Brainstorming Session

Hey everyone, I received this email from Dawn Vinson of the Center City Commission in regards to the upcoming Bike to Work Day. May is going to be a huge month for bicycles in Memphis. In addition to Bike to Work day on May 21st, the Bicycle Film Festival will be returning to Memphis that very weekend! Here's your oppurtunity to become part of the action:

Good morning!

One of the Center City Commission’s goals is to ensure that Downtown is safe, attractive, and livable. Encouraging the use of alternate forms of transportation is one strategy toward that objective. For a variety of reasons, an increasing number of people are rediscovering the bicycle as a means of transportation for work commutes, errands, and social activities. The CCC wants to support this trend for Downtown Memphis and make the bicycle a reasonable, safe, and enjoyable option for Downtown residents, employees, and tourists. The bicycle is ideally suited for getting around the 6.5-square-mile radius of the CBID, and its use contributes to desired street-level animation and community.

The American Bicycle League (http://www.bikeleague.org/) has established the month of May as National Bike Month and promotes a Bike-to-Work Week and a Bike-to-Work Day each year. The CCC plans to promote Downtown Bike-to-Work (or School) Day on Friday, May 21, 2010, in conjunction with this national initiative. In order to make this campaign successful, we need your help. We would like to hear your ideas about collaborative activities, programs, and events that would make participation fun and as effortless as possible, as well as ideas about how we can assist you and/or your organization in any activities you may already be planning. We also want to talk about ways to encourage people to continue to ride their bikes Downtown after Bike-to-Work Day is over. As national attention is focused on issues such as urban sprawl and the revitalization of urban centers, it is becoming clear that the cities that will thrive in the future are the ones that not only accommodate but encourage a variety of transportation modes – public and personal, motorized and human-powered.

Please join us for a brainstorming session on Thursday, January 21, 2010, at noon here in the CCC conference room at 114 North Main Street (Main and Adams, across from City Hall). Lunch will be provided. Please contact me to confirm your attendance by Tuesday, January 19. We look forward to hearing your ideas and working with you on this initiative.

Dawn Vinson
Development Project Manager
Center City Commission
114 North Main Street
Memphis, Tennessee 38103
(901) 575-0555
(901) 575-0541 (fax)
vinson@downtownmemphis.com

See you there!

Bike To Work Day

I picked this Vimeo off of bikeblognyc.com. I thought it was nice to see what a city with a lot of committed commuters looks like. And yes, today is National Bike To Work Day.

Copenhagen - City of Cyclists from Colville Andersen on Vimeo.