Bike Month continues here in FoCo with two big events happening this weekend — Your Group Ride Live is tonight at Illegal Pete’s and Open Streets on W. Elizabeth Street is happening on Sunday. (See below for more details.)
Bike Fort Collins is still in need of volunteers for several of their upcoming events. If you’re interested in helping out, check out their volunteer page on VolunteerLocal.com to select a slot. Also, artists are still needed for the upcoming Bike Art Show in July. Contact KellyM@BikeFortCollins.com if you’d like more information on how to get involved.
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Events – Road and Trail Closures – Bike News and Views
– Events –
Your Group Ride Live – Friday, June 5, 7pm, Illegal Pete’s, 320 Walnut St.
Your Group Ride and Bike Fort Collins are happy to announce the first of hopefully many YGR Live Events. On June 5th, at the Fort Collins Illegal Pete’s, we’ll have guest speakers: cycling attorney Megan Hottman, Frank Schwende cycling tourist, and Chris Johnson USA Pro Challenge Stage 6 Technical Director.
Megan will be fielding cycling related legal questions. Frank will be discussing his recent trip to Holland and Belgium and Chris will bring us up to speed on Stage 6 of the USAPC. We’ll also give you a rundown on the latest local cycling hubbub.
The event is free of charge and will take place at the FoCo Illegal Pete’s (320 Walnut St). The show will start at 7pm but please arrive early to snag a seat, food and drink. See you on Friday June 5th.
Also brought to you by The Ranch, Illegal Pete’s and the Hottman Law Office.
http://yourgroupride.com/index.php/site-information/60-news-and-events/665-ygr-live-june-2015
Safe Routes to School Instructor Training – Saturday, June 6, 9:30am – 1:30pm
Bike Fort Collins is looking for a few more instructors to help support the City’s school rotation plan and other summer programs. During the school year, Safe Routes to School will be rotating through all the elementary schools in PSD every three years with extensive bike and pedestrian safety lessons. Instructors teach our own curriculum in the PE classes for two weeks: one week in the gym and the second week outside on bikes. Summer programs abound where we will need instructors as well. If you like riding your bike and working with kids then you may want to become an instructor.
Please contact Dot Dickerson at dotdickerson@msn.com for more information or to sign up. Our instructors are paid through grants from Colorado Department of Transportation and City funding, so the class is free!
Open Streets – Sunday, June 7, 10am, W. Elizabeth St. (between Shields and Overland)
Fort Collins will host its second Open Streets (car-free) event. It will take place on West Elizabeth Street (between Shields St. and Overland Trail). This is a free, fun, family-friendly event that promotes active living, community and local economy. Community members are encouraged to enjoy the open space along the 2-mile stretch by walking, biking or traveling by other human-powered means. Participants also can engage with the 40+ partners that will host activities along the route. By temporarily creating a car-free environment, community members are able to enjoy their streets and surrounding environment in a safe, fun and healthy way. Over 100 car-free initiatives are in operation around North America as innovative ways for cities to support healthy living and community. For more information, please visit fcgov.com/openstreets.
Adult Learn to Ride Class – Wednesday, June 10, 6pm, 215 N. Mason Street.
Regardless of your age, it’s not too late to learn to ride a bicycle! In this class adults (14+) will learn to ride a bicycle through a safe, easy, and effective method. Students will learn how to balance, pedal, start, stop and steer a bike. Students also learn how to properly fit a helmet. If you do not have a bike or helmet we can provide them for use during the class. Contact jgaskill-fox@fcgov.com or 970-221-6987 if you need a bike and/or helmet. To register, please visit webtrac.fcgov.com (page 57 of Recreator).
June RAT Ride – Thursday, June 11, 6pm, Black Bottle Brewery, 1611 S. College, #1609
RAT stands for “Ride Around Town.” The goal of these monthly RAT Rides, hosted by Bike Fork Collins, is to explore the bicycle infrastructure in the city and give feedback to the City bikes and streets departments (and any other pertinent parties). If you would like to be added to the informational mailing list for this month’s ride, please contact the head RAT – Bruce Henderson (bruce.henderson(at)bikefortcollins.org).
This month’s ride will include portions of the South campus area, the Old Town neighborhoods, and the Downtown area. Feedback will be very timely since the Old Town Neighborhoods and the Downtown area plans are currently in progress.
For this RAT ride we’ll meet in the parking lot in front of Black Bottle at Prospect and College at 6:00. Plan to ride unless it’s pouring rain. This ride will take us south through parts of campus, north on Shields, east on Laporte, south on College, west on Pitkin, and south on the Mason Trail to Black Bottle. Among other things the south College ride will give us a chance to observe and comment on the current parking situation. Just how hazardous is diagonal parking for cyclists when you’re not riding in a large group?
Get Outdoors Day – Saturday, June 13, 9am, City Park
A fun, free, active day with a zillion things for everyone to do! National Get Outdoors Day Noco, presented by the University of Colorado Health, will be held in Fort Collins at City Park. Fish, bike, garden, climb, paint, build, paddle, learn, dance, eat, and play! Take part in interactive activities in each of Get Outdoors Day’s different villages, including the FC Bikes Bicycle Village! For more information, please visitwww.co.larimer.co.us/getoutdoorsnoco/.
Go By Bike: Cycling with Children – Wednesday, June 17, 6pm, Raintree Athletic Club, 2555 S. Shields St.
Do you want to commute, run errands or travel to school by bike with your children? In this presentation an FC Bikes Bicycle Ambassador will give you tips and tricks for how to get the whole family rolling. You will learn about the benefits of cycling with children, kid-friendly gear and clothing, safety considerations, route selection, and how to teach children the rules of the road through bicycling. To register, please call 970-490-1300.
The Fort Collins Gear & Bike Swap – Saturday, June 20, 11am – 5pm, 119 E. Mountain Avenue
The Gearage invites you to the third Annual Fort Collins Gear Swap & Bike Swap. Buy, Sell, Trade all thing Bike and Outdoor Gear related. The Bike Swap will take place in the heart of old town Fort Collins, on the south side of Mountain Ave between College and Remington, right in front of The Gearage, 119 E. Mountain Ave. Come check out the great deal on outdoor gear and bikes.
28th Annual Bike to Work Day – Wednesday, June 24, Starts at 6:30 am
Since 1988, the City of Fort Collins has hosted an Annual Summer Bike to Work Day. In celebration of the 28th Annual event, over 40 breakfast stations will be located all over town to encourage community members to get out and ride their bikes. Participants are encouraged to take a post event survey. To check out a map of station or see a list of station hosts, please visit fcgov.com/bikemonth.
Bike Fort Collins Art Show – Friday July 3, Downtown Artery Café. Beer and wine will be available for sale. (25% of sales will go to BFC.) Visual art/dance performance. Band. More info to come.
Adult Learn to Ride Class – July 9 & 16, 6-7:30pm.
Traffic Safety 101 – July 18, 8:30am – 4pm.
Adult Learn to Ride Class – August 6 & 13, 6-7:30pm.
USA Pro Challenge – Stage 6 – August 22 — Loveland to Fort Collins (I know. This is a race, not a transportation event. But it’s also a celebration of bikes event. So I’m including it here.)
Tour de Fat – September 5th
Traffic Safety 101 – September 26, 8:30am – 4pm.
Traffic Safety 101 – November 14, 8:30am – 4pm.
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– Road and Trail Closures –
Poudre Trail: There are (at least) 2 closures along the trail. (There may be more due to flooding. I’ll hopefully add that type of info in the future, but right now I’m not sure how accurate the online data is. So I’m just not gonna go there.)
The Mulberry underpass will be closed until around November 2015. If you’re traveling southbound, follow the detour and hop back on to the trail on the west side of Shields. But if you’re traveling northbound, you have two options. You can get off the trail on the east side of Shields, then either take the sidewalk or take the lane north on Shields. You’ll have to cross both Mulberry and Shields (follow the detour signs) to hop back on the trail. OR you can stay on the trail, travel under Shields, then ride the wrong way northbound on the Shields sidewalk. This way you’ll only have to cross one street instead of two, but it does mean you’ll be traveling the wrong way on the sidewalk.
Tafthill Road to Lee Martinez Park is still closed due to the work the county is doing on the N. Shields bridge. There are detour signs posted, but this closure is for such a long distance, and the detour roads are rather sub-optimal, that you might be best off checking in with either the City bike map or Google (Bike) Maps to find a better route.
Poudre Trail to W. Vine Spur has been put on hold. The water flood mitigation work has been completed, but the bike trail spur has seen funding shift to other projects on the south and east ends of town that were able to leverage grant monies to complete large projects.
Horsetooth and Timberline Intersection: The section of Horsetooth west of Timberline will be closed starting Monday, June 1. It is estimated to remain closed until July 25.
The project will add four new turn lanes to the intersection, bicycle and pedestrian improvements and landscaped medians. The project is funded by a federal grant (congestion mitigation) and the Building on Basics (BOB) quarter cent sales tax. The construction of the turn lanes, pork chop islands and reconfigured medians will improve the safety and signal timing of the intersection. To find out more, check out the “Horsetooth and Timberline Intersection Improvement” page on the city’s website.
Mountain Avenue between Shields and Washington: Eastbound Mountain is shut down while new water pipes are installed.
Shields and W. Vine Intersection: The planned round-about is listed online as starting mid-June. “Vine and Shields Roundabout Improvement.”
North College Improvements: We’re mid-project on this one and we can finally see some progress getting made. Woo hoo! To find out more about the project, or to see occasionally updated photos of the work, check out the “North College Improvements” page.
Timberline at Prospect Improvements: This project will be starting some time this summer. “Timberline Road Improvements.”
Laurel between Remington and Mason: Work begins soon to restripe Laurel street. The changes will include a protected bike lane and a few other bicycle facilities that are being tested out. And I should emphasize that point. This is a chance to test ideas around a particularly difficult intersection. If they work well there, they might be useful in other places as well. If not… well, at least we tried it out.
The Remington Greenway: I’ve written about the changes to Remington already, but here’s a brief synopsis. There will soon be a mini-round-a-about at the intersection of Laurel and Remington. And the stop lights where both Pitkin and Elizabeth cross Remington are being changed to 4-way stops.
Taft Hill Road – between Drake and Elizabeth: Taft is closed for repaving. We can only hope and pray that while they’re at it they’ll right size that road so that motorists aren’t suddenly caught behind left turning vehicles that didn’t bother to signal until after they’ve come to a complete stop right in front of you. Hate that.
– Bike News and Views –
New cycle track getting mixed reviews, by Valerie Fortney of the Calgary Herald. Calgary just opened a new cycletrack on Tuesday. The mixed reviews is generally that cyclists appear to like it for the most part and business owners are concerned over the loss of parking. It’s a one year trial. It’ll be interesting to see what local businesses think by next summer.
It Took 51% More Time to Drive Out Katy Freeway in 2014 Than in 2011, by Jay Blazek Crossley of Houston Tomorrow. This article is a week old, but it’s definitely still worth the read. Adding lanes to highways doesn’t increase drive times as more and more cars fill the extra space. (Thanks to Chris Reilmann for bringing this article to my attention in the CFI group.)
Seven years after ‘Platinum,’ Portland’s collision and fatality rates remain well above its peers, by Michael Andersen of BikePortland.org. (Fort Collins being one of those peers. Thanks to Jeff Nosal for bringing this article to my attention, also in the CFI group.)
Cyclist who died of heart attack Tuesday ID’d, by Jason Pohl of the Coloradoan. We lost a cyclist this week. James Leon Gregg apparently died of a heart attack while cycling near Horsetooth Reservoir.
The 20 Most Bike-Friendly Cities on the Planet, by Mikael Colville-Anderse in Wired Magazine. (Thanks to Jeff Nosal for bringing this to my attention, yada yada CFI.)
Blank calendar from blankcalendarprintout.com.
