Bicycle Indiana Celebrates Bike-to-Work Day on May 15

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—Bicycle Indiana is preparing for Bike-to-Work Day on May 15 by organizing routes and meeting places across the state that allow cyclists to link up and safely commute to work. Bicycle Indiana will help promote more than 40 different bicycle-related rides, races and events throughout Indiana during the week of May 11-17—a week proclaimed by Governor Mitch Daniels as Indiana Bike Week. Employers in many cities can field teams to participate in the bike-to-work corporate challenge—a friendly competition designed to reward company teams for riding the most total miles.  continue reading »

We’re up and running! CEC was recently granted a FuelMeister II which converts ordinary used cooking oil (aka: french fry grease) to useable, clean biodiesel! Stop by to see the new equipment, learn about the process and get the latest about ways we are using it to “green” our daily operations.

Date: Wednesday, May 20th
Time: 5:00-6:00pm
Place: CEC, 4910 Shoemaker Road, Centerville

Learn how to repair your bicycle. Saturday, Feb. the 7th at 12:30 p.m. Bring a bike to practice on as we'll be getting our hands dirty doing real repairs! Tools will be provided.

The event is FREE, to be held at the Cycling and Fitness Warehouse 213 North 3rd Street in Richmond. Call (765) 935-5047 or e-mail kory@cyclingandfitnesswarehouse.com for more information.

The Richmond Bicycle Map is now available free to the public. The maps recommended bike routes around the city as well as providing useful information for current and potential bike commuters. The primary distribution locations are Ike's Bikes and the Cycling and Fitness Warehouse. A preview of the map is available on Mark's Bike's as Transportation blog, along with details how of the map came about.  continue reading »

Riders will meet at K-Mart at noon for a Critical Mass style ride and ride across Richmond to Trader's
Depot (the old Robert's building). You can contact Ryan Gleeson for follow-up.

As reported in today's Palladium-Item, the Cardinal Greenway has received a $900,000 grant from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources:

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources will distribute the money to 28 projects, resulting in 104 miles of new trails and land being bought for an anticipated 26 miles of future trail development. Currently the state trail system covers about 400 miles.

Two local projects get a big boost through the state money. The Cardinal Greenway in northwest Wayne County receives $900,000 and Whitewater Canal Trails near Metamora $300,000.

New bike-carrying racks have arrived for Rose Transit buses and they have been installed!
There will be a public celebration at the City Building (South entrance) on Monday, April 14th at 10am. Take an early lunch and ride on over to show your support for this great development in alternative transportation for Richmond.

Recreational cyclists in Richmond now have a new online resource to organize their rides and events. Earlier this week long time rider Pat Williams launched the Richmond Cycling Google group, which members can use as an e-mail list, while also easily jointly creating web pages and sharing files and photos.

Pat had previously coordinated an e-mail list of about 50 recreational riders. Members of the group often gather for rides on Tuesday and Thursday evenings as well as weekend rides. See the new Richmond Cycling site for details.

This group complements the existing Bike Richmond group which focuses on bikes as transportation and also uses Google Groups.

This blog entry is a repository of personal "action items" that I suggest when I give my talk entitled "Going Local: Building a Self-Reliant Richmond, Indiana," first presented in its current form in November, 2007. As I say in the talk:

• You may already know a lot of this stuff
• I don't like telling people how to live, and I very much still aspire to practice some of these things myself, so I don't offer these up with any sort of moral authority
• This can be thought of as a menu of possibilities, rather than a list of imperatives or instructions

If you're not completely sure why it might be a good thing for Richmond to become self-reliant or why these action items might help, then please invite me to give the talk for your group or organization. It's chock full of great information about the energy crisis, climate change, the economy, and the implications for life in Richmond and Wayne County, Indiana. I also tell some jokes.

Now, on to the list, which is largely centered on reducing our dependence on and usage of fossil fuels:  continue reading »

Cardinal Greenway project lands more state dollars - [Palladium-Item News]

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has awarded more than $20 million in Transportation Enhancement (TE) funds statewide for projects such as multi-use trails, streetscape improvements and historic bridge rehabilitations. That figure includes project money for a portion of the Cardinal Greenway in Wayne County.

The project also includes signage, a trailhead and bicycle racks. The new portion of the trail will connect to the rest of the 70-mile Cardinal Greenway Trail that stretches through five Indiana counties.

Multi-use trails are gaining popularity in many Indiana communities, and the state’s 10-year goal is to have a trail within 15 minutes of every Hoosier.  continue reading »