O'boro gets grant for bike routes

In the October 1st edition of the M-I, there was an article about a grant the city was awarded to build bike routes along Old Hartford Road. The city previously was awarded the $231,000 Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) grant from the state to stripe bike lanes on city streets, but the city's engineering department created a policy barring bike lanes from city streets narrower than 32 feet among other objections. The City Commission then decided to redirect their focus to building off-street paths instead of striping lanes on existing streets. The connection on Old Hartford Road will include paths along both sides of Old Hartford Road south from the David C. Adkisson Greenbelt Park toward Hillcrest Golf Course. Once on the Greeneblt, riders can encircle the entire city.

In addition, work is expected to be completed by mid-December on a 2.5-mile connection of the Greenbelt from Southtown Boulevard to Shifley Park on the west side of Owensboro.

The city also signed an agreement with the state Transportation Cabinet to be reimbursed for building bike routes along Booth Avenue as part of the Safe Routes to School program.

OBC Monday Night Ride




I joined the Monday night ride at Panther Creek. I took last week off after the triathlon and my mom's visit. It was good to be back with the group and we had good weather for the ride. We took off and I did one lap of the hills and then another flat lap. My legs were sore or tired, but I survived and still average 17.1 mph. The other good news is that the Owensboro Bike Club jerseys are in!!! They are available at Quality Bike Shop for all who order them. Here's what they look like:

There was also an article in today's M-I about Bike Lanes. We had funding available and the city passed on it because they had to study it some more and the engineering dept placed restrictions on the width of roads that could have lanes. I think that was a bad idea to leave money on the table. However, our very own Claudia Roberts is trying to organize a rally at the City Commission on the 3rd Tuesday of July. All bikers are encouraged to show up and show the City Commission that we want safe bike lanes throughout the city, not just the Greenbelt and that bike riders are not all drunks who have lost their licenses, but actually students, professionals, and active people who enjoy safely riding around the Big O.

Today's Mileage: 23 miles
2008 YTD Mileage: 277.7 miles
Miles to reach 2008 goal of 750 miles: 472.3
Avg Price of Gas in the 'boro: $3.90

Owensboro Biking in the News

There has been a rash of articles in the M-I about biking lately, which is good. Their was a feature on OPD's bike patrol officer training, a decline in bike registrations with the OPD, and the hotly debated bike lanes proposal. on 10 April 07, the a forum on the City Connections proposal to stripe 30 miles of bike lanes was cancelled so the City Commission "can consider how to proceed". Now, City Connections will be discuss at the next city commission general work session, scheduled for 8 May.

According to the 18 April edition of the M-I, the city Community Development Department was going to present a revised plan for bike lanes along Owensboro roads by June after contacting and soliciting feedback from residents along the proposed routes. However, 3 days later it was reported that the City Engineer, Joe Schepers, will specify a policy for where bike lanes can be placed on city streets. He may recommend that lanes only be included on collector or arterial streets that are wider and busier. This would be similar to steps Louisville and Lexington have taken when adding their bike lanes. It will be interesting to see how the City Connections plan changes. Hopefully the M-I will continue to provide awesome reporting on this issue. Stay tuned!

Quality Bikes sponsors rec rides for proposed bikes lanes

Friday's M-I reported that the local bike shop (LBS) - Quality Bikes - was going to sponsor recreational bike rides to explore the proposed bike lanes on Owensboro city streets. The rides will take place Wednesday nights at 5:30pm and will leave from Quality Bikes new location at 301 E. 18th St. (corner of 18th and JR Miller). In the event of rain, the rides will be cancelled. You can call the bike shop for more info - 691-9460.

No rides this weekend - it's too darn cold!

It was a Monday. What more can I say? Back to work. Not much news, except that the M-I, yesterday, had a Sunday Editorial supporting the paving of city streets with bike lanes. It even acknowledged that, "While this effort has been described as about "transportation, not recreation," it's inevitable that if more people biked to work, we would become a healthier community, something sorely needed here." Amen! The people working on City Connections gets it, the M-I gets it, and with some luck and visibility, Owensboro can become a bike-freindly city, too.

It was another beautiful day, tying a record high of 80 degrees. I was able to bike in to work wearing shorts and a t-shirt and enjoyed the ride home in the warm weather.

Today's Mileage: 3.4 miles
2007 Year to Date Mileage: 37.0 miles

Yesterday's Messenger-Inquirer had an update on adding bikes lanes to Owensboro city streets. Earlier this week, City Commissioners took a bus tour to inspect many miles of the proposed 30-mile network of bike lanes. The city is expected to begin striping 5-foot-wide bike lanes in May. During weekdays, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., vehicle parking will not be allowed on streets that have bike lanes. Parking on the street will be allowed on weekends and holidays.

Although Susan Fowler, Main Street Manger with the city's Community Development Department, stated that the bike lanes are not geared towards recreational bicyclists, but for people who use bicycles as alternative transportation, I am hopeful that more people will begin riding around the city and the Greenbelt park for work AND fun. Personally, I applaud people who use bikes as their primary transportation. I'm not even close to that, but am trying to commute by bike more often. Hopefully, the bikes lanes will just be a more visible prompt for people to see that bikes belong on the street and can be quite useful for short trips around town.

The Owensboro City Connections Committee exists to develop bike lanes, sidewalks, and trails that will link neighborhoods and connect to the Adkisson Greenbelt Park. Paving of bike lanes was to begin in the summer of 2006. Eventually there is supposed to be 70 miles of intra-city bike lanes.