afternoon utility biking

I got to ride a bit today.

I met some bike-dedicated folks for lunch today, to learn about what the city has in store on the bike-friendly front. There are some things I'm not able to discuss here, but things I can mention include:

By spring, there will be printed, fold-out maps of the city showing all the various bike routes--multi-use paths, painted bike lanes, signed bike routes, sharrow lanes, and so on. The plan is in the works, but may also include icons where one can find city-provided bike racks, key bus stops (for those who want/need to go multi-modal), and the like. The intent is to update this map annually, and place stacks of them at coffee shops, the Louisville Visitors' Bureau, bike shops (of course), and near several tourist destinations.

There is another video in the works on the topic of bicycle safety. This one will run in the eight-to-ten-minute range, and will probably be online in chapters. The script is being tweaked, so I haven't seen it yet, but given that Joe Ward is involved in its writing, it should be pretty decent. Kirby Adams is going to be the on-camera presenter, and this is a good thing--far better her than some of the other choices I've seen mentioned.

Louisville has installed a bunch of bike racks in the last few months. The city has a "request a rack" program, so that a business can ask for a bike rack to be installed on the sidewalk near the front door to encourage folks to ride to that business.

One pilot program being considered might take a parking space-sized area on Frankfort Avenue and create a bike corral. This would not only allow for folks to ride to a key area of Frankfort Avenue, it would show folks how many bikes fit in the space of one car, and thus how bikes can help reduce urban congestion.


Anyway, as I had a couple errands to do while I was out, I took the Raleigh (with the trailer) to this lunch meeting. We met at the Bodega on Felice, on Market Street near Campbell Street. Neat little place, with a lot of stuff happening inside. They even have a bike rack in their parking lot! After the lunch, I rode with Scott Render, of the Mayor's office, and Kirk Kandle, to check out a couple of rail crossings that have been recently repaired. Scott and I also took a good look at the Louisville end of the Big Four Bridge, where the basic structure for the helical ramp is in place. Branden Klayko, writing in a blog about local pedestrian issues, has some nice shots of the work that were taken a couple weeks ago, and some more taken earlier this week. Scott took some pictures today, and I'm sure one or two of them will surface online in the next couple of days.

Scott and I parted ways after seeing what we could see, and I went on with my errands. I stopped by Feeder's Supply to get dog food and cat food (hence the trailer), then went by Value Market in Mid City Mall for a couple things Kroger just doesn't seem to stock. I then worked my way home, toting fifty or sixty pounds of pet food up the hill on Lexington Road under I-64.