Cycling Savvy

I mentioned several weeks ago that Jenn and I attended the I am Traffic Colloquium. The event was organized to explore creating a national organization based in education about cycling, including not just educating cyclists (via the Cycling Savvy program), but also children (Journeys from Home), law enforcement officials (IMPBA), engineers, and policy makers.

I've been talking for more than a year about my interest in bringing Cycling Savvy to Louisville. To this end, Jenn and I have pursued becoming Cycling Savvy Instructors. We just got word yesterday that we have been accepted into the next training class, happening in the next two months. Our travel plans have been begun, meaning the airline tickets have been purchased.

The class is in Orlando, which is roughly nine hundred miles away from Louisville. Figuring twenty miles per gallon on a rental vehicle large enough to haul our bikes, it would cost us a bit less than four hundred dollars to buy gas for the trip, not counting rental costs (not sure I want to take the Volvo that far, although I feel it would make the trip). One of Jenn's perks with her work is that we can get standby tickets on one of the passenger airlines for about $150 round trip. We can rent bikes in Orlando (we did this when we were there in February) for a small enough amount of money that it's cheaper to do that than drive taking our bikes.

I'm figuring that lodging and food would be roughly the same either mode. We will eat a meal or three a day any way we go, after all. I found a hostel in Orlando that charges roughly $50/ night, and it's not far from where we'll be taking our class. There are a couple of details to work out (one night's homework assignment requires internet access, transit to and from the airport, and the like), but the outline is workable.

Another part of the plan is to launch Commute Louisville as a companion blog to Cycling Savvy Louisville (and the other Cycling Savvy sites already up). I have the Commute Louisville site in place, but am waiting on some formatting information to keep it consistent with the existing network of sites (which will in all likelihood become part of whatever organization comes out of the I am Traffic colloquium). With a bit of luck, Commute Louisville will be ready to take visitors in the next couple of weeks, in time for May (Bike Month) and Bike to Work Week/Day celebrations.

And, just because I haven't been doing much with numbers on this blog of late, this is the 555th post.