Advocacy & Safety - Huh?!

I just learned that my town has a bicycle map which has shown me all sorts of information such as routing or a couple oddly located bike shops... great map, and I think it shows well how much infrastructure there really is in the town... but the one that really got me was the mention of all the town's fire stations. Why? It mentions in the lower right corner, "Fire Stations are equipped with Bicycle Repair Kits and air pumps"... NICE! Never heard of them offering a service like that, but it would seem useful if it were quite a bit closer than a cycle shop.

You never know what you can learn from a good map... keep those firefighters busy...but not while they are working.

I was amazed when I first layed eyes on the Buffalo/Niagara cycling map. I never knew how extensive descent cycling facilities were in this part of Wester NY. See http://www.gbnrtc.org/maps for the up to date map. What is great is that they also rank normal roads on how descent they are and what roads to avoid. I use it all the time now to map out rides when I want to go for a long ride. It is definitely best to avoid any "red" roads on their map. By having such an extensive map the group has also been able to work on long term strategic plan that works on improving areas that are unsafe, and also to link paths and good routes. Seeing how far Western NY has come in the last 10 years gives on hope that their proposed plan http://www.gbnrtc.org/planning/bikeped/ will largely see the light of day. I know there are various paths already slated to start next year.

Find out what maps your town or other orginization might have. It can be very enlightning.

Happy riding,
André

"What is great is that they also rank normal roads on how decent they are and what roads to avoid."

That would be very useful, something I've not seen for this area. There are some online maps that show marked bicycle routes in the area, and that can be useful, too, but is not wide-dispersed knowledge.

I know that the State of Michigan has special maps just for bicyclists. I'll have to do some research and see if I can dig up a link.

Here's my map... I probably should have posted it earlier.

http://www.ci.chico.ca.us/Building__Development_Services/Traffic_/Bike_Map.pdf

Call me spoiled, but with the exception of way out on the north end of town, that seems like excellent bicycle infrastructure.

I found a link for bicycle maps (http://www.michigan.gov/mdot/0,1607,7-151-9615_11223-146053--,00.html) put out by the State of Michigan.

Here's my map... I probably should have posted it earlier.

http://www.ci.chico.ca.us/Building__Development_Services/Traffic_/Bike_Map.pdf

Call me spoiled, but with the exception of way out on the north end of town, that seems like excellent bicycle infrastructure.

Interesting use of color for the bike routes. On the Buffalo (Western NY) map they use Red to show you main roads to avoid... At least it helps to know where any city has made accomodations to make cycling at least reasonable if not very pleasant.

Happy riding,
André

Repair kits and pumps in the fire stations are a great idea.

Because a few great cyclists made it happen and local businesses provided support, The League of Illinois Bicyclists has produced a good map (http://www.bikelib.org/quadcities/) for our metro area.