Albany Bicycle Coalition

by Christopher | August 30, 2010 · 5:04 pm

Support the Cause: Letters for a Complete Street

Dear Cyclists and Wannabes,

S5711B – the stalled Senate bill calling for a “complete streets” approach to road design in New York State needs your help. The bill has been sitting in the transportation committee since May 2010. It passed the Assembly.

I hope you will check out the bill at http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/bill/S5711A. Then, write a letter (sample attached) or send an e-mail urging the Senators to (1) get the bill out of committee and (2) approve it on the Senate floor.

Note to PHNA-ers – I wrapped Madison Ave. into the letter, so it’ll be an easy edit for you! With Complete Streets in law, the MAC will be reinforced as the right way to go!

Info after the jump.

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by Christopher | August 29, 2010 · 8:04 pm

Pushing Papers: Cyclist Gets Ticketed in Closed Trail

Here’s an interesting article from the Times Union about a cyclist who got ticketed for going down a closed trail. I can defiantly relate because I know I have done things on my bike that I could have been ticketed for. The interesting this is not that he got the ticked, but who he got the ticket from. Her’s an excerpt from the article:

“He rode his bike down to the Stockade section of Schenectady and then he returned.

On his way back, State Police were on the trail and asked for his identification, which Momrow provided. One trooper asked what he was doing there and if he knew the trail was closed. “The other guy said ‘That’s $150,'” Momrow said.”

Cyclist gets ticket for closed trail ride

Written by Chris Belsole

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by Toni | August 28, 2010 · 3:40 pm

LibertyonBikes Accident Report

A really bad morning in the Capital Region for one cyclist.

Tipping Point – Liberty on Bikes

Written by Toni Cameron

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by Toni | August 27, 2010 · 9:41 pm

Critical Mass – Tour de Garden

Everyone met up at the monument around 5:30, the first fearless leader was chosen, Toni. She decided to take us from the monument over to Madison, and down to the Egg. The riders rode lazily in the breeze around the plaza. Fearless leader #1 came up with the idea of tagging new leaders while riding in the plaza. Chris was suddenly tagged as fearless leader #2. He lead of the group away from the plaza and back up Madison. His goal was a nice ride down Morris. Traffic wasn’t bad as we all chatted about where to go next. After awhile on Morris we headed over to Central when fearless leader #3 was tagged, Ken. On Central the goal changed to scoping out something to eat. The conversation revolved around food at this point and what everyone wanted to eat. No one really could decide so Fearless Leader #1 took control leading the group to Sukhothai, for a very delicious meal.

During dinner it was decided to loop up to Russell Rd to check out the garden of a rider. While everyone was getting ready to get back on their bikes the group met two new cyclists in the area who will hopefully be joining the group on some future rides. The group took a detour onto Berkshire, where Lorenze suddenly lost his bike computer. Before it could be retrieved a car ran over it and it was sadly a casualty of the ride. The rest of the trip to the garden was uneventful and the garden tour was rather nice. Everyone was offered different varieties of tomatoes to try. From there the group decided that the ride was a success and everyone wished everyone else to have a good night.

A really cool map of our route is below, you can thank Chris for it!

Map of Tour de Garden

Written by Toni Cameron

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by Mary Lou | July 26, 2010 · 8:20 am

Notes From Albany Bike Rescue

A big thank you to DownTube and Dan for providing us with used bicycle parts.

Chris and Mary Lou collected the items Saturday and delivered it to our parts room at Trinity. They managed to part out the bikes, sort the small items, and repair some gently used tubes.

They also quickly fixed up two pink girls bikes (20 in and 16 inch) and put them outside with a free sign. This made room for the Bridgestone 100 that Dan donated to Albany Bike Rescue for someone to build up.

For those of you who tirelessly volunteer with little time to work on your own bike projects- We need to figure out a way to make this a more equitable situation. We have been researching other bike rescue models to find ideas on how to manage the number of people wanting bike repair vs. our limited volunteer resources.

This week we hope to remain calm when faced with the number of people standing at the door saying “all I need is…”