Gay St. Bike Lane Demo

How was this done? With the careful planning of Jess Mathews and Alex Smith of Consider Biking and Evelyn Ebert of MORPC the parking spaces were reserved, the dimensions were calculated, stencils were made, supplies were bought, and the press was alerted. The day of the event after the reserved parking spaces were clear of cars green duct tape was laid down parallel to the street across the parking spaces to the stop bar on High St. Then black duct tape was applied to the white lines that ran perpendicular to the street that demarcated the parking spaces. While all this was going on cardboard stencils, chalk and the artistic excellence of a young lady by the name of Annie were used to create the bike symbols and arrows that designated the direction of travel between the green tape. Then POW a bike lane was born! We would also like to thank volunteers Andrew Sidesinger, Carrie Fredrick,and Garry White for helping out with the installation. Check out the photos that volunteer Garry White took and let us know what you think about creating some more of these bike lanes in the future.

See more photos on our website at Bike Lane Experiment for Car-Free Day on Gay St.

by Bryan Saums

About twenty bicyclists joined Consider Biking and MORPC for a short, sweet seven mile ride at noon on Car Free Day, Friday, September 21.

Car Free Day is an international event that celebrates all the creative things we could do with all that space dedicated to automobile parking…if we just rode and parked our bikes instead!

Our bicyclists visited several of the great Car Free spots here in Central Ohio on their short ride.

They started at Goodale Park and rolled over to the Godman Guild in Weinland Park. Then they rolled down to the OSU campus to visit three car free sites. CD 102.5 had a great give-away going on right on High Street (your intrepid author won a jump rope). Folks at the South Campus Gateway looked quite content at their outdoor café right across the street. Several student groups and university departments joined Trek Stores of Columbus to promote green transportation and to fix bikes for free!

Our cyclists rolled south on Neil Avenue and then through downtown to enjoy the centerpiece of Car Free Day in front of Café Brioso on the corner of Gay and High (see Alex's article on this great spot elsewhere in this newsletter). Finally, our riders collected their coupons for a free serving of delicious Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams and left downtown for the Jeni's in the Short North. After all, you can't lose weight on Car Free Day!

by Jess Mathews

'Bicycles have the unique ability to act as both a metaphor and a means for moving young women forward.'  Riding a bike can build one's self-esteem and independence.  Learning basic bicycle mechanics empowers young women to fix not only their bikes but also fix other things in their lives.

'Girls in Gear' is a non-competitive, girls-specific program geared towards empowering young girls through the bicycle.

'Girls in Gear' will be an eight-week program, held once a week and will build confidence and empower young girls through four areas:

1. Bicycle Safety
2. Basic Bicycle Mechanics
3. Urban Design
4. Public Speaking and Presentation Building

For more information, contact Jessica Mathews – Safe Routes to School Coordinator:  jess@considerbiking.org

So, we are asking you if you have any tools or parts that you are willing to donate. We would love to utilize them to keep the Mobile Bike Clinic going and get the Co-op up and running as we have many students willing to volunteer at the Co-op, but we need tools first and foremost. The Co-op is not only open to students it will be open to all cyclists, especially OSU alumni, staff and faculty. We have no funding for this operation outside of the bikes and the spaces that have been donated to us so this is why we are asking for your help. Once we get things up and running we will make it sustainable by selling bike accessories to students along with some of the bikes that we fix up. This Co-op will evolve into a bike resource center where we promote fun, safety and responsible riding on and around campus. If you have any tools or parts to donate you can either bring them to the Consider Biking Office at 4041 North High St. and we will have a box there where you can drop the tools off. Or if you will be attending the Market-to-Market ride you can drop them off at either the North Market or the Hills Market starting locations where we will have a box at the registration tables at the respective locations.

Thank you for considering donating your tools or parts to Bike OSU. You can track our progress at: http://www.facebook.com/WeBikeOSU

"Sharrows" are Shared Lane markings which remind both motorists and bicyclist that they are sharing the same travel lane. Generally, Riders should aim their bike thru the chevron unless there is an obstacle in the road that would make that position unsafe.

Sharrows (by end of 2012):

• Park St (Goodale St to Buttles Ave)
• Town St (Third St to Parsons Ave)

Sharrows (First Half of 2013):

• Front St (Greenlawn Ave to Mound St)
• High St (Greenlawn Ave to Mound St)
• Main St (2nd St to Scioto Trail)
• Liberty St (Short St to Front St)
• Short St (Liberty St to Mound St)
• Mound St (Short St to 2nd St)
• 2nd St (Mound St to Main St)
• Civic Center Drive (Main St to Broad St)
• Greenlawn Ave (Berliner Park to High St)
• Whittier St (West Terminus to High St)

This will create Bikeways in/out of 6 Downtown Parks:

We celebrate this step toward creating a dynamic, interconnected downtown urban bikeway.   Another new addition to the Downtown Bike Infrastructure are the six new Bike Shelters in the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District.  READ MORE

• Bicycling and logging your rides using Endomondo on the Ohio Bicycle Challenge Site.  The challenge has ended, but logging can continue. 
• Joining Consider Biking. Your membership gives us voice.
• Being a bicycle champion. Advocate. Educate. Inspire.
• Telling us what you think.
• Volunteering your time and talent. Email volunteer@considerbiking.orgfor opportunities.

Consider Biking members, volunteers and 2 BY 2012 bicycle champions make Central Ohio a better, safer community for bicycling.

Consider Biking on Facebook - Facebook Page