Monthly Archives: April 2015

NM Law Enforcement Memorial Ride

“I would say do something local. Do something real, however, small…We need to embrace the idea that we are the leaders we’ve been looking for.” –Grace Lee Boggs, from Bill Moyers Journal

If you’re not going to the Tour of the Gila bicycle events this weekend in Silver City, NM, consider doing something even more local. On May 2 there is fundraising bicycle ride from Albuquerque to Santa Fe that pays tribute to law enforcement officers in New Mexico that died in the line of duty. The classic route follows Central Avenue through the heart of Albuquerque, then braids through Tijeras Canyon before turning north where it follows the Turquoise Trail past small villages set in the finest high desert landscape in America on the way to Santa Fe.

The journey begins downtown on Central Ave. following old route 66 east. Albuquerque is remaking this corridor into a multimodal transit way with a sleeker bus service called Bus Rapid Transit that brings benefits of light rail. This shift combined with mixed use development can transform neighborhoods, enabling residents and visitors to explore and meet daily needs with greater ease and more good travel choices. What would you like to see as you pedal your way down Central Avenue? Central Ave’s iconic resonance plays a big roll in the regional and American imagination, making it a natural magnet for attracting our talents. With strong transit available people have quality time freed up. Propinquity, the nearness to one another, is one of the advantages of cities. Transit puts this to use. People interacting directly–including incidental and spontaneous meetings while biking, walking, and taking transit–can be productive. Face to face interactions spur innovation and creative economic development. Making it better for people bicycling, walking and riding transit is a positive factor for creating a sustainable sense of place that is healthy and alluring. Welcoming people to enjoy life in an attractive and inviting streetscape makes it exciting and safer for everyone. A new era is beginning to take shape on Central.

Leaving New Mexico’s largest city, the transition from the open plains of the middle Río Grande into winding Tijeras Canyon immerses the riders in a geologic wonderland folded between the areas two largest mountain ranges, the Sandias and Manzanos. Six miles later riders emerge on the other side in a piñon juniper forestland and the Village of Tijeras. As you go north this charming desert landscape opens up with enormous vistas across the Río Grande valley to the Jemez Mountains. The small towns you pass through along the way such as Madrid and Golden display unique character. The pine speckled hills of the Ortiz Mountains lend stunning intimacy and great depth. This is a one good way to pay tribute to the sacrifice and service of New Mexico’s finest and open up our hearts to celebrate our way of life, and to say thank you.

Here’s the website to register: http://www.nmlememorialride.org/

Some of this route is used by the Santa Fe Century on May 17. If you love the high desert and community spirit of New Mexico, you’ll like this: http://www.santafecentury.com/

Marcotte Achieves Goals and Beyond

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“The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do nor does he know until he has tried.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Self Reliance

Dr. Eric Marcotte is inspiring. My friend said Eric is “much better than Lance Armstrong. Eric is not just a cyclist, he’s a professional health care provider, too.” Eric focuses his chiropractic work on helping his patients achieve wellness, and helps them work towards their goals. And in his career as a professional cyclist, he has accomplished something that has never been done before by winning the US Criterium National Championship while being the reigning US Road National Champion. Eric, who lives and trains here in the Southwest United States, seems to have removed any self imposed barriers to success. He’s a living example of how an overall life of health and wellness make us better. And that there’s a reciprocity at work in our giving.

Dr. Eric D. Marcotte winning the US Pro National Criterium Championship 2015

When Eric trained at altitude in Flagstaff the thing that stood out was how hard he worked. The group would be cruising back to town after 60 miles of fast paced riding, but Eric was putting in some more sprints, and he also was up early putting in an hour and a half of riding in the morning prior to when we began. People sometimes envy successful athletes, but watching Eric train I realized it took superior dedication and sacrifice to ride at his level. I admire him for his hard work. He also made a great teammate in Travis McCabe. They lift each other’s game, and stay motivated and centered. Eric seems to grow stronger from sharing his wealth of knowledge on healthy living and healing, and through inviting others to join him in the practice of holistic, responsible, and balanced health. The complete cyclist is a complete person.

2015.4.21 podium usa nat crit 15procrit030_670

Eric in the center living the dream

Dr. Marcotte is proof that through the application of intelligence and motivation we can make a difference. We have to dedicate ourselves to constant improvement, enjoy each step, and keep moving forward. Who knows what we can accomplish. Congratulations Dr. Eric D. Marcotte.
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Photo Credits and further reading:
http://www.usacycling.org/marcotte-makes-history-at-crit-nationals-ryan-earns-her-first.htm
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/usa-cycling-professional-criterium-championships-2015/pro-men-criterium/results

A Sunday Morning Bicycle Ride

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“If we cannot establish an enduring or even a humanly bearable economy by our attempt to defeat nature, then we will have to try to live in harmony and cooperation with her.”
–Wendell Berry, Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food

On Sunday morning I like to venture outside on a bicycle ride. This morning Mai, my wife, and I are going out together. This makes it double paradise. On recent rides I’ve been keeping it simple and leaving my camera behind. But sometimes I can’t resist trying to record what I see, so I pull out my cellphone camera from its Ziploc bag in my back pocket, and take pictures.

This week I noticed the first cacti flowers opening up to the sunshine.

I like cycling because it immerses me in the world. The aim is not to conquer the world, but get a feel for it. I feel excited because every time I pedal I extend my understanding. But I’m always humbled at my small place and the limits of my knowledge. In a way this is scary, to know I’m at the mercy of forces larger than me, but centering, since I only need to manage my small part.

Cycling over the Rio Grande from the old Alameda bridge imparts a sense of the breadth and span of the landscape

I am awestruck by the size and scale of this landscape here surrounding Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is good to feel like a kid in this regard. Walter Isaacson says Albert Einstein’s genius depended on this wondrous sense of the world. Beethoven’s sense of mystery came through in his music even though it was written with mathematical precision. Sensing awesomeness does not necessarily mean you will produce works of influence, but it keeps us excited about life, and makes it possible that we may add meaning to the world by fusing poetic imagination with scientific or practical rigor. We should try to feel and describe it, realizing that being awestruck is only one part. We are obligated to apply our intelligence and abilities in a studious fashion.

the cell phone camera did not focus but it came out like an expressionistic painting. All the different Spring greens!

I’m amazed at the tilt of the Sandia Mountains and the long line of the alluvial fan skirting down from the mountain toward the river shore. I close my eyes and imagine the whole river system, all 1,896 miles of it. The fresh snowmelt from Colroado’s La Garita Mountains, and all the white peaks above those small towns in the San Luis Valley, places like Mosca, Blanca, La Jara and Crestone. I see the river slipping southward with a quiet gushing through the narrow volcanic chasms below the enormous high mountain peaks and the broad desert plateaus Sagebrush and Juniper roots in, where rabbits, coyotes and deer make their home.

I became accustomed to Artemisia Tridentata in the Great Basin. I love sagebrush, and they live here.

The Rio Grande flows past more small villages north of here. There is small scale farming where possible in the valleys below the high mountains. In these parts luminous stars in the night sky clearly out number TV’s. Elk bugle wildly in the fall, and you can see bighorn sheep skylighted on rocky outcrops. The river flows past the State capital in Santa Fe, and gravity keeps it flowing all the way through New Mexico onward to Mexico and Texas on its long journey to the ocean.

Corrales promotes bicycling and local merchants organize a winery bike tour. I saw lots of riders out yesterday

Corrales is a farming village on the river. Local merchants organize a winery bike tour. I saw lots of riders out yesterday.

I bicycle on Sunday morning to touch base with all of this, and to do the same thing Wendall Berry says local farmers, and the Land Institute in Kansas, sets out to do: “They are interested merely in improving our fundamental relationship to the earth, changing the kind of roots we put down and deepening the depth we put them down to….Harmony between our human economy and natural world–local adaptation–is a perfection we will never finally achieve but must continuously try for.” Bicycling keeps me busy trying, and summons up something inside of me that reminds me why life is humbling yet worth striving at every day. Instead of reducing the world, it expands my sense of it. It guides my work and gives me a wellspring to draw from.

Racer as Advocate: Tim Johnson

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“Our goal with the Ride on Washington, and this year’s Ride on Chicago, is to raise awareness of bicycle advocacy and its efforts nationwide among the racing community.”
“And I’m lucky to see time and time again that bikes aren’t just for racing or training on. They’re for moving, for transportation, for recreation, for work. They are for everyone.”
–Tim Johnson, US Cyclocross National Champion

I like cycling. I do it for every reason, including meeting more cyclists. My cycling world keeps expanding. I began for economic efficiency and got into touring, racing, and advocacy. The diversity and relevance in cycling are beautiful aspects. People cycling represent the full spectrum in the American continuum. I leapt into advocacy a couple years ago when I decided I could achieve more with my pedaling by combining it with another dimension. This has been a most rewarding new journey in my cycling life and has proven to me the cycling community is strengthening by being open, welcoming and growing more diverse.

Being open minded does not come easily. It means challenging the worldview that we thought we knew, and dissolving stereotypical thinking. It involves being with people who are not exactly like us. Learning involves humility, and shifting our perceptions. But it connects us to a more colorful world. One that coheres, in part, through our participation. We are those connective bonds. We are the greeters opening the doorways. Diversity sparks inspiration, imagination and inventiveness.

Tim Johnson, a former pro racing cyclist, is a leader in this regard. He knows bicycling needs to be attractive and accommodate a wide range of people, including families that want to cycle together. People in every place from every walk of life. So Tim started organizing rides and learning about advocacy efforts that were helping to remove barriers so more people could begin cycling. Advocacy organizations are enlisting more racers as roll models, much as advertisers do with athletes from other sports. The advocacy movement realizes high level champions like Tim can help build up cycling friendliness across the country and welcome more people in. Racers are people to look to when we study the beauty of the human form, the pursuit of achievement, the quest to fulfill our potential and to see what is possible when we reach toward the sky. It is a more interesting table to sit at, or ride to join, when more diversity is present. We bring our differently developed skills and collaborate to promote the joys and benefits in cycling for everyone and advance people by moving cyclists forward together. A multipurpose ride is exponentially more fun.

Both roles, racer and advocate, require tenacity, an indomitable spirit, effort behind the scenes that goes unnoticed, sacrifice of time and resources, long term commitment and dedication. Racers and advocates appreciate this. Both activities are team oriented.

The first step towards collaboration is the simple orientation of wanting to help. When we try something new we discover there’s more to us than we even knew. Things we never imagined doing, like writing or public speaking, become naturalized skills developed in the march to larger goals. We find out there is more than one way to make a difference in the world. Readying for the next opportunity adds a new dimension of fulfillment in life.

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References/Credits
Tim Johnson and the 2015 Ride on Chicago
http://www.peopleforbikes.org/pages/ride-on-Chicago
http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/tim-johnson-leaving-a-legacy-far-beyond-racing
Tim Johnson Featured here in the Drive with Care campaign (photo credit):
http://www.peopleforbikes.org/pages/travel-with-care

I’m Walking Here, Eh: Federal Action on Healthy Transportation

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“Americans have demonstrated that when we have greater access to safe infrastructure for walking or bicycling, we are eager to enjoy the health benefits, cost savings, and pleasure of walking or riding through our communities.” –Action Plan on Bike and Pedestrian Safety, Federal DOT (Department of Transportation), September 2014, updated January 22, 2015.

We all know it is good for us to walk or bike to get to our destination but the idea that we might not be as safe as we want to be while doing so can pose a significant barrier to exercising this option. Good news, there is conversation, planning and action happening at every level for making travel by walking and biking more comfortable, easier and safer for everyone. There are some excellent resources from the Federal DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx. The Secretary’s Action Plan on Bike and Pedestrian Safety details strategies for “continual improvements” focusing on changes that can have “lasting impacts” on encouraging more walking, biking and transit travel. It has a little something for everybody, from research on protected bike lanes, to transportation implementation measures for increasing “equality, bringing people together, expanding the middle class, and helping people who are trying to get into the middle class.” Locally, the Action Plan is being used to guide an assessment of bicycling and walking safety along New Mexico Hwy 313 through the Sandia Pueblo. I’ll be participating in that study. I would highly recommend taking a look at this Action Plan when you have time. It is aspirational and inspirational, and shows how the pool of talented transportation professionals shifting their focus onto walking and biking issues is growing.

A Resident’s Guide for Creating Safer Communities for Walking and Biking is another excellent resource. It includes resources for ordinary citizens and local organizations seeking to develop grass roots initiatives and organize local communities. The Resident’s Guide provides guidelines for developing better preparedness for safe and healthy interactions in our public transportation environment. This is a great connective resource that shows government is working as designed, and functioning to empower ordinary citizens to shape the world based on how we act in our daily lives. With the DOT offering resources and tools like these, and the Mayor’s Challenge connecting at the city level working for safer people through safer streets, we have a comprehensive strategy for constant improvement and coordinated efficiency to address this common ground concern for human dignity and life that will save us money, strengthen our country, save lives and improve our life together. This is a good effort to be a part of.

Secretary Anthony Foxx presenting at ProWalk ProBike ProPlace
“We’ll only come here if we can have our location by that [walk and bike] trail.” –Anthony Foxx’s anecdote about the city of Indianapolis competing for a new business. The business said they’d come, and the selling point was proximity to good walking and bicycling.
“As our country evolves, people are wanting to live closer to the things we want to do. We’re going to want to walk. We are going to want to bike.” –Foxx

Adoption Exchange: Day Two at the Races

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Three races in two days. That’ll make your legs tired. These images and more are available at Sansai Studio. Mai from Sansai has road race and time trial photos available now and says the criterium photos are forthcoming, pending on getting her regular job and the taxes done.

The Men’s Cat 1, 2, 3 criterium winner unleashed a wickedly fast sprint

The criterium venue at Balloon Fiesta Park provided close up views for spectators

We are athletes. Being active helps us learn. I viewed this weekend’s event as a training race to get into the swing of things again. It built up my motivation and gave me a sense of how strong the racing is in the Southwest US. The event showcased fit and healthy athletes and brings bicycling to the broader public. People race to reach for pinnacle experiences, to execute teamwork (road cycling is a team based sport), to build community, and to have fun enjoying the bounty of all the hard work that goes into practicing bicycling.

Since we live in Albuquerque it was a special treat to race from home. There was a little driving involved to each venue, and I got a little bummed out spending Sunday morning on the freeway heading over to the West Side, and Sunday afternoon on the freeway again heading over to the north side. When you’re driving on the freeway major landmarks like the Rio Grande are a quick blip on a high speed journey, or you may not even notice the river at all. But when I climbed out of the car and onto my bicycle I felt grounded again knowing exactly where I was. The driving was not too bad considering races such as Valley of the Sun in Phoenix, which requires 50 or 60 miles of serpentine freeways between stages. I’m spoiled because in my regular life I don’t have to drive a car. I can use my bicycle and transit for everything, as Albuquerque is a city especially scalable by bicycle, and my favorite place to drive my bike in.

Matt from Caruso Cycle Works is training for the Masters National Championships Time Trial

Thanks to Sports Systems Mountain Top Cycling on Montgomery and Louisiana for a wonderful weekend of racing. Please remember to support the beneficiary of this race, the Adoption Exchange, by helping them find waiting children safe, loving, and permanent homes. I’ll see you next time at the races, or perhaps we’ll meet before then somewhere out on the road or trails.

Bicycling is at the Confluence

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“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community.” –Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac

This year is the centennial of the founding of the Ecological Society of America. The ESA is an organization based on the principles articulated by an American prophet of ecological relationships, Aldo Leopold. Leopold grounded his science in a system of interdependent and reciprocal relationships. He called for a land ethic that encouraged people “to see land as a whole…to think in terms of community rather than group welfare, and in terms of the long as well as the short view.” The “land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community.” Leopold would not see landscape as scenery, but something we are a part of.

Leopold’s ideas are so strong, fundamental, and universal his principles easily apply to bicycling. I think of the public road environment as its own ecosystem, a microcosm of the world we live in, one that supports human life. The bicycle not only preserves the integrity of the street life but it enhances it with a fitting human presence. There is nothing more pleasing than to be with happy people, especially in health promoting surroundings. The bicycle’s simple technology is perfectly adapted to amplify human powers but not so much that we get the illusion we are removed from the sense our welfare is dependent on that of the whole. The bicycle promotes an ethical relationship to the land, our communities, and our bodies, every thing we need to perceive the truth of what underlies the health of both culture and land.

We are at a time in the development of this nation when we need the bicycle. It is at the confluence of our struggles to create healthier weights and lifestyles, transition to more neutral energy sources, conserve the inheritance of fossil fuels and fossil water for a time span longer than 50 years out, extend the benefits of civilization consistently, and fulfill the promise of respecting and uplifting every individual’s dignity. The bicycle is something I can pick up every day that grounds me in a productive process. It helps me do today what I think needs to be done for the future. I want to thank the Mr. Leopold and the ESA, the bike planners and engineers who have created the parts of the transportation system that encourage good bicycling now, and especially the practicing bicyclists out riding growing that ethical sense that people belong on the land through living acts of remembering what supports us. Bicycling can be a fulcrum, a pivot point, our whole world can turn on.
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references/links:
http://esa.org/baltimore/ Ecology seems to me the central science because it is based on relationships, interactions, and the functions at the interface of phenomena coming together. It is important to note ecological science is nascent. Imagine how much we have to learn.

http://www.aldoleopold.org/AldoLeopold/leopold_bio.shtml Aldo Leopold showed the force and power of espousing original principles and ideas and advanced American life in a manner similar to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

http://yalebooks.com/book.asp?isbn=9780300190380 Wilderness and American Mind by Roderick Nash is a great source book for discovering the America we thought we left behind. The quotes in the first paragraph are from Nash, 3rd edition, page 196-197, quoting from Leopold’s essays “The Ecological Conscience” published in the The Bulletin of the Garden Club of America, 46 (1947) and “The Conservation Ethic” published in Journal of Forestry, 31 (1933).

I took these photos last Sunday on the southern flanks of the Jemez Mountains while we were exploring the Jemez River and Rio Guadalupe. Finally, if you are interested in learning more about ecology, the seminal read is A Sand County Almanac, And Sketches Here and There

Adoption Exchange: A Day at the Races

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Today I raced the Adoption Exchange. It was my first bicycle race since finishing the Everest Challenge last September. The Adoption Exchange consists of three events over the weekend, a road race, time trial and a criterium. The road race was Saturday over a 75 miles course including the Turquoise Trail, Heartbreak Hill, Frost Road, and Gutierrez Canyon on the other side of the Sandia mountains from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sunday we have a 20 kilometer time trial in the morning, and a one hour criterium at Balloon Fiesta Park in the afternoon. The race information is here. This weekend’s events help raise support for the Adoption Exchange, an organization “dedicated to helping waiting children in New Mexico find safe, loving, and permanent homes.”

My heart beat harder than it has all year as we cruised challenging terrain including two trips up the ridiculously steep Heartbreak Hill. The course wound through a sinewy gem called Gutierrez Canyon. We passed touring cyclists on the highway 14 heading towards Santa Fe. Even after you crested a hill the Spring winds made it hard pretty much all the time. In spite of their efforts some people managed to pedal smoothly and keep looking cool.

I love a challenge and enjoy competing. Being with the racers brings out something new every time. I am alive and present. It is inspiring to see what people can do when they push themselves on their bicycles. Bicycling expands the human spirit.

There are racers from Nevada, Colorado, Mexico, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico. There are women racers, men racers, masters, elites, up and coming stars, semi-pros, juniors, collegians. Everyone is working to fulfill their potential. It is amazing to witness the passion and commitment people express for their health and wellness through bicycling while also being champions at home, in their communities, and at their professions and studies. Bicycling functions as an amplifying factor giving you more positive energy for everything else in your life. I love racing for the camaraderie, the energy, and the commitment and dedication that people exhibit. We need more bicycling here, everywhere, all around the globe.

Thanks to Sansai Studios for sharing these copyrighted photos. A gallery of race photos will be available for purchase through Sansai Studio’s website sansaistudio.com . These pictures give a great view into the diverse audience this event attracts set in the stunning landscape of the Turquoise Trail in the scintillating high desert light. If you are in Albuquerque Sunday April 12 and want to see good racing, the time trial goes off between 7:30-11 tomorrow on the I-40 frontage road heading west from Atrisco Vista Blvd. The time trial discipline is called the “race of truth” because each rider goes alone and the rider with the quickest time wins. It is just you, your bike, and the power you produce pushing against aerodynamic limits. Then in the afternoon at Balloon Fiesta Park the criteriums will be in full swing until 4:30pm. The “crit” is a short loop course, usually in urban terrain, that provides intense action as riders zoom around the course going after lap prizes and playing tactics trying to win the crit. But another layer of complexity is added by the quest to earn points to place well in the overall scoring for the full weekend. Races within races. Hope to see you at the time trial and criterium tomorrow. Thank you Sports Systems Mountain Top Cycling for putting on this exceptional event for a most important cause.

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References/Links:
Adoption Exchange, New Mexico website
http://www.adoptex.org/site/PageServer?pagename=locations_nm_news

Adoption Exchange race information:
http://www.newmexicosportsonline.com/Cycling/The-Adoption-Exchange-Classic-2015/10415

Sansai Studios Photography
http://sansai.photoshelter.com/

New Mexico bicycling event calendar:
http://www.nmbra.org/event_calendar

Dream America: People Friendly Cities

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On Tuesday, April 8 Mayor Berry kicked off his 50 mile healthy travel initiative with a ceremony on a trail linking the Mile High District to Uptown in Albuquerque. This coincided with a visit by Mr. Steve Clark from the Bicycle Friendly Community program run by the League of American Bicyclists. The day’s festivities moved Albuquerque in healthy directions. Cities that rate highly as walk and bike friendly also rank as top places to live. Elected officials, professional staff, businesses and community advocates are working on this synergistic development.

We met at City Hall in the morning. The plan was to take a bike ride with Steve and look closely at Albuquerque’s transportation system from a bicycling perspective. First we had coffee and greetings. This meeting would be a fun one to do every day.

We stopped at Martin Luther King Jr Blvd to discuss coming multimodal improvements

We stopped at Martin Luther King Jr Blvd to discuss multimodal improvements on the horizon

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Andrew Webb, a staff for City Council, tells us about a bike/walk bridge being planned for near Pennsylvania St.

As we bicycled our way from downtown to the University and on up Constitution Avenue, we studied the infrastructure and stopped frequently to talk about changes that are planned to improve bicycle traffic flow and safety for all. We shared ideas for opportunities we saw to create a more welcoming environment for people. At 11am we met with Mayor Berry’s press conference near Uptown. The Mayor’s vision includes designing a robust and well-connected network of travel ways centered on biking and walking that invite families out to enjoy the local food, culture and strong sense of place in Albuquerque through healthy, active and engaged lifestyles. The opportunity to unleash economic creativity with healthy development is key.

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Shovels are ready in the high desert soil for the ground breaking ceremony on the Paseo de las Montañas trail

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Diane Albert from the Bicycle Coalition of New Mexico discusses enhancements the loop trail is making

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Mayor Berry of Albuquerque (at left) talks with Steve Clark (center) and Dan Majewski (right). Dan runs urbanabq.com

The Mayor is a good communicator and understands how investing in active transportation is the best foundation for human and economic development, and a powerful way to encourage visitors to take time to explore all the city has to offer. Mayor Berry articulated a vision where a family would come to stay for four days in Albuquerque, discovering the unmatched array of wonders here from open spaces and wildlife to unique cultural attractions like route 66. By bicycling and exploring different trail segments, neighborhoods and districts each day travelers get to enjoy offerings up close and take time to make vivid memories. The money saved by traveling light could be spent on bed and breakfasts, local cuisine, music, museums, a refreshing spa, healing body work. This is an exciting city but also a place to rejuvenate and recover.

After the Uptown ceremony we pedaled west across the Rio Grande. This great river which threads through New Mexico and Texas on its way to the ocean has been protected as a green corridor through the center of the city. As we rode Steve shared stories that helped us see how our involvement can make a difference in creating a city, region, and State that leads the way forward for American bicycling. We rode up the western bluff of the river and spent the early afternoon at the Esperanza community bike shop.

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Public Art is big on the trail system in Albuquerque and provides a thoughtful ambiance with the human touch

A hardy crew continued on riding with Steve after lunch, presentations and conversation at Esperanza. During the afternoon commute we took a closer look at the facilities on the west mesa that will be part of the 50 mile activity loop. Intersection crossings merit close attention.

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The intersection crossing at Unser and Ladera seems to encourage high speed right turns from vehicular traffic

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designs can help calm traffic and raise visibility of pedestrians, such as elevated and colored pavement at crosswalks

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here Steve looks at the travel path of bicycles crossing and considers the science and art of curb placement

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a mother and child wait to cross. Lengthening and widening active transportation infrastructure to accommodate tandems, trailers, wider bikes and riders riding two by two, mother and child, teacher and student, partners, will help

I can’t think of a group of people I respect more than the people I spent the day with. They understand in a palpable way how incentivizing more bicycling increases value in our lives, and they are doing their part to add original and essential contributions to the efforts for making Albuquerque a safer and better place to ride. This is super fun work. And challenging.

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excessive speed is big concern. Here the speed board registers a 53mph in a 45 max zone while traffic is passing Steve

At the end of the day I had more energy than I did at breakfast. There is something about the social activity of bicycling with friends, making new friends, that expands the human spirit. Plus you build up knowledge of yourself and learn about where you live. Steve brought with him perspective and experiences from other places that demonstrate how positive shifts happen, and he connected us to a broader community through stories, while hinting at the legacy we have the opportunity to build here. This is such a beautiful city and it is so empowering and magical to get out and engage your senses in exploring, and dreaming of what may be. Bicycling brings out the best in the people and places, and helps us enjoy the pleasure of living by putting us in close contact with the most beautiful things, the press of the day on our skin, the breeze in our hair, the measured sense of power in our minds, hearts and legs.

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Doug looks over to a soccer field where youth are practicing. On rides I’m constantly engaged by what is happening

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the kids are looking up at us, too. Maybe they bicycled to practice. You know they have the energy for soccer + bikes

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I snapped a couple photos as we rolled on by

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a wonderful view of active youth under the great western sky

I wish I could tell you more of what I saw out on my bike in one day, but I’ve run out of pictures and have risked running long on words. I am looking forward to going out and bicycling again. Every day holds more adventure. It is a wonderful life. And good for us too.

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Here are some references and media coverage of the events on April 8, 2015 in Albuquerque.

Steve Clark’s bicycle friendly community program home including travel and blog updates on the healthy communities bicycling is building all around America:
http://bikeleague.org/BFCSteve

Nice coverage of the planning and implementation of the Mayor’s active travel initiative:
http://krqe.com/2015/04/07/mayor-berry-albuquerque-cyclists-break-ground-on-50-mile-trail/

or you tube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmpazoaK7ls
“It’s going to run by the river, the petroglyphs, and the Sandias.” Cole Miller, KRQE news

http://www.abqjournal.com/566224/news/work-starts-on-50mile-bike-loop-around-albuquerque.html
“Sharing his vision, Berry told those gathered to ‘imagine coming into Albuquerque as a visitor and doing a four-day vacation or a four-day ‘staycation,’ and get on a bicycle, ride 15 miles and stay at a world class resort and spa; then get on your bike the next day and travel 15 miles and then stay at a world class bed and breakfast in an agrarian area; then do the same thing the next day and see our BioPark and zoo and spend time in a boutique hotel on historic Route 66.’”

Albuquerque’s on board with this:
http://www.dot.gov/mayors-challenge

“You get what you design for. Why not induce demand for bicycling?”–Steve Clark

http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/complete-streets/complete-streets-fundamentals/benefits-of-complete-streets/

Scenes from Spring in Albuquerque

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“The bicycle had, and still has, a humane, almost classical moderation in the kind of pleasure it offers. It is the kind of machine that a Hellenistic Greek might have invented and ridden. It does no violence to our normal reactions: It does not pretend to free us from our normal environment.” –JB (John Brinkerhoff) Jackson, landscape geographer from La Cienega, NM

People bicycling on the Bosque

on Marigold Drive, Sandia Heights

entering the Jemez

Bike Yogi

free to walk & cycle

Monthly Archives: April 2015

NM Law Enforcement Memorial Ride

Marcotte Achieves Goals and Beyond

A Sunday Morning Bicycle Ride

Racer as Advocate: Tim Johnson

I’m Walking Here, Eh: Federal Action on Healthy Transportation

Adoption Exchange: Day Two at the Races

Bicycling is at the Confluence

Adoption Exchange: A Day at the Races

Dream America: People Friendly Cities

Scenes from Spring in Albuquerque

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