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I had a great feeling of civic pride watching the video found here: Minneapolis named America’s best city for biking

My favorite day of the entire year this year was our bike to school day a few weeks ago. All the bike racks were full and we rode in with a bike group of kids from all over the city. Awesome.

Finally, I had no idea about this website, Mpls Bike Love, but I’ll be frequenting it now!

The nation’s first large-scale bike share program will be launched in Minneapolis next spring and could become a model for programs in other cities. If all goes well in raising $1.6 million in private matching funds for a $1.75 million federal grant, one thousand bikes will be available at 75 kiosks located primarily in the downtown, uptown and university areas.

via MinnPost – From Our Partners: Twin Cities Daily Planet: 1,000 bikes coming to Minneapolis?.

Great news! When we were in Paris a couple years ago, the bike sharing program there had recently begun, and it sounds like it has been very successful there.

The Brooklyn Bridge is an important front in the bike publicity war; it is a place where bikes are losing.

via A Modest Proposal – Bikers, Take the High Road – NYTimes.com.

Great article about biking in the city. And regarding the brooklyn bridge, I witnessed a number of near misses and one intentional shoulder-check as bikers sped past the walkers.

Now this is awesome!

Cyclopath

It’s a geowiki for twin cities cyclists. Meaning that anyone can create an account and add information about where the good places to bike are. Very cool!

I finally had a chance to ride my bike into work today. Luckily it was a late start today at work, so the fact that I was totally unprepared for riding was fine. When you haven’t ridden your bike to work, there are a lot of little things to worry about. I have a small wardrobe in my office to store some essentials, but from time to time I forget things. For example:

• Do I have socks, underwear and an undershirt to change into? Yes.
• Do I have deodorant? No.
• Do I have a belt? No. (Borrowed one)
• Do I have shoes? Yes.
• Did I remember my keys? Yes.
• Did I remember my bike lock? No.
• Do I have a towel? No. (Borrowed a clean one from the trainer’s room)
• Do I have a dress shirt and tie? Yes. Pants? Yes.

Anyway, it’s a beautiful time to ride your bike to work. Cool and crisp in the morning. The sweat factor is basically zero. Just give yourself a little extra time those first couple days to make sure you have everything in order!

today is april 24th. on april 23rd, i was upset that i didn’t ride to work. i still hadn’t ridden to work. so on april 24th, i woke up a bit earlier, found my gear, packed my bag, and headed off.

five minutes in to the ride, i felt something.

rain.

ten minutes into the ride, it was misting. fifteen minutes, somewhere between rain and downpour. the ride takes about 40 minutes.

but, all of this rain and exercise made me feel pretty good. i don’t think i could claim a good heart rate for nearly a month. i don’t even want to think about the last time i actually, officially, exercised.

my brain was fired up and ready to go when i arrived. that felt good too. i shared a few ideas.

it was a pretty good day. and then it was time to ride home. i stepped outside for a second. one or two drops. i thanked those who had offered me a carpool, i was going to brave it. i changed back into my bike clothes. walked back to my office. packed up. rolled out the back door.

it’s pouring.

i waved at the kids firing their ceramics. jake hollered at me – “change your mind about the ride?”

“nope! I’m going for it!”

More people in Minneapolis ride their bikes to work than in any other U.S. city except Portland Ore., according to figures released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Yay for Minneapolis! The City of Bikes

I got the clearance for full activity from the doctor today, so I’m going to get one day of riding in at least!