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2012 Tour Across Pennsylvania Erie County YMCA Bike Tour for Strong Kids- Week long tour of Pennsylvania September 23rd-29th , 2012. For additional details on this YMCA tour contact Craig Latimer at the YMCA or YMCA Tour Contact 2012 MS Bike - Cook Forest River Ride The ride is held Saturday, September 22nd. The Cook Forest River Ride as a one-day bike ride that takes cyclists on a gently rolling route along the Clarion River. It's a fun, fitness filled day for cyclists of all levels. This year, there are two route options: 35 miles for beginners and a more challenging 60 mile option for the avid cyclists. For more information, etc visit our website MS Cook Forest River Ride 2012 Pedal the Lakes Greenville, PA, Saturday, September 29th, 2012. This tour benefits the Mercer County Trail Association. Tour lengths of 10, 30, 65, 100 and 125 miles will be available. There also are free meals, primitive camping, and live music are also available with a paddle of the Shenango River on Sunday, September 30th if you wish to stay over. Details are available at the Trails web site Mercer County Trails. Application is available here '12 Pedal the Lakes Application Gran Fondo of the Alleghenies - October 13, 2012 includes 30, 60 and 100 mile routes through the Allegheny National Forest in Warren and Sheffield areas of PA. Details and application at Warren Adventures Web Site. Registration is available on BikeReg.

Help your child develop independent bike-riding skills on a two-wheeler. Ready, Set, Ride! is an innovative program that helps youngsters learn to ride a two-wheeler bicycle. It is held on four consecutive weekends during the summer in Erie and Warren. The program was developed for children with special needs, but is open to any child who is able to pedal and steer a bike but has not yet been successful in learning to ride without training wheels. It is ideal for youngsters with: Autism Down syndrome Mild cerebral palsy Sensory issues Behavioral issues Children should be at least seven years old and have a bike and helmet. A limited number are also available for use. The cost of the program is $90, but may be covered through an FSS allocation. Scholarships are also available. Ready, Set, Ride! sessions will be held: Erie: Saturdays, July 16, 23, 30, and August 6; 9-10 a.m. and 10:15-11:15 a.m. ; BNI West parking lot. Warren: Sundays, August 7, 14, 21, and 28. 9 - 10 a.m. and 10:15 - 11:15 a.m.; Warren YMCA, 212 Lexington Avenue, Warren, PA 16365 For more information about Ready, Set, Ride!, call (814) 874-5671.

CYCLODEO is a website that allows you to take 'virtual' bike rides by replaying 'real' ones created and shared by other cyclists all around the world. HD videos recorded by the cycling community are synchronized with the corresponding GPS tracks and placed on a map. With this video documentation, visitors can 'feel' via their web browser the experience of a cyclist on a particular route. Route safety is one of the main problems that urban cyclists have to deal with every single day. Understandably, it is also one of the top reasons why so many citizens are afraid to ride their bicycles. Instead a majority prefer to use their car even for short distances. Cyclodeo helps address this issue by allowing anyone to see exactly what street conditions they might encounter on a particular ride. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a thousand pictures.

The Marginalization of Bicyclists Dan Gutierrez, who helped write this article, took the video from which these snapshots are taken. In the left photo, Dan's colleague Brian DeSousa is riding close to the curb in the right-hand lane of a multilane arterial. That position invites motorists to pass him within the lane, and sure enough, one does. On the right Brian is in a lane control position, which tells motorists they need to change lanes to pass. How the car lane paradigm eroded our lane rights and what we can do to restore them Not long ago I was riding in the middle of the right-hand (slow) lane on a 4-lane urban street with parallel parking and a 25 mph speed limit. I had just stopped at a 4-way stop when the young male driver of a powerful car in the left lane yelled at me, "You aint no f***ing car man, get on the sidewalk." He then sped away, cutting it close as he changed lanes right in front of me in an attempt, I suppose, to teach me a lesson. That guy stated in a profane way the world view of most people today: If you can't keep up, stay out of the way. My being in the right-hand lane and therefore "in his way" violated his sense that roads in general and travel lanes in particular are only for cars, a viewpoint that I call the car lane paradigm. The car lane paradigm conflicts with the fact that in every state of the union, bicyclists have the same rights and duties as drivers of vehicles. So which is it? Do bicyclists have the same right to use travel lanes as other drivers or not? Before lanes existed, bicyclists simply acted like other drivers. But now that travel lanes are common, most people grow up with the car lane paradigm with bicyclists relegated to the margins of the road. This article goes into the history of how the car lane paradigm came to be and what we can do about it now. Reading this is going to take a while, so here is an outline of where we're going: 1897: In the beginning, bicycles were vehicles and bicyclists were drivers

Leerone Nesmith said he sometimes finds sharing the road to be a bit of a squeeze. Nesmith, 66, of Erie, rides his bicycle every day, weather permitting, and said he is occasionally overtaken by motor vehicles that come too close to him when they pass. "It can be a little nerve-racking. You have to keep watching traffic real close," he said. Changes to Pennsylvania's Vehicle Code that took effect a year ago require motorists to stay at least 4 feet from bicyclists when passing them on the road. Nesmith said he's familiar with the new law but doesn't believe everyone is aware of the changes. "Some come pretty close to you," said Nesmith, who has never been in an accident while riding his bike. The education continues as the Erie region heads into a new bike-riding season. Sgt. Jeff Annunziata, a traffic investigator with the Erie Bureau of Police, said he first heard of the law change from a citizen and learned more about it later during police updates. Annunziata said he's not sure the newly designated passing "buffer" will help much in cutting down accidents involving bicycles and other vehicles. The biggest problems Annunziata says he sees are motorists not paying attention to bicyclists, and bicyclists not paying attention to other traffic and not knowing the rules of the road. "The avid bike riders absolutely know the rules, but others don't," he said. "Probably 90 percent of the accidents involving bikes in the city are probably caused by bike riders not paying attention." The bulk of the attention given to the vehicle code changes adopted under Act 3 of 2012, signed by Gov. Tom Corbett in February 2012, centered on the distance vehicles must stay from bicyclists when passing. It's the greatest distance established by any of the 25 states that have specific distance requirements in their traffic laws. Two states have distance requirements of at least 2 feet, while 22 require a distance of at least 3 feet, according to data compiled by the League of Am

Progress on Park and Ride Lot Posted: Thursday, April 11, 2013 5:23 PM EST Updated: Thursday, April 18, 2013 5:23 PM EST A new Erie Port Authority park and ride lot is now scheduled to open by June 1. Crews did much of the work last year, but then stopped over the winter. The lot is the first phase of a $5 million project to improve access to the bayfront. The second phase includes two bicycle and pedestrian pathways.

USA Today has reported that LeBron James rides his bicycle to and from his basketball games. This article made the headlines on the USA Today website because of how abnormal it is in America for a rich and famous basketball star to use a bicycle for transportation. Instead of explaining the real reasons LeBron rides his bicycle to games, the article highlights how unusual LeBron is. It sounds patronizing and almost seems to be mocking James: LeBron James, environment MVP. The Miami Heat star reduces his carbon footprint the same way a 12-year-old might, by riding his bicycle to basketball games. The 6-9, 250-pound three-time NBA MVP has been doing this for a while now, taking advantage of South Florida's warm climes (sic). But that still doesn't make it any less unusual. "He's a different animal," teammate Dwyane Wade told Fox Sports' Chris Tomasson on Tuesday. "He's a different beast. What can you say?" LeBron probably rides his bicycle to games because he likely gets there faster than he would if he were stuck in traffic. It's probably more therapeutic for him than being stressed out behind the wheel, and it probably clears his mind and relaxes him before and after his basketball games. But the USA Today article didn't acknowledge these benefits. Instead, James is an outcast. He's doing something that only a 12-year-old would do.

A few stats immediately leap out at you: For one, 70% of America's car trips are shorter than 2 miles, which translates to about an easy 10-minute bike ride. One can lose 13 pounds in a year, just from riding to work?!  If you're trying to fight cars as an American politician, you'll be out of work fast. Especially since, as of this moment, only a tiny .6% of all errands and trips in this country are made via bikes. But the last panel does actually suggest that change isn't totally impossible. Portland, which is covered with relatively new bike lanes, has 6% of its population commuting by bike; ridership across the country is growing.

We should consider doing this for our Ride of Silence in May.

Here are some ideas of how park and ride or carpool lots could be catapulted into the 21st century, attract more users, promote healthier lifestyles, and offer more intermodal connections. Additional suggestions are always welcome. Add bicycle parking racks (preferably covered) and bicycle lockers. Even if one cannot bike commute the entire distance to work, adding bike parking racks and lockers to carpool lots allows cyclists to ride part of the way and then safely secure their bicycles. Whenever possible, locate the park and ride lots along or near mass transit routes. Add EV (electric vehicle) charging stations. These lots are perfect place to re-charge your EV while carpooling. Provide shelters for those who are waiting for their carpool group or for mass transit. No need to get drenched when you don't have too. Add some landscaping. Let's show some community pride by making them attractive amenities instead of simply another sea of asphalt and/or stone. Security lighting that is also dark-sky friendly. There is no need to light up the entire interchange (or neighboring homes) when properly installed and designed lighting can accomplish the job and be environmentally friendly. Lease some space to car-sharing organizations like ZipCar and donate space to local, non-profit bike-sharing programs if they exist. This would produce some income for maintenance of the carpool lot and provide a greater range of intermodal services. Include an area for taxis to pick up and drop off people. Include emergency phones.

The early-morning sunlight slanted in low and strong, stretching over the gunmetal gray of Lake Erie and reaching beyond the budding greenery of Cahoon Park to touch down on the small figures on bikes rolling along the sidewalks on the south side of Wolf Road. If you were wandering by Bay Middle School, in the Cleveland suburb of Bay Village, this past Wednesday, you might not have thought much of it at first. Maybe these are just a few ambitious tweens opting out of the bus ride on a luminescent spring day. But then, coming from the west, were another line of five or six kids. And back the other way, a full-blown pack of riders suddenly appeared, bearing down on the parking lot, followed by another group behind that. Soon a hundred kids have arrived on bikes, then 300, then 500, a few balancing violin cases or classroom projects on their handlebars. Their bikes swallowed the racks in front of the school, amoeba-like, and filled the grass around trees along the parking lot, then began to crowd the iron fence marking the school property. Meanwhile, full-sized buses pulled in with only five or six forlorn-looking children on board.

From 2000 to 2010, bicycle commuting rose 40 percent in the U.S. But, in the 38 largest BFCs, the rise in bike commuters was almost double the national rate, growing a staggering 77 percent over the same time period. Cities like Portland, Ore.; Boulder, Colo; Davis, Calif., and other leading BFCs are almost ready to join the ranks of world-class bike communities - and the League has been working with BFC representatives to envision a higher standard that challenges and charts new heights for bicycle-friendliness in the United States. "If it sounds like we are moving the goalposts, it's because we are," says Andy Clarke, League President. "Communities are doing so much more, and the state of the practice in innovative infrastructure and programs has developed so rapidly in recent years, that it really is time to challenge communities to do even more to make biking better." Attaining Diamond designation will involve an individualized challenge tailored to each community. The League will conduct a detailed audit for each city and work with community leaders to create clear 5-, 10- and 15-year goals for important factors like bicycle mode share, land use, crashes, network connectivity and bike culture. The primary measure to Diamond designation: The number of people riding and citizen satisfaction. Cities will delve into a more detail evaluation of ridership and level of service, using standard methods of measure like the American Community Survey and National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project, but also more challenging and broader tools such as Copenhagen's Bicycle Account. The end goal: American communities that rival top international cycling cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam with world-class facilities, like protected bike lanes - and so much more. "In Portland, bikes mean business," says Tom Miller, Director of the Portland (Ore.) Bureau of Transportation. "Our commitment to bike-friendly streets has helped to attract a wealt

Dutch people very rarely ride with protective clothing or helmets because their streets are the safest in the world for cycling. Their cycle tracks are protected from motor traffic by a kerb (or bollards or parked cars). They're also designed to be wide enough for overtaking (or riding side by side).

Barber Center bike education program

Cities across the country are remaking streets to help people move more efficiently, more safely, and with less energy use while improving the quality of life in commercial districts and neighborhoods alike. One key strategy is making room for bicycles, as the density and compact character of urban environments make riding a bike an incredibly effective transportation option. Leading cities are combining innovative new designs and traditional approaches to transform their streets.

"Sarah McCullough, a graduate student at the University of California at Davis who researched how people's feelings about biking - happy, scared, sad, etc. - relate to their likelihood of actually riding a bike. (She's finding that people with stronger emotions about biking - and not necessarily just positive ones - are more likely to do it. And people are more likely to bike when they perceive it as safe and socially normal.) "Just understanding how changes in cultural infrastructure have to accompany changes in physical infrastructure; it's not necessarily enough in many communities just to put in a bike lane. You also have to create a culture where people feel comfortable using it.""

Middle school will not allow students to bike to school.