Roads Were Not Built For Cars

Roads Were Not Built For Cars is a history book exploring the role of US & UK cyclists in improving highways for everybody.

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Tip of the Week

In colder seasons it’s always a good idea to carry a rain jacket or warm clothing with you when you are biking. Even if the weather seems nice at the start of your ride it can change dramatically by your return trip.

50 Mile Pass at Grand Fondo

We didn't think the "roadies" should get all the fun with long fun rides. So, we are in our 3rd annual event providing a marked 50, 35, 17, and 10 mile mountain bike adventure ride. As in our past two events, aid stations will be along the way, a BBQ style lunch at the finish, and unlimited scenery of the 4th of July Pass and the Coeur d'Alene Mountains. This year we'll be timing our recreational rides and providing a ride souvenir at the finish. Don't be fooled by the non-competitive nature of this event. The "50 miles at the Pass" will challenge...come prepared.Time to beat:4hours and 14 minutes.

Tip of the Week

March is a good time to get your bike in working order for the season. Inflate your tires, clean and grease your gears, test and adjust your brakes…or just take your bike to a bike shop to get a tune up.

Sprawl Madness: Two Houses Share Backyard, Separated by 7 Miles of Roads

Just how absurd have American development patterns become over the past few decades?

Behold: Two houses with adjoining backyards in suburban Orlando. If you want to travel the streets from point A on Anna Catherine Drive to point B on Summer Rain Drive, which are only 50 feet apart, you’ll have to go a minimum of seven miles. The trip would take almost twenty minutes in a car, according to Google Maps.

Windy street patterns, full of cul-de-sacs and circles, have become such a ubiquitous feature of the suburbs that they mostly escape remark. But disconnected streets have many insidious consequences for the environment, public health, and social equity.

For one, the lack of a functional street grid funnels traffic onto wide arterial roads — which tend to be the most dangerous places for pedestrians. Furthermore, disconnected streets discourage trips by foot or bike. People who can drive have no incentive to walk or bike anywhere because the trips would be too long and dangerous, while people who can’t drive are effectively trapped in their own homes, or are highly dependent on caretakers.

The Congress for the New Urbanism’s Sustainable Street Network Principles guide outlines seven principles for walkable, safe streets. The number one principle is to “create a street network that supports communities and places.”

A major source of the problem, CNU points out, is that current transportation engineering and funding conventions favor building individual segments of roads, as opposed to a network of streets. In 2009, CNU even had legislation supporting street networks at the federal level inserted into the CLEAN-TEA transportation bill, which died along with the climate bill that year.

In the meantime, CNU has been offering trainings on their Street Network Principles to local communities and transportation professionals. Ultimately, CNU planner Heather Smith says, they are interested in getting the principles adopted into policy at all levels of government.

Someone with influence in suburban Orlando needs to take that course.
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