This site hosts discussions and articles on everything ped/bike. The committee will post information on bicycle safety, Safe Routes to School, Rules of the Road, pedestrian access for the disabled, public transportation, the future of pedestrians and bicycles in Coeur d'Alene, and upcoming issues. The site also has links to many sites related to ped/bike issues. Feel free to post comments, questions or suggestions about Coeur d'Alene's pedestrian and bicycle facilities here.
To stay in the loop on local bike events and much more, check out our friends at Rubber Tire Adventures. There is a link at the bottom of the page to join their email list. Tom and Jamie Lynn Morgan have been great supporters of the bicycle community in Coeur d'Alene. Check them out!
One of the busiest intersections in Austin, Texas, has gotten a makeover. White stripes adorn the barren pavement that once made pedestrians hesitant to cross, poles separate pedestrian space from the roadways, and stop signs now sit at every corner. Then there are all the polka dots, painted in green and baby blue.
They aren’t there just for decoration, says Anna Martin, traffic engineer for theAustin Transportation Department. The whimsical polka dots at the corner of East 6th and Waller Streets in East Austin are curb extensions, or “bulb outs,” designed to “give space back to the pedestrians.” Evenings and on weekends, the area, known for its walkability and bustling night life, is teeming with people.
Yet residents have complained that the intersection there is anything but friendly to pedestrians due to a lack of crosswalks ormeasures to slow down traffic. This specific intersection has seen dozens of crashes in 2015, according to local news channel KXAN.
(City of Austin)In response, the city council decided to install four-way stop signs and dedicate what Martin calls “wasted no-man’s land” to pedestrians. But instead of building out the curb with concrete, Martin says they opted for a low-cost option using what they already had handy. And instead of regular white paint, they took colorful inspiration from various parklet and pedestrian plaza projects in New York City and Los Angeles.
The blue and green dots Austin is using, she adds, clearly define the pedestrian space, and they stand out just enough to make drivers slow down without causing a distraction. The upgrades debuted Wednesday, and so far the feedback has been positive. “It's a testament to the character and energy of Austin,” says Marissa Monroy, public relations specialist for the city of Austin. “People are really excited to see a project that emphasizes safety but, at the same time, really shows that we like to have a little bit of fun.“
The City of Coeur d’Alene
is in the process of applying for Recreational Trails Program (RTP) grant funds
through the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. The proposed
project is located at the City-owned East Tubbs Hill Park property. The scope of the project includes installing an accessible
non-motorized watercraft launch, a walk-in non-motorized watercraft launch, an
unloading area, and a water trail for non-motorized craft users around Tubbs
Hill. The project will complement the Tom McTevia memorial area planned
in this area. To comment on the project proposal or for further
information, contact Bill Greenwood at the Coeur d’Alene Parks Department at
(208)769-2251 or bgreenwood@cdaid.org.
BACK STORY He didn’t take a giant leap for
mankind, but Thomas Stevens took a giant spin, becoming the first person to
complete a trip around Earth by bicycle, on this day in 1887. Considering that
71 percent of the planet’s surface is covered with water,
an explanation is in order. Mr. Stevens moved to the United States from England
in the 1870s. He bought his first bicycle, a penny-farthing with one large
wheel, in San Francisco and dreamed of becoming the first person to cross
America on a bicycle.When he felt ready, he donned a jacket that doubled as a
tent and headed for the East Coast on April 22, 1884. He made it to Boston 103 days later.
Plans for a global journey began to take shape. The next spring, Mr. Stevens
started in England and headed east through Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
He continued on to Persia, Afghanistan, India, China
and Japan, before returning to San Francisco. Throughout the trip,
he sent letters to Harper’s Magazine, which were compiled in the best-selling
two-volume book “Around the World on a Bicycle.”
But wait: How did he make it across two oceans? He was a passenger on steam
ships. It is not known if he rode his bike on deck. Victoria Shannon
contributed reporting.
Researchers at King’s College London have found that muscle fitness as measured by power in the legs is strongly associated with an improved rate of ageing in the brain.
The findings, published in Gerontology, suggest that simple interventions, such as increased levels of walking, targeted to improve leg power in the long term may have an impact on healthy cognitive ageing.
The Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee teamed with Susan Nipp, the creator of Mudgy and Millie, to create a public service announcement to teach children how to ride their bikes safely. After lots of hard work with an enthusiastic group, the video is finished! We plan to air the video on CDA TV as well as in local elementary schools.
Thank you so much to all those who contributed, especially the Sorensen Elementary students featured in the video.
It’s that time of year again, the winds start to pick up, the leaves are turning, and you can feel the seasonal shift towards winter. While there might be a chill in the air, this doesn’t mean you need to put your bike away. The trick is to be prepared, and to do a few simple bits of bike maintenance to keep you rolling comfortably and efficiently.
Check your tire pressure as the temperature drops.
As the temperature drops, so will your tire pressure. Check and top up your tires more often.
Seat height: be good to your knees and bits – your seat may have shifted so it’s a good time to make sure it’s at the right height and position.
Shorter daylight hours and grey, rainy weather means having lights at full strength are essential. Check your batteries to make sure your lights shine bright. Consider installing dynamo lights for added convenience & reliability.
Wipe and re-lubricate your chain to help protect it from rain/rust.
Consider adding some mud guards if you don’t already have them — and not just the clip-on ones that are easily stolen.
Keep a scarf, hat, gloves and an extra top layer in your bag as front-line protection against unexpected chilly fall winds.
Fall riding is comfortable with the right accessories.
A rain poncho and waterproof pannier are totally worth the investment. Make sure you bring them along if there’s even a chance of rain.
Don’t get cocky: You’ve been riding all summer, but stay sharp and alert.
Dusk coming sooner makes you harder for other road users to see during the busy evening rush hour. Also, in early fall the sun ends up in westbound drivers’/riders’ eyes during evening rush hour. Ride predictably, signal your intentions, make eye contact when possible, and use extra caution.
Rainy windshields combined with earlier darkness make bicyclists and pedestrians even harder to see. Wearing lighter-colored clothing, a reflective safety vest, sash or clothing, and always using lights will keep you visible.
Avoid puddles and piles of wet leaves.
Piles of leaves are slippery when wet, and you never know what’s underneath them. Avoid them when possible, and use extra care at reduced speed if turning on them.
Wet streetcar tracks can bite. Cross them carefully at a right angle when possible and don’t lean into a turn since wheels can slip.
If you’re not already in the habit, shift into lower gears when you slow or stop to be kind to colder muscles as you get moving again.
Cover your mouth with a scarf to help protect your lungs from the burn of colder air.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) provides great tips for both pedestrians and drivers to remain safe while sharing the road.
When you are walking:
Photo credit: Seth Nenstiel
Be predictable. Follow the rules of the road and obey signs and signals.
Walk on sidewalks whenever they are available.
If there is not sidewalk, walk facing traffic and as far from traffic as possible.
Keep alert at all times; don’t be distracted by electronic devices that take your eyes and ears off the road.
Cross streets at crosswalks or intersections whenever possible. This is where drivers expect pedestrians. Look for cars in all directions – including those turning left or right.
If a crosswalk or intersection is not available, locate a well-lit area where you have the best view of traffic. Wait for a time gap in traffic that allows you enough time to cross safely, and continue to watch for traffic as you cross.
Never assume a driver sees you. Make eye contact with drivers as they approach you to make sure you are seen.
Be visible at all times. Wear bright clothing during the day, wear reflective materials or use a flashlight at night.
Watch for cars entering or exiting driveways, or backing up in parking lots.
Avoid alcohol and drugs when walking; they impair your abilities and judgment.
When you are driving:
Look out for pedestrians everywhere, at all times. Safety is a shared responsibility.
Use extra caution when driving in hard-to-see conditions, such as nighttime or in bad weather.
Slow down and be prepared to stop when turning or otherwise entering a crosswalk.
Yield to pedestrians in crosswalks and stop well back from the crosswalk to give other vehicles an opportunity to see the crossing pedestrians so they can stop too.
Never pass vehicles stopped at a crosswalk. There may be people crossing that you can’t see.
Never drive under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
Follow the speed limit, especially around people on the street.
Follow slower speed limits in school zones and in neighborhoods where there are children present.
Be extra cautious when backing up- pedestrians can move in your path.
By an overwhelming margin, citizens responding to Coeur d’Alene’s September online “CityPoll” support expanding the city’s bike lane system. As of Wednesday, 95 percent of voters (1,570) favored a continued focus on improving the trail system, while 5 percent (86) did not.
Trail expansion is expected to continue, according to city officials. “With the addition of the recently purchased BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad) property, the city has a great opportunity to extend trails west toward Huetter Road,” said Coeur d’Alene Parks and Recreation director Steve Anthony.
To cast your vote in the September poll, visit cdaid.org and click on the City Poll button on the bottom of the homepage.
Each month, a CityPoll question is posted on the city’s website. Responses are carefully reviewed by city staff and considered in the strategic planning process to assure the city is being responsive to citizens while providing the best possible services.
from left: Jon Ingalls, Panhandle Kiwanis, Dave Kilburg, Kiwanis president, Virgil Edwards, of the Disability Action Center, Coeur d’Alene parks and recreation director Steve Anthony, Jeffrey Mahon with the Sunrise Rotary. Seated, Michelle Porter and Don Waddell.
Thanks to generous donations from the Panhandle Kiwanis, Sunrise Rotary and Avista Utilities, a wheelchair-accessible ramp leading to the water at Independence Point will soon be installed. Project cost is $14,000 and made possible by these organizations.
“This will allow people that couldn’t get into the water to enjoy the lake with the families to have access,” said Virgil Edwards of the Disability Action Center. “It provides another level of independence.”
Two ramps will provide access to the lake, according to parks and recreation director Steve Anthony. One will run into the water and the other along the shoreline.
The City has installed this bike rack at Sanders Beach to meet the demand for bicycle parking. It is greatly appreciated by the many people who ride bikes to the beach. Where else do we need bike racks? Let us know by emailing mmccully@cdaid.org.
New brochures detailing multiple walking and biking trails that offer opportunities to explore public art in Coeur d'Alene are now available.
The city's Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee, in cooperation with the Coeur d'Alene Arts Commission, announced the publication of the documents.The walking brochure has two different trails. One is 1.7 miles and takes 60-90 minutes to complete. The second trail is 2.2 miles and takes from 90 minutes to two hours to complete. The biking brochure features a 13-mile trail that takes two to four hours to ride. Electronic versions of all the brochures are available at http://mapping.cdaid.org/art.
Members of the two committees did the research for the brochures and Debbie Frisbie, the city's graphic information systems coordinator, put it together. The printing costs were covered by donations from local businesses, including Vertical Earth, Commercial Printing, Taphouse Unchained, Lukins and Annis, and Mountain Madness Soap Co. as well as a contribution from the CDA Arts Commission. Another shorter bike route will be printed as soon as additional funds are collected.
The brochures are available at City Hall, the Chamber of Commerce and donating businesses. For more information or to donate to the printing of future brochures, please contact Chris Bosley, chair of the CDA Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee, chriswbosley@gmail.com.
This time of year, I usually find myself in conversation with someone who is curious about my bike habit. Often they feel like they could never do it themselves. So I usually give some simple starting advice.
Because pretty much anyone can ride a bicycle for two miles- for fun, to run an errand, to get dinner with a friend, to explore their neighborhood. Maybe after that they’ll ride two more miles… and then two more…then two more.
So just ride a bicycle two miles (anywhere) today. Maybe tomorrow too.
Frances Willard discovers the joys of cycling, and of not wearing tight-necked formalwear.ARCHIVE.ORG
PUBLISHED WEDNESDAY AT 3:26 P.M.
Frances Willard’s legacy is considerable. As president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the National Council of Women in the United States, Willard leveraged the considerable power of the temperance movement towards the right to vote, putting her at the genesis of both the 18th and 19th amendments. For decades, she was the sole woman represented in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall, until she was joined by Rosa Parks. Once the president of the Evanston College for Ladies, she became Northwestern’s first dean of women; Willard Residential College, the school’s largest and its first co-ed housing, is named after her. Her home in Evanston is a national landmark.
Towards the end of her life, however, something was missing for “America’s Foremost Woman.” And she found it on what had become a tool, literally, of women’s liberation: the bicycle.
Willard’s independence was her birthright, but all that changed when she hit sweet sixteen and entered into what was then, in the mid-1800s, American womanhood.
Born with an inveterate opposition to staying in the house, I very early learned to use a carpenter’s kit and a gardener’s tools, and followed in my mimic way the occupations of the poulterer and the farmer, working my little field with a wooden plow of my own making, and felling saplings with an ax rigged up from the old iron of the wagon-shop. Living in the country, far from the artificial restraints and conventions by which most girls are hedged from the activities that would develop a good physique, and endowed with the companionship of a mother who let me have my own sweet will, I “ran wild” until my sixteenth birthday, when the hampering long skirts were brought, with their accompanying corset and high heels; my hair was clubbed up with pins, and I remember writing in my journal, in the first heartbreak of a young human colt taken from its pleasant pasture, “Altogether, I recognize that my occupation is gone.”
From that time on I always realized and was obedient to the limitations thus imposed, though in my heart of hearts I felt their un-wisdom even more than their injustice. My work then changed from my beloved and breezy outdoor world to the indoor realm of study, teaching, writing, speaking, and went on almost without a break or pain until my fifty-third year, when the loss of my mother accentuated the strain of this long period in which mental and physical life were out of balance, and I fell into a mild form of what is called nerve-wear by the patient and nervous prostration by the lookers-on. Thus ruthlessly thrown out of the usual lines of reaction on my environment, and sighing for new worlds to conquer, I determined that I would learn the bicycle.
The weighty period prose aside, there’s something very modern about this, in a country where cycling is considered a childish thing. Willard became a woman, and that woman became an urbanite. She spent a lifetime securing the intellectual and political freedoms of women—Willard believed that the equality of men and women in the home was a Christian principle—but in doing so, the individual, physical freedom she had known as a child had waned.
When she went to regain that freedom in service to her health, she was advised against doing so on two wheels, for reasons that will also sound familiar to anyone who’s done so:
Not a single friend encouraged me to learn the bicycle except an active-minded young school-teacher, Miss Luther, of my hometown, Evanston, who came several times with her wheel and gave me lessons. I also took a few lessons in a stuffy, semi-subterranean gallery in Chicago. But at fifty-three I was at more disadvantage than most people, for not only had I the impedimenta that result from the unnatural style of dress, but I also suffered from the sedentary habits of a lifetime. And then that small world (which is our real one) of those who loved me best, and who considered themselves largely responsible for my every-day methods of life,did not encourage me, but in their affectionate solicitude and with abundant reason thought I should “break my bones” and “spoil my future.”
Frances Willard had seemingly spent a lifetime not doing what was expected of her. And it did not come easy. What she took from that to the seemingly simple act of riding a bicycle was not an absence of fear, but an abundance of persistence:
That which caused the many failures I had in learning the bicycle had caused me failures in life; namely, a certain fearful looking for of judgment; a too vivid realization of the uncertainty of everything about me; an underlying doubt at once, however (and this is all that saved me), matched and overcome by the determination not to give in to it.
But a mindset is not all one needs to ride a bike. One also needs, um, clothes. And not clothing in the style of 19th-century women of means and education. So Willard set out to change that as well.
We saw that the physical development of humanity’s mother-half would be wonderfully advanced by that universal introduction of the bicycle sure to come about within the next few years, because it is for the interest of great commercial monopolies that this should be so, since if women patronize the wheel the number of buyers will be twice as large. If women ride they must, when riding, dress more rationally than they have been wont to do. If they do this many prejudices as to what they may be allowed to wear will melt away. Reason will gain upon precedent, and ere long the comfortable, sensible, and artistic wardrobe of the rider will make the conventional style of woman’s dress absurd to the eye and unendurable to the understanding. A reform often advances most rapidly by indirection. An ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory; and the graceful and becoming costume of woman on the bicycle will convince the world that has brushed aside the theories, no matter how well constructed, and the arguments, no matter how logical, of dress-reformers.
A woman with bands hanging on her hips, and dress snug about the waist and chokingly tight at the throat, with heavily trimmed skirts dragging down the back and numerous folds heating the lower part of the spine, and with tight shoes, ought to be in agony. She ought to be as miserable as a stalwart man would be in the same plight. And the fact that she can coolly and complacently assert that her clothing is perfectly easy, and that she does not want anything more comfortable or convenient, is the most conclusive proof that she is altogether abnormal bodily, and not a little so in mind.
From there, Willard brought cycling back to her life’s work, projecting it forward not merely as a tool for the freedom and advancement of women, but as a tool for the equality of men and women.
We saw with satisfaction the great advantage in good fellowship and mutual under standing between men and women who take the road together, sharing its hardships and rejoicing in the poetry of motion through landscapes breathing nature’s inexhaustible charm and skyscapes lifting the heart from what is to what shall be hereafter. We discoursed on the advantage to masculine character of comradeship with women who were as skilled and ingenious in the manipulation of the swift steed as they themselves. We contended that whatever diminishes the sense of superiority in men makes them more manly, brotherly, and pleasant to have about…. The old fables, myths, and follies associated with the idea of woman’s incompetence to handle bat and oar, bridle and rein, and at last the cross-bar of the bicycle, are passing into contempt in presence of the nimbleness, agility, and skill of ” that boy’s sister”; indeed, we felt that if she continued to improve after the fashion of the last decade her physical achievements will be such that it will become the pride of many a ruddy youth to be known as ” that girl’s brother.”
