The New Face Of BP

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Bicycles Now Allowed In Franklin Park

Got the below email from Dot Bike, awesome news!

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Good news!!

The Franklin Park Coalition presented a proposal at the Boston Parks Commission on Monday to make bicycling legal in Franklin Park. While there were several questions, both the Parks Department and the Commissioners expressed their support and appreciated the efforts and enthusiasm of Dot Bike and other volunteer bike groups involved.

Although the ban on bicycling in the park (other than on the road) was not enforced, having bicycling authorized in the park removes possible barriers to continuing to have bike events in the park, or to improvements related to bicycling such as bike racks or path stewardship that addresses biking concerns.

Measuring path widths was a fun group effort with volunteers from Dot Bike, Rozzie Bike, and JP Bikes along with children from a nearby school. Dot Bike was a key partner with the FPC in developing the proposal.

The cooperation of the Parks Dept. on this is very much appreciated, and I can’t thank the Franklin Park Coalition enough for their incredible efforts on behalf of bicyclists and everyone who enjoys and appreciates the park.

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Martha Coakley On Bikes

I was sent this email, which apparently originated with Jeff Roth of the Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee. Personally I am shocked that Scott Brown (who if you don’t know is a very right wing republican teabagger) is even close in this election. Does Massachusetts really want to have a republican representing them in congress?! Get out on your bikes, and vote for Martha, the future of transportation funding, gay rights, women’s right, abortion rights, health care reform, environmental reform, and a whole host of other issues will be thrown down the drain if Scott Brown wins. That simply can not happen.

From Bike Lexington list:

Hi All – For the US senate election tomorrow, I queried Scott Brown and Martha Coakley to find out their positions or support for bicycle transportation in the Commonwealth and nationwide. I got a response back from Martha Coakley, but not from Scott Brown. I contacted Scott Brown in multiple manners by email and phone, but he neglected to respond with any statement of his support or his position.

The response below is from Martha Coakley’s campaign committee. She even mentioned the Minuteman Bikeway!

From: Issues Issues
To:
Sent: Sat, January 16, 2010 4:18:32 PM
Subject: Re: bicycle transportation: seeking Martha Coakley position for Bay State and nationwide

Dear Mr. Roth,

Thank you for writing into the campaign about this issue. We appreciate hearing from you.

As a person who cares very much about the environment and public health, Martha’s interests and priorities are in line with the Massachusettscycling community. Martha cares deeply about developing alternative forms of energy and about energy conservation, both to promote a healthy environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. (see her energy & environment plan here). She understands that a commitment to protecting the environment and a commitment to alternative forms of transportation certainly go hand-in-hand.

In short, Martha agrees that promoting cycling as a transportation alternative is good for the Commonwealth’s economy, businesses, environment, and public health. She is proud that Massachusetts is home to the most used rail-to-trail bikeway in the country (The Minuteman Trail) and she knows that we need to make main thoroughfares, not just dedicated bikeways, safer for all.

If she is victorious on Tuesday, she looks forward to working with your group and others with similar interests to see what kind of federal support and policies will be productive — for example, you mention wheel friendly draining gates. We admit that is not on our radar screen, which is why dialogue like this is so important.

Also, we agree that having something on the website about this may have been useful, but at this late date with the election so close it won’t be possible to put your suggestion into action. Thanks for it nonetheless.

Thanks again for writing.

Please don’t forget to vote on Jan. 19.

Cordially,

The Martha Coakley for Senate Committee

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Spoke Count: Call For Artists

This from the people over at The Chorus Gallery, looks like a lot of fun, if you are of the art persuasion submit something.

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We now interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you a fun bike art event for the whole family.

Spoke Count is a collaborative installation featuring 100+ small works about bikes by various artists. It is estimated that there currently exist over one billion bicycles in the world- this show will attempt to visualize this (growing) mass of our favorite revolutionary transport. We are inviting you, the art and cycling community, to provide us with 100 8 inch x 8 inch drawings of bicycles which we will exhibit during January 2010. Our reception will be on Sat Jan 9th, between 7-10 in the evening at Chorus Gallery in Union Sq.

We will not be picky on media or image. Your submission can be, but is not limited to, a print, photograph, digital image, made out of cut vinyl, or even a drawing. It can be your little sister on a bike, a lug, or painfully accurate drawing of 365 spokes in a pile. All that we ask is that it is of some part of a bicycle and we can mount it to the wall by two map pins.

Spoke count will be a open show for 100 lucky participants. So RSVP ASAP here, and deliver your art work by Thursday January 7th by 5pm (feel free to drop off earlier than that during Open Bicycle’s normal hours).

Simply:

– Unframed– able to be punctured and supported on a wall by a map pin.

– 8 inches x 8 inches.

– Bicycle content.

All works will be for sale and priced at $40. Doesn’t matter if you never draw or have been a finalist for the Venice Biennale, the work will be for sale at $40. Full disclosure, we will be splitting all sold work 30% gallery and 70% artist, as is our standard. But feel free to trade drawings with friends, we don’t mind.

Expect another of our exceptional receptions on the 9th– drinks, dancing, music, and lots of art to look at.

See you soon

Signed,

The management.

more info here

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One Possible Taste Of The Future

This is a short clip from a longer documentary called Beauty and the Bike which explores why girls in England stop riding their bicycles. I found it pretty awesome. It seems that whenever European cycling is mentioned in America everyone gets in a huff about one of a number of things (helmet use, cycle tracks, etc etc). I am sure that our future is on the bicycle, I am not sure our future is following the European Model (Capitial E Capital M!), but we could learn some things from the Europeans.

Either way great movie.

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