There are so many good things happening on the transportation front in Omaha. Mayor Fahey recently announced plans and funding for an essential East-West link between the Keystone Trail and downtown which will use dedicated bike lanes. Everyone who lives here knows how important that is. The Young Professionals just completed their Bus Challenge and Activate Omaha has the Bicycle Commuter Challenge in full swing. Omaha recently announced their downtown master plan where pedestrians and cyclists are well accounted for.

Now there is another opportunity to build a positive future for our city. The Metropolitan Area Planning Agency (MAPA) now has a Long Range Transportation Plan survey available for the public to complete. The responses from this survey will be used in updating the Long Range Transportation Plan for the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area for year 2035.

Go to www.mapacog.org and find the link for the survey at the top of the homepage. The 15 question survey covers a multitude of transportation topics and respondents can use this as a platform to make suggestions about the future of transportation in the metro area.

The MAPA Long Range Transportation Plan will provide a vision for the metropolitan area’s future transportation system. Additionally, projects must be identified in the Long Range Plan to be eligible to receive federal funding.

Please take a few minutes to help out. Thanks.

Apparently I’m in a visual mode lately. I promise that I do still read. But work has been busy and in my quick surfing I’ve been spending a little more time looking at bike sites rather than work or sustainability sites. I really should get out and ride.

I thought this was fun. Be wary if you are sensitive to swear words.

Thanks to No Ride Just Drive for the link.

Yesterday I found 2 links on Urban Velo that totally inspired me. I’ll put the ‘business-related’ one first. Geekhouse Bikes has an awesome HD promo movie that gets me excited about a project I’m working on with Tim Keen. The second video is just plain cool to a bike dork like myself. I watched it three times yesterday.

Geekhouse:

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Danny MacAskill:

I posted a video about this system a few months back, but this updated vid is way better. Yesterday I rode to get my hairs cut and had to lock my bike to a planter near the front door of the salon. I had to wrestle my lock around the base of the cement planter and weave the cable through the rear wheel and frame. I’m not complaining, but I certainly didn’t look as dignified as the people in this video who are dropping off their bikes.

According to Trendwatching.com, “while financial woes may hold back some green initiatives, the future has never looked greener.”

Mainly because creating a more sustainable economy is not an option, but a necessity. And we all know that necessity is the mother of invention. Which is why this month, amidst crumbling banks, G20 meetings and stimulus plans, we highlight 12 eco sub-trends that any marketer or entrepreneur can act on today.

Trendwatching refers to these opportunities as an eco-bounty, and they provide the following definition: “ECO-BOUNTY refers to the numerous opportunities, both short and long term, for brands that participate in the epic quest for a sustainable society. Some of these opportunities exist despite the current recession, others are fueled by it, not in the least because of new rules and regulations. Downturn-obsessed brands who lose their eco-focus will find themselves left out in the cold when the global economy starts recovering.”

They break up their trends into 12 categories, ranging from Eco-Frugal to Eco-Naked. Here are a few items from throughout the list that stood out to me:

• Green building solutions retailer Green Depot has recently opened a flagship store in Manhattan that is designed to demonstrate the high-performance eco building materials in action. A light booth made of recycled resin materials, for example, helps shoppers compare light bulbs and paint colors in a controlled setting, while the Zero-VOC Paint Bar serves up a line of paints free of volatile organic chemicals. See also Natural Interiors and Eco-Logisch.
• Dutch creative agency Spranq has developed a new font called Ecofont that’s specifically designed to extend the life of ink cartridges and toner by using 20 percent less ink than traditional fonts. The free, downloadable font is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux, and works best at a 9- or 10-point size.
• Bixi is a high-tech public bike system in Montreal (even more sophisticated than Paris’ Velib service) to be launched this spring, using bikes equipped with RFID tags that allow users to track availability online via real-time information beamed to the web from the system’s solar-powered bike stands. Users will pay a membership fee of CDN 78 for one year, CDN 24 for one month or CDN 5 for one day, with the first half hour of every trip provided free of charge.
• Crop to Cup is a fair trade coffee brand with a twist. In addition to buying coffee directly from farmers, representing them in markets and reinvesting in their livelihood, the brand also allows customers to trace their cup of coffee back to the farmer that produced it. Which in turn allows them to learn about the origins of the coffee and engage in a dialogue about the product.
• Philadelphia-based RecycleBank enables households to earn RecycleBank Dollars, redeemable for discount coupons at Whole Foods, RiteAid, Starbucks and participating local companies just by leaving their recyclables out to be collected. RecycleBank containers are embedded with identifying barcodes which collection trucks scan to track how much each household is recycling; the more customers recycle, the more they earn in RecycleBank dollars—up to the equivalent of USD 35 per month. (available in parts of Omaha)
• Luscious Garage is the first woman-owned and operated autoshop in San Francisco dedicated to servicing hybrids with a specialty in converting them to all-electrical plug-ins. Since opening in 2007 this unorthodox auto garage has attracted customers seeking a more friendly car repair experience with the garage’s laid back décor featuring plants and books. So far, the vast majority of customers have been Prius owners, but Luscious Garage is planning to diversify beyond hybrids in order to increase the company’s customer base. Which goes to show that ECO-FEEDER businesses may never be the next HUGE thing but they’re sure fun to start up if you’re the niche/long-tail entrepreneurial type.
• Welsh clothing brand Howies offers a line of super-durable clothing called Howies’ Hand-Me-Down that features jackets, backpacks and messenger bags designed specifically to last for 10 or more years. The company crafts its products painstakingly and uses high-quality components like organic tweed and ventile—an extremely tightly woven cotton fabric that is inherently water-resistant and uses 30 percent more yarn than conventional fabrics.
• And from the map gurus themselves: Google Maps Transit Layer, which is available for over 50 cities worldwide, overlays public transport lines onto the main map view, allowing the user to easily plan a green(er) journey to their destination.

With the help of UrbanVelo I was introduced to the Streetsblog Network. The network is a gathering place for web surfers from around the country to discuss and share information about sustainable transportation, smart growth and livable streets. Think of it as one-stop shopping for transportation policy goodness.

The network is a daily news source, online community and political mobilizer for the Livable Streets movement. We are part of a growing coalition of individuals and organizations in cities around the world working to transform our cities by reducing dependence on private automobiles and improving conditions for cyclists, pedestrians and transit riders.

Streetsblog’s purpose is twofold: to create a place where people who blog on smart growth, livable streets and sustainable transportation issues can come together and learn from each other. And to provide a clearinghouse for information related to the transportation bill, or “TEA,” that directs the spending of hundreds of billions of federal dollars. The next such bill is set to come up for reauthorization in 2009.

According the the blog’s editor, “If there is going to be a grassroots movement for change in local and federal transportation policy, then our readers will be among the most active and knowledgeable participants in that movement.”

You’ve got to check it out. I’m amazed at the depth of information to be found. There are crazy links to every imaginable piece of relevant information. And there is a glossary of teams with comprehensive explanation and links to more.

Found this little gem on Urban Velo. I’m so glad to see Gary Fisher investing in the cycling lifestyle with gusto.

When I was working at Fisher, I had the great pleasure of spending time with the man himself. His wild energy and boundless imagination were difficult for me to keep up with sometimes. My philosophy at the time was to listen intently, and take notes furiously. Because I always walked away with a list of ideas that may or may not change the world.

Gary was traveling a lot at the time, and came back from the Netherlands and Asia raving about all of the utility bikes that crowded the streets there. He started talking about the joys of riding slow, and totally integrating bikes into life.

We took a few of his ideas and started creating some city bikes, but nothing that fully captured his vision. Then, after I left, the Simple City came out. That bike was certainly a step closer to Gary’s vision. Now I see that the El Ranchero is in the works.

The El Ranchero is a ‘long-bike’, built to carry massive amounts of cargo. The bike is long for stability and capacity, but when designed properly, still handles well and is relatively lightweight. According the the Fisher designer:

This project was done as a pure concept. We recognize the potential of long tail bikes as a real solution to people’s everyday needs. Everyone needs transportation and everyone needs to transport their stuff. We’d like to help people with that task by making the whole scenario easy. It’s another part of One World - Two Wheels.

Our research showed a real need for people to carry their kids to school, soccer practice, or with them while they run some errands. The supermarket, home improvement store, and transportation to work were some of the common scenarios. To make this all easier, we added a dedicated child’s ‘cockpit’ complete with saddle, bars, and foot pegs. The bags keep your stuff dry, swallow a week’s worth of groceries, and instantly fold up to keep the bike narrow when not needed. We also added a front bag to keep some of the smaller items in easy reach and it’s detachable so you can take it with you. While loading up everything, the double kickstand keeps the bike planted so there’s one less thing to worry about.

I gathered from a friend that just got back from the GF factory show, that this bike is on the list for production. But i wouldn’t expect to see it in the showroom soon. I have a feeling though that Gary is going to be pushing hard to make it happen. Plus, I trust that Aaron, Chris and Mikey up at Fisher are also going to fight the good fight to make it happen. Good luck fellas.

The reign of Toronto’s legendary Igor the Bicycle Thief has ended. He seems to be personally responsible for the City’s reputation as the bike theft capital of North America. This picture shows just some of the 2,000 bicycles police have pulled out of houses, garages and warehouses.

Igor Kenk, 49, was the owner of the notorious Bicycle Clinic bike shop in Toronto. The shop had a long reputation for selling stolen bikes.

Armed with a search warrant, pry bars and rubber gloves, officers raided a tumbledown garage in a muddy back alley on Elm Grove Avenue, one of three more that police cleared of bicycles yesterday after previous raids at Mr. Kenk’s shop, home and a pair of rented garages.

Police uncovered a chaotic mess comprising not only bicycles, but an array of orphaned items including a dead Coke machine, a stack of roofing shingles and a female mannequin sporting an X, made of electrical tape, on each breast.

Katherine Vettese, who lives on Elm Grove Avenue near Igor, said he and his junk-laden pickup truck were a frequent sight in the alley behind her home. “He would always be here with a big, huge pickup truck full of odd stuff,” she said. “All the time.”

I went to a volunteer meeting at Community Bike Shop Omaha (CBSO) this morning. The organizers hosted a series of these meetings as a part of their latest efforts to increase volunteer resources and improve the service hours of the shop.

What they do is pretty noble. With the help of grants and local donors, the shop opened up 2 years ago in the somewhat downtrodden Gifford Park neighborhood of Midtown Omaha. The organizers renovated a blighted residential home (a couple of doors South of California Tacos on 33rd Street) and began stocking up on resources to repair bikes for the neighborhood.

The goal of the organization is to empower kids and adults alike with the knowledge and skills needed to keep their bikes in good working order. The group realizes the power of the bicycle as a positive activity for children and an emancipating form of transportation for those without cars.

Each Wednesday evening and Saturday afternoon the shop opens their doors and invites guests in to learn how to fix their bikes. Guests work hand-in-hand with volunteer mechanics to fix everything from flat tires to broken cranks. Parents are invited to watch their children learn. The offers a fundamental service, but it also provides mentoring and a positive environment for kids who may not always have these opportunities.

I’m a big fan of what they are doing. I’ve had a near lifelong interest in bicycles, and really appreciate what riding bikes did for me as a kid and young adult. And today, as gas prices rise and the cost of car ownership becomes prohibitive, I also realize the power and efficiency of the bicycle for transportation. As our economy suffers the impact of rising food and energy prices, it becomes clear low income segments of our community suffer the most.

I look forward to my first opportunity to volunteer as a mechanic at CBSO. I want to be a part of the great work that they do.

You Can Help
If you are interested in volunteering, or if you are interested in contributing bikes or money, please visit their website to learn more.

In one of the most troubled regions of the world, the bicycle offers the promise of jobs for Afghanis wounded or disabled by war. In Kabul, streets are often clogged with traffic, blocked by security checkpoints and hampered by military convoys. Through this chaos, a bicycle can easily weave, getting from point-to-point far more efficiently than a car.

In 2002 a local NGO started the Disabled Cycle Messenger Services (DCMS) which, like any other bicycle courier service, delivers letters and packages, you guessed it, by bicycle. Many ride with one leg, and must strap crutches to their bikes for use when they arrive at their destination. The couriers don’t make a lot of money, and they ride up to 30 km a day, but they are able to put food on the table. In a country where half of the citizens live below the poverty line, any work, especially for the disabled, is a welcome development.

One employee explains, “Of course it’s hard work, even for an able bodied person. . .But the fact that I can work and I don’t have to sit on the side of the road and beg for money and can provide food for my family gives me a big sense of pride.”

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world with half of its 25 million people living below the poverty line. The country has also been hit hard by the rising global food prices. In a country hopefully moving towards a future of peace and safety, it is good to see signs of hope.

I started the day today in beautiful Midtown Omaha with a healthy crowd of fellow bike commuters. The mayor hosted a press conference and a bike ride to announce several new initiatives for the city.

The event started with a tour of the Omaha Community Bike Shop, followed by a brief speech where the mayor announced a new 20 mile bike loop project in downtown, the formation of a Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee, the kick-off for the 3rd Annual Omaha Metro Bicycle Commuter Challenge (which Harvest designed the graphics and brochures for), and the start of National Bike to Work Week.

The ride rolled out with probably over a hundred cyclists. Our convoy was fully escorted by police in cars and on bikes or motorcycles. For one day of the year, cars were forced to completely concede the roads to bikes. Once we arrived at the river we took a moment to discuss the nearly completed pedestrian bridge that will link Nebraska and Iowa. The bridge will open up endless cross-border fitness and commuter options.

Thanks to everyone who put time into promoting this event. It is great to see such civic support to changing the way our city views transportation alternatives.