Update Monday May 20, 4:30 PM

The weather forecast has improved a bit for tomorrow’s PPPP. But a chance of thunderstorms in the late afternoon is still being predicted.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see that tomorrow is generally sunny and rainless all day, just like today, yet we might still be unsure at 5:15 PM whether there would be severe weather or not.

Although missing out on Bike Fun would be sad, I will cancel the PPPP if it is apparent that we would be bicycling through bad weather.

I’ll post a weather update by noon tomorrow and another at around 4PM. If there is any reasonable chance that weather conditions will be OK for riding, then I will be happy to share Bike Fun on the PPPP. I’m considering a shortened route to a sheltered park location with benches, just to be sure we can enjoy our picnic even if storms arise.

Check back on this post tomorrow for more updates on tomorrow’s weather and the status of the PPPP.

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The first Poky Pedal for 2013, the monthly Poky Pedaling Potluck Picnic, is scheduled for this Tuesday, May 21. We’ll be meeting in Goerke Park near the entrance to the swimming pool at 5:15 PM and we’ll start riding at 5:30 PM.

There are no signups and all Poky Pedals are free of charge. Just show up with your bicycle and be ready to share Bike Fun.

We will ride 3 to 5 miles to a mystery park location that is different on each PPPP. Upon arrival, we’ll share a feast and the company of other Poky Pedalers. When we’re ready to go, we’ll ride back to Goerke Park, arriving around dusk.

Many people plan ahead and bring food or drink (no alcohol) to share. Our route always stops at a food store, so if you prefer you can simply bring a few bucks and plan to purchase a picnic contribution there.

Gourmets can whip up a salad or dessert to bring along, but veggies and dip or cheese and crackers or a bag of potato chips or a bottle of juice or soda or whatever else tickles your fancy is just as welcome a contribution.

You can learn more on the Upcoming Poky Pedals webpage. If you want more details about what to expect, go to the Poky Pedals menu bar item above and select the Poky Pedaling Potluck Picnics page.

Poky Pedalers should note that the weather forecast (as of Sunday at 6PM) for Tuesday evening indicates a likely chance for rain and thunderstorms. I am hoping that either the forecast is wrong or that by Tuesday evening the rain diminishes to a mist so that it would still be pleasant to ride to a sheltered picnic location.

Check this blog (or my Twitter feed) for a weather update Monday afternoon and Tuesday  before noon. And if it is really borderline, I’ll post an update Tuesday at around 4PM.

I look forward to sharing Bike Fun with all Poky Pedalers. See you on Tuesday.

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Yesterday’s meeting was very well attended with over 100 people present. The project staff had excellent poster displays covering the walls of the room.  For various segments of the corridor, these posters displayed current numbers for traffic volumes and right-of way geometries (including widths of travel lanes, medians, sidewalks, and other existing features). There was also aerial photography showing how the various proposed alternatives would situate on the current streetscape. These data and images are crucial for understanding the potential tradeoffs and for making informed suggestions about new alignments.

A presentation was given to describe preliminary alternatives for the corridor. These alternatives are starting points for evaluating tradeoffs as well as for identifying potential implementation alternatives on a block by block basis. The main alternatives provided include 2-lane and 4-lane options, each with either a raised center median (such as currently exists near NorthPoint Dr) or a center two-way left turn lane (such as currently exists between Fourth Ave and Maria Dr).

Features in the alternatives that are not currently present (or present to only a limited degree) along the corridor include terraces (grass strips between the road surface and the sidewalk) and bike lanes. In addition, the project wants to widen travel lanes to provide 12′ lanes for truck traffic. Currently in certain parts of the corridor, travel lanes are only 10′ wide.

In the areas of the corridor where the right-of-way width is constrained, adding a median,  widening lanes, and installing terraces and bike lanes pose a challenge. Lane reduction (from the current 4 lanes to 2) can provide some room for these features. If more width is needed, the city would have to acquire additional right-of-way from the property owners along the corridor. As would be expected, this possibility has raised a great deal of concern from home and business owners along the corridor, evidenced by many of the questions asked after the presentation.

The presentation touched on advantages and disadvantages of the preliminary alternatives. This overview demonstrated that there are no easy answers. The citizens and community leaders of Stevens Point will need to decide what is most important and what negative impacts can be tolerated in order to arrive at a reconfiguration of the Division/Church corridor that best suits the needs of the city and its residents.

People riding bicycles need a way to access businesses along this corridor, which are located primarily north of Fourth Ave and south of Patch St. Providing appropriate infrastructure for safe bicycling in these sections would satisfy this critical need. For Stevens Point to enhance its vibrancy in order to attract more people to visit and relocate here, quality infrastructure for bicycle and foot traffic in these sections is a requirement, not a luxury.

Between Fourth Ave and Patch St, having bike lanes is certainly desirable. Since this is the most width-constrained portion of the corridor and is primarily residential, other approaches for accommodating bicycle traffic is likely to be considered. Along this stretch of the corridor, a lower level of service for bicycle traffic can be tolerated.

Poky Pedalers should keep informed about this project and be sure to let the project staff know what sort of bicycle infrastructure you would like to see. There are sections of the corridor where it is clearly feasible to create no-drive buffers between the motor vehicle lanes and bike lanes. This sort of separated bike lane, if designed properly, can make bicycling to destinations along this corridor feel safe and comfortable.

On a sunny Green Circle bicycle ride along NorthPoint Dr en route from Schmeeckle Reserve to the Sculpture Park, wouldn’t you like a safe and comfortable bicycle lane along Division for a quick 1/4-mile detour to the soon-to-be-open Culver’s?

And after bicycling with your children to a Saturday matinee at the UWSP campus-area Rogers Cinema, how about a safe and comfortable way to bike over to Coldstone for a post-film ice cream treat?

These are the sorts of bicycling trips on the Division/Church corridor that our city needs to accommodate.

Stevens Point’s webpage about this project can be accessed through this link. Presentation slides from both the January meeting and last night’s meeting can be downloaded from that page. Many of the posters on display at last night’s meeting are not included among the presentation slides. Project staff said that they would make these posters available on the project website soon, and I’ll post something on the blog when that happens.

Comments from the public about the preliminary alternatives are being solicited. You can either send e-mail comments or written comments through the US Mail. The deadline for this round of comments is June 16.

If you want to e-mail your comments, send to both of the following:

• Bruce Gerland, Consultant Project Manager, AECOM: bruce.gerland@aecom.com
• Scott Schatschneier, Director of Public Works, City of Stevens Point: sschatschneider@stevenspoint.com

If you send through the US Mail, send to:

Bruce Gerland, PE
AECOM
200 Indiana Avenue
Stevens Point, WI 54481

Project staff expects its next public meeting to take place in the fall. At that meeting, block-by-block detailed potential alternatives will be on display for consideration. They also mentioned that designs for some of the more crash-prone intersections would be proposed at that meeting.

A good way to keep track of what is going on with this project is to select Speak Your Poky from the menu bar above and select the Division/Church St Corridor Study. I will keep that page updated with the latest publicly available information and the ways you can express your opinions to project staff.

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The agendas for each meeting were similar. For that reason, my comments are a conglomeration of the discussions at the three separate meetings.

I was able to attend the Technical and Urban meetings, but was unable to attend the Rural meeting. Fortunately, I received input from two members in attendance at the Rural Steering Committee, Neil Prendergast and Brad Mapes-Martins. I want to thank them for enabling me to include content discussed at the Rural meeting in the summary below.

Discussion of Bicycling and Walking Issues
The meetings had open discussion among the committee members about challenges, barriers, and other issues for those who bike and walk in Portage County. Many of the themes brought up for discussion are outlined below:

• upcoming street and other Public Works projects expected in the next few years that are opportunities for improving bicycle and foot traffic infrastructure
  • Division/Church/Post corridor
  • North Reserve
  • Bukolt St
  • Hwy 54/Maple Dr intersection (roundabout being considered)
  • County J
• Stevens Point bicycle network
  • recently implemented bike route signage
  • problem crossings of Division near UWSP
  • good bike network links on Prais and Indiana
• urban area connections to outlying areas
  • Hwy 10 crossing of I-39 to Target/Fleet Farm area
  • Hwy 10/Brilowski/County R intersection
  • HH between Hoover and Crossroad Commons area
  • Hwy 66 (Stanley) under I-39
  • County B under I-39
  • Okray Ave connection to Plover
  • paths to Galecke Park
  • N Second to County X in Hull
• Green Circle issues
  • Clark St bridge crossing
  • HH crossing in Whiting
  • Hwy 66 crossing in Hull
  • awkward crossing of NorthPoint/Division intersection
  • awkward crossing of Post/Porter/Tommy’s Turnpike intersection
  • airport fence project which now looks to be constructible while keeping Green Circle path available
  • plans for foot and bike traffic counts on the Green Circle
• creating rural bicycle networks to connect villages to each other and to county parks
  • Lake Emily
  • Sunset
  • Standing Rocks
  • Ice Age Trail area
  • Mead Wildlife Area
• safety concerns for transitions from Village of Amherst to the surrounding rural areas
• identification of rural roads that are suitable for safe travel by bicycle
• removing dangerous gaps for people on bikes traveling west of the urban area
  • improving routes to Wisconsin Rapids, Junction City
• sidewalk gaps
  • near Washington School
  • HH in Whiting west of Hoover
  • north side of Main/Hwy 10 in Park Ridge area and east of I-39
  • access to bus stops
• political obstacles to building sidewalks where influential private landowners do not want them
• safety efforts and concerns from Stevens Point and Plover police
  • enforcement of traffic ordinances as they apply to people riding bicycles
  • bike safety rodeos at schools
  • crashes involving people riding bicycles
  • funding/staffing limitations on safety efforts

Overall, these discussions provided good input to the project consultants about biking and walking issues in Portage County.

Base Maps, Heat Maps, and Bicycle Demand Corridors
A series of maps were presented by the project consultants, Tom Huber and Kevin Luecke of Toole Design Group. To start, a Base Map of the county showing existing bicycle routes, multi-use paths, and bike lanes was presented. This included small insets of the rural villages and a separate map of the Stevens Point/Park Ridge/Whiting/Plover urban area.

This map was the starting point for the interactive WikiMap that has been available for public comment since January. The WikiMap provides a convenient way to mark locations and routes and to comment on both positives and negatives with regard to traveling by bike or on foot. For more background on this interactive WikiMap see this PPSP post.

To date, a total of about 550 comments have been entered on the WikiMap. Roughly 400 comments mentioned bicycle issues and 150 comments mentioned walking issues. Comments continue to be added to the WikiMap, and the consultants indicated that they will continue to gather WikiMap comments for another 2 months or so (mid-July timeframe).

The WikiMap comments indicate the popular routes which people tend to travel on by bike and by foot. A map highlighting these routes was shown. The consultants then pointed out the similarities between this map of popular bike and foot traffic routes and a separate map indicating streets with high motor vehicle traffic volume. The takeaway from this is that the places people tend to drive motor vehicles are the same places people want to ride bicycles and walk.

Some rationales for this similarity were discussed:

• Popular destinations are located on these high traffic volume routes, and people on bikes and on foot want to go to the same places.
• High traffic volume routes are often the most direct routes to travel from one place to another, and people on bikes and on foot also want to travel on direct routes.
• People on bikes often are unaware of nearby calm streets and only know the streets they typically drive on when they want to use a bicycle to get to a destination.

The presentation then shifted to a different set of maps called Heat Maps. Heat Maps measure latent demand for bicycling and walking. On a Heat Map, each spot on the map is assigned a color from ‘cold’ to ‘hot’ that indicates how close that spot is to various features that suggest potential for increased bicycle and foot traffic. For bicycle Heat Maps, 4 features are considered: housing and population density, schools, paths and trails, and travel barriers. For foot traffic Heat Maps, these 4 features plus the location of bus stops are used.

Separate Heat Maps for bicycle and foot traffic were generated for the urban area of the county. These Heat Maps are available in the meeting packet here. (This link is to the Urban meeting packet – the other meeting packets have the exact same maps.) Project consultants explained that Heat Maps were not provided for the rural area due to an insufficient number of features for such maps to be useful.

When asked how these Heat Maps are used, the consultants answered that given a collection of recommended modifications to the existing bicycling and walking networks, these Heat Maps give guidance on how to prioritize these recommendations. Improving infrastructure in a warm zone is likely to attract more bike and/or foot traffic than doing so in a cool zone.

The presentation then provided an brief overview of how bicycle demand corridors are developed. Influencing factors for a given street include motor vehicle traffic volumes and speeds, crash data, and destinations. This data coupled with other analysis will suggest a suitable bicycle network for the county.

Plan and Policy Review
A Plan and Policy Review document was created by the project consultants. To produce this document, the consultants reviewed existing plans, policies, and ordinances for Portage County, the city of Stevens Point, and the villages of Plover, Park Ridge, Whiting, Almond, Amherst, Amherst Junction, Junction City, Nelsonville and Rosholt. Items that relate to bicycling and walking were identified, and summaries of these bicycling and walking items were collected into the Plan and Policy Review document. For items that, in the opinion of the consultants, required updates, recommendations of how these items should be updated were made.

The items in this document covered a variety of topics. Some examples are bicycle registration, sidewalk requirements in zoning ordinances, and proposed routes for future extensions to existing bicycling and walking networks. The full 25-page document can be found in this meeting packet. (This is the same meeting packet link as above - the other meeting packets have the exact same document.)

A few items from this document were brought up for discussion. These included

• the general guidelines for sidewalks near schools based on state-level policy,
• the lack of clarity in how Stevens Point regulates Bicycle Ways in its ordinances.

The content of this document and its recommendations will be a piece of the final bike/ped plan.

PPSP Final Comments
I’m quite pleased at the progress I see the consultants making on the Portage County Bike/Ped Plan. I look forward to seeing more of what they produce as they synthesize all the data and comments they have collected.

I learned that the consultants are in the process of doing a survey of selected area streets and paths by bicycle. An over-the-handlebar view is a great way to really absorb the high points and challenges for those who bike and walk.

Poky Pedalers are encouraged to complete a survey assessing county-wide bicycling and walking habits. More background about this survey can be found on a recent PPSP blog post. The deadline for completing this survey is May 31.

Poky Pedalers are also encouraged to continue entering comments on the interactive WikiMap. This PPSP post tells more about this excellent way for you to give feedback on what you encounter when you ride your bike.

The next round of committee meetings will probably happen in early July. I’ll continue to keep Poky Pedalers informed of what is happening with this important planning project.

If you want to learn what has happened on this bike/ped planning project since it started about 6 months ago, select Speak Your Poky from the menu bar and choose the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project link.

Disclosure: Bob Fisch, Chief Bike Fun Officer of Poky Pedaling Stevens Point, is a member of the Urban Steering Committee for the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project. Posts about this project appearing on the PPSP website are part of a broader PPSP effort to keep readers informed of bikey news in our area. Nothing posted on the PPSP website should be considered to be official communication from the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project. The official website for this project can be accessed at http://portagecobikepedplan.wordpress.com.

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A second public meeting is scheduled for Thursday May 16 from 5:30 PM to 7 PM at Jefferson Elementary School (1800 East Ave). According to an announcement on the city’s website, “this meeting is intended to present preliminary alternatives to address the current deficiencies” of this corridor.

The announcement mentions that the meeting will be an open house format with a short presentation at 5:45 PM. All members of the public are invited to attend.

This project is an excellent opportunity to improve the infrastructure along the Division/Church corridor to make it safer and more comfortable for Poky Pedalers to bicycle to the many businesses located on this corridor.

The project scope also includes improving corridor crossings to make them safer. There are several popular intersections where crossing Division or Church by bicycle or on foot can often feel unsafe.

This public meeting will be a great way to learn what is being considered by project staff and to influence future decisions on what to build. All Poky Pedalers are encouraged to attend. If you need to get caught up on what happened at the first meeting, you can read my report on it here.

The actual construction won’t start for at least 3 years and will probably be phased over 5 or more years. But the planning on what to build is happening now, so now is the time to voice your opinions.

The city webpage on this project can be accessed here. A link to a PDF of what I presume are the meeting presentation slides is also available from that website – click the “Project Presentation” link in the left column.

To keep up-to-date on this project, click the Speak Your Poky link on the menu bar above and select the Division/Church St Corridor Study link. This is where Poky Pedalers can access my previous posts on this project, find out public meeting times and locations, and learn of other ways to voice your opinions.

I hope Poky Pedalers take advantage of this opportunity to encourage the installation of state-of-the art bicycle infrastructure on this vital commercial corridor in Stevens Point.

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The Urban Steering Committee will meet on Tuesday May 14 from 4 PM to 5:30 PM in Conference Room 5 of the Portage County Annex Building (1462 Strongs Ave).

The Rural Steering Committee will meet on Wednesday May 15 from 6 PM to 7:30 PM in the Amherst Village Hall at 160 Mill St in Amherst. (Note: The Portage County Bike/Ped Plan website has this day incorrect in one instance. Wednesday May 15 is the correct day for the Rural Steering Committee.)

Packets containing agendas and other information are available from a post on the Portage County Bike/Ped Plan website. I copied the packet links below:

• Urban Steering Committee 5/14 (4.5 MB PDF)
• Rural Steering Committee 5/15 (4.5 MB PDF)

The agendas for the two meetings are similar, differing in their focus on the urban or rural areas of the county. A summary of the primary agenda items follows.

There will be a discussion of a 25-page document included in each packet outlining existing plans, policies and ordinances for Portage County as a whole, for Stevens Point, and for each of the villages in the county. Recommendations for updates are also included. It’s pretty wonky stuff, but these items are the nuts and bolts that influence the quality of the bicycling and walking networks where we live.

Next will be a discussion of ‘heat maps’ which identify latent bicycle and foot traffic demand in the county. These heat maps are included in the packets. Discussion will center on how these maps are created and what they indicate.

A discussion of bicycle demand corridors and the study network will follow. An overview of factors to consider will be given. These include things like traffic speeds, crash data, and destinations. The overview will lead into a discussion of an appropriate network.

Finally, there will be a general discussion of bicycling and walking challenges, barriers, and issues. Committee members will be asked to express their opinions and to suggest solutions.

Poky Pedalers who are interested in these items are encouraged to read over the packets and attend the Steering Committee meetings. At past meetings, attendees not part of the committees were permitted to speak and contribute their opinions. I can’t promise how the meetings will be run this time, but I suspect you’ll have an opportunity to add to the conversation.

For those unable to attend, I will create a PPSP post summarizing what occurs at the Urban meeting. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it out to Amherst for the Rural meeting, but I will try to gather comments from a couple of the Rural Steering Committee members who do attend. You can learn what happened at the upcoming meetings by visiting the PPSP blog late next week or early the following week.

More information about this project can be found by clicking the Speak Your Poky link on the menu bar above and selecting the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project link. Poky Pedalers will find information there about the various ways to voice your opinions to project staff about biking and walking in Portage County. You will also find links to all my past blog posts on this project.

Disclosure: Bob Fisch, Chief Bike Fun Officer of Poky Pedaling Stevens Point, is a member of the Urban Steering Committee for the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project. Posts about this project appearing on the PPSP website are part of a broader PPSP effort to keep readers informed of bikey news in our area. Nothing posted on the PPSP website should be considered to be official communication from the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project. The official website for this project can be accessed at http://portagecobikepedplan.wordpress.com.

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In the year that has passed, I enjoyed sharing lots of Bike Fun with Poky Pedalers. I look forward to sharing more this year.

Although the PPSP website is fueled by Bike Fun, its scope is broader. I have always envisioned this website to be a resource for bicycle-themed news likely to be of interest to Stevens Point area residents.

By the term ‘bicycle-themed news’, I don’t mean a listing of area bicycle rides, although I have covered some bike rides that I felt Poky Pedalers would have interest in.

To me, here’s what ‘bicycle-themed news’ refers to:

• local street projects that are likely to affect the quality of our bicycling environment,
• activities of bicycle advocacy groups whose successes make bicycling safer and more convenient,
• statements and actions of elected officials and their staff at all levels of government regarding bicycling as transportation,
• bicycle infrastructure in other cities, other states, and other countries that can inspire us to improve our small city,
• bicycle culture on display elsewhere that broadens our horizons of what it means to be a Poky Pedaler sharing Bike Fun.

The public conversation about bicycling traditionally focuses on the ‘elite 1%’: those on highly technical bicycles riding 50-100 miles or more regularly at speeds over 20 MPH. I feel it is terrific that this ‘elite 1%’ – a figurative label more than an actual quantitative measure – is so passionate about their type of bicycling.

But the other 99% - ordinary people riding ordinary bikes in ordinary clothes to ordinary places – deserve safe, comfortable, and convenient ways to use a bicycle to get to work, to take their families to the movies, to pick up a few things at the grocery store, and to simply enjoy the journey on a sunny day. The other 99% deserve a voice, too.

I have always envisioned that Poky Pedaling Stevens Point would enable that voice.

Bike Fun inspires Poky Pedalers to ride bicycles around the Stevens Point urban area. The PPSP blog and Twitter feed enable Poky Pedalers to visualize possibilities for our urban bicycle network. The Speak Your Poky page empowers Poky Pedalers to take action in making these possibilities real. And as this reality takes shape, our opportunities for Bike Fun will magnify. This is what Poky Pedaling Stevens Point is all about.

Looking back on the past year, I’m satisfied with my efforts creating the PPSP website. And I look forward to building on this foundation in Year Two and beyond.

Now that we’re finally seeing temperatures that make being outside more pleasant, I look forward to sharing lots of Bike Fun with Poky Pedalers in the months to come.

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Last year, Stevens Point finished in 11th place among all cities in the United States. We were in the top 10 going into the last couple of weeks, but strong final pushes by Houghton, MI, and Iowa City, IA, knocked us back a few places. You can read my writeup about last year’s competition here.

The Challenge is free for all participants, and it is easy to sign up. Just go to www.nationalbikechallenge.org, click on the Join button, enter your info, and you’re ready to participate.

Points are assigned for each day you ride as well as for each mile you ride. Someone riding one mile in a day earns over half the points as someone riding 20 miles in a day. So you can achieve a respectable score, and help move Stevens Point into the Top 10, even if you only ride a few miles once in a while.

You can read the rules of the Challenge here. And if you have more questions, you can check out this Challenge FAQ page.

The Challenge is presented by the League of American Bicyclists. The actual tracking of days and miles ridden is on the Endomondo website.

In parallel with the 2013 National Bike Challenge, the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin is running the 2013 Wisconsin Bike Challenge. When you log your miles for the National Bike Challenge, those miles will automatically count towards the Wisconsin Bike Challenge (assuming the zip code you register with is in Wisconsin). You can visit the 2013 Wisconsin Bike Challenge webpage here.

New this year, I created a Poky Pedaling Stevens Point team. Any Poky Pedalers who want to magnify their Bike Fun and be part of the PPSP team can join when they signup for the Challenge. Simply enter Poky Pedaling Stevens Point when offered a choice of teams to join.

Poky Pedalers have lots to look forward to in the months ahead. The 2013 National Bike Challenge is just another way to share your Bike Fun. I hope you participate and help move Stevens Point up in this year’s standings.

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All Portage County residents, whether they bike or walk a lot, a little, or not at all, are asked to complete the survey by May 31.

I completed the survey this morning. The questions are fairly straightforward with multiple choice selections for answers. The instructions estimate that the survey should only take about 15 minutes. From my experience, that seems about right.

The instructions state that the information gathered by the survey is confidential and is only to be used for the development of the Portage County Bike/Ped Plan.

Those filling out the survey are asked things like the purposes of their bicycle and walking trips (commuting, errands, exercise, etc.), as well as the frequency of choosing bikes and feet for each such purpose. Some questions ask you to indicate the types of biking and walking infrastructure that you typically use, as well as the sorts of infrastructure improvements you would like to see. There are also questions asking your opinions about the sorts of things that keep you from biking or walking more frequently. There is more, but this gives a pretty good idea of the sorts of things you can expect to be asked about when you take the survey.

Those creating the Portage County Bike/Ped Plan will benefit from a large number of survey responses representing a broad cross section of people from both urban and rural areas of the county. This is why all Portage County residents are asked to take a few minutes and fill it out.

The survey can be accessed from a blog post on the Portage County Bike/Ped Plan website. Click this link to access that blog post, and then click the link in that post which takes you to the survey.

After finishing the survey, you might feel that you want to give more specific information about places where biking and walking either works well or needs improvement. The Portage County Bike/Ped Plan website has an interactive map specifically for allowing you to provide such feedback. You can read a PPSP blog post about this excellent feedback tool here.

Disclosure: Bob Fisch, Chief Bike Fun Officer of Poky Pedaling Stevens Point, is a member of the Urban Steering Committee for the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project. Posts about this project appearing on the PPSP website are part of a broader PPSP effort to keep readers informed of bikey news in our area. Nothing posted on the PPSP website should be considered to be official communication from the Portage County Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Project. The official website for this project can be accessed at http://portagecobikepedplan.wordpress.com.

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In the snowy weather months, I walk pretty much all my local errands. I do not own a bike suitable for icy roads – something I hope to rectify before next winter. Fortunately, my usual destinations are all within a couple of miles of where I live, I enjoy walking, and I have time to walk.

But this doesn’t mean that I don’t miss hopping on a bike to get around during the winter.

I’ve been waiting for a good day to run an errand on the far east side of town, and with today’s sunny weather and temps approaching 50 degrees, I decided that today was the day. The bike I usually ride, a Breezer Uptown 8, needs a bit of maintenance, so instead I rode my Brompton folding bike. It has been stored indoors all winter – a great convenience of a folding bike – and merely needed some air in the tires before riding off.

I ended up riding a round trip of about 10 miles. It felt really good to be back on a bicycle with the sun shining down. I didn’t even mind the headwind I faced all the way back. There’s just a good feeling I get riding a bike that is missing when walking, taking transit, or driving a motor vehicle.

Over the weekend, I see the forecast is for more sun with temps approaching 70 degrees. I have a feeling pretty much all of Stevens Point will cancel all plans for indoor activity and will be out and about to embrace the good weather. And I anticipate that a large number will be out and about on bikes.

Poky Pedalers might want to get their bikes out of storage and pump up the tires in anticipation of the weekend. Whether it’s just a couple of miles on the Green Circle or a longer journey getting reacquainted with our wonderful network of calm streets, a bike ride on a nice sunny day will certainly lift your spirits.

It’s just plain fun to ride a bike.

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