On May 2, 2012, the Poky Pedaling Stevens Point blog went live. At the time, I sensed that creating an online presence for both Bike Fun and local bikey news was a good idea.

At that time, I already had a pretty good idea about the Bike Fun side of things. The 2012 Bike Fun Calendar was set and those Poky Pedals were all ready or close-to-ready for prime time. I had done some promotion, yet I had no idea whether to expect 5 or 50 people to show up for the first Poky Pedal. (Fifteen showed up for that inaugural Poky Pedaling Potluck Picnic.)

Although I was confident that Bike Fun would be well received, I had no idea how that reception would manifest itself. Fortunately, Poky Pedalers proved to be kind and supportive, and I’ve been grateful for all the Bike Fun we’ve shared.

Entering year three, I feel the anticipation around Bike Fun is stronger than ever. I’m looking forward to sharing tons of Bike Fun with an ever increasing gathering of Poky Pedalers.

With regard to the part of PPSP that would cover local bikey news, I had only a vague idea two years ago about how this would unfold. My experience in Portland OR, where I lived for 13 years and became exposed to the excellent BikePortland blog, suggested that having an outlet for reporting on local bikey news could play a major role in making bicycling better. So I figured I’d give it a go, even though I wasn’t certain there would be enough local bikey news to sustain the blog.

Based on what I know now, it is hard to imagine that I was worried about finding enough local bikey news stories to write about.

Here is a list of selected items whose coverage has kept me busy over the past year:

• Stevens Point’s bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community award,
• proposals for bike lanes on major local streets,
• Portage County’s countywide plan for bicycling and walking,
• the opening of Shifting Gears, a community bike shop,
• the addition of bicycle parking requirements for new commercial development in Stevens Point.

As someone who relies on a bicycle for most of my local transportation, I feel my approach to these stories provides an insight not voiced by other media outlets and enables my readers to have more informed opinions about them.

It is important for Stevens Point area residents to be aware of stories that affect the bicycle-friendliness of our region. For this reason, I will present a workshop at the MREA Energy Fair, tentatively scheduled for Friday June 20, entitled “Local Bicycle News: Awards, Plans, Advocacy, and More.”

At this workshop, I will review stories from the past year that impact bicycling in our region. I hope to make attendees more informed about these stories because informed residents are better able to exert influence to improve bicycling where we live. I hope to see lots of Poky Pedalers in the audience of my MREA workshop.

After two years of creating Bike Fun and writing blog posts, I’m delighted with what Poky Pedaling Stevens Point has become. I still learn as I go, and PPSP will adapt to whatever I encounter.

As always, I look forward to sharing Bike Fun with all Poky Pedalers. But I really look forward to sharing that Bike Fun in a city where all bicycle transportation is safe, comfortable, and convenient for all Poky Pedalers. I hope my third year with PPSP sees us all move closer towards this goal.

Send feedback on this post by e-mail: