Firsty, the Brownsboro Sidewalk & Road Diet is up for final approval by Metro Council. Clifton [Heights] Community Councils are calling for public turn-out at the meetings, to hold signs and wear stickers. Be there or send the council a message of support.

Road Diet Vote

Secondy, there will then be an immediate victory-party at Car Free Happy Hour:

Car Free Happy Hour

For a generation, Spring Street has been the canvas upon which Louisville has tried new bicycle facilities. Long the on-street connector for the Beargrass Trail, this was the first bike lane in the city, dating from the 90s or possibly even the 80s.

Obviously, the bicycling facilities engineering has come a long way since then, and some things tried didn't work out. But what is particuarly interesting about Spring Street is that the city has rolled up its sleeves and kept at it, and through a process of iterative corrections, finally made a street that serves both the interests of bicyclists while taking into account the realities of the location.

Today Spring Street uses a combination of bike lanes and shared lane markings (aka "sharrows"). It uses the bike lanes where there is no on-street parking, and it uses sharrows where history has shown a demand on-street car parking. To me it seems like a happy compromise.

Better yet, the sharrows are placed in a very obvious "lane control" position, indicating to bicyclists that if they're going to be traveling in the roadway, they'd better be making it obvious to overtaking motorists that they are truly blockin' that roadway. The sharrow are farther left than the minimum standard, and that's a win for safe cycling.

Bicycle parking is almost impossible for non-bicyclists to get right. Since there is almost no mainstream cultural understanding of bicyclists needs and patterns, its like hiring an english major to design your next airplane - there are dozens of ways they can get it wrong, but really only one way to get it right. There are standards aplenty, but who reads those? Businesses typically do not bother, and big businesses especially. I'm happy to report that the Target at Westport and Hubbards gets it right.

The bike parking is visible in the above panorama at the extreme right side. Look closely for the three red dot bollards. It's only about 100 feet, despite the fish-eye making it look really far.

What defines great shopping bike parking, anyway?

The National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) has produced this animation of AMTRAK service through the years. What's striking is how much better it once was. Louisville had 5 passenger rail links at one point?! Via Grist.

The Highland Commerce Guild wants to promote Louisville as “The Walking Community” and is sponsoring a contest to develop a city wide ten words or less slogan to promote pedestrian and traffic safety. See the attached press release for details.

Update: The email address is incorrect in the press release. Hint: his name is "aaron" not "arron".

Thursday, May 19^th at 2:00 pm in Metro Council Chambers, a metro council subcomittee will examine the Brownsboro Road Sidewalk and Road Diet. If it is passed, and if the Mayor's budget address does not interfere, then it should be on the full Metro Council agenda on Thursday, May 26^th at 6:00 pm. Both events held in Old City Hall.

The neighborhood organizations are asking for people to come out and show support. However, the only opportunity to speak will be at the full metro council meeting on the 26^th, which you must call ahead to request. We'll see about getting signs again, so you can show your support without speaking.

Note: this is an update to a previous post.

Ticket reservations may be made by calling 866-801-3463 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays.
Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/04/22/1716243/my-old-kentucky-dinner-train-to.html#ixzz1KNtjbH9s

The Midwest High Speed Rail Association Annual Meeting is happening again this year in Chicago. Looks like a good set of speakers this year. If anyone manages to go to this, please let us (CART) know!

UPDATE: Kentucky-Indiana Rail Advocates (KIRA) is sending 3 representatives.

What about building one of these connecting UofL to the medical center?

Writes Justin Mog:

UofL is working with Bike Louisville and area neighborhood groups to create an on-street bike facility northbound from Cardinal Blvd providing safe, (s)low-traffic connectivity with our Health Sciences Center downtown. We think this is an ideal test-case for Louisville's first dedicated Bike Boulevard with limited, local-access-only auto traffic. Come share your ideas about how this could work!

When: Thursday, April 21, 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Where: Central Park Info Center