Twenty Second Santa Fe Trail Bicycle Trek Open For Registration

Online applications and information are available for the 22nd Santa Fe Trail Bicycle Trek. This non-profit road tour from Santa Fe, New Mexico to New Franklin, Missouri departs Sept. 11, 2016 and arrives in New Franklin 1,100 miles and 3 weeks later. During the adventure, participants, some of whom have been CCCTS members, ride through northern New Mexico, over Raton Pass, across southeast Colorado, diagonally across Kansas, and into Missouri. The route takes riders past old forts, national monuments, historical markers, historic Santa Fe Trail tracks, and museums and through small towns and major cities, all on paved roads.

A reasonable cost of $58 per day (US $) includes all breakfasts, 3 lunches, all dinners, T-shirt, sag support to carry group and personal equipment, some historic tours, camping, showers, and water and ice on the support vehicles. (Motel rooms are available in many stopover towns but participants make their own arrangements.) Riders and companions with their own support vehicle pay less. (See the website for details.) Not included are other lunches and personal expenses such as laundry fees and admission fees. There is a fee based shuttle from where the trip ends in New Franklin back to the Kansas City Airport or AMTRAK station for rider, bike, and gear.

A $250 (US$) deposit is required and if the minimum of 30 registrants is not reached by the end of March, deposits will be fully refunded. Riders must start the Trek in Santa Fe but may do less than the full 3 weeks. A 40 rider maximum is accepted for the Tour.

Full details, forms, itinerary, and ride schedule are at www.SantaFeTrailBicycleTrek.com. If you need more information, email Willard Chilcott or CCCTS member Ken Levine.

The Santa Fe Trail Bicycle Trek is endorsed by the National Park Service and the Santa Fe Trail Association as an appropriate non-profit educational and recreational event that is in keeping with the resource protection and public use objectives of the Santa Fe National Historic Trail. However, the Tour is not CCCTS affiliated or endorsed.

Appeal to Premier

Note to all CCCTS members. The following advocacy message is brought forward by the BC Cycling Coalition. We support the appeal, and encourage our individual members to participate.

Please send emails both individually and on behalf of any organizations you represent, forward this email to your contacts and share on Facebook.

With the May 2017 Provincial Election looming, Premier Clark has indicated that Provincial spending will increase. This is an ideal time to encourage her to invest in cycling and walking.

Please let Premier Clark know that you want more cycling. Let her know what greatly improved cycling would mean for your family and community.

You can find more details on what we are proposing here.

Email premier@gov.bc.ca and cc: oppositionleader@leg.bc.ca, FIN.Minister@gov.bc.ca, andrew.weaver.mla@leg.bc.ca, hlth.minister@gov.bc.ca, Minister.Transportation@gov.bc.ca, ENV.Minister@gov.bc.ca, claire.trevena.MLA@leg.bc.ca, carole.james.mla@leg.bc.ca, spencer.herbert.MLA@leg.bc.ca, david.eby.MLA@leg.bc.ca, judy.darcy.mla@leg.bc.ca, president@bccc.bc.ca.

Please include our recommendations below in your email:

I call upon the Government of BC to enable everyone in BC to cycle & walk in safety as part of their daily lives by implementing an Active Transportation Strategy that includes:

• Investing $1 billion over the next ten years to:
• Upgrade cycling & walking facilities on provincial roads & bridges
• Complete cycling & walking networks in communities across BC
• Provide safe routes to school for children
• Build trails & routes for cycling & walking tourism
• Ensuring that paths & protected bike lanes can be safely shared by people using wheelchairs, skateboards & in-line skates
• Enhancing cycling education for children & adults
• Promoting cycling & walking
• Encouraging electric bike use by eliminating the PST & providing rebates

As well, please sign the Cycling and Walking for Everyone petition and share it with your friends, family and co-workers.

Thanks!! Ed Fudge, Vice-President, CCCTS.

An Enviable Problem: Dutch Bike Lanes Are Overcrowded

When many people think of urban cycling, they think of the Netherlands. Bikes are so popular in the European country that “bikeculture” has almost become synonymous with Amsterdam. But according to a report by the Dutch SWOV Institute for Road Safety, everyday cycling has amassed such a crowd of regular participants that the bike lanes are getting, well, crowded.

While the sprawling, connected networks of bike lanes in the Netherlands are the envy of urban cyclists from other parts of the globe, they remain insufficient to accommodate the growing numbers of people using them every day. At rush hour, the lanes are overcrowded and crashes are becoming more frequent.

According to the report, some of these collisions are the result of poor decision-making and riding habits among riders. The SWOV set up cameras at four major bike lane intersections in the Hague, and the footage revealed a variety of unsafe behaviors. Around 20% of riders were observed using their phones while riding, 80% pulled out of a lane to overtake without shoulder checking, and a full 5% were observed cycling in the wrong direction the lane. It is this behaviour mixed with swelling crowds, the report notes, that lands around 1,000 riders in the hospital each year because of collisions with other people on bikes. When you take into consideration that over 700,000 trips are made by bike per day in the Netherlands, that number is a little less alarming. However, 1,000 crashes is still 1,000 too many.

The problem is an interesting one to have. In an odd sense it is almost enviable for bike advocates in other countries where trying to convince people to hop on two wheels can feel like pushing a boulder up a hill. The decades-long push for better biking in the Netherlands has been so successful that cyclists are now fighting for space in the lanes. But where it is a triumph for advocates, it signifies that much work is left to be done by planners and policy-makers to keep up with the demand.

In the 1970s, when the push for safer streets in the Netherlands began in earnest, authorities were receptive. By the 198os, most major cities had a strategic plan to improve cycling safety. Fast-forward to today, and the country now boasts 22,000 miles (35,405 km) of bike paths. However, with over a quarter of daily trips made by bicycle nationwide (rising to 38% in Amsterdam and an astounding 59% in the university City of Groningen), the current infrastructure still falls short of what is required.

According to Amsterdamize‘s Mark Van Woudenburg, despite cycling’s popularity, the propensity of urban planners to prioritize cars remains persistent. With a 38% modal share in Amsterdam, cyclists are still only allotted 11% of the space on the roads.

While curbing bad bicycling behavior needs to be one part of the solution to reduce injury on the roads, planners and policy makers also need to continue the momentum that made The Netherlands into the world’s greatest cycling nation by widening the roads, expanding the networks and giving the people on bikes the space they need to safely travel. Many North American bike advocates preach an “if you build it they will come” philosophy towards increasing cycling’s modal share through bike infrastructure. But in this case, the philosophy is reversed. The cyclists are already here, so build the lanes.

Hilary Angus is the Online Editor at Momentum Mag. @HilaryAngus.

Upcoming Tours

• Italy – Apennines to Adriatic Tour
• 2016 Southern Rockies Tour

Upcoming Hub and Spokes

• Snohomish, WA
• Victoriaville, Quebec
• Glaciers & Grasslands: a double Hub & Spoke Tour of BC’s Southwest Interior
• Okanagan Hub and Spoke (Vernon Hub)
• Vancouver Hub & Spoke, August 8-11, 2016