“Streets are not just for cars.” — Jim Licinski, Google

At the National Bike Summit today, Peter Birch from Google announced the debut of bicycling directions for Google Maps. Cyclists can enter their starting point and destination, select “bicycling,” and get a route favoring bike-friendly roads and paths.

A partnership with the Rails to Trails Conservancy will help gather the best trail and path information. But crowdsourcing will be vital in keeping the maps and routes accurate. Cyclists can submit their own corrections and suggestions.

We must mention the Google Maps Bike There blog and petition, the rallying point for getting Google to provide this service. Apparently their job is done, but they have plenty of other stuff worth reading. We hope they will continue.

Try Google Maps bike directions for yourself. You may be surprised how well it works, even at this early stage. It will only get better and better, as more and more cyclists add their tweaks and suggestions.

VBF is at the Bike Summit every year, and this year will be no exception. So far, I’ve heard that Champe, Bud, Barbara, Sheryl, and Allen will be present, though maybe not all of them for the whole thing.

The Summit’s “main event” is meeting with Virginia’s senators and congressmen, and VBF arranges these visits. So if you’re coming to the Summit from Virginia, please Active Community Transportation Act, just introduced by Earl Blumenaur, along with other bike legislation on the League’s list. Stay tuned for more.

Of particular interest to me is the social media session at 2:30 pm on Wednesday. As bike advocates, communication is the essence of what we do. But we can all do better in getter our message out. Join the folks behind StreetsBlog.org, BikePortland.org, social media consultant Paul Miser and others to learn how.

See the agenda for more of what’s going on.

Bring your bike, ride to the days’ events, ride with all the rides that will crop up, and ride with the Congressional Bike Caucus, Friday March 12, 8:30-11:00 am.

We hope to see you there!

If you’re going to the Bike Summit next week, please ask your legislators to support H.R.4722, the Active Community Transportation Act.

From the Alliance for Biking and Walking:

Representative Earl Blumenauer introduced the Active Community Transportation Act, H.R.4722, on 3/2/10. This groundbreaking bill creates a competitive grant program with $2 Billion to help communities build bicycling and walking networks. For the first time, communities would be able to compete for multi-year funding to build active transportation systems, just as they do for transit and road infrastructure.

Though many of you will be coming to DC next week for the National Bike Summit, this is a great opportunity for other leaders and members of your organization not traveling to DC to participate in an important way. Working with our America Bikes partners, we encourage your organization to participate in a Virtual Lobby Day next Thursday. [continue reading…]

Rueben Williams was a talented young artist from Roanoke, tragically killed this Tuesday while riding his bike home from work. This video tells the story, with additional commentary by our own Barbara Duerk:

Please see the accompanying page at WDBJ, with additional video and photos; and especially the Roanoke Times article that tells more of Williams’ story. Note that he was featured for his art while he was still in high school — on WDBJ, and by the Roanoke Times.

An unfinished life indeed.