Cycle in the City Ride – September 10th

The September 10th bike rides, as usual, start at 9 am from the Creekwalk trailhead near the M.O.S.T. on Jefferson Street.

This month’s ride repeats last year’s September ride and goes through many of the city’s parks. Since many of the parks are located on hills, there will be hills on this ride, although nothing that is long and steep. The parks included are Sunnycrest, Lincoln, Schiller, and Thornden (only on the long ride). The rides are about 11 miles and 16 miles long.

(You might be able to find a map of the route here: http://healthyliving.ongov.net/cycle-in-the-city/ , but last time I looked, it listed the August ride and no map was connected to the link.)

But you can find an article about these rides in the Daily Orange.

Cycle in the City Ride this Sunday 7/16

A message from John Allen: Sorry to be a little late this month – things are crazy at home.

This months ride repeats one from last year. The short ride (10.5 miles) is primarily and intentionally in bike lanes. It goes through the university area, which means that it goes up the hill on University Avenue and then up more hill on Comstock. There is one more hill coming back on E Genesee Street. I would not describe it has particularly hilly but there were some people last year who considered it hillier than they liked.

The longer ride (14.5 miles) follows the same route but includes a loop along Nottingham Road, which involves some uphill and then a good downhill to Jamesville Road. Good brakes are needed. We will pass the future location of the DeWitt Library, which is on Jamesville Road.

The rides begin at 9 am from the Creek Walk trailhead in Armory Square. Jefferson Street next to the M.O.S.T.

Sorry that I missed the June ride. My back has pretty much recovered, even surviving a solo drive to North Carolina and back last week. I may be a little slower than usual, having done a total of 18 miles in the past five weeks.

Please come to a DPW Committee meeting to give support to the proposed Euclid Bike Lane plan. The meeting is this Tuesday, July 11th at 5pm in the Common Council Chambers, on the third floor of City Hall, 233 East Washington St. 13202

Members of BikeCNY were given an opportunity to review the current plan and were pleased. We believe it will create a much safer cycling experience and is an acceptable compromise with those who believe that parking must be maintained.

We can expect that there will members of the loyal opposition in attendance, making their position known.  A strong presence by bike lane supporters will help the plan move forward.  

 

Cycle in the City

The June Cycle in the City rides will be on Father’s Day, June 18th, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Creek Walk trailhead on Jefferson Street near the M.O.S.T.

The rides are a variation of a ride we did last year that, for the long ride, includes the Bear Trap Creek trail that runs next to 81N. While there are some hills on the routes there are no steep hills.

In May we had enough people on the longer ride that it would have been better to have divided into two separate groups. If anyone is interested in leading a group on the upcoming long ride, let John Allen (john.allen1@verizon.net) know and he will send the map so that you have time to become familiar with it. He expects that he would lead the second group and probably ride a little slower than the first group.
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A Bike Lane for Euclid? from Jessica Suarez on Vimeo.

The Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council will host a public meeting this Thursday, December 3 at 5:30 p.m. to share potential permanent route options for connecting the Erie Canalway Trail between Camillus and DeWitt, as well as conceptual ideas for transforming specific locations along these routes.

The meeting will take place at the Museum of Science & Technology (500 South Franklin Street) in Syracuse (use entrance across from Sound Garden).

Crucial DPW Committee Meeting on Monday

THE CITY OF SYRACUSE COMMON COUNCIL DPW COMMITTEE MEETS MONDAY NOVEMBER 30TH AT 5:00 PM in Common Council Chambers to Discuss the University Bike Plan.

The Council has been asked to approve funds for designing and implementing this project and there are many questions about it and there is also opposition to it.

If you want to have improved bike infrastructure in the University Area, then please come to this meeting and demonstrate and voice your support.

Cycle in the City Ride Sunday Oct 4th

The October Cycle in the City ride will be this coming Sunday (October 4th) at 9 am beginning at the trail head of the Creek Walk in Armory Square (Jefferson Street). This is the last ride for this year.

Both the short ride and the long ride will use the same route, with a couple of extensions to make the long route longer. The short route is about 11.6 miles long. The long route has an additional loop of about a mile and then a ride out the Creek Walk to Onondaga Lake (and back) at the end.

The route uses a few streets that we have not used (or used much) including Milton Avenue, Green Street, Butternut Street, and Rugby. The routes should be on the City and County (Health Dept) website in the next day or two, hopefully, at http://www.ongov.net/health/documents/October2015Routes.pdf

Setting Our Focus for the Coming Year

Our September BikeCNY meeting is scheduled for this coming Tuesday, September 15th, at 5:45 in the upstairs meeting room at Beauchamp Library.  Beauchamp is on E. Colvin Street at the corner of S. Salina.

As a group whose purpose is to advocate for improvements in cycling infrastructure, we see much work to do. The focus of this meeting is to prioritize our activities and set goals for the coming months and, possibly, years. Some of the issues before us are–

• more bicycle infrastructure, including bike lanes for Euclid, connecting existing bike infrastructure, Creek Walk phase 2, Canal Trails
• increased safety through better infrastructure, such as adding bike boxes, bike traffic lights
• education of bicyclists and other road users, including news editorials, bike rodeos, bicycle commuter training
• Bike Month 2016 events
• be an advisory committee to the new city transportation planner and DPW/traffic planning
• assist the city in applying for Bike Friendly City status
• collaborate with other groups who are promoting bike safety, bike infrastructure, etc.

You may have other ideas. Please join us to share your thoughts and concerns.

Cycle in the City – Sunday Sep 13th

Join a bevy of other folks, both new and experienced cyclists, for another Cycle in the City

When: Sun, September 13, 10am – 12:00 pm

Where: Creekwalk Trailhead, Jefferson St., at the west end of the Armory, Downtown, Syracuse, NY (map)

CYCLE IN THE CITY is a series of FREE guided bicycle rides through Syracuse on various Sundays throughout the year. The last two for 2015 are this coming Sunday, September 13, and Sunday October 4. Please note the new location. The Rides this Sunday start at 10:00 a.m. No registration is required. The Basic ride is 13 miles, but there is also an 18 mile route.

Helmets are required! Riders must be age 12 or older. Questions? Call 435-3280.

Here is a link to the ride maps for this Sunday.

http://www.ongov.net/health/documents/Sept2015Routes.pdf

Routes will be posted the week before each ride at ongov.net/health