Join Us for a Free Webinar on Writing Women Back into Bicycling!

Photo Credit: landrys.com

Free Webinar: Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals'
“Writing Women Back into Bicycling: Changing Transportation Culture to Encourage More Women to Cycle”
Date & Time: Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 2-3 p.m.
Location: Trailnet, 1533 Washington Ave, St. Louis MO, 63103

The presentation “Writing Women Back into Bicycling: Changing Transportation Culture to Encourage More Woman to Cycle,” hosted by APBP, will focus on how to get more women cycling. Some say that transportation culture will change when more women participate in cycling. What can we do to make that change happen? Join us for this free webinar to find out! Women and men are encouraged to attend.

If you would like to join us, please RSVP to Emily, emily@trailnet.org.

As part of this project, women and girls are invited to take a "snapshot in time survey” at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/womencycling. We would like to hear from non-cyclists as well as current and past cyclists. Preliminary survey results highlighted during the webinar; final results available after May 15, 2010 when the survey closes.

Come to City Sound Tracks This Saturday!

http://www.citysoundtracks.org/

Support the maintenance and expansion of public transit in St. Louis in a really fun way! City Sound Tracks is an all-day music festival taking place this Saturday, March 27, 10:00 am-10:30 pm. It stars 27 local musical groups at Tom's Bar and Union Station, with trains running every 10 minutes. Admission is FREE, and the cost of an all-day metro pass is $7.50, which will not only allow you to immerse yourself in the local music scene of our very own talented St. Louis artists, but you will also be supporting efforts to make St. Louis a more vibrant, upbeat (haha pun intended) place. Not to mention, the T-shirt is pretty sweet. See you there!

Google Maps Bike Routing Feature Released

Caption: Google Maps bike layer indicated in Green

Many have been waiting for Google to release a biking feature in Google Maps. Well, it's here! Under the "More" drop down menu or "Get Directions" bar you can turn on a bicycling layer that reveals bicycling routes. The route colors indicate the following:

• Dark green: dedicated bike-only trail
• Light green: dedicated bike lane along a road
• Dashed green: road designated or preferred for bicycling, but without dedicated lanes

Those who bike will quickly realize the map's deficiencies but Google seems to be well aware that local knowledge is needed to improve how the routes are indicated. Don't like what you see? Is a critical route left out? Are their barriers that need to be taken into account? You can report problems with suggested routes after you hit the "Get Directions" button. Follow the link in the yellow box. (See picture below.)

Though the current iteration of the Google Maps biking feature isn't perfect, it is a great start. Tools such as this create even more access for people who want to bike but need help figuring out their routes. Google's biking feature can only be as good as the information they have so it's important that we share our local knowledge about the best routes in St. Louis. After the upcoming St. Louis Bike Plan is finished, we will have even more up-to-date route information. Perhaps we can submit our full plan to Google?