I attended the Advocacy Committee meeting of the Springbike Bicycle Club this evening. I’m a new member of that organization, and I wanted to get plugged into the organized effort to make Springfield a more bike-friendly community. I was impressed with what I heard.
The meeting was well attended and included representatives from state and local government and NGOs such as Ozark Greenways.
I don’t intend to give a full report of the meeting. I attended as a new member, not as a reporter. But that will change as time goes by. I do intend to make this blog an outlet for biking news. I have a lot to learn yet about the organized advocacy effort.
I did speak up once in the meeting regarding commuter issues–specifically that bicycle commuters are an under-served group compared to the “thin-tire” crowd. A person who wishes to become a commuter faces two problems. The first problem is obvious: America’s streets can be inhospitable to all but automobiles. The second problem is not so obvious: The commercial and social culture of cycling in America is set up largely to serve the interests of sport bikers, i.e. road bikers, mountain bikers–those who ride for pure enjoyment or sport. Hey, I love these folks, too. And our interests are largely the same.