Bicycle Advocacy is Hard Work

It was a tough day of tabling at the Meade Street Farmer's Market for Charlottesville Community Bikes here in C'ville yesterday.  I was there for 4 hours, and forgot to bring a chair.  The good ol' Fuji del Rey is being put to work too, holding our banner.  What a great team player.  I was hoping to sell a few raffle tickets and  a couple of t-shirts, but that didn't happen.  Oh well, maybe next time.  We have until Dec. 21st to sell 1,000 of the raffle tickets.  Will we do it?  

Illinois Prairie Path

Have you heard of the Illinois Prairie Path?  I hadn't either!  I was informed about it by local Chicago cyclists when I asked for advice on the best route to take from Oak Park, IL to Lombard, IL.  It is almost 70 miles of bike/walking path that runs from Maywood, IL to Elgin, IL, and was a pleasure to ride as well as efficient.  To start learning about it you can go here.

Ride on the Right Side of the Road!

Have you been taught that you should ride your bike on the left side of the road?  Do you know that is wrong and puts you in more danger?  I just returned from a trip to Illinois.  Somewhere in Ohio near the West Virginia border I saw a kid riding on the left side of the 2 lane highway on which we were driving.  Cyclists are vehicles when they are on the road, and to be most visible and predictable for drivers of cars, they should be acting like any other vehicle and drive on the right side of the road.  For more information on this and other rules of the road check out this great website.