In the winter, stone features like this dam along Cresheim Creek stand out.
Saturday morning, I drove to Chestnut Hill and then biked over to Allen Lane Station. From there, I met up with four other people and we walked through the snowing Wissahickon back to Chestnut Hill.
Allen Lane Station to Chestnut Hill West Station
A map we designed for Pennsylvania Enivronmental Council and the Bicycle Coalition was part of a $23 million TIGER grant application that was awarded yesterday!
Last night, Spencer Finch, at Pennsylvania Environmental Council, told me the Philadelphia Inquirer needed a map for an article. I emailed the map to John Duchneskie at the Inquirer, and someone there modified it to work in the paper. The resulting map appeared in a Philadelphia Inquirer Article: New bike paths for region, courtesy of US Stimulus.
The Inquirer did a great job with this map. Newspaper maps look deceptively simple, but it takes skill to design a good newspaper map. The end result is to direct the reader to the most relevant information.
Here are some things worth noting about the Inquirer’s map:
It’s refreshing to see our map transformed by someone else.
On March 1, My daughter Jessica and I are going to my cousin’s presentation in New York City. Here’s a video of my cousin David with Matt Lauer from last summer during the Olympics.
While I’m thinking of New York, I’ve got to register for the Five Borough Bike Ride this week.
Yesterday, my daughter Jessica and I were out shopping for a gift for my wife, Sandi. We visited several jewelry and gift shops in Jenkintown, and ended up here at This Little Gallery on West Ave, owned by an inspiring woman and life-long resident of Jenkintown named Trish Breslin-Miller. Trish wasn’t there, but we were treated so well. Shopping here is a very special experience. You walk in, and the music is really good. Everything about the store makes you feel good. Everything is made by American artists. I took the photos above while we were here.
Sandi and I first met at Bicycle Therapy on South Street. It was the morning of a Bicycle Club of Philadelphia Ride. I’d been a member of BCP in the past and never seemed to make it to the club rides, but this morning Bob Ingersoll had said, “Why don’t you come along.”
I enjoyed talking with Sandi as we biked, even as this crazy ride took us over the 291 Bridge (the expressway-like bridge between the Schuylkill Expressway and the Airport). She had a good attitude about it all, as she did when she later got a flat tire. The next time we got together, it was just the two of us going on a bike ride from her apartment across from the 12th Street Gym, over the Ben Franklin Bridge, along the Cooper River to Cherry Hill, NJ. We crossed back into Pennsylvania on the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, and headed south into Center City (on the subway, I think).
1940 WPA walk map
So, tomorrow for Valentine’s Day dinner, we’re heading to the Valley Green Inn. I proposed to Sandi along a hiking trail in the Wissahickon, upstream from Valley Green. And then we headed to the Valley Green Inn for dinner. I like parks and woods and Chestnut Hill (where we later lived before moving to Jenkintown). And Sandi does too.
This little ad caught my eye as I read some 1932 copies of The Highway Magazine yesterday. Highway Magazine is an amazing walk through history for me, partly because my grandfather edited it from the 1920′s to the 1960′s. I was reading a volume of 1932 magazines because I was interested in what was going on just before Roosevelt took over the presidency from Hoover.
Safety information is something that goes on most bicycle maps. As a parent of two girls, I bicycle with them in conditions that aren’t ideal. My mantra is, “Cars don’t see bikes.”
Inattentive and generally bad drivers are everywhere, even on quiet neighborhood streets with traffic calming. A street, regardless of whether it is pleasant for bicycling or walking, is not good when you get hit by a driver who was looking for vehicles, not people.
The other day, a lady yelled at me because she didn’t see my daughter and I on our tandem as she came up on us from behind. What can you say to somebody like this?
Jeff Appeltans (and Lara) have been doing very cool things in Philadelphia when it comes to bicycling. I probably met Jeff through the Bicycle Coalition or TimeCycle Couriers many years ago. He’s always taken positive steps to promote bicycling in Philadelphia.
Some of the proceeds from the jerseys Jeff sells (above) benefit Neighborhood Bike Works and the Philadelphia Mountain Biking Association. These Jerseys and others are available at http://gocycling.com.
We were talking on the phone today and Jeff mentioned Big Al, Big Al’s website, bicyclebaby.com, and Big Al’s annual “Spring Classic” loop bicycle ride around Philadelphia that is coming up. The ride is modeled after Paris-Roubiax, hence the name “Spring Classic”. Jeff said it has actually been happening for over 20 years, maybe even 25! Big Al lives here in Jenkintown and is forever taking photographs and bicycling around.
I sent Jeff a NE Pennsylvania Bicycle and Hiking Map the other day. We had fun talking about Wayne County and all of the incredible bicycling there. He’s researched this area extensively, and I spent a little time there this fall while field checking the map. As Jeff talked me through his travels, I enjoyed hearing about his favorite roads between Hawley, PA and Hancock, NY. Jeff also showed me a good alternate route to Bicycle PA Route Y that I’ll want to add to the Route Y Maps.
I also mentioned to Jeff, “You’ve got to meet Jim Sayer, the Executive Director of Adventure Cycling.” And interestingly I found myself telling Jim a few hours later, “You’ve got to meet Jeff Appeltans at the National Bike Summit“.
Last week David Byrne, of the Talking Heads, spoke at Academy of Natural Sciences’ Bicycle Forum with a number of other speakers. Someone asked the question about why you can’t go into a bike shop and get a current Philadelphia Bicycle Map. I was glad to hear Alex Doty, the Bicycle Coalition Director, say, “Steve and I just synced our calendars for a meeting about this.” That meeting is today. The bulk of the next two to three months, I’ll be focused on a new bike map series for Philadelphia.
Spring is a busy season. Yesterday I just got copies of the Martin County, Florida map that I just updated. Currently I’m working on edits to maps of the Delaware River Scenic Byway and of San Mateo County, FL. Over the next couple of weeks Gerry and I will design maps for people to use in DC when they meet with their Congressional Representatives. I may edit some maps in the Midwest, and I’ll be working on projects in New York.
Cover of the PA Outdoors Plan
Last night, while the Superbowl was on, I read through the 2009-2013 Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan. Note… I’d suggest starting on page 18 and then go back and read the beginning after you’ve read the more interesting content.
On page 65, the plan says, “Serious work needs to be done to broaden and strengthen the constituency for outdoor recreation.” If you read the content of the plan, you’ll see that it addresses needs for urban, rural and suburban populations. Local and county parks constitute 43% of “Away-from-Home Recreation Activity.” And it talks about goals for street trees and access of urban neighborhoods to nature.
The overall feel of the plan, however, gives me the impression of a romanticized notion of nature: featuring fishing, camping, waterfalls, horseback riding, ATV use, bicycling and hiking trails, etc. I love this stuff, and I think it’s important. But I think most of the opportunities presented here are predicated on one thing: Access (by car).
As was noted in the plan, being outdoors doesn’t have to mean traveling two hours to go to a state park. It mentions having easily accessible outdoor activities that you don’t need a car to get to. Even street trees and community gardens are mentioned.
The Pennsylvania Wilds Conservation Landscape Initiative, which I wrote about yesterday, provides $140 million for enhancing state parks and revitalizing communities. It’s pretty clear to me that this will never be enough. We can’t just take large areas of the state out of private ownership. When Yellowstone National Park (our first National Park), was created, Wyoming wasn’t even a state. And there were still pressures by private interests to control it in order to make a profit.
I was thinking about the fact that 69% of respondents to the State Outdoor Recreation Plan thought there should be more bike lanes. But in many places, there just isn’t space. And I think this demand for bike lanes correlates to peoples’ fear of bicycling in traffic.
So, given that it’s too expensive to buy up all the land, and bike lanes aren’t faring too well outside of Philadelphia, here’s what I wonder. What if, like West River Drive is closed on weekends, all roads in Pennsylvania were closed to cars for two hours a day? Or maybe longer on weekends. People could walk and bike in the streets without fear of cars. This would immediately give people access to the outdoors. It would immediately address the obesity epidemic. It would improve communities. I don’t know all the consequences of this. I think it could start as a statewide experiment – like a four hour car-free Pennsylvania event. It would really bring everyone together around something positive. People could have parties in the streets.
Outdoor recreation – It’s having fun outside. It’s not being in front of a computer or a TV, which are the biggest competition to parks, gardening or sports. And I think it’s under attack by the very modes of transportation that we think we need to enjoy the outdoors.
New Jersey Statewide Bicycle Route Map Project
Some good news. Today on the New Jersey DOT website, it shows that the RBA Group was awarded the New Jersey Statewide Bicycle Route Map Project. Because I’m part of this this team, I am very pleased about this result. I have wanted to map New Jersey for a long time.