30th Annual TCBC Watermelon Ride! - Twin Cities Bicycling Club

NATIONAL N A NEWS
LEAGUE OF AMERICAN
BICYCLISTS 2011
NATIONAL BIKE SUMMIT
By Paul Frenz
Between March 8th and 10th, I
attended my third consecutive
National Bike Summit, sponsored by
the League of American Bicyclists
(LAB) in Washington, D.C. This
Summit kicked off with a dinner
Tuesday night (March 8th). Ray
LaHood, the Secretary of the U. S.
Department of Transportation, was
the keynote speaker and repeated
his personal and the Department’s
continuing support for bicycles as a
mode of transportation.
On Wednesday morning the Summit
began in earnest with an opening
session welcome by Congressman
Earl Blumenauer of Oregon.
Congressman Blumenauer, the
leading bicycle proponent on Capitol
Hill now that Jim Oberstar is no
longer in office there, observed that
Congress has changed since the 2010
elections and that our message
should be: “Don’t cut what you have
not seen.”
Janette Sadik-Kahn, Commissioner of
the New York City Department of
Transportation, spoke about how
New York City has become more bike
friendly by adding bike lanes, bike
boxes, and signage to facilitate the
movement of bicyclists. Ms. Sadik-
Kahn, who is also the President of
the National Association of City
Transportation Officials (NACTO),
announced that NACTO had recently
produced and published online an
Urban Bikeway Design Guide with
state-of-the-art practice solutions
for on-street bicycle facilities. This
Guide was produced because many
of NATCTO’s members found existing
design manuals to be inadequate
and out of date. This Design Guide
can be found at www.nacto.org/
cities-for-cycling/design-guide.
The third speaker at the opening
session was Ken Salazar, the
Secretary of the U. S. Department of
Interior. Secretary Salazar
PAUL FRENZ
emphasized that the outdoor
industry, which includes the bike
industry, creates jobs and that bike
trails on federal lands get people on
bikes, which contributes to the
better health of these bicyclists.
Through the American Great
Outdoors program, Secretary Salazar
hopes to create more bike trails in
both urban and rural federal parks.
Because of the change in the
makeup of the current Congress,
LAB advised the attendees at the
Summit that the message to
Congress, through the state
delegations, should be “ do not cut”
bike-related programs that have
dedicated funding such as
Transportation Enhancements, Safe
Routes to School, and Recreational
Trails. The remainder of Wednesday
consisted of breakout sessions
stressing the various areas of the
Summit’s policy agenda to be
presented to Congress.
On Thursday, with other members of
the Minnesota delegation, I met
with the legislative assistants for
Representatives Betty McCollum and
Michele Bachmann and Senator Al
Franken. We also met with Rep.
Keith Ellison and his legislative
assistant and with Sen. Amy
Klobuchar and her legislative
assistant. From these meetings it
was clear that McCollum, Ellison,
Klobuchar, and Franken would
support the LAB’s policy agenda.
Rep. Bachmann’s legislative assistant
listened to the positions we were
requesting without comment and
did not commit that Rep. Bachmann
would support these positions.
For the activity year that started last
November 1, here are the folks with
the most. Mileages are down somewhat
from a year ago, probably due to
the winter being rougher and longer.
TOP 20 MEN’S MILEAGES
Randall Huskamp 2527
David Wamsley 2185
Scott Weinberg 1916
Matt Younker 1738
Jim Joy 1669
Jeff Ramberg 1580
Dick Voss 1568
Patrick Morford 1540
Ed Hassler 1477
Jim Angle 1395
Richard Miller 1317
George Hagemann 1123
Joe Hamlin 1110
Bob Prudhomme 1015
Charles Breer 988
Jonas Nygard 921
Richard Franco 918
Gregg Erickson 879
Jack Uttermark 836
Steve Yackel 759
TOP 20 WOMEN’S MILEAGES
Katie Angle 1760
Gina McCrone 1121
Susan Evan 986
Melanie Pidgeon 783
Renee Schepers 777
Sandy Thometz 718
Mary Miller 690
Karen Kleiman 647
Rohanda Victorsen 510
Stephanie Croteau 505
Lisa Kingsley 455
Kate Kovar 442
Karen Johnson 426
Kay Mitchell 425
Kimberle Bloom 425
Kathy Mulier 414
Red Rider 355
Mary Nelsen 353
Pamela Jawish 306
Sue Blum 293
RIDE STATS
T S
TOP 10 MEN IN RIDES
David Wamsley 77
Randall Huskamp 71
Patrick Morford 61
Jim Joy 58
Ed Hassler 56
Matt Younker 51
Scott Weinberg 50
Jeff Ramberg 48
Jim Angle 44
Dick Voss 44
TOP 10 WOMEN IN RIDES
Katie Angle 57
Gina McCrone 34
Susan Evan 31
Renee Schepers 30
Melanie Pidgeon 26
Mary Miller 23
Sandy Thometz 23
Karen Kleiman 22
Stephanie Croteau 19
Kay Mitchell 17
LEADING THE MOST RIDES
Randall Huskamp 66
Ed Hassler 33
Jim Joy 26
Jeff Ramberg 21
Loren Schomaker 16
Susan Evan 15
Matt Younker 15
Richard Franco 13
Richard Miller 12
BIGGEST RIDES IN APRIL
4/23 Sleep In Ride Later 36
4/6 Ease into Spring 34
4/9 Har Martian 33
4/29 Friday Metric 30
4/17 Wash County 29
4/25 Apple Valley 200k 29
4/25 Mtka Meander 28
4/10 Sunday Coffee Break 27
4/25 Pink Express 26
4/29 Fridays on Bike 26
SINCE THE LAST LISTING: Huskamp
holds his lead while Younker jumps
way up to fourth. For the women,
Angle pulls away a bit, and Pidgeon
zooms up to fourth.
TWIN CITIES BICYCLING CLUB www.bikeTCBC.org JUNE 2011 TCBC NEWS 23