On Your Left
Bicycles, Travel, and Photography
Michigan Bike Summit
Last weekend, March 27, 2010, I attended the Michigan Bike Summit in East Lansing. The event was well attended by cyclists from across the state of Michigan. The keynote was given by Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists. Fresh from the recent National Bike Summit, Andy talked about what it will take to make cycling more prevalent in American society and integrating cycling into the culture. I wrote more about Andy’s talk in a separate blog post.
The summit was sponsored by the League of Michigan Cyclists. You can read their summary.
I was invited to attend the summit to meet Chris Phelan who started the Ride Of Silence. Mark Hagar and Tim Potter are board members of the Ride of Silence and Michigan residents. I’ve been coordinating the Ride of Silence in Arlington Heights for several years. Elizabeth Adamczyk has been coordinating the Chicago Ride of Silence and we had talked about attending the event for several weeks. We drove over Friday night arriving around 1AM. Somehow we each were able to get up in time for the 9AM start of the Bike Summit. We had several opportunities to talk with Chris, Tim, and Mark. I wrote more about the Ride of Silence in a separate blog post.
Left to Right: Elizabeth, Chris, Andy, Gary, and Mark. Photo by Tim Potter using my camera. Thanks Tim.
I attended several talks and met with a few of the vendors.
Rich Moeller and John Lindenmayer talked the League of Michigan Bicyclists web site. If you live or cycle in Michigan, you will be interested in spending some time the web site. It contains an Advocacy Toolkit for those advocating for cycling and an Education Toolkit for cycling education. If those topics interest you, there is a wealth of material available and much of it is applicable no matter where you live.
At lunch I spoke with a cyclist from The Hub. All profits from The Hub of Detroit bike shop support youth and educational programming provided by The Hub non-profit in the form of Back Alley Bikes programming, and outreach youth and educational partnerships in the community. I also spoke with two cyclists from the Jackson Michigan Community Bike program who are training former prisoners in bike mechanics. As I’m a volunteer with Working Bikes Cooperative in Chicago, it was great to meet those with similar interests.
Jean Doss talked about improving advocacy skills. Much of her talk naturally focused on working with the Michigan Legislature. The general skills apply anywhere. Her talk was perfect for after lunch, very high energy.
Jean’s 11 commandments for cycling advocacy are available on the LMB website. These are worth reading if you are involved with cycling advocacy.
The business part of the summit ended with Rich Moeller, director of the League of Michigan Cyclists. His comments are here.
Naturally the event was followed by a bike ride. There were several hundred cyclists attending but only a handful actually rode.
After the ride, we had dinner with several of the Ride of Silence coordinators. We left Michigan around 9PM and drove back to Chicago. It was a long, but worthwhile day.
Tim Potter was taking photographs too. He has shared his at Picasa Thanks Tim for sharing these with me. I won’t comment on the one where I look goofy!
Some additional resources for those interested in Michigan cycling. These are available on the SCRIBD website, which may require you to create a logon before downloading. The first is the 2010 Guide to organized Michigan Bike Rides. The second is the December 2009 magazine of the Michigan League of Bicyclists.
Michigan Ride Calendar http://www.scribd.com/doc/25915657/2010-Michigan-Ride-Calendar
Michigan Cyclist http://www.scribd.com/doc/25293777/Michigan-Bicyclist-Magazine-Winter2010
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[...] weekend I attended the Michigan Bike Summit. Chris Phelan who started the Ride of Silence in 2002 was an invited [...]
[...] Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists (LAB), gave the keynote talk at the Michigan Bike Summit on March 27, 2010. I’ve been a member of LAB for many years so was interested in hearing him [...]