A Cycling & bikes forum. CycleBanter.com

Go Back   Home » CycleBanter.com forum » rec.bicycles » General
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

May 6 NYC NBG Day to Honor Fallen Bike Activist



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old April 11th 05, 04:15 PM
Cycle America
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default May 6 NYC NBG Day to Honor Fallen Bike Activist

On March 29, noted New York City Transportation Alternatives bike
activist, Noah Budnick, was taken out by a car while riding on one of
the bridge exits he long had championed to improve. Any time a cyclist
goes down, my attention gets aroused, but in Noahs case, he was not only
a fellow bike activist comrade with whom I have much conversed, but Noah
also suffered head injuries. And being a head injury survivor myself, as
many of you know, I am fully aware of the horror that lies ahead for
this gentle man. While bones, lacerations and bruises can all be mended,
brain trauma leaves the victim in a world full of anguish, uncertainty
and doubt. The fire that Noah once burned for a better two wheel world
will likely be extinguished as he works to rebuild his own broken life.
This is why we have to use this tragedy to carry on where he left off.
And it is for this reason that our 5/6 NYC NBG Day will be dedicated to
Noah as you will see below.

As for the rest of the news, as is the case every year, it almost seems
surprising when our long build up is just about ready to end. In the
matter of just four days time, it will all be real bullets from here on
out. With schedules set and lead riders established, Concetta Curtis
and William Gum kick it all off when they leave Miami NBG Day this
Friday April 15. And as Concetta comes north to DC, the the fires we
have begun to ignite all across the US will continue to burn hotter and
more ferociously. Thanks for being a part of this P O W E R !!


Northeast Flank
A) Transportation Alternatives Activist Hit by Car - Suffers Head
Injuries
B) NYC NBG Day to be Dedicated to Noah Budnick
C) Boston Bicycle Festival people want to join NBG Day with us
D) Steve Miler to serve as Boston Point Person
E) Bikes Not Bombs amazing Earn a Bike program at Boston NBG Day

Southeast Flank
A) Breakthrough: Concetta Captured on Audio (Hear her speak!)
B) Miami Herald feature to come out 4/12
C) Concetta: Why Shes riding
D) JOIN CONCETTA!! She wants Riders!!
E) Paul Dockins creates luxury Atlanta to Knoxville tour
F) Alpha Bennet 67 yo non stop rider signs on

East to West
A) Nick Hein sees his ride as rite of passage for graduating son
B) Pedaling Harpist, John Lozier joins Nicks group
C) Morgantown NBG Day moved to May 20, gets website
D) Berkeley Car Free Councilman Kriss Wothington returns
E) Berkeley Police Chief a cyclist to join us
F) Mike Damon brings on Carson City

Southwest Flank
inactive

Northwest Flank
inactive

NBG General:
A) NBG Day Timeline
B) Max Chen may join me and Don Loomis in 2007
C) Repost: Use the OGO to stay in touch
D) Repost: NationalBicycleGreenway.com Blog Moderator wanted
E) Repost: 2005 riders order your FREE sunglasses from SlipNot Eyewear
F) Repost: Individual 2005 NBG Rider Business Cards now Available !!
G) Repost: 2005 riders order your FREE Copy of How to Bike America
H) Repost: Find a Ride Partner - Place an ad at our classifieds




Northeast Flank
A) On March 29, Transportation Alternatives (TA) Bike Activist, Noah
Budnick. was severely head injured while riding his bike on the Brooklyn
Bridge exit, an exit he had long been fighting to make safe.

B) Having had first hand experience with the holy hell that lies ahead
of this man, I have asked the Transportation Alternatives people to help
us dedicate our May 6th NYC NBG Day to Noah. Obviously a work in
progress, it is our hope that we can get the NYC Mayors office to
dedicate some of the proclamation they will issue to Noah. And if I can
get enough time and resources from the TA people, besides creating a web
page for Noah, Id like to see if we cant create a special fund people
can donate to, This would be something along the lines of a Noah Budnick
Safe Bridge Approaches Fund. Many tens of thousands of cyclists use New
York Citys many bridges every day. So this should spawn lots of cyclists
who want to put the empathy they feel for this man into action!!

C) Steve Miller, executive director of the Boston Bike Festival (BBF)
contacted us about our possibly working together. A well connected
educator and organizational consultant, Steve knows the inner workings
of Boston politics pretty well. So much so, that when he and Maria
Ortiz, of Bikes Not Bombs, were talking about our event, he recognized
the opportunity to help his cause as he helped ours. Steve will be at
Boston NBG day and will hopefully say a few words about the movement he
and his group are creating to reestablish Boston bicycling as the
dignified king of the road it was back at the turn of the last century.
While their Fest does not happen until Sept 11, the BBF people have
scheduled monthly rides that will continue up to that point in time as a
way to show people what is beautiful about riding a bike in Boston!

http://www.bostonbikefestival.org

D) As we were talking about how we can pull Boston bike activists into
our event, Steve not only surprised me but he surprised himself when he
volunteered to serve as the Point Person in Boston for our May 3 event!
I gave him the names and numbers I have collected and Steve offered to
get everyone together to talk about our event!! Too Powerful!!

E) The Bikes Not Bombs people who sent 2,300 bikes to third world
countries last year, also have many other excellent programs, one of
which is Earn-A-Bike. From their excellent newsletter, I excerpted this
partial explanation:

========================================
Earn-A-Bike is a 5 week after-school course in which students take on a
contract to refurbish a bike they actually earn, while learning the
mechanics of how it works. Bike rides get youth physically active and
help teach safe-riding skills. Other topics inevitably come up:
nutrition, conflict resolution, neighborhood issues, identity issues
including race and gender) and the international work that BNB does.
The curriculum has been developed and refined since BNB first started
teaching in 1991, and it is now replicated all over the country, in
Ghana, and soon in BNB's newest project in South Africa. Throughout
each year Earn-A-Bike enrolls about 75 youth ages 12-18, who all go home
with a new bike and the know-how to upkeep it and identify problems as
they arise. The course costs each young person only $25 because it is
subsidized by donors and amazing volunteer instructor time commitment.
========================================

And it is from this exciting program that their director, Maria Ortiz,
will be bringing kids to Boston NBG Day!
The Bikes Not Bombs Website: http://www.bikesnotbombs.org

Southeast Flank
A) On Thursday, I managed to pin Concetta Curtis down long enough to get
a phone interview out of her. She and Michael Mongold are barnstorming
the Southeastern US as he prepares to leave his home in Texas for his
new job in CA. Seems the vacation plans Michael had in Florida coincided
with Concettas desire to scout her ride there. And now that they are
both done, she is back in the Lone Star state, helping him get ready for
his move. This as she trains for her ride. On Monday, today, he is
driving her back to Miami! Ugh....

Hey but I did get a worthy interview out of her. With Concetta on her
cell and me using my computer as a phone so I could record our
conversation as something I could digitize, in the miracle that modern
day computing really is, I now have our eight minute conversation on
line! It is now set up as an MP3 file that you can download at your
leisure and listen to. What a breakthrough!!

I am still learning this amazing technology, so please excuse the many
glitches (such as having the mic too close to my mouth when Concetta was
speaking) you will find there but you at least will get to hear one most
effervescent Concetta as she talks about her upcoming summer with us.
Here it is:

http://www.radio4all.net/dl.php/1680...05.mp3?file_id
=21428&protocol=http&

I hope you can see all the possibilities as a lot of the names you have
seen in here over the years will come to life as I interview them!!

Too exciting !!


B) As I have been busy learning how to record my phone calls with my
computer, right as I speak, and then turning them into sound files I can
share with you, the Miami Herald has been asking us questions. Desonta
Holder, the reporter assigned to our story has kept us busy with email.
She tells me that her feature about Miamia NBG Day will come out
tomorrow, April 12!

C) In fact, Concetta answered her question as to why she is riding with
a post so well articulated that I placed at our National Bicycle
Greenway blog:
http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.c...005_03_27.php#
000316

========================================
In October, 2003 I met Martin Kreig at a garage sale in Palo Alto, CA.
He came riding up on his bicycle and purchased a couch. Unable to pick
it up on two wheels, he told us that he would return later with his
trailer. Being the non-cyclist that I was, I assumed that he meant a
trailer perhaps attached to a car or pick-up. Not Martin Krieg! He came
back on his bicycle, only now there was a trailer attached to it.
Amazed, I watched him and my friend, Michael load the couch up. I wasn't
able to help because a month earlier I had fallen and broken my back.
The three of us began talking and Martin was quick to offer his
inspiration, telling me the story of his accident and all he had
accomplished since then. A couple of days later, on our way out of
California, Martin returned and gave us a copy of his autobiography,
"Awake Again". I read the book out loud as Michael and I travelled to
Oklahoma and eventually here to Katy TX.

In Feb. 2004 I took my brace off and began to re-evaluate the state at
which my body was left in. Uninsured, I was not able to see a doctor
after the initial visit to the hospital, where they fused together my
ninth, tenth, and eleventh vertebrae. I remember them telling me that
the bone is not likely to grow back considering the intensity of the
break, (crushed in 13 pieces).

I became totally obsessed with working out and hired a trainer at the 24
hour fitness in Katy. She was an avid cyclist and educated me on the
great many benefits of riding a bicycle both for your mind and your
body. I became interested and decided to buy my first real bicycle from
her. She, on her new Trek 5200, and I, rode almost everyday. She told me
that I was a natural and was very pleased at how fast I was picking
things up. Slowly I began spending less time at the gym and more time on
the saddle.

When I decided to start touring the first person I thought of was,
hmm... what was his name? I couldn't even remember the guy's name that I
had met at the garage sale and who had inspired me so much with his
story. I began searching for him on the Internet using only the clues I
could come up with. Somehow a google search for
coma+book+bicycling+Transam led me back to Martin Krieg. I spoke to him
about the ride I was planning on doing from Oakridge TN to NYC for the
Mayors for Peace and Stop the Bombs. Inspired, Martin told me about a
Coast to Coast ride, scheduled to leave days after I arrived in NYC. I
can only remember the hair standing up on my arms and my intuition
telling me not to pass up this synchronicity. In that one conversation
my mind was made up to ride from NYC to DC and then across to San Fran.

Two days in to the Stop the Bombs ride, our small team of cyclist
responsible for spreading the word about the walkers behind us, expired
and I headed south to Savanna GA to meet my friend Michael for a nice
little road trip. With time to spare we decided to travel the coast line
of Florida. and somewhere along A1A I fell in love with the smell of the
ocean and the warm air. By the time we arrived in Daytona my mind was
made up to start the ride in Miami and take that route to DC for the
start of my coast to coast. The depth and personality of the Florida
landscape was too beautiful to pass up. These are the logistics as to
why I am riding from Miami to San Francisco.

With deeper meaning I am doing this ride to learn about the integration
of mind, body and spirit. Through personal encounters with people and
land, I will arrive at my destination a much more humbled person.
Somewhere along the way I hope to overcome the attachment I have to the
pain in my spine and inspire others to never give up. If everyone would
just ride a bicycle or walk everywhere they go, the world would be full
of trees and healthy people.
========================================

D) And Concetta is looking for riders to join her!! Once her and William
make it to Tampa, Concetta, who cant wait for the ride to begin, hopes
she will be joined on her way north. Her web
http://www.bikeroute.com/ConcettaCurtis

If interested: http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/Forms/newriders.php

E) Well at least by the time Concetta hits Atlanta. she will run into a
flood of riders. The luxury tour that Paul Dockins has created to
Knoxville is attracting cyclists from all over the Southeast. I mean
look at all the work he has done he

Atlanta to Knoxville:
209 Miles

Day One: Friday April 29
55 Miles

Leave Atlanta City Hall 9AM
Out on Northside Drive to Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway to Marietta Blvd
NW
to S Atlanta Road SE
to Atlanta Rd SE (Smyrna)
to Cherokee St. NE
to Church St. Ext NW to Old 41 Hwy NW becomes N. Main St. NW (also 293)
becomes Old 41 Hwy NW again (Kennesaw)
to S. Main St. (Acworth)
to Old 41 Hwy NW again, (also 293)
to Atlanta Road (Emerson)
Stay on 293 which turns into So.Tennessee Street leading
into Cartersvilleturn on Main Street
SAG Stop at Main Street in Cartersville.
Chamber to host with snacks and beverages
North on Tennessee Street with turns into 61
61 turns into Hwy 411 and follows CSX tracks. Take Old 411 past
Regeneration Reservoir, which then hooks back up with Hwy 411.
Take Hwy 411 to our overnight accommodations:

Charming HISTORIC PINE LOG METHODIST CHURCH Cabin Camp Grounds
With cots. Very rustic. Water and ElectricityNo heat.
Historic Pine Log Methodist Church, Cemetery, tabernacle, and Camp
Grounds, established in 1834.
The oldest Church in continuous use in Cass/Bartow County. This Church
area is on the national Register for Historic District. Restaurants
near-by for dinner.

Day Two: Saturday 59 Miles
Up 411 40 miles to TN border. Continue on 411 16 miles to
http://www.ocoee-mist.com/Ocoee Mist Bed & Breakfast
Rt 1 Box 377, Benton, TN 37307
423-338-6818
$38 per person 3 people per room.
4 miles off Hwy 411 between 64 & 314.

Day Three: Sunday 67 Miles
Up 411 to Maryville. West on 321 (10 miles) to Walland TN to:
Twin Valley Bed & Breakfast and Horse Ranch
2848 Old Chilhowee Road
Walland, Tennessee37886
(865)984-0980
Janice Tipton, Innkeeper

$419 for Two Cabins (eight people) including Steak Cookout by the Pond
at 6pm.
Breakfast $15 extra. Must make reservation for breakfast.

Day Four: Monday 21 Miles
to Knoxville
Back out to 411.
North on 33 to
Blount Ave
Cross 441
Left on Gay Ave to Courthouse


E) When you get to the Southeast part of our Mayors' Ride schedule, you
will only see three riders signed up, but Paul assures me that there
might be as many as a dozen or more by the time they leave. Seems he is
having a hard time getting them to fill out our application. And yet one
who has is Alpha Bennet. Like NBG famous Jim Muellner who TransAmed for
us in 2003 when he was 67, Alpha also sounds like a 67 year old non
stop whirlwind. Take a look:
http://NationalBicycleGreenway.com/E.../Alpha_Bennett.
php

East to West
A) As we saw in our last newsletter, Nick Hein is full on taking the
Morgantown bull by the horns. Besides doing a lot of the work we do of
interfacing with Mayors offices to produce the many NBG Days that are
now entering their fourth season, Nick is getting riders and the many
trail building organizations in his area to participate. Whats more is
that he is getting his son who will soon graduate from high school to
also join in. Nick sees their 75 mile ride to Pittsburgh as somewhat of
a rite of passage for his boy, a right of passage that he will get to
share as they bike this brand new relay leg!

B) One of the riders who will also be joining Nicks group is a pedaling
harpist named John Lozier. Last year Johns bike broke down on the way to
their start in Washington DC. This year, however, John will be able to
ride to Pittsburgh NBG Day from his home town. John lives in Morgantown.
And the three-foot tall harp strapped on to the back of his bike will
definitely cause a lot of people to take interest in his ride. Go see
for yourself at:

http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.c...ios/John_Lozie
r.php

C) Nick Hein has moved Morgantown NBG Day to May 20. As such it now
coincides with their Bike to work Day festivities. And as if Nick doesnt
already have enough on his plate, he is also creating a website for
Morgantown NBG Day. He tells us that he just loaded the route to it and
when it is ready for showtime, I will link it to ours and indeed let you
know!!

D) Out here on the West Coast, Councilman Kriss Worthington has
indicated that he will join us in our ride from his Berkeley City Hall
to Oakland City Hall once again. Last year because of emergency meetings
brought on by last minute budget cuts, he was unable to join us. But he
did ride with us in 2003. And Kriss is Car Free!!

E) Even the police in Berkeley are into cycling. Every Fall a bunch of
them bike from Berkeley to Lake Tahoe, a one way distance of almost two
hundred miles, to raise money for needy families during the holiday
season. When we heard that their Chief of Police was also into
bicycling, we asked him if he would like to ride with us. And the answer
we got from him was almost immediate! A resounding YES!!

F) Reno Bike Club President, Mike Damon, seems like he is taking lessons
from Nick Heins playbook. Mike, who will be riding from Reno to Folsom
and then Davis for us in July, wants to make sure we stop in along the
way in Carson City. And he has been busy contacting city officials both
there and in Reno and will likely have a teams of cyclists joining him
as well!!


Southwest Flank
The East Cost and learning how to Poscast has had me consumed

Northwest Flank
The East Cost and learning how to Poscast has had me consumed

NBG General:
A) Here is a perfect world scenario for how we like to run NBG Day.
Event planners often spruce them up with balloons, speakers, music, even
police escorts:

========================================
12:15 Host (Bike or Transportation Coordinator, or NBG sponsor) talks
bike projects and programs in your city, reads our riders names and then
introduces Mayor

12:20 Mayor says a few words about his support for cycling, reads the
proclamation and hands it to our riders

12:25 Host thanks the Mayor and introduces the one or two cyclists who
will speak

12:26 Riders talk about their ride thru your city

12:35 Host thanks everyone and our restaurant sponsor for feeding our
riders. NBG Day ends
========================================

Optional
12:35 Bike Group(s) speak

12:45 Host thanks everyone and our restaurant sponsor for feeding our
riders. NBG Day ends

=======================================

This is better fleshed out in my book "The NBG Manifesto, How America
Can Bike And Grow Rich" that will be a part of my 2007 National Mayors'
Ride author tour.

B) Max Chen, who recently purchased a 36 Coker HiWheel that he says is
great for the hills of San Francisco, may join me and Don Loomis on my
2007 Author Tour of the US on my HiWheel. That is if he doesnt take a
job in Santa Cruz working as a design engineer for Bell Helmet. Says
hell know in a couple of weeks. I am inviting all of our coast to coast
veterans to join me because they understand the long haul road and as a
reward for what they have contributed to the NBG. If youve done a Big
Ride for the NBG and I havent asked you yet, its only because our paths
have not yet crossed..

C) In lieu of the Pocket Mail device our riders have been using since
1998 to stay in touch with us here at NBG Central, we have found a cost
effective replacement that is always on line. No more looking for the
fast disappearing phone booth to stay in touch with the on line world.
Or for that matter carrying a hard to keep charged cell phone to send
and receive Pocket Mail data. Or then use an antiquated technology to
attach the handpiece to the device. AT&T Wireless/Cingular has come out
with a product, one third smaller than a Pocket Mailer, that sends and
receives EMail in real time. Wirelessly!!

Called the OGO, I paid $79 for mine and there is an $18 a month connect
fee. It places your Yahoo email account in your pocket for instant
access, all the time, anywhere they have coverage (which looks pretty
strong along all the routes our Mayors' Ride will be covering). Be
forewarned, however, that its keys and its screen are tiny but I am
finding it is a serious tool that I have been having great success
with!! Ive even written some of this newsletter with it. From the road!!

To find out out more about the OGO: http://ogo.com

D) Our blogs at NationalBicycleGreenway.com are not interactive because
we dont have have anyone who can serve as an moderator for them. They
are a one way street because the spam artists take over when someone is
not watching. If you have a minimum of mail list experience, you can
greatly assist us by serving as a moderator for our blogs. Were talking
probably less than 10 or so minutes a day to approve or deny those
posts that are pending. Let us know you can help and well get you the
password and login. It would be great if we could increase the noise
level of Greenway discussions at our site!!

E) If you are riding with us this summer, shoot an email to the SlipNot
people c/o Kevin at . Send them the URL for the
schedule page with your name on it along with your physical mailing
address and they'll send you a really cool pair of sunglasses for your
ride!! I love mine! Here is the review we did for SlipNot:
http://www.bikeroute.com/Recumbents/...es/000068.html

F) If you are riding for us this summer, you also get handsome business
cards that you can start passing out NOW! Send me an email and Ill reply
with a pdf of the handsome NBG Scout business card that Faye Saunders
will have created for you. It has the NBG logo, the graphic Adam Krohn
created for us for our Cycle America 2000 ride, your email address and
the URL for your NBG bio (which we will shorten to read
bikeroute.com/YOURNAME). If you want us to publish your cell phone
number, reply with that as well! Once you get the camera ready copy from
us as a pdf in your email box (make sure to include your physical
mailing address), all you have to do is buy some ink or laser jet
business card stock (we will spec out the product # when we send you
copy), about $13 at most office supply stores, stick it in your printer,
hit print, and presto you have NBG Scout calling cards.

G) If you are riding for us this summer, you also get How to Bike
America (HTBA). The bulk of HTBA, an on-line book, was written over a
two year period for cyclists riding TransAm to Cycle America 2000 in
Washington DC. It continues to be updated and edited online and reflects
many contributions from the on line cycling community as we yearly cross
America with our Mayor's Rides. Send me an email for the login and
password.

H) If having a Ride Partner would make it easier for you to join us, try
placing an ad at our classifieds
http://www.bikeroute.com/ibrd_cgi/Cl...database=perso
nals.setup . We get a million + unique visitors a month at our site so
you may very well have good luck!

--
54% of New York City households do not own cars

M A R T I N K R I E G : "Awake Again" Author
http://www.bikeroute.com/AwakeAgain
Bent Since '83, Car Free Since '89, '79 & '86 TransAms********
Coma, Paralysis, Clinical Death Survivor*
Can You Change it with Love?*
N A T I O N A L B I C Y C L E G R E E N W A Y
Ads
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Trips for Kids 13th Annual Bike Swap & Sale Marilyn Price Rides 0 June 1st 04 04:53 AM
Trips for Kids 13th Annual Bike Swap & Sale Marilyn Price General 0 June 1st 04 04:52 AM
Trips for Kids 13th Annual Bike Swap & Sale Marilyn Price Recumbent Biking 0 June 1st 04 04:49 AM
Street Bike Devlin UK 44 March 17th 04 11:28 AM
aus.bicycle FAQ (Monthly(ish) Posting) kingsley Australia 3 February 24th 04 09:44 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 02:40 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 CycleBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.