South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Bike Trail

Bike Trail Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Riverdale Park chain of death

l3wis 31Comments
From my email box:
I was out riding my bike this morning and I noticed this hazardous chain down at Riverdale Park.  It has recently been placed across a section of the road that approaches the pedestrian bridge access to the bike trail.  It was nearly invisible to me, on a bike, and I took a few pics of it.  As you might be able to see, there are 3 reflectors in the chain, but they hang horizontally due to the chain twisting over, so they do not show up.  Please note that this chain is also in the way of the access trail that many people use to get onto the bridge, since it is nearer to the road.
I had intended to call this in as a problem this morning to see what the Parks Department thought of it, and to ask that something more visible could be added or used instead.

It seems I was too late, and I was informed that the chain is now down, and that someone had already run into it.  You can imagine the hazard this will pose to anyone who attempts to ride through the park at night.
Please make a note of this hazard to your readers.  The Parks Department boss informed me that the chain would stay in place to block parking for peewee football games, and that they would add some more reflectors to it.
I often laugh when this city gets ‘awards’ for being a bike friendly town when the Parks Department does stupid crap like this, and drivers scream at you and swerve at you when riding your bike in the street. We are anything but friendly, we are ignorant when it comes to bicycling.
Bike Trail Sioux Falls

This could have been any of us

l3wis 20Comments

Image; Minus Car Project

As a person who has ridden the streets of Sioux Falls for over 15 years, I can’t tell you about all the close calls I have had, even with sober drivers. Some weren’t paying attention, some were distracted, and even some will look straight at you and still proceed. Getting on a bike in SF is a ‘defensive’ practice. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There is something you must remember when driving your vehicles and you encounter a bicyclist; YOU ARE BIGGER and YOU ARE FASTER. Please pay attention to your surroundings and watch for bicyclists. These kind of events make us very sad;

Today we are sad. We are sad because someone many here knew as friend has died in a collision with a motor vehicle doing something that many of us know to be a beautiful thing – simply riding a bicycle.

Bike Trail Munson Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls Press conference on Bicycle riding (H/T – MinusCar Project)

l3wis 0Comments

minusCar

Get your bike riding ass there;

The Mayor of The City will be hosting a bike related press conference Wednesday, 12:15 @ Cherapa Place. If you’ve ever ridden a bike before you should get on it and ride to this press conference.

Seriously, I think you should. Especially if you read The MinusCar Project and nod your head in agreement more often than you shake your head in disappointment.

Bike Trail FEMA Floodplain Floods Sioux Falls

Temporarily closing the city bike trail may save us from the Apocalypse

l3wis 10Comments

four-horsemen-mikh-l

Apparently the Four Horseman could be riding in on the Big Sioux Creek, but don’t expect them to be on bikes.

I see city officials are sharing talking points when it comes to levees, floods, and spending Federal money;

Sam Trebilcock, a city transportation planner, said the trail will close from 49th Street to the dam just north of where the river and creek meet northeast of 26th Street for a city flood control project to raise the levees by 5 feet and build a dam.

“You know very well what happens in the news if we don’t do that,” Trebilcock said. “Grand Forks happens. What happened in huge catastrophic (quantities) in New Orleans happens if you don’t have a good levee system.”

First off, Sammy, Sioux Falls isn’t a soup bowl sitting below sea level. In fact you and I both know the real reason why the levees are getting built; an overly paranoid FEMA after Katrina started running around the country like a chicken with their heads cut off. Secondly, several studies have shown Sioux Falls is experiencing a moderate drought, and everyone knows we have low water tables here. I find it ironic that the same city that is begging the Feds for money to build the Lewis and Clark water pipeline (That we have borrowed millions to build, well because, we don’t have much water in Sioux Falls) would be going to the same Feds to ask for money for our levees.

Does Sioux Falls have the potential to flood? Sure, and precautions should be taken, but don’t act like it is the end of the world and cut the crap.

Bike Trail

What!? No Bikey.

l3wis 16Comments

I just noticed this tidbit of information;

Sioux Falls is going to close down the bike trail at the 41st area to the Great Plains Zoo area until 2010 with no alternate routes. This is not acceptable. We still have to chance to voice our opinions and concerns. The Snakebite will be speaking. I hope you all can dress in cycling garb and attend the meeting.

Please attend the meeting this Wednesday, 5-6:30 at the Oyate Community Center, 2421 W. 15th Street – next to Garfield Elementary.

Please attend the meeting if you can. I agree this is unacceptable. As you may or may not know, that stretch of the bike trail is the only route through that part of town bicyclists can use safely. Kiwanis avenue is two hilly.

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The Anti-Bike Crap needs to end in Sioux Falls!