If something can be improved, why not improve it?

Had someone else read something I wrote recently.  I criticized a system of closed data, and then suggested a crowdsourced solution to get around the data guardians (not illegally, just through data mining from published works).  This person’s response?  To say that closed data should be closed because someone paid for it, and to ignore my solution.  In another section, I lamented various issues with data digitization projects, because I wanted to add another (citable) voice that could be used for digitization project funding.  Response: these issues aren’t new, and you don’t need to waste your time with them.

Who is it going to hurt to try to improve things?  It’s no skin off anyone else’s nose.

Regional Inspiration – Sioux Falls and Fargo, Cycling and Walking

The Argus Leader has a great, long article about how the city of Sioux Falls wants to encourage more people to commute via bicycle, how to ride in traffic, and coverage of the two recent cycling deaths.  Plus: bike share in the future?  In Fargo, Eric Christeson laments the loss of neighborhood schools to which walking or bicycle commuting by students is safe.

Greenway Trail Users Advisory Group Meeting tonight

Just a quick reminder: Recently, discussion on Green Lanes (bike lanes striped with different colors to differentiate them from motor vehicle lanes) has been occurring at these meetings.  If you have any thoughts about this project, you might want to show up.  I think the other group involved is the Grand Forks-East Grand Forks Metropolitan Planning Organization.

You can read old meeting notes in the archive.

Greenway Trail Users Advisory Group Meeting
7 PM Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Grand Forks Park District, 1210 7th Ave S

Saturday Grab Bag 2013-04-06

Some things that have been on my radar lately.  First, in today’s news:

Second, it’s been a positive week in the American streets blogosphere:
Thirdly, some of the recent local/regional articles you may have missed (copies available on request):

Best of Craigslist

Here at Grand Forks Streets HQ, we have a pretty low bar when it comes to the “best” local online posts and stories.  So rather than a list of recent articles you may have seen in the Herald anyway, here are some local Craigslist postings relating to streets:

NPA and Toeds team up to provide third END-SURE checkpoint

(zoomable map here, miles count down to finish, 1.5 mile out-and-back at CP2 is not included)
Northern Plains Athletics and Toe’ds have teamed up to provide a third checkpoint for END-SURE: the Extreme North Dakota Sandhills Ultra Run Experience…and what an experience it’s going to be!

Together with Toe’ds executive chef Ted Bibby, I’ll be hauling gear in (on foot or via snowmobile) to the most ‘wildernessy’ part of the 31-mile END-SURE course to set up a checkpoint and aid station between six and seven miles from the finish line.  Unexpected amounts of snowfall have made the finish time estimates grow longer and longer the closer we get to the race.  The impending storm tonight into tomorrow will add insult to injury, and perhaps finally convince some of the racers that they’d like to be wearing snowshoes (for those not in the loop, gear has been quite the debate).

If you’d like to follow along with the race, we’ll be tweeting from @nplainsathletes, sharing the hashtag  with the two other checkpoints and the finish line.  Check out the roster to see if you know anyone in the race, and feel free to tweet us some messages to pass along.  An extended 6.5 hour cutoff to reach CP2 at mile 18 means a potentially longer finishing time, so who knows how long we’ll be out there.

Cycling through the Blizzard

Eight inches of snow?  No problem:

The Grand Forks Herald has a thing for putting winter cyclists on the front page–check out this one of Chase Christenson from January 2010:

 
Updated: Here are a few more (I’ll keep updating below).
 


Matt Burton-Kelly waits for traffic at the intersection of University Ave. and N. 25th St. as he bikes to work at EERC
Tuesday. (Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald) (1 Dec 2015)
 

Professor Gordon Iseminger of the History Department at UND pedals across campus during Thursday’s snowfall. (Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald) (15 Jan 2016)