Great Article on Bikes vs Cars

A quick update before I continue neglecting my blog: I was alerted to this article in Wired via Ozarks Greenways. I was particularly intrigued by item #6 in this listicle. I've not heard the argument that our current auto-oriented design of roadways is essentially a Ponzi scheme, in which the decreased population density outside of urban environments - the outcome of personal automobile use - results in costs for maintaining roadways that outpace all tax revenues dedicated for roadway infrastructure. Certainly I'm familiar with the idea that gas taxes do not cover all roadway infrastructure costs. This means that as a tax payer (income, sales, and personal property taxes, including taxes for an automobile), I'm likely paying more than my fair share of the costs of maintaining the roads that I'm biking on (and thereby causing less damage to). But it's an interesting idea that in certain suburban environments, essentially no one is paying their fair share and roadway maintenance is being subsidized by other revenues. This is definitely something to keep in mind for those, like me, who are involved in bicycle advocacy in their own communities.

The best way to spend a birthday

Yesterday I turned 31, but it's okay because I got carded when I went to the store for beer.

It's also okay because I was the recipient of many, many kind birthday wishes from the people in my life.  Plus, Cody gave me a GoPro.

Cody also proposed that we go do something fancy, but all I really wanted to do was check out the Frisco Highline Trail and play with the new toy. Our friend Kenny joined us, and we had a great time.

It was only about six miles from Springfield to Willard, where we decided to turn around because that's where the pavement stopped. It was a quick ride, too quick really. We did our best to prolong it with pit stops for refreshments and snacks, but we were on our way back to Springfield in less than 45 minutes.

I discovered the best way to extend a day on the trail: Fall off your bike.

I was messing around with the new camera, and my front wheel went off the right side of the pavement. I tried to jump back on, but crashed instead. I scraped up my shoulder, both hands, both knees and broke a toe nail in half.

Kenny dashed on ahead to beg for first aid supplies from the Willard City Pool.

Cody later described my birthday wreck as epic.

Epic indeed.

Popping My Ozark Greenways Cherry

I'm a little late getting to this, but there were a couple of organized rides scheduled for last weekend. I decided to skip the Nixa Bike Ride, which has been rescheduled for June 29th due to weather, and attend the Polk County Wildflower Ride on the Ozark Greenways instead. Unfortunately, it was still raining when the Wildflower Ride started, so I opted to skip that ride as well. I sent a message out to my sister and good friend that were planning on going with me, saying that we'd go heckle the governor during his event up at the Dry Sac trail later that day, but that event too was postponed.

Undeterred, we decided that if we couldn't facilitate a bike ride with an organized event, we'd just organize our own. My sister, her boyfriend, and one of our buddies met up at my house and made our way down to the Galloway Trail trailhead on Seminole and rode the entire length of the trail. There were a few flooded areas that required some portaging, and there was a brief stop for beer at the Brown Derby on Battlefield, but otherwise we stayed in the saddle and made great time getting to the south edge of town. Our plan was to continue on up the James River Trail, making a big loop and ending up back at the Galloway trailhead, but the James River Trail was badly flooded, so we just turned around and went back the way we had come.

This was the first time I had ventured out on the Greenways and I was not disappointed. I'm definitely looking forward to spending more time on the Galloway Greenway, as well as exploring the other trails in and around Springfield.