by Mr. T in DC

Bike sharing programs are the rage around the world and across the nation (the photo above is of the DC bike share program, Capital Bikeshare).  Oklahoma City first announced the program back in August and additional details were announced yesterday at the Oklahoma City Council meeting.  According to NewsOK, the program has been given an official name of “Spokies” and will consist of 95 bicycles (up from 90) placed at six stations in the downtown Oklahoma City area.  The money for the bikes and stations is coming from a federal grant.

While the locations haven’t been fixed, NewsOK is giving some initial indications of how the stations will be scattered:

The kiosks will have locking bike stands attached. The locations aren’t firm, but the idea is to have them within easy cycling of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, Bricktown, Midtown, Chesapeake Energy Arena and the adjacent Cox Convention Center, Deep Deuce, City Hall and the Civic Center Music Hall.

via Oklahoma City to launch shared-bike program downtown | NewsOK.com.

I’m still particularly pleased to see that the primary purpose of the program is to provide transportation instead of pure recreation which has been my criticism of Tulsa’s program, The Tulsa Townies.

A bicyclist seriously injured in a hit-and-run collision Saturday has died.

Mowery Funeral Home identified the victim as Bobby Richardson, 51, of Owasso.

A motorist found Richardson in the roadway on 101st East Avenue near 12th Street at about 8:30 p.m., officers at the scene said.

via Bicyclist injured in hit-and-run Saturday dies | Tulsa World.

The cyclist was found by a passing motorist but was unable to describe the car that hit the cyclist.  A silver sedan was seen in the area around the time of the crash, but police are not sure the vehicle was involved in the crash.

Anyone with any information is being asked to contact Tulsa Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS (2677) or to leave a tip online at http://tulsaworld.com/crimestoppers .

The Board of the annual cross-state bicycle tour, Oklahoma FreeWheel, is proud to announce that Joy Hancock has been appointed Director, starting October 2011.

Joy, 31, brings a history of event and volunteer management and is an avid cyclist, having competed in a number of triathlon and cycling events, including FreeWheel in 2008 and 2009. Her involvement in Freewheel has gone beyond just riding – she has also given talks at FreeWheel seminars on how to train for this cross-state bicycle tour.

Hancock, reflecting upon the new position, said ‘I’m delighted to be the new Director of FreeWheel. I hope to build on the great organization that former director Ellen Proctor has helped establish, and work to make FreeWheel the best event that it can be, both for the communities we visit and for the participants.”

Additionally, Ellen Proctor, Lee Griffin, Laurie Daugherty, and Amy Shackelford will join Tom Brown, Ross Snider, and Barbara and Don Pike on the FreeWheel Board of Directors. This group of dedicated volunteers hopes to continue to improve on the great success of this ride, as they give hundreds of hours of time to helping FreeWheel be the best it can be.

FreeWheel, the nation’s second longest-running cross-state tour, traverses a different area of the state each year. It generally follows a south to north route to take advantage of the prevailing winds, and is not a race. The ride is limited to 1000 participants, who stay in host communities along the route. Part of the entry fee goes back to the communities which host the riders.

2012 will mark the 34th edition of Oklahoma’s premier bicycle touring event.

via Oklahoma FreeWheel Cross State Bicycle Tour.

by Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious

I found this interesting article on The Atlantic about the areas of growth in bicycle commuting. While we’ve all seen the large number of articles regarding the growth of cycling commuting, it is interesting to see the geographic concentrations of this growth. Unfortunately, Oklahoma City shows no growth (we sit at a 0.1% so not any room to drop either). However, Tulsa shows 200% growth, though that only represents an increase from 0.2% to 0.6% of the population, but that is still substantial growth.

As OKC expands the city’s bicycle trails network under MAPS 3 into a system that can start to be used for transportation, it will be interesting to see if we can see similar amounts of growth as Tulsa.

In April, walking across a room was challenging for Robin Tilly, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2009.

During the weekend, Tilly, 54, joined 567 cyclists in the 26th annual Bike MS: The Mother Road Ride — a trip along Route 66 from Tulsa to Oklahoma City to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Oklahoma.

“It was wonderful this year,” she said. “It’s a very loving, supporting community.”

via Cyclists ride along Route 66 in Oklahoma to raise money for multiple sclerosis | NewsOK.com.

Tulsa was recently named one of America’s Best Bike Cities by Bicycling magazine – but when it comes to being truly bike-friendly, the city has a little farther to ride, say cyclists and transportation officials.

via Tulsa’s bike-friendliness lauded | Tulsa World.

The story also goes into many of the dangers also faced by cyclists on Oklahoma’s roads including the aggressive drivers we all know and love.

According to ODOT the replacement bridge will be ”multi-modal”; incorporating a new section of the westbound highway, two dedicated future rail lines and an area for bicycle/pedestrian traffic into a double-decker style bridge.

via ODOT Lands Federal Money To Rebuild Tulsa’s I-244 Bridge – NewsOn6.com – Tulsa, OK – News, Weather, Video and Sports – KOTV.com |.

Those that have ridden in places like New York City will be very familar with the concept, and while this is our first instance of such a bridge, it’s nice to see ODOT planning for multiple uses of their bridges.  Below is an artist’s rendering of the bridge:

The bridge will cost approximately $80 million with $50 of the funding coming from federal stimulus dollars.  You can read the full press release here.

About 1,000 miles into the life of Joe Henretty’s pedicab – the first of his three bicycle taxis that frequent the BOK Center and ONEOK Field – the pedicab’s mileage counter broke. So now Henretty’s fit, 6-foot frame is the only gauge of the remaining 4,000 miles he’s put on the bike, which bears Affordable Bail Bonds’ advertisements as it hauls as many as three adults and two small children at a time.

The 33-year-old pedicab company owner doesn’t like to talk about money, but a good night – like when Bruce Springsteen played the BOK Center – Henretty, his wife, Bethany, and a third driver collected tips that were, on average, $10, but up to $20. From 6 p.m. to almost 2 a.m. that night, Joe said each driver gave more than 20 rides.

via Green pedicab business growing in downtown Tulsa | Tulsa World.

Photo via: Golzern Pedicabs

Tulsa has become the first city in Oklahoma to receive a bronze ranking from the League of American Bicyclists, designating it as a "bicycle friendly community."

Tulsa World: Tulsa being peddled as ‘bicycle friendly’

Given my bad experiences with drivers in OKC this year, I think we aren’t even close to getting something like this.  And of course, Oklahoma as a state ranks 48th in bicycle friendliness according to League of American Bicyclists.

The bright pink, old-fashioned Townie bicycles stationed along River Parks appear to be a hit with park visitors.

With a full year’s worth of data still being evaluated, officials believe that the free bikes were checked out by about 13,000 riders, said Tom Cooper, a member of the Tulsa Townies LLC, which provides and maintains the two-wheelers.

Read the full story: Tulsa World: Bike program on a roll