Table of Contents From the President 30th OKHT Camping Ride Paceline Tips Racing Action Building Bicycle Consensus Packman's Corner

From the President
What Do You Think About That?

There are many ways and many opportunities for LBC members to make their views known about every aspect of the club’s activities. As you would expect, most comments focus on the ride schedule, which — let’s not forget — is the most varied, with more rides on more days and times than any other in the U.S. Of course, that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.

But the club is a lot more than the ride schedule. We support a racing team, we are the most important provider of adult cycling education in the region and we have an increasingly vital advocacy program that is helping to shape the future of cycling in the Metro area.

We think we’re taking our programs in the right direction. But we know they can be improved and we know we don’t have all the ideas. So the Executive Committee wants to hear your ideas about how things are going, where changes should be made, what new initiatives should be started and where the city should go in its efforts to make Louisville a gold-level city under the League of American Bicyclists ’ Bicycle-friendly Community program.

In July the club will launch an on-line survey. The survey will be accessible on the club’s homepage (www.louisvillebicycleclub.org). We want to know who belongs to the club and why so the first section of the survey asks for demographic information: age, education, income, etc. (Because we value your privacy, the survey is anonymous. We have contracted with a professional survey organization to collect and compile the results, which means that no LBC officer, official or member will see the individual responses.)

Other sections focus on cycling-specific information: annual miles ridden, preferred distance per ride, reasons you ride etc. We also want you to evaluate your experience as a club member and get your ideas about how it can be improved.

Finally, the survey asks you to evaluate the City’s progress in becoming bicycle-friendly. Do you support adding dedicated bike lanes to arterial roads? What is the role of — and place for — off-road paths? What priority would you assign to River Road improvements, the Big Four Bridge, the 100-mile loop? What improvements would have to be made before you would become a commuter? And more.

We hope that several hundred club members will participate so that the responses are a valid reflection of your views. We know that many non-club members visit our Web site. Because the whole cycling community is affected by some of the issues, non-members are invited to respond to sections of the survey that focus on community cycling issues.

If you have questions that you’d like to include in the survey, send them to me at .