BOULDER —January 16, 2013 — Bicycling isn’t just a way to get from one place to another; it’s an avenue to a better life. And when businesses get on board, great things happen. That’s why Community Cycles has launched PedalSmart, a program for local companies to inspire their employees to bike to work.

A key element of the program is to educate people on how to become better bike commuters. To accomplish this, PedalSmart Bike Ambassadors will travel to participating companies’ offices and provide onsite workshops on everything there is to know about bike commuting including gear, bike maintenance, bike skills and more.

From the Daily Camera

A Colorado Department of Transportation project to add six-foot shoulders to Colo. 93 has provided the opportunity to build an underpass at a dangerous trail crossing south of Boulder.

Within the last month there have been multiple issues with coyotes along an east section of the Boulder Creek path. On any typical roadway coyote issues resolve themselves as the cars and trucks will eliminate the issue with in seconds of contact but new transportation arteries like the Boulder Creek path does not have that self correcting characteristic, users of these pathways are vulnerable to these wildlife encroachments. Added to these issues many of our multi use paths are located in or nearby protected open space. Continued issues like these will make many bike commuters who are on the fence about attempting to use this pathway as a means to commute will easily make the choice to drive instead.

Today's Coffee Talk deals with American's maturity with bikes. Cycling is becoming more and more popular in recent years and I mean that in the most general sense, not racing or weekend lycra warriors. Problem is many of these new cyclists might not have been on a bike since either their teens or when they had a young child and they rode around the block in their neighborhood. By never having grown up in the culture where cycling transportation was a part of their life, can cause conflict due to their ignorance. Longmont Colorado is one of those beautiful towns which has been doing amazing work at making their town more bike friendly yet along they way, as the new cyclists mature into their new cycling culture, they make mistakes and bad choices and Longmont is trying to reduce tension and educate cyclists on cycling ettiquite by proposing Dismount Zones for Cyclists in the downtown area.

Given the layout of downtown Longmont there is little reason to ride on their core streets and cyclists will learn that as they learn to ride in traffic safety and as they continue to work with the city to add more structures for cyclists.

Question of the day is how do new cyclists learn how to move on from their 10yr cycling skill set to that of a more mature transportation cyclists? This problem may exist in Longmont but if the cycling movement continues to catch on it will be the same problem in nearly every city across the nation