



-- Post From My iPhone
Pushing Omaha and the Continental United States of America to Take it to the Streets through a Community effort from People who Pedal.
"We would like a 'Bike There' feature added to Google Maps - to go with the current 'Drive There' and 'Take Public Transit' options.
The feature would take into account actual bicycle lanes from the locality being mapped, and it would automatically plan a route for a bicyclist, possibly even providing the cyclist options for either the most direct route, or the most bicycle-friendly (safest) route. The Google Maps-based third party site, byCycle.org (http://byCycle.org/), provides these features for two metro areas - Portland, Oregon and Madison, Wisconsin, and there are countless other mapping initiatives around the world aimed at accomplishing the same goal. We hope that Google will consider building this feature into the core Google Maps service.
There are many reasons why this feature would be a wonderful edition to Google Maps. Among them, some of the most influential would be to:
* Make bicycling safer for millions of bicyclists around the world.
* Empower world citizens to better adapt their lifestyles to face the challenges of global climate change.
* Help Google realize its core mission of 'organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful.'
A man riding a bicycle was injured Wednesday night when he was hit by a car at Northwest Radial Highway and Hamilton.Watch for comments on the WOWT story here.
Witnesses told Channel 6 News and police the car had the right-of-way. The impact sent the man and his bike flying into another car before landing about 20 feet away. The first car's windshield was smashed. The driver said she did not see him crossing the road. The crash happened at 7:10pm.
Witnesses said the bicyclist, 34-year old Martin Sojka, who was not wearing a helmet, was conscious and alert when transported to the hospital with a laceration to the head. His injuries aren't considered life-threatening.
The drivers of the two cars were not cited.
Omaha, NE - Medics rush a seriously hurt bike rider to the hospital. Omaha Police investigators tell Action 3 News that 34-year old Martin Sojka was riding his bike near Northwest Radial and Hamilton Street when he crossed an intersection against a red light.There's a video report here: KMTV report
A car slammed into Sojka's bike, sending him flying into the air. He then fell onto another car in the next lane. Medics and cops rushed to the intersection to save Sojka. They were even forced to shut down part of Northwest Radial.
Although the bike rider went to a hospital in serious condition, police believe he will survive his injuries. They say he was not wearing a helmet and admitted to drinking alcohol before the crash.
Police say they are not ticketing the drivers of the two cars.
Reported by Molli Graham, mgraham@action3news.com
Thought I'd quickly pull this ride info out of the thread and push it from here. 

In the photograph, the number of red dots signify votes by people on what some of downtown Omaha's weaknesses are. You can see that a large number of people present at the 2009 Downtown Omaha Master Planning public meeting care about bike issues.
So I thought about hand delivering my rent next month to my Landlord. He lives in Waterloo. I decided to rough plot a route to his house. It'd make a good trip going right over 50 miles. That means it'd be suitable for either a ride or my completion of the ultra I still wanna run. This is looking viable with my current plan to run that distance within the next couple weeks. 
Any of you that managed to get out yesterday know how much fun it was (is) to be about. I commend your forward progress into idiots-ville! Road conditions were actually pretty good, people would stop in their tracks and stare as you pedal by and I believe I even saw one person taking photos of EB and I while at a stop light. Awesome.

Those of you who may happen across the Redd-Shift blog may know that I write glowingly about the urban cycling trails such as the Turner Boulevard Trail and the Field Club Trail. 



Posting photos from last weekend while sitting at Andy's pad down in OKC. I will probably take a ride on his TK2 here in a little bit. Freaking sweet. Weather is balmy and only getting nicer. I just watched 2001 Space Odyssey. I can't say I learned anything from it, but it was worthy. I kinda wish I was high during it. I don't even do drugs, it was just that strange. Perhaps I missed something? My days are numbered when it comes to pain. Separated by hours to what may be a very, very bad idea. Rock Raccoon 50 mile Ultra. As Andy and I chatted, we feel like meager since there is a good deal of people doing a 100 miler as well. Whatever.