TODAY! Speak up for better biking

Ru-posting this important opportunity to make biking and walking better:

Here is your chance to have a say in what things might look like in La Crosse about twenty years from now, specifically, how we are going to get around (whether or not cars will continue to be our overlords).

Please attend and boldly give your opinions about what must happen in the future. Please don't be meek or incremental. Please know that we must stop (not just we but WE ALL) driving cars around. Gas-powered cars are awful for carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, but all cars are awful for plastic particles from tires, space and resources for car roads and storage, and safety of people not in cars.

Before you go, get riled up that other places can have nice things like

• Protected/Separated bike lanes
• Bike-priority intersections
• Bike infrastructure that is connected, safe, direct and has few stops 
  
• Bike highways
• Low traffic neighborhoods
• Car-free downtowns
• 15-minute cities
• Super-blocks
  
• Roundabouts that equally recognize bikes and peds
• Useful for everyone public transportation
• and more
  

but we have to have smelly, noisy, dangerous, Earth-killing cars roaming at will around every inch of our downtown, neighborhoods, schools, parks, and shopping areas. Aliens looking down at our community would think that the humans live in prisons surrounded by car-guards. Not only do they encircle almost every abode, but we give over huge plots of valuable space to their storage (most cars sit idle up to 95% of the day!) and feeding. We have to beg for them to stop for us to walk or bike across a street. They have forbidden us from using the streets, unless we get special permits, for anything but driving (and, supposedly, cycling, but most people don't see it that way from my experience).

We need a whole new way of looking at where we live in relation to where we get food, medical care, entertainment, services and education. We need a whole new way of valuing transportation that is healthy, least polluting, less dangerous, and more sustainable. We need to plan for that right now. The special public input sessions on August 16 are a way to do that. Please attend if you can.

On August 16 there will be two opportunities to weigh in on the La Crosse comprehensive plan for 2040 with respect to bicycle and pedestrian (and transit) issues. Please plan to attend and give your opinions on what changes we will need to see in La Crosse to make life better, easier, and more accessible for those who choose to move around without a car.

You may attend either session in person or online (see access information below):

* From NOON to 1 p.m. at the Southside Neighborhood Center (1300 6th Street South) 

* From 5 to 6 p.m. at the Black River Beach Center (1433 Rose Street),   

To attend online, join the meeting: https://call.lifesizecloud.com/4796124 OR call this number (you will only be able to listen if you call in, not speak): 877-422-8614  meeting 4796124#.

_{City of La Crosse Comprehensive Plan 2040}

Bicycle