From the Centre Daily Times today comes news that the State College Borough Council has approved a South Sparks bike lane.

On July 21, the State College Borough Council approved conversion of one parking space in the 100 block of Allen Street to bicycle parking. This type of conversion is in use in other urban areas. For the conversion to succeed, the bike parking must be in a location where demand for parking is high. It must be convenient for cyclists to access and use, and must include structural elements to protect the cyclist and the parked bikes from passing motor vehicle traffic. Simply placing a bike rack in an empty parking space is not adequate for bike parking needs. Demand for bike parking is high on South Allen Street.

U. S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters has responded to a complaint by CRBC about her statement on the PBS Newshour that bike paths and trails are not transportation facilities.

The Democratic National Convention to be held this month in Denver has been proclaimed the "Greenest Convention in History" by its organizing committee. A "hybrids only" parking lot has been set up at the site, and the committee has announced plans to buy carbon credits to offset the convention's carbon footprint. The committee has partnered with Humana and the Bikes Belong Coalition to provide 1000 free bikes for use by attendees. Your hybrid will be valet parked, but don't try to ride one of those free bikes to the convention. For "security reasons" bicycles will be banned from the Pepsi Center convention venue and from Invesco Field where Barack Obama will deliver his acceptance speech, according to a report from the Colorado Independent.

The Centre Region has an extensive bikeway network. The major deficiency of the network, and the factor preventing its function as a coherent bicycle transportation system is its failure to connect bikeways coming from the periphery into the downtown Central Business District and the Penn State campus. This deficiency is the most common complaint heard from local cyclists, and is the reason for not riding cited most frequently by would-be bike commuters who are not comfortable cycling on congested downtown streets without on-road bicycle facilities. Centre Region Bicycle Coalition presents this proposal to the Borough of State College for resolving the deficiencies and transforming our disparate bicycle facilities into a true transportation system. The elements of the plan include:

State College Police Chief Thomas King indicated last week that a targeted enforcement effort will be directed at cyclists violating the law requiring lights on bicycles operated at night on streets. This safety measure is being undertaken because of increasing numbers of cyclists riding at night without lights. Ticketing will begin in a few weeks. King indicated that the initial phase of enforcement will likely consist of tickets which will carry no fine if the offender presents proof within a short time that the lighting deficiency has been corrected.