Bike Activist Takes Stand, Clears the Way
Earlier this year I took note of the petition drive commenced by local biker Mark Stosberg seeking to have the “NO BIKES” signs removed from the center of Richmond, Indiana.
Well, the signs are gone that the Pal-Item is giving Mark credit:
After leading a campaign to make downtown more appealing to bike riders, signs throughout the downtown area expressly prohibiting bicycling, dogs, skates and skateboarding were removed on Wednesday morning.
“As someone who lives and works here, I saw signs saying ‘No’ to everything,” Stosberg said. “I think because the signs are gone, it makes downtown more of a friendly place.”
Congratulations to Mark. WHile reading over the story, be sure to check the comments which contain a clarification from Mark on what was actually done: The rules did not change on bike, the signs that wrongly stated “no bikes” were removed. He also notes that the issue with respect to skate boards downtown is not resolved.
Mark’s efforts on this led him to develop a method to search the Richmond City code of ordinances, something that is not presently featured on the City’s own site. Mark’s earlier local efforts helped lead to the City’s creation of a skate park. See Skatepark.org
for more information on that effort.
December 9th, 2006 07:33
Thaks for post. While the article did focus on me, Thomas was one of the many people who signed the petition and left a thoughtful comment, adding impact and importance to the petition.
My “hack” to search the city code no longer works, but that is in part because with the redesigned site, this feature is finally built right into the City website! As part of the “search box” on the right side, you can limit your result to “Richmond City Code”. Then, you can easily find the mentions of “noise” in our local laws, or plainly confirm for yourself that there no mentions of the word “skate”, except an entry acknowledging that the skatepark may have special rules.