South Dakota native Mike Bender of Rapid City not only believes bicycling and pedestrian opportunities for recreation and transportation, he lives and works for it, too.

Mike Bender of Rapid City

Bender joins the South Dakota Bicycle Coalition as the newest board member, official as of Saturday, Feb. 26. He is a registered landscape architect with Kadrmas, Lee & Jackson, a multi-disciplinary design firm in Rapid City. He carries over 16 years experience in his field.

As a recreational cyclist, he enjoys cycling with his family in Rapid City and the surrounding Black Hills. Through his work, Bender incorporates  incorporates bicycle and pedestrian facilities into his designs to create opportunities for improved recreation, multi-modal transportation options, improved safety and overall community well-being for residents in the communities he serves.

He has been involved in numerous bicycle-friendly projects throughout the Upper Midwest Region, including the Rapid City Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan which is up for public input on Tuesday, April 12.

Like many bicyclists and bicycle advocates, he too got the bicycling bug as a kid. In fact, he still owns his first bicycle – a silver and black Schwinn Scrambler with a banana seat.

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota State Parks Director Doug Hofer announced today that applications are being accepted for grants from the Recreation Trails Program (RTP) for trail projects sponsored by municipalities, counties, state parks, civic organizations or tribal governments.

“Recreation trails are key elements to healthy communities,” Hofer said. “They provide safe recreational corridors in which families can exercise together and enjoy some of our state’s many unique natural resources.”

The Recreational Trails Program provides partial reimbursement for approved trail projects. Eligible projects include constructing new public trails, rehabilitating existing public trails, developing trail-related facilities, and educational programs that specifically address recreational trail issues.

The application deadline is Friday, April 8, 2011.

RTP funds come to the state through the Federal Highway Administration, and are apportioned to states by Congress to fund both motorized and non-motorized public recreation trail projects. The amount of funds available is based upon the number of recreational vehicles licensed in each state.

Application packets are available online at the Game, Fish and Parks website. For more information contact Grants Coordinator Randy Kittle at 605.773.5490 or by e-mail at randy.kittle@state.sd.us.

A growing number of states are banning texting and driving. Currently, 30 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam ban text messaging for all drivers. Twelve of these laws were enacted in 2010 alone.

Will South Dakota be next on the list?

A legislative bill to curb driving and texting in South Dakota waits for its first discussion in the Senate in just a few days.

The Senate Judiciary committee will hear SB 71 on Tuesday, Feb. 8. The bill bans texting while driving but not talking on the phone while driving.

Nationwide, almost 5,500 lives were lost and nearly 450,000 people injured from distracted drivers in 2009 alone. Read the rest of this entry »

South Dakota Bike Summit - SDBC board & presenters

The SDBC board poses here with two of their presenters following the 2011 summit – Ginny Sullivan, Adventure Cycling Association; Kevin Brady – president; Jessica Giard – vice president; Michael Christensen – treasurer; Heather Brutz, Transportation for America; Amy Blackstone – secretary; Jim Books, at-large. Not pictured: Fred Deutsch, at-large.

From the Summit …

On Friday and Saturday, Jan. 21-22, the South Dakota Bicycle Coalition hosted their first SD Bicycle Summit in Pierre with about 50 attending the day-and-a-half summit.

What did we learn?

1) Don’t trust the weather reports. Weather on Saturday was not nearly as accommodating as we’d have liked, but not so dreadful to keep people away. A few had to cut the day short to be safely home that night, though. Turns out, it wasn’t so much the snow, but the wind (and we’re used to that in SD, unfortunately).

2) Information – you want it! Whether it’s on events and routes or on information to advance bicycle awareness in SD (well, that’s a very summarized list), you’d like a central resource and see that possibility through the SD Bicycle Coalition and its partnerships.

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South Dakota Bicycle Coalition board members are in the final hours counting down to the 2011 South Dakota Bicycle Summit.

Summit opens Friday night with a social hour & reception at our venue in the AmericInn in Fort Pierre, SD (via Google Map).

Social hour starts at 7 pm with registration and check-in. Stick around for appetizers and cash bar and we will talk about the bright spots South Dakota communities have recently seen for better bicycling.

Saturday, we’ll open at 8 am with more check-in and registration. But, the fun begins at 8:30 am when our board president, Kevin Brady of Vermillion, takes the podium and leads the way.

For the full printed program … view the PDF as you get ready to attend this weekend’s SD Bicycle Summit.

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