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Here are a few photos from Madison's Ride the Drive (see my earlier post).
I have to note the marketing genius of the Monona Pie Party crowd. Placing the big pie signs on John Nolen was inspired. In the few moments it took me to snap a couple photos I heard the words "Monona" and "Pie" floating in the air from several riders.
The Pie Party takes place at the Monona Community Center, 1011 Nichols Road in Monona, Wisconsin between 1:00 and 5:00 on Saturday, October 3rd.
And? Still think it's a crazy idea?
ReplyDeleteCrikey man! I wrote that "my first reaction" was skeptical, but the rest of the post was positive.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed it - ran in to Peter McKeever and Marena - not literally - and his multi-colored shirt on the causeway.
But if I may nitpick, I can report that at least a couple Downtown businesses were effectively isolated and did little business for the first couple hours. (The BP station on East Wash looked like it might as well have stayed closed.)
I'll be curious whether there is any negative feedback and whether the event could be tweaked to minimize the impact. Starting a little later might be a good idea - the number of bikers was minimal for the first hour +.
I wonder what the economic impact as a whole was to the entire affected region, as while I know that a place like a gas station would be negatively affected, it seemed like the line at The Old Fashioned was longer than it normally is on a Sunday morning (45min wait at about 11:30, although that was for an outside table). I'd wager that the overall impact was a huge positive, as there were easily thousands of people there that had to find something to eat/drink/etc.
ReplyDeleteI'd also imagine that the bike shops along the route must have done a TON of business, as I saw Machinery Row was packed at 10am and I received a 15% off coupon from Williamson Bike Works as I rode by.
My only complaint might be that it wasn't publicized enough. In NY they discuss it on the news every day for the week ahead of time ("Avoid driving in Manhattan at all costs due to road closures"), and they have it on the bike electronic road signs on all of the highways coming anywhere near the 5 boroughs. If you somehow miss the fact that there's an event going on, it's pretty much your own fault.
As a note on other events of this type, they close down a 7 mile stretch of the Bronx River Parkway (one of the main routes from White Plains to NYC) every Sunday during the spring and summer for cyclists, rollerbladers, etc.
http://cycling.lohudblogs.com/2009/05/11/bicycle-sundays-through-may-on-the-bronx-river-parkway-photo-gallery/
Anecdotal evidence (in other words, crappy reporting) from channel3000.com on the benefits of the event to the local businesses.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.channel3000.com/news/20639420/detail.html
I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but it was great to watch the kids command the road on their bikes.
ReplyDelete