Here are three ways that you can give your time to improve biking in Minneapolis and beyond.

Attend a Public Meeting about Park/ Portland

The Minneapolis Bike Coalition says, "The city and county are holding a community meeting to share plans that involve restriping Park and Portland Avenues to calm traffic and create a safer environment for bicyclists and pedestrians. It’s Thursday, Aug. 30, from 6:30 – 9 p.m. (presentation 7:15 p.m.) at The Center for Changing Lives (Lutheran Social Services), 2400 Park Ave. S., Conference Room 104."

Read a very complete and informative breakdown of key messages and summary of the issues on their blog.

Volunteer as a Bicycle and Pedestrian Counter

Sign up with the City of Minneapolis for the 2012 Bicyclist and Pedestrian count!  This is the 6th annual count, and they are looking for volunteers.  Minneapolis Public Works puts out a Bike and Ped Count Report yearly, and they rely on volunteers to collect accurate data.  This is very important work!

Volunteer! 

You can indicate a day/ time preference:

Choose one shift September 11-13, 2-hour shifts from 6:30 am to 6:00pm- they really need volunteers for the last two hour shift!  If it rains they will need volunteers 9/18-9/19.

Complete an Online Survey

Another thing you can do to affect change is to complete a People for Bikes survey between now and 9/31/2012 to be entered into a sweepstakes.  I am a big fan of good data, so I encourage you all to take the survey.

Survey Link

It took me 15 minutes, and although I was disappointed to see only two gender options, the question was optional.  Also, there is an open-ended question at the end, "Are there any other comments you would like to provide?"  Let loose!  I took notes as I worked through the survey on the questions that didn't have just the right option and listed them with explanations for why I chose what I did.  There is no "back" button on the survey, FYI.