As my neighbor Sara put it, just when you completely give up on the city of New Orleans they go and do something cool.

I couldn’t believe it when they first began striping St. Claude Avenue for bike lanes. I still recall a conversation with the Department of Public Works when they said “We don’t want to put bike lanes on the streets because then if someone gets hit the city will get sued.” Never mind that the absence of action has rarely protected anyone from a frivolous law suit.

So when the paint when down and the lane was official, I decided to take a ride and return my overdue book to the Alvar branch of the library. It was a beautiful day and it turned out I was not the only one taking advantage of the new lanes.

If I’m not mistaken, that is “Greg Schatz”:http://www.schatzymusic.com/ in front of me enjoying the ride down St. Claude.

So congratulations to the city, to the Metro Bike Coalition, to the Regional Planning Commission, and to anyone else who had a hand in making this happen! Great work everyone.

And if anyone wants to attend the Official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, it will be tomorrow at 10:30 am outside the Universal Furniture building (“view google map”:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=universal+furniture+saint+claude+avenue+new+orleans+&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=56.506174,108.105469&ie=UTF8&ll=29.968394,-90.050597&spn=0.030597,0.052786&z=15&iwloc=A ). Below is the official announcement from the “Metro Bike Coalition”:http://www.metrobicyclecoalition.org/ :

St. Claude Bike Lane Ribbon Cutting

Tuesday, May 20 – 10:30 a.m to 11:30 a.m.
You are cordially invited to attend a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to open the first designated bike lane in New Orleans! It will be held outside the Healing Center/Universal Furniture Building, at the corner of St. Roch and St. Claude

We hope that MBC members and friends can attend with their bikes, to show our enthusiasm for bike lanes and to be available to ride the lanes for media coverage. The Regional Planning Commission strongly encourages that bicyclists wear helmets and have back reflectors, so that coverage of the lane openings can also share a safety message with the wider community.