2017 SXSW Bikes at Austin Convention Center
Culture of Activity Newsletter
Vol. 2 No. 2
Thanks so much for joining us on the second year of our newsletter.
We’re delighted to have you along for the ride.
Updates
The new year has definitely started off with a bang. It’s been crazy busy and in a good way. We’ve recently attended the Boulder International Film Festival, was involved with a few activities at SXSW and have launched into pre-production mode for 3-4 year documentary following 10 cities from across the country as they strive to become more activity promoting places (more details on this to follow in the coming months).
Our Most Recent Films
Although we’ve been on the road quite a lot we did produce a few fun films in the video montage genre and we’ll highlight three of these below.
The first is Episode 39 – Austin, TX: Sunday Fun Day Jam which was filmed by bike using a DJI Osmo video camera. It highlights how the city of Austin, TX really comes alive in the warmth after a few days chilly winter like weather.
The second is Episode 41 – SXSW Bicycle Video Montage where we caught some of the bicycle activity surrounding SXSW after a cloudy, rainy start to the festival. As you watch this film, focus on the number of bikes you see parked and imagine if each of these represented someone driving a single occupancy motor vehicle. We think these are truly powerful images.
The third and final film is Episode 42 – Austin, TX: Jim & Lucy Continue Their Journey a sweet little homage to the cross country bicycle trip of Jim Sayer and his daughter Lucy. Jim is the Executive Director of the Adventure Cycling Association, which is conveniently the organization you’d turn to in planning your own bicycle adventure.
Donations
Just a quick reminder, as a charitable, not-for-profit organization we rely on donations and sponsorships to produce our films. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution at https://www.activetowns.org/fundraising/
Project Great Streets:
Streets have the potential to serve as cherished, well utilized activity assets. In honor of the upcoming Strong Towns Transportation Summit in Tulsa, OK later this week, we’re sharing their recent post about Project Great Streets featuring Heyden Walker Black, a friend of the Active Towns Initiative.
Bicycle Friendly Benefits
A recent article in the Minneapolis, MN Star Tribune titled Cycling in Minnesota creates thousands of jobs and cuts health-care spending, state report concludes was one of our most read re-posts on social media this past week. No big surprises in the details, but it’s still nice to see the validation in print.
Speaking of Tulsa
By far the most popular post on our page from the past week was this article: Planning expert suggests two-way streets with bike lanes in downtown Tulsa. “I like to say people will walk if the walk is simultaneously useful, safe, comfortable and interesting,” Jeff Speck, an author and spokesman for smart design, said. “We focus on each of those categories, but here in Tulsa the safe category is the biggest one because the typical street in downtown Tulsa is attracting cars to go at a high speed.”
Potential Content Profile: Let us know if you see any interesting, relevant articles, research or blog posts – just drop John an email at: john@activetowns.org
Be Careful Out There
As we move into the warmer days of spring and summer, remember there will be more people out about walking and biking, hopefully you’ll be among them. So be careful out there whether you are choosing to walk, bike or drive.
Purpose
The primary goals of this periodic email are to keep our subscribers up to speed on recent Active Towns original content and review relevant curated content created by others.
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Archive
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