This post is from Commuter Challenge Ambassador Elizabeth Tidd

Spur of the moment went to a meeting about a possible Bicycle Choir. A friend of ours forwarded us an email about a meeting at Ann Arbor Brewery last night at 6:30pm. I rode directly from work and met my husband there at the Brewery. About 10-15 people eventually trickled in. We will meet again at 7am Friday for Breakfast at a place on Soule near Eberwhite. I would be happy to forward details to anyone who’s interested!

To send a message to Elizabeth about the Bike Choir, email info@getdowntown.org

Elizabeth also sent getDowntown an email about the Bike Choir:

It was great to meet all of you last night at the first meeting of the Bicycle Choir!  Our next meeting will be on Friday (April 24), 7:00am at Selma Cafe (located at 722 Soule in the Eberwhite neighborhood).  Please RSVP by emailing me before Thursday if you are coming! Please also come prepared to talk about which songs you’d like to sing and ideas for a mission statement.

In addition, here are the notes from last night’s meeting:

- Tom Bartlett, owner of Circumference Bicycles, will let us use the Conference Bike which seats 6 riders.
- Susan talked about how the Bicycle Choir got started in Toronto.  She mentioned how they found a good conductor, and how crucial that was to their success.  I will look around for someone who is interested in being a conductor.  In the meantime we can still start practicing.
- We talked about doing our first event in May during the Commuter Challenge if we’re able to get things in order by then.  There was also the discussion of participating in the Bike Parade at the Buddhist Temple on May 17, and also the 4th of July Parade.
- We discussed how the Bicycle Choir can be a vehicle for bringing other cycling groups together (i.e. “Bang Gang,” and others).
- I spoke for a little while with Amy from the Ann Arbor Chronicle after the meeting and I think this whole thing will not only be fun but also a huge media hit!

Looking forward to seeing all of you again!

~Laura (laura@michiganpeaceworks.org)

This post is from Commuter Challenge Ambassador Elizabeth Tidd.

Nicer ride in today – packed my rain gear for the ride home. Rode behind the street sweeper on Packard. Great that it sweeps up the broken beer bottles left behind from the apartment dwellers along Packard. Wish it could fix the potholes in the bike lanes! Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad that I have my own lane, but the cars don’t understand when I have to go out of my lane to avoid the potholes! Its different when they swerve into my lane to avoid cars turning left. There. I said it. For the most part I enjoy my ride into work in spite of the obstacles!