What’s Your Speed?

Leslie Phemister is the Transportation Liaison with South Suburban Mayors & Managers Association [http://ssmma.org] (SSMMA) in East Hazel Crest, Illinois. Among the many services SSMMA provides to its 35 member municipalities is awarding and administering $7 million in annual federal transportation dollars, and Leslie manages that as well as helps communities win millions more in county, state and federal transportation grants. Leslie has leveraged her 13 years of experience developing Safe Routes to School [https://www.saferoutespartnership.org] plans, community active transportation plans [https://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/transportation/promote_strategy.htm], and Complete Streets [https://smartgrowthamerica.org/program/national-complete-streets-coalition/] policies to transform how all those dollars turn into streets and trails that work for and benefit everybody - drivers, walkers and cyclists. She shares her insight and tips on how your town can do more for cycling and walking, PLUS...we have breaking news with Leslie on the GINORMOUS Chicago Southland trail projects and connections in store for 2021. Acronyms in this podcast: CMAP - Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning [http://cmap.illinois.gov] COG - Council of Government [https://www.cmap.illinois.gov/committees/advisory/council-of-mayors/subregional-councils] IDOT - Illinois Department of Transportation [http://idot.illinois.gov] NICTD - Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District [https://www.mysouthshoreline.com/about/nictd] NIRPC - Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission [https://www.nirpc.org] SSMMA - South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association [http://ssmma.org] STP - Surface Transportation Project [https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/specialfunding/stp/] WOW - not an acronym, just our reaction to all that Leslie & SSMMA do for walking and cycling.

In this episode, we interview Flossmoor mayoral candidate Michelle Nelson.  Michelle is a civil engineer by profession, currently employed as full-time mom, and an avid runner. She ran from her home to the shop for the interview! Even though she owns a bike! Michelle shared how picking the "low hanging fruit" could make Flossmoor—and Homewood, and any suburban town, really—safer, easier and more fun to walk, run and ride. She also shared how to turn your kid into a runner, as well as her Worst/Best about biking, walking and running in the Ho-Flo. You can find more about Michelle on her website, including links to all her social media channels at https://michelleforflossmoor.com [https://michelleforflossmoor.com] If you have a WORST thing about walking, running or biking in the Ho-Flo that keeps you up at night, and also a BEST thing that you'd like to share, call our Worst/Best hotline, 708/794-6588 and leave us a message. We might use your Worst/Best on a future episode. As always, thanks to Bob Colton, MG Bailey, and Antisocial Protocol for the use of their music. You can keep up to speed with the shop by visiting our website at www.goodspeedcycles.com. www.facebook.com/bob.colton.79 [http://www.facebook.com/bob.colton.79] www.mgbailey.com [http://www.mgbailey.com] www.facebook.com/asp.band.official [http://www.facebook.com/asp.band.official ]

Tom Dobrez grew up with bikes the way most of us did - riding around with friends, risking grave injury riding sketchy ramps, and exploring the area miles around his home. As a grownup, he and his friend Mark Hamlin wanted to help people recapture the carefree exhilaration of  cycling with an adult twist—and thus founded perhaps the South Suburbs' most iconic underground ride, Biking the 'Burbs for Beers. We also talk to Tom about Bike the Gem [https://www.facebook.com/events/village-of-flossmoor-illinois/bike-the-gem/634772450368289/], Flossmoor's cycling preview of their Hidden Gem half marathon route, as well as his Worst/Best picks. Plus we play our first call-in message to the Worst/Best hotline - you're not really podcasting until you get a call-in! Tell us YOUR picks for Worst/Best things about riding bikes in and around the Homewood-Flossmoor area by calling our hotline, 708/794-6588. We might play your message in a future episode! Follow Biking the Burbs for Beers on Facebook, @bikingtheburbsforbeers [https://www.facebook.com/bikingtheburbsforbeers]. Special thanks to Bob Colton for our intro music, MG Bailey [https://www.mgbailey.com/] for letting use his song Worst/Best, and rockers ASP [https://www.instagram.com/asp.band.official/] for the outtro tunes. If you're a local music artist and would like to be featured on our podcast, please drop us a line at goodspeedcycles@gmail.com [goodspeedcycles@gmail.com]. You can always find us on our website, goodspeedcycles.com [https://www.goodspeedcycles.com/] too! Stay safe and thanks for listening!

Graham Bolkema started GoodSpeed Cycles in 2010 when he was just 23 years old, after his dad was tragically killed while riding his bike. Shop manager Josh Klein walked away from a desk-bound career as an architect and inside sales for the riches and glory of bicycle retail. In this episode, Graham and Josh share what it’s like to grow up in love with bikes (and how to make your kids love bikes too), the origins of the name GoodSpeed Cycles, the challenges and rewards of running a community-oriented bike shop, and their HoFlo Worst/Best cycling nominations. Tell us YOUR nominations for Worst/Best things about riding bikes in and around the Homewood-Flossmoor area by calling the Worst/Best hotline, 708/794-6588. We might play your message in a future episode! If you're a local music artist and would like to be featured on our podcast, please drop us a line at goodspeedcycles@gmail.com You can check out the crazy trials antics of Danny MacAskill on his YouTube channel here [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9kOkY1nYc0uADWRiRH64Rw]. Special thanks to Bob Colton for our intro music, MG Bailey [https://www.mgbailey.com] for the use of his song Worst/Best, and rockers ASP [https://www.instagram.com/asp.band.official/] for the outtro tunes. You can always find us on our website, goodspeedcycles.com [https://www.goodspeedcycles.com] too! Stay safe and thanks for listening!

In this episode Chris & Steve talk about some of the changes in the shop and cycling in general due to the Illinois stay at home order. Long-time friends of the shop and world’s best group ride leaders, Barb & Dan Lawler, talk about what keeps them motivated to keep cycling during the age of COVID-19. We introduce our new segment "Worst/Best" plus some more great stuff! If you'd like to call in with your own Worst/Best, you can leave us a message at 708-794-6588. We’ll listen to them all (keep it clean), and may even feature yours on a future episode! If you'd like to follow Barb, Dan, or Chris on the indoor cycling app Zwift to get an invite to some of our meetups, you can search for them at Barb Lawler MTC3 GSC, Dan Lawler GSC, and Chris Bednarek GSC. You will not find Steve on Zwift, ever. As you’ll hear in the podcast, you can access turn-by-turn voice navigation for Dan’s routes in our route library by joining the GoodSpeed Ride with GPS club at http://tinyurl.com/gsc-routes [http://tinyurl.com/gsc-routes]. Thanks to Homewood’s Bob Colton for composing our intro music, MG Bailey [http://mgbailey.com] (also from Homewood) for lending us his song "Worst/Best" and south suburban rockers ASP [http://instagram.com/asp.band.official] for our outro tunes. Want to have your music featured on our podcast? Send us a message at goodspeedcycles@gmail.com.