Oct. 20 SmartRoutes Community Rally, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., STA Plaza

Mark your calendars & invite your friends: Oct. 20, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., SmartRoutes Spokane Community Rally at the STA Plaza. SmartRoutes is Spokane's participation in the nationwide effort led by Rails to Trails Conservancy asking Congress to increase funding for nonmotorized & active transportation. We'll have maps showing the plans we've shared with RTC about how we'll plug gaps and create a safe and connected countywide network of paths and urban routes. Our plan is about the five Es: education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation in addition to this engineering piece. Walk, bike, or bus to the plaza to show you choose active transportation, and to find out how you can get involved. For more on the plan we submitted, go to www.srtc.org and follow links to bike/ped resources. SmartRoutes will soon have its own web site.