Share the Road related links

In keeping with my recent “Share the Road” post, I want to pass along a few related links that I have come across in the last week or so.

The first link I want to mention is the “Share the Road for Rachel” website. Just over a year ago, fifteen year old Rachel Giblen was tragically killed while riding a tandem with her brother during a charity ride here in South Carolina. Rachel’s family set up the website to raise awareness about the presence of cyclists on our roadways and to push for improved education and legislation for cyclists. Read more on the website for Rachel and also at Biking Bis.

Last week, I also noticed an interesting safety campaign on Bike Portland called “And we bike”. The website for the campaign, which was inspired by the death of Washington cyclist Tim O’Donnell, explains:

“The campaign will include life-sized cutouts of people with their bikes that will remind motorists that bicyclists are their relatives, friends, coworkers and neighbors “and we bike”. The cutouts will be placed around in front of businesses and community gathering spots around the county. The message is, “Be careful; the cyclist could be someone you know.” Printed material will include a list of ways motorists can more safely interact with bicyclists. Presentations will be made to community groups throughout the month.

I was in Atlanta a few weeks ago and took the picture, seen here, of the back of a MARTA bus. The “I’m on that bike” message comes from the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign (a group that I belonged to many years ago when I lived in Atlanta). This bus signage is another great of example of personalization of the Share the Road message. As I have said before, I think that Share the Road traffic signs are effective, but putting a human face with the message helps to reinforce the point that cyclists are real people; friends, parents, neighbors, etc. I think that these are both great driver education campaigns and that Greenville can learn a lot from the efforts by these groups in Portland and Atlanta.

The last link I want to mention is a little different than the previous ones. In a post not too long ago, I mentioned the weak but often heard argument that cyclists don’t pay their fair share for use of the roads. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently ran a good article to refute that very argument.