A Greenways presentation and more

As the header says, this is an occasional blog and lately it has been very occasional. I have been posting infrequently this month, but there is still a lot of Greenville advocacy information to pass along. My travel schedule has been a bit hectic lately and will continue to be that way until mid January. Posting here might continue to be a little slow for a while, but look for an update on the Share the Road efforts and more in the near future.

One event that you will want to mark you on your calendars is a Trails and Greenways Public Presentation on Tuesday, December 11th at 6pm in the Downtown Hughes Library Meeting Room. Andrew Meeker, Greenville’s urban designer, will be presenting the newly completed 'Trails and Greenways Master Plan' and discussing what projects are currently underway or soon to be underway. Ty Houck from the Greenville County Recreation District will discuss progress on the Greenville Hospital System Swamp Rabbit Tram Trail and other County-wide Greenway efforts. I’ll be there to see the presentation and I hope that some of you will be able to attend as well.

The City is currently working on the trail section, shown here, between Cleveland Park and Greenville Tech. Andrew has some pictures of the construction progress online for those of you who are interested. By the way, this section of greenway is scheduled to open to the public in the Spring of 08. That is right around the corner.

While I am posting, I want to mention a few other things that I have seen lately. Dual Chase Productions has online some interesting Powerpoint presentations, which show ways that cyclists interact with traffic. I have only glanced at a few of these so far, but they seem like a good resource for proponents of transportational cycling. Read more here at a post on Cyclelicious.

Not too long ago, I mentioned a few interesting pedestrian and cyclist safety campaigns in other cities. Portland has a new pedestrian campaign that recently caught my attention. I think efforts like these go a long way toward helping people to remember that cyclists and pedestrians who are killed or injured on the roadways are more than just statstics. Innovative ways to alert drivers to simply watch out is something that I think we need more of.

Also at Bike Portland is a post about the bike sharing program that is soon to be implemented in that city. The Velib bikes in Paris have received the most press lately, but bike sharing or rental programs are taking off in many cities around the world. For those of you who are interested in reading more, the Bike Sharing blog covers such programs in cities worldwide. As the Greenville City/County Greenways plans come together, I think a program like this would make a lot of sense in this area. I have a few thoughts on the subject, but I am running out of time so I will have to save those for a future post.

The end of T-Mobile

This isn't exactly advocacy news, but I thought I would pass the press release along. So what does this mean for Hincapie next season? Hopefully a new title sponsor will step up soon.

Edited: It appears that both the men's and women's teams will continue on under the name "Team High Road". Read more at VeloNews.

Charges filed in October cycling deaths

I have been out of the country for the last couple weeks, so I haven’t been hearing follow up stories regarding last month’s tragic cycling fatalities in this state. When I returned, I was a bit surprised to read this story out of Columbia. As I have mentioned before, South Carolina has a poor track record when it comes to prosecuting motorists who hurt or kill cyclist, so I was glad to hear that the driver who killed Lee Ann Barry and Tom Hoskins is being charged with murder.

The article contains a statement by the Hoskins family in response to charges.

"Just like a bicycle, the wheels of justice must turn. Nothing can replace the lives of Lee Ann Barry and Tom Hoskins. It is our hope that those operating a motor vehicle will be focused on the road before them. The death rate continues to rise due to the inattentiveness of motor vehicle operators. Two spouses must now walk through life alone raising families."

Let’s hope that South Carolina continues to take cycling fatalities like these seriously. I am glad that they are doing so in this case.

Share the Road TV ads

Recently, I posted what I thought were a couple of interesting and effective ways that bicycle advocacy groups in other cities are spreading the “share the road” message throughout their communities. Here is another really great example. The San Luis Obispo County Bicycle Coalition recently created a set of Public Service Announcements that will run on local TV channels. On their website, they point out that the TV spots will hopefully “encourage civility among bicyclists and motorists and to better educate the public on safe and responsible behavior on our roadways.” They also point out that the new spots will “complement past accomplishments with the campaign, including our safety messages in local movie theaters and ads on county buses.” Great idea; take a look at the ads here.

Via Cyclelicious