TdG photos

This is not really advocacy related, but I wanted to go ahead and pass along a couple links to the shots I took at the Tour de Georgia last week. I had fun photographing the race and I think some of the pictures turned out nice, like this one of local Greenville pro George Hincapie (who had a great race).

If you are interested, you can see a collection of my shots from the stage 4 team time trial at Road Atlanta right here. My pictures of stage 6, which finished on Brasstown Bald can be found in this set. It was a great race this year; makes me look forward to the US Pro races here in the fall.

“Lights for Life”

Yesterday, I was at the Tour de Georgia team time trial at Road Atlanta. It really was a great stage and I had a lot of fun photographing it. To say that I was excited about the race, and cycling in general, as I drove back to Greenville would be an understatement. To be honest, advocacy was not on my mind as I sorted through and cropped my pictures, but unfortunately it came to the forefront when I checked my email this afternoon. I saw a couple of messages about a tragic cycling fatality that occurred last night in Greenville and the news certainly put a damper on my excitement.

It appears from the news story that a cyclist was killed by an 18-wheeler while riding on White Horse road at around 9:30 pm. I don’t know any details about the accident, and I don’t want to speculate. No matter what the circumstances were, this is a horrible tragedy. If the cyclist was riding at night without lights though, it is all the more reason that we should support the Greenville Spinners new “Lights for Life” project that Michelle James has been putting a lot of effort into lately. Basically, the idea is to give away free rear lights to those who ride for transportation and who really need them. The Spinners are teaming up with the Greenville County Sheriffs Department and the Greenville Police Department to distribute the lights. Charleston cyclist Peter Wilborn, who spoke to the Spinners at a club meeting about bicycle safety and pointed out with statistics how lights can save lives, will supply the lights.

Tim St. Clair sent out a great email about this to the Spinners list, but I want to mention it again for any of you who might not have received it. Next Tuesday, the 29th at 5:30 before the Donaldson ride, Peter and the Spinners will meet with law enforcement and provide them with lights to distribute to those they see riding at night without them. WHFF-TV will be on hand to cover the event, so show up a half hour early for the ride if you can to show support for the “Lights for Life” initiative. Hopefully this effort can save some lives. Thanks to Peter, Michelle and everyone else for making this happen.

Bike to Work Week

I mentioned in my last post that the City of Greenville will be taking part in National Bike to Work Week on May 12th through 16th. The City's official 2008 BTWW website is now up, so check out the schedule of events here.

I am adding a permanent link to the side bar as well, so keep watching the site. If you have never tried bike commuting before, start planning now to ride to work next month. You won't be alone and we will provide resources and information to make it easy and fun.

Bicycle infrastructure funding update and more

Thanks to all of you who attended the City Council meeting last night. A fairly large group of cyclists showed up in support of funding for bike lanes and greenways; in fact, the Greenville News mentioned us on the front page of today’s paper (though I couldn’t find the article online). As expected, City Council passed the C.I.P budget, which includes just under 5 million dollars over the course of the next 5 years for greenways and bike lanes. That is great news and I am looking forward to working with the City as a representative of the Spinners to get some of these projects implemented. Before I move on to another subject, I want to again express thanks to the Mayor, City Council, and the City Manager and his staff for including this funding for cycling and pedestrian projects in the budget.

Good things are happening in the City, but don’t forget the County Comprehensive plan workshops that are also happening this month. I plan to attend the next one on April 17th , 6:30pm at Hillcrest High. After that, only two more meetings are left; Traveler’s Rest on the 22nd and Woodmont on the 24th. Nigel Darrington attended the meeting last week at Mauldin High, and he said that his topic of Pedestrian Bikeways was voted as the number one topic at the end of the meeting. The data collected at these meeting will be used to direct funding, so it is important that cycling interests are represented at each. I hope that some of you will join Nigel and me at the next meeting at Hillcrest. Lets carry some of the positive momentum from the City efforts on to the County.
Updated 4/16: I just found out that I have a scheduling conflict and won't be able to make it tomorrow night (scheduling anything is tough with three young kids). Hopefully some of you who live near Simpsonville can attend the workshop and speak up for cycling.

Finally, I want to mention Bike To Work Week, May 12th – 16th. Planning is underway and many more details will follow, but I want to mention it briefly now so you can all plan to ride to work that week. The focus this year is “Encouragement and Education” and great events along those lines will be taking place all week. I’ll post a schedule of events here soon and I will link to the City’s official BTWW website. For now though, here are just a few of the events planned for Bike to Work Week in Greenville:

- May 12th, 13th, and 14th, we are offering FREE bicycle safety check-ups during lunch. Bring your commuter bike to Piazza Bergamo anytime between 11:30am-1:30pm to have a local bicycle mechanic get it ride ready. We'll provide air for your tires, check out your brakes, and look over your drivetrain. There will be bicycle demos and lots of commuter information available.

-Thursday, May 15th at 6:30pm on the Swamp Rabbit Trail in Downtown Greenville, the Greenville Spinners are hosting a Bicycle Commuter Training Course. This 1-hour course will give you the knowledge and confidence to safely ride your bike with traffic. This course is geared towards individuals who would like to use a bicycle as a form of transportation while getting exercise, having fun, and saving gas money. Pre-registration is required, so please visit the Bike-to-Work website (soon to come) for registration information.

-Friday, May 16th, National Bike-to-Work Day. Try making that trip from your house to your office by Bike! You'll be rewarded if you stop by Piazza Bergamo anytime between 7am-8:30am with free Bagels and Coffee.

Spartanburg in American Bicyclist

I received the March issue of American Bicyclist (the LAB magazine) yesterday and it features short write-ups about all of the Bicycle Friendly Communities that have been designated so far. As you all know, Spartanburg was designated at the Bronze level recently after a lot of effort from local cyclists and City leaders, so naturally that was the page I turned to first.

The article points out the Bike Town initiative, which helped to make bike infrastructure, and funding for it, a priority in Spartanburg. It also mentions popular events like the Assault on Mt. Mitchell and the Smith Barney Classic (now the Steadman Hawkins Classic). Interestingly, the unanimous passing of Complete Streets resolutions at both the City and County level was listed as Spartanburg’s most significant recent accomplishment. Best of all, it points out that Spartanburg has made a commitment to continue funding the Bicycle Friendly Community campaign in order to reach more ambitious goals. Congratulations again to Spartanburg. Hopefully we in Greenville can join them as a BFC designated community soon.

While I am posting, I want to mention the article in the Greenville News this morning about City greenways. For those of you who haven’t seen it, progress on the Reedy River Greenway from Greenville Tech to downtown is coming along.

“Imagine Greenville”- The County’s Comprehensive plan

This is something that I completely missed until today when I saw a message about it on the Spinner’s list (thanks Nigel for getting this info out). Greenville County is in the process of updating its comprehensive plan and is holding a series of public meetings to get input from the community. Bike lanes were discussed at the meetings that have already taken place, so we need to make sure that the cycling community is represented at future meetings. Bike lanes, Greenways, and the County “Share the Road” effort are all topics that are worth bring up in this public forum.

Each meeting starts at 6:30pm and should end at around 8. A couple of the meetings have already taken place, but here is the schedule for future meetings:

Monday, April 7th Mauldin High School

Tuesday, April 8th Berea High School

Thursday, April 10th Carolina High School

Thursday, April 17th Hillcrest High School

Tuesday, April 22nd Travelers Rest High School

Thursday, April 24th Woodmont High School

Find out more about “Imagine Greenville” on the County’s website. I will make it to at least one of the future meetings and I hope that some of you can attend these as well. As Nigel pointed out in his message to the Spinner’s list, “It is crucial that we as cyclist get involved and make a difference about the future of Cycling in Greenville, before someone else does it for us!”

Bicycle infrastructure funding

I already mentioned this on the Spinner’s email list, but it is worth mentioning again here for anyone who is not on that list. At the upcoming meeting on April 14th at 5:30, City Council will vote to approve the Capital Improvement Budget, which includes the following items.

1) $45,000 per year for bicycle lanes and bicycle infrastructure in the City limits. This 45k will be available each year for the next 5 years for a total of $225,000. The money will begin implementation of the Bicycle Infrastructure Master Plan that the Spinners and the City developed 3 years ago (see a map of that plan here).

2) $4.5 million over the next 5 years for City-wide trails and greenways. This money will continue implementation of the City's Trails and Greenways Master Plan, which was developed last year by Greenways Incorporated and the City staff.

This is great news so I hope that many of you will join me at City Hall in a couple of weeks to express your support. We have a Greenville Spinners club meeting planned that same night at 6:30 at Coffee Underground, so please plan to come downtown one hour earlier to let the Mayor, City Council, and City staff know that we support this effort and that we appreciate all of their work on cycling issues.