A quick BFC workshop follow-up

The BFC workshop with Bill Nesper on Tuesday was a big success. I don’t have time to do a full recap today, but I do want to pass along the summary of the action step recommendations as determined by the workshop attendees (myself included). Also, I want to ask all of you reading this to think about volunteering to participate in one of the BFC committee based on the 5 E’s:

1. Engineering

2. Education

3. Encouragement

4. Evaluation & Planning

5. Enforcement

If you would like to participate, send an email to Andrew Meeker with the City of Greenville. You are welcome to contact me as well if you have ideas or if you would like a copy of the PowerPoint presentations from the meeting. I can’t stress enough that we really need for people to get involved to make this happen. Several cities in the southeast have received bronze level BFC designation. Here in Greenville, we have an exciting opportunity to work toward silver level. It won’t be easy, but I think it is a worthwhile goal.

Now, onto the 11 ACTION STEP RECOMMENDATIONS from the workshop:

1. Start a BFC Committee and set the goal of applying for the BFC application and reaching Gold by a certain time.

2. Set up a League Cycling Instructor seminar to certify instructors who can teach children, adults, an motorists. Start regular class for each of these groups.

3. Create a plan for improved signage (bike lanes, yield to bikes/pedestrians, share the road, bike parking) –start implementation on most traveled roads first.

4. Expand the bicycle network and increase network connectivity through the use of bike lanes, shared lane arrows and signed routes. This will provide a broader range of facility choices for users of various abilities and comfort levels.

5. Facilitate the creation of a stronger, more centralized advocacy group that will take the lead on education and encouragement program. Work with the PCC to launch this initiative

6. Create a bicycling website for Greenville that will act as a central hub for bicyclists and potential bicyclists to gather education tips, local bike routes, people to ride with, and news about events and other cycling-related activities. This site will also act as a place for bicyclists to comment on current bicycle projects and to report facility maintenance issues, etc.

7. Expand public education campaigns to promote the "share the road" message and the rights and responsibilities of all users. PAS'sPAS'S for TV, radio, and in print.

8. Adopt a Complete Streets policy in the community.

9. Develop a series of short (2-5 mi.) loops rides around the community and provide appropriate way-finding signage. Integrate these rides into a local bike map.

10. Improve marketing and education of bike rack and bus bike rack use. Ensure that drivers are educated as well.

11. Fill out BFC application!

Bicycle Friendly Community workshop

As hard as it is to do, I will take a break from following the web coverage of the Tour de France on my lunch hour to pass along a few updates and links.

Since Spartanburg was designated as a Bicycle Friendly Community not long ago, several people have asked when Greenville plans to apply for designation. It has been discussed among the Spinners and within the City for a long time, but Greenville just wasn’t ready… until now. Next Tuesday, the process begins with a workshop to educate City officials and business leaders about the benefits of becoming a bike friendly city. We are very lucky to have Bill Nesper, the League of American Bicyclists’ Director of the Bicycle Friendly Community program, here in Greenville next week to conduct the workshop. This workshop is the first official step toward BFC designation, so I will let you all know how it goes.

I was looking through the July/August issue of G Magazine (I think it is only the second issue) and I was surprised to see a short article about colored bike lanes (scroll down to read it here). When Portland started implementing the colored lanes in intersections in 2005 (if I remember correctly), I mentioned it to Jason V. who was the Spinners advocacy chair at the time. He was immediately interested in sharing information about painted lanes with Mayor White and City Council, so I pulled together some statistics from studies in Denmark, Sweden, and Montreal where the colored lanes were already in use. I hadn’t thought much about it since then, but it is good to know that the City is still interested. Of course, this is something that would most likely happen in the distant future; we need more bike lanes before we can start painting them green through intersections. But hey, we are making progress in Greenville and I do believe we could see colored lanes or bike boxes here someday.

Since I mentioned G magazine, I should point out that the same issue had a great article about a Main street bicycle shop from the 1800’s and a nice profile of George Hincapie. The other content is great too, so I encourage you to pick up a copy if you haven’t seen it.

This isn’t related to Greenville, but NBC Nightly News did a story on bicycle commuting this week. They mentioned Portland and pointed out that 6% of daily commuters in that city use bicycles. They also mentioned that Portland has 170 miles of bike lanes (not an unrelated fact to that commuter percentage). As someone who has commuted by bike off and on for nearly 20 years, it is great to see this kind of coverage about transportational cycling in the national news. Interest in bike commuting nationwide is at an all time high, so we need to prepare for more bike commuters here in Greenville going forward.

Finally, I just want to thank the guy with the Parlee TT bike who gave me his spare tube before the Spinners time trail at Donaldson last night. It wasn’t the first time I have showed up for a race or event unprepared and it probably won’t be the last. I offered to pay him for the tube, but he said something like “hey, we’ve all been there.” Very true, I have given people tubes, patches, etc. and have also been the recipient of such generosity on many occasions (including last night). Without getting too sappy, I’ll just point out that those within the cycling community look out for each other and that cyclists, in general, are a generous bunch. Sorry I didn’t get your name, but thanks again for the tube. Without it I would have just been sitting on the side of the road watching everyone else ride.

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.

Congratulations Spartanburg!

Shortly after I mentioned Spartanburg in yesterday’s post, I heard the news that they were designated as a Bronze level Bicycle Friendly Community by the LAB. Congratulations to Spartanburg on being the first city in South Carolina to earn that designation. Many people in Spartanburg have worked hard in recent years to make this happen, and they deserve to be commended. Let’s hope that this news encourages all of us in Greenville to step up our efforts toward reaching the same goal of BFC designation.

You can read more about Spartanburg’s designation in the following press release:

Spartanburg Recognized as the First City in South Carolina to Receive Bicycle-Friendly Community Recognition

SPARTANBURG (September 25, 2007) The City of Spartanburg has been nationally designated as a Bronze Level, Bicycle-Friendly Community from The League of American Bicyclists and proclaimed as the first city in South Carolina to receive such an honor.

The criteria used by national reviewers are:

• The community had systems in place to train children and adult cyclists.
• 
  Bicyclists were included in the City’s transportation plan.
• 
  Police officers understood and enforced bicyclists’ rights and responsibilities.
• 
  The community participated in Bike Month, hosted community bike rides and overall encouraged cycling.

The City of Spartanburg was recognized for the recently completed two-mile rail-trail through downtown which was financed with more than $1 million in local funds.

The City of Spartanburg’s Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee was established in February 2006 under the direction of Mayor Barnet. Its chartered purpose is to promote policies, practices and attitudes to increase safety and accessibility of bicycling and walking for both transportation and recreation throughout the City of Spartanburg.

The Bike Town Initiative was created in 2004 with the goal of earning Spartanburg the designation as a Bicycle Friendly Community by 2007. It is funded by Mary Black Foundation and directed by Partners for Active Living.

The Bicycle-Friendly Community Campaign is an awards program of the League of American Bicyclists that recognizes municipalities that actively support bicycling. On September 29, 2006, the City of Spartanburg was the first in the state to receive Honorable Mention from the Bicycle-Friendly Community Campaign.

New BFC Web Site

The League of American Bicyclists has recently launched a new website for its Bicycle Friendly Community program. The U.S. map on the first page allows you to quickly see which cities have been designated and at what level. When you click on the cities, you can read a little bit about out why each city was designated. It is great to be able to compare and contrast the strongest bike related programs in each of the current BFC cities.

As you can see from a glance at the map, no South Carolina cities have been designated yet (though Spartanburg did receive an honorable mention). With a bit of work we can put Greenville on this map. In the mean time, this site is a great resource for good ideas that have been implemented elsewhere.

Also, while I am posting, I want to point out the gas savings calculator that I added to the sidebar. It is a nice tool to provide a little extra incentive to those of you who are considering riding a bike to work. Thanks to Commute by Bike for providing this great little widget.