Bike to Work week events

Bike to Work week in Greenville is underway. We got off to a rainy and cool start, but the weather is looking up for the rest of the week (well…better for Thursday and Friday at least). Remember, you can check the Bikeville bike month page for details on everything that is happening, but I want to quickly remind you about the events planned for the rest of this week

Tonight, Wednesday the 18^th, plan to attend the Greenville Ride of Silence. In past years, Greenville and Spartanburg have participated in a joint Ride of Silence. This year, the Greenville ride will start on Main Street at City Hall. Plan to be there at 6:30 to ride in a silent procession to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured while cycling on public roadways.

After the Ride of Silence, ride your bike to the Peace Center Amphitheater for the Moonlight Movie (from 8 – 10). I will be there, with other Bikeville volunteers, to provide free secure bike parking while you watch the movie. Before the movie starts, you will see the Greenville premier of the four short Palmetto Cycling Coalition's Safe Streets Save Lives videos, which are intended to educate both bicyclists and motorists on the rules of the road.

Friday, May 20^th, is Bike to Work Day, and the theme this year is Bike Shop Rest Stops. Drop by any of the participating local shops on your way to work for refreshments, coupons, and prizes.

On Saturday, Upstate SORBA and Bikeville will host a Mountain Bike Skills Clinic at Cleveland Park (shelter 5) starting at 11 am. They will have the wooden ramps and see-saws to ride and will lead guided tours of Cleveland Park’s three miles of mountain bike trails. Helmets are required to participate. Find out more at Upstate SORBA.

Don’t forget the ongoing initiatives this month as well. The bike month page has details on everything.

Bike Month is underway!

I mentioned in my last post that Bike Month almost here. Well scratch that now…it is upon us, and it is going to be the best one yet! Be sure to check the list of events again and plan to get out on your bike and join us this month. In addition to the scheduled events throughout the month of May, don’t forget the ongoing Bikeville Commuter Challenge (sign up at WorldCommute.com first) and the photo contest that are underway now. 

You can keep checking the Bikeville site for information. I’ll also be posting links and info on the Bike Greenville Facebook page, so “like” it if you haven’t already for updates throughout Bike Month.

Just a couple other things to mention while I am posting…

Tonight, May 3^rd, from 5:30 to 7:00 there will be a sign up for the Stars and Stripes Challenge at Pedal Chic in downtown Greenville. Those who sign up tonight will be eligible for some great prizes including a Jamis bicycle courtesy of Fairway Subaru. Check the Pedal Chic Facebook page for more info.

In a recent profile of Upstate South Carolina, Southwest Airlines’ Spirit magazine called Greenville “Cycle City”. Read the section about cycling here in this pdf of the “Play” section. It’s great to see more positive coverage of Greenville’s cycling scene in a national publication. Let's keep the good things happening here.

Bike Month is almost here!

I have been traveling for the last three weeks, so I haven’t been able to post anything about Bike Month events in Greenville. May is almost here though, so I want to quickly mention the many scheduled events that Bikeville, the City, and other sponsors have planned.

The full list of events is below, so mark your calendars to attend (and maybe volunteer for) a few of these. You can download the official Greenville Bike Month pdf poster for times and more information about each event.

• TUESDAY, MAY 3 & 17 - ICAR Family Fun Ride
• 
  SATURDAY, MAY 7 - Free Bike Valet - Saturday Market
• 
  SUNDAY, MAY 15 - Drive Me to Wellness Event
• 
  SUNDAY, MAY 15 - Greenville Drive Bike Valet
• 
  MONDAY, MAY 16 - Free Bike Commuter Course
• 
  WEDNESDAY, MAY 18 - Ride of Silence
• 
  WEDNESDAY, MAY 18 - Free Bike Valet – Moonlight Movie
• 
  FRIDAY, MAY 20 - National Bike-to-Work Day
• 
  SATURDAY, MAY 21 - Mountain Bike Skills Clinic
• 
  FRIDAY, MAY 27 - Critical Cruise Community Bike Ride
• 
  SATURDAY, MAY 28 - Community Bike Ride and Free Bike Valet - USA Cycling Championships Time Trial
• 
  MONDAY, MAY 30 - Free Bike Valet - USA Cycling Professional Championships Road Race

Bikeville has a new Pedal Power Generator that will be featured at many of these events. You can drop by to take a spin and generate some electricity to “help keep us off the grid with some old fashion human power.”

A photo contest is new for this year. The winner in each of 5 categories will receive a prize, and more importantly will help to promote bicycle awareness in Greenville. Read more about the contest here on the city’s website.

Finally, I want to mention the Commuter Challenge, which is probably the most exciting new addition to Bike Month in Greenville. To participate, sign up at WorldCommute.com and join the Bikeville group. Once registered, you can log your bicycle commuting mileage and track the fuel and CO2 emissions that you (and the group as a whole) save by riding a bike in place of a few car trips. Just by participating you will feel great, do a good turn for the environment, and save a little money. The savings won’t just stop at the pump though. Anyone who joins the Bikeville World Commute group will also receive a 10% discount on parts and labor from several local bike shops. Sounds like a win/ win, so get that old bike ready and plan to participate.

A few overdue updates

At the beginning of May, I posted about a few upcoming events such as Bike to Work week, the Ride of Silence, and the Imagine Greenville County planning meetings. I have been meaning to do a follow up post on all of those, but I haven’t found the time until now.

Overall, Bike to Work week went well. I am not sure exactly how many people showed up with their bikes for the ABC quick checks on Monday through Wednesday, but I do know that Greenville’s urban designer Andrew Meeker talked to quite a few people at Piazza Bergamo who had questions about commuting and were interested in seeing the City’s trails and Greenway master plan.

I attended the Thursday evening “commuter 101” course at TTR and was pleased to see the turnout. Sally Nicholson and Paul LeFrancois did a great job of providing the group with basic safe riding and commuting tips. The group seemed to be pretty diverse in cycling experience, but I think most everyone got something out of the presentation. Many people asked questions, so I think it was definitely a worthwhile experience for all who attended.

Despite the rains overnight on Thursday, the commuter breakfast on Friday also went well. After a short ride from City Hall, Mayor White spoke about his vision of a bike friendly Greenville. He made what I thought was a great comparison between the current bike lane, trail, and greenway plans and the Liberty Bridge project that became a reality just a few years ago. Though Liberty Bridge and all of Falls Park has become a showcase for the City, it started with just a handful of people who really wanted to see it happen and were willing to put forth the effort to make that dream a reality. There was certainly some opposition to the idea of tearing down an automobile bridge and building a pedestrian bridge in its place, but now that the project is complete, almost all Greenville residents are proud of Falls Park and view the new bridge as a symbol of the City. Let’s hope that future efforts to make Greenville bicycle and pedestrian friendly will be received the same way.

Another highlight of the commuter breakfast was Greenville Spinners club president Tim St. Clair’s presentation of a “Lights for Life” light to Police Chief Wilfong. Michelle James has been the driving force behind this initiative to get free blinky lights in the hands of those who need them by partnering with local law enforcement. I think this is a great initiative, so I really appreciate the time that Michelle has put into it. I also want to mention Charleston attorney Peter Wilborn, who spoke to the Spinners at a club meeting about the importance of using lights. He is the one who donated the first 100 Planet Bike Blinky lights for this program, so we owe him our thanks for that. I almost forgot, we gave away really nice waterbottles (donated by the Great Escape) at the commuter breakfast. You can see one in the picture with the lights.

The joint Greenville/Spartanburg Ride of Silence on Hwy 101 was well attended and well organized. Hundreds of cyclists rode to remember those who have been killed or injured while riding on the roads. It would be great to say it went off without a hitch, but one incident that took place during the ride points to the fact that the “share the road” message still needs to get out. The driver of a car, who was apparently not happy to see so many cyclists on the road, swerved near some of the riders. A Spartanburg County deputy who was escorting the ride pursued the driver for a short distance, but backed off to avoid a dangerous high-speed chase near the ride. Apparently the driver continued to travel at high speed until he flipped his car near the junction with I-85. I didn’t see it happen, but as the group I carpooled with left the ride, we saw the flipped car and skid marks. I didn’t know the full story until I saw it on the news that evening.

Lastly, I want to mention the last Imagine Greenville planning meeting that took place on May 13th. As I mentioned in previous posts, Nigel Darrington attended a few of these County meetings and reported that the issue of “Bikeways” was in the top 5 vote counts for all of the meetings he was able to attend. I am happy to report that it took the top spot at this last meeting by a large margin. Everyone at the meeting was given a survey to fill out. If you missed the meeting, you can still fill out the survey online to let the County know that bike lanes and greenway trails are something you care about.

Bike to Work Day breakfast

I have mentioned it a few times, so I won’t go into detail, but I want to remind everyone about tomorrow’s Bike to Work Day commuter breakfast at Piazza Bergamo. You are welcome to stop by Piazza Bergamo anytime from 7:15 to 9:00 for bagels and coffee. If you want to ride to the event with Mayor White, plan to meet at City Hall just before 7:15.

Also, don’t forget the Commuter 101 course tonight at TTR. More information about both events can be found here. I hope to see some of you downtown later today and in the morning.

By the way, these are photos of the 2007 Bike to Work Day event courtesy of Jonathon Pait. I think the turnout last year was pretty good, and this year promises to be even better.

Bike to Work Week events flyer

May is upon us and Bike to Work Week is just a couple of weeks away, so I want to remind all of you of some of the events that the City, the Spinners, and the other generous BTWW sponsors have planned. As I mentioned earlier, you can keep checking the City’s bike2work website for the latest information and scheduling. Also, you can click on the attached flyer and print it out to let your friends and coworkers know about the events planned that week. If you would like a higher resolution file of the flyer to print and distribute, shoot me an email and I will be happy to send you one. Speaking of the flyer, I want to credit Richard (aka Fritz at Cyclelicious) for the photo. Thanks for giving me permission to use it.

The free ABC quick checks at Piazza Bergamo on Monday though Wednesday from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm will provide a great opportunity for those who haven’t ridden in a long time to dust of the old bikes in the garage and have them checked out by a professional mechanic. Be sure to tell all your friends who don’t ride often about this great opportunity to get that old bike rolling again. Thanks to TTR, Carolina Triathlon, and The Great Escape for donating their time and resources to make this bike safety check up happen.

The Commuter safety 101 course, which will take place at the new downtown location of Tandem, Touring, and Recumbent Bikes on Thursday evening, is an event that will be great for cyclists of all skill levels. You will benefit from the knowledge of two LAB League Certified Instructors who will cover the basics of riding safely with traffic. TTR has generously donated door prizes and will have commuter oriented demo bikes and products available for you to try out, so plan to be there. I want to remind you that pre-registration is required, so email Andrew Meeker with the City if you plan to attend.

Finally, the Bike to Work Day commuter breakfast will take place on Friday, the 16th . Stop by during your bike commute anytime between 7:15 and 9 am for free coffee and bagels from Coffee Underground. Mayor White will be there to update us on the progress toward making Greenville a Bicycle Friendly Community. While you are there, you can pick up your free Greenville BTWW event waterbottle donated by the Great Escape. There will probably also be an informal “ride with the Mayor” right before 7:15 from City Hall to Piazza Bergamo for those of you who will be downtown early (more information on that will follow). Overall, it should be a great event to cap off Bike to Work Week in Greenville, so I hope that many of you will join us to fuel up before your ride to work.

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.

Bike2Work survey results

Results of the Bike2Work survey are now posted on the city’s website. See them for yourself here. Just over half of the respondents said that they had not ridden a bike to work in the past year. Still, almost half of you who took the survey did ride to work in the past year. That is great.

What stood out to me when I saw these results though, was the fact that over 20 percent of respondents had only ridden to work once or twice. Those people obviously have an interest in bike commuting, but, for whatever reason, don’t feel comfortable doing it on a regular basis. As I expected, the biggest obstacle chosen was “not feeling safe riding with traffic.” These results just confirm that there is work to be done on the local advocacy front. Improving the infrastructure for cycling is part of it, but educating drivers and cyclists about sharing the roads is at least equally important. Stay tuned here for more on that subject in future posts.

BTWD pictures

Yesterday, I requested pictures from the BTWD event. Jonathon emailed me a link to a post on his blog that features three pictures he took with his camera phone. Here you can see a few riders assembling at Hincapie Sportswear for the morning ride with the Mayor (I am right in the middle of this picture scratching my neck or something). Jonathon has two other pictures on his blog. The bottom one shows the crowd at Piazza Bergamo, but it looks like it was taken after people had already starting clearing out.

Anyway, Thanks again for the pictures Jonathon. If anyone else has shots from the event, please send them to me or let me know where I can find them on the web.

We had a great BTWD event

Greenville’s Bike to Work Day event last week was a great success. Over 60 cyclists showed up at Hincapie Sportswear early Friday morning for the ride with Mayor White and city council members to Piazza Bergamo. I want to thank those of you who got up early to participate in the ride on Friday. I think that Mayor White was impressed with the crowd as well. In his speech, the Mayor mentioned that it was a good turnout, but that next year we would shoot for an even 100 participants. Building on the success of this year’s event, I think that we, as a cycling community, can reach that goal for BTWD 2008.

I also want to again thank the sponsors for this year’s event. Atlanta Bread Company, Carolina Triathlon, Great Escape, Hincapie Sportswear, and Pulze Fitness all donated items that helped make this event a success. While I am thanking people, I should mention Greenville’s urban designer Andrew Meeker, who did the bulk of the work in putting this event together. I was glad to help him out a bit, but he deserves the credit for pulling this all together. Also, of course, thank you to Mayor Knox White for his participation and his continued dedication to making Greenville a bicycle friendly community. The Mayor mentioned a few projects in the works, including a planned underpass below River Street for the Greenway trail. This will link the busy path by Riverplace with the newest section of trail that currently begins at Linky Stone Park (the section that was part of the route on Friday morning).

If you were unable to attend, you can download a copy of the handout here (front and back) which has some basic commuting information. I would love to post pictures of the event, but somehow I forgot to pack my camera before I rode down on Friday. If any of you have pictures that you took on Friday and wish to share, please let me know.

Bike commuting in the Greenville News

The Greenville News profiled 5 different local bike commuters yesterday (I was one of them). If you missed the article, check it out here. My primary reason for riding to work is that it is “free” riding time that I would otherwise have to spend in my car. The commute is perfect for me for many reasons, but the main one is that I just love to ride. By riding to work, I get miles in during the week and the riding doesn’t take time away from work or family. Other commuters cited different primary reasons for riding to work including personal health, environmental concerns, and saving money. Overall, I think it was a great article, but I felt the need to clarify my quote with a comment at the bottom of the page. In general, Greenville is a great place to ride a bike and it is getting better all the time.

Also in Tuesday’s paper were two other cycling related articles, one about the Ride of Silence, which will place tonight, and one about Greenville’s Bike to Work Day event on Friday morning. Take a look at all three articles if you haven’t already seen them. It is great to see this kind of press coverage of cycling in the upstate.

Bicycle Commuting links

National Bike-to-Work week is officially underway, so I want to point you toward a few good resources for commuting information on the web. Whether you have been bike commuting for a while or you are just thinking about trying it for the first time, you will probably find some helpful information on these sites:


Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips
One of the first and best places on the web for general commuting information

Bike Commute Tips Blog
Helpful suggestions for commuting by bicycle from Paul Dorn of the above site

Ken Kifer's bike commuting and transportation pages
Full of great information. Check out the links to commuting articles.

Raleigh Commutes Blog
An entertaining blog about commuting from the folks at Raleigh Bicycles

Commute By Bike blog
Another great blog about bike commuting

Bike Commuter
An interesting site with commuter stories and a calendar of events

Cyclelicious
A great blog about bikes in general. Fritz is a dedicated bike commuter and he writes about commuting issues fairly often.


Enjoy the links and don’t forget Greenville’s Bike-to-Work Day event at the end of this week. I’ll see you there.

More downtown bike parking

Twenty four new inverted U type bike racks were recently installed in downtown Greenville. You can download a map of the new rack locations here. The locations don’t exactly match this September 2005 proposed bicycle parking map from the Spinners advocacy group, but these new racks are at least partly a result of those early efforts. If you are thinking about getting involved in local advocacy efforts, I can tell you that it is a good feeling to see projects take shape like this.

Also, the city now has an official webpage up for Bike-to-Work day. You can read more about the Greenville BTWD event, view the city council resolution to endorse the LAB Bicycle Friendly Community action plan, download an event poster, or download a route map for the ride with Mayor White. It is going to be a great event so plan to be there. See you downtown in less than two weeks.

BTWD poster

It’s hot off the presses, so to speak. We just put the finishing touches on Greenville’s 2007 Bike-to-Work Day poster. Double click the image to see a larger picture and print a copy for your office or wherever else it is that you post flyers. If you need a high-res version, email me and I will be glad to send you a copy (I just hope the good people over at Phil Wood don’t mind me using an image of one of their track cogs to frame the picture of Mayor White).

Also regarding Bike-to-Work Day, please take a minute to take the short survey that Andrew Meeker set up on the city’s website. Speaking of Andrew, check out the recent Link article about him if you haven’t already seen it. Andrew is the city’s sole urban designer and is the driving force behind BTWD and many other bike related projects going on in Greenville. As a cycling community we are lucky to have him working for the city.

Lastly, I want to point you to a few fairly recent articles about bike commuting. I’ll post more general commuting information in the coming weeks, but check these out for now:

The cycle commute gets chic - So says this May 11, 2006 Wall Street Journal article. No argument from me.

Why Should I Commute by Bike? -Read a short excerpt from roadbikerider.com's e-book about bike commuting.

Bicycle Commuting Enjoys a Rebirth- This September 2006 article comes from the nonprofit group Environmental Defense and has some good general information about bike commuting.

L.A. bicycle resource guide –Nobody rides a bike in Los Angeles. Not true, but that is the first myth that this downloadable pdf booklet dispels. This guide is intended to get people riding in L.A., but it is a good resource no matter where you live.

Greenville’s Bike-to-Work Day

Greenville’s Bike-to-Work Day will take place this year on Friday, May 18th. At 7:30 am, Mayor Knox White will lead a short ride starting at the Hincapie Sportswear’s office (45 Pete Hollis Boulevard Greenville, SC 29601) and ending at Piazza Bergamo downtown. At Piazza Bergamo, a coffee and bagel breakfast will be served to all bike commuters and the Mayor will be on hand to update us on the progress that has been made this year toward making Greenville an LAB designated “Bicycle Friendly Community”. There will also be drawings for great prizes and lots of good information about bike commuting and advocacy, so don’t miss it.

More information about the event will follow, but for now mark your calendars and plan to attend to show your support for bike friendly initiatives in Greenville. Even if you can’t make it downtown for the event, plan to ride your bike to work on May 18th. Between now and then I will post links to some great bicycle commuting resources on the web to help some of you get started. I have been commuting to work by bike off and on for about 15 years, so if you have specific questions about bicycle commuting, feel free to email me at jctdesign@gmail.com and I will do my best to answer them.

I hope to see many of you in a few weeks downtown.

Photo: Mayor White (in the helmet) talks to Jason Van Driesche at last year’s BTWD event