Swamp Rabbit focus groups

See the information below via the latest Greenville Rec e-newsletter. Subscribe here if you don’t already get it.

 “Greenville Hospital System Swamp Rabbit Trail users are needed to participate in two focus groups examining the impact of the trail. Results will be included in the 3-Year Impact Study administered by Dr. Julian Reed of Furman University's Department of Health Sciences. Sessions will be held on Wednesday, June 20th from 4:30pm to 5:30pm and Thursday, June 21st from 5:00pm to 6:00pm. 

Only 16 spots are available (8 per group). Refreshments and $10 will be provided to each participant at the conclusion of the focus group. If you are interested in participating, please email Colleen Grover at colleen.grover1780@furman.edu.”

The June newsletter also points out an ongoing QR scavenger hunt on the trail that sounds like fun. Find out more and get started here.

Vote in the County Council primary next week

If you were present for the vote on the County Council Complete Streets resolution in 2010, you know that it was tabled by a vote of 6 to 5. The vote against that resolution was a major set back toward to the goal of making the roads in Greenville County safe for all users, and that is exactly why the upcoming Republican Primary election on June 12^th is so important to those of us who really care about bicyclist/pedestrian safety  issues on our county roads.

Four of the twelve Greenville County Council seats will be contested in the primary that is just over a week away, so now is a great time to find out where each of the candidates stand on issues related to improving safety for cyclists and pedestrians.  Spinners Advocacy Chairperson Frank Mansbach and Pamela Wood Browne of Carolina Cycling News prepared a survey to ask each of the candidates a few questions along those lines. The four incumbents all answered the questions, as did two of the new candidates, and you can see each of their responses on the Spinners advocacy page. 

The survey responses are great information for those of us voting next week. In addition to those answers though, I think past voting history is very important to consider. Of the four incumbents running for re-election, Joe Baldwin (district 18) was the only one who was a vocal supporter of the Complete Streets resolution. Sid Cates and Bob Taylor both voted to table the resolution (effectively killing it),and based on their comments on the night of the vote, I would not expect either of them to support future efforts to make Greenville County roads safer for cyclists and pedestrians.  Jim Burns was not present to vote that evening in October of 2010. I do believe that Councilman Burns is sincere in his answers to the Spinner’s survey, but it is disappointing that he was not present that night to make it a tie. 

Regardless of who you support, I encourage you all to get out and vote on the 12^th with bicycle and pedestrian safety issues in mind. The County has a long way to go in order to catch up with the City’s efforts to safely accommodate all road users, but it will never happen without public support.  

Bike Month is coming up!

For any of you who may have missed it, the latest City of Greenville Bicycling and Greenways e-newsletter is out… and it is a good one. May is National Bike Month, and as always Bikeville is coordinating events in the city throughout the month. See the Bike Month page for a listings and descriptions of the bike related events and activity that are planned next month.

On the Bike Month page, you can also find information about the Get Up and Ride : National Bike Challenge. “Sign up as an individual or as a team, log your miles, share your stories and encourage others to join you. Riders will compete for prizes and awards on the local and national level, including a Grand Prize trip through California wine country from Trek Travel.”

Also on the City’s website, find out more about the new Swamp Rabbit Trail Interactive Map. The map was developed by the City, with support from the Greenville County Recreation District, and features “trail amenities, on-street bicycle facilities, points of interest, as well as special considerations for a safe experience.”

Speaking of the Swamp Rabbit Trail, you can join Greenville Rec, Upstate Forever, and Furman University tomorrow, April 18th, at the Swamp Rabbit Café (205 Cedar Lane Road). They will be making an announcement about the sucess of the trail and will share results from the first year of a three-year impact study. If you can’t attend the event, the full presentation will be available soon after on the County's Swamp Rabbit page. I won't be able to make it in person, but I am looking forward to reading the good news about the impact of the SRT on our community.

Bike lanes on Pelham and Roper Mountain Roads this summer?

When I served as the advocacy chairperson for the Greenville Spinners several years ago, the club worked with the city to develop a small, downtown bike lane plan that was primarily focused on the central business district. That was definitely the right place to start, but at the time I often heard from Spinners members and other local cyclists who wanted to see those facilities expand beyond the city limits into the suburbs and other parts of the county. Since that time, through the work of many people, bike lanes in Greenville have expanded beyond the CBD… and if you attended any of the Bicycle Master Plan community meetings, you know that the plan is to eventually expand those bikeways much further in order to create a viable network for those of us who want a safe way to get around the city (and county) by bike. That is a long-range plan, but in order for that to happen, we NEED to take advantage of key resurfacing opportunities as they arise.

According to a recent Greenville News article (the same one I mentioned here), the South Carolina Department of Transportation is scheduled to resurface portions of Pelham Road (from Haywood Rd. to the Publix near East North) and Roper Mountain Road (from Blacks to Verdae) sometime this summer. I believe that bike lanes on both of those sections of road could provide critical connections from the heavily populated eastside of town to existing bike infrastructure in the city. Along with the new bike lanes and sharrows on East North, bike lanes on Pelham would feed to the current bike lanes in the downtown district and the Swamp Rabbit trail. Roper Mountain is also very important as it provides a route from eastside neighborhoods to the existing bike lanes at ICAR, where many people choose to ride. Personally, I have noticed a significant increase in the number of bicyclists on that currently dangerous section of Roper Mountain in recent years, so I believe the issue of safety for all users needs to be addressed with the resurfacing.

I am not alone in supporting the idea of bike lanes as part of these resurfacing projects. These sections of road are included in the Greenville-Pickens Area Transportation Study’s (GPATS) Long Range Transportation Plan, and Dan McGee, Transportation Planning Manager for the county, has recently publicly expressed support for including bike facilities in the Pelham Road resurfacing project. The Greenville Spinners board has also expressed support for bike lanes on both of these projects by sending a letter to the SCDOT and the Greenville City Manager on behalf of the club’s 800 plus members. I won’t list them all here, but a number of major employers on the eastside of Greenville have also expressed support for bike lanes as part of these resurfacing projects (Update 6/22: Flour, GE, and Hubbell Lighting are just a few of the companies that have already sent letters of support for these bike lanes). When you look at all the supporters who have taken an interest in these projects so far, it is clear that bike lanes on these roads are something that many people want to see.

In addition to the community support, I believe there are a couple of policy documents in place that support the inclusion of bike lanes as part of these resurfacing projects.

Greenville’s Complete Streets Resolution, adopted by City Council in 2008, states that the city endorses a complete streets policy (with accommodations for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and motorists) when feasible for new transportation projects as well as re-channelization projects and major maintenance. In both of these cases, observed bicycle traffic points to a need for facilities such as bike lanes on these roads.

SCDOT’s “Bicycle Accommodation Policy”, which is similar to the city’s complete streets policy, states that “ bicycling and walking accommodations should be a routine part of the department’s planning, design, construction and operating activities, and will be included in the everyday operations of our transportation system” and that bicycling and pedestrian improvements should be “an integral part of their transportation planning and programming where State or Federal Highway funding is utilized.”

Ultimately, the decision whether or not to include bike lanes as part of these projects will be made by the SCDOT, but certainly community support will be a factor in their decision.  If you agree that bicycle accommodations should be considered with both of these projects, please leave a comment here expressing your support…and feel free to contact me if you wish to get involved further.

Update: It was mentioned in the comments, but I want to reiterate that bike lanes have previously been proposed on both of these sections of road as part of the Greenville Bicycle Master Plan. These are not just random resurfacing projects...both are important components in both the Greenvilly city and GPATS long range plans. See the map on page 58 of the presentation that was given at the March public meeting to see these, and other, identified bike routes.

Support Greenville County trails today!

Ty Houck, the Director of Greenways, Natural and Historic Resources for Greenville County, sent out an email last week about four possible grants for the Swamp Rabbit, the Gateway Bike Swills Trail, and other trails in the county:

‘The Greenville County Recreation District is applying for 4 grants for trails. Part of the grant application includes a public meeting.  It seems responsible and fitting that we find a way to have those meetings without asking everyone to get in a car to drive to somewhere to sit and watch a PowerPoint presentation. So I am bringing the presentations to you. Please take a few minutes to view the presentations attached and send a confirmation e-mail through the link on the presentation.  Strong public support has a significant impact on winning these grants.’

All four presentations can be found online here, so please take a minute to view the powerpoint slide shows and send a confirmation email to the address provided. The deadline for your response is today (Tuesday, March 22^nd), so please take a minute to do this right now.

As Ty said, strong public support is needed to secure these grants. Let’s make a big push on this final day and bring that grant money to Greenville.

Who pays for the roads again?

You may have seen the letter to the Greenville News yesterday titled Vehicles, not bikes, pay for our roads (Google the article title if you are not a subscriber to see the full letter). The writer opened with the same old argument we have all heard before:

“Is anybody tired of all the whining and crying from the tight spandex and funny helmet crowd? All you ever hear from them is that “we have the same right to be on the road as cars do.” Wrong. There is no way they have that “right.” It is not a right; it is a privilege that I earned and pay for. I am required to carry insurance, passed a test and also pay a $20 a year road use fee. What do cyclists pay? Nothing!”

Of course we know that cyclists DO pay for the roads. Even though we ride bikes, most of us still own cars, carry insurance, and pay gas taxes. In addition, we ALL pay the income, sales, and property taxes that fund the majority of road construction and maintenance projects anyway. It is also worth noting that our lightweight ‘vehicles’ do NOT damage the roads the same way that heavy cars and trucks do. So if a cyclist pays for a road maintenance project through property tax, how exactly is he or she not paying a fair share?

I wrote a longer post in response to a very similar letter to the editor a couple years ago. I won’t repeat all the same points here, but I encourage you all to read that post. It is easy to write an angry letter without checking the facts, but I think the facts are clear. Cyclists do pay their share for the roads…and then some.

Continue to vote for Swamp Rabbit funding

Last month, I mentioned that the Swamp Rabbit Trail was in the running for a $250,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project. I have good news to pass along to all of you who voted. Thanks to you the project made it to the next round!

Now we all just need to continue voting everyday throughout December so we can bring that grant money to Greenville to make our trail safer. There are two ways to vote (and you can vote both ways each day):

• On the web at http://www.refresheverything.com/swamprabbit
• Texting the message “104074” to Pepsi (73774)

Keep spreading the word about this too. Let’s make it happen.

Update 12/13/10:  Follow the new Vote Rabbit blog for the latest news about this initiative, and if you are mentioning on Twitter, make sure to use the hashtag #voterabbit. However you chose to do it, continue to spread the word and influence others to vote rabbit everday.

Vote for the Swamp Rabbit Trail

When I stepped down from the advocacy chairperson position with the Greenville Spinners in 2008, I quit writing this blog. I needed time to focus on family, work, cycling, and my Bicycle Design blog, so I decided to end this one. Since that time though, I have continued to be active in local bicycle advocacy issues. During the past few years, Greenville has continued to make strides toward becoming a bike friendly place, and we were even designated as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists. So after a 2+ year hiatus, I have decided to resurrect this blog…well, sort of. New posts here will likely be few and far between (it’s an occasional blog as the header says). Even if it is not frequently updated though, I want to have a place to share some of the bike advocacy related news that affects us all as cyclists in Greenville. I hope that you will subscribe to the feed and follow along.

Right now, the GHS Swamp Rabbit Trail is in the running for $250,000 from the Pepsi Refresh Project. On the Swamp Rabbit Pepsi Refresh page, they outline how the money will be used if it is awarded:

• $ 175,000-Safe crossing devices at the 22 road crossings and 1 rail crossing
• $ 50,000-advance warning lights on roads
• $ 25,000- Construction of "Tree Roundabouts"

If you have ridden on the Swamp Rabbit, especially with kids, you know that those safe crossing devices are something that the trail really needs. Click here and vote today, and everyday until November 30^th, to push the “Create transportation equality” grant up into one of the top two positions. Pepsi will be giving the money to someone, and it would be great to have it here in Greenville to make our trail safer for all users. It is worth a shot, so vote early and often.

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.

Events in May

I have mentioned that next week is Bike to Work week a few times so I won’t elaborate on that. I do, however, want to point out a couple of other events that are coming up soon.

Next Tuesday, May 13 at 6:30pm, will be the last public meeting for the Greenville County comprehensive plan. This meeting, which should last no longer than an hour and a half, will take place at Greenville County Square in Conference room D. Nigel Darrington has attended a few of the meetings and has done a great job speaking for all of us who regularly ride in the County. He reports that the issue of Pedestrian/ Bikeways was in the top 5 vote counts for the three meetings he was able to attend. Let’s show up at this last meeting to help shape the future of Greenville County and to support the great advocacy work that Nigel has started.

Also, mark your calendars for the Upstate Ride of Silence which will take place on Wednesday, May 21st. This ride, which will take place on the same day in cities all over the world, was started in Dallas, Texas in 2003 to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured while cycling on public roadways. Riders will proceed in single file at no more than 12 mph to pay respect to fallen cyclists and to raise public awareness about the presence of cyclists on the roads in our communities.

Following are the details of this year’s ride from Kimberly Morgan and Richard Dillard, both of whom did a great job organizing the event last year:

What: Upstate RIDE OF SILENCE (For ALL abilities) We need/want veteran cyclists and beginning cyclists.

Why: Bring attention to the huge population of cyclists in the Upstate and need for safe roads. Tribute to fallen/injured cyclists

Goal: 200+ cyclists riding single file 10 yards apart, stretching over a mile.

Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Time: 7:00 P.M (Some will again be riding to the Ride of Silence)

Place: Bruce Group Auctions - (2.5 miles south of I-85 on Highway 101 in Greer.)

Pace: Maximum 12mph

Route: South on Hwy. 101 bike lanes toward Woodruff for 6 miles to Bellview Church and return.

Course: Flat, Flat, Flat !!!

Helmets Required

Calling Greer cyclists

I just want to pass along this information from Chip Radford, who will be serving on one of the Greer Citizen Committees to help shape the city’s new Comprehensive Land Use Plan. As I mentioned earlier, I am serving on one of the Greenville Citizen Committees (transportation), and I think this is a good opportunity for local cyclists to get involved at the early planning stage. Here is the info from Chip for any of you Greer cyclists who want to help shape the area’s future:

Greer is embarking on the Comprehensive Land Use Plan. There will be a kick off tomorrow (May 6) at the new Police station. I was asked and will be serving on the planning committee. There will also be a lot of sub-committees in which local and county input will be invaluable. Below are a couple of links; one outlining the meeting tomorrow and another to the Citizens Theme Committees. If any of you can find some time, I hope you will entertain providing some expertise with the future growth of Greer.

Click for meeting information

Click for Committee themes

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.

“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!”

STR update

As I mentioned before, new Share the Road signs are up on Chick Springs Road. In the City of Greenville, signs are soon to be up in Cleveland Park, on Roper Mountain Road, and on Villa Road to name a few locations. As you know, the effort is moving a bit slower in the County, but I did recently hear from SCDOT that they are going to “make up work orders for sign maintenance crews to implement installation” based on the list of locations that the Spinners members helped to put together. The SCDOT district office can’t promise to include every route that we mentioned, but I am glad to hear that they are going to try to “fulfill the current list.” I will continue to post updates on the County Share the Road effort as I have them.

Swamp Rabbit Trail Roadzyme Demonstration

For those of you who might be interested, I want to pass along the following message from Greenville County Director of Greenways Ty Houck. Sounds interesting; I’ll have to see if my work schedule will allow me to get out and see this demonstration next Tuesday.

Tuesday February 26th all day, weather permitting we will be doing a demonstration of Roadzyme. Engineers will be on-site all day next Tuesday for questions.

Roadzyme is a road building product that is:

- non-toxic, made from sugar beet extract
-will not leach a pollutant like asphalt
- significantly less expensive than asphalt
-environmentally friendly
-quick and easy to install

The demonstration site is at the southern end of the Furman lake across the dam. Park at the public parking at the student center and take the short walk over the dam, at the end of the road is an access gate to the trail. This is an exciting green product that we want your opinion on so hope to see you there.

Update 2/26: Due to the rain today, the demonstration will probably be moved to Thursday or Friday. Stay tuned.


Update 2/28: Friday it is. Check it out if you can.

More Share the Road news

In a recent post, I mentioned a few places in the City of Greenville where “Share the Road” signs will soon be installed. I just found out about one more road, Chick Springs. It sounds like two signs have been approved for that road and are currently being fabricated by the City. Many local cyclists use Chick Springs as a route from Altamont/ Paris Mountain to downtown, so it will be great to have the signs there to remind motorist of the presence of cyclists. Thanks to the City Staff for getting this done. I hope to see many more STR signs popping up in the City limits as the year progresses

So far, my attempts to get more “Share the Road” signs in the County have not been very successful, but I still consider that to be a major advocacy goal for 2008. I don’t want to blame the County entirely though; part of the problem has probably has been that I have not had the time to spend and have not been talking to all the right people. Any help that all of you can provide with contacts would be greatly appreciated. “Share the Road” signs are a cost effective way to spread the message that cyclists have a right to use the roadways, so there is no reason that we shouldn’t be able to get signs installed on the routes that we most often use.

One thing that all of you can do is use the form that is shown here (click to enlarge) to let the SCDOT know which roads in Greenville County need “Share the Road” signs. I encourage any of you who have a specific route in mind to identify specific locations on that road (with pictures if possible), fill out this form, and send it to the SCDOT (or just send it to me and I will forward it for you). As I mentioned before, Old Buncombe is the highest priority road in my opinion. Let’s work to get signs installed along that road before the US pro races in August.

Share the Road update

In September, I asked members of the Spinners email list to suggest roads in Greenville County that would be good candidates for “Share the Road” signage. Many of you responded to help me put together a great list. Some routes on that list stand out as clear priorities and work still needs to be done to get signs installed in several of those locations. To be honest, the effort to get additional “Share the Road” signs in the County has been slow, but I do want to share with you a few locations where you will see new signs soon in the City of Greenville.

Cleveland Park will get six new “Share the Road” signs very soon, most likely by the end of February. Many local cyclists ride through Cleveland Park so we all owe Greenville’s Urban Designer Andrew Meeker a big thanks for his efforts to get these signs approved and implemented. In this case, the City's Traffic Engineering Division is doing the sign fabrication and installation, so I think we can expect to see them installed without much delay.

Another location where signs have been officially approved and will appear soon is on Roper Mountain at the 385 bridge crossing and also on Roper Mountain as it crosses Woodruff. Though this seems like a busy location for cycling, it is a route used by several cyclists (myself included) to get to the ICAR/Millennium Campus/Verdae area. As this area develops further, bicycle traffic on the roads leading in will greatly increase, so it is important to get out the Share the Road message early. I brought this location to the attention of City Councilman Sudduth, and I really would like to thank him for his prompt attention to my emails on this subject and for his support of cycling in general.

In my mind, the next big priority for “Share the Road” signs is Old Buncombe. That road is heavily used by local cyclists and came out at the top of my informal poll. As I mentioned early, efforts to get signs in the County have been slow, but I think we can do it if we focus on locations one at a time. I don’t know if it will happen, but my goal is to have new “Share the Road” signs installed on Old Buncombe before the US Pro Championships at the end of August. I’ll let you know in the future what you can do to help make this happen. It is a slow process and it takes a lot of support from the public to get these things done. Thanks again to those of you who have helped so far. Trust me, I will be calling on you again.

I also owe you all an update on the progress toward new bike lanes, both downtown and beyond. Some of the news is good and some is not so good, but I will save that for a future post. Again, making Greenville a bike friendly place is something that we can do if we work together as a cycling community. I would love to see it all happen faster, but sometimes it takes baby steps to make a positive change.

Threats to cyclists, here and elsewhere

Some of you may have seen the December 27th article by Matthew Parris in the London based paper, The Times. The column, titled What’s smug and deserves to be decapitated?, has sparked a bit of outrage among cyclists on the Internet. In his column, Parris says "A festive custom we could do worse than foster would be stringing piano wire across country lanes to decapitate cyclists." In the course of his article he goes on to make several more threatening statements aimed at the “panting, sugar-gulping, chocolate-chewing, Lycra-clad leisure-cyclist?” Read the article for yourself to see how truly sickening it is.

Bike Biz, the British trade journal for the cycling industry, now reports that the Press Complaints Commission has received over 200 complaints making this the 3rd most complained about article of 2008. Parris has since apologized saying, “It was meant humorously but so many cyclists have taken it seriously that I plainly misjudged. I am sorry." Yeah right. It just sounds to me like he just wants to keep his job (for the record, I don’t think he should).

Since Parris' column appeared in a major world newspaper, it has received a lot of attention. When I first read it though, it reminded me of the article that was recently written by a columnist in the nearby Boone, NC newspaper, The Ashe Mountain Times, about cyclists on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The author of that column, Ron Fitzwater, though less directly threatening, was just as ignorant as Parris saying things like, “Roads are made for cars and are not safe for bikes, these are facts that are not debatable and it is time cyclists came to grips with them.” Fitzwater also suggested to cyclists, “when cars are coming, get off the road. After all, having to stop and start over again is better than getting a real close look at the undercarriage of a Cherokee.” For those of you who have not seen the Fitzwater article, The Incidental Cyclist posted about it a month ago and his post includes a link to a pdf file of it.

The Boone article hits closer to home than the London one, but even closer to home for cyclists in Greenville are the repeated threats and attacks on individual riders that have been made by the driver of a white truck on the route to Saluda. As has been mentioned on the local cycling clubs’ email lists, several local cyclists have had altercations with this driver who obviously wants us off the road. Hopefully, with renewed attention on these incidents, the driver will be caught and off the road himself soon.

Though only one of the people I mentioned in this post is physically acting on his aggression, the behavior of all three of these cyclist-hating individuals should be cause for great alarm. Unfortunately there are others out there who feel the same way and don’t want us on the roads. Personally, these attitudes only increase my resolve to work on “share the road” initiatives and other local cycling advocacy issues. I hope that many of you will join me in 2008 to really push for a cycle friendly Greenville County. We may not be able to win over everybody, but we can definitely work make the streets of Greenville and the surrounding area safer for all users.

Own a section of a Greenville County Greenway

Well, you won’t really technically own it, but this is a great way that you can support and help build the county’s Greenways network. Purchasers will receive a plaque that recognizes their ownership and list the GPS coordinates of their particular section. A 25 foot section of Greenway will only cost you 25 bucks, so you can give out sections as Christmas gifts (plaques are scheduled to be ready next Thursday).

To order a section, double click the form shown here to enlarge it and save to your computer. Email all the information to Ty Houck at ty@gcrd.org. If you are interested and need the form in a word doc format, leave a comment with your email address or just get in touch with Ty. I am sure he would be happy to forward it to you.

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.