Spinners advocacy and a call to action

Photo credit: Brad Allen

I have mentioned before that I don’t get the chance to update this blog as often as I would like. Part of the reason for that is that I am not as heavily involved in local bicycle advocacy issues as I once was. I am still an active Bikeville member and volunteer, but due to other commitments, I find it harder to keep up with all the bike related issues in the city and county. The good news though, is that there are other great sources for local bike advocacy news. I have mentioned Biking the Upstate and The PCC’s Palmetto Spokesman blog in previous posts, but today I want to point you toward another source of information that I am excited about- the Greenville Spinners Advocacy page. Frank Mansbach, who recently took over the Spinners advocacy chair position for 2012, plans to post monthly updates on the Advocacy page. His first update outlines his goals as the new chair, covers some advocacy news, and provides links to a few good resources. I am looking forward to his monthly updates, and I encourage all of you to keep an eye out for his future posts as well. 

If you are a League of American Bicyclists or Palmetto Cycling Coalition member, you have seen the urgent messages yesterday and today about The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, a House bill that threatens to eliminate federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects. I wrote it about it on my Bicycle Design blog this morning, so I won’t repeat all of the same points here. Suffice it to say though that as citizens of a state that ranks 49th for bicycling safety, we should be very concerned about this bill. I hope that you will take a minute and contact your Representative about this today.

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.

US Pro weekend in Greenville

This blog is usually focused on bicycle advocacy issues, but I’ll venture a little off topic and mention racing today. If you are in Greenville, you already know that it is time for the US Pro races again (you can find the schedule of events here). As I have in previous years, I’ll be watching the time trial and the road race with a particular focus on the bikes. Look for coverage this weekend at my Bicycle Design blog if you are interested in that sort of thing. Also, be sure to follow Carolina Cycling News throughout the weekend if you want to read about both races from a local perspective.

If you are interested in riding to the races, the Greenville Spinners will be leading a community bike ride to the Time Trial on Saturday, departing from the Zoo in Cleveland Park at 10am.  The Spinners are providing free bike valet for the TT at ICAR, so your bike will be secure once you get there.  

For the Road Race on Monday, Bikeville will be providing free bike valet from 10am-5pm in front of City Hall on Main St.  Speaking of Bikeville, they are hosting the monthly Critical Cruise ride around downtown tonight at 5:30.  Meet next to Barley's for an hour long cruise around downtown “respectfully celebrating bicyclists right to the road.”

Update 6/2: It was another great US Pro weekend in Greenville. Check out a few of my pictures from the races here if you are interested. 

My last post

I have hinted at ending this blog in the past, but this time it is for real. This will be my last post on Bike Greenville. As some of you may have read on the Spinner’s yahoo group list, I have officially stepped down from the position of Advocacy Chairperson with the Greenville Spinners. Outside of work, I have increasingly become involved with other volunteer commitments centered around my kids. I have been spread pretty thin lately and I feel like I haven’t been able to give bicycle advocacy projects the time that they deserve. Obviously you all know that cycling and bicycle related issues are important to me, but I have come to the realization that there is just not enough time in the day to do as much as I would like. Stepping down from the board was a tough decision, but I do think it was the right one…. which brings me to the really great news that I want to share. Scott McCrary, who many of you know from Tandem, Touring & Recumbent Bikes, will be taking over the position of advocacy chair. Scott has been very active on advocacy issues in the past, and I know he will do a great job leading the effort with the Spinners. Please welcome and support him in the role going forward. Trust me; we couldn’t have asked for a better person to take this job on.

I plan to stay involved with local advocacy issues in a supporting role (including serving on BPAC and the new BFC committee) and I hope that many of you who read this will stay (or get) involved as well. Many good things are happening in Greenville right now; we have a CIP budget for bike lanes that we will start seeing soon, we are getting close to the passage of a strong bicycle parking ordinance, and we are at the beginning of our Bicycle Friendly Community application process just to name a few things. (speaking of the BFC process, check out the City’s brand new webpage for bicycling if you haven’t seen it). Yep, it is a good time to be a cyclist in Greenville and things can get even better if we continue to work together. I encourage all of you to contact Scott if you have specific ideas or would like to help with local bicycle advocacy efforts.

Finally I want to mention that I started this blog after I became the advocacy chair because the Spinners site was in a state of transition. At the time, the Spinners website was infrequently updated, so this blog seemed like the best way to get news out to all of you. That was then, but now board members can post directly to the Spinners site, so you can look for future advocacy updates from Scott and everyone else there. Thanks to all of you who have been reading my thoughts and updates here. I hope that you will all continue over to the Spinners site to keep reading about the progress of advocacy efforts in Greenville. Believe me; good things are on the horizon for cycling here.

August Spinners Advocacy meeting

Earlier, I mentioned an upcoming Greenville Spinners advocacy meeting that was tentatively scheduled for this week. Due to unforeseen scheduling conflicts, the meeting has been postponed to Monday, August 20th 7:00pm at Coffee Underground. I hope that many of you will be able to attend.

I also want to pass along a piece of good news. A few months ago, I mentioned that Greenville should have provisions for bikes on public transit. I asked several of you Spinners cycling advocates to take the transit survey and mention the need for bike racks on buses. Now the GTA Board has announced that they will be installing Sportworks bicycle racks on their fleet of buses. Each bus will have the capability to carry 2 bicycles. Great news! That is one less topic that we will need to discuss at the meeting next week. Thanks to those of you who took the survey and wrote letters on this issue. Your involvement really does make a difference.

Greenways Master plans

Click on the image to the left to view a draft map of the City of Greenville’s Greenways Master plan. Working with the city, Greenways Incorporated developed this plan based in part on feedback from interested citizens at a public meeting in April. You may notice that there are few prominent greenway “dead ends” at the city limits. That is where the county’s Greenway master plan will come into play.

If you want to find out more about the Greenville County Master Plan, which is currently in the proposal phase, come to the next Spinners advocacy meeting, which is tentatively scheduled for August 15th at Coffee Underground (update: the meeting has been rescheduled for Monday August 20th at 7:00pm) . Ty Houck will be available to discuss the plan and to hear your comments at this early stage. I will post again with details about the meeting, but for now, mark your calendars and plan to attend.

Come to Tour Tuesday

It’s already Tour time again and Greenville’s own George Hincapie will be competing in the race for the 12th time. Come out next Tuesday night, July 10th, to watch the day’s stage commercial free at Caesar’s restaurant in McAlister Square. The showing starts at 8:00 and all are welcome to attend. Click on the flyer above for more details.

The Greenville news has already started its coverage of the Tour. Check out the special Tour de France section of the website to see all of the articles together. Also, you can follow Rich Hincapie’s blog as he chronicles his brother’s race this year. He talks to George often during the Tour, so his blog offers an interesting perspective into the race.