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.

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.

A convenience center for cyclists?

In keeping with the theme from my last post, I want to mention something else I would like to see in Greenville. I posted about this prototype cycling convenience center from Trek at my Bicycle Design blog. I would love to see one of these units in Greenville after the testing period is over. It’s a pretty cool idea for commuting cyclists who may be heading to and from work at times when the bike shops might not be open. I love the idea of being able to fix a flat with a tube from a bicycle specific vending machine.

While I am posting, I will mention the Bike MS ride this fall (Sept 27-28), a charity ride that is a 2-day, 150-mile event involving almost 2,000 cyclists. In past years, the ride has gone from Charlotte to Myrtle Beach, but this year they are moving it to Greenville. Cyclists will have start options on the first day in either Rock Hill or Greenville, and the second day all cyclists will ride a route in the Greenville area near Paris Mountain. Route options are 35-75-100miles the first day and 35-75 the second. More info is available on the MS ride webpage.

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.

My morning routine

Last Thursday, Justin Chappell from Link filmed me as I rode to work. From the shots on the road and some interview footage that he filmed in my driveway, he put together a short video titled “A bike commuter's morning routine.” His idea with the video was to briefly explain the logistics of a typical bicycle commute to those who are interested, but have not yet tried riding to work. I really like the way the clip turned out; nice work Justin.

A few of my coworkers watched the video today and immediately started poking fun at me for saying that a shower isn’t always necessary in the morning and that I often just “clean up with deodorant.” Yeah, I admit it was a little funny the way I phrased it. Maybe I should have been clear and said that it isn’t always necessary to shower at work (for the record, I do shower at home before I leave). All jokes aside though, I think it was an important point to mention because I have heard people use the “lack of shower facilities at the workplace” excuse as a reason for not commuting by bicycle. In many cases with a short commute, a pre-ride shower followed by a post-ride cool down and clean-up in the sink is sufficient. Showers at work are nice if you have them, but as with most other obstacles to bike commuting, there are viable alternatives. If you are interested in bike commuting, I suggest you give it a try before deciding whether or not it works for you. I think you will find that the benefits outweigh any minor inconveniences that you have to overcome.