Riding in GreenVail

The snow in Greenville this week really shut down much of the city, but I am wondering if any of you took the opportunity to get out and ride on the quiet streets. I rode Monday and Tuesday with my DIY snow chain set-up, and really enjoyed (nearly) car-free roads both days.

According to the latest Bikeville e-newsletter, several people were out using the Swamp Rabbit Trail on Monday, while enjoying the winter views. If you have any snow riding pictures from earlier this week, post a link and share them here.

Church Street makeover

A recent post on the PCC blog linked to a Christmas day article in the Greenville News about “a $5.1 million project to transform Church Street into a tree-lined boulevard with bike lanes.” The article points out that the project, which has been on the drawing board for several years, “will remake Church with trees, bike lanes, sidewalk setbacks and crossings running from University Ridge to Augusta Street.”

If you click the direct article link above, it will redirect you to the Greenville News subscription page (if you are not a subscriber). You can Google the title of the article though- Church Street on Cusp of Makeover. For some reason, the Google link will let you bypass the subscription page and read the article in its entirety (a nice work-around while it lasts).

Share the News

A couple of months ago, I participated in the City of Greenville’s first major bicycle count, along with nearly 40 other volunteers. We spent one weekday morning and one Saturday morning counting cyclists and noting basic characteristics at various locations around the city. The new Greenville Bicycle Master Plan newsletter, called Share the News, outlines the results of that count, pointing out that we collectively counted more than 1,100 bicyclists during our two 2-hour long time slots. The newsletter also points out the following bits of information that were collected during the count.

• 76% of the bicyclists counted were male

• 64% of the bicyclists observed wore a helmet

• More than 60% of the bicyclists counted were riding

on the street rather than the sidewalk

• Bicycling was more common on the weekend than

during the week

• The most popular areas for bicycling were near

Willard Street, the Swamp Rabbit Trail and

McDaniel Avenue at Ridgeland Street

The results will be used for future planning and already validate some of the bicycle infrastructure plans that are slated for 2011 implementation. I’ll post more about those projects soon, but for now just know that good things are happening. Also, make sure that you are subscribed to the City’s Bicycling and Greenways newsletter for the latest news “about ongoing efforts to encourage bicycling and walking for recreation and transportation” in Greenville.

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.

Greenville on Design*Sponge

This isn't really cycling related, but I enjoyed seeing Greenville featured recently on the Design*Sponge blog. The "things to do" section mentions two popular places to ride in town,

The Swamp Rabbit Trail and Paris Mountain State Park. Check out the rest of the city guide too...it's a pretty good list.

Bicycle Master Plan Workshop

Along with Bikeville and the Greenville Pickens Area Transportation Study (GPATS), the City of Greenville has been working on a Bicycle Master Plan for a while now. The City has contracted with Alta Planning + Design to develop the Master Plan. If you are not already familiar with Alta, I can tell you that they are probably the best known firm in the U.S. for bicycle and pedestrian planning and design.

As part of the process, the City will host the first of two community workshops on Tuesday, November 16 at 5:30 p.m. at the Hughes Main Library.  Unfortunately, I will be traveling for work and will not be able to attend this first workshop. I really hope that many of you can be there though. At this stage, input from those of us who ride in Greenville is really important.

Read more at the Hincapie Sportwear blog and be sure to mark your calendars for this first workshop. This really is a great opportunity to shape the future of cycling in Greenville.

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.