Important bicycle legislation to be heard this week

photo credit: Charleston Moves

As a recent post at the PCC blog points out, “the bicycle ban that went into effect earlier this year on the James Island Connector in Charleston has brought attention to the fact that South Carolina law (56-5-3860) prohibits bicycle use (and other activities) on state controlled access highways.”  You may remember that signs like the one shown here were posted on the James Island Connector following the tragic death of Dr. Mitchell Hollon, who was killed while riding his bicycle across the bridge last year. 

The Coastal Conservation League and Charleston Moves have worked with Senator Chip Campsen (R-Charleston) to introduce a bill (S.1375) that will allow local governments the option to file exemptions to the law, putting decisions about restricted highway access in the hands of the local municipality and not SCDOT. Local governments know better than the state how to manage the roads in their communities, so please take a minute to voice your support for the amendment.  You can also show support by attending the Senate Transportation Subcommittee meeting this Wednesday, April 11^th at 10am at the Gressette building in Columbia.   

Good things are happening here

I have been too busy to update this blog lately, but I want to take a few minutes to quickly pass along a few links that I have been meaning to share.

Charleston Cycling Attorney Peter Wilborn will be the guest speaker at the next Greenville Spinners club meeting (Monday, April 2, 2012, 6:30 pm at the Caine Halter YMCA). According to the Spinners website, Peter “will speak about the lost art of the group ride and provide an update on legal issues for SC cyclists.” This is one meeting that you won’t want to miss, so mark your calendars and plan to be there one week from today.  

The National Bike Summit took place last week, and eight advocates from South Carolina were there representing our interests as cyclists in the state. You can read a recap post on the Palmetto Cycling Coalition blog and see the Summit leave-behind that the PCC developed along with the Palmetto Conservation Foundation. 

Pamela Wood Browne was the lone representative from Greenville in DC last week, and she shared her thoughts about her first Summit experience at Carolina Cycling News. Of particular interest to me was her mention of the “Finally, the Racing and Advocacy Worlds Collide” session and the discussion of multiple U.S. Cyclocross National Champion Tim Johnson’s Ride on Washington. As someone who has been involved with both racing and advocacy for a long time, I am really glad to hear of real discussion on this topic. In the past, I have witnessed some tension between recreational/racing cyclists and those who ride strictly for transportation (with some valid concerns expressed by both sides). I really hope that we are a point where ALL cyclists can see the benefit of working together toward a common goal of making our roads safer, and kudos to Tim Johnson for raising awareness and spreading that message within the racing community. 

If you haven’t already seen it, be sure to read Spinners advocacy chairperson Frank Mansbach’s March update on the Spinners’ site. Also see his guest post on the PCC blog about Greenville County Transportation Spending, which highlights just how little actually goes toward bike/ped projects currently. Hopefully though, that will change as advocates like Frank help to raise awareness about the need for creating a safer environment for bicycling and walking in the County. 

The City of Greenville’s 2011/2012 Annual Report was released recently, and bicycling is mentioned a few times throughout the report. Links to the Trails and Greenways Master Plan and the Bicycle Master Plan can be found on page 23. The USA Pro Cycling Championships are mentioned on page 31, and Greenville’s National Bike Month events (coming up again in May) are covered on page 34. These are all things that enhance quality of life here in Greenville, so it is good to see them recognized as such in this document. 

Greenville is offering a Bicycle Traffic Skills 101 course at McPherson Park on Sunday, April 29th (scroll down for information and to register online). According to the description, “participants will learn things like bicycle safety checks, fixing a flat, rules of the road, and crash avoidance techniques. On-the-bike training features certified instructors and real-life experience on Greenville streets and bicycle facilities.” It is also worth noting that the Traffic Skills 101 course is a prerequisite for the League Cycling Instructor (LCI) training seminar, which qualifies you to teach the courses in the League of American Bicyclists’ “Smart Cycling” curriculum.

Finally, I want to mention that TTR Bikes was recently recognized as a Platinum level Bicycle Friendly Business by the League of American Bicyclists. They are one of only seven companies in the entire US to be recognized at that highest level, so congratulations to Nathaniel and Scott on the designation and everything it represents!

Update 3/28: I want to add one more “good thing” happening in Greenville that Bo Campbell mentioned yesterday on the Bike Greenville Facebook page.  On April 21^st from 9 to 12, TTR Bikes, the Greenville Spinners Safety Foundation, First Baptist Greenville, and the Nicholtown Neighborhood Association are hosting their 2^nd Annual Youth Bike Safety Rodeo (and helmet fitting) in support of the Nicholtown Bike Share program. 

I have a hard time keeping up with all the bike related events in Greenville these days…and that is definitely a good thing. Feel free to add any more in the comments.

Salters Road widening project

Salters Road, between Verdae and ICAR, will be resurfaced and widened soon by the SCDOT. According to the handout from a public information meeting that was held earlier this month, the “proposed project would widen the existing roadway to four 12-foot travel lanes and include a grassed median, bike lanes, and sidewalks.” A new wider and longer bridge would be required over I-85 as part of the project, which would also include bike lanes (and I assume a taller and safer guardrail).

I have been out of the loop on this project, but from everything I have seen the proposed road layout sounds great. You can read more about it in the SCDOT document mentioned previously and this article in the Greenville News (do a Google search for “Salters Road project may include bridge replacement” to see the full article if you are not a Greenville News subscriber). When the redesigned road is complete, it will be a great bike friendly connection to ICAR, but it is a major project that will take up to 12 months to complete. During that time, Salters Road will be closed completely with the detour shown above as the suggested alternate. Verdae and Laurens are not ideal roads for cyclists to use as an alternate route to ICAR, so Spinners advocacy chairperson Frank Mansbach has proposed a few good ideas that could make the detour safer for all users during the year of construction :

1) Adding share the road and /or bicycle route signs on Verdae Boulevard from Rocky Slope to Laurens.

2) Reduced speed limit on Verdae from current 45 mph.

3) Re-striping all or part of Verdae to add bike lanes or shared lane markings (sharrows).

Rather than turning from Verdae onto Laurens, Frank suggests that the designated bike detour would cross to Parkins Mill, then left on Ridge Road and left on Fairforest to get to ICAR (signage and/ or sharrows would be required on Ridge Road and Parkins Mill as well).

I personally think these are great suggestions that should be considered by the SCDOT as this project is being planned. They have opened the project to public comment until February 24th (this Friday), so if you agree that a safe alternate detour for cyclists is a good idea, contact SCDOT Program Manager Tommy Elrod at (864) 241-1010 or elrodjt@scdot.org to express your support for the ideas above and any others that you might have.


Switching gears, I want to mention an event that is taking place this weekend. The BMW Performance Center and the Greenville Spinners Bicycle Club are hosting a special showing of the movie “Chasing Legends” at the BMW Zentrum this Saturday, February 25th at 6:30pm. “Chasing Legends” Director Jason Berry will there, so don’t miss your chance to see the film, meet the director, and possibly win some great prizes. You read more about the event, and purchase tickets, at Go Green Events. All proceeds from the evening are going to the United Way of Greenville, so it’s for a good cause as well. I am looking forward to it, and I hope to see you there.

 

 

 

Where is the outrage?

February has been a terrible month for bicycling fatalities in South Carolina, and I was sickened to hear of another senseless tragedy over the weekend. Obviously, one person killed on our roads is one too many, but David William Welty’s death in Anderson over the weekend was the fourth fatality that I know of in the first two weeks of the month. A couple weeks ago, 70-year-old James Premmer Frazier was killed here in Greenville while riding on Highway 183 at Old Buncombe Road. The following day, a 7-year-old girl was killed while riding a push scooter in Liberty, and just a few days after that Gerald Hooker was killed in Aiken when the tandem he was riding with his wife was struck by a driver who tried to pass as they made a left turn.

It is not hard to understand why the Alliance for Biking & Walking ranked South Carolina 49th among states for bicycling safety in their recent Bicycling and Walking in the U.S.: 2012 Benchmarking Report. The safety record on our roads is atrocious, and if this month is any indication, perhaps the problem is getting worse. I believe that the reason for the increase in fatalities (not just in SC, but nationwide) stems from the attitude that we as a society have about the use of our roads. Despite the fact that roads were not built for cars, many Americans tend to believe that drivers have a greater right to use the roads than those who are not in motor vehicles. The idea that “streets are for people”, not only people in cars, is a common attitude in places like the Netherlands and Denmark, but here in the U.S. there are many who believe that a pedestrian or cyclist is “asking for it” if they are hit by a car, particularly if the “accident” occurs on a major road. Drivers are rarely charged when they take the life of another due to impatience or negligence on their part. On top of that, there are those who use each and every cyclist/pedestrian death on our roadways as an opportunity to blame the victim by bringing up the same old (false) arguments about who pays for the roads. The comments left on any online news story about the death of a cyclist are as predictable as they are sickening, but I am afraid that those attitudes are also increasingly becoming accepted by a growing element within our society- those who actively oppose the very idea of cycling and walking as forms of transportation.

I just wonder where the outrage is sometimes…even among people who never walk or ride a bike to get anywhere. On average, 40,000+ Americans are killed by motor vehicles each year, but the majority of those deaths are simply dismissed as “accidents”.  Hundreds of Americans die on our roads every day, but it seems like there are very few people really are actually willing to call for a change. I truly believe that holding people accountable for their actions behind the wheel is the only way that we will ever see a substantial decrease in the traffic fatality rate. A driver who kills another person (on foot, on a bike, or in another car) while chatting on the phone, playing with the radio, talking to a passenger, or just daydreaming, should be held responsible for the death that resulted from that act of negligence. The operation of a motor vehicle requires complete and undivided attention to the road, and anyone who fails to do that should be prepared to face consequences if they hurt or kill another road user. It’s all about accountability…and unfortunately that is lacking on the roads of South Carolina, and the U.S. as a whole, at this point in time. What can we do to change that?

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.

Moving Beyond the Automobile

“Moving Beyond The Automobile is a 40-minute series of documentary film shorts that highlights real-world solutions to address America's dependence on the automobile. The film series explore strategies that integrate active living and effective multi-modal transportation.”

UpstateForever and The Mary Black Foundation will be showing Moving Beyond the Automobile this Thursday, Jan. 26^th at Spartanburg Community College from 6 to 7 pm.  The event is free, but space is limited, so RSVP to Upstate Forever in Spartanburg if you wish to attend. More information and contact information can be found here.

Speaking of real-world transportation solutions, read about this plan for a superhighway for cyclists in Sweden. Interesting, but the last paragraph is what really grabbed my attention. Perhaps if Sweden goes ahead with this project, America will revive its superhighway system for cyclists. I won't hold my breath...but it COULD happen in my lifetime.

Update:  One more event that some of you may be interested in attending this week is the City of Greenville's Green Ribbon Advisory Committee Public Workshop. The workshop will take place tomorrow, Jan 24th at 6:30 pm in the Hughes Main Library. See the City's Sustainability webpage for more information.

What can bicycle advocates learn from The NRA?

Yeah, that headline got my attention too. Bike Advocacy from the NRA Playbook is the title of an interesting new post at Commute by Bike written by corporate attorney and bike commuter Tom Bowden. I definitely agree that the various subcultures within the cycling world can sometimes be counterproductive to the goal of getting more people on bikes.  I also believe that bicycle advocates (perhaps myself included) tend to get preachy and somewhat condescending when discussing the virtues of pedal powered transportation. Instead of standing on a soapbox and telling people about the health/environmental/financial benefits of riding a bike, we need to remember to sell them on the fun factor. Almost everyone remembers the joy of riding a bicycle as a kid, so tapping into that feeling is the best way to convince those who haven’t ridden as adults to give it a try. As the article suggest, “don’t paint (cycling) as extreme, radical, hip or too intellectual. Just ride.” If we ever want cycling to truly be a mainstream activity, that’s a basic idea that we need to keep in mind as we communicate with others in our communities. Riding a bike is fun…and all of those other benefits are just a bonus.

Thanks to Richard at Cyclelicious for pointing me to the Commute by Bike post. I recommend that you add both of those blogs to your feed reader if you haven’t already.