Season’s Greetings, Y’all:

As 2011 draws near its close, we at the Savannah Bicycle Campaign thought it only appropriate to reflect on what we’ve done in the past year to help make Savannah a more bicycle friendly community and how that has helped Savannah to have more, happier cyclists as part of the mix in our wonderful city.  We are also asking for your support for a new program that will further enable us together to build a better Savannah through bicycles, namely a Bike Restoration and Education Center, which with your help we hope to get started by Spring 2012.

The League of American Bicyclists uses the 5 E’s as the criteria on which it bases its ratings of Bicycle Friendliness. Here are some highlights from each of this year’s E’s to frame our progress:

• Engineering:
• Our ongoing advocacy for a southbound bike lane has paid off—the Price Street bike lane awaits only its final thermoplastic paint. One of the least calm traffic corridors in Savannah will soon have a dedicated southbound bike lane and on-street parking. The benefits to not only Savannah’s bicycle community but also residents along Price Street will be profound.
• The expansion of bicycle parking facilities continues throughout the community. City-installed racks are now in place at over 50 locations and requests are being served expeditiously—one recent request had virtually “same day service.”
• Our infrastructure survey and advocacy through various transportation planning committees and direct surveying of members and friends resulted in several bicycle friendly projects being prominently included in the projects list including the Savannah-Whitemarsh bikeway, bicycle improvements along Johnny Mercer Boulevard, and the West 52nd Street Corridor that will be voted on in 2012 as part of the proposed regional TSPLOST.
• Enforcement:
• SBC, in concert with GeorgiaBikes! and other local advocacy groups successfully lobbied for important changes to the State code sections governing bicycles, including a 3-Feet to Pass provision, legalizing existing equipment including clipless pedals and recumbent bicycles, defining a bicyclist’s right of way in a bike lane,  and clarifying when cyclists may legally “take the lane” for their own protection and the safety of vehicles operating in their vicinity.
• Education:
• Over 200 school children took part in events during 2011 that encouraged bicycling and provided them basic safety education and often, in partnership with SafeKids Savannah, providing them with free, properly fitted helmets to ride home with.
• Held our first Traffic Skills 101 adult vehicular cycling courses to train adult cyclists in proper on-road cycling.
• Courses taught to SCAD students on bike safety and maintenance.
• Encouragement:
• Third annual Midnight Garden Ride held in September with nearly 600 riders. Event was followed by a free concert in Forsyth Park.
• Earth Day and Fort Pulaski Wheelies held in April and November with over 200 total participants.
• Presence at a great many local events via our Bike Valet program.
• Evaluation:
• Third Bicycle Census conducted in conjunction with City of Savannah. The remarkable upward trend in the number of bicyclists has continued; we observed a doubling of cyclists at our checkpoints for the third straight year, and we saw bicycle counts of about 100 per hour at the busiest sites. The percentage of female cyclists (a key indicator of bike friendliness) and helmeted riders (a key indicator of people hearing and acting on bicycle safety suggestions) continued to climb in 2011.
• Auto-traffic accident reports, which we analyze annually, showed almost the same number of bicycle-auto crash incidents as in 2010. With a doubling in number of cyclists, this represents a per bicyclist accident rate drop of approximately 50%.

We’ve also done some good things to keep the organization running. We are in the second year of our Governor’s Office of Highway Safety grant (underwritten by Share the Road license plates) and have had continued success with the Midnight Garden Ride and other sponsor-driven fundraising events.

That said, we rely on your support, and we’ve also been working to improve our communication with members like you. Your support through donations and volunteering is invaluable in helping us continue our current programs and to develop new projects. Among the projects that we will be working toward in 2012 are the following:

• Put in place an SBC Bike Restoration and Education Center, to serve as a center of cycling activities in Savannah-Chatham, to provide a physical presence for SBC and to allow for collection and rehabilitation of discarded bicycles to be put into safe operating condition and distributed to members of the community who have limited means for transportation and often resort to dangerously ill-fitted, poorly maintained bicycles. Distribution of these bikes  will be a means to improve mobility for this at risk community and to allow us to deliver basic bike safety education and equipment. Your donation today will be matched dollar for dollar for the first $4000 in donations in order to get this facility started.
• More east-west bike facilities; we will have significant input in the development of a proposed Henry/Anderson corridor, that would provide an improved link from eastside Savannah to downtown;
• Directed advocacy for adoption of Complete Streets policies by Savannah, Chatham County and the incorporated municipalities within Chatham County;
• More educational outreach to area schools and universities; we invite any and all leads for critical pathways to get access to audiences in the education community;
• GIS generated bicycle maps showing safe routes throughout Chatham County for distribution both as a printed product through bike shops, hostelries, Visit Savannah and as on request routing assistance via the internet; and via the internet. If you’re trying to get somewhere around town by bike and are stumped on a route, please contact us.
• Continue working toward Bicycle Friendly Community Status for Savannah. SBC helped Tybee achieve its recent designation as a Bronze BFC; we can do it here in the Hostess City.

You have shown your support for Building a Better Savannah through Bicycles in the past through your membership, participation in events and contributions.  We look forward to your continued assistance in these ways and hope you will make an end of year contribution that will help us hit the ground running in the New Year. The Bike Restoration and Education Center in particular is critical to helping SBC evolve into a more institutional presence in the community and to addressing the 5 Es in a sustainable, systematic fashion.

If you prefer to donate by snail mail, please make checks out to Savannah Bicycle Campaign. Or, you can visit our web site at www.bicyclecampaign.org and simply use the Donate to SBC link (https://bicyclecampaign.org/join-sbc-today/).

Thanks again for all your support and best wishes for a happy, prosperous 2012.

Keep on biking.

Frank Mc

 

Our calendar runneth over for this weekend and into next week. Here’s what’s on tap:

• SAT 11/12: 9pm. Geekend Block Party – SBC pedal blending and bike valet will be on the scene at Montgomery and Broughton, just south of Franklin Square.
• SUN 11/13: 2pm. Jerry Jaycox Fort Pulaski Wheelie – A November tradition, free entry to Ft. Pulaski for the ride, with a cookout to follow. We’ll bring the burgers – you bring a friend and food to share!
• MON 11/14: 5:30pm reception/6:30pm forum. Mayoral Candidate Forum co-sponsored with USGBC and LWV.
  Runoff candidates Jeff Felser and Edna Jackson will answer questions about transportation and sustainability (see press release below)
• TUE 11/15: 7pm. Bike 2 Beer – Our monthly social at Moon River Brewing Company, 21 W Bay Street

MAYORAL CANDIDATE FORUM TO BE HELD NOVEMBER 14 AT COASTAL GEORGIA CENTER
Savannah mayoral candidates Edna Jackson and Jeff Felser will square off Monday, November 14, fielding questions regarding their positions on transportation and sustainability issues. The forum will start at 6:30 p.m., following a brief reception, and will be moderated by Jim Morekis, editor-in-chief of Connect Savannah. The Forum is hosted by the Savannah Bicycle Campaign, the US Green Building Council-Savannah Branch and the League of Women Voters.

Candidates will answer formal questions delivered by the moderator before taking questions from the audience and the media.

“As we choose our next mayor, it’s more important than ever to ensure that Savannah grows into the future and grows wisely,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, Chair of the US Green Building Council-Savannah Branch. “Through this forum, candidates can express their vision for how Savannah can be a leader by demonstrating responsible stewardship of our environment while incorporating innovative strategies as part of that solution.”

“We’ve seen a tremendous increase in the use of bicycles for transportation in the community. The City of Savannah government has been a positive influence in that growth, and we hope this forum allows candidates the chance to address how they will help continue this trend and also make transit and pedestrian options more viable,” said Drew Wade, Chairman of the Savannah Bicycle Campaign. “Several long-term transportation planning efforts are reaching the point where those decisions become a critical part of the community we live with for the next several decades; we need to make the right decisions.”

The Forum will be held at the Coastal Georgia Center for Continuing Education, 305 Fahm Street, Savannah, GA, http://cgc.georgiasouthern.edu/. For more information about this forum, please contact Frank McIntosh, Executive Director, Savannah Bicycle Campaign at frank@bicyclecampaign.org or 912-272-1074.

Many of you have been following the developments as we have regarding the SCAD student who was struck by a bus while riding her bike on Montgomery Street on Saturday. Below is the full text of a letter to the editor from our own Education Chair, Garrison Marr, which we hope will be printed very soon.

Early this week a college student was involved in a bicycling crash on Montgomery Street that resulted in serious injuries. The incident and its reporting has led to increased dialogue in the community on safe bicycling. To be sure, the most important outcome after this accident is that the student regains her health, and our thoughts are with her.

Because the dialogue on safer cycling has surfaced again, I would like to offer two quick thoughts:

Bicycle education is available to interested community members and it is concentrated where the available resources are likely to have the biggest impact. SCAD now offers bicycle education as part of its First Year Experience program, reaching new college students who may not have biked before coming to SCAD. The Savannah Bicycle Campaign offers quarterly in depth Traffic Skills workshops for the general public; the next is May 21 at the Bicycle Link bike shop. The SBC also organizes Bicycle Rodeos for children and their parents once every two months, teaching kids and their parents bike skills, and their parents bike-friendly motorist behaviors.

The chief principle of bicycling education is that bicyclists fare best when they act and are treated as operators of vehicles. The recent incident is an unfortunate example of the outcome of wrong-way bicycling which puts a bicyclist in a place in the roadway where they are unexpected.

Education is also only one tool in a toolkit for bicycle safety that also contains other “Es”. Bicycle-specific engineering (e.g. bike lanes, multi use paths), enforcement targeted at dangerous motorist and cyclist encouragement that invites Savannahians to make bicycling a healthy part of their daily lives.

It is in our community’s best interests for all groups to become safer, healthier, and more generous roadway users.

Garrison Marr
Education Chair
Savannah Bicycle Campaign

Today an inattentive driver started to pull out across the street I was riding, clearly oblivious to my presence in the travel lane. Had she hit me I expect her comment to the police would have been, “He just came out of nowhere.”

Cool as it would be to apparate Harry-Potter-style, I generally rely on my bike for the full trip to work. In so doing, to be safe, I always make sure to be visible, predictable, alert and assertive as sensibly laid out by our League of American Bicyclists adult cycling education curriculum.

In this case, my bright shirt and lane position did not command the driver’s attention. Maybe she was hunting for a pen, maybe she was fiddling with the radio, eating a sausage biscuit, or updating her Facebook status. I couldn’t tell.

But I could yell. Being alert, I was watching as she pulled into the street. Your bike may not have a super-loud horn, and a bell is too quiet for most drivers to hear, but just about anyone can make themselves heard (and then more likely seen) with one or two assertive Heys.

And so I did, she stopped her course and a collision was avoided. Unbelievably to me, she was furious at me for her mistake. I wonder what her Facebook post said after that…

The episode once again reminded me of how valuable a good Hey is — keep one with you at all times and use it. It could save your life.