Last summer the Metropolitan Savannah Rotary Club selected SBC as its annual service partner and Rotarians have been busy since that time helping launch our New Standard Cycles program and other causes in Savannah.
On Saturday, Feb. 21, the club will host its fourth annual Roastary Oyster Roast on Dutch Island. Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit SBC. Tickets and more information available now on the Metropolitan Savannah Rotary Club website.
Celebrate art, bikes and Earth Day with the Savannah Bicycle Campaign and Art Rise Savannah! We’re partnering to host a brand new mini-festival: reCycle Art!
Part auction, part workshop, part concert, reCycle Art is a unique event that highlights so much of what is wonderful about our city, from local business to art to advocacy for healthy, alternative transportation. Along with the art for sale, we’ll also be bringing you a jam-packed week full of fun and free events leading up to the Savannah Earth Day Festival and the Savannah Bicycle Campaign’s Earth Day Wheelie and bicycle parade on April 18.
Sponsors Forsyth Farmer’s Market, Georgia Bikes!, the Savannah Bee Company and Foxy Loxy will be making this an awesome week of art, sustainability and Savannah!
Read on below for details on all of the fun activities in store for reCycle Art!
We’ll be kicking off the week with the Forsyth Farmer’s Market and local musician Ben Austin.
We’ll have workshops with your favorite market in town where families (and everyone else) can play around with sustainable and delicious food, while veteran musician and delightful guy Ben Austin entertains with acoustic music throughout the night!
Georgia Bikes! takes the stage to talk about serious business: decorating bicycles and the best way to stand out in a bicycle parade! Make sure to come by for ideas on Thursday and bring your bike to decorate on Saturday for the Earth Day Wheelie bicycle parade!
We’ll also have a bicycle-powered video game up and running on Thursday night, designed and built by SBC’s resident mechanic Jen Colestock and Athens jack-of-all-trades Ben Edwards. Try your hands (and feet) at the game and pedal your way to victory.
Come for the natural, nourishing and delicious beauty and health tips from the Savannah Bee Company, but stay for the awesome and (very) energetic performance from DIP – an Athens band that will make our last night of the auction one of the best!
Georgia Bikes! and Art Rise Savannah will be teaming up at the Earth Day Festival to help you decorate your bike before embarking on the Earth Day Wheelie’s bicycle parade in style.
Come hungry and ready for some cold brew coffee! Foxy Loxy will be bringing their yummiest and most sustainable foods throughout the week for you to try, while selling cold brew coffee by the eco-friendly growler.
Running April 13 at 8am to April 18 at 11am, this scavenger hunt will help you explore Savannah and the very awesome sponsors of reCycle Art! Solve the challenges and post your pictures toInstagram with #recycleartsav for points and raffle tickets. Each challenge location you complete gets you one free ticket to the Earth Day Wheelie’s raffle!! Remember, this is a team activity – so grab your friends and get started!
All events will be held at 1301 Lincoln St, Suite A, at the corner of Lincoln and Henry streets.
Want to learn more about reCycle Art? Send a note to recycleartsav@gmail.com for details.
Don your finest wools, tweeds and argyles for Savannah’s second ever Tweed Ride on Feb. 14. The ride leaves from Grayson Stadium in Daffin Park at 2 p.m. and ends in Forsyth Park with a picnic, croquet and photo shoot. The ride is free and open to the public. Helmets are strongly encouraged. Let us know you’re coming by joining the Facebook event.
The fourth annual Pedal Medal Award Celebration, presented by SouthCoast Health, will be held on Thursday, Feb. 19 from 5-7:30 p.m. at ThincSavannah.
The Pedal Medal Award honors individuals who are working to make Savannah better for bicycling. Past winners are Sean Brandon of the City of Savannah, Connect Savannah editor Jim Morekis and Jane Love of the Coastal Region Metropolitan Planning Organization.
This year’s Pedal Medal honoree is John Pinkerton of Moon River Brewing Company. John is the originator and driving force behind our annual Matt’s Moon River Cruise event. The event is held in memory of Matt Kohler and aims to educate drivers on safely sharing the road with people who ride bikes.
Louisa Winsor Williams and John Wesley Norvell will be recognized as SBC’s volunteers of the year. Dr. Daniel Piatkowski, assistant professor of urban studies and planning at Savannah State University, will give the keynote address. Beverages and light hors d’oeuvres will be served.
A silent auction will feature exciting items including a beach cruiser from Tim’s Beach Gear, a stay at Ocean Lodge on St. Simons Island, a Club at Savannah Harbor golf package and more!
We have been working in partnership with Healthy Savannah toward an important goal.
On Jan. 22, 2015 we achieved it.
The Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Savannah unanimously adopted a Complete Streets ordinance that will help make our city’s streets safe and appealing for people of all ages and abilities.
The purpose of the ordinance is to “to encourage healthy active living, reduce traffic congestion and fossil fuel use and improve the safety and quality of life of residents of the City of Savannah by providing safe, convenient and comfortable routes for walking, bicycling and public transportation.”
Under the ordinance, all street improvement and new construction projects will be designed to meet the needs of people who walk, ride bikes and use transit, unless specific circumstances prevent inclusion. Among the bicycle-related Complete Streets components listed in the ordinance are shared use paths, bicycle lanes and bicycle parking facilities.
We thank Mayor Edna Jackson and Savannah City Council for adopting this ordinance, which will provide economic, public safety and public health benefits to our community. We are especially grateful to District 4 Alderman Mary Ellen Sprague for endorsing an amendment that significantly strengthened the ordinance.
On the same day that our city’s leaders acted, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx launched the Mayors’ Challenge for Safer People and Safer Streets, which calls on mayors and other local elected officials to take significant action to improve the safety of their constituents who walk or bicycle by implementing Complete Streets practices.
We are grateful to Healthy Savannah, YMCA of Coastal Georgia, Safe Routes to School Resource Center, Savannah Chatham Public School System, Transport Studio, Coastal Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, Chatham Area Transit, Healthcare Georgia Foundation, Georgia Bikes, City of Savannah staff, and other partner organizations for their dedication to achieving this goal.
Daniel Piatkowski, an assistant professor at Savannah State University, along with his colleagues at the University of Colorado Denver are conducting a study about bicyclist behavior. The study was referenced in the Washington Post’s Wonkblog in a Jan. 9 piece called “Let’s talk seriously about why cyclists break traffic laws.”
“As cycling grows more common in a city, does peer pressure to obey the law follow? As cities build more bike infrastructure, does that make cyclists less likely to run red lights?”
Dr. Piatkowski and his fellow researchers are seeking participants for a survey, which will take about 10 or 15 minutes to complete. It asks questions about respondents’ travel patterns and experiences as bicyclists under various situations. The survey is part of a larger study intending to better understand our transportation system and what factors might correlate with different behavior patterns.
Bikes 101 is an ongoing series of workshops intended to teach basic bicycle maintenance skills in a fun and relaxed environment. This month’s installment, on Jan. 13 from 7-9 p.m., focuses on wheels, including: tires, tubes, rim strips, and axle bearing adjustments.
Bikes 101 workshops are held in our New Standard Cycles space at 1301 A Lincoln St.
Bikes 101 is free and no previous bicycle repair experience is required. For more information, email jen@bicyclecampaign.org. Let us know you’re coming by joining the Facebook event.
Our friends at Green Truck Pub and New Belgium Brewing are hosting another Pint Night for SBC on Tuesday, Jan. 20 from 5-11 p.m. During the tap takeover, uring the tap takeover, New Belgium and Green Truck Pub will donate $1 for every draft sold, plus match personal donations made to SBC that night.
Ride your bike and park it at the SBC Bike Valet for a chance to win free New Belgium goodies! Don’t forget your lights and helmet.
Let us know you plan to attend by joining the Facebook event.
Telluride Mountainfilm on Tour in Savannah, a nonprofit film festival designed to educate and inspire audiences about critical issues, will be held at the Trustees theater on Jan. 23 and 24.
The Savannah Bicycle Campaign is sponsoring a ride in conjunction with the festival again this year on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 11 a.m. We will start at the Kennedy Pharmacy building at 323 E. Broughton Street and end at the South end of Forsyth Park for light refreshments provided by the Sentient Bean.
All ages welcome but you must have a bike and helmets are strongly recommended! Let us know you plan to attend by joining the Facebook event.
The Savannah Bicycle Campaign has received a $26,600 grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety to fund programs aimed at reducing bicycle-related injuries and fatalities in Chatham County.
The grant, which will continue through September of 2014, will help finance education programs for bicyclists and drivers, dissemination of information on roadway safety, and efforts to encourage best practices for safe cycling.
“The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety is committed to keeping everyone safe on our roads and highways, from the smallest precious cargo to the most seasoned drivers,” said GOHS Director Harris Blackwood. “This grant will help the Savannah Bicycle Campaign reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities on Georgia roadways.”
“We are grateful for the support of GOHS as it allows us continue and expand the beneficial programs we’ve been offering, with the goal of improving safety for people who ride bicycles for recreation or transportation in Chatham County,” said John Bennett, executive director of the Savannah Bicycle Campaign
For more information on this grant program, contact GOHS at 404-656-6996. For more information on GOHS and its highway safety programs, visit www.gahighwaysafety.org.
