Pedal mixology tomorrow!

What a great spring, Campaigners!

All of our pedal powered friends are invited to join us for the April edition of Greendrinks.  We’ll be there to promote the Earth Day Wheelie and mixing up treats with our pedal-powered blender. C’mon out and see us!

Geekend 2010

What: Greendrinks with Savannah Bicycle Campaign’s CycloConcoctions blending!
Where: Cha Bella at E Broad and E Broughton
When: Tues 4/12, 5:30-7:30pm
Why: Going by bike is sustainable transportation. Sustainability is good. Cocktails are good. Sustainability + Cocktails = Better

SMF this week: 3 Valet Shows, Funky Closing Ride

Bicycle and music aficionados! We are so pleased with our partnership with the Savannah Music Festival to provide free valet parking. Three more remain in our six-pack:

Tonight 4/4, 7:30pm Band of Horses at Johnny Mercer Theater – East entrance to the Civic Center
Tomorrow 4/5, 8pm Citizen Cope solo at Trustees Theater
Saturday 4/9, 8:30pm AND 10:30pm Maceo Parker shows: Funky dance party at Charles Morris Center

Valet opens 30 minutes before showtime and closes 30 minutes after the end.


Plus, along with the Saturday show, we’ll host the Closing Night Funky Sunset Social Ride, starting at 7pm from the Morris Center. We’ll bring the funk — you bring your bike and your friends and shake your moneymaker with us!

Coming soon: Earth Day Wheelie 4/23

Details will be up very soon on the 4th Annual Earth Day Savannah Wheelie set for Saturday, 4/23 at 4pm. It’s hard to believe this will be the fourth time around, but there it is. The free pedal party through downtown starts at the close of the Earth Day Festival in Forsyth Park and finishes with the Post Wheelie Dealie party, our annual membership drive. Mark your calendar!

Update: Avett Brothers SMF Bike Valet

Tonight only, the Savannah Music Festival brings the rambunctious pop-Americana of the Avett Brothers to the Savannah Civic Center’s Johnny Mercer Theater. Showtime is 9pm, and we will have volunteers on hand starting at 8:30 to secure your bike for the show at the east entrance to the Civic Center (the side facing Orleans Square and Oglethorpe House). We’ll be there until 30 minutes after the show.

If you are watching updates from the National Weather Service, you may note that it is likely to be raining at showtime. We are aware of this prognostication and say the show (and valet!) must go on — if it’s raining we will be under cover. See y’all there!

April Bike Fools

Friday is indeed April 1, and before things get silly we want to remind you of two bona fide events for your foolish pleasure. First, start the day off right with a 2Wheels 2Work. Forecast is for wind, but seasonable temperatures in the best time of year. Any bike will do, though some of our local cargo hauling bikes will be on display for our partner on this event, a SCAD Industrial Design class looking at innovative ways to transport stuff by bike. Ride in from Habersham Village starting at 7:30, meet us along the way or join us at the finish for coffee at Jittery Joe’s at Ex Libris on MLK.

Bookend your folly with a ride to our third valet of the Savannah Music Festival, the sure-to-entertain steel guitar stylings of Robert Randolph and the Family Band. Showtime is 9pm, and we’ll be parking your bikes on Broughton Street in front of Will Call at Trustees Theater starting at 8:30.

No fooling! Show us your commuter bike on April 1

People from all walks of life and all lines of work are bicycle commuters, even board chairmen, like the man in this photo. With the weather turning warmer and gas prices remaining unstable, perhaps you’ve noticed your neighbors heading to work on two wheels instead of four. Maybe you’ve made this wise choice yourself.

It helps to have a rack or basket, like the man in the photo, with which to safely transport your purse, attaché, gear bag, gunny sack, book satchel, toolbox, lunch pail, bait bucket or microphone case to work. Have you modified your bicycle to carry these items and more? If so, please show it off at our next 2Wheels 2Work bicycle commuting event on Friday, April 1. We’ll depart from the Habersham Village Shopping Center at 7:30 a.m. and head north into downtown Savannah to enjoy free pre-work coffee from Jittery Joe’s

What’s more, a SCAD industrial design class is researching the cargo carrying abilities of bicycles and will be on hand to check out the commuter bikes and other beasts of burden. So bring your machine and ride to work with us.

Don’t forget – Sunset Social Ride tomorrow!

As we’ve been saying, tomorrow (Thursday, March 24) is opening night for the Savannah Music Festival.  Join us at Ellis Square for a cruise around downtown finishing at the opening night show, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at Trustees Theater.  The ride leaves Ellis Square at 7:30 pm.You might even get a chance to do it on the Savannah Slow Ride if you call for a reservation…

And, if you can’t make the ride, at least ride to the show and we’ll park it for you in a jiffy at our spiffy bike valet!  We’ll be hosting bike valet at this show and 5 others, so check out the schedule and bike to the Savannah Music Festival with us!

2011 Legislative update

Yesterday in Atlanta, over 2000 cyclists rode to the capitol to rally for better legislation and better facilities in Georgia. It was the Sixth Annual Georgia Rides to the Capitol put on by Georgia Bikes, and by all accounts it was a huge success: Lt. Governor Casey Cagle on the ride in from Decatur, along with many metro Atlanta mayors and city officials. The rally at the Capitol even featured an appearance by Governor Deal!

Georgia Rides to the Capitol, 2011: photo by Vino Wong, AJC

So, where are we in the legislative calendar? Georgia Bikes identified 2 priorities during this session which were introduced as HB 101 and HB 180:

HB 101 clarifies multiple areas of traffic code related to bicycling, including defining bike lanes and clearly establishing that bicyclists have the right of way in bike lanes, better defining the right to take the lane when it’s too narrow to share (among other reasons) legalizing the use of a rear red light instead of a reflector as well as the sale of clipless pedals and recumbents.  HB 101 passed the full House of Representatives and has now passed the Senate Public Safety Committee.  Current version is here.  It will next be heard in the Senate Rules Committee and, if reported favorably there, will go to the Senate floor and if successful there, to the Governor’s desk to sign.

HB 180 defines safe passing of a bicycle by a motor vehicle as 3 feet or greater; this is the law now in 19 states though not yet in Georgia.  In the 2011 session, HB 180 made it out of the House Public Safety Committee but did not make it out of the Rules Committee and to the floor before crossover day.  As such, HB 180 will not be considered in the Senate this year, though the current legislature and all the bills introduced but not passed this year can restart the process in 2012 without a reintroduction of the bill.

Savannah Bicycle Campaign will continue to work with Georgia Bikes to ensure that these issues remain at the forefront.  We appreciate all of you who answered the call to contact your legislators to support these measures, and we hope you will continue to do so in the future!  If you have specific legislative concerns that are not being addressed, we want to hear about those too.

Bike the Savannah Music Festival

Opening and closing day Sunset Social Rides
Free Bike Valet at selected shows!

It’s a great season for music in the hostess city. The curtain has now closed on the remarkable Savannah Stopover Festival, and on the horizon in just over a week is the always impressive Savannah Music Festival. We are thrilled to announce a partnership with the SMF that we hope will increase bicycling to the shows, just as SMF Executive Director (and Savannah Bicycle Campaign board member) Rob Gibson does as he makes his way about the festival during its 17 day, 100 show run.

Opening night, 7:30pm Thu March 24: Sunset Social Ride.
We’ll gather at Ellis Square and launch a Wheelie-style conversationally paced 4-5 mile ride through downtown to finish at Trustees Theater in time for riders to take their seats at the much anticipated Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings show. A white front light is required. A helmet and a rear red light are strongly recommended.

Bike valet (multiple shows, below)
FREE (though your donation is much appreciated) parking for your bicycle immediately outside the venue at selected shows — don’t fret about where you can park, ride your bike and leave the parking and watching to us!  Valet is available starting 30 minutes before showtime and will close 30 minutes after the show ends.

SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS at Trustees Theater, March 24, 8:30 PM (opening night)

THE AVETT BROTHERS at Johnny Mercer Theater, March 30, 9 PM

ROBERT RANDOLPH AND THE FAMILY BAND at Trustees Theater, April 1, 9 PM

BAND OF HORSES at Johnny Mercer Theater, April 4, 7:30 PM

CITIZEN COPE SOLO at Trustees Theater, April 5, 8 PM

MACEO PARKER at Charles H. Morris Center, April 9, 8:30 PM & 10:30 PM (closing night)

Closing night, 7:00pm Sat April 9: Sunset Social Ride.
We’ll gather at the Charles Morris Center and launch another triumphant Wheelie-style 4-5 mile ride through downtown to finish at back at the Morris Center for the first of two Maceo Parker Funky Dance Party shows. Park your bike at the valet and get your funk on! For the ride, a white front light is required; a helmet and a rear red light are again vigorously recommended.

Don’t have tickets for the festival shows yet? No problem — call the Savannah Music Festival Box Office at 912-525-5050 or savannahmusicfestival.org. OR… if you want a chance to see some of these shows for free, VOLUNTEER with us to work the bike valets! Fill out this SMF web form to indicate your availability and MAKE SURE YOU PUT “Bicycle Campaign” in the final field marked “How did you learn about this volunteer opportunity?” There are two brief orientations.

St. Patrick’s Parade: ride a bike!

St. Patrick’s Day and the parade are upon us next week! A green deluge of marching bands, elected officials, local businesses, and folks of Irish and every other decent will flood downtown Savannah on Thursday morning. It’s a sight to behold, and one of the most sociable dates on the Savannah calendar.  Still, the crowds can be difficult to navigate, and parking a car anywhere near the parade route can prove time consuming and expensive.

So, what’s a campaigner to do? Ride a bike to the parade! Throw your picnic in a backpack (or a trailer) and pedal to the route! Keep in mind, however, that barricades prevent your crossing the parade route pretty much everywhere, so it makes good sense to plan your route in advance, which is why we’re sharing the full parade route with you here (below). If you’ll be watching in a square, take a look at the list below for your entry side, and remember that Drayton Street is full of floats and other parade accoutrement next to Forsyth Park, but is wide open to bicycles (and closed to cars) north of Gaston for access into the interior of the parade route (in yellow).

As always, give yourself extra time, be courteous to your fellow road users on foot and in cars, and make sure you lock your bike securely.

Squares for parade viewing:

  • Calhoun: open side is west, take Drayton to Wayne or Gordon
  • Lafayette: open side is east, take Lincoln to Macon or Harris
  • Colonial Park Cemetery/Davant Park: open side is east, take Lincoln to Perry Ln
  • Oglethorpe: open side is west, take Drayton to York or President
  • Johnson: open side is east, take Drayton to St. Julian or Bryan
  • Wright: open side is west, take Barnard to York
  • Chippewa: open side is east; use Drayton to McDonough or Hull