This #Giving Tuesday, help us create safe streets for all users — no matter their mode of transportation.

#GivingTuesday

When asked what I was thankful for this year on Thanksgiving, it took me some time to find my answer. I’m thankful for so many things this year — like living in our beautiful city, celebrating the holidays with friends and family, and being able to serve our community in a meaningful way (and did I forget to say I’m thankful for construction beginning on the Truman Linear Park Trail?)

But most of all I’m thankful for you. Our supporters who help us stay the course and will help us reach our vision of a connected community with welcoming places to bike and walk.

We have a lot of work to do to move that vision forward in 2020, including needed policy updates, implementing high-quality bike lanes, and installing sidewalks and crosswalks across the city. And in order to do that work, I’m asking you to make a tax-deductible contribution today to help us reach our $10,000 goal.

Your contribution will:

  • Help us to provide bicycles to those in need through our New Standard Cycles program.
  • Allow us to continue serving as your voice for connected, equitable and welcoming places to bike and walk.
  • Provide education classes for children and adults.
  • Support our public policy work to ensure that places to bike and walk are always on the list.
  • Help us continue our great events like the Moonlight Garden Ride, Matt’s Moon River Cruise, Tweed Ride, Seersucker Ride, and so much more.

Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution to Bike Walk Savannah.

Thank you, as always, for your support of the people-powered movement.

Caila Brown
Executive Director

Bike Walk Savannah Receives $31,869.28 Grant from Governor’s Office of Highway Safety

Bike Walk Savannah has received a $31,869.28 grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS).

The grant will help finance BWS’s education programs, safety campaigns, work with local governments to improve infrastructure, printing of the popular Bike SAV bike map and guide, pedestrian safety materials, and other programs aimed at making Savannah and Chatham County safer for people who ride bikes and walk for transportation and recreation.

“The loss of one life on our roads is one too many, and the fact that almost all fatal traffic crashes can be prevented is one reason why we are awarding this grant,” said GOHS Director Allen Poole. “The target of zero traffic deaths in our nation is achievable, and we will continue to help develop and implement educational messages, enforcement campaigns, and other safety initiatives aimed at bringing us one step closer to our goal.”

“Many people in Savannah and Chatham County depend on biking and walking for daily transportation,” said Caila Brown, executive director of Bike Walk Savannah. “And many more make the choice to add biking and walking to their mobility options, whether for transportation or recreation. We are grateful for the support of GOHS as it allows us to continue and expand the programs we’ve been offering, with the goal of improving safety for all people on the streets of Chatham County, no matter their mode of transportation.”

The grant year for this award is Oct. 1, 2019 to Sept. 30, 2020.

Truman Linear Park Trail Design Open House to be held Aug. 1

On Thursday, August 1, 2019 at Calvary Baptist Temple – Oasis Building (4625 Waters Avenue, Savannah, GA 31404) the City of Savannah will hold a Public Information Open House concerning the Truman Linear Park Trail Phase IIB (Bee Road to Derenne Ave.)

Truman Linear Park Trail will provide a separate, recreational pedestrian and bicycle facility that expands and enhances the non–motorized transportation network; improves non–motorized connections and access to key destinations, such as schools, parks, neighborhoods, etc.; and improves safety for all non–motorized users. Truman Linear Park Trail Phase IIB is approximately 1.9 miles long and begins at Jenkins High School, tying to Phase IIA, and ends at the intersection of 52nd Street and Bee Road, tying to Phase I (Police Memorial Trail). The proposed typical section would consist of a 10–foot wide, ADA accessible, shared–use, concrete trail, with 10–foot wide timber bridge crossings at ditches, and a 10–foot wide pre–fabricated bridge crossing the Old Casey Canal. When fully constructed the trail will provide almost 9 miles of contiguous recreation trail, including the loop trails at Lake Mayer and Daffin Park, and will link 827 acres of existing City and County parks.

The Open House will be held from 4-7 p.m., and provide the public with an opportunity to view the project, ask questions, and comment on the project. 

The meeting site is accessible to persons with disabilities. Accommodations for people with disabilities can be arranged with advance notice by calling Nick Deffley, City of Savannah Directory of Sustainability at (912) 651–6909. The meeting site is also accessible via CAT routes 27 & 28, and by taking the Habersham St. bike lane to 63rd St. 

Advocacy Opportunity: NewZO to be voted on July 18

On Thursday, July 18, the proposed New Zoning Ordinance (NewZO) will go before City Council for adoption. Our current ordinance was adopted in 1960. The NewZO is more efficient, more transparent, and is more consistent both with today’s development patterns and our vision for future growth as expressed in the Comprehensive and Strategic Plans.

NewZo supports a more bikeable and walkable Savannah by promoting a healthy built environment. Please join us in supporting this critical update by contacting City Council. Email or call your representatives today and ask them to adopt NewZO on July 18.

To promote thriving neighborhoods, NewZO must promote mixed-use, promote diverse housing types and appropriate housing density, create a connected street network for all users by making Complete Streets our standard, and promote small scale development to support neighborhood stability and character. READ MORE HERE

News Cycle: The road to Tybee just got a bit more friendly to cyclists

The road to Tybee just got a bit more friendly to cyclists by John Bennett was originally published in Connect Savannah on July 10.

The Georgia Department of Transportation’s $1.85 million resurfacing project on US Highway 80 is intended to raise the roadway between Savannah and Tybee Island and make it less susceptible to flooding, which is more frequent on the causeway these days due to rising sea levels.

Local people who ride bikes may have noticed another outcome. The road to Tybee Island now has bikeable shoulders.

Previously, the shoulders were covered with rumble strips, encroached upon by vegetation, and strewn with debris. This trio of problems ensured that only the bravest souls — or people with no other options — pedaled between Savannah and Tybee Island.

In place of the previous rumble strips, GDOT has installed edge line rumble strips, placed directly at the edge of the travel lane. These are sometimes referred to as edge line rumble stripes and they still provide the same function as the previous shoulder-spanning rumble strips: alerting inattentive drivers, through vibration and sound, that their vehicles are leaving the travel lane. Yet they keep the surface of the shoulder itself smooth and suitable for cycling.

Read the full article in Connect Savannah.

News Cycle: The street-level impact of passing NewZO

The street-level impact of passing NewZO by John Bennett was originally published in Connect Savannah on June 25, 2019.

LAST WEEK a group of citizens stood before Savannah City Council and urged elected officials to adopt an ordinance that would allow Savannah to be Savannah again. Whitney Shephard was among them.

“This is the big deal. We live in a city that is an international model for walking and biking. It is why tourists flock here. But, residents deserve to enjoy that same comfort and mobility. The current ordinance actually prohibits the development patterns that make our city a destination across the world. NewZO is far more consistent with Savannah’s character,” said Shephard, principal engineer/planner for Transport Studio, a transportation planning and engineering services firm.

Short for “new zoning ordinance,” NewZO would replace the current ordinance, a relic from 1960.

As I have written in the past, some of Savannah’s most cherished public spaces — including Forsyth Park — could not exist if we wanted to create them today because there’s not enough parking to meet parking minimums.

The current zoning ordinance superimposes suburban style parking requirements on older areas of the city, which is bad for business. And bad for people.

“Today, parking requirements are largely identical across the city. That means that a new store in town has to provide the same parking as the Oglethorpe Mall or a suburban strip center. Our current excessive parking requirements — written in the 1960s — deter walking and biking for a lot of reasons,” Shephard said.

“Who wants to walk across a sea of parking to get to a cafe or shop? Or bike through a parking lot where drivers aren’t expecting to see them? By making parking requirements more reasonable, we shorten the distance someone has to walk from the street to the front door. We make that walk safer and more comfortable. We also don’t waste space on pavement but instead make it available for uses like schools, parks, or more commercial space.”

Read the full article in Connect Savannah.

NewZO Public Hearing this Thursday, June 20

Our current zoning ordinance is outdated and inefficient — after all, it hasn’t been updated since the 1960’s. And a lot has changed since then!

While it has been amended numerous times, it has never been overhauled to reflect the many changes that have occurred. It can be inefficient, redundant, confusing and contradictory among other concerns.

While NewZO isn’t perfect, it puts our community on a much better footing to increase affordable housing options, to reduce the prevalence of food desserts, to grow our local businesses, and (most importantly, we think) to create a bikeable and walkable Savannah.

Want to learn more about NewZO? Check out this video from the City of Savannah or read this article in the Savannah Morning News.

Whether or not you can attend this Thursday’s meeting, I urge you to write to your alderman.

Sample Language:

I live in District x (or neighborhood x). As a parent/resident/business owner/concerned citizen, I support the NewZO. It is far more efficient and clear than our current ordinance. With enCode, NewZO increases transparency. NewZO supports neighborhood goals like stability/reinvestment/livability.
 
NewZO is the result of broad community effort over more than a decade. Please support NewZO now. We cannot afford to wait.

If you are able to attend, please wear blue in support. City Hall is located at 2 E. Bay Street, and the meeting will begin promptly at 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 20.

I’ll save you a seat!

Caila Brown
Executive Director

News Cycle: The slow but sure shift in public opinion about the benefits of bicycling

The slow but sure shift in public opinion about the benefits of bicycling by John Bennett was originally published in Connect Savannah on June 12, 2019.

IT’S AN understatement to say I was preaching to the choir. It was more like preaching to choir directors when I made a presentation on the benefits of bicycling and walking to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah’s “Green Team” on June 1.

These folks needed no convincing. The group’s vision statement confirms its members’ intention to “ally with like-minded communities to support the vulnerable, and evolve a resilient and sustainable way of living in our shared world.”

I’ve never turned down an opportunity to talk about how bicycling and walking can make our city safer, healthier, and an altogether better place to live. University classes, civic organizations, neighborhood associations — if they invite me I’ll be there early and bring a screen and projector.

While most of my audiences aren’t as receptive as the Green Team, the truth is the rooms are not as tough as they used to be when I started making presentations on biking and walking over a decade ago.

Early on I learned to stash additional “secret” slides after the apparent end of the deck that I could advance to when I needed to bat down popular, but inaccurate notions about bicycling and walking that frequently came up in post-presentation question and answer sessions.

I could depend on someone to erroneously assert that people who ride bikes violate traffic regulations more than people who drive or make the misinformed suggestion that people who walk and bike don’t pay their fair share of infrastructure costs. The Green Team harbored none of these notions.

As I was concluding my presentation, Brent Buice was disproving another misconception about biking and walking infrastructure: The idea that sidewalks, bike lanes, and trails are unnecessary because people don’t use them. Buice — South Carolina and Georgia coordinator for the East Coast Greenway Alliance and chair of Friends of Tide to Town, the nonprofit working to promote an urban trail system in Savannah — led a tour of a trail that doesn’t even exist. On a sweltering Saturday at noon, around 70 people turned out for a ride that showcased an envisioned route along the banks of the Springfield Canal.

Read the full article in Connect Savannah.

News Cycle:Cycling and diversity: The larger context

Cycling and diversity: The larger context by John Bennett was originally published in Connect Savannah on May 29, 2019.

IF YOU want to encourage and empower people to become more physically active and improve the health of entire neighborhoods, Armand Turner is your man.

“You really have to figure out what people enjoy doing already and then give them the opportunity and tools to do it more consistently,” he said.

It’s an approach he first learned as a summer camp counselor in Indiana and later working as the head of the recreation and intramural sports department of Albany State University.

Today Turner is managing the physical activity component of a $3.4 million Centers for Disease Control grant awarded to Healthy Savannah through the YMCA of Coastal Georgia. The funding from the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity is aimed at reducing health disparities among racial and ethnic populations with the highest burden of chronic disease using culturally tailored interventions to address preventable risk behaviors. Savannah is one of 31 communities nationwide to receive a Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health grant.

Healthy Savannah will use the funding to reduce health disparities among African American and Hispanic/Latino Americans in low income areas of Chatham County by improving access to healthy food and opportunities for physical activity, and creating more effective links between people in need and the clinical service providers and organizations that can help.

Turner sees the REACH grant fitting into a larger context.

“It seems as if a lot of things are lining up for Savannah to be one of the healthiest cities in the South, between the coalition of health organizations looking to deconstruct old habits of unhealthy living to opportunities to make healthier choices easier for citizens through the new zoning ordinance. Savannah has the chance to flip the switch and it’s sitting right in front of us,” he said.

In order to flip that switch, especially when it comes to encouraging physical activity, barriers must be overcome.

“In the hierarchy of ‘reasons not to do anything,’ personal safety will always be at the top,” he said. “No one wants to ride a bike if they think they’re more likely to get in an accident, than to get where they’re going.”

Turner said improving safety is key to encouraging people to bike and walk for recreation and transportation.

Read the full article in Connect Savannah.