Campaigners:

If you can make it, we need your help tomorrow — Thursday at 9:30am at the Chatham County Commission meeting at 124 Bull St, 2nd floor. We are asking them as the sponsoring agency to have phase II of the Truman Linear Park (52nd Street to Lake Mayer) ready for stimulus funding (i.e. ready to begin construction by March 2010).

The initial $1 million in funding for the project came in 2004, and the time is now for this project that would provide safe bicycle access where the adjacent north-south corridors (Skidaway, Waters, and the Truman Parkway) don’t currently provide a good option for nonmotorized traffic. This meeting is the third step after two meetings packed by a large contingent of Campaigners — the final will come April 30 when the MPO chooses the projects it will send up as priorities for stimulus funding.

Savannah’s most popular (and only) bicycle commuting event returns this Friday. The concept and route are the same as last month’s Dump the Pump ride. Bicycle caravans will depart at 8 a.m. from Baldwin Park (Atlantic and 41st) or Habersham Village Shopping Center for the short ride to downtown (<3 miles). Rides will be led by experienced bike commuters and we will conclude at Davant Park (the south end of Colonial Cemetery) for treats from Jittery Joe’s, which is located in the Ex Libris Bookstore. For those who have considered riding their bikes to work, Dump the Pump presents an excellent opportunity to give it a try in a group context. Try it once and you’ll be hooked!

There is a meeting for public comment on changes to the transportation plan for FY2010-2013 at MPC scheduled for Tuesday, 3/24 at 5pm.

Because we feel it’s important to be present and engaged in this process at MPC, we have rescheduled the SBC board meeting for 7pm at Moon River — it will be an abbreviated meeting, and should not take more than 30 minutes.  We just got notice of the meeting at MPC yesterday, but still have a few urgent matters we need to addres.

We need your help on Tuesday at 5pm at MPC at 110 State Street (between Abercorn and Drayton).  At stake are the priorities that will be set for transportation in the next 3 years, including what happens with stimulus spending locally. Despite our efforts at the technical committee meeting last month in getting the Truman Linear Park inserted into the plan, it is still not in the list of preliminary priorities for the MPO. 

We had scheduled a Coastal Georgia Greenway meeting that evening at Moon River to follow our board meeting, but it will be rescheduled for April — please look for that announcement.

Please come out to MPC Tuesday, bring your helmet, and speak for more bikeways, for complete streets.  Stick around and we’ll head over to Moon River at 7.

Agenda for the SBC board meeting is available at this link.

Good coverage in the evening news last night on WTOC, along with some pro-cycling commentary from anchor-cyclist Sonny Dixon.  Thanks to them for highlighting this assault on well known local cyclist Nick Baker.

It was not noted in their story, but as Nick was traveling on the northern stretch of Skidaway Road, wearing bright yellow as so many of us do, so it’s hard to imagine that whoever hit him could not have seen him. Please contact Savannah-Chatham Police if you have any tips.

Ok, clearly no mountains.  We do have trails, though, at Tom Triplett Park, with a ~7 mile loop and some newly renovated bridges.

3 items of mountain bike interest for you today:

This Sunday, March 8 at Triplett Park of US80 in Pooler, Trek will demo their line of mountain bikes courtesy of your friends at the Bicycle Link.  Bring your legs and your skills to try out the new bridges and get a last look at the last of the broken down bridges, because next week,

Saturday, March 14, starting at 8am, join other enthusiastic local mountain bikers who have been renovating the bridges.  We were fortunate to have Chatham County step in to provide the materials, and the last project is a big one:  a 130′ span that will be dedicated to the memory of Jerry Jaycox.

Finally, while you’re thinking about rebuilding and shredding that singletrack out at Triplett, help to get some more local MTB action.  There is a petition circulating to get some singletrack built out in Claxton:  click here for the petition, or email Micah Whitley, micahwhitley [a t] frontiernet [dot] net for more details.