Friday, June 26, 2009

Weekly Update

June 26, 2009
This week I have been hearing from people wanting to help with bike plan implementation—which is terrific. I’m also trying to set up meetings for just that. The challenge is coordinating so many schedules. I’ll post the meeting dates once they are set so anyone can attend. The topics for this round of meetings will be marketing/promotion of bicycling; bike safety classes; programs/events; and monitoring/evaluation/bike counts.

Bike racks will be going in Halls Crossroads Centre at Wal-Mart, Biketopia and Ingles. The property management company purchased them through our grant program and will be installing them soon. Yea! I’ll also be checking on a location today in the Old City (on Jackson) for another rack. Here’s a link to the bike rack grant website, complete with cards you can print for when you find a business that needs racks http://www.knoxtrans.org/plans/bikeparking/index.htm Be sure to let me know when you’ve contacted a business, and especially if you get the name of the manager, so I can follow up with them.

It’s the end of the fiscal year for our agency, so there is a lot of paperwork to be done to close things out and prepare for next year. It also means that purchases are on hold until July. For instance, we will be re-printing the Blount County Bicycle Map as soon as we can. Smoky Mountain Wheelmen, the Foothill Striders, Cycology and Mountain View Bicycles have all signed on again as sponsors.

We’re getting into planning mode for the annual Neighborhood Bike Ride. I can’t believe this will be the 9th one. When it started, I thought we would be lucky to have 20 or 30 people come out, and we had 150! Now we average about 250 participants. I hope that I can bring my daughter on the ride this year. (We were just spectators last year.) I’m still trying to decide between a seat or a trailer for her. I’ve only got 7 speeds on my commuter bike so not sure I can handle a trailer! Any thoughts from you parents out there?

Happy biking,
Kelley

5 comments:

Bruce Crabtree said...

Kelly,
I am with Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley. We are in the process of establishing a bike club for our club members. KPD Bike Officers plan to help with the training of staff and kids. Really interested in making bike riding fun for kids again. many do not have bikes. How can we get involved with whats going on in Knoxville with bikes?

kelley said...

Bruce,
Shoot me an email me at kelley.segars@knoxtrans.org or give me a call at 215-3815.

Kelley

Anonymous said...

"...still trying to decide between a seat or a trailer for her."...

You need a bakfiets like this: http://www.dutchbikeseattle.com/html/bikes/bakfiets_5.html

jrh

kelley said...

Yes, and that would completely deplete her college fund!

Anonymous said...

Kelley:

I pull our 4 year old nephew frequently on the greenways on a steel frame trail a bike and he loves it. My wife can even pull him with her 21 speed Townie. A trailer is safer for a younger child than a seat and you should be OK w/ your 7 speed. Try to find a used one with an alloy rather than steel frame if you want to save a few bucks.

David