The Bicycle Plan passed City Council Tuesday evening with no hitches! Thanks to Jim Hagerman, Caroline Cooley and Stephanie Welch for coming and speaking on behalf of the bicycling community. (Jim actually spoke at first reading, after sitting through a grueling 3 ½ hr debate over housing for the homeless, so he deserves major, unlimited kudos!)
Next, the Plan will go to Knox County Commission on Monday around 6 p.m. I think emails to Commission will be best. Their meeting starts at 2 p.m. on Mondays and goes til late, late, late, so I don't really want to take up meeting time with comments. You can find their email addresses here: http://www.knoxcounty.org/commission/commissioners.php Please do take a few minutes to send an email to your commissioners.
The bike rodeo at EarthFest was a big hit, especially considering it was the first year we held one and it was kind of last minute. I think about 30 kids came through. Thanks to Linda Gray, Ellen Zavisca, Mark Parker, Brad Hedge, Karen Wilkerson (sp?), Deb Haines and Martha Buchanan for running it! And thanks to Knox County Sheriffs officers for helping too.
We are doing another rodeo in Townsend on May 15th, and I'm still looking for some volunteers for that. Please let me know if you can help. Safe Kids is going car seat checks, so we have to do helmet fitting ourselves, and Blount County doesn't have bike education through the sheriffs office so we don't have that help either.
Smart Trips Month starts soon. Calendar of events http://smarttrips.knoxtrans.org/stweek.htm One thing we are asking is for people to pledge that they will use alternative transportation, either for the first time or do it more often, during our Commuter Challenge (through Sept 30). Please be a role model for the rest of the community and send us a pledge! You'll get a Be Green, Save Green card with great discounts to local merchants (including the most popular one at Mast!). http://www.knoxsplat.com/pledge.htm
http://www.knoxsplat.com/bgsgcard.htm
You may have also seen my plea on facebook for photos. The First Friday Art Bus is supposed to feature photos of alternative transportation (biking, transit, etc) but we have not gotten many submissions (and by that I mean one). We've extended the deadline to Monday, so if you get a chance this weekend (I know the weather isn't helping) to take some, please send them in. http://www.knoxsplat.com/
The marketing committee made great plans for an awareness campaign featuring lifesize cutouts of local bicyclists with the message "We're your neighbors and friends, sons and daughters, husbands and wives.
And we bike.
Please drive as if you know us - because it just might be true!"
I've submitted a funding request to SMW and Knox Rev and am waiting to hear back. We've got "models" lined up to photograph and are trying to get permission from places to put the cutouts (like the mall, Walmart, etc). Then need to figure out how many to make.
2 comments:
Is there anything being done about a possible bike lane on Pellissippi pkwy, connecting west knoxville and oak ridge? I have long wanted to commute by bike from knoxville to oak ridge but I'm not too keen on crossing herman postma bridge. The lack of a bike lane there or complete lack of shoulder and the fact that traffic is wizzing by at 50 miles an hour at the slowest if you are lucky. It amazes me more people haven't been hit trying to make this commute. It was nice that an addition was made on the bridge at alcoa highway for a bike lane. Can the same not be done in west knoxville?
When bridges are reconstructed, as the one on Alcoa Hwy was, space is generally added for bicyclists. I know that Solway Bridge (is that the one you are referring to?) is a pinch point on the route to Oak Ridge, but I don't know that it will be replaced in the near future. I think it was repaved or improved recently, but not replaced. It's possible that a project to cantilever bike lanes on it could be added to the project list, but it's expensive to do that, esp since it would need to be on both sides.
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