Bike Count Info

It's that time again; Come help the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition count bike traffic to show how much cycling in Atlanta has grown!

Our Spring 2012 counts will be Tuesday, April 24th and Thursday, April 26th from 7am-9am and 4:30pm-6:30pm. Click the link below to sign up for a location and date that works for you! You can sign up for as many times as you want, but only two people per location/time.

UPDATE:
We will be doing counts again on Tuesday, May 1st as the weather on the 24th was unseasonably cold! We want to get our counts on a day when most people are riding!


Inspired!

The last week in March was a big one for bicycling in Atlanta. Between Park Pride's conference theme highlighting access by bike and on foot to parks, the Cities for Cycling Roadshow, Georgia Rides to the Capitol, Sopo's Broken Hearts and Bicycle Parts, and the week's high point, Better Biking for a Safer, Healthier, More Competitive City, we came away inspired. Read more for all the details! 

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AJC OP-ED - Complete Streets for All

Our Executive Director, Rebecca Serna, recently penned an Op-Ed in the AJC calling for the Atlanta to invest in Complete Streets projects across the city. Read the press release and share your thoughts.  

ABC True Beginner's Class - Learn to Ride at Any Age

 

A class for adult first-time bike riders. If you missed out on the experience of learning to ride a bicycle as a kid, this is the class for you. Learn in a welcoming and nonjudgmental environment, using techniques developed specifically for first-timers. This class will have you soon riding with friends and family before you can say "whee!" Offered for adults and teens 14 and over. Class will take place at the ABC office at 213 Mitchell Street on 

$20.00

The Get Up & Ride Challenge Is On!

Launched today by a powerful alliance of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB), the League of American Bicyclists, Bikes Belong and Endomondo, the National Bike Challenge aims to inspire and empower millions of Americans to ride their bikes for transportation, recreation and better health. Please join metro Atlanta in rolling with the National Bike Challenge -- and invite your friends and co-workers to join in the fun! Big thanks to Free-Flite Bicycles, Atlanta's premier Bike Challenge sponsor. 

Washington, D.C. - March 21, 2012 - 

The Challenge is simple: Sign up as an individual or as a team, log your miles, share your stories and encourage others to join you. Riders will compete for prizes and awards on the local and national level, including a Grand Prize trip through California wine country from Trek Travel. Already, organizations in 26 states have committed to participate and have started warming up for the May 1 start date on the Challenge website: nationalbikechallenge.org.

Read more to learn all about this initiative.

Road Safety Audit: Ponce de Leon and North Highland

When we first learned about Road Safety Audits (a formal safety performance examination of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent audit team. at a conference, we got back to the office and did some research.

Ponce and Highland RSA 2011_page1_image2
 
The Federal Highway Administration's website has an entire section dedicated to the topic with some good resources and trainings. We immediately saw a great need for audits of Atlanta streets and applied for an FHWA grant to conduct one. Then we thought, why not conduct two?! And host a workshop? So that's what we did. 
 
Attendance at the workshop, held in fall of 2011 at Atlanta City Hall, included participants from GDOT, Atlanta Regional Commission, DeKalb County, MARTA, and the private sector. Following the workshop, a smaller group formed Atlanta's first Bicycle Road Safety Audit Team (A1BRSAT for short...) and got to work assessing two of Atlanta's top bike crash avenues: Ponce de Leon and North Highland. The final report, replete with graphs and maps and other goodies, is attached, and sections are excerpted below. 
 
Excitingly enough, our suggestions for Ponce de Leon were already under consideration by city of Atlanta officials and were incorporated into an application for Livable Centers Initiative funding. The $5 million project will include "a road diet to reduce typical section to 4-through lanes plus a center turn lane and bike lanes, also sidewalk, crowalk and signal upgrades, two multi-use path connections to the Beltline, and bus stop improvements." Wow! 
Ponce and Highland RSA 2011_page39_image1
We're indebted to the FHWA for funding this project, the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety for helping us connect with the grant opportunity, FHWA trainer Craig Allred for giving the excellent workshop, Audit Team members including Jeff McMichael, Byron Rushing, Michael Turpeau and Kesha Wynn, and especially to Dan Nabors and Elissa Goughnour at VHB for leading the team and completing the report. 
 
Please read more for a summary, visit the photoset, or view the attached pdf for the full report. 
File upload: 
application/pdf iconPonce and Highland RSA 2011.pdf

Join Georgia Bikes to celebrate victory Tuesday, March 27

 

Last week, thanks to Georgia Bikes' close work with State Senator Butch Miller of Gainesville, we were able to turn a bill that would have required single-file riding into an opportunity to create a Complete Streets policy for Georgia! We hope you will join us to celebrate this victory for bicycling safety on Tuesday, March 27th at the Georgia Rides to the Capitol event.

You'll be riding with over a thousand fellow cyclists to show your support for a statewide Complete Streets policy that prioritizes active transportation in all state-funded transportation projects. For more about the ride, please visit GeorgiaRidesToTheCapitol.org.

Heels on Wheels postponed to Saturday, March 10

Help the City of Atlanta spend its money (Transportation Referendum)

On July 31, 2012, voters within the ten-county Atlanta metropolitan area will decide whether to fund local and regional transportation projects through a regional transportation referendum. The Georgia state economist has estimated total revenues from the referendum to be $7.2 billion over the ten-year period. This will be split into two separate pots of money: $6.1 billion (85% of the total) for regional projects selected by the Regional Transportation Roundtable in October 2011, and 15% allocated directly to counties and cities.

The City of Atlanta is expected to receive a little over $9.0 million per year for ten years, or about $94.0 million total to spend on local projects. The City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office, Department of Planning & Community Development and Department of Public Works, in coordination with the Atlanta City Council, are working to develop a rolling five-year list of projects to be funded by the 15% local allocation, if the referendum passes in July. 

The City of Atlanta is holding a series of information sessions to get public input on what types of local projects should be funded with this new revenue source. 

Please read on to learn how the city is contemplating allocating these tax dollars, then attend a meeting to speak out in support of spending on bicycle facilities if you can. 

We encourage everyone to submit comments by e-mail to tiacomments@atlantaga.gov or by phone to 404-330-6145 by March 15, 2012.

UPDATE from Georgia Bikes! on SB 468 (two abreast bill)

"We have just received the very happy news that Senator Miller will not pursue passage of SB 468, preferring instead to work with Georgia Bikes on the implementation of a Complete Streets policy over the remainder of this and into next legislative session. Many thanks to the Senator for his willingness to work with us to protect the rights and safety of all of Georgia's road users!" 

sen_miller_sb468_hearing

On behalf of both the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and Georgia Bikes! I want to thank everyone for their hard work on this over the past week. It's been an exciting ride, with a wonderful outcome! 

Please visit the Georgia Bikes! blog for updates.

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