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Dear Carey,
What a year its been for biking and
walking in Tennessee. The 2013 Tennessee Bike
Summit was a major success. Nashville and
Knoxville both hired bike/ped coordinators,
Memphis adopted a complete streets policy,
Chattanooga hosted Dutch Bike Planners, and Bike
Walk Knoxville celebrated a successful first
year.
Not to mention Tennessee continues to rise in the Bicycle Friendly
State Rankings: we're now number 17 nationally -
and second only to Virginia in the South.
We're proud of this work, and we
couldn't do it without you.
Great things are on the horizon for
2014. Complete Streets ordinances are being
considered in key Tennessee cities, and protected
bike lanes are on the rise.
Click here to make a year-end
contribution to Bike Walk Tennessee. Your
support makes a better Tennessee possible.
Happy
Holidays!
Anthony C.
Siracusa
President, Bike
Walk Tennessee
 
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KNOXVILLE HIRES NEW
ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION COORDINATOR
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| Jon
Livengood - Alternative Transportation
Coordinator |
Knoxville has filled the
new alternative transportation coordinator
position with a Bike Walk Tennessee/Knoxville
member, Jon Livengood. Jon has been serving on the
TPO Bicycle Advisory Committee primarily working
on infrastructure projects. This past year Jon
attended both the National and the Tennessee Bike
Summits. His bike is his usual transportation
choice. Bike Walk Knoxville members are very
excited for Jon and look forward to working with
him in his new position.
KNOXVILLE AWARDED
TECHNICAL
ASSISTANCE
AWARD
Bike
Walk Knoxville has received a technical assistance
award from the Safe Routes to School National
Partnership's Voices for Healthy Kids: Active
Places campaign. The partnership works to
engage, organize, and mobilize people to advance
policies that support healthy community design,
shared use, and street-scale policies in
underserved communities and schools. The Voices
for Healthy Kids: Active Places campaign is funded
by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the
American Heart Association.
The
overall goal of Bike Walk Knoxville's campaign
will be to push for the creation and
implementation of an effective Complete Street
Ordinance for the City of Knoxville and Knox
County. While Complete Streets Policies
often focus on streets built or rebuilt through
public investment, this campaign will also focus
on passage of an ordinance requiring pedestrian
and bicycle infrastructure as part of
private-sector development and redevelopment.
Read
More here.
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6th Annual Nashville
Cranksgiving Ride
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| 6th
Annual Cranksgiving Ride |
Walk/Bike Nashville
organized local cyclists to participate in
Nashville's annual Cranksgiving ride on November
23. The free event a food drive by bike
benefited Community Food Advocates, a local
nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing the
root causes of hunger and poverty by ensuring that
everyone has access to healthy, affordable food
from a just and sustainable food system.
Riders
of all abilities rode to three local grocery
stores to purchase and collect food donations for
Community Food Advocates' emergency food pantry.
According to Keith Barnes, CFA's Community
Outreach Specialist, "we have seen an increase in
our clients' emergency food needs thanks to deep
cuts at the federal level. Not having to worry
about keeping the pantry stocked will let CFA
focus on the other work that must be done to end
hunger.
The
group met at Halcyon Bike Shop and rode to three
local stores and then stopped for a hot chocolate
rest stop provided by Eastside Cycles at Five
Points in East Nashville. The group returned to
Halcyon for a vegetarian feast courtesy of the
Wild Cow Restaurant. The group of more than forty
riders collected over $700 worth of
groceries for CFA. Cranksgiving was sponsored by
Walk/Bike Nashville, Bike Walk Tennessee,
Nashville Slow Ride, Music City Cycling, Halcyon
Bike Shop, Eastside Cycles, and the Wild Cow
Vegetarian Restaurant.
Press coverage video
Walk/Bike Nashville Receives Grant
Walk/Bike
Nashville held its Fall Social at the Stone Fox
Bar and Restaurant on November 6. WBN President
David Kleinfelter announced the group's acceptance
of a three year operational grant from Metro
Transit Authority. The funding will allow WBN to
hire a full-time Executive Director and fulfill
the group's strategic plan for 2014 and beyond. An
important part of that plan includes organizing
the 2014 Tennessee Bike Summit in Nashville along
with a continuation of local bike rodeos, valet
parking, Bike Month in May and Walk Nashville
Month. It will also allow and an expansion of Safe
Routes to School Programming in Nashville which is
currently in development. WBN introduced our
newest staffer Nora Kern and the new Metro
Nashville Bike Ped Coordinator, Jason
Radinger.
Nashville Announcements
Nashville
Mayor Karl Dean announced a new downtown
riverfront greenway as part of larger riverfront
redevelopment plan. This forthcoming one mile
urban greenway completes a 7.5 mile off street
path linking North and South Nashville via the
MetroCenter, Downtown, and Rolling Mill Hill
Greenways. The project will be complete by 2015.
Metro
Nashville Public Works announced Nashville's
newest complete street- The Division Street
Connector. Featuring Nashville's second protected
bicycle lane (following in the footsteps of the
popular 28th-31st avenue connector), the new
street will connect the vibrant Gulch district
with Downtown Nashville, and will accommodate
cyclists, pedestrians, and transit as first class
road users from Day 1.
Read More
Local
cyclists attended public meeting hosted by Metro
Public Works about the proposed Gulch SoBro
Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge on Wednesday,
November 13. The project will link Pine Street in
the Gulch to 10th Avenue South in SoBro by
constructing a practical and visually appealing
pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the railroad.
Its purpose is to improve accessibility downtown,
particularly between the two growing urban
neighborhoods.
Advocates,
including Walk/Bike Nashville Program Manager
Adams Carroll, discussed issues including a lack
of bicycle accessibility because the plan included
only a staircase and elevator on Gulch side. W/BN
recommended consideration of additional options to
improve accessibility for people using mobility
devices and bicycles. The current plan also
aligned the SoBro ramp with an existing narrow
sidewalk and W/BN recommended consideration of
alternative alignments to avoid conflicts on
sidewalk and improve accessibility for people
using mobility devices and bicycles.
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| Proposed
Gulch Pedestrian and Bicycle
Bridge |
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Memphis
MPO Announces $2.6M in Alternative Transportation
Projects
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Memphis MPO announces $2.6M in
Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) projects
that support and encourage bicycling, walking, and
transit use throughout Mid-South.
The
Federal transportation legislation known as MAP-21
- Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century -
was passed in 2012 which created the
Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP). Under
MAP-21, each large urban metropolitan
region is allocated an amount of funding
proportional to its population which can be used
in accordance with regional goals and values on
projects that promote bicycling, walking, transit
use, and other non-motorized forms of
transportation.
The MPO's
Advisory Committee reviewed project applications
and awarded monies to proposals in
both Tennessee and Mississippi areas of the
Memphis MPO region, that would create connections
to schools, parks, employment centers, public
transit and other community
destinations.
"Across the Mid-South,
communities are investing in infrastructure that
makes their streets and neighborhoods more
livable," says Pragati Srivastava, Administrator
of the Memphis MPO. "Getting around without a car
is a growing trend in urban areas across the
country enabling people to live closer to jobs,
save time and money, and reduce
pollution."
Kyle Wagenschutz,
Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator for the Memphis MPO
agreed, "For the last several years, a
renewed focus on pedestrian and bicycle travel has
invigorated local jurisdictions to make
investments that make it easier and safer for
local residents to get around without their cars."
"This grant program is a great opportunity for the
Memphis MPO to continue to help local
jurisdictions keep up with the growing demand by
citizens in our region for these types of projects
and facilities."
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Trends in Walking and Bicycling to
School from 2007 to 2012
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Walking to and from school increased
significantly between 2007 and
2012 |
Soon
after the establishment of the Federal SAfe Routes
to School (SRTS) Program in 2006, the National
Center for Safe Routes to School launched a data
collection system to support local program
planning and evaluation and to monitor student
commute patterns nationwide. Seven years after the
start of the Federal program, the National Center
analyzed more than 525,000 parent surveys from
nearly 4,700 schools to look for changes in travel
patterns and parent perceptions about walking to
school.
Two
key findings from the analyses include:
- Walking to and from school increased
significantly between 2007 and 2012, from 12.4%
to 15.7% in the morning and from 15.8% to 19.7%
in the afternoon.
- The percentage of parents who reported
that their child's school supported walking and
bicycling for the school commute rose from 24.9%
to 33%. Parents who felt that their child's
school supported walking and bicycling were more
likely to have children who used these
modes.
Read
the full report here.
The
two-page "Trends in Walking and
Bicycling to School: Takeaways for Building
Successful Programs," offers ideas
for SRTS leaders, stakeholders and funders that
could strengthen new and existing SRTS programs
based on the study findings.
Read
two page report here.
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TENNESSEE'S U.S. BIKE ROUTE 23 IS
OFFICIAL! |
AASHTO
has officially designated the first USBR in
Tennessee and the first new route in the South in
over twenty years. Newly designated Route 23
connects the Trans America Trail, USBR 76,
beginning just south of Louisville, KY, to The
Southern Tier Route, USBR 90, east of Pensacola,
FL. When complete it will connect the cities of
Bowling Green, KY, Nashville, TN, Huntsville, AL,
Birmingham, AL and Montgomery, AL. In Nashville it
will also connect to the northern terminus of the
Natchez Trace Parkway.
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U.S Bike Route 23 will run through the
heart of downtown Nashville
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Directions,
maps and cues will be on the TDOT bicycling
website and Adventure Cycling will have links on
its USBR site. Plans are being kicked around to
pedal the route next Spring as a multi-day
ride.
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Register for the 2014
Tennessee Bike Summit! |
Bike Walk Tennessee will
host the Tennessee Bike Summit May 14-16
2014 in Nashville, Tennessee. The
Bike Summit brings together advocates, engineers,
planners, and business owners to learn best
practices for advancing cycling in our
state.
The
Nashville Organizing Committee for the Bike Summit
is full steam ahead and has procured a meeting
space and a local hotel for the event. Several
"Rock Star" speakers have been invited and we
await their response. The committee is hard at
work raising funds to support the conference and
will soon release registration information to the
state cycling community. BWT Board Members Bruce
Day and Carey Rogers are leading the effort to
organize the most successful summit in state
history.
A few of our notable speakers
include: Assistant Commissioner, New York City
Department of Transportation Kim Wiley-Schwartz;
Executive Director for Adventure Cycling
Association, Jim Sayer; and Nashville Mayor Karl
Dean. The event will include several bike
and walking tours around Nashville's neighborhoods
and greenways. We are excited to be
hosting the third annual Tennessee Bike Summit and
encourage you to visit the website and register today. We look
forward to seeing you in Nashville next May!
Participants are encouraged stay in town and
join us for the Tour de Nash Ride on Saturday, May
17.
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Become
a Member of Bike Walk Tennessee
today!
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