2022 was an exciting and very busy year for BikeWalk NC. Through a generous grant from the Governor’s Highway Safety Program, we began to take our Friendly Driver Program across the state with the hire of our first Programs Manager, Trish Farnham. The program has been extremely well-received, and we will continue to offer it this year with our new Programs Manager, Laila Horton. We are also excited to add another staff member, our new Community Outreach Coordinator, Oliver Sendall.
We published our online Bicycle Safety Quiz and will be looking to have that translated into Spanish this year.
We offered LCI training as well as the Traffic Bicycling Workshop, held an incredible statewide NC BikeWalk Transportation Summit in Greenville, and helped the Town of Winterville secure a grant from AARP for a permanent Traffic Garden.
We advised community advocates around the state on things to look for and request from NCDOT for various road-widening projects.
We followed bills and came closer than in the past on two laws that we feel need to be changed. One is the law that restricts the use of state funds for standalone bicycle and pedestrian projects. Another is the contributory negligence law that can have serious consequences for vulnerable road users. Unfortunately, neither of these changes made it all the way through the session, but we will keep working for their passage. (BIkeWalk NC board member Ann Groninger recently wrote about a case involving a bicyclist that BikeLaw won for its client, but it highlights why the contributory negligence law is so bad, especially for vulnurable road users.)
We have lots more work to do in 2023. Won’t you join us in our quest to eliminate deaths on our roads?
