BikeWalkNC

North Carolina’s advocate for safe cycling and walking

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2014 Summit Wrap-Up

The third annual North Carolina Bike Summit was held October 9 – 12 in Greensboro. BikeWalk NC partnered with many groups in Greensboro to put on the summit. Laura Peoples, with Bicycling in Greensboro and Suzanne Williams, with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro headed the planning committee. They did a wonderful job pulling everyone together and deserve much credit. BikeWalk NC thanks them and everyone else in the planning and execution of the conference.

The conference began on Thursday with a Traffic Skills 101 class developed and taught by Steven Goodridge of BikeWalk NC. Several other League Certified Instructors  from Bicycling in Greensboro helped with the class. An informal gathering at Revolution Cycles on Thursday evening provided an opportunity for networking among participants.

Friday through Sunday were packed with informative sessions which offered something for everyone. There were breakout sessions, panel presentations, mobile workshops, and lots of fun activities. The keynote speaker for Friday was Jeff Miller from the Alliance for Biking and Walking. He spoke to us about the benchmarking progress of bicycling and walking in North Carolina and across the US.

Friday evening we met at Hamburger Square in downtown Greensboro to experience the Greensboro Better Block demonstration project. Participants were able to experience and comment on  the streetscaping project which explored ways to make the area more walkable, bikeable, and inviting to the public. A beer garden set up at Natty Greene’s featured a beer brewed specifically for the Summit: Ride Wit It. Rain only slightly dampened the enthusiasm at the event.

Saturday’s keynote was Tommy Pacello, who works with the city of Memphis in generating economic vitality in core city neighborhoods. He described how the emergence of small, low-risk and often resident lead projects can help change a neighborhood. Following Saturday’s presentations BIG’s Jeff Sovich lead participants on a bicycle pub roll with a group dinner at the first stop.

Sunday’s sessions ended at noon. Due to the weather the afternoon bicycle ride was cancelled and everyone headed home.

The seed money for all of the Bike Summits have been provided from proceeds of New Belgium’s Tour de Fat. Due to excellent planning and the generosity of partners in Greensboro, the summit was profitable. BikeWalk NC gave $2000 to the city of Greensboro to use to further biking in the city. There are plans to purchase a bike fix it station for the city. BikeWalk will use profits to help with the search for and funding of their first Executive Director.

Thanks go to everyone who helped, supported, and participated in this year’s bike summit. Next year the event will be held in Charlotte. The dates will be announced soon. Stay tuned.

BikeWalk NC Seeking an Executive Director

Position Filled!

BikeWalk North Carolina (BWNC) is most pleased to announce the selection of its first full-time Executive Director, Lisa Diaz Riegel, a graduate of Duke University and resident of the Town of Cary. Ms. Riegel competed against stiff competition in a national search, but her track record in North Carolina was the decisive factor in her unanimous selection by the BWNC Board of Directors.

For nine years, Ms. Riegel served as Executive Director of the Natural Heritage Trust Fund, a grant program housed in the Secretary’s Office of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR). In that role she interfaced with four state agencies and numerous non-profit organizations as they worked to identify and conserve the state’s most important natural and cultural assets. As DENR’s Interagency Sustainability Coordinator, she served on many collaborative efforts such as the steering committee for NC Department of Transportation’s statewide pedestrian and bicycle plan. As an appointed member of NC’s Climate Action Plan Advisory Group (2006-2008) she led the Transportation and Land-Use Work Group’s transit-oriented development mitigation option. In 2011 she chaired the work group looking at how the built environment impacts health as part of the Research Triangle Environmental Health Collaborative with participation from the private sector, academia, non-profit organizations and government. Relationships built as DENR’s representative on regional planning and economic development efforts such as Piedmont Together, will continue to be important in her new role as we work to make sure that infrastructure in North Carolina is built to meet the needs of today and in the future.

Ms. Riegel is a proven collaborator and fundraiser; she is expected to raise the visibility of BikeWalk North Carolina and its message that bicycling and walking are essential to the future prosperity and quality of life in the Tar Heel state.

In Ms. Riegel’s own words: “Young and old alike want the option to walk and bike to work, school, and many other destinations. A growing number cannot afford car ownership. I’m excited to work with BikeWalk NC to help communities provide for safe, low-cost, healthy travel options and put less stress on our already over-burdened roads.”

DiazRiegel

Media Contact: Roger Henderson, President of BikeWalk North Carolina, president@bikewalknc.org

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REMINDER ! The 4th annual NC Bike Summit takes place in Charlotte NC, Oct.15-17 at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte – Center City campus. BikeWalk NC is a major sponsor for this event. Registration and other information will be available via the BikeWalk NC website (www.bikewalknc.org) very soon!

Early Bird Registration Closes September 15

September 15 is the last day to save $25 on registration for the third annual NC Bike Summit! Don’t forget to take advantage of these early bird rates!

Register now!

Join planners, business owners, nonprofit leaders, elected officials and advocates from across North Carolina for the state’s third annual statewide Bike Summit.

The mission of the NC Bike Summit is to foster collaboration between North Carolina’s various bicycle movements, efforts, and endeavors; educate local government staff, bicycle advocates, and policy leaders; promote cycling as a valid form of transportation; and highlight North Carolina’s dedication toward becoming a premier bicycle friendly state.

Early bird registration is only $75 through September 15th. Late registration is $100. The registration fee covers three days of the summit — Friday 10/10 through Sunday 10/12.

There is an additional $50 fee for the optional 9 hour traffic skills workshop on Thursday 10/9; limit 30 participants max.

Optional beer tasting session on Friday afternoon is $10 per person; limit 40 participants max.

 

 

Cary Publishes Bike Detour for Parkway Construction

During reconstruction of the railroad crossing near Old Apex Road, Cary Parkway will be closed for several weeks starting July 14. The upgrade will include sidewalk construction across the tracks and new pedestrian signals.

“We worked hard to find a way to complete this work without having to entirely close Cary Parkway in both directions for this project, but after consulting with both NCDOT Rail Division and CSX, instituting a full closure was necessary in order to be time sensitive and cost effective,” said Bob Shultes, a Town of Cary transportation engineer.

During construction, through traffic traveling on Cary Parkway will be detoured down to Highway 64 and back – adding 2.6 miles of trip distance, as well as numerous traffic signals. Because bicyclists are especially sensitive to increases in trip distances, however, Cary published a special detour map for bicyclists showing a shorter detour through local residential streets. The residential detour saves at least 1.2 miles compared to the general traffic detour, and features roads that are generally more pleasant for cycling than Highway 64.

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Channeling thousands of cars per day onto local residential streets would be extremely disruptive to neighborhood residents, and those streets are not designed for such volumes of motor traffic. A light volume of bicycle traffic, however, is much more compatible with residential streets, and such streets are often preferred by local utility cyclists. This is the principle behind bicycle boulevards, which seek to provide through routes on local streets that have traffic diversions that are permeable to through bicyclists, but not motor vehicles.

 

 

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