After a long battle with the City of Virginia Beach over pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, safety advocates have finally convinced the city to lower the speed limit on Shore Drive from 45 to 35 MPH, along a four mile stretch between N. Great Neck Rd and Kendall St. The Hampton Roads Cyclist has the story, with links to newspaper coverage, and a chart of motor vehicle fatality rates with respect to speed. Please also see the Virginian-Pilot editorial, Slow Down on Shore Drive.

Congratulations to VBF board members Bruce Drees and Bill Hart, and all the other bike-ped advocates who worked long and hard to make this happen.

Under optimal circumstances, with no signals or traffic, the difference between 35 and 45 MPH on a four mile stretch of road corresponds to just 1.6 minutes.

The Virginia Bicycling Federation created the Daniel Wayne Hersh Memorial Fund for safety education, in memory of a cyclist who was killed on Shore Drive.

Ideas from the 2010 Charlottesville Bike Summit, posted on Charlottesville's Free Speech Wall -- photo courtesy of Vince Caristo, ACCT

A local bike summit was held in Charlottesville on Saturday, May 22, 2010. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has the story.

The following day, the group met up with VBF’s Cross-State riders.

From ACCT director Vince Caristo:

We had a nice turnout, had some fun, got a bunch of great ideas up on the wall, and hopefully we can turn this into a mandate for change. It was great to see Barb, Joe, and the rest of the 76 crew the next day too. They are really doing a great thing for the USBR 76. We had our “ceremony” at the Free Speech Wall right in front of where our ideas from the Bike Summit were written up for all to see.

Be sure to check out ACCT’s website — they’re the driving force behind a lot of good things in Charlottesville.

Bixi in Montreal. Flickr photo by solylunafamilia.

From Greater Greater Washington:

A new bike sharing system based on Montreal’s Bixi will have 1,100 bikes spanning 100 stations in DC and 14 in Arlington, replacing DC’s existing SmartBike system, leaders announced this morning.

GGW has all the details, so we’ll just send you over there — definitely one of the “greater” transportation and urban planning blogs.

Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones announced his plan for a Pedestrian-Bicycling-Trails Planning Commission at the Richmond Area Bicycling Association’s Bike to Work Day Event this morning. 

Mayor Jones wants the Commission to, “..advise (his) Administration on ways to enhance cycling in the city… including more bike lanes, bike trails, racks… ” and cycling facilities.

Mayor Jones said he hopes people will consider alternative forms of transportation.  “Transportation is a major emphasis.   We’ve got to push alternative ways of getting from point A to point B.  Cycling enhances the City — it makes it a great city when you have that option.”

Mayor Jones then lead a group of approximately fifty cyclists down Franklin Street to City Hall.