A cyclist in Charlottesville died this Monday, April 9, after a collision with a city truck. Matthew Steven King, a mathematics graduate student at the University of Virginia, had just been volunteering on the breakfast shift at a local homeless shelter, when the incident happened at around 9am. He died 30 minutes later.

Charlottesville has recently had several bike and pedestrian incidents. As the Daily Progress reports, “The quick succession of wrecks has put bicycle safety — and by extension, pedestrian safety — very much in the public eye.” Worth a read.

With the first large-scale electric streetcar system, Richmond was once a leader in transportation technology. Local business and community leaders believe that Richmond can lead again, in transportation and economic development — by embracing modern, sustainable transportation.

To this end, the Sustainable Transportation Initiative of Richmond, aka Project STIR, is co-sponsoring a panel discussion on Monday, April 12, 7pm, at the University of Richmond’s Jepson Alumni Center, along with the University of Richmond, and Leadership Metro Richmond. See the press release for details. All are welcome, but please register ahead of time.

Bicycling must be a part of this vision, and VBF will be there to help make the case. Richmond has a small but growing number of regular bike commuters, and a thriving bike community and culture.

The Virginia Capital Trail and other corridors running through Richmond are poised to become backbones for an extensive bike-ped network — tying together local paths, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roadways. A Portland for the east coast? It’s not too far-fetched! In fact it may be necessary for attracting tomorrow’s industries and workers. Note how Portland and Milwaukee have weathered the recession better than most.

Getting around campus  has become much easier for students and staff at the University of Richmond.

In September, 35 green bikes were placed around campus for students to ride to class, the library, residence halls, or other destinations.

Students can pick up and leave the bikes at racks placed throughout the campus.

The bike program was the idea of students in the campus Sierra Club and RENEW (Richmond Environmental Network for Economic Willpower), which have merged to form Green UR. The group has been working with campus Recreation and Wellness to implement the bike program.

“The Richmond campus is very bikeable, and we just wanted to see more students out there on bikes, both for exercise and for the environment,” says Karen DeBonis, a member of Green UR.

“The bikes reduce traffic and minimize the University’s carbon footprint,” says Tom Roberts, director of recreation and wellness, “The program also supports the goals of the nationwide (college) Presidents’ Climate Commitment and encourages everyone in our campus community to live healthy, balanced lives.”

14 new, yellow bikes have been purchased to supplement the original 35 placed in service in the fall.

How is the program working? [continue reading…]

Screenshot of Virginia's new GIS application for trails and bike routes

The Virginia Department of Transportation, Department of Conservation and Recreation and Virginia Tech have collaborated to create a GIS-based tool to provide a “snapshot” of existing and planned trails and bicycle routes within Virginia.

“The objective is to represent the state as a whole statewide database and to develop an online decision making tool for VDOT and DCR,” said John McGee, one of the project initiators at Virginia Tech.

While the current database is still in development and is not intended for real-time, public use, a glimpse of what could be a great tourism and public health portal for Virginia is available to raise awareness of the project’s potential and to generate more interest and investment in Virgnia’s self-powered transportation infrastructure.