The George Washington National Forest needs to hear from bicyclists! We need you to write a letter by Jan 27th and mail or email it to:

comments-southern-georgewashington-jefferson@fs.fed.us

Please write “Comment on George Washington Plan Revision” in the subject line of your email.

Mail your paper letters to:

George Washington Plan Revision
George Washington & Jefferson National Forests
5162 Valleypointe Parkway
Roanoke, VA 24019

Why is this important?

Bicyclists currently have access to over 1,000 miles of trails and dirt roads in the George Washington National Forest. The managers of these trails are revamping the management plan. This happened recently in our neighboring state of WV. They had under 50 letters from bicyclists requesting continued and improved access in WV’s Monongahlia National Forest and over 4,000 from people who wanted to see land protection designations that are not compatible with continued bicycle access on trails. As a result of this lack of action by bicyclists, the current Omnibus Act calls for the loss of 70 miles of bicycle trails in our West Virginia National Forest.

How You Can Help

At the minimum modify the below suggestion. All we need to do is illustrate that bicyclists use the GW often and we would like better trail opportunities in the GW [continue reading…]

SB 874 (Ticer) — which would prohibit (with several exceptions)
non-emergency cell phone use without a hands-free device while driving a motor vehicle — was favorably reported by the Senate Transportation Committee on January 22 and will soon be voted upon by the full Virginia Senate, probably by January 28.

Please contact your Virginia Senator ASAP (before noon, January 28), by email or telephone, to support this much-needed restriction of
distracted driving. According to the National Safety Council, the use
of cell phones by U.S. drivers contributes to 636,000 traffic crashes,
330,000 injuries and 2,600 deaths each year.

1) Call the Constituent Viewpoint Hotline: 800-889-0229 or 804-698-1990.

2) Find and contact your VA Senator directly with the “Who’s My
Legislator” web tool:

http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform

For more information on SB 874, visit the following links:

Current version of SB 874 as amended in Senate Transportation:

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?091+ful+SB874S1

SB 874 legislative history page:

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?091+sum+SB874

Fox5DC News Story:

http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=8304443&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Update: Bud Vye reports on the progress of SB 874 as of Jan. 29.

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I’ve just updated our blogroll with all that I could think of offhand. A lot of bike clubs and maybe a few advocacy organizations are missing. If you think you should be listed, send your info to webmaster@vabike.org.

This is not intended as a comprehensive directory. Rather, it’s to help you find to the main groups and resources in your area — bike clubs, advocacy groups, etc. Co-op information is always welcome. I hope to hear from student and campus groups too. Bike shops and other businesses can get listed by becoming members.

Please consider putting us in your blogroll, and supporting bike advocacy in Virginia by becoming a VBF member.

Many thanks to VBF’s own Chris Scott for his hardcore evangelizing this issue! The Jefferson National Forest is an important natural asset for Virginia, and ultimately more valuable left that way.

This is an AP story from the Roanoke Times, but their formatting is awful so we cleaned it up and reprinted the full text. [continue reading…]