While the City of Roanoke has been proactive in bike-friendliness (a Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community), Roanoke County has lagged behind. Though incorporating bike-ped has been VDOT policy since 2004, the county was not necessarily onboard. (Is this a familiar story?)
Well, no more. Two county supervisors who are also on the MPO board brought the bike-ped case to the county board, which unanimously agreed to, and passed, a bike-ped integration policy. Kudos to the Roanoke County supervisors for their vision and leadership.
The Roanoke Times has the story, and says:
“People walk and ride bicycles these days for commuting, for fitness and for sheer pleasure. People with physical disabilities demand full mobility. Changing needs are evident along roads where people afoot and in wheelchairs cling to the pavement’s edge, and bicyclists have no choice but to ride in the traffic lane, risking life and limb.”
Remember, VDOT and municipalities build what local electeds and MPOs direct them to. Directing them is up to us!
Does your county, city, or town have a bike-ped policy? How well is it followed?
,,,
The cat’s out of the bag! Bike Virginia 2014 will be held June 20-25, Chesterfield to Williamsburg, including historic Richmond.
Read about it at the Bike Virginia site.
Registration is now open!
Bike Virginia is the state’s largest bicycling event, a 5-day fully supported tour for 1500-2000 riders. Held in a different part of the state each year, it highlights that area’s history, culture, and scenery.
Perhaps in the shadow of the Fairfax Bike Summit, Harrisonburg and Rockingham County had a successful bike summit last month, jointly sponsored by the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition and the Harrisonburg-Rockginham MPO. Harrisonburg’s Thanh Dang did a great write-up for SVBC, so we’ll let you read about it there.
[continue reading…]
The Virginia Bicycling Federation would like to thank these listed organizations for helping to get Amtrak to consider roll-on bike service on trains in the Mid-Atlantic.
Our September 3 letter to Amtrak President Joseph Boardman led to a meeting November 8, at Amtrak headquarters in Washington DC. Representatives from Amtrak met with the Virginia Bicycling Federation, Richmond 2015, and Adventure Cycling Association to talk about forming a task force to fully investigate roll-on solutions. The tone was positive all around. Everyone agreed that the task force should include national and state bicycling groups, passenger rail advocates, and state DOTs as well as Amtrak officials, working in teams to develop pilot projects and field progress reports to our various constituents. Willingness to move forward with this task force suggests that all parties see roll-on service as a win-win. [continue reading…]
A dream team – Adventure Cycling Association’s Ginny Sullivan, with Tom Bowden (L) & Champe Burnley (R) – on their way to meet with Amtrak at Union Station, Washington DC
Following our test on the Capitol Limited, the next step toward getting roll-on service was for Amtrak to lead a task force, to work out all the details. We’re happy to announce that in a meeting today, they agreed to go forward with this.
Yay!
Please share.
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-ffAr_0M34f91E.gif\")