Please join local and regional planners, land managers, parks & recreation department staff, bicycling advocates and local officials from throughout the greater Lynchburg area in a seminar addressing bicycling on natural surface trail systems. The seminar will be led by the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) staff and advocates from the Greater Lynchburg Off-Road Cyclists (GLOC). [continue reading…]

The Commonwealth Transportation Board is making Its fall rounds. Attend and weigh in if they are in your area.

The Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) consists of 15 members from around the state who are appointed by the Governor. They make the decisions on Transportation Policy, as well as how the Transportation funds are distributed, and which projects are funded. Twice a year they host a round of meetings to receive input from the various regions. In addition to the member of the Board from somewhere near where the meeting is being held, one or two other members will be present, along with the VDOT District Administrator for that area, and some other Transportation officials. They will not do any voting at this meeting. They are strictly getting input.

Traditionally, these meetings have been the venue for the local officials from each region to request consideration for specific problems and projects in their area. The Six Year Improvement Plan (SYIP) is the long range plan containing all the projects previously approved for inclusion. Some copies of the SYIP for that District, which has a white cover and is about half as thick as a Telephone Book, may be available for attendees to take. If not, at least one will be there to review.

Some local officials may be requesting that a specific project get moved up in the SYIP. Others may just be trying to keep their favorite project where it is, or to get a new project into the plan.

If you have a favorite project, either already in the SYIP, or that you would like to get on the radar screen, sign up to speak. All speakers are allotted three minutes (loosely timed) and most concentrate on one specific project or point rather than trying to do a laundry list or philosophize.

If you can attend one of the meetings, do so, sign up, and give them your input. You’ll be interested to see what goes on there, and can help the cause by contributing your input.

You may also submit your comments in writing. Scroll down for details.

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Taken from RABA‘s newsletter, The Pedaler:

James H. Wallace/Times-Dispatch photo. Click to read more.

Plans for the Legislative session will again focus on the Bill containing “Don’t Follow Too Closely” & “Three Foot Passing”, and several of us in the Virginia Bicycling Federation (VBF) have been making the rounds in an effort to line up Co-Patrons for the bill, which again will be carried by Sen. Bryce Reeves, a Republican from the Fredericksburg area. Several other delegates have already agreed to sign on, and we are cautiously optimistic that we may be able to get the bill through this year. Secondarily, we are trying to get the “Dooring” bill on the legislators radar screen, which will again be carried by Sen. Chap Petersen of Northern VA, but a number of the rural legislators see this as an “urban prob- lem” they don’t seem to be that interested in solving.

You may recall that I earlier reported that Del. John Cox of Hanover County had decided not to run again. His, and Frank Hargrove’s, long time aide, Buddy Fowler is running for the seat against Toni Radler. Since Del. Cox has been a major obstacle for any legislation that would benefit cyclists in his role as Chairman of House Transportation Sub-Committee 2, we are anxiously awaiting the results of the elections to see the makeup of the House Transportation Committee and its Sub-Committees. Del. Tom Rust of Herndon has already been appointed Chair of House Transportation, replacing Joe May of Loudoun, who was defeated in a primary for having supported the Governor’s new tax package. Assuming that he gets re-elected, we expect that he will be a reasonable Chair, since he’s been on that committee and we’ve seen him in action for some time.

Another area we’ve been devoting some attention to is the State Funding for Bicycling & Pedestrian projects, which has completely changed since the passage of Governor McDonnell’s tax package in the last session. No longer funded by the Gas Tax, but now instead by the increased Sales Tax, we no longer have to hear the mantra we have heard for so long — “You cyclists don’t pay any gas taxes, why should your activity benefit from them?” But the practice of allocating the Sales Tax funds for Bike & Ped is still being developed, so we are trying to be there at the beginning, so as not to get left with just the crumbs.

Another area we have been working on, with Champe Burnley leading the effort, is getting AmTrak to permit the bringing of bikes onto trains, which they have been very bureaucratic about resisting back here on the East Coast, even though its been done for some time on the West Coast and other routes. Adventure Cycling and some of the other Advocacy groups are also working on this, and a recent test on the Chicago to DC route went smoothly, so we seem to be making some progress. [continue reading…]

Congratulations to Alexandria for becoming a Silver-level Bicycle Friendly Community, up from Bronze last year, and matching next-door neighbor Arlington.

Five other Virginia communities have been designated Bicycle Friendly by the League of American Bicyclists: Charlottesville with Silver; and Richmond, Roanoke and Williamsburg with Bronze. Now Reston is Bronze this year too.

Many thanks to the Alexandria Bike-Ped Advisory Committee and the city’s Local Motion program for their ongoing efforts: lately, on a new bridge over Holmes Run to Fairfax, and replacing street parking with bike lanes on King St.

Here’s the complete list of 2013 Bicycle Friendly Communities. See how Virginia compares with the rest of the US: [continue reading…]