November/December 2007
SRTS - HENDERSONVILLE
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Your Participation is Important
Please write a short note to your Alderman and tell them you support the efforts of the Hendersonville Greenways Committee. Find list at www.hvilletn.org/aldermen.aspx.
The mission of the Hendersonville Greenway Committee is to promote, advocate, and assist City Leaders in the development for safe corridors for walking and biking for citizens of all ages.
A year ago this month Bruce Day identified the Safe Route to School program. However, we missed the training meetings and we were advised that Hendersonville's chances of landing a grant was a long shot. But, a lot was unknown about this new Federally funded program.
Since that time, Bruce and Tom Evans have talked with Shannon Hornsby and Leslie Meehan about their success to obtain a grant for Williamson County. Shannon and Leslie offered to assist representatives of Hendersonville in applying for the Grant. In the following note Leslie discusses the general plan.
For more information and to sign up to receive this newsletter, contact Doug Depew at BikeNwalk@comcast.net
Visit our Web Site at http://bikinhville.homestead.com. You can find past newsletters there.
BikeNwalk Newsletter is edited and distributed by Tom Evans (tom@evanscenter.com)
SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOLS
INVITATION for HENDERSONVILLE
From: Shannon Hornsby, Executive Director - Walk/Bike Nashville
To: Hendersonville Greenways Committee
FYI...WBN [Walk/Bike Nashville] received a Safe Routes to School Grant in conjunction with the Town of Thompson's Station in Williamson County. I'm so thrilled to have won our first grant (that I wrote!) and to take our efforts out of Davidson County.
This leads me to Sumner County...perhaps we should team up to work with some schools on the next round of TDOT Safe Routes funding. If we identify them now then we need only put the effort into the grant when called. What do you say?
Thompson’s Station Grant
As part of Governor Phil Bredesen’s commitment to promoting health and wellness among Tennessee children, the state of Tennessee awarded $240,100 to Heritage Elementary and Heritage Middle Schools in Thompson’s Station in Williamson County in its Safe Routes to School Program. As a statewide initiative, this program strives to make bicycling and walking to school a safer, more appealing, and healthier alternative for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It provides an opportunity for schools, communities and government officials to work together to promote a healthier lifestyle for children and families.
“Our GetFitTN program encourages children to embark on a healthier lifestyle,” Bredesen said. “The Safe Routes to School program further supports that goal by providing increased safety education, enforcement and infrastructure improvements that will help keep children safer when walking or biking to school.”
Thompson’s Station will utilize these funds to construct sidewalks in the vicinity of both schools, to provide an educational program focused on bicycle and pedestrian safety, and to promote walking and biking as a safe and healthy activity.
The grant is federally funded program administered by the Tennessee Department of Transportation. To see other grant recipients, click here.
Leslie Meehan of Nashville's Metropolitan Planning Office explains Safe Routes to School Program
Today’s children are the first generation of American youth expected to live shorter and sicker lives than their parents. The obesity rates are climbing well above a 33% average for the nation, and a recent study found that Tennessee is one of the most obese states, with an estimated 68% of children and adults either overweight or obese.
In addition to the obesity epidemic, America’s roadways are crowded with cars, and the Nashville region is soon expected to be one of the worst commuting cities in America, with the average driver spending more than an entire work week sitting in traffic per year. In addition, the air quality in the Nashville region is teetering on falling out of compliance with the EPA’s standards for ozone.
Could there be a solution that could possibly help with such massive problems? The U.S. Congress and Department of Transportation say yes. The answer is called Safe Routes to School.
Safe Routes to School is a program that is sweeping the nation by storm, literally changing the habits of an entire generation. The program is founded on the idea that since approximately 30% of morning car trips are parents taking children to school, and since fewer than 10% of children now walk or bike to school as opposed to over 50% thirty years ago, that getting our children back on the sidewalks and bicycles can help obesity and traffic congestion.
Safe Routes to School began in Denmark in the 1970’s and has since spread throughout Europe and the United States. The grassroots programs in U.S. cities became so popular that Congress recently provided $612 million dollars to create a nation-wide Safe Routes to School effort. The program is part of the 2005 SAFETEA-LU (Safe Accountable Flexible Efficient Transportation Equity Act, a Legacy for Users) Transportation Bill. Each state DOT was given at least $1 million in program funding, and was required to hire a state-wide coordinator.
Tennessee hired Diana Benedict in 2006 as the TDOT Safe Routes to School Coordinator. Diana formed a SRTS Advisory Committee which helped to develop a competitive grant process for SRTS following the federal guidelines. Any government agency such as a school district, planning department or health department may apply for Safe Routes to School funds, although the mayor must sign-off on the application. The grants are awarded up to $250,000 and projects must include 70%-90% of funding for infrastructure such as sidewalks, crosswalks and bike lanes, and 10%-30% of funding for education such as bicycle and pedestrian safety. The funds are to be spent on projects no further than two miles from a school.
In October 2007, Tennessee awarded its first round of SRTS grants, totaling approximately $4.6 million. Over 78 applications were considered and only 26 were actually funded. These projects will soon be getting off of the ground all across the state. The response to the program is so overwhelming that local governments across the state are starting to prepare applications for the spring 2008 deadline.
For more information on Safe Routes to School in Tennessee, visit http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/bikeped/saferoutes.htm. To see what’s going on across the nation, visit www.saferoutesinfo.org.
Plans
The Nashville Area MPO is going to begin a 5-county bicycle and pedestrian plan after the first of the year. In prepara-tion for that, we will meet with the planning directors and mayors to discuss the importance and need for bicycle and pedestrian planning facilities. Most likely, these meetings will not take place until after the first of the year.
Since the SRTS trainings and applications are coming up, MPO will make presentations to its members in the December MPOmeetings about SRTS funding and encourage its members to apply for funding. Presenting this information to all of the mayors at once (and congratulating those mayors that received funding) may be one way to demonstrate the importance of this program.
The MPO is on board to help get bicycle and pedestrian planning in the forefront of transportation efforts in the Middle Tennessee area. The main component of our efforts will begin with the preparation of this plan.
. . . Leslie A. Meehan, MPA; Nashville MPO
Application Funding Tool for School Selection
Tom, Would you like a walkability survey for using to evaluate the physical needs of these schools? I would recommend you choose schools that have an active PTO or parent presence or at least an active adjacent neighborhood association...this will help in gathering support and folks to see the grant through in the event it is awarded.
. . . Shannon Hornsby
Mayor Scott Foster and the Board of Aldermen have an active program of building sidewalks around our schools. We see the Safe Routes to School program as an opportunity to accelerate their efforts. As with all such programs timing is important and we are fortunate to have the assistance of Shannon and Leslie, who have already been successful in obtaining grants. We appreciate that with the explosive commercial growth in our town that City resources are stretched thin. The Hendersonville Greenways Committee support this city effort and offer our assistance to and cooperation with the mayor and aldermen.
LOCAL SPONSORED RIDES
The FALL TOUR to Red Boiling Springs was FANTASTIC!
The non-riding spouses can't wait to do it again, while those on bikes were treated to great weather and great itinerary (thanks Bruce) with brilliant FALL COLORS.
LOCAL GROUP RIDES
Our area is blessed with many Road-Bike Riding Clubs. Since our goal is to promote biking as a sport and leisure activity, many of the clubs send us their schedules, which we share on our Web Site.
If your club would like to share its schedule, please forward it to Doug Depew at
BikeNwalk@comcast.net
RIDE SAFELY - It's the Law
TROUBLE in WILLIAMSON COUNTY CONTINUES
The following letter was submitted to our attention by Frank Bowyer IV. It is a followup on our Newsletter last month. Although it is addressed to the Harpeth Bike Club and Williamson County, this problem is important for ALL cyclists.
Walk/Bike Nashville Update
During the month of October we held our 9th Annual Meeting and we consider it quite a success, as half the faces in the room were new faces and attendance doubled last year's meeting attendance. Mayor Dean paid a visit and offered a brief presentation, leaving the room with a solid vibe of support from his office. Thanks to incentive donations from Cumberland Transit and Bike Pedlar, we were able to secure new members on the spot at the meeting. The more members we have the greater our voice for advocacy. Are you a member? Visit http://www.walkbikenashville.org/ and click on join us...it is that time of year to get in your final tax write-off!
Our newest advocacy effort will be encouraging attendance at the upcoming public meetings called by Mayor Dean in his request that Public Works update the 2003 Strategic Plan for Sidewalks and Bikeways. We are lucky to have a Mayor who recognizes the benefit of multi-modal transportation and showed his support of the community becoming more walkable and bikeable just weeks into his term. How will these updates impact Sumner County residents? If you choose to commute into Nashville via bicycle or bus, this is an opportunity to be sure those connections are considered in these updates. Plus, whether you enjoy cycling for recreation or transportation, we're sure you utilize Davidson County's networks at some point and your input is quite valuable. Keep an eye on our website for the meeting schedule.
And finally, we're in the throws of planning the 5th Annual Tour de Nash. We need your help. All the committees have a chair, except for Volunteer. We are looking for two solid individuals to co-chair the Tour de Nash Volunteer Committee, as this will help to decrease the time commitment and responsibility. Are you interested in finding out more about what this entails? Contact Laurel Davis, event planner, at tdn@walkbikenashville.org. Or perhaps you're more the day-of-event volunteer and less of an organizer...then you should know we need 100 volunteers to make it a success. The good news is that we have plenty of opportunities that will allow you to volunteer and still participate in your choice of the tours.
. . . Shannon Hornsby, Executive Director - Walk/Bike Nashville, 615-585-2014, www.walkbikenashville.org
Dear HBC Members,
Yesterday morning, Durk Peterson and I were invited to attend the monthly Williamson County Highway Commission meeting by County Commissioner Mary Brockman. Durk and I agreed that it was very fortunate that we accepted the invitation.
In a prior e-mail, Commissioner Brockman asked that I inform the Highway Commission of the efforts being made by the local cycling community to address some of the complaints made by area motorists. I made my remarks, describing the e-mail communications that have recently circulated on this e-mail list, and again offered my help in any future dialogs between cyclists and county government. Durk followed up my remarks by giving a very impassioned opinion of current cycling condi-tions by describing the experiences many cyclist face with inconsiderate motorists on the road. Commissioner Brockman also commented on her own personal issues with inconsiderate motorists while driving her horse trailer, and she concluded the citizens' input by asking the Highway Commission to consider making some improvements to county roads in order to accommodate cyclists.
It would have been an uneventful meeting if the cycling discussion had ended there. However, in a later portion of the meeting, the County Commission Chairman, Houston Naron, was asked to present the findings of the County Commission's October meeting concerning bicyclists. Commissioner Naron reported that several complaints have been received from motorists, as well as a petition signed by 54 residents requesting that cyclists not be permitted to operate on several roads in the western part of the county. Durk and I were allowed to review the petition, which listed a half-dozen rural roads popular amongst cyclists but rarely trafficked by motorists. No resolution was made concerning the petition. Commissioner Naron then reported that bicyclists are allowed to operate on the roadways and that they must follow all traffic laws. To that extent, he then asked Chief Sheriff's Deputy Dusty Rhodes to make a statement. Deputy Rhodes' remarks were short and clear. If either commission continues to receive complaints, the Sheriff's Department is prepared to actively enforce the law and duly cite bicyclists. Deputy Rhodes did clarify that cyclists would not be specifically targeted, but that greater notice will be given to cyclists. Commissioner Naron was quick to note that he is also a recreational cyclist and he understands the perils of our sport. He even committed to making public service announcements during his weekly radio talk show to inform motorists about the recent three-foot-passing law and general bicyclist awareness.
After the Highway Commission meeting, Durk and I spent a half-hour talking with Deputy Rhodes, Commissioner Naron, and Highway Department Superintendent Eddie Hood. The discussion was cordial. The gentlemen recognized that cyclists are at a distinct disadvantage when confronted by irate motorists and that we need to duly report any and all incidents we experience. A license plate and description of the driver is very helpful. Again, it was emphasized that cyclists need to do a better job obeying traffic laws and that we need to police ourselves before other agencies get involved. Superintendent Hood also mentioned that it is illegal for private individuals to paint markings on any part of the roadway, and Deputy Rhodes agreed. Other anecdotes were given by each party and the conversation ended with everyone shaking hands in mutual understanding.
Hopefully, the complaints will die down just as our cycling season slows down for the winter. The truth is, there are many valid complaints against cyclists as well as motorists. Right now, the motorists are doing a better job of documenting their concerns. Durk and I agreed that we don't want to get into a "tit-for-tat" battle, but it may be necessary for cyclists to become more vigilant in policing ourselves and reporting incidents against motorists. Rest assured, this issue will not go away. We need to take advantage of the increased exposure to this issue and start working toward some compromises. Now is the time to petition our County Commissioners to support our sport with comparable facilities. Perhaps we need to designate more bike lanes and bike routes, or post some share-the-road signs. We definitely need to be proactive since it doesn't look like the wind is blowing against our backs. Sure, Maury County has some nice roads, but Williamson County is a lot more convenient.
Your friend and cycling advocate, James D. Amundsen
Bike Routes in and around Hendersonville
The number one reason my non-cycling friends give for not riding their bikes is the lack of a safe place to ride. With a few exceptions Hendersonville is a cycle friendly city. Over the next few newsletters we plan to give readers some suggested cycleable routes right in our area. There will be traffic but all safety studies indicate that cycling is still very safe and cars seldom strike cyclists. Click here to download excellent safe cycling guidelines.
Getting to most of the rides will involve cycling along Main Street, variously known as US 31E, Gallatin Road, Johnny Cash Parkway and that *!%$# busy road. Don't be put off by the heavy traffic because except for the section from New Shackle to Sanders Ferry, Main has very good shoulders. I have cycled along Main for fifteen years and have never had a near miss while I was on the shoulder proceeding in the proper direction. Crossing Main can require some patience, but can also be done safely. So don't let Main Street keep you pinned in your neighborhood. This month I've added the Indian Lake Loop. It is ten miles, is the best and safest route in Hendersonville for a beginning cyclist to follow, is marked with Share the Road signs, and has NO hills and minimal traffic.
3) Douglas Bend (20 miles)
... Bruce Day
Getting Involved
Hendersonville has been blessed with an offer from the Nashville MPO, the organization responsible for all of the greenways and bike lanes you have been seeing in Nashville or hearing about on the news, to help Hendersonville submit the necessary paperwork to achieve grants for Safe Routes to Schools .
The Safe Routes to School is a new federally-funded program focused on increasing levels of walking and bicycling to school among elementary and middle school students. In addition to improving children's safety and health, the program is designed to reduce traffic and air pollution in the vicinity of schools.
Grants are 100% federal funds and do not require a local match."
You need to become involved and here's how... There are many great ideas on the national SRTS page One great idea is to participate in the "Walk to School Day" by getting your child's school, or your neighborhood school, to participate. Many schools in Tennessee have been participating for several years. They are also the schools that have benefitted from the SRTS funding. Your involvement can help make SRTS funding possible for Sumner County schools in the Hendersonville area. The best thing about becoming involved is that you don't have to pester your local politicians...that's already been done because the funding is already there (and remember, local matching is not required). All you need to do is -- promote the idea to the community by spreading the word -- to other parents, at PTO meetings, and to school administration and teachers.
. . . Frank P. Bowyer, IV
Peace Transit Project
Initiated in Louisville, KY the Peace Transit Project is a slow, cross-country bicycle relay that focuses on the inter-relatedness of fuel dependencies, war and global climate instability. It seeks the attention of elected leadership, organizations, families and individuals to reduce transportation energy consumption by reducing motor vehicle use (except public transit), which conserves fuel and material, minimizes climate change, and reduces international competition for oil.
The Relay welcomes bicyclists for short, or longer, distances all along the route. The Louisville KY team passed the baton to the Bardstown KY team, who in turn passed it to Canmer KY team. and on around the country the tour goes. A different team is recruited for each leg of the relay. The the baton reached Portland, TN, two FOGBEE teams were recruited to carry it to the Nashville Team.
On Thursday (11/15/07) FOGBEE Team #1 consisting of Bruce Day and Dave Miley rode to Portland, picked up Baton at Tommy's Market in Portland, and carried it back to Big Looy's Pizza in Hendersonville (the Bikers' Bar).
Bruce Day accepts Baton in Portland from Tommy
while Dave Miley snaps the picture
On Saturday FOGBEE Team #2 retrieved the Baton from Looy's and delivered it to Shannon Hornsby at Shelby Bottoms park in Nashville. Team #2 consisted of (from left to right in the picture) Doug Depew, Teresa Elwin, Andrew Getter, Gary Williams, Ed Thomas, Phil Vickery, and Tom Evans. Teresa, a past president of the Harpeth Bike Club, was an honorary FOGBEE for the ride.
At Shelby Bottoms Hendersonville attorney Gary Williams handed the baton to Nashville attorney Tom Grooms, Shannon Hornsby, and Don Hensley, all members of Walk/ Bike Nashville. The transfer with picture of Shannon was reported in the Sunday's Tennessean.
Grooms and possibly others will ride fifty miles on the Natchez Trace Parkway to an area near the Duck River.
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Have a Happy and Safe Holiday Season
