May 2007
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
COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES
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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 Hendersonville Greenway Committee, which was re-established as a sub-committee of the Hendersonville Tomor-row Committee, has been in existence for a year. However, many of the members of the Steering Committee and Advisory Committee have been active since 1999 when the initial Master Plan for Hendersonville was compiled. Our mission is to promote, advocate, and assist City Leaders in the development for safe corridors for walking and biking for citizens of all ages. In pursuit of that objective Greenways are the best alternative, assuring the tranquility and recreational benefits of environmentally responsible green space for the greatest number of people.
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, often written, and distributed by Tom Evans (tom@evanscenter.com)
FOUR More Reasons to Bike: from 28 REASONS TO BIKE
RIDE SAFELY - It's the Law
The last segment of David Hardin (The Biker's Choice) ride safely instruction addresses Group Riding. He has a long list of recommendations he gave out during this year's Spring Forward ride. Instead of re-listing them we have attached a copy of that hand-out as a PDF, which you can download to your computer and print for your own use. Please click here for that copy.
FAT OLD GUYS on BIKES
After gathering at the Bike Shop to help David Hardin and the Hendersonville Greenways Committee award Dyan Keating Commuter of the Year, the FOGBees headed to Gallatin and Bledsoe Creek State Park on their Saturday ride. Reflecting on our 67 miles Phil Vickery described it as the best ride yet for the season. He said, "The scenery was magnificent, the weather perfect, and the company outstanding." Of course he made this comment while we sat at Big Looy's enjoying lunch with a few pitchers of beer to anesthetize the sore leg muscles. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to join this ride. Our ER Doctors were at work, some of the new members were absent, and even worse Justin Mitchell (Team Yazoo/Remax) hadn't helped us connect Big Looy's to the Yazoo Brewery.
The Fat Old Guys on Bikes or Beer Belly Bikers continues to have a "pick-up" ride Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every weekend. You don't have to BABs (Beer After Biking) to join us. Some members find Gatorade a great substitute. We don't race; we tour. Well that's what they tell me as I watch the pack pass over the horizon. Ages range from 40 to 70 (with me being at the upper end of that scale). However, now that David Irvine has joined the FOGBees, maybe this 70 year old will stay back and keep me company. So if you are just getting into Bike Touring, the FOGBees are a great place to start. Our goal is to help people get into and enjoy group riding. Contact Doug Depew, our ride leader, at BikeNwalk@comcast.net.
Our most recent grand tour was the Three Day Spring Tour organized by Bruce Day, Dave Buckman, Guy Coggins, and David Irvine. I joined them this year as they did a 200-mile loop (from my house back to my house) to Montgomery Bell State Park. I was my first real bike tour. Even considering that we had to don raincoats, ride into a 25-mph head wind, and climb in and out of Ashland City, it was a lot a fun. Bruce and the crew have been doing these tours for several years. He hasn't mentioned anything about a Fall Tour.
However, his next big tour starts on May 20'th. He and Bob Schofield are doing a thousand miles through South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. Read more at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/GRITS07
NEW QUALITY OF LIFE AMENITIES FOR HENDERSONVILLE
Have you noticed the new bridge entering Drakes Creek Park from the south? Besides being very aesthetically appealing with its gray-stone veneer and black wrought-iron street lights, it is bike friendly. The ten-foot wide walkway along one side allows for safe passage of pedestrians and bikers. Upon entering the park the walkway ramps gradually from the bike lane along the edge of the park to the bridge. The old bridge had narrow four-foot wide walkways on both sides making it unsuitable for bike traffic. This new design demonstrates how engineers can accommodate bicycles without adding to the cost of the project.
And, this bridge is just the beginning. City Planners have even more notable projects for pedestrians and bikers in our community. In a meeting with Mayor Scott Foster in early May, the mayor outlined to David Hardin a new Greenway Complex with multiuse trails that City Staff and the Halo Properties developers have for Indian Lake Village and provided us with the Overall Park/Trail layout. Without a doubt when completed it will be a show piece and attraction for our town.
With a trail head at the new Mir Parkway Bridge crossing Drakes Creek, visitors can park and walk, bike, or jog. To the north they pass under the bridge and travel to Wessington School and Veteran Park and to the south they go along side the creek to Drakes Creek Park. Jerry Horton, Public Works Director, told David that the City is looking at putting the bridge on southeast side of the train track, connecting to the soccer fields
From here the trail runs to the east and parallel to the CSX railway. It provides safe crossing of Indian Lake Boulevard by going under it at the overpass. It continues to a small park to be provided by the developer and eventually ends at Stop 30.
At Stop 30 we have several options. Our most favored choice is to have the City close this section of road to automobile traffic and dedicate it to a Greenway with multi-use trails. To the south a small bridge crosses the railway and a single lane road, bordering Blue Ridge County Club, eventually connects to the YMCA. To the north a larger bridge crosses Veterans By-pass. From here we could connect to Saundersville Rd either along a future eastward extension of Stop 30 or continue further north up Jones and Hillview Roads and then east to the Hendersonville Golf Course. Using the road on the south side travelers can reach Saundersville Road.
Our goal from Saundersville Road is to eventually connect up with the proposed Lower Station Camp Creek Greenway with a combination Wynbrooke Trace Road, a trail alongside the club house, additional sub-division road, and a trail to a new bridge crossing the creek in the vicinity of an old abandoned bridge.
Overall Park/Trail Layout, prepared 4/30/07 for Halo Properties. To download a larger PDF version that you can read click here.
COMMUTER OF THE YEAR
Imagine an adult living in Hendersonville and not owning a car. How would you get to work, to church, to the grocery store? If you are Dyan Keating, none of this would be a concern. You would just ride your bike. For fourteen years she has done just that. She doesn’t own a car.
Seven days a week Dyan rides her bike three miles from home to her job at Applebees in Hendersonville and regardless of the weather being rain, snow, or sunny, she uses her bicycle as her only form of transportation. When asked how she handles the really miserable weather on a bicycle, she says,
CONNECTING THE DOTS
All I can do is shake my head.
I just can't believe it's true.
I've got those steadily depressing, low down, mind messing,
working on the Greenways Blues.
by Bruce (Jim Croce) Day
We talk much about the obesity epidemic in America, which will kill us as surely as smoking. We talk much about our dependence on foreign oil, which will destroy our economy if not abated. We talk much about Climate Change, which some people believe will make major portions of our planet uninhabitable. But then do little to nothing to implement readily available solutions.
We build beautiful parks and devote major portions to ugly black asphalt lots, but still too many cars have to squat on and damage the grass. We build schools, but then provide no safe access for children. Parents clog roads dropping off and picking up youngsters that often live less than a mile away. We buy kids bicycles, but then give them no safe places to ride on them. Maybe that is why so few use them.
The goal of every Greenway Committee in America is do something about all this talk by providing opportunities to deempha-size the car, which is very much at the center of all this controversy. They envision connecting neighborhoods and other communities with safe routes suitable for walking or biking. In this endeavor the Hendersonville Greenways Committee acts to assist city planners in establishing a matrix of green space with connecting trails.
The critical factor to maximizing our return on this investment is connectivity. We appreciate the reluctance of developers and public works to spend money on lanes or trails that go nowhere. So while funding for greenway construction is not available we maximize the benefits of connectivity by utilizing existing routes, such as low speed, low traffic roads through residential areas. And before we recommend any route, we walk or bikeride all these alternatives several times at several times of the day, verifying that they are relatively safe for middle school children to share. Nevertheless, in many cases we still need additional short paths suitable for only foot or bike passage.
Evident in our reconnaissance was many of our neighborhoods were like patchwork quilts with each residential area inten-tionally isolated from the other. A housing development can be within a hundred yards of another and have no access to it, making it necessary to travel out to a major road in order to re-enter the other. And guess what the chosen form of convey-ance is? Such is our hypocrisy. Land planners need to include transportation alternatives that do not emphasize the car.
Even more unfortunate was almost everyone of these neighborhoods had right-of-ways for roads never built, which would have connected them to other neighborhoods. Why they never happened, we could only guess. Maybe the developers felt it was important to limit through-traffic, maybe they couldn't decide who paid for the construction, or maybe they were not needed to sell houses. For whatever reason, they missed an opportunity to build community.
At almost negligible financial cost to the project, the developers could have included a ten- to twelve-foot asphalt path connector. By waiting they have created the additional problem that property owners bordering on these right-of-ways have encroached on them, making reclamation for a path an issue with people who may now consider this right-of-way as belonging to them. So timing is important. If developers don't act, Home Owner Associations must. (An example where a path was built between neighborhoods is in the Blue Grass Development)
Especially critical is the Wynbrooke development, which has an opportunity to connect to the proposed Lower Station Camp Creek greenway. Even if the greenway itself maybe many years into the future, access to Lower Station Camp Creek Road would provide a safe route for kids to get to school without mom and dad having to transport them by car.
Jim Harrison, past director of Hendersonville Public Works described our problem well in his 2003 Transportation En-hancement Project.
“Key areas in our town are geographically close, but difficult to access by anything other than autos.”
He proposed building Greenways. It's about time we reclaim Hendersonville from the cars and give it back to the people.
A few members of the FOGBees join David in presenting Dyan with a new bike
May is National Bike Month and in commemoration of Bike to Work Week starting May 13’th, the Hendersonville Greenway Committee have selected Dyan as the Commuter of the Year. They awarded a brand new Globe City 6.1 bicycle, courtesy of the Biker’s Choice Bike shop and donations from the Committee and friends. Specialized, the manufacturer of highend bikes and components claims “This bike is an alternative energy source designed exclusively for cutting a swath through the urban jungle.”
Her new wheels have an aluminum trekking-style frame made specifically for city transportation. It has fenders, generator lights, and reflective wheels. With its low rolling resistance, flat-resistant wheels Dyan can average almost 14 mph and always arrive early.
Dyan is delighted with her new wheels. When asked for final comments she says,
“I just put on my rain gear. I have always ridden to work. Except for when there's lightning, then a friend will drive me to work.”
Dyan's bike is her only transportation. She uses it to go where ever necessary, often making 40 mile long trips. When asked if she has trouble with cars, she says,
"Generally, no. Most drivers are courteous, but there are always a few that don't know by law I have equal rights to the road and yell comments."
"I think more people would use bikes for transportation if we had more bike lanes. It's fun going around traffic. I am really shocked more people don't do it."
Bruce Day searches greenway routes near Wynbrooke
TOUR de NASH
Hello Hendersonville!
As you know, spring time is filled with opportunities to get out and have fun and offers the perfect weather for playing outside. The greater Nashville area boasts many accommodations for outdoor activity and is becoming an area more encouraging of an active lifestyle.
In recognition of spring time and May being National Bike Month, I invite you to come out and take a walk or bike ride through urban Nashville on May 19 at the 4th Annual Tour de Nash. An event with Eddie George and Bridgestone Americas, the Tour de Nash will bring together folks from across Tennessee to discover and explore the sidewalks, bike lanes, and greenways throughout the city.
I encourage you to join us at the Tour de Nash on May 19 because it's a fun, non-competitive walk and ride for health. Whether you want to experience a short or long walk, challenge yourself to ride that extra mile, or spend time with family and friends, the Tour de Nash has a route for you. Check-in begins at 7:00am, along with a free health fair. (You can register on line at www.tourdenash.org.) Lace up those shoes, strap on that helmet and come explore with us. Let's get active and healthy together!
All in fun,
Shannon Hornsby
GREENWAYS FOR HENDERSONVILLE
What is a Greenway? Why so much interest? Everyone says they favor an investment by our City to build them, but what are our plans? We have tried to address these questions on this Web Site. Please click here for some answers.
In an essay contest Cathy Haley (the Stroller Mom on the Hendersonville Greenways Committee) asked middle and high school students what they thought about Greenways. In her winning essay Christina England explains
This place isn’t a community park or even a wildlife conservation ground, but as stated by the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation, these are pathways that “…provide connections…they link nature preserves, parks, historic sites, schools and neighborhoods…connect communities to each other, and all of us to the natural world…”
The Committee and City Planners haven't detailed all the opportunities as of yet in the Master Plan for Bike and Pedestrian routes. As described above we personally try to survey, to photograph, and to examine alternatives so as opportunities become available we can offer our best recommendations. Some of the routes proposed for Hendersonville are:
- Sumner Point Greenway (east-west route from Glenbrook to Veterans Park)
- Drakes Creek Greenway (north-south route from Drakes Creek Park to Veterans Park)
- Durham Farms Greenway (north-south route from Drakes Creek/Anderson intersection to Long Hollow Pike)
- Veterans Park Greenway (north-south route from Veterans Park to Durham Farms Greenway)
- Mansker Creek Greenway (north-south route from Gallatin Road along the creek to Mansker Creek Park)
- Sanders Ferry Greenway (north-south route from Memorial Park to Sanders Ferry Park)
- Halo Properties Greenway (detailed above with eventual extension to Lower Station Camp Creek Greenway)
In all our recommendations we strongly encourage comments, suggestions, and criticisms from the community. Please forward them to BikeNwalk@comcast.net. We apologize for delays in getting many of these routes properly documented on our Web Site. Please be patient (or better yet HELP us).
