Atlanta Bicycle Campaign
In my job hunting, I’ve been checking out a bunch of towns online - either for the first time, or to re-familiarizing myself with some place I may have lived previously. I used to live in Atlanta (wiki) a loooong time ago.
Atlanta is a good town, and I have some very good friends there. Home to such fan favorites as The Weather Channel, ‘the ATL’ (aka ‘Hotlanta’, ‘The City Too Busy to Hate’, ‘The Black Mecca’, ‘A-town’, etc.) was responsible for introducing me to R&B (Brian McKnight, 112, Usher, Dru Hill, etc.), and I’ll be forever grateful (”It’s 6 o’clock, 6 o’clock - time for Greg Street to rock!”).
I thought, ‘I wonder if Atlanta has some kind of bike group?’
So I googled ‘atlanta bicycle coalition‘ and what do ya know — a group called Atlanta Bicycle Campaign (ABC) that looks to be very active popped up. I’m proud of you, Atlanta! <sniffle>
Almost 600 strong? Wow. That’s no small feat for a town like Atlanta, or any other car-obsessed town - which is most towns in America.
ABC has a rockin website - which I think is awesome. Even if you happen to be or have folks around you who know ‘web stuff’, it can still be difficult to get the right setup - to get the right set of tools to ‘put yourself in a position to win’ - a favorite phrase of coaches everywhere.
I immediately noticed this blog post - CNN is going to air a segment on rising gas prices and bicycling, and they wanted to talk to the local experts, so ABC obliged them:
ABC staff members and cycling instructors spent 2 hours with CNN International reporter, Ralitsa Vassileva - pictured right speaking with our Executive Director, Rebecca Serna - shooting film and recording interviews for a story about how the American public is responding to rising gas prices, in part, by turning to bicycling as an alternate form of transportation and how ABC is helping people who want to do so overcome their doubts and learn to cycle confidently on city streets.
Looks like the story will air the weekend of April 26-27. (That would be Comcast channel #206 in Atlanta.) We’ll keep you posted about the details as they are shared with us. The back story of how this all came together is interesting in and of itself.
Very cool stuff!
So make sure to drop ABC’s RSS feed into your rotation, and/or sign up for their e-newsletter.
CNN (wiki) is headquartered in Atlanta, so maybe it just makes sense for them to go out and find some locals when they need to do a ‘human/local’ story?
Atlanta has a bunch of other interesting things to see, places to go, etc. - which kinda reminds me of something I’ve been interested in - getting bicycle tours going in various cities and towns, or just getting them the attention they deserve. I understand that there are some folks who are just unable to ride a bike for various reasons, but for the great majority of people, I believe a bike tour is possible, and it will become the new best way to see a city because once people try it, they’ll love it, and they’ll do it in every town they visit. I was thinking about this the other day when I was cruising around Austin - there were so many cool little neighborhoods and landmarks that I passed by, and I wasn’t even trying - I just happened to be on a bike, so I could just cruise around and just meander, and stopping and starting again is no big deal. Lots of big cities thrive on tourism, and I see a lot of synergies between tourism, businesses, and bikes. I don’t know if there’s a ‘process’ for how to go about working on things like this - it’s probably just taking care of the obvious stuff - contact the Chamber of Commerce - let them know we exist, contact local tour operators (be they bike, walking, bus, whatever) - things like that.
I think that this exact point in time - right now - is crucial for bicycle advocacy. We can sit back and still see gains in bicycling infrastructure and funding and membership rolls and maybe even some changes in the law books to help protect us on the roads a bit better — or we can recognize the opportunity we have before us and really have a go. From the great movie Chariots of Fire, I’m reminded of the phrase, “seize this chance, rejoice in it, and let no power or persuasion deter you in your task“. This is the mindset I believe we should all have. And without conflating causes (though, I think there are important parallels), I’m reminded of the phrase ‘Now is the time‘ (at 5:15) from someone who did a lot of work himself in Atlanta, Martin Luther King.
…made some typo corrections. Man, this blog really needs an editor (as do many blogs). Sorry!