Hi {{ FirstName | default: 'Friend' }},
As the new year approaches, it’s a good time to take stock of how far we’ve come in 2021, thanks to your support. We started the year outfitted with a newly expanded and energized board, and in the face of a pandemic headwind, we celebrated Bike Month in the spring and put on a memorable Move-a-Bull City in the fall. We reorganized our board structure and stepped up our fundraising, which let us hire our first paid staffers outside of John Tallmadge’s directorship. These part-time staffers worked with the Burch Avenue neighborhood to make their streets safer, and with elementary schools across the city as part of the Safe Routes to School program (see “Moving at Full Speed” below).
We’re excited to keep the momentum going as we roll through 2022. We’ve begun regular meetings with City transportation staff, opening up a two-way conversation that will help us stay in the loop about new projects and target our advocacy where it’s most helpful. Durham badly needs updates to its streets and bus service, and as we gentrify at breakneck speed, we can’t afford the slow pace of infrastructure change we’ve become accustomed to. We need responsive, engaged leadership that supports affordable transportation via walking, biking, and transit.
Finally, Bike Durham will soon experience an infrastructure change of our own, with the departure of several irreplaceable board members (see “Saying Goodbye” below). We thank them for their dedication and fellowship! If you’d like to come aboard and help steer this 12-seater, please drop us a line.
Happy holidays,
-Marc Maximov, Board Chair
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Move-A-Bull City Success
On October 16, Bike Durham hosted a full-day of events and activities for kids of all ages to celebrate transportation. More than 120 attendees participated in the annual, family-friendly Move-A-Bull event, which included bike rides, workshops, music, hula hoops, jump ropes, street chalk, a cycle polo match, a kids obstacle course, a heavy hauler competition, test rides of electric scooters and e-bikes, food trucks, and more.
Access to sustainable and equitable transportation requires the engagement of the entire community and the Move-A-Bull City celebration was no exception--thank you to our sponsors for making this event possible: Duke Health, City of Durham, Spin, Three Oaks Engineering, GoTriangle GoPerks, Durham Cycles, Helbiz, and Bike Law NC. Thank you to Stone Brothers & Byrd and Barnes Supply Co. for your in-kind support.
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Burch Avenue Neighborhood Traffic Calming Project Results
Bike Durham is proud to present the results from our Burch Avenue traffic-calming project. With the support of the City of Durham, the local neighborhood association, and financial support through a Duke Doing Good grant, we were able to facilitate walk audits, visioning workshops, and resident interviews over a 20-week period. This engagement process enabled us to translate local feedback into solutions that promote safer conditions for cyclists, pedestrians, and the visually/mobility impaired.
Sparsely-networked sidewalks, poor visibility of signage and intersections, and long straightaways for speeding made for an interesting set of neighborhood safety parameters to account for. The breadth of solutions that were approved is quite astounding, with some never before tried in Durham County! Our community outreach contractor, Nikola Milenkovic, created a design process booklet for anyone interested in seeing this project in more detail.
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Walk/Bike to School Day 2021
October was National Walk to School Month and more than 6,000 students, parents, school officials and local leaders across Durham joined the celebration which highlighted the importance of safer, more active transportation for youth in their local communities. “Walk to School Day inspires schools and entire communities to celebrate safety, health and active transportation,” said Nancy Pullen-Seufert, director of the National Center for Safe Routes to School, the coordinating agency for the event.
Many of the schools participating modified the “Walk to School” to a “Walk at School Day” because of the absence of sidewalks or other infrastructure needed for students, families and community members to walk safely. “This year in particular, many parents are feeling pain getting their kids to and from school, due to long car-rider lines or long school bus rides. Many parents would love to have their children walk or bike to school if there were a safe way to do it. These events will bring attention to this and we will start conversations that will bring positive change to these areas of Durham,” said John Tallmadge, executive director of Bike Durham.
In many other communities, Walk to School Day events have led to changes in policies and the physical environment that improve safety for walking and bicycling, and improve safety and transportation options for everyone. We’re planning to spark those same changes here in Durham. Improving quality of life for students, families and the community is the focus of these activities.
The next Walk and Bike To School events will be held in May 2022 and Bike Durham’s Safe Routes To School team is expecting to increase the number of participating elementary schools, and we are hoping to see 10,000 students involved. See more on our Safe Routes to School program here.
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All the Ghosts & Goblins Rode Bikes
We had so much fun leading the ghost stories bike tour this Halloween. On this ten mile ride, we stopped at six different spooky locations, from Maplewood Cemetery to the East Duke Building, former site of Duke’s Parapsychology Lab. About 30 riders joined us on this tour, and many of them sported fun costumes, from a skeleton to the Jetsons to the guitarist with a very impressive homemade guitar. At each stop we told a true story from Durham’s history, so this event was educational as well as fun. We also had a guessing contest, where we played music from famous horror movies and tv shows, and riders had to name the movie or show; the first one to get it right got (ironically) a Dum Dum lollipop. This was our second year running the ride, and we enjoy it so much that we plan to make it an annual event.
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Exploring Durham's Hidden Gems by Bike
On a blustery day in early November, approximately 25 riders, including several intrepid children, went on an 8 mile bike tour of Durham’s nature preserves, organized in partnership by Bike Durham and the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association (ECWA). Stops included the famous brontosaurus near the Museum of Life and Science, and The Rocks, a hidden gem located off of Broad Street. At each stop, Donna Myers, ECWA’s stewardship director, shared fascinating information about the history and purpose of the preserves, as well as how to get involved in maintaining them. We expect to run this event again next May, so keep an eye out!
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Saying Goodbye with Gratitude
We are sad to say farewell to three Board members and a long-time friend and leader with Bike Durham. Former Board Chair Allison Shauger moved from Durham last year, but with all of our meetings on Zoom anyway, she agreed to continue on as Secretary this year, and has played an instrumental role on our Development Committee. We’ll miss the strong leadership voice that Allison has brought to the Board over the past several years. Vice Chair Alison Klein is moving to DC in December and will be stepping down from the Board. Alison has been a creative spark at Bike Durham planning many of our group rides, including the Ghost Stories Ride and Bike the Nature Preserves mentioned above. We’ll miss Alison’s energy that has kept the fun in our activities through the pandemic. Marketing Committee Chair L’erin Jensen has also moved away to Brooklyn. She has stayed on and helped us garner media attention for our Safe Routes to School activities and Move-A-Bull City. In this strange pandemic time, many of us had never met L’erin in person before she moved to Brooklyn. We’ll miss her virtual presence.
Jen McDuffie is a former board member who started Durham’s Safe Routes to School activities, including bicycle safety classes for 4th graders, as a volunteer five years ago. She wrote successful grant applications to purchase bikes, helmets, and all the materials needed for bike safety classes. She pulled together a volunteer team to offer training, and she spent countless hours building relationships with school principals, PE teachers, parents, or whoever was willing to champion the programming in the elementary schools. Jen became Bike Durham’s first Safe Routes to School Coordinator this March when we partnered in applying to be the City’s program manager. Jen moved to Vermont this summer to join her husband, Hal. Through the end of September, Jen continued to complete the Safe Routes to School program manuals and helped to orient our new Safe Routes to School Coordinator team.
We are indebted to Jen, Allison, Alison, and L’erin for their service to Bike Durham, moving us forward as an organization toward our vision for safe, affordable, and sustainable transportation for everyone. 🙏
We are looking for new leaders to step up and join our Board. If you are interested, please complete our current Board Chair, Marc Maximov, at marc@bikedurham.org.
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Sport Your Support for Bike Durham
Have you checked out our new t-shirts? The shirt design was generously created for us by Steven Valenziano, a Bike Durham member and volunteer. If you haven’t gotten yours, there’s still time! Order yours today to wear your support for Bike Durham on your sleeve (or at least on the front of your shirt).
🎁 They’ll also make great gifts for the holidays!
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Take Action
Bike Durham advocates at the local, state, and federal levels for your interests in a safe, affordable, sustainable transportation system for everyone. There are opportunities nearly every week to influence project designs, plans, policies, or funding priorities. To realize our vision, we need to build power together. Join our growing list of action takers.
National
Infrastructure and Jobs Act & Build Back Better
The bipartisan Infrastructure and Investment and Jobs Act that was signed by President Biden commits unprecedented levels of funding for transit, bicycle, and pedestrian infrastructure, and puts a new emphasis on safety (read more in Bicycle League article and this post from Transportation for America). The opportunities are tremendous, and we have thanked Representatives Price, Ross, and Butterfield and Senators Burr and Tillis for their votes to pass the bill. However, only through combining the infrastructure bill with the proposed Build Back Better bill can Durham and our public transit agencies get the funding they need to truly be a driver of economic growth and jobs for Durham and many communities across this country - making them safer, more environmentally sustainable, and racially just.
The Build Back Better bill was just passed by House Democrats and awaits action by the Senate. ✍ Contact your Senators Burr and Tillis, thanking them for supporting the Infrastructure bill and urging them to pass the Build Back Better bill.
State
Advocating for Investment in Public Transit, Bicycle and Pedestrian Projects
While these federal investments are historic, there’s much more work to be done to ensure that these infrastructure bills truly work for everyone. That means competing for additional funding, as well as making sure that as these investments are spent in cities and states across the country, they’re going to projects that are aligned with our commitment to racial equity and environmental sustainability. We don’t need more highway projects that divide communities and increase fossil fuel emissions.
Unfortunately, the state legislature and governor just agreed to a budget that upholds the 2013 prohibition on spending state dollars on stand-alone bicycle or pedestrian infrastructure. We now need to pressure our state and local leaders, NC Department of Transportation, GoDurham, and GoTriangle to work together to ensure that Durham fully benefits from these new funds by investing in public transit, bicycle and pedestrian projects to make our communities safer, more racially equitable, and more environmentally sustainable. You can start by completing this NCDOT survey (it's a bit long, so leave yourself 10 minutes to finish it).
Local
Support a New Direction for Transportation through the DCHC 2050 Plan
The regional transportation planning agency, Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro (DCHC) Metropolitan Planning Organization is seeking comments through December 7th on their preferred option for investments in their 2050 plan. In response to our advocacy when the draft alternatives were released, the DCHC MPO Board directed the staff to draft a preferred option to show investments that will move us strongly toward Zero Deaths, Zero Disparity of Access, and Zero Carbon Emissions. While there is still a long way to go, the Preferred Option removes most highway expansion projects and plans for massive investments in sidewalks, bicycle facilities, and transit. Click here to read our suggested comments and to submit your own.
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📣Announcement📣
Durham is now able to accept gifts of public stock. If you are interested in making a gift of stock, please email director@bikedurham.org.
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Durham Receives $9M Belt Line Grant
Durham received a $9 million federal grant from the US Department of Transportation RAISE program to support the construction of the Durham Belt Lline multi-use trail project downtown. The Durham Belt Line hopes to increase mobility, livability, and economic competitiveness in Durham and the region.
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Improving Transit Access on Fayetteville Street
Bike Durham Board member Erik Landfried moderated a panel discussing how a current project on Fayetteville Street in Durham will improve access to transit and the experience of riding the bus along that street and how this project fits within a larger vision of the community. This panel was followed by a mobile tour of Fayetteville Street led by City of Durham Transportation staff and Marc Lee, a frequent bus rider along Fayetteville Street. 🎬 Erik's panel here.
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Clamoring for Safety Improvements on North Duke Street
After a recent hit-and-run on North Duke Street, residents express concerns about safety. Board member Erik Landfried is quoted in the article. Read more here.
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Transit Equity Starts with Bus Infrastructure
The Herald Sun article authors, Green and Evans, note, "Durham transit riders, most of whom are non-white and make less than $15,000 per year, face a daily gauntlet of streets with no sidewalks, bus stops with no shelters, and bus service that does not come frequently enough. It also takes a long time to get to their destination. And many parts of the county still lack bus service, despite rapid growth." Bike Durham Board member Erik Landfried also signed this op-ed. Read the full text here or on our blog.
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Breathtaking new 750-mile bike trail in New York
Empire State Trail — a sprawling, 750-mile cyclist and pedestrian route that connects Buffalo to Albany and New York City to the Canadian border. Read more here. Watch the video.
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Why biking infrastructure is a racial justice issue
This Chicago-centered study highlights the connection between race, policing, and infrastructure. A University of California professor found that bicyclists riding in Chicago’s Black neighborhoods were eight times more likely to be ticketed by police than those riding in white neighborhoods. More than 90% of those tickets were issued for riding on the sidewalk in neighborhoods where bike infrastructure — protected bike lanes, well-maintained streets, and painted roads — are sparse. Read more here.
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Copyright © 2021 Bike Durham, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you signed up for our mailing list on our website or at a Bike Durham meeting or event.
Our mailing address is:
Bike Durham
P.O. Box 25236
Durham, NC 27702
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