PA Bike Summit a success

PA Bikes & Walks organized a successful PA Bike Summit on May 5 in Harrisburg. Nearly 100 Pennsylvanians from across [sic] rallied at the State Capitol Building to speak to legislators about supporting “safe passing legislation” and Safe Routes to Schools. The event was the first gathering of what participants hope is an annual event. The Harrisburg Bicycle Club jumped in to volunteer and to make sure bicyclists were welcome, safe, and comfortable in their host city. The Capitol Police and the Harrisburg City Police worked together to provide an escort from the Farm Show Complex to the Capitol Stairs where bicyclists assembled around their elected officials to hear them address the issues most important to them. Fuji Advanced Sports generously provided bicycles for riders who traveled from the farthest locations in PA. Company representatives joined ralliers to gain recognition for the bicycle industry and their economic benefits to our state.

State Representative Dave Kessler lead the event with a reading of the Governor’s Pennsylvania Bike Month Proclamation and presentation of the PA House Bike Month Resolution. Senator O’Pake’s office also provided a PA Senate Bike Month Resolution. Jointly, these documents recognize May 2009 as Bike Month, May 11-15 as Bike Week, and May 15 as Bike to Work Day.

Representative Ron Miller introduced HB1110 (Safe Passing) on March 25 with 37 co-sponsors and HB1109 (Harassment), explaining the importance of shared roads for all modes of transportation. Senator Mike Folmer also spoke of SB776 introduced on April 18 with 14 co-sponsors.

HB 1110 and SB 776 would protect bicyclists in two important ways:

• Require motor vehicles to pass cyclists with a minimum of 4 feet, and
• Protect cyclists from a “right hook” where a motorist overtakes a bicyclist and then cuts them off by making an improper right turn into the bicyclist’s direction of travel.

 

Motorists misjudging the space required to pass a bicyclist and motorists turning into the path of an approaching bicyclist are two of the most common causes of bicycle crashes, accounting for 8-12% of all bicycle crashes.

The League of American Bicyclists cites the lack of laws protecting bicyclists from closely passing cars and from right hooks as one of the primary reasons Pennsylvania ranks so poorly as a bicycle-friendly state. Pennsylvania was ranked 40th (or the 11th worst state) for bicycle-friendliness in 2008.

George E. Cornelius, Secretary of Community and Economic Development emphasized the economic impact of the bicycling industry in Pennsylvania, home to 340 bike shops, three national bicycling magazines, a distribution plant for Cannondale and the world headquarters of Fuji Advanced Sports, Inc.

Michele Barrett, spokesperson for PA Walks & Bikes brought attention to the Safe Routes to School program in Pennsylvania. “We are far behind the rest of the nation; we have $21 million to create connections in communities for better, safer access in the core of our neighborhoods, and healthier living for all of our children. Community leaders, parents and schools across the US are using Safe Routes to School programs to enable and encourage more children to safely walk and bicycle to school. But Pennsylvania has fallen behind. Nationwide, more than 90% of national Safe Routes to Schools federal funds have been awarded. Four years into the program, PennDOT has awarded just 11 mini-grants of $5,000 each and $2 million to Pennsylvania Advocates for Nutrition and Activity (PANA). Only Georgia has awarded fewer grants to local communities.” Special guests Sharon Brumbaugh, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Education and Brenda Barrett, Director of DCNR’s Bureau of Recreation & Conservation also joined the event.

Tom Sexton, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s Northeast Regional Office Director energized the crowd with his comments to build Trail Enhancements and connectivity. “The bike advocacy community and the rail-trail (all multi-purpose trails really) advocates are much closer aligned now than the old days when the bike community looked at trails as an excuse not to build on-road facilities. Rail -Trails are somewhat finite and will only provide a small percent of the bike facilities required, but they can be a necessary first step toward creating a network of bike facilities throughout a community and be the training ground for new riders before they venture onto the road. Harrisburg is a perfect example of a city that needs to take the next step – it has a 20 mile trail around it but not one foot of bike lanes.”

Representative Rick Geist, Chairman Republican Transportation Committee, closed the guest speaker comments with stories of the former Governor’s annual bike rides, Altoona’s Tour de ‘Toona, and his many personal cycling anecdotes that tied together all of the shared support for bicycling transportation, tourism and recreation.

Hans van Naerssen says, “To accomplish our mission, we have and will continue to work with many organizations and individuals. Within our first two months as an organization we successfully reached out to others to get awareness and participation by bicyclists and legislators at the first PA Bike Summit. We also got an eightfold increase in the number of state legislators sponsoring the safe passing legislation as drafted within PPAC. A lot of work remains to make that proposed legislation the law, and to make bicycling and walking safer, more convenient, and more enjoyable to all Pennsylvanians. We look forward to working with others to make that happen.”

PAWalks & Bikes was formed in March of this year by executives from Bike Pittsburgh, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, WalkBikeBerks, as well as former state legislators Ed and Pat Krebs, and Megan Auman. PA Walks & Bikes is a new nonprofit organization creating healthy, sustainable communities across Pennsylvania by making bicycling and walking safer, more convenient and more enjoyable.

Those interested may join the state-wide conversation at Livable Streets http://www.livablestreets.com/projects/pabikewalk/request-membership . Readers may learn more about the recent Bike Summit event, join our mailing list, or complete a feedback form after speaking to legislators/senators about bicycling issues online at http://www.pawalksbikes.org/ . Photographs may be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/groups/pabikesummit/ .