Bojin | Wikimedia Commons

If you’re curious why Roanoke County is sponsoring a bicycle safety event June 8 at Tanglewood Mall, you should listen to the stories of local lawyer David Harrison.

Twice in the past five years, he has been hit by cars while riding his bike carefully and legally. The first time was on the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2008 when he was bumped off the road by a passing sedan pulling a fishing boat. It knocked him off the pavement and he landed in adjacent grass.

That one left Harrison with some bruises and a busted cellphone. He rode away from the crash, but on the next one he wasn’t so lucky.

It happened on Edgewood Street just off Brandon Avenue Southwest in 2010. Once again, a car bumped Harrison as it passed him too closely; this time he went down hard on the asphalt. He fractured five ribs, broke his collarbone in two places and his shoulder blade in one, and suffered a collapsed lung. Read more »

Shot by Dan on the Roanoke River greenway in Salem

Which came first — the chicken or the egg? Which is more refreshing — Coke or Pepsi? Some arguments will never be resolved.

To those we can add, “who’s more inconsiderate on the Roanoke River Greenway — pedestrians or cyclists?” My inbox and blog were flooded with comments on this subject after the April 23 column on greenway conflicts.

There’s general agreement that a problem exists. But who’s responsible? And what should be done about it? The answers vary widely, as you can see in the April reader mailbag.

First up was Karen Dillon of Wirtz, who seems to think the situation is hopeless.

“Appreciate the attempt at getting folks to obey the rules, but we probably won’t see it in either of our lifetimes. You really do take your life into your own hands out there,” she wrote.

Joe Campbell of Glenvar wrote: “Most of the conflicts I’ve witnessed on the greenway come from pedestrians who don’t know (or understand) trail etiquette. In particular, there needs to be signage warning trail users of danger in those areas where the Greenway and public roads are contiguous or coincident.”

READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.

Photo courtesy of Dwayne Yancey

Feast your eyes on the offbeat picture on the left.  What strange mind would devise a movie featuring a 300-pound man in a goldfish costume, riding a BMX bike in Roanoke County’s Green Hill Park?

John Waters?

Not exactly. The answer is my newspaper colleague Dwayne Yancey, who moonlights as a playwright/scriptwriter, and Hank Ebert, who’s a film director and videographer.

They’re cohorts in the production of the short film, “The Secret Lives of Goldfish,” which will make its world premiere Friday night (7 p.m.) at the Bike Shorts Film Festival 2013 (more here) at the Taubman Museum of Art. Read more »

Users of the Roanoke River Greenway Tuesday evening in Smith Park. | By ERIC BRADY | The Roanoke Times

Last week in this space we established that, at certain times and places, there’s a problem with user conflicts along the Roanoke River Greenway. Between my inbox, my blog and this newspaper’s Facebook page, the subject attracted scores and scores of comments from readers.

Pedestrians feel threatened by speeding bicyclists; the cyclists feel threatened by dog owners who don’t control their leashed pooches; certain walkers hog the whole width of the asphalt path — and so on.

So, what can be done about it? For some answers, I looked to some other communities that have more extensive greenway systems and longer experience dealing with user conflicts.

The first was Raleigh, N.C., which has been developing a greenway network since 1976. It now has 100 miles of paved paths, said Victor Lebsock, Raleigh’s senior greenway planner. His first words of advice were that such conflicts will always exist.

They’ll also always be greater in the spring, he said, because that’s when more users flock to greenways than any other time of the year.

“I don’t think you can ever alleviate [conflict],” Lebsock said. “What you can do is mitigate it.”

READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.

Grafic by Dan

Post of the Day — April 23, 2013

Note from Dan: The regular “Chuck” and I have sparred repeatedly but we have no differences over anything he writes below. It’s fair and well-reasoned — congrats, Chuck! Like him, I’ve been hit by a vehicle (that’s happened four times at least) and carted away by ambulance; but I’ve been far luckier. Three times I escaped without injury beyond road rash; once I had a concussion and a broken nose.

I’ve been reading these blogs for some time now and find several things about this issue interesting. From many of the comments it seems that many of you think cyclists have no business on the greenway. From past blogs it is also apparent that many of you think cyclists have no business on the highway either. For some of you it seems that the cyclist should be considered at fault no matter what since they really shouldn’t be “there” in the first place, regardless of where “there” is.

It is also interesting that many of that same group that thinks it is the “fast cyclist’s” fault when they crash into a slow moving unaware pedestrian, lay fault in exactly the opposite manner when vehicles are involved. When the topic of interstate crashes come up, many are quick to blame the slow moving cars that won’t get out of the way. An interesting dichotomy.

I also find it interesting that some are ready to put any cyclist who hits someone in jail. As a cyclist who has been hit by a motorist, I know first hand the sense of anger that follows. However, at some point you have to let rational thought and justice take over and stop basing everything on raw emotion. Read more »

Wikimedia Commons

Your daily Letter to the Columnist — April 24, 2013

Dan Casey’s column about greenway etiquette is right on the mark. Most of the conflicts I’ve witnessed on the greenway come from pedestrians who don’t know (or understand) trail etiquette. And how would they?  As far as I know, there is no signage explaining the rules.

This dearth of instruction is an accident (and a lawsuit) waiting to happen. In particular, there needs to be signage warning trail-users of danger in those areas where the greenway and public roads are contiguous or coincident.

The most egregious of these areas is Wiley Drive between the hospital and Smith Park, where there is ZERO indication that the greenway and Wiley Drive are essentially coincident.

I’ve witnessed several near-misses, hysterical parents, and driver-rider altercations where bikers & pedestrians join the greenway from the parking lot near the Ramada Inn on Franklin Road. It’s just a matter of time until an accident occurs there, and the city is sued for negligence because of the absence of roadway markings, signage, and traffic-control procedures.

Finally,  I’ve been astonished at the reckless speed of road-bikers who are apparently oblivious to pedestrians and slower riders (like me).  Perhaps some buzz-strips are in order…?

Joe Campbell
GLENVAR

Shot by Dan

Posts of the Day — April 23, 2013

Note from Dan: We have a bunch of new voices on the blog today, and welcome to all. It’s a testament to the passion many feel about our awesome (and expanding) greenway system here in the Roanoke Valley. Some posters want cyclists banned from the greenway or parts of it. Here’s a smattering of those sentiments from this morning’s column thread. Also, stay tuned for a guest post Wednesday morning, by cyclist Chris Berry, who runs down a semi tongue-in-cheek rules for using the greenway — from a bicyclist’s perspective.

BUD:
The Greenway isn’t wide enough to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians at “high usage” times. Cyclists want to ride at speeds of 15- 20 mph. It’s not practical to think people walking dogs, people walking kids, families out for a walk  . . . that all can coexist on a strip of asphalt. Biking is a hazard to the walkers and riders and as a result should be kept to the roads.

DAVE:
The cyclists are the ones causing the problem. If you only have time to yell “on your left” then you are going too fast and should significantly slow down before going around them. How can the cyclists expect someone out on a leisurely stroll, or the elderly or kids, to be able to get over to safety in time? Other communities/cities have banned bicycles from portions of their greenways. Bicycles (other than for little kids) probably should be done from in Roanoke from Carillion to Black Dog Salvage. The terminology of the cyclists shows that they have a dangerous mindset with respect to the greenways. They speak of “passing” and “on your left.” It’s a greenway, not a speedway. Read more »

Javi | Wikimedia Commons | Text added by Dan

We’ve had a lot of debates on this blog about bicycles, cyclists and traffic laws. Some drivers in particular (I’m thinking of Bob H) have seethed about cyclists “flouting the laws.”

For that reason I thought I’d run down some information shared Thursday night at a public meeting about bicycling and cycling safety that was held at the South Roanoke County library. It was convened by Supervisor Charlotte Moore.

About 25 people showed up. By the way, my Tuesday column is about one particular aspect of that meeting — pedestrian-bicyclist conflicts on the Roanoke River greenway. If you’re a pedestrian and you’d like to comment about that, please email me at dan(dot)casey(at)roanoke.com

One of the presenters was Roanoke County Police Officer Eric Orange. He ran down Virginia laws regarding rules of the road, which govern riding in Roanoke County but not necessarily localities, which may have their own ordinances, or the Blue Ridge Parkway, where federal regulations apply.

There was much discussion about certain malevolent drivers (they’re a minority) and their yahoo practice of leaning on their horns and driving close to cyclists while passing them. Some of the information Orange shared about laws and bike riding was very interesting: Read more »

By Dan

Note from Dan: I’ve ridden my bike on the Roanoke River greenway many times; I always call out “on the left” when passing pedestrians — and occasionally I find some walking three and four abreast in a manner that blocks whole path. But until today, it never occurred to me that those walkers might be deliberately blocking cyclists. And then I read this portion of a post from regular BobH on a thread from Wednesday.

“I participated in the CROP walk last October, some of which was on the greenway. I have never seen anything as rude as most of the bicyclists were. Most never said a word when they went zipping past and treated us like we were an annoyance to their turf. They did not believe in sharing anything, especially not the greenway.

But we got the last laugh. We strarted walking 5 abreast making the bicyclists go around us off the pavement. They had some choice words for that too, none of which were “sport” or “sir” and none of which will pass even the low standards of this BLOG.”

1902 | Wikimedia Commons

Your daily Letter to the Columnist — March 12, 2013

Thank you for your story highlighting the difficulties cyclists are having with the Blue Ridge Parkway Superintendent.  I attended a number of public meetings last year regarding trail plans for the Blue Ridge Parkway property.

Although these sessions were intended to allow for public comment the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Department of Interior representatives really had no interest in what we had to say as a cycling community. It could not have been more evident that the Department of the Interior is anti-cycling. If I had to hear “historical use” (read cars only) one more time I thought I might start screaming at officials.

I do not use the parkway to commute, (which I’m sure doesn’t fall under historical use either) but instead wish to enjoy its scenic beauty on two wheels rather than four. It reduces my carbon footprint and provides excellent health benefits for me and my family. Why the cycling community has to continually fight with the Blue Ridge Parkway Superintendent and the Department of the Interior is beyond me. Read more »