Perhaps there’s no type of building that better signifies suburban sprawl than the strip mall. Well, maybe a McMansion would do, but the strip mall has been with us longer and its very form and purpose transmits the essence of sprawl. The buildings are low and long, surrounded by parking lots and, in most cases, reachable safely only by car. Whitemarsh Plaza is a smaller specimen, but it’s location along a multi-lane high speed roadway is common for this variety of commercial development.
Whitemarsh Plaza became the focus of SCAD graduate students. And things continued from there, as SCAD professor Scott Boylston describes on the Emergent Structures blog:
Almost 10 weeks ago, a graduate Sustainable Practices in Design class at SCAD visited a generic strip mall on Whitemarsh Island. We went to visit Wendy Armstrong of Thrive Take Out Cafe to talk about the possibility of creating an outdoor eating area made from building materials reclaimed from Savannah Gardens. You could say that conversation…and those that followed it…wandered a bit.
What began as an idea to create outdoor seating from reclaimed materials expanded to include other ideas, such as green roofs. Mary Landers describes some of the possibilities in her Savannah Morning News story, which features this excellent quote from Boylston:
“You go to this generic mall in suburbia and try to start showing people who are skeptical or unaware that this sustainability idea is not this hippie dippie thing,” he said. “It can be a strong, pragmatic set of solutions.”
Today from 3 until 7 p.m., a reception will feature live music, food and presentations framing the students’ ideas for the shopping center. A vacant storefront will house “videos, conceptual drawings, interactive displays” that provide a vision of what Whitemarsh Plaza could be. Click here to download a flier for the event.
The image above reflects the Savannah Morning News website as it appeared yesterday morning. Look at the headlines on the right side. Is there a common thread?
The individual descriptions of death and injury just wash over us as we read journalists’ accounts of automobile “accidents.” But consider how we would react to these stories if they reported the spread of a deadly infectious disease, which could be prevented in many cases. I imagine there would be public outcry and demand for swift and comprehensive action to reduce and death and suffering.
Yet, we accept the stream of awful news from our streets and roadways as the price of doing business, the cost of maintaining our freedom to drive everywhere we go and get there as fast as we can. This freedom is of course illusory. We are trapped behind the wheel, numbed to the tremendous sacrifices our automobile-centric lifestyles demand. We seem resigned to the kind of human suffering that makes headlines. And we are often completely unaware of the kind that takes its toll over time. Some of us are suspicious of the very things that would help us escape from our rolling cages and into communities that are healthier, safer, more livable, more sustainable and more economically vibrant.
Yesterday’s news wasn’t all bad, though. Here’s the story behind the headline, “No texting while driving law making impact.”
Tom Barton wrote about the new Food Lion supermarket, slated for construction on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, in his Savannah Morning News Column yesterday and reveals it was his first encounter with the concept of a food desert, which he describes as “an area where residents must travel vast distances to do their grocery shopping.” Perhaps a better name for this neighborhood and others like it is a food swamp, “a geographic area where the overabundance of high-energy foods (for example, caloric snacks sold at convenience stores) inundate healthy food options.”
Whatever the term, studies have linked the preponderance of unhealthy food in poorer urban (and rural) neighborhoods as a contributing factor in all sorts of health issues. Still, while Barton laments “the pitiful selection of produce” available at the Choose Market located near the site of the new store, it’s worth noting that some of the healthiest produce to be found anywhere in the region can be purchased just a couple blocks east. The Forsyth Farmers Market is open every Saturday through Nov. 20. A program called Wholesome Wave, “doubles the value of Federal Food Stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” when used at the market.
Barton does make a good point, though, that the new Food Lion’s impact will go beyond nutrition, writing, “In terms of re-energizing this struggling corridor south of the I-16 flyover, this project isn’t just big. It’s humongous.” He’s also correct in has assessment of the store as a “big plus” for folks without cars.
What four words would you use to describe a community that is ideal for bicycling? What four words would you use to describe a community that is ideal for walking (or using a wheelchair)? You can provide the answers to these questions and others designed to solicit input for the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Non-motorized Transportation Plan. What in the world is that?
Non-motorized transportation includes walking or using a wheelchair, bicycling, skating, and using pedicabs. The Non-motorized Transportation Plan, as part of the Total Mobility Plan, will serve as an update to the MPO’s Bikeway Plan of 2000 and as well as providing a plan now to address the needs of pedestrians, and other self-powered travelers. The Plan will be developed by:
• Identifying needed improvements for the non-motorized modes;
• Identifying areas for amenities to help create a human-scaled environment that encourages use of physically active modes;
• Prioritizing improvements and identifying funding opportunities
A pedestrian survey and a bicycle survey are now available on the MPO Non-motorized Transportation Plan page. But July 22 is the last day to take the surveys, so hop to it. Also available is an interactive map that allows citizens to “report problem areas” or highlight “preferred routes and frequent destinations.”
Supplies are needed to aid in Gulf Coast clean-up operations and may be dropped off at Blowing Smoke BBQ parking lot (514 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd) Saturday, June 12 from noon to 5 p.m. or at the Coastal Pet Rescue Pet-a-Palooza event on Saturday, June 19 from noon to 8 p.m. at Molly McGuire’s on Wilmington Island. Catnip N Biscuits on Skidaway will also accept items all week long from 9 am to noon and 2 – 6 p.m. until June 28.
Needed items include:
The supply drive will end June 30, at which time Green Lifespace will deliver the collected items to Apalachacola River Keeper in Franklin County, FL and St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge. “I believe strongly in the power of people coming together for a common cause,” said Maria Castro, President and Founder of Green Lifespace. “As an avid animal lover and environmentalist in Savannah Georgia, I felt it was my responsibility to step up and take action and invite others to do the same in support of our precious wildlife being affected.”
In addition to the supply drive, Castro will attend training on cleaning oil spill by PEC (Petrolium Education Council) so that she may volunteer her efforts while in Florida. Businesses or individuals interested in contributing toward the supply drive and travel expenses may contact Maria Castro at mfcastro@greenlifespace.com or (912) 844-3184.
In recent days, I’ve heard a lot about boycotting BP to punish it for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Boycotts against companies have in many ways become the default American reaction against behavior we don’t like. Perhaps we have become resigned to idea that our main role in our economy and society is to consume. American consumers (formerly known as American citizens) vote with our wallets. And, we are told, we should vote against BP by withholding our business. Seems straight forward enough.
The problem is our dependence on oil is bigger than the Gulf of Mexico and bigger than BP. Deepwater Horizon is arguably the largest and most publicized example of our tragic addiction to oil, but it is no way the first. Our national failure to consider more sustainable ways to live, work and get from place to place will continue to cause us increasingly severe and eventually debilitating environmental, military, political, financial and human rights headaches. And as we move on down the right hand side of the Peak Oil curve, these problems will become more numerous and difficult to solve.
Boycotting BP, then, is kind of like switching from Marlboros to Camels to spite Phillip Morris, while continuing to smoke two packs a day. We might feel vindicated in the short term and RJ Reynolds will be happy to take our money, but we’ll suffer the same terrible consequences in the end.
While our addiction to oil has shown up only at the margins of the national debate of how to best punish BP, some interesting things are happening in the background. As summarized by Richard Florida in The Great Car Reset: “Younger people today – in fact, people of all ages – no longer see the car as a necessary expense or a source of personal freedom.” If fewer young people falling in love with automobile culture, for whom are we continuing to build automobile infrastructure? In a cruel twist of fate, we may be creating it for people now (including our families and ourselves), who will become imprisoned by it later. The question is how much more money and effort we will devote to building an automobile-centric transportation system that future generations will not need and that will work against the interests of the people who are currently demanding it? How many more disasters will we tolerate to feed our demand for oil?
A local trend of note was reported yesterday by the Savannah Bicycle Campaign. A recently completed bicycle census finds that bicycle use in Savannah has increased dramatically, or at least was seriously underestimated in the past. Either way, there is more excellent news about who is riding in Savannah. As described here, “Women are considered an ‘indicator species’ for bike-friendly cities”:
“If you want to know if an urban environment supports cycling, you can forget about all the detailed ‘bikeability indexes’—just measure the proportion of cyclists who are female,” says Jan Garrard, a senior lecturer at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and author of several studies on biking and gender differences.
Savannah saw a 33 percent increase in the proportion of women cyclists over the 2009 census number. That’s even more reason to provide additional bicycle infrastructure. It also offers cause to pause before spending mountains of money on road projects that will keep us hooked on driving in the short term.
In the early days of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, some local media reported the Gulf Coast’s loss could be the Atlantic Coast’s gain, in the form of tourists reconfiguring their summer vacation destinations. These stories usually included mandatory expressions of sympathy for the region dealing with the environmental catastrophe. Still, the disaster was down there. The major consequence for us would be more difficulty finding space to plant our chairs and umbrellas on the more crowded beaches of Tybee Island, right? Interviews were conducted just to make sure we were in the clear. But now the story may be changing. Yesterday, the New York Times’ Dot Earth blog published a horrifying animation that illustrates where the oil might eventually go if the damaged well continues to flow.
Will the realization that it could come here lead to any action besides the emotionally satisfying, but ultimately useless, railing against BP and the government that has been our only response to the spill? Will the possibility of oil slicks from Miami to Maine cause us to comprehend our role in this cataclysm? Will it help us to finally understand that it’s our unrelenting demand for cheap oil that made deep water drilling a viable business proposition? Will it prompt us to take a hard look at how we have built our communities and the way we choose to travel in our daily lives?
Here’s an excellent list of 10 ways cities and towns can kick the offshore-oil habit. How many of these are we doing locally? Aside from the wonderful expansion of on-street bicycle parking, spearheaded by Sean Brandon of the City of Savannah’s Parking and Mobility Services department, the sad answer is not much. In fact, some of the ideas mentioned in the list, including increased density and reduced automobile parking, are fighting words around here! Having been shown the consequences of our oil dependency via television coverage from the Gulf of Mexico, can we now talk seriously about our problems and begin to make responsible decisions about how to make our communities sustainable and livable? Or will it take oil drifting into Wassaw Sound to get our attention?
Over the last several years, I’ve had the opportunity to talk with elected officials, community groups and individuals aboutthe tremendous benefits the city could accrue from encouraging more citizens and visitors to take to our streets on bicycles. While I think most people can get their heads around the general idea, there’s a disconnect for some who can’t imagine riding a bike to work, to the store or to school. It doesn’t compute for them. They nod and smile, but in the back of there minds, I can tell they are thinking, “Wouldn’t it be easier to drive?”
It’s important to remember that some people don’t have that option. Because of financial, health or other reasons, bicycles are not alternative transportation, but transportation plain and simple. The rest of us, who do have the option to drive, may be curious about the beneficial aspects of riding a bike to work. If there’s one day to give it a try, it’s this Friday. National Bike-to-Work Day will be observed in Savannah with a 2Wheels 2Work bicycle convoy, sponsored by the Savannah Bicycle Campaign, The City of Savannah and the Chatham Environmental Forum. Bicycle commuters will enjoy free coffee from Jittery Joe’s and the company of other cyclists. Full details are available on the Savannah Bicycle Campaign Web site.
Local media outlets, over the last several years, have published and aired scores of stories about the dangers faced by pedestrians on our streets. These accounts usually follow the death or injury of a pedestrian and almost always include quotes from law enforcement officials warning pedestrians to use crosswalks, even when doing so would require a pedestrian to walk miles out of his or her way. Even when there’s no compelling evidence a pedestrian would have been safer in a crosswalk. Local journalists have seemed unable to make the connection between pedestrian casualties and streets that are dangerous by design. Until now.
In yesterday’s Savannah Morning News, Eric Curl included the words “street design” in his story “Parents, officials decry speeders at Montgomery Crossroad school zone.” As far as I can tell, this is the first time a local news story has used these words and made the connection between the design of the street and the danger it presents to pedestrians. To be sure, other local media personnel — City Talk columnist Bill Dawers being chief among them — have argued that a Complete Streets approach will make streets safer. However, Curl’s may be the first story about pedestrian safety to suggest automobile-centric street design makes streets dangerous.
Curl begins to zero in on the problem with this passage:
Those familiar with the problem say enforcement is only one component to solving it. Signage, street design and education also play a role.
Yes! He actually wrote the words “street design.” Now we are getting somewhere. Here’s a passage that describes potential solutions:
Many would like to see signs and lights added over the road so that they would be easier to see. In addition, the brush needs to be trimmed back in some areas where it obscures the signs, Stewart said. Road markers are another option being considered.
OK. Now we are talking about things next to the street, above the street and painted on the street. But what about the street itself? Is there something about it that makes it inherently dangerous for pedestrians? Could it be that it is five (and in some places, six) lanes wide and designed to maximize motor vehicle speed? We almost get there. But not quite. Here are some thoughts from two police officers:
“I am not an expert in traffic engineering so will yield to their expertise,” he said. Police Capt. Scott Simpkins said the problem is not unique to St. James. “It’s a continuing problem with the multilane roadways,” Simpkins said. “We’re doing what we can.”
Astute readers will note that yielding to the expertise of traffic engineers is exactly what produced the current dangerous situation. Afterall, Montgomery Crossroad isn’t a natural occurrence. It isn’t a path worn away over the eons by tidal creeks. It was designed by traffic engineers. Its design encourages speeding. Its design makes the street deadly for pedestrians. Without addressing these core issues, it will continue to be dangerous no matter how much enforcement attention is focused on it.
Still, Simpkins defines the scope of the situation and connect the dots between local streets that claim the lives of people who walk. Abercorn Street Extension. Ogeechee Road. Montgomery Crossroad. Mall Boulevard. Hodgson Memorial. All are multilane. All have pedestrian crossings spaced widely apart. All were designed to maximize car capacity and speed. All are dangerous by design.
Healthy Savannah is sponsoring a community forum on April 29 at 6 p.m. at the Savannah Civic Center. The forum takes an important, but not often examined (at least locally) angle on community health. Instead of focusing entirely on personal nutrition and exercise, the forum will examine the health impacts of infrastructure — specifically related to transportation — along with physical activity, nutrition and smoking.
A press release describes the goal of the forum “is to help people understand what factors have the greatest impact on our health in Savannah. Keynote speaker Dr. Evelyn Lewis will provide an opportunity for citizens to learn about how their health is affected by factors like public policy and the environment in which we live. Participants will also engage in active dialogue around actions we can take to improve our health individually and within the communities where we live.”
Healthy Savannah — coalition of businesses, nonprofits, healthcare agencies, governments, schools and neighborhoods — is an initiative of City of Savannah Mayor Otis Johnson formed in 2007. It is a public/private collaboration of over 65 community organizations and growing. The community forum is sponsored by the Junior League of Savannah, The 100 Black Men of Savannah, The City of Savannah, St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System, Memorial Medical Center, GeoVista Credit Union, Savannah State University and the A Phillip Randolph Institute.
Thee vent is free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Healthy Savannah Web site or call Kimberly Pannell at (912) 658-8769.
The students at Islands Elementary School are holding a Recycled Art Festival, which will include an art exhibit, performances by a recycled band, a recycled pre-K marching band and a chorus, and a fashion show. Doors open for the exhibit at 5:30 and the fashion show begins at 6 p.m. The concert starts at 6:30 p.m. The school is located at 4595 US Highway 80 East on Wilmington Island.
I attended two public meetings yesterday and heard two expressions of concerns about the safety of Savannah’s cyclists. One was from an elected official, the other from a citizen. Each called for education and awareness programs aimed at reducing unsafe practices.
The elected official worried about wrong-way cyclists and those who operate their vehicles at night without lights. I worry about this, too. The citizen fretted over the threat posed to pedestrians by cyclists riding on sidewalks. I fret about this, as well. Both concerns are completely valid and I agree we need education and outreach to cyclists, who needlessly endanger themselves and others. I am pleased to report that both individuals were supportive of cycling and I’m certain both were truly sincere in their concern for the health and safety of cyclists. I’m grateful for their comments and I support their ideas.
Still, I couldn’t help notice the context within which the comments were made. Both were offered within larger discussions of new facilities for bicyclists. Are similar suggestions about combating unsafe driving ever prompted by discussions of new roadways? I can’t remember a single instance. All sorts of elected officials had all sorts of things to say at the groundbreaking for the fifth phase of the Truman Parkway last month, but did any mention the need to educate motorists about speeding or aggressive driving? Car crashes, too often resulting in fatalities, are a regular occurrences on the existing portions of the limited access freeway. Wouldn’t a groundbreaking ceremony present an excellent opportunity to warn about the dangers of distracted or impaired driving and call for new programs to better educate motorists who use the Truman Parkway?
Again, I appreciate any concern expressed for the most vulnerable road users, but I’m curious about the requisite safety discussions that accompany our conversations about bicycling. Is there a subtle expectation that as cyclists we must earn, through good behavior, any new infrastructure made available to us, no matter how small? Is this expectation self-imposed? I must admit, I’ve caught myself thinking (and sometimes saying) things along these lines. Meanwhile, as motorists we are invited to enjoy colossal new facilities ($67.5 million in the case of Truman Parkway Phase Five), without being asked to consider how to ensure their safe and responsible use.
The streets are filled with happy bicyclists, unconcerned about the threat of aggressive or districted drivers. Handlebar bells ring cheerfully as hundreds of people move through a city, unique in its beauty because it was designed long before the needs of cars came to dominate the built environment. People of all ages are present, enjoying the freedom and fun of traveling under their own power and at their own pace.
A utopian fantasy? Not on Saturday, April 17 at 4 p.m.
It’s difficult to describe how special the Savannah Bicycle Campaign’s Earth Day Wheelie bicycle ride has become. Not only is it the first event organized by the group after its founding in 2008, the Earth Day Wheelie truly has become a part of the local culture for the reasons described above.
If only for a one afternoon, it provides a glimpse of what our community could be like if more people felt more comfortable getting on their bikes and riding for recreation. And as studies have shown, recreational cycling is a gateway drug to transportational cycling and a mindset that looks for opportunities to ditch the car and go by bike. Sometimes this shift in thinking starts with just one bike ride, in the company of a couple hundred other people pedaling along for moral support.
The ride will depart from the south end of Forsyth Park. There is no charge to participate. Helmets are strongly encouraged.
Eric Corey Freed, author of “Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies,” will present a lecture on Wednesday, March 31 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Savannah Morning News Auditorium, 1375 Chatham Parkway. According to Freed, the lecture will explore, “the various problems with energy, water, siting, materials, and air quality. It points out the often absurd means by which we build our buildings and then explores dozens of practical, tangible solutions for how to correct them.”
Freed’s practice, organicARCHITECT was founded in 1997 and is a USGBC LEED™ Accredited green architecture and consulting firm.
The event is free for American Institute of Architects and USGBC members and $5 for the generla public.
Standing in Ellis Square yesterday evening, it was a little difficult to remember the ugly parking garage that occupied the square for decades. It was even harder to imagine more than 1,000 parking spaces below all the grass, trees and people having fun. And there were plenty of people having fun.
A ribbon cutting, staple of dedication ceremonies, followed remarks by Mayor Otis Johnson and other government officials. However, instead of sticking to the usual script in which the audience observes dignitaries cutting the ribbon, scissors were distributed to the crowd allowing the public to take part and producing hundreds of instant souvenirs of the event.
There’s a lot to like about the new Ellis Square, including the elements that make it “the most environmentally friendly of Savannah’s squares,” according to city officials. These include “water-efficient plants, energy-efficient lighting and HVAC system in the glass-walled visitors center, and a green roof on the public bathrooms.”
Truly, one of the best things going for Ellis Square is its location and the types of land uses nearby. In “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” Jane Jacobs describes the neighborhoods surrounding Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square and how they influence the way the park is used:
“Does anything about the physical arrangement of the neighborhood affect the park physically? Yes. This mixture of uses of buildings directly produces for the park a mixture of users who enter and leave the park at different times…In short, Rittenhouse Square is fairly busy continuously for the same reason that a lively sidewalk is used continuously: because of the functional physical diversity among adjacent uses, and hence diversity among users and their schedules.”
The functional diversity of adjacent uses around Ellis Square is represented by shops, restaurants, office buildings, galleries, nightclubs and hotels. These attractors will bring Jacobs’ “mixture of users” into the square at different times of day. Contrast this with Savannah’s beautiful Forsyth Park, which most folks avoid after sundown, unless a concert or other event is scheduled.
Longtime Sustainable Savannah may remember my grumbling about the fact that most of the money spent on the project went toward the parking garage, with only a fraction remaining for the square itself. I’m still not happy with how much public money we spend to provide storage for private automobiles, but I am pleased with the wonderful new public space that citizens can now enjoy.
The 16th Annual Spring Festival at the University of Georgia’s Bamboo Farm and Coastal Garden on March 20 provides a great excuse to visit the largest collection of bamboo specimens available for public viewing in North America and maybe even buy some to take home at the plant sale. Also worth checking out is the Xeriscape demonstration garden. The festival takes place from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
It’s a critical time for this important resource. The Bamboo Farm, which attracts 120,00 visitors a year and employees nine people, has been identified as a potential victim of the latest round of state budget cuts. Here’s a good description of what could be lost and what can be done to protect this important resource.
The Greening the Southeast Regional Summit is scheduled for April 16 and 17 at the Coastal Georgia Center in Savannah. According to event organizers, the summit will, “bring together regional and national experts and grassroots organizations to provide training/information and successful models that focus on renewable energy sources for agriculture and forestry, to discuss how does sustainable farming and forestry impact climate change in the Southeast.” Session topics include:
For more information, visit the summit Web site.
This sequence of events is becoming awfully easy to predict:
One interesting thing about WTOC-TV’s coverage was the only cursory mention of a vehicle that hit the pedestrian and left the scene. Instead of exploring that important detail, the report instead spent time blaming the pedestrian for failing to use a crosswalk that does not exist. From the transcript of the broadcast:
“Police say especially when it’s dark the real danger is not using a crosswalk. ‘He was wearing dark clothing the area here is not well lit and it’s not a crosswalk area. Our closest crosswalk is 400 to 500 yards down the road. You know without street lights and dark clothing that’s likely the driver did not see him,’ said [Garden City Police Sgt. Benji] Selph.”
Did you get that? I’ll repeat it again: “Police say especially when it’s dark the real danger is not using a crosswalk.” Sorry, that’s just not true. The real danger is the design of the street itself, which Selph helpfully describes. The crosswalks are hundreds of yards apart and the lighting is poor. And that’s not even mentioning the five lanes of high speed motor vehicle traffic dissecting an urban area in which many residents depend on their feet or bicycles for daily transportation. Crosswalks or not, as long as these factors remain unchanged, people will continue to die on Ogeechee Road. I have no doubt Selph’s advice to use crosswalks was issued with the best intentions. The design of the street, the true culprit in many pedestrian deaths, is beyond his jurisdiction. All he can do is respond to the carnage.
Still, when Selph and his colleagues instinctively repeat the “use crosswalks” mantra, it automatically becomes part of almost every single local news story on pedestrian deaths. Thus, the pedestrian shoulders the blame, even when the closest crosswalk is five football fields away. Do we really expect normal people to walk this far out of the way to cross the street? Really? In a community where able-bodied people feel entitled to park on sidewalks (and usually do so without attracting any attention from law enforcement agencies) in order to save a couple steps?
It appears that we do expect people who walk to endure all sorts of inconveniences we’d never tolerate. And every news story that blames pedestrians for dying on streets that are dangerous by design fuels the unreasonable anger toward people who walk. It reinforces the idea that pedestrians are the problem even when they are not. And it endorses an unfortunate way of thinking about the design of our streets and the behavior of the people who use them, as described in this piece called The Taming of The Motorcar, which was forwarded to me today by a kind Sustainable Savannah reader:
“It is felt that by training the members of the human population, buy teaching them certain tricks, like walking at ‘green’ and stopping at ‘red,’ by putting them behind fences or chains along curbs, their spirit of individuality and independence can be broken so that they will be willing to submit to the regime of the automotive beings.”
Thankfully, that kind of thinking — while still popular among many motorists here in Savannah — was directly contradicted today by a new United States Department of Transportation Policy Statement. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood described this as the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized. The key recommendations for state departments of transportation and communities include:
• Treat walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes.
• Ensure convenient access for people of all ages and abilities.
• Go beyond minimum design standards.
• Collect data on walking and biking trips.
• Set a mode share target for walking and bicycling.
• Protect sidewalks and shared-use paths the same way roadways are protected
• Improve nonmotorized facilities during maintenance projects.
Following these recommendations will not only reduce pedestrian deaths and injuries, they will create healthy and vibrant communities. And that’s something no amount of warning people to use crosswalks will accomplish.
What can a business do to become truly bicycle friendly? The first step might be to correct policies that discourage bicyclists from patronizing an establishment. Providing secure bicycle parking is another way to attract those who shop by bike. To truly make the leap from bike tolerant to bike friendly involves rewarding cycling customers and supporting groups that promote bicycling. B Street Salon in Savannah is leading the way. According to Savannah Bicycle Campaign Chairman Drew Wade, the partnership with the salon is important for a number of reasons.
“We’re thrilled about the concept. We are encouraged to see more businesses taking voluntary steps toward sustainability, including more sustainable forms of transportation like bicycling. A large proportion of people who ride bikes regularly are men, and we are especially pleased to have this connection with B Street to promote bicycling as a safe and healthy activity for women as well.”
Read more about it on the Savannah Bicycle Campaign Web site.
While the big news on the streets of Savannah yesterday involved a presidential motorcade, a different sort of vehicle should get more attention as bicycle-related events round out the week. On Thursday, March 4 at 9 p.m., the bicycle culture movie “Veer” will be screened at SCAD’s River Club. Sponsored by SCAD’s student news organization and Desoto Row Gallery’s “Spoked” bicycle art festival, the Matthew Modine-narrated film is free and open to the public. It’s preceded at 7 p.m. by a screening of the indie rock music poster documentary, “Died Young Stated Pretty.”
On Friday morning, the Savannah Bicycle Campaign’s 2Wheels 2Work bicycle commuting event returns, this time with the support of Savannah’s legal community. You don’t have to be a lawyer to enjoy free coffee from Jittery Joe’s in Davant Park or ride in the Wheels of Justice bicycle convoy from Habersham Village. You might even win a free bike!
On Friday evening from 6-9 p.m. an opening reception for Spoked will be held at Desoto Row, located in the Starland District. Artists included in the show are Graham Carswell, Ashley Dowling, Angela Petsis, Evan Pomerantz, George Retseck, Cecily Upton, Kevin Willsey and Jessie Jones.
Spoked continues on Saturday from noon-6 p.m. with a Bike Expo. The event will feature demonstrations, contests, informational booths and a group ride sponsored by the Savannah Bicycle Campaign.
The news that a man was hit by a car and critically injured crossing Bay Street brought out the worst in some of my fellow citizens. Commenting on a story in the Savannah Morning News, they celebrated the fact that “karma got this guy.” The pedestrian, 36-year-old Joshua Goodwin, was described as a “perp” and a “criminal” while listed in critical condition at Memorial Health University Medical Center on Saturday night.
News the next day that his condition improved must have been a bummer to the person who hoped Godwin’s injuries would be a “lesson to the jay walkers on Bay St.”
During the same time period, the Savannah Morning News published numerous stories about car crashes including:
2-vehicle accident blocks southbound Abercorn
Several accidents delay morning traffic
Car crashes into Carol’s Pampered Pets, goes through building
None of these articles attracted a single comment, not even the one about an SUV crashing into the lobby of a pet shop. None of the drivers were called criminals. No one said they got what they deserved. No one said they hoped these crashes would serve as a lesson to other drivers.
The message is clear: Crash your car? It happens to the best of us. Get hit by a car? You’re a menace and you had it coming.
Forgive the use of this obvious and overused phrase: Americans have very special relationships with their cars. But it’s true and a couple things I read this week reminded me of this.
First, this letter to the editor of the Savannah Morning News (scroll down to “Safe driving a personal responsibility”) that acknowledges the danger of texting while driving, but warns we should keep government our of our cars.
“People can do what they want while they drive. The state representatives cannot stop anyone from reading and responding to text messages. It is neither their phone nor their car, so they should back off.”
Of course we can do anything we want while we drive. Isn’t that in the constitution or something? But why limit it to cars? I’d like to ride down the middle of Broughton Street on the back of my moderately tame grizzly bear while swinging my baseball bat. Also, I will be blindfolded. While I don’t mean to intentionally hurt anyone, I understand that my bear could maul a bystander and that my bat could conk someone on the head. Still, it’s my bear, my bat and my blindfold. So back off!
If we get government out of our cars, what should they be doing? Our letter writer knows:
“I can understand them feeling responsible for what goes on, but they should be taking care of more important things like fixing roads, helping people who need jobs and insurance, and the necessities that the state has to deal with.”
It is important to note that “fixing roads” is code that usually means widening them to five lanes or more without any consideration given to road users who do not travel in cars. These “fixed” roads are dangerous by design. Two local teenagers were serioulsy injured on one such road this week. At least our letter writer can take solace in the fact that our elected officials are taking care of more important things, like drafting laws that punish drivers who fail to speed.
As reported by the Savannah Bicycle Campaign last week, The Savannah-Chatham County Metropolitan Planning Commission and the Savannah Development and Renewal Authority are holding a three-day public workshop and charrette “to examine feasibility of removal of the I-16 exit ramps at Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd and Montgomery Street, and to address redevelopment along the 52-block corridor.” The event is scheduled for Feb. 17, 18 and 19 at the Con-Ed Resource Center Ball Room, 714 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. A flier for this event can be downloaded here.
Eric Curl wrote about the potential for flyover removal in the Savannah Morning News last year. He quoted Lise Sundrla of the SDRA commenting about the economic impacts of the flyover:
“There are social and cultural reasons that support the removal,” Sundrla said. “From an economic perspective, (property values) drop drastically from south of the flyover to the north.”
And Christian Sottile described how removal of flyover would position the city relative to other communities grappling with the negative effects of highways on urban areas.
“The flyover would be another model project,” Sottile said. “In this point in history (its removal) would place Savannah in vanguard of cities reclaiming their urban centers from world of high-speed travel.”
All sessions are open to the public. For more information, call Ellen Harris, I-16 Study Project Manager, 651-1482; or Lise Sundrla, (SDRA) at 651-6973.
To borrow the title for Tommy Linstroth’s 2007 book, tonight’s SCAD Sustainability Council event is all about local action. Having heard from international industry leaders on Tuesday night and professional journalists last night, tonight’s program is all about local folks working to make our community and world more sustainable. Representatives from the Emergent Structures Project, the Savannah Bicycle Campaign, the SCAD physical resources department and New Moon of Savannah are among those scheduled to describe their efforts and take questions from the audience.
The event begins at 7 p.m. at River Club, 3 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. The event is free and open to the public. A complete minute by minute schedule is available on the sustainability council Web site. The event will be streamed live by District, SCAD’s award-winning student news source. Video from the last two days of [Un]disciplined can be viewed here and here.
The SCAD Sustainability Council’s [Un]discliplined series continues tonight at River Club with a 
panel discussion from 7-9 p.m. Cosponsored by SCAD’s chapter of the Society for Collegiate Journalists, news professionals will discuss how media coverage has shaped public understanding of sustainability. Scheduled to participate are Bill Dawers, columnist for the Savannah Morning News; Orlando Montoya, news producer for Georgia Public Broadcasting and Jim Morekis, editor in chief of Connect Savannah. The panel will be moderated by Travis Walters, editor-in-chief of District and president of SCAD’s SCJ chapter. The panel will also be streamed live on the District Web site. The event is free and open to the public.