Charlotte Area Bicycle Alliance (CABA)

There‘s Not Much Excuse for Not Doing It

Some myths about urban bicycling sent to us from Madison, Wisconsin (easily one the best biking cities in the U.S.A., and it doesn’t hurt a bit to have 50,000 university students living in the center of a city ).

1. That you have to be in good shape to bike.
2. That you have to have a “good” bike.
3. That you can drive a car faster (including the time it takes to park the gas-guzzler and then walk the rest of the way) to the drug store or supermarket ..or even to your chosen house of worship a.k.a. church. mosque, synagogue or just your favorite sunny sport under a flowering dogwood than a bike.
4. That fat (i.e. “calorie challenged ” ) people don’t bike.
5. That you get cold riding in the (Charlotte’s) winters.(The opposite is true if you bundle up a little and make sure to cover your neck).

Due date: May 10 !

You should take a minute and fill this out. In case you don’t know, CATS stands for Charlotte Area Transportation System. They’re the ones who build and own the LYNX line and run the bus fleet. They are very supportive of bicycling community and even have mounts conveniently located inside each LYNX car and racks on every bus for cyclists. Help their efforts on our behalf and click: Cats Survey .

Article by Martin Zimmerman of CABA – “The Future of Cycling in North Carolina – Will Charlotte Set the Example ?” Martin describes the history of advocacy beginning in 1997 and continuing until the current City Wide Bike Plan effort.

Excerpt: “For Charlotte and its sister cities in North Carolina to catch up to communities elsewhere may seem like a daunting task. Portland Oregon is one of the top 10 best bicycling cities in the U.S.., and its track record is something to marvel. Since citywide bike programs began there in earnest in the early 1990’s the number of bike commuters from some neighborhoods compared to other forms of traffic is risen to upwards to 13.9 percent. Overseas, Paris’ Velib bike rental program — the name combines velo (bicycle) and liberte (freedom) — opened last July and registered an astounding two million trips in its first 40 days…” Click Endurance for full text.

Thanks to local luminaire and bicycle courier Bill Fehr’s personal blog (it is a terrific undertaking !) who provided us with this link. And make sure to pick up a copy of Endurance at your local bike shop. For full directory of bike shops click the Resources tab of this website.