Charlotte Area Bicycle Alliance (CABA)

In and around Charlotte

• Dateline: Observer, October 23 – Editor Mary Newsom comments on Envision Charlotte (campaign by business leadership to drastically reduce energy use in Uptown buldings by 2016 -”After all, “sustainable” – a word I’m coming to dislike for its fuzzy applicability to almost everything – means more than electrical use. What about the carbon footprint of the people who drive daily into uptown? ..I asked Duke Energy’s Charles Pfeiler, who spoke Wednesday, whether the Envision:Charlotte initiative would focus only on electricity or would also measure (or try to) activities such as reduced driving. The core of it is electric use, he said, but they may try to devise ways to pull in other data on other behaviors.”  For full article CLICK: Hog Happy
• More from the Observer - Dateline: October 24 – Letter to the Editor from Paula Fricke titled -”Don’t kill me before I get to church; make way for cyclists”, Paula says: “Sundays I bike to church, 10 miles up Providence Road. I’ve biked near the curb and on sidewalks, but have found both life-threatening due to oblivious or reckless drivers. I’ve concluded the safest way to arrive at church is to create my own bike lane. (By riding towards the middle of the lane) … drivers become humane, slow down and pass with plenty of room to spare. I’m 58, healthy, and my gas bill is minimal. Biking is all good. Please, let all bikers do it safely”. Paula is president of Trips for Kids ( a bicycle non-profit outreach group) and a member of CABA.
• More from UNCC – Guess what ? Off-campus housing firms are now promoting bicycling. Here’s an ad that appeared last week in the campus newspaper. Not a bad idea since it’s so difficult to park a car on campus and the parking charges are getting totally out of wack. The ad in this photo is for the University Walk apts. across US 49 from campus.
   
  • New Corporate membership – Much thanks to DPZ architects, and especially Tom Low, for their generous contribution to CABA programs and the cause of bicycling. DPZ is a nationally prominent firm with a Charlotte branch and a leader in design of Smart Growth/New Urbanist projects.