A motley group of us showed up at Dunwoody City Hall yesterday to ride to lunch with the mayor*. The event was part of National Bike Month and hot on the heels of City Hall’s proclamation about the importance of bike riding in our metropolitan Atlanta suburb-city (both of which were spearheaded by my friend, the indefatigable Joe Seconder**). I rode sweep, along with my trusty BikeNoodle, and took my job seriously to return the mayor to City Hall alive. It went well, and I met some really nice people, plus saw others I’ve known for years. Our fit and fun mayor survived with flying colors. See the little compilation video from my View from the Handlebars** at the bottom of this post.
As we crossed multiple lanes to make a left-hand turn (shown in the raw footage above), Hope (that eternal optimist), once again, started bubbling up inside of me that maybe, just maybe, we had finally reached the turning point in our city as well. Maybe, just maybe, these people with the power to say, “Hey, things could be better, and we shouldn’t compromise with people’s lives” will actually show bold leadership and insist on an unyielding commitment to best practices moving forward, every single time (hello, Tilly Mill), until anyone can get where they need to go safely and enjoyably.
See Chapter 3: Pedaling as Fast as I Can; Chapter 6: Noodle Lady and the Epilogue in my book, Traveling at the Speed of Bike for more insight into the actual rubber-hits-the-road experience of trying to go places on bike in this representative city at the crossroads of change. And see Joe, and me, and others, out there trying, one bike ride, one blog post, one email to City Hall, one prayer each morning for our safe return home and one voice of thanks in the darkness of night at a time. Why don’t you join us on this new path forward? The point of no return to yesterday’s inadequacies is now.
* including a city councilor who was originally on the Sustainability Commission that I had founded and chaired ten years ago
** see Just Some Paint, and a Guy Named Joe
*** see Bonus Resources for more Views from the Handlebars
And, by the way, that gorgeous bridge you see in that video? It just opened, and it is a very welcome change to this method of crossing that creek:
Traveling at the Speed of Bike 