“Come to Mama.” As a mom of two daughters, I’ve often said those words. Now, as the first Metro Atlanta Bicycle Mayor, I’m about to “come to MAMA” myself, as I prepare to email the Executive Board of the Metro Atlanta Mayors Association (known as MAMA).
MAMA represents the 70 cities in the 10-county metro region that I serve. I realized it was not an efficient use of my eight-hour-a-week pro bono offering to try to find all the addresses and coordinate individual emails to every mayor, so I’m going to start with MAMA. You can see the mayors on the Executive Committee here. Here are some initial thoughts about what I may include, although I get to do one more bike ride today to whittle that down.
Speaking of mamas, let’s make our roads safer for them all over our region, and we’ll therefore make it safer for everyone*. And that would mean we’d no longer need to take leaps of faith** just to get places on bikes.
* That means no stretching the truth when you fill out your Bicycle Friendly Community applications, folks (for which there are clear, objective standards). When you include “infrastructure” that does not meet the standards, you lower the bar for the whole region; discredit the value of that League of American Bicyclists designation; continually marginalize a significant majority of your population from participation in human-powered transportation; create a false sense of security; and put lives in danger.
** such as in this video below, as well as in my photo at the top of this post, which was from yesterday during my 7th (and final) week teaching bike skills to girls in the Metro Atlanta city of Clarkston, Georgia. Stay tuned for the fun certificates of completion and other supportive materials my “graduates” will be receiving shortly.
Traveling at the Speed of Bike 