I’m a ‘Yes” on the Local Bond Vote

Yesterday I rode my bike 51 miles roundtrip to Mableton, GA (newest city in the USA, by the way) to re-visit the farm where I pilot-tested WWOOFing last October in preparation for my recent 5-month cross-country journey via bike, buses, trains and working on organic farms coast to coast. Once I crossed out of Dunwoody (where our too-narrow unprotected “bike lanes” do not meet standards for access-for-all), I had multiuse paths almost THE ENTIRE WAY. Cobb County and Sandy Springs have both left us in the dust.

I also go to Alpharetta, GA every Sunday to push my 87-year-old mom in a wheelchair at the Big Creek Greenway. Alpharetta is currently building out an entire network of multiuse paths called the Alpharetta Loop. They passed a bond years ago.

I ride my bike frequently (including twice this past week) in the City of Atlanta, where the most dangerous part of my ride is ALWAYS in getting to and from our local MARTA stations.

And finally, I spent a year and a half before my journey’s departure creating and tending a Sharing Garden for refugees in Clarkston, GA, to which I rode my bike each week from Decatur. Both Decatur and Clarkston have significant accessible bike infrastructure that meets safe-access-for-all standards. Decatur is the only city in the State of Georgia that has achieved Silver-level Bicycle Friendly Community recognition. Clarkston has the FIRST and only protected bike lane OTP.

On my 10,000-mile cross-country journey, I rode my bike in hundreds of places. I was not close-passed or harassed ONCE until I returned to Dunwoody a few weeks ago. Note: I am the first survivor in the Southeastern USA of a driver charged with a Vulnerable Road User violation (in addition to a 3-feet-to-pass violation and a hit-and-run charge) right on Tilly Mill Road as I was returning home from filming a video at the park about safe driving around people on bikes (per Councilor Seconder’s request for a city employee course he was developing).

My daughters were 8 and 13 when they came with me to City Hall when safe-access-for-all was promised. I was 45. They are now 23 and 28. Children don’t wait. They grow up. I just turned 60. I use my bike as my primary transportation, replacing about 250 car miles a month with it, often a mile or two at a time to run an errand. I’m tired of feeling unsafe all the time in the place I call home, especially when it is supposedly a “family friendly” city.

I’m a YES on the bond vote here in Dunwoody, Georgia, USA, if that helps inform your decision at all. I’m also a YES on immediate pop-up solutions that create safe access right now, today, as other communities across our country have already done.