Trilith Studios is now the second largest movie-making location in the United States. Think Marvel. Currently filming there — Superman: Legacy. Directly across the street from it is a planned development named Town of Trilith. If you are local to or familiar with Metro Atlanta, think Serenbe, but not. Think Avalon or Halcyon, but not. If you are Dan Cathy, visionary behind it and Chairman of Chick-fil-A, think Bentonville, Arkansas (self-proclaimed Mountain Bike Capital of the World, and home of WalMart, where he recently rode bikes and fell down the bike network rabbit hole), but better — eventually. He asked me to be on his advisory board, and those conversations are underway.
Prior to meeting him, I did a bike audit there before my recent book signing at the newest independent book store in the USA (Scholar and Scribe). As I don’t know what’s going to come of our texts and conversations*, I thought I’d share with you some rubber-hits-the-road wows already there.
1 — Low speed limits (but no more cobblestones when you expand the development — these wreak havoc on people with joint disabilities when riding some sort of cycle, which 78% of those with disabilities can do);
2 — Neighborhood mostly on a grid, and a supportive culture of community;
3 — Concrete multiuse path that runs near a beautiful old barn and the studios, and a gravel path around a pond that may or may not be okay for riding a bike on (if intended to include bikes, I have suggestions);
4 — Art! Several murals and sculptures (although the bike rack sculpture doesn’t work as a bike rack, but is cool to look at —there are two other bikes racks, both a style I don’t love for its ability to accommodate correctly a wide variety of bikes, but it’s a start);
5 — Attributes of environmental sustainability, including food-growing garden beds (just a couple, but it’s a start); bee hives, by the organization Bee Downtown (which also has bees at the headquarters of Cox Enterprises (where I used to work), not far from the Georgia World Congress Center (here’s a prior blog post I wrote about that), and elsewhere; and natural lawn (not monoculture) by the pond;
6 — Local businesses (get my books at Scholar and Scribe in-store or online! You can even get my BikeBloom upcycled bike tube earrings free-with-purchase in-store while supplies last!). I don’t know where common trip-chaining destinations such as the supermarket, post office, city hall, public safety, etc. are, so I can’t comment yet on their accessibility. They were not find-able intuitively;
7 — Bike-to-school! I saw a sign for the Forest School, easily accessible via bike. I don’t know what the Forest School is, but I wanna go! Also, Bike to Work would be a breeze if you work at home or for a business in the Town at Trilith or at Trilith Studios (but nowhere else beyond that — there is also zero public bus or train access);
8 — No current Bike Master Plan — this is a POSITIVE because there are some things in the Bentonville Bike/Ped Master Plan (which I’ve read cover to cover**) that I would recommend changing and it’s easier to change things before they are already winning awards on shelves (when groupthink tends to take over, rather than rubber-hits-the-road reality);
9 — A leader who already rides a bike. Yep, Dan Cathy took me to a storage room and cleaned off a dirty window so we could peer in at his local-bike-company (Edison) electric bike. I said to him, “What are we, ten years old?” And he smiled. Yep. Yep, we are. If you were feral in the 1960s and 1970s and, like Dan and me, have no intention of being caged in your ‘60s (or, like Dan, in your ‘70s), then get going re-centering the joy of being a girl or boy during what was the biggest bike boom in U.S. history. If you wanna feel like a kid again when you are our age, you gotta ride a bike when you are a kid. If your kids currently can’t, here’s a reminder of the urgency for things to change — Kids don’t wait; they grow up.
Dan also crossed the USA numerous times via motorcycle. My book, Round America with a Duck, is the first in the world about crossing the USA via bike, buses, trains and working on organic farms — plus, as a solo female traveler during what turned out to be the hottest year on Earth, during which I turned 60 years old. Dan bought that book as well as my prior one, Traveling at the Speed of Bike. I look forward to hearing more about his journeys, and his reactions to mine.
I know Dan is a religious man. I think he will appreciate my relationship with my Higher Power throughout all my books, and especially the poem titled Precious, Unrepeatable Gift on page 56 of Traveling at the Speed of Bike. I’m not here to waste God’s gift to me. I believe he’s not, either.
10 — And the MOST IMPORTANT piece of bike infrastructure — which Dan and the team may not even realize: There is a clean, accessible, conveniently-located PUBLIC RESTROOM. If you think I’m making too much of this, tap into my new book’s prologue. I know a thing or two about restrooms.
(Let’s not even talk about the DUMP in the elevator at Atlanta’s Peachtree Center MARTA station yesterday when I went to my final of three Jane’s Walk tours, which is a global event honoring Jane Jacobs — who had no formal training as an urban planner yet changed the world with her passion and purpose — after a weekend of transportation that included eight bike rides, six trains and three buses. I have video of both the warning sign about public urination and the human excrement pile. Before you lambast that desperate person that could easily have been you or me, here’s my lived truth — I have yet to see a bathroom in the MARTA system, and I went rogue many times while crossing our bathroom-deprived country. Never in an elevator, but that was only by the grace of God!)
Here’s a quick TikTok from my Trilith bike audit:
I have many more suggestions, including a desire for somewhere (Trilith?) to set a goal to become the first truly safe-for-women-and-girls city (which currently exists nowhere in the USA — if you haven’t been following the man-or-bear prompt on TikTok, you are missing a vital conversation about the lived reality of half the human population, which, by the way, makes or influence 80% of all consumer purchase decisions).
Additionally, I’d love to be part of the development of a play-and-art based interactive gaming overlay to public space (in partnership with Georgia Tech?) that encourages desired wellness behaviors and incentivizes support of local businesses, thereby strengthening community (and world) resiliency.
I’m not sure if my chance meeting with Dan is just a step on the path elsewhere or if something will come of this project. I do know I am in the winter of my life (which, like the Winter Equinox, signifies a return to the light, not darkness) and I have some very pressing goals left on my aspirational obituary that need my attention. I may not be Superman but I am working on a Legacy project of my own right now, so we’ll see what happens next.
* Per Dan Cathy’s direction, I was also called by Aaron Fortner, the urban planner involved, and he asked me my boundaries — I said I was only interested in being involved if it was the best, most replicable bike project in the USA that truly made bike riding accessible for all through solutions that currently may not exist in the USA (or maybe anywhere) — Trilith is a place for creators, makers, innovators. Let’s create, make, innovate! I told Aaron I’m not interested in yet more years of indoor meetings resulting in yet another plan filled with the gutter of failed imagination, compromises-that-kill, or sharrow-minded thinking.
I also no longer work (or attempt to work) with people who not only don’t think big but can’t think small. I have a separate list of specific low-hanging fruit that could happen right now, today, in Trilith (and here are 7 low-hanging-fruit ideas for cities everywhere). Pop-up protected bike lane in time for World Bicycle Day June 3? Yep. It’s possible. I know because I did it. (I’ve been told numerous times, including last Monday night, by my local city hall that it “wasn’t worth it” to add pop-up protection in a self-proclaimed family-friendly city where not one of the “bike lanes” meet safe-access-for-all standards. I see it differently — you may appreciate this aspirational media release.)
** I also read the latest Corporate Social Responsibility report from Chick-fil-A and did additional research into certain issues. For the record, as a vegetarian for fifteen years who never eats at fast food restaurants, I am not a Chick-fil-A customer (plus, the two near me don’t have bike racks). But I do recognize passion that could (and does) make a measurable difference in our world-in-crisis.
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