discussion-l Mailing List: BikeAthens Discussion: FW: WARNING!! Sanford Dr Police Bike Trap!

[Paul S. Quick (pauquick]

 

From: UGA Cycling Club Discussion List [mailto:CYCLNG-L [at] LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Paul S. Quick
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2010 5:45 PM
To: CYCLNG-L [at] LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [UGACC] WARNING!! Sanford Dr Police Bike Trap!

 

Hey, y’all,

 

Many of you know that today UGA Police were issuing tickets to cyclists who came down Sanford Drive from Baldwin, and there were reports that folks also got ticketed for riding down the sidewalk as well. 

 

In response to this news, I contacted Kevin Kirsche who is the director of the Office of Sustainability to let him know that this wasn’t probably the most effective way to encourage sustainable transportation on campus.  Kevin is one of our biggest advocates on campus and I think that the very diverse cycling community in Athens would greatly benefit from working with his office to make cycling infrastructure better on campus.    As a result of my communication with Kevin, I had a subsequent discussion with UGA police chief Jimmy Williamson today about the ticketing of cyclists going the wrong way on Sanford from Baldwin toward the stadium.  He wanted to make the point that this ticketing operation in the Tate/Memorial Hall area was not entirely out of the blue.  He pointed me to an article in the Red and Black:

http://www.redandblack.com/2010/09/23/rules-of-the-road-officers-urge-bikers-to-go-the-right-way/

 

Evidently, he has gotten a lot of complaints from pedestrians as well as bus drivers about bicyclists in that stretch.  Of course, he also gets tons of complaints from everybody about everybody else.   He pointed out that there’s not a user group out there that is entirely blameless.   From a cyclist perspective, I know as much as the next cyclist how much sense it make to cruise down Sanford from Baldwin, but with bikes, scooters, buses, other UGA vehicles, and pedestrians all jammed in one block, it is probably the most logistically complicated in the entire state of Georgia.    got admit there’s some pretty stupid cycling going on that is dangerous and doing cycling advocacy no favors.  At the same time, the “bike route” that directs cyclists to go down to the driveway between the Military and Fine Arts building is logistically convoluted and pretty unsafe.  Perhaps this is a great opportunity to get cyclists together to work with Kevin’s office and UGA Police on some education programming for the campus:  peds, motorists, and cyclists alike.

 

If folks have ideas about how we can make cycling safer, more convenient, and legal, let me know and perhaps we can coordinate a meeting of interested parties.

 

Humbly submitted,

 

Paul Quick, PhD

Coordinator of Faculty and TA Development

Center for Teaching and Learning

Instructional Plaza North

University of Georgia

Athens, GA 30602

706-542-0534