Travels Through North Carolina For Ellen

Ellen and her fellow law enforcement cyclists continued their northern bike ride through North Carolina today. Here is Ellen's report:



Wilmington to Kinston NC

Long but good day. 90 miles.

We departed Wilmington enroute to Jacksonville, NC. We stopped at the site where Deputy Steve Boehm, Onslow Co. SO and Verona Firefighter Gene Thomas were killed. His widow and children were present and rode in with members of the Blue Knights.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/19418-deputy-sheriff-steven-christopher-boehm

We then stopped at the Onslow CO SO for a mtg with Sheriff Ed Brown and lunch. We then headed to Kinston.

First time I have ever gone 28 mph on a flat road. We had a pace line going strong and were racing in to avoid rain. We were being followed by Major Rickie Pearson of the Lenir Co. Sheriff's Office. Major Pearson lost his son Allen in 2009.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/19891-detective-rickie-allen-pearson-jr.

Kathryn Pearson, the widow of Deputy Pearson, and Mayor BJ Murphy came out and greeted us in the rain.

Let's Check Out The Tampa Bicycle Improvements

If you're a bicyclist in the Tampa area, you know how valuable bike lanes are. They offer designated space for you in a city that traditionally did not value bicycling and more bicyclists will bike on roads with bike lanes.

But the city's transportation department recognizes that Tampa needs to improve its infrastructure for bicyclists, so it's a tremendous addition whenever I see a new bike lane or a new sharrow with the accompanying sign that explains bicyclist may take the lane.

Two great bike infrastructure improvements are the North Boulevard bike lanes and the sharrows in 22nd Street. In addition, Hillsborough Avenue has been paved near the Veterans Highway and bike lanes have been installed in a small but vital stretch.

Let's go for a bike ride and I'll show you around. Tonight, I wanted to check out the improvements.

Here's North Boulevard, which has gone from four to three lanes, with bike lanes that end before MLK Blvd. I hope the city stays true to its word and places sharrows after the point where the bike lanes end. Here's the North Boulevard bike lane heading south.


Here's North Boulevard heading south at the bridge that spans the Hillsborough River north of Blake High School. I hope the city of Tampa continues with the bike lane stripe.


There's my neighbor Chip on North Boulevard.


Here's a trail with a purpose -- the U Path, which connects Cypress west of Westshore to the State Road 60/Rocky Point/Clearwater causeway area.




This is wonderful piece of re-surfacing and lane striping on eastbound Hillsborough Avenue as it approaches the Veterans Highway ramp. I bike here often.

Previously without a bike lane, I would bike in the through lane but cars also heading straight through and not turning right onto the Veterans would come dangerously close to me.

Now, with the new striping and the bike lane, I bike right through and the cars safely pass me on my right and on my left.

Well done and I'm assuming it's the local Florida DOT office, since Hillsborough is a state road. Kudos to the DOT for this piece of lane striping.


Hillsborough Avenue heading east, just east of the Veterans Highway and on the north side of Tampa International Airport. This is a new road surface with the bike lane retained from before.


All bicyclists want is some safe room to bike. This is 22nd Street heading south to MLK. Bicyclists don't want to slow down motorists but we want safe space and safe roads to roll.


This is beautiful -- sharrow and sign working in tandem on 22nd Street, south of MLK.


Great job city of Tampa -- this is how you do it on 22nd Street.


22nd Street heading north -- this is north of MLK heading to Hillsborough Avenue.


Welcome back to reality in Tampa -- the disappearing bike lane on 22nd Street heading north.

Ellen Reaches North Carolina En Route To Police Unity Tour

My friend Ellen Pierson is biking with a group of police officers from Florida to Virginia this week for this weekend's Police Unity Tour, which is a three-day ride from Virginia to Washington, D.C. Ellen is sharing her thoughts and photos each day of the trek this week. Here's her report for Thursday:


Hey all, cold and head winds. Toughest day yet. We crossed into North Carolina.
This is what we look like from the back rolling down the road. I stay tucked in behind the biggest men I can find.

We rode to Boiling Springs Lake and honored Officer Mitch Prince.

The county's grand jury was meeting on the day that Officer Prince was murdered. The grand jury indicted the suspect on murder and 10 other felonies within 13 hours of Officer Prince's murder. The suspect was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/17545-police-officer-james-mitchell-(mitch)-prince

We have stopped here for the past several years. The PD provides bag lunches for us that we take and enjoy on the ferry ride.

From the ferry we rode up the coast of NC to Wilmington. Its usually a beautiful route where we take lots of pictures. The head winds were so bad I could not take my hands off the handlebars. On the way to the WPD, we stopped at the site of the death of Officer Rich Matthews.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/19770-police-officer-richard-john-matthews

Rich rode with us in 2008 for a day. He was planning on riding with us in 2009. The picture is of the 4 Wilmington officers cycling with us.

Upon arrival at the WPD, I met Ms. Colt, a relative of Officer David Curtis, Tampa PD, It was so kind of Ms. Colt to met us. I am taking the sign she made to WDC to present to her family.

Tomorrow we are off to Jacksonville NC and then Kinston. More families to meet. Be safe, Ellen

Bicycle Pins Given To Bicycle-Friendly Motorists

This morning I launched a new bicycle ambassadorial initiative.

We all know how upsetting it is to be cut off by a motorist or get buzzed by a car.

But for the motorists who share the road, are nice and are respectful of bicyclists I am handing out these bicycle pins to drivers when they're stopped at red signals.

This morning, I gave pins to drivers -- one on Sligh Avenue waiting at a light on 22nd Street and another motorist on 22nd waiting at a light at the Hanna Avenue intersection.

Both were very surprised and then they smiled.

It's good for bicyclists to have friends behind the wheels of cars around here.

How About Sharrows On Hanna Avenue?

You're looking at Hanna Avenue in Tampa -- a key east-west road that I would love to see sharrows. It runs from just west of Florida Avenue all the way west to Harney Road.

It runs underneath I-275 and is a great east-west artery.

But the road is narrow and sharrows would inform motorists that bicyclists such as this one are on the road.

Ellen Biking Through South Carolina

Ellen Pierson is biking from Florida to Virginia this week with about 20 bicyclist officers to hook up with thousands of other bicyclists for this weekend's Police Unity Tour, which memorializes fallen law enforcement who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

Ellen is sending daily reports this week and here's her report from last night.

Charleston to Georgetown SC
120 miles, 7 hrs, 4786 calories
Felt alot better today. Been eating more. We had really nice roads and police escorts. There were about 30 of us. Officers from Manning and Myrtle Beach PD joined us.

The day started by going over the Ravenell Bridge in Charleston. Its big. Beautiful views.

We went to a Moncks Corner and met with members of the Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS). Mrs. Beverly Coates and Mr and Mrs. Rau. Each cyclist in the PUT and the LEU is assigned a fallen officer to honor. The cyclist is given a bracelet with the name of a fallen officer. Upon arrival in WDC, the cyclist presents the bracelet to the family of the fallen officer.

Ms. Beverly Coates is the president of the COPS for South Carolina. She lost her son, Trooper Mark Coates, in 1992.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/420-trooper-mark-hunter-coates

Trooper Coates had never been honored by a cyclist because the ride in only 15 years old. I advised Ms. Coates that we will be honoring her son this year. I am carrying the bracelet to Portsmouth, VA and giving it to one of our PUT cyclist, Ms. Tonya Frare. Ms. Frare lost her brother who was also a SC Trooper, Jonathan Nash.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/20066-lance-corporal-jonathan-shea-nash

Ms. Frare will wear the bracelet to WDC and present it to Ms. Coates.

The Berkley Co. FOP fed us a great lunch. I met retired SA Woody Best. Great to see him.

After lunch we headed to Georgetown, SC.

GPD is super to us. We had dinner at their department and met with Ms. Sally Guerry, the widow of Deputy Chief Spencer Guerry.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/631-major-deputy-chief-cecil-spencer-guerry

Major Guerry's grandfather, Berkeley County Sheriff's Department Deputy Sheriff Warren Calhoun Guerry, was also killed in the line of duty.

The Guerry's son James has submitted his application to be a SC Trooper.

In the photos for this day, May 3, you will see us wearing geeky white socks. We did this to honor our friend Rob Moorhead. He always wore them. He was supposed to meet us here in Georgetown and start riding with us tomorrow. We had a ceremony in his honor. Told stories and listened to bagpipe music. We all miss him.

More tomorrow. Ellen

League Of American Bicyclists Sends Letter Asking Motorists To Be Educated Too

Few people in the Tampa get to witness people on bicycles act in a risky manner as much as I do.

On a recent Sunday night, for example, while I biked north on Nebraska Avenue from downtown Tampa to Seminole Heights, within a five-minute window I saw at least five people on bicycles with NO lights, no reflective gear and no helmets. Most of them were biking on sidewalks against the flow of traffic.

I tried to explain to them that they need to be visible and be seen, which means getting lights on their bikes and wearing clothes and reflective vests or gear. I also suggested they bike with traffic and not against. I don't know how much they will heed my suggestions.

The point is I'm quite aware that we need to inform bicyclists to reduce their risky bicycle behavior to reduce the number of bike-car crashes.

BUT, what is missing in the public discussion regarding making the Tampa Bay area safer for bicyclists is also EDUCATION FOR MOTORISTS regarding a bicyclist's right to the road and motorists' dangerous, distracted, incompetent and bully driving that imperils the lives of bicyclists on the roads.

That's not just my opinion.

The Florida Bicycle Association's new executive director, Tim Bustos, made this point in his first column in a FBA spring 2011 newsletter.

And this afternoon, I received a letter in the mail from the League of Americxan Bicyclists, which was focused on educating motorists AND bicyclists.

The letter from League President Andy Clarke starts this way: "Dear Alan, If you're like me, you're tired of hearing about educating cyclists. Wouldn't it be great if we saw road signs telling motorists to Stop Texting! Focus on Driving! Don't Buzz Bicyclists"

The League has a strong program to educate bicyclists. Now the League is calling for local communities to also advise motorists to respect bicyclists.

You might recall that League President Clarke wrote Hillsborough County about its proposed bicycle safety action plan because while the plan offers initiatives to educate bicyclists it fails to address motorist education about bicyclists to the same degree.

To the League's credit, Clarke wrote Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa to say exactly that. It was bicyclist Robert Niedbalec's death on Feb. 13 while he was cycling in a Fletcher Avenue bike lane and killed by a speeding car that struck him in the bike lane that caught the League's attention.

Clarke's letter a few months ago said, in part, "After reviewing this latest cyclist fatality, AND looking at the dreadful pedestrian crash story in this area AND the almost daily serious crashes involving just motorists throughout the Tampa Bay area, we figure it’s time to really challenge the community to tackle the scourge of careless, dangerous and reckless driving behavior that is making life miserable for everyone out there."

SWFBUD applauds the League's willingness to go public with that email and today's letter I received this afternoon that stress that we need BOTH bicyclist and motorist education regarding bicyclists in the roadways.

I am scheduled soon to meet the local Tampa Bay District 7 Florida Department of Transportation Office to hear the latest about a bicycle campaign that was originally entitled, "You Vs. Vehicle -- You Lose Every Time."

SWFBUD blew the whistle on that campaign title, contacting both the ad agency hired by the local DOT office and also the DOT office regarding this misguided campaign title.

SWFBUD will be asking the local DOT office to include motorist education in any campaign in addition to the message that bicyclists must ride safely, too.

We're all in this together -- bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists.