Sharing the Roads-- Which Roads?

I have attended some of the Bicycle Task Force meetings (2007 & 2008). Mayor Goldsworthy was present at one of the meetings. She is interested in receiving the positive designation from the League of American Bicyclists. Please contact the Germantown Parks and Receration Department for more information and for inclusion on their e-mail list.

City of Germantown, Tennessee: 1930 Germantown Road South, Germantown, TN 38138
Phone: 901-757-7200 / Fax : 901-757-7292 / Hours of Operation: M-F, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

http://www.ci.germantown.tn.us/parks.html

David Halpern is a contact there. He helped to coordinate the Cycle the Germantown Greenway Event on June 1, 2008.

I was on the City of Germantown website today looking for information about tonights fireworks display, and look at what I found---------maybe they took my suggestion to pursue the LAB "Bicycle Friendly Community" program. I plan to attend one of the meetings in September.--------------- Germantown Bicycle Plan For many years, the City of Germantown has advocated bicycling as a means of transportation, fitness and recreation. For the past several months, a bicycle task force has been working to create a safer environment for all levels of cyclists within the City, to develop a comprehensive Bicycle Master Plan for the City and to help the City attain the coveted designation of “Bicycle Friendly Community” from the League of American Cyclists. Currently, the City of Germantown Bicycle Task force is working in conjunction with the Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) to develop a bicycle/pedestrian master plan for the entire region. Bicycle Task Force The Bicycle Task Force is comprised of Germantown citizens, owners of local bike shops, members of local cycling teams/clubs, the mayor, and staff from various City departments including Community Development, Parks and Recreation, Research and Budget and Police. The task force meets on the first Wednesday of every month, except June, July, and August, at 5:30 p.m. in the Department of Parks and Recreation. The public is welcome to attend the meetings. For more information, contact the Department of Parks and Recreation at 757-7373.

This seems like a good forum area. Still no response from Germantown or Memphis.

Benjamin, yes this discussion can be moved to another forum. Will you suggest a good subject / catagory? Barry

As a resident of Memphis (I live about half a mile south of the Germantown city limit), I not sure if my comments/complaints are taken seriously by the folks in Germantown. So, I'm wondering if my impact would be effective. Sometimes a lone sqeaky wheel gets ignored. I'm thinking that it would be more effective if many different people made the same suggestions to Germantown for them to complete their bike lanes and signage. On Germantown's city government website, it mentions that their committee for bicycling doesn't even meet in June, July, or August. Nonetheless, I went to their city webpage and filed yet another suggestion that they erect proper signage. I also did the same thing at the City of Memphis' website that they increase signage on their bikeways. This was also something that I did last year. Memphis said they'd forward my suggestion, but as I saw on this year's Ride of Silence, more bike route signs are still needed. Oh, I'm wondering if this entire discussion thread could be moved to a newly created, better descriptive forum?

I agree with Barry in this situation, the more people who complain, the greater the chances of getting things done. I am on a little know committee called the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) for the Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) which include Shelby County and the surrounding areas including Fayette County and North Mississippi. There was a study completed a year ago that is a Vision Plan for the MPO for bike routes. Whenever a road is repaved or restriped the engineers are supposed to consult this plan. This is the first year for this and obviously it will take a long time to implement all of the streets that are on the plan, but at least there is a plan (that's a step in the right direction). I can tell you that we reviewed the repaving plan for Germantown in the last meeting and there were two road that are set to be repaved and restriped with bike lanes, one was Riverdale (which already has bike lanes) and I think the other is Cornwall (or something like that). Bartlett also has two roads that fell on our plan, one was Alturia and I think the other was St. Elmo (but don't quote me on that). If you would like to view the plan (it's pretty extensive) you can find it on the government website here in the bottom right hand corner: http://www.dpdgov.com/(wwgxjt45giign445fmifqd55)/RS/RS_content.aspx?id=305 . I know it's frustrating, I can tell you we have some heated arguments with the government folks but we're fighting for everything we can get!!

I emailed Germantown City Alderman, Mike Palazola, a few months ago and suggested that Germantown pursue the Bicycle Friendly City designation issued by the League of American Bicyclists. I got a nice email back acknowledging my suggestion. He forwarded the email to someone in Parks and Recreation, and I never heard back from them. What we need is someone willing to relentlessly pursue these issues until the city takes action. One phone call in your case---and one email in my case---isn't going to be enough to get anything done. Would you be willing to contact the city daily / weekly until someone does something? The City of Ridgeland, MS mayor just got an article published in Bicycling magazine about his efforts to get the Bicycle Friendly designation for his city. Germantown is a great city, but we need a bicyclist on the city leadership team.

When will Germantown finally place signage and paint striping along all of its bicycle lanes? The city's website http://www.ci.germantown.tn.us/bikes.html shows plenty of bike routes, but some of the lanes aren't properly marked, and as a consequence automobile drivers aren't as attentive. For example, on the Poplar Pike Loop, there's nothing to indicate it is a bicyle route, especially along C.D. Smith Road. I contacted the City of Germantown last year, and nothing appears to have happened.

We were all new to cycling once ( I still consider myself new)....so we know that persons new to cycling have questions about almost everything. Post your questions here and see what responses you receive....Barry