Biking+in+the+Triangle+&+ReCYCLEry+visit

​ **__Bicycling in the Triangle__** Many people are looking into alternative modes of transport around the triangle, and the bicycle is becoming a common solution. There are now many organizations working to help and/or protect riders, teach people about bike repair, and to increase the availability and accessibility of new paths and lanes for bikers to follow.

__ Human Transport: N.C. Coalition for Bicycle Driving __ The Coalition is an organization of citizens who wish to change road rules to be more accommodating to bicycle riders. According to N.C. state law, bicycles qualify as vehicles, and their riders, or ‘drivers’, have all the rights and duties of other vehicles. Despite this, bikers are often treated as if they aren’t equal road users, and can be so discouraged by drivers that they don't use larger roads. The N.C. CBD works to educate people about traffic rules as they apply to both bikers and vehicles, give cyclists universal access to any destination reachable by public roads, accommodate cyclists as equal drivers of vehicles, design/adjust traffic signals to include/detect bikes, and start enforcement of non-discriminatory traffic laws to reduce or prevent collisions.

__WolfWheels:__ The WolfWheels program is N.C. State’s new bike sharing/rental program, launched in March 2010. All students and staff with valid campus IDs will be able to rent bicycles on a daily or weekly basis. The N.C. State Outdoor Adventures will also offer maintenance clinics and workshops for all students and staff. Users of the new program are encouraged to participate in these classes at various stages throughout the program. Students help to maintain and organize the bicycles.

__Pedicabs:__ Pedicabs are essentially small, bicycle-powered rickshaw taxis that operate in the downtown areas of Chapel Hill and Durham. They can either be hired on the spot, should you run into them, or they can be hired or rented beforehand for an event, special ride, or Pedicab tour.

__Triangle Greenways Council:__ The Triangle Greenways Council promotes the expansion and use of ‘greenway corridors’ throughout the triangle area. The primary functions of the council are land acquisition, public service projects, education, and community outreach. The group obtains land through donations and acquisitions from both private and public sources, as well as from grant money. The group recently applied for, and acquired, funds from the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund for land along Raleigh’s Walnut Creek. The Program has obtained and preserved over 275 acres of undeveloped land, totaling hundreds of miles around the triangle.

__The ReCYCLEry__ Started in the summer of 2000, the reCYCLEry’s original goal was to increase access to bicycles by children, and to teach those kids how to maintain those bikes, teaching them bicycle maintenance, self-confidence, and a sense of community. The idea quickly spread to include interested adults as well. The goal is to collect and repair old bikes, then give them away to people. Their primary activity is holding organized bicycle repair workshops where their mechanics help people learn about bicycle repair, from basic fixes like derailleur adjustment to more complicated jobs like headset replacement, while earning hours to either get and renovate their own bike or work on one they already have. Called the Earn-A-Bike program, people earn volunteer hours while they learn. Anybody is welcome to work towards a bike by volunteering, and can get one once they’ve amounted 15 hours of service. When not working on your own bike, you work on bikes to be given away or rented, or help other people with their bikes. The ReCYCLEry also hosts an assortment of other programs and classes as well. Outside of the open work days(Sundays when weather and temperature permits), the ReCYCLEry hosts Mobile Repair Days, were the ReCYCLEry's mechanics go to a local neighborhood to help fix local kid's bikes, and teach them how to maintain them. The ReCYCLEry also has a bike sharing program to help people without other means of transport, to help drop fuel use to help the environment, and to encourage more biking as a means of transport. The ReCYCLEry also hosts mechanics classes, begginer, intermediate, and advanced, and a KidCycles program to get kids under the age of 14 interested and teach them about bike mechanics. The KidCycles program hosts mechanics classes, repair days, bike rodeos, and bike giveaways specifically for kids.

Today (Thursday, June 3) Rich, the founder of the ReCYCLEry, came to CFS to talk to us about the program. He told us a lot about the program, including most of the above. He was a really nice guy, and had a great sense of humor. We all talked about our biking experiences and preferences, including the difficulty in riding in N.C. compared to much City or Europe riding, because N.C. is rather spread out, hilly, and lacking in (in many cases) good paths and shoulders. Afterward, he told us some about his background in New Jersey. If you see him at the ReCYCLEry, you should say hi, he's a nice guy. __ Durham Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commision __ The BPAC is a citizens group intended to advise Durham’s City Council and Board of County Commisioners on bicycle and pedestrian issues. The commission studies and promotes many things, including: The full integration of bicycling and walking into community transportation policies, incentives for increasing biking and walking, safety programs for biking and walking, and more. The commissions does many other things as well, such as advising the city and county in pedestrian and biker based issues, educating local civilians and officials about such issues, helping civilian involvement in such issues, studying changes in laws and regulations and their possible impact on foot and bike travelers, and other such biker-pedestrian related issues. The BPAC also provides many helpful maps such as: pedestrian crashes map, sidewalk improvement plan map, intersection improvement plan map, walking-biking-transit map, bike way/path/trail map, bike rack map, and more.

__ Durham ____ Bike Co-op __ The Durham Bike Co-op is a community run, member driven and member funded bike workshop in the Bull City Headquarters in Durham. The Durham Bike Co-op hosts hands-on skill sharing in bike repair and maintenance to give mutual knowledge, and to help people become more environmentally conscious. The program offers weekly open bike workshops, mobile and special clinics, community events, and an earn-a-bike program to help those in need of bikes repair old donated bikes. The consensus-building board of directors is open to all members, and membership fees are set on a sliding scale as to allow participants of all income levels The Durham Bike Co-op provides: Skill-shares to help share practice knowledge. Bicycle recovery and redistribution to allow bike-less members access to bikes, which are generally free, though sometimes a specific part or two may need to be purchased. And ‘ A nexus of the Durham bicycle community’. The Durham Bike Co-op is also a physical location which also serves as a social space where people may work on their own bikes, help others with their bikes, and share bike building, repair, and maintenance knowledge.

__1304 bikes__ 1304 bikes is a program similar to both the ReCYCLEry and the Durham Bike Co-op. You can go and volunteer your time to help others work on bikes, or to help organize and store parts from stripped bikes. 1304 bikes is a community effort. 1304 bikes host Mobile Repair Clinics a few times a month in assorted local neighborhoods. 1304 bikes also has an Earn-a-bike program where people rebuild old donated bikes, while learning about them and how to maintain and fix them, and a Kid-a-bike program where you can refurbish small (20 inch or smaller) bikes for children without the power or patience to refurbish a bike themselves. They also have another program called ‘Roadmaster Repurposing’: 1304 bikes have many old and unusable parts from stripped bikes, and they encourage welders, tinkerers, human powered vehicle or alternative energy experiments to use their bin for frame parts, cranks, rims, bearings, and other parts that will otherwise be sent out for scrapmetal recycling.