Making Our Community
Bicycle Friendly Again
by John Gideon
I think we all know that the cycling environment has been slowly but surely getting worse and worse for a long time. Over the last twenty to thirty years fewer and fewer kids have been riding their bikes to school. A smaller and smaller percentage of grownups commute to work by bike. Recreational riders have found themselves squeezed off of more and more roads by increasing volumes of automobile traffic.
For too long we've stood by while things got worse, hoping that somehow, sometime, someone would turn things around and return us to the golden days of yesteryear when we rode anywhere and everywhere on our bikes. The miracle hasn't happened. It's not going to happen. Things can change. But only we--you and me--are going to make it happen. And we are going to make it happen only when we begin to pull up our collective sleeves and begin to work together. It's time that cyclists in this community stood up and collectively said: "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore!"
There are bicycling advocacy groups all around the country. They are having success in changing their communities for the better. They are creating more bike-friendly communities. They are doing this by changing the hearts and minds of the public, of cyclists, and of government officials to believing that bikes belong on the road. And they are doing this by creating comprehensive bicycling networks that include wider car lanes that accommodate bikes, marked bike lanes, bike parking facilities, bus bike racks, and bike paths, trails, and bikeways.
There is no reason that we can't do this in central Ohio. In fact, we have a head start. In late 1990 a small group of local cyclists--most of whom we all know well--formed the Central Ohio Bicycle Advocacy Coalition (COBAC). The purpose of COBAC as stated in its newsletter is "to facilitate bicycling in Central Ohio as viable, valuable, and environmentally sound transportation; as an alternative for recreation, for sport and good health; and as a means to enhance the quality of life in Central Ohio."
The primary initial goals of COBAC were to get the City of Columbus to create the position of Bicycling Coordinator and to appoint a Bikeway Advisory Committee "to work with city government to institutionalize bicycling as part of our transportation system." By working with government agencies and officials COBAC accomplished these goals. Columbus created the Bikeway Coordinator position which Dale Hooper filled and continues to vigorously work at to this day. The Bikeway Advisory Committee was formed and continues to advise the City on bicycling issues.
Following its initial accomplishments COBAC focused on a number of projects, especially on the completion of the downtown bikeway connector. After work began on the downtown bikeway connector COBAC became dormant.
A group of us is now in the early stages of reviving COBAC. But we can't do it alone. We need your help. We need those who have the interest and the time to become part of the leadership of COBAC to volunteer to become an officer or board member. If you aren't able to do that now, we need you to spread the word about COBAC among your cycling friends and we need your financial support in the form of your membership.
We plan to establish a website for COBAC in the next few months. We also plan to begin a campaign to mobilize the biking community to identify trouble spots for bicycling and to get them fixed by city, county, and state road departments. And we plan to encourage school kids to bike more by providing bike safety education.
This is only the beginning. We intend to make COBAC a strong advocacy organization for all cyclists in central Ohio. We are going to make central Ohio a friendly place for bicycling again. But we can't do it without the help and support and involvement of everyone--including YOU. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work.
John Gideon
President, COBAC
gideonjj (AT) cs.com
(614) 444-9906