First up, we have an array of silent auction items including Savannah Music Festival tickets, a 2012 Midnight Garden Ride package (ride, food, and a front row table), and some great active coastal excursions; full details on those below.  Next, in addition to the Savannah and Georgia bicycle luminaries being honored, speaking and in attendance, we may have a surprise guest or two, but most of all, we are looking forward to seeing you!

Attendees will be treated to a sampling of culinary delights from B Matthews, tasty malted potables from New Belgium Brewing, and the limited run Savannah Bicycle Campaign pint glass pictured here.

Buy your tickets today!

We’re also still looking for a few volunteers to join in the fun – please send an email to volunteers@bicyclecampaign.org if you’re interested.

Earth Day Wheelie Package
Enjoy Dinner for 8 at Blowin’ Smoke BBQ, the annual host of the Earth Day Wheelie Wrap Party.  Get your bike geared up before you go with a $50 gift certificate from Bicycle Link.  VALUE: $170

Midnight Garden Ride Package
Don’t miss SBC’s signature event, the Midnight Garden Ride.  Enjoy 8 registrations to the 2012 ride on September 1, a front row table at Forsyth Park for the concert, a delicious picnic for 8 from Sentient Bean, and bike lights from Princeton Tec so you light up the road as you ride.  VALUE: $530

Bicycle Melodies
Savannah Music Festival has the hottest tickets in town this spring.  Don’t miss out with this great opportunity for two tickets for three different shows, Cajun Dance Party: Lost Bayou Ramblers, Zakir Hussain: Masters of Percussion, and Noon30: Joe Krown Trio. End the day with a bike ride to bar-food in Habersham Village for a cocktail or two.  VALUE: $300.

See Savannah SLOWLY by Bike
What is better than a bicycle built for 2 – how about one built for 15?  Enjoy a ride on the Savannah Slow Ride for 6 and a $100 gift certificate from The Distillery.  VALUE: $250

Get Inspired
Join the creative and inspiring energies of TEDx with two all-access tickets to the May 18^th event at the Jepson Center.  Then keep your creative juices flowing with an annual Telfair Museum of Art Dual/Family Membership and Collection Highlights book.  VALUE: $155

Bikes on the Beach
A relaxing bike ride on the beach is captured in this wonderful black and white photograph by local artist Jane Neville.  VALUE: $300

Champagne and Cupcakes Night Out
Enjoy delicious cupcakes, cool champagne, and a night out with friends with this unique party opportunity for 20 at Gigi’s Cupcakes.  Invitations provided by Heidi Halabuda.  VALUE: $150

Don’t Bike; Paddle Standing Up
Tired of biking?  Try a weekend of stand-up paddleboarding for two with this gift certificate from Half Moon Outfitters. VALUE: $240

Don’t Bike; Paddle
Enjoy the peace and serenity of a kayak trip through Georgia’s barrier islands.  A 3 hour kayak tour for two, leaving from Brunswick or St Simons, with SouthEast Adventure Outfitters.  VALUE: $150

We’re so excited about our first Pedal Medal Award, that we just couldn’t keep it under wraps. Savannah director of Mobility and Parking and friend to cyclists Sean Brandon is our first recipient of the Pedal Medal. He embodies
the idea of building a better Savannah through bicycling. We’re grateful for his dedication to a more bike-friendly city, and look forward to seeing you all at the Pedal Medal Celebration at the historic Kennedy Pharmacy on Thursday February 2. Get your tickets today, or attend as a volunteer!

More in the press release:

For Immediate Release

SAVANNAH BICYCLE CAMPAIGN TO RECOGNIZE THOSE WHO ARE MAKING SAVANNAH BETTER FOR BICYCLING

Bicycle advocacy group will honor City of Savannah employee for implementing cycling infrastructure improvements

Jan. 23, 2012 Savannah, Ga. — The Savannah Bicycle Campaign will recognize Mobility and Parking Services Director Sean Brandon at its first Pedal Medal award ceremony, Feb. 2 from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Kennedy Pharmacy, 323 E. Broughton St. The organization will also recognize Bill Bailey as its volunteer of the year.

“The Savannah Bicycle Campaign has made significant progress toward the goal of making Savannah safer and friendlier for cyclists, and encouraging people to make bicycling part of their daily lives,” said SBC vice chairman John Bennett. “This wouldn’t have been possible without the Sean Brandon’s leadership and vision.”

Brandon has spearheaded the expansion of Savannah’s pavement-marked bicycle lane network, including the Washington Avenue bike lanes and the Price Street bike lane and traffic-calming project, which will be completed later this year. He has also increased the number of bicycle parking locations, including racks at the corner of Broughton and Bull streets and other prominent locations.

“Sean is a public servant who leads by example,” Bennett said. “As a daily bicycle commuter, he demonstrates the practicality of cycling and the considerable benefits of going by bike.”

Tickets are still available for the ceremony, which will feature hors d’oeuvres, drinks and a silent auction. Tickets can be purchased online at http://bicyclecampaign.org/pedal-medal-award-celebration/ or by calling 912-228-3096.

Proceeds from the event will help fund a Bike Restoration and Education Center, to serve as center of cycling activities in Savannah-Chatham, to provide a physical presence for SBC and to allow for collection and rehabilitation of discarded bicycles to be put into safe operating condition. Bikes will be distributed to members of the community who have limited means for transportation and often resort to dangerously ill-fitted, poorly maintained bicycles. Distribution of these bikes and safety equipment will be a means to improve mobility for this at risk community and to allow us to deliver basic bike safety education and equipment.

As 2011 draws near its close, we at the Savannah Bicycle Campaign thought it only appropriate to reflect on what we’ve done in the past year to help make Savannah a more bicycle friendly community and how that has helped Savannah to have more, happier cyclists as part of the mix in our wonderful city.  We are also asking for your support for a new program that will further enable us together to build a better Savannah through bicycles, namely a Bike Restoration and Education Center, which with your help we hope to get started by Spring 2012.

The League of American Bicyclists uses the 5 E’s as the criteria on which it bases its ratings of Bicycle Friendliness. Here are some highlights from each of this year’s E’s to frame our progress:

• Engineering:
• Our ongoing advocacy for a southbound bike lane has paid off—the Price Street bike lane awaits only its final thermoplastic paint. One of the least calm traffic corridors in Savannah will soon have a dedicated southbound bike lane and on-street parking. The benefits to not only Savannah’s bicycle community but also residents along Price Street will be profound.
• The expansion of bicycle parking facilities continues throughout the community. City-installed racks are now in place at over 50 locations and requests are being served expeditiously—one recent request had virtually “same day service.”
• Our infrastructure survey and advocacy through various transportation planning committees and direct surveying of members and friends resulted in several bicycle friendly projects being prominently included in the projects list including the Savannah-Whitemarsh bikeway, bicycle improvements along Johnny Mercer Boulevard, and the West 52nd Street Corridor that will be voted on in 2012 as part of the proposed regional TSPLOST.
• Enforcement:
• SBC, in concert with GeorgiaBikes! and other local advocacy groups successfully lobbied for important changes to the State code sections governing bicycles, including a 3-Feet to Pass provision, legalizing existing equipment including clipless pedals and recumbent bicycles, defining a bicyclist’s right of way in a bike lane,  and clarifying when cyclists may legally “take the lane” for their own protection and the safety of vehicles operating in their vicinity.
• Education:
• Over 200 school children took part in events during 2011 that encouraged bicycling and provided them basic safety education and often, in partnership with SafeKids Savannah, providing them with free, properly fitted helmets to ride home with.
• Held our first Traffic Skills 101 adult vehicular cycling courses to train adult cyclists in proper on-road cycling.
• Courses taught to SCAD students on bike safety and maintenance.
• Encouragement:
• Third annual Midnight Garden Ride held in September with nearly 600 riders. Event was followed by a free concert in Forsyth Park.
• Earth Day and Fort Pulaski Wheelies held in April and November with over 200 total participants.
• Presence at a great many local events via our Bike Valet program.
• Evaluation:
• Third Bicycle Census conducted in conjunction with City of Savannah. The remarkable upward trend in the number of bicyclists has continued; we observed a doubling of cyclists at our checkpoints for the third straight year, and we saw bicycle counts of about 100 per hour at the busiest sites. The percentage of female cyclists (a key indicator of bike friendliness) and helmeted riders (a key indicator of people hearing and acting on bicycle safety suggestions) continued to climb in 2011.
• Auto-traffic accident reports, which we analyze annually, showed almost the same number of bicycle-auto crash incidents as in 2010. With a doubling in number of cyclists, this represents a per bicyclist accident rate drop of approximately 50%.

We’ve also done some good things to keep the organization running. We are in the second year of our Governor’s Office of Highway Safety grant (underwritten by Share the Road license plates) and have had continued success with the Midnight Garden Ride and other sponsor-driven fundraising events.

That said, we rely on your support, and we’ve also been working to improve our communication with members like you. Your support through donations and volunteering is invaluable in helping us continue our current programs and to develop new projects. Among the projects that we will be working toward in 2012 are the following:

• Put in place an SBC Bike Restoration and Education Center, to serve as a center of cycling activities in Savannah-Chatham, to provide a physical presence for SBC and to allow for collection and rehabilitation of discarded bicycles to be put into safe operating condition and distributed to members of the community who have limited means for transportation and often resort to dangerously ill-fitted, poorly maintained bicycles. Distribution of these bikes  will be a means to improve mobility for this at risk community and to allow us to deliver basic bike safety education and equipment. Your donation today will be matched dollar for dollar for the first $4000 in donations in order to get this facility started.
• More east-west bike facilities; we will have significant input in the development of a proposed Henry/Anderson corridor, that would provide an improved link from eastside Savannah to downtown;
• Directed advocacy for adoption of Complete Streets policies by Savannah, Chatham County and the incorporated municipalities within Chatham County;
• More educational outreach to area schools and universities; we invite any and all leads for critical pathways to get access to audiences in the education community;
• GIS generated bicycle maps showing safe routes throughout Chatham County for distribution both as a printed product through bike shops, hostelries, Visit Savannah and as on request routing assistance via the internet; and via the internet. If you’re trying to get somewhere around town by bike and are stumped on a route, please contact us.
• Continue working toward Bicycle Friendly Community Status for Savannah. SBC helped Tybee achieve its recent designation as a Bronze BFC; we can do it here in the Hostess City.

You have shown your support for Building a Better Savannah through Bicycles in the past through your membership, participation in events and contributions.  We look forward to your continued assistance in these ways and hope you will make an end of year contribution that will help us hit the ground running in the New Year. The Bike Restoration and Education Center in particular is critical to helping SBC evolve into a more institutional presence in the community and to addressing the 5 Es in a sustainable, systematic fashion.

If you prefer to donate by snail mail, please make checks out to Savannah Bicycle Campaign. Or, you can visit our web site at www.bicyclecampaign.org and simply use the Donate to SBC link (http://bicyclecampaign.org/join-sbc-today/).

Thanks again for all your support and best wishes for a happy, prosperous 2012.

Keep on biking.

Frank Mc

2nd Annual Bike 2 Beer Caroling Extravaganza

UPDATE: Because the weather outside is so frightful, we thought we’d have a few more happily harmonizing campaigners if we moved the festivities to this Wednesday, December 14. And so we have – please join us Wednesday!

Singing the songs of the holidays and propelled by our bikes, we’ll carol through Ardsley Park THIS WEDNESDAY next Monday starting at 6pm. To join the chorus, bring yourself, your bike and friends to Tiedemann Park (the Atlantic Ave mall in front of Savannah Arts Academy) at 6pm on Monday Wednesday. This is our December Bike 2 Beer, so we’ll finish with good cheer at SBC International Headquarters (Frank and Patty McIntosh’s house) at 205 E 50th St, with those festivities starting around 7:30 if you can’t make it for the ride and song.

HEAR US PERFORM!

To hear the sweet sounds of our band of bicycling carolers, bring good tidings, you and your kin to the locations below on Wednesday 12/14.*

Showtimes… our scheduled route for WEDNESDAY*

6:00pm: Tiedemann Park (Atlantic and Washington)
6:15pm: Guckenheimer Park (45th and Battey)
6:30pm: Theus Park (45th and Harmon)
6:45pm: Solomons Park (50th and Harmon)
7:00pm: McCauley Park (50th and Battey)

*If you are having a holiday gathering in Ardsley Park and would like us to stop by for a song, send an email to our Community Rides Chair, David Acuff – rides[at]bicyclecampaign{dot}org – and we’ll try to make it work!

• SAT 11/12: 9pm. Geekend Block Party – SBC pedal blending and bike valet will be on the scene at Montgomery and Broughton, just south of Franklin Square.
• SUN 11/13: 2pm. Jerry Jaycox Fort Pulaski Wheelie - A November tradition, free entry to Ft. Pulaski for the ride, with a cookout to follow. We’ll bring the burgers – you bring a friend and food to share!
• MON 11/14: 5:30pm reception/6:30pm forum. Mayoral Candidate Forum co-sponsored with USGBC and LWV.
  Runoff candidates Jeff Felser and Edna Jackson will answer questions about transportation and sustainability (see press release below)
• TUE 11/15: 7pm. Bike 2 Beer - Our monthly social at Moon River Brewing Company, 21 W Bay Street

MAYORAL CANDIDATE FORUM TO BE HELD NOVEMBER 14 AT COASTAL GEORGIA CENTER
Savannah mayoral candidates Edna Jackson and Jeff Felser will square off Monday, November 14, fielding questions regarding their positions on transportation and sustainability issues. The forum will start at 6:30 p.m., following a brief reception, and will be moderated by Jim Morekis, editor-in-chief of Connect Savannah. The Forum is hosted by the Savannah Bicycle Campaign, the US Green Building Council-Savannah Branch and the League of Women Voters.

Candidates will answer formal questions delivered by the moderator before taking questions from the audience and the media.

“As we choose our next mayor, it’s more important than ever to ensure that Savannah grows into the future and grows wisely,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, Chair of the US Green Building Council-Savannah Branch. “Through this forum, candidates can express their vision for how Savannah can be a leader by demonstrating responsible stewardship of our environment while incorporating innovative strategies as part of that solution.”

“We’ve seen a tremendous increase in the use of bicycles for transportation in the community. The City of Savannah government has been a positive influence in that growth, and we hope this forum allows candidates the chance to address how they will help continue this trend and also make transit and pedestrian options more viable,” said Drew Wade, Chairman of the Savannah Bicycle Campaign. “Several long-term transportation planning efforts are reaching the point where those decisions become a critical part of the community we live with for the next several decades; we need to make the right decisions.”

The Forum will be held at the Coastal Georgia Center for Continuing Education, 305 Fahm Street, Savannah, GA, http://cgc.georgiasouthern.edu/. For more information about this forum, please contact Frank McIntosh, Executive Director, Savannah Bicycle Campaign at frank@bicyclecampaign.org or 912-272-1074.

As Savannah braces for the coming of thousands of marathoners this weekend, we announce the return of the Jerry Jaycox Fort Pulaski Wheelie NEXT weekend, after all the foot-racing hubbub dies down. The Wheelie will begin around 2pm on Sunday, November 13.

The ride, now in its fourth year, is named for founding SBC board member Jerry Jaycox who passed away riding his bicycle. The ride will again take riders of all abilities through the trails and dikes of Fort Pulaski and include a spin out to the McQueen’s Island Rail Trail which parallels the south channel of the Savannah River (The trail runs along the old Savannah-Tybee Railway corridor). The ride will be about an hour (and you’re free to wander around longer, if you’d like), much of it on non-paved surfaces, and so fat-tire bikes are recommended, though it can be successfully negotiated with a hybrid or road bike. Entrance to Fort Pulaski and all national parks that weekend is free in honor of Veterans Day!

As always, after the ride, we host a cookout at the picnic area at Fort Pulaski that serves as our launch and finish point (go left at the fork when you come into Fort Pulaski). It’s a fun event, and we’ll provide burgers, dogs and beverages — please bring a dish to share!

Make sure these folks get the credit they deserve by nominating them for the Savannah Bicycle Campaign’s first Pedal Medal awards. Nominations are open now through Dec. 1. Simply fill out the form below now closed. Pedal Medal winners will be honored at the Pedal Medal Celebration on Thursday Feb. 2 – purchase your tickets today!

WHAT
Bike 2 Beer: Share the road, share a cocktail!

WHEN
6pm, Tuesday October 25

WHO
You and other awesome Campaigners

WHERE
Bonna Bella Yacht Club
2740 Livingston Ave

WHY
Lots of rain in the forecast for Tues 10/18. We’ll head out to Bonna Bella Tuesday 10/25, ride your bike with us if you like from Habersham Village starting at 5:30 (be sure to bring lights)!

Today, city council approved the plan that has been in the works for months, which takes 2 auto travel lanes and transforms them into a parking lane, a bike lane, and an auto travel lane. City staff tell us that the plan is for completion of this now approved project by the end of 2011. Neighborhoods along Price Street have supported this project because it calms the speeding traffic that commonly resulted in numerous car vs. home crashes, provides on-street parking, and returns a sense of neighborhood to a corridor that pedestrians — families with strollers, dog walkers, anyone headed from a to b on foot — currently avoid.

Which begs the question, “Why just Price Street?” Aren’t there other neighborhoods and streets that have been needlessly overtaken by the virtue of maximizing motorized vehicle speed? We know as you do that there are, and we’ll keep working to support the city’s efforts to bring similar treatments to other neighborhoods and expand the network of dedicated facilities, especially on higher traffic through-streets. We will especially make this point clear as we discuss the future of transportation and sustainable development in Savannah at next Tuesday’s candidate forum, so be sure to join us at the Coastal Georgia Center at 6pm!

So what is the end result of a few new stripes of paint? Better neighborhoods, filled with people interacting on a human level — a safer, saner, and healthier place. We all know it — bicycles make Savannah better!

WHO
You and other awesome Campaigners

WHAT
Bike 2 Beer Social…
Share the road, share a cocktail!

WHEN
7pm, Tuesday September 20

WHERE
basement at Moon River Brewing Company
21 West Bay Street

WHY
Fall is here along with beautiful weather for bicycling.
Also, elections are near! Hear about our upcoming Candidate Forum and the Midnight Garden Ride wrap-up

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