Locals: Come to the Ann St. Bicycle Boulevard Opening on Saturday
The first bicycle boulevard in the Southeast officially opens Saturday with an opening celebration at the Martin Luther King Center at 10am. The Ann St. Bicycle Boulevard terminates at the riverfront, and the grand opening celebration is timed to coincide with the Spring opening of the riverfront farmer’s market. I’m sure many of my local readers plan to walk or ride to the farmer’s market, boulevard, fanfare or not, but attendance at the opening of the boulevard will impress upon the mayor and others in attendance that bicycle facilities in the city are needed and welcome. After the celebration (I have an inside tip that some bike locks and complete bicycles will be given away) their will be the shortest group ride in history to the farmer’s market. The eastern end of the boulevard doesn’t extend out of downtown, but is a part of the the River to Sea Bikeway that will be improved in the next few years to eliminate the harrowing sections (on Oleander across Bradley’s Creek, Wrightsville Ave, etc) and provide a worry free route from downtown to the beach, and vice versa.
Thanks so much for posting this as a reminder, Anthony ~ will definitely try to make it. Great to see Wilmington, slowly but surely, trying to make in-roads in the bike path/lane area.
In 2007, I attended this excellent seminar sponsored by The New Yorker in NYC, featuring none other than David Byrne of Talking Heads fame, who is a great biking advocate. The seminar was called “How New Yorkers Ride Bikes.” One great segment focused on cities that had totally committed themselves to biking as a way of life. Byrne brought in Jan Gehl, the designer/architect of the amazing system developed in Copenhagen. Copenhagen should serve as a reminder to what a city CAN do to promote biking and how successful it can be become when given attention and care in execution. It’s hard to believe, but a staggering 70% of people there use bikes in one form or another and near 40% depend on bikes for transport to get to work. The USA has trouble getting into the upper single digits in bike commuting. I think Portland is perhaps the best biking city in the U.S. although you better bring your rain gear (still one of my favorite cities, however).
Wilmington is quite a ways behind but it’s small steps like these that help the movement. Ive noticed quite a bit more bikers at Wrightsville Beach as well, whether on Cruisers, road bikes, or the Fixed Gear/Single-Speed. Hope to see a nice turnout this Saturday. Weather should be great.
- kh
I like the markings on the street: bikes and Citroens only!!