Bike parking law having effect in Charleston
Of 37 bicycles in the shop on Monday, he counted 10 hard-core road bikes “that we would ride with spandex and helmets.”
“The other two-thirds are Swamp Rabbit Trail bikes, city bikes, commuter bikes, transportation bikes,” McDougald said.
It’s those bikes, and the cyclists who ride them, that became the focus of a discussion of bike safety at a town hall meeting earlier this spring hosted by Rep. Wendy Nanney of Greenville after she’d introduced and then pulled a bill that would have required cyclists to obtain permits and carry insurance to bike on state roads.
Bike shop owners who attended the town hall said they often see customers who are casual riders or uses bikes to commute and may not know the rules of the road.
If Greenville’s 16 bike shop owners had something to give them that detailed rules and laws for bike safety, they could reach an audience that may not be familiar with cycling laws, McDougald said.
In response, The Greenville News partnered with The Greenville Spinners bike club as well as the Palmetto Cycling Coalition, BikeWalk Greenville, Bike Law and Greenville B-Cycle to print flyers with rules of the road for cyclists and motorists to promote safety and distribute them to area bike shops to give to customers.
“Every time somebody buys a new bicycle in Greenville, we’ll tell them the rules of the road, we’ll tell them the law and what they should do,” said Frank Mansbach, outreach coordinator for The Greenville Spinners.
Robin Bylenga, owner of Pedal Chic on Main Street in Greenville, said customers frequently ask her what the local bicycling laws are because many riders are coming from out of state or from other countries.
“Some of us with the Spinners, we’ve been riding on the road for years and years, so we’re used to it,” Bylenga said. “The new people that aren’t, what we want to do is help them ride safely and as we grow as a cycling community, it’s really important that we all understand and respect one another and that we all share the road.”
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