Approximately 100 reclaimed “as is” bikes will be up for auction on George Street, between Glebe & Coming (police are closing off the street next to Physician’s auditorium)

Wednesday, October 12 11:00 – 2:00.  Bikes should be ready for preview by 10:00.

Cash or check only – no refunds

Must take possession of bikes at purchase – no storage for later pick up

Charleston Moves will be on hand to offer bike safety tips.

Cover it. Come. Spread the Word. Ride. Eat. Be Joyful.

Pedal your bike. Have fun. Help continue Edwin Gardner’s Work…

EDWIN GARDNER thought it was cool, fun, and efficient to get around Charleston on his bicycle. Plenty of other Charleston residents feel the same way. They’ll celebrate Edwin and the bicycle, his preferred mode of local transportation at 9am this Saturday (July 30) for the first annual RIDEdwin. The Rally/Ride starts and ends at Cannon Park at the corner of Calhoun and Rutledge.

Edwin died one year ago after being struck on his bike by an auto. But RIDEdwin isn’t a mournful event. “I hope we get a lot of people together to make our city a safe place to ride bikes,” says architect Whitney Powers, Edwin’s widow. (She and their daughter Olive continue pedaling their bicycles all over the Charleston peninsula.)

The pre-ride rally will be brief and the short, safe (police-escorted) ride should be fun for everyone, children included. Organizers are also asking pedicab operators to show up in numbers in case there are participants who would prefer paying to ride instead of pedaling. Food and beverage (provided by local restaurants, markets and bakeries) will be provided after the ride. (Route takes riders south to the Battery and north again to Cannon Park.)

Gardner served his community in many ways. He conducted his life as he believed. He was a skilled kayaker and a boat builder. He founded the Mosquito Fleet in order to teach people — especially underprivileged youth — about our maritime history and about the joys of being on the water. His attention was focused broadly, beyond bicycles and boats or any single issue. But his latest contributions as a member of the new Peninsula Task Force deal directly with alternative forms of transportation, bicycles, pedicabs, CARTA and more.

Organizers hope the RIDEdwin will keep Gardner’s vision for a better community alive and galvanize people to pitch in to make it happen.

(for more info—Tom Bradford 843-813-0101)

This .63 mile bikeway is an incredible transportation and recreation corridor. Parallel to Meeting St. and extending from Cypress St. to Huger St., the bikeway is used by residents of the East Central, Wagener Terrace, and other neighborhoods.  It connects to several schools, bus stops and new businesses such as DwellSmart.  It just needs a little TLC and community awareness in order to move forward with recent plans which includes a new Charleston County skate park

Gloves and trash bags provided.  If you have rakes or other tools, please bring them.  EVERYONE IS NEEDED FOR ANY TIME YOU CAN COME!!!!

Just show up but if you have any questions, please email:cleanbikeway@gmail.com.

So what's all the fuss about? Why is having a safe crossing important?  Because the tiny sidewalk that exists now is dangerous, and in order to have a fully-integrated alternative transportation network in Charleston, we have to be able to get ourselves over the rivers.  Safe crossing allows for cross-pollination of businesses and people.  

So the new proposal is to transform one of the four lanes into a bike/pedestrian lane.  Many are against this, but many are for this.  If you are one of the latter – here's how to get involved and have your voice heard.  If you are the former, it can't hurt to educate yourself about the proposal or add an idea of your own!

Read up on the original Post and Courier article – Bike access pedals ahead

Read up on the recent City Paper article – Ashley River bike options down to taking a lane back from traffic

"Like" the Ashley Crossing Coalition on Facebook and stay tuned for more events and news.

Follow the Charleston Moves blog.

"While activists and community members started this kind of positive change, the tourists have jumped in and are now pushing for more of the green infrastructure that visitors to New York City find so appealing. As soon as they hop off the plane, they begin to flock to our green spaces, jump in pedicabs, have picnics in the parks, and rent bikes to go on expeditions to see community gardens."

Sound familiar?  Why, yes it does.  That's exactly what visitors to Charleston do.  They walk on King St, rent bicycles, explore the parks, ride the trolleys, take a pedicab, sit on quiet benches….and they spend a ton of money while doing it.

So given that much of Charleston's economy is tourism-based and the tourists here tend to enjoy the city by walking, biking, and meandering through the parks, wouldn't the addition of more 'green' infrastructure increase tourism, bolster the economy and put more money in the locals' pockets? 

Yes, we think it would….

Related articles:

"Charleston Bike Rentals in January"

Go here to read more!

Here’s a quote from commenter ‘manumitir’

“Mountain biking is the act of setting one self free. It’s letting go of the world and its trivialities in exchange for a ride that seems like flying… in deed, flying in a mental state so unanchored from everything, so awake, so clear… the bike moves stimulating the senses, through the grip and feet the body feels as if riding a tangible version of dream matter… and in a way, one ends up recognizing its existence in a very peculiar way”

View Office to Fish in a larger map

To the untrained eye – It looks easy, you go straight up King St.  But as we locals know, King St is a one-way street heading in the opposite direction of where I needed to go.  As we also know, it is against the law to ride against traffic or on the sidewalk and police officers will ticket you for doing so.  So alas, another route must be selected.  Let’s examine the possibilities below, pretending that I am a novice bicycle rider just getting used to riding on the city streets:

• Meeting St – a highly trafficked road as it is a main throughfare in and out of town.  Matters are made much worse by the fact that 6 inches from the curb are deeply indented grates that are manageable only on a fat tire bike – and are uncomfortable and dangerous at that.  Attempting to make a left turn anywhere along this route is treacherous.

So let’s try going the other direction…

• St Philip St – Doh!!  Foiled again.  This is also a one-way in the wrong direction street from Beaufain St to Calhoun.
• Coming St – again, a highly trafficked one-way two-lane throughfare, designed to get ye to the highway, with parking on the right side (Doors!).  

Thus none of these options listed above are safe or legal! 

So I am forced to choose between two alternate routes, each of which adds a significant amount of time and distance to my ride – about 1.5 miles and 10 minutes for each route.   Now, I am not complaining – I’ll do it.  But the point is for the novice bicyclist or someone not familiar with our city streets – THERE ARE NO GOOD VISIBLE ALTERNATIVES and this set up, just does not make sense

View alt routes in a larger map

So what’s the fix?  Yes – Bike lanes galore all over town!!  That would be preferable.  But what about a near-term fix just to get us going in the right direction. (Pun intended).  

1. Turn St. Philip Street into a two-way street, slowing traffic down as it goes through the middle of the CofC campus, and joining it back into the two-way St Philip St north of Calhoun.  
2. Put signs on King St (facing opposite traffic) with signs delineating “Bike Route” – so everyone knows which way they should be going.

So what do you think? Weigh in here! And please don’t just sneer “cyclists should just get off the roads!” – it’s getting a little bit old. You are also not allowed to say “Well, why don’t you just walk?” That’s what I ended up doing.

In our ongoing pursuit to make the City of Charleston a better place for everyone to live and ride, the staff here at the Charleston Civic Design Center (CCDC) is looking at the opportunities to expand the City’s bicycle U-rack parking along King Street.
As a part of our investigations we are looking to discover both the areas of greatest opportunity as well as areas of greatest need.

The areas of greatest opportunity are the areas where underutilized conditions exist between uses that we think we can use to put to better use by installing multiple bicycle racks. For example we are currently investigating the planting strip on the very southwest corner of King and Radcliff.

We think that we might be able to use this currently rather empty and barren area to install as many as 8 U-racks without interfering with any of the existing on street vehicular parking or utilities. We think areas like these provide the best opportunity for quickly getting much more bicycle parking available along King Street, and as such we will continue to look for these opportunities.

The areas of greatest need are exactly what they sound like. They are the areas that seem to be most in need of increased bicycle parking opportunities. We can and have figured out some of these areas simply based on our own experiences of parking along King. They are the areas where we never seem to be able to find a place to park our bike, or areas where we tend to most frequently see lots bikes parked. However, we are a small office here at the CCDC and we know that our own bike experience along King Street is limited so that’s where we are asking for your help. We want to hear from you. We want to know what areas along King Street you use the most, and what areas you think need to have the most in need of an increase in bike parking? Go ahead, leave a comment to let us know what you think.

Thanks,
- The staff of the CCDC

1. Ride the wrong way down a one-way street
2. Ride on a sidewalk when the speed limit is less than 35.
3. Blast through a stop sign or light.

Just remember these simple things and we'll all be safer (and richer) for it.