Sitka prizes pedal pushers — and wins bicycling honors
Mon, May 5, 2008
Posted in Alaska News
One year after launching a community-wide effort to raise awareness and improve safety, Sitka is officially a bike-friendly community.
Robert Woolsey, KCAW - Sitka
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3 Comments to “Sitka prizes pedal pushers — and wins bicycling honors”
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I bicycle often in Sitka and while it’s slightly more bicycle friendly than some places (discounting the weather) changes still must be made to bring the reality up to the level implied by “bike-friendly community.” These include improved driver ed, law enforcement and training, bike lanes and bike racks / infrastructure, and public outreach / awareness. Personally, I have been honked at and swerved at by a car here and when I reported this, I was told (by Sitka Police) that this is “not harassment.”Bicyclists bring so many advantages to a place - less traffic, less pollution, less noise, less crime, more health, happier people. Let’s hope Sitka motorists will eventually learn to accept bicyclists as people, rather than an obstacle, nuisance, or target, on their way to 45 mph.
Well if you visit Anchorage, be careful! APRN’s own Rebecca Sheir — host of AK — as been hit twice (twice!) by absent-minded drivers while she was riding her bike to and from work.
We’ve also had another employee hit by a car while walking to work. Insane. Sitka sounds pretty good to me!
I suspect all towns could do a better job with all the items you mentioned. Thanks for commenting!
This message is for Konrad. I am a Sitka resident and I was involved with the push to get our community recognized as Alaska’s first official Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists.
Most of the members of the Sitka Bicycle Friendly Community Coalition are well aware there is more that needs to be done as far as driver/biker education, infrastructure, police enforcement, public awareness, etc. Because we need more work, we only won a Bronze Level award. We welcome your participation as we try to upgrade to a Silver or Gold award in the future. This is a start, and we hope to improve conditions for cyclists, especially since more people are going to be riding bike as gas hits $4-$5 a gallon.
For more information on the project, go to http://www.sitkaaoc.org/Projects/bicycle.html (from there, there’s a link to an online forum where people can post upcoming events, dangerous potholes, etc.).