My next biking mission has been finding a group to ride with around Atlanta.  I think this would be a great way for me to find routes, become more comfortable and meet more bikers.  The biggest challenge I have with this is I am so worried that I will end up meeting with a group that is a lot more experienced than I am.  I don't want to slow people down, but I also don't want it to be all new bikers, because then I won't learn anything.  It's an interesting situation to be in.

I sent a tweet out to my followers a week ago asking what the best way would be to find a group, and I got a lot of great ideas.  The most obvious one was going to a local bike store to find a group.  My first thought was "duh!"  Why didn't I think of that? But this is why I love Twitter.  It's a way for me to hear the obvious answers that I couldn't think of myself. 

Another one of my followers suggested I attend Critical Mass, which I had never heard of before.  Apparently, this is a meet-up of bikers - beginners to experts - who meet at Woodruff Park on the last Friday of every month and ride as a mass around Atlanta.  It sounds very fun, but after doing a little research, it sounds like sometimes people get a little out of control during this ride.  It also seems like they might not be spreading the right message about bikers.  It looks like people are responding negatively to the mass, because they are breaking rules like running red lights in order to stay as a group.  I fear this is not helping bikers in the long run.  Instead of trying to earn the respect from drivers to give us space on the road, it sounds like they might be losing some support.  I'm sure there's more to the story, but that's what I've concluded so far.  I found a blog post about Critical Mass and a Facebook group.  You can also find some YouTube videos if you Google "Atlanta Critical Mass."  I decided it would definitely be interesting and fun to try this out some time, but I might start with a group elsewhere first. 

The third idea I heard on Twitter was checking Meetup.com for bike groups.  I thought that was another great idea.  I'll be researching all three of these.

Has anyone tried these ideas or have a different way for me to find beginner cycling groups?

I've noticed I do not ride and rarely do I even want to ride my bike during the winter.  First of all, I simply do not like cold weather. At all.  But also, I don't know how to dress in order to make sure I do not freeze.  Is there a secret I do not know or are all the bikers I see riding in the winter freezing?  It's really a bummer and I cannot wait until it's warmer out so I can ride again.  I miss it.  Plus, the other issue besides the cold is that it's dark out at 5:30pm.  So, the only time I could ride is in the morning which is the coldest time of the day.  Anyway, please let me know if you have any suggestions.  I need to find a way to ride in the winter or I will continue to lose my consistent biking routine when the winter season arrives. 

Maybe all I really need is motivation and someone to push me to get myself out there... whether it's cold or not.

So I decided to write a post today, because I had one of the best running days in Atlanta that I've had yet!  I have been training for my first marathon for several months now (the marathon is two weeks from today in Orlando!). Therefore, my sister and I have had a lot of very long runs around Buckhead.  Today was our final long run before the big race and we ended up running 21.3 miles.  The best part was since it was our last one, we decided to run to Midtown from Buckhead and then take MARTA home to make it a fun, final experience. And what a run it was!!

First, we ran around Buckhead to make sure we would get in enough miles.  We even had to do a circle in the beginning to run back to our apartment; it was hotter than we thought and we had to take off some layers of our clothes.  Once we knew we had enough mileage to head to Midtown, we ran down Peachtree Street and ended the run running around Piedmont Park.  Too cool, huh?! To make it even better, we brought some cash with us, so we stopped by Smoothie King on our way to MARTA and grabbed ourselves a tasty fruit drink for the ride home.  Normally, on our past long runs, we would get home to then find that we were craving a smoothie and we would have to drive to find a smoothie place.  So, this was like heaven to end our run right near the smoothie store. 

Now, this is the type of run I have dreamed about because I love the city and I love running.  What a great combination and such a fun way to end our marathon training!

If anyone has any other fun routes to run around Atlanta, please be sure to send them my way!

I recently found an article about Atlanta's first GDOT Director of Planning, Todd Long.  The article mentioned that this was a new position and they're hoping it will help bring change.  One of the committee members stated that Long understands the current state of the GDOT as well as where they need to be.  This is relevant to my mission because they mentioned that this meant Long will be focusing more on carpooling, mass transit, biking, walking, and telecomuting as part of his planning.  Lets really hope this is the case.  The more people we have in positions where they can make a difference and are pushing these specific transportation issues, the more change we will most likely see. 

 

My first big find while researching different places I could ride around downtown was this map of Atlanta with all the streets ranked on how safe they are to bike:

http://www.atlantabike.org/files/DT%20MP%20Map%20Vertical_2008-09-25.pdf

The document even includes tips and guidelines for bikers in Georgia, including safety classes you can join that help you feel more confident about riding in the city. I'm thinking it might be a good idea for me to take one of those classes just to make me feel better about it, especially since I've never been on a bike in a city before.

What a great resource! Now, I just need to find one for Buckhead, and I will be set. I tried searching and could not find one. Anyone know if there is a bike map like this one available for the Buckhead community?

       I wanted to start out my blog explaining some of the reasons I decided to make my topic about safer routes for runners, walkers and bikers.  I have always been a runner.  To be even more specific, I have always been an outside runner.  I really just like being outside altogether.  It doesn't matter what I am doing.  Therefore, I have also always enjoyed walking my dog, walking to clear my head or walking while chatting with a friend.  Then, in college I began my love for the bike.  After realizing how far I could go on a bike, how relaxing it was and how I was able to travel around Athens all while enjoying outside and getting some exercise, you know that got me hooked as well.  So, now I have three major things I absolutely love to do outside.  I am currently living in Marietta, so I can do all those things pretty safely around there (biking is sometimes hard but there are lots of sidewalks if it gets dangerous on the road).

     So, the issue is... I'm moving to Atlanta in a few weeks.  It was so hard to decide on an area I wanted to live in because I just couldn't imagine getting used to running and biking around the city.  We ultimately decided on Buckhead and I am determined to be part of the push to getting these streets of Atlanta safer for bikers and easier to walk.  I LOVE Atlanta.  I'd do anything to help it grow and become an even better city!  Therefore, this is going to be a place to learn about movements that are already in place, share safe routes that have been discovered and communicate with one another to work together on this goal.  Thanks for reading and I hope you will visit often and share your own comments from time to time. :)