We are thrilled to be working with Venture Expeditions.   Started in 2002 by three college friends, Venture has grown from under-equipped dreamers to a non-profit adventure travel leader on a mission to inform and empower people to fight injustice throughout the world. Over the past 7 years, Venture has sent out dozens of teams, some biking, some hiking, some canoeing–and all raising over $700,000 for projects working to free the world of poverty, slavery and injustice.

Check it out @

http://ventureexpeditionsblog.org

I’m in Augusta for the funeral of Matt Burke.  Woke up this morning to find this in the Augusta paper.   Vile, pitiful, sadistic.  The paper pretends that it is covering the general “frustration” of drivers stemming from an “accident.”  Let’s get the facts right: Matt Burke and other cyclists were run down in broad daylight on a straight road; the driver has been charged with a major crime (carrying 10 years in jail).  And today is his funeral.  For shame.

The wrong story on the wrong day in the Augusta Chronicle.

Anti-urban sentiment harmful

Can urban life be improved by suburbanizing it? An editor of The Post and Courier seems to think so. The paper’s lead editorial on Sept. 15 titled “Unrestricted dwellings unwise” implied “reasonable standards that make a city livable” include minimum parking requirements, zoning and limits on density.

For too long the City of Charleston has advanced a one-dimensional, suburban planning mindset which prioritizes car movement and storage. While this may benefit tourists and commuters driving in cars, it is precisely these auto-centric “reasonable standards” that harm urban livability.

Favoring cars over people is a contributing factor to the peninsula’s population plunging from 70,000 in 1950 to 37,000 today. Over the same period, the city has been on an annexation binge, growing its boundaries from 3,500 to 70,000 acres.

The city is now bigger than Washington, D.C., and Boston combined. But with 115,000 people, Charleston has less than one-tenth the population of those cities. Ten countries have a smaller land area than the City of Charleston.

In 1921, when the city had a population of 68,000 living on the peninsula, it had a simple streetcar network with annual ridership of more than 15 million. Today, with its population of 37,000 people and four million annual visitors, the peninsula’s DASH transit system barely attracts an annual ridership of 250,000. Why? A manic fixation to make automobiles happy.

The editorial staff of The Post and Courier can better serve its readership by highlighting what other cities are doing to reduce automobile dependence and enhance urban life. Last year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York permanently closed Broadway through Times Square to cars. San Francisco recently implemented a brilliant parking management system — check out www.sfpark.org. Closer to home, Savannah has revived streetcars and ferries to complement its efficient bus system. Greenville regularly closes its Main Street to the great joy and benefit of its citizenry. And innovative Mount Pleasant took the bold lead of legalizing accessory dwelling units — an excellent form of affordable housing, with mutual economic benefits for primary homeowners.

If Charleston is serious about being “green” and enhancing urban livability, its leadership must overcome the anti-urban sentiment of those who seek to constrain growth by hobbling the city with obsolete parking regulations and other red herrings that favor cars over people.

Stop trying to suburbanize the peninsula and instead work to accommodate population growth in a compact manner through measures that support alternative forms of transportation aimed at reducing oil dependence, air and noise pollution, automobile crashes and traffic congestion.

Vincent Graham

The I’On Group

Civitas Street

Mount Pleasant

I am often asked for the text of the South Carolina bicycle laws.  I have been reluctant to post them on my site, because sometimes they cause more confusion than clarity.  But, anyway, here they are (current as of 8/10).  Please call me with questions:

SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS

SECTION 56-5-3410. Applicability of article to bicycles.

The provisions of this article are applicable to bicycles whenever a bicycle is operated upon any highway or upon any path set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles, subject to those exceptions stated in this article.

SECTION 56-5-3420. Rights and duties of bicyclists generally.

A person riding a bicycle upon a roadway must be granted all of the rights and is subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle by this chapter, except as to special provisions in this article and except as to those provisions of this chapter which by their nature can have no application.

SECTION 56-5-3425. Bicycle lanes.

(A) For purposes of this section, “bicycle lane” means a portion of the roadway or a paved lane separated from the roadway that has been designated by striping, pavement markings, and signage for the preferential or exclusive use of bicyclists.

(B) Whenever a bicycle lane has been provided adjacent to a roadway, operators of:

(1) motor vehicles may not block the bicycle lane to oncoming bicycle traffic and shall yield to a bicyclist in the bicycle lane before entering or crossing the lane; and

(2) bicycles are required to ride in the bicycle lane except when necessary to pass another person riding a bicycle or to avoid an obstruction in the bicycle lane. However, bicyclists may ride on the roadway when there is only an adjacent recreational bicycle path available instead of a bicycle lane.

SECTION 56-5-3430. Riding on roadways and bicycle paths.

(A) Except as provided in subsection (B), every bicyclist operating a bicycle upon a roadway shall ride as near to the right side of the roadway as practicable. A bicyclist may, but is not required to, ride on the shoulder of the roadway in order to comply with the requirements of this subsection.

(B) A bicyclist may ride in a lane other than the right-hand lane if only one lane is available that permits the bicyclist to continue on his intended route.

(C) When operating a bicycle upon a roadway, a bicyclist must exercise due care when passing a standing vehicle or one proceeding in the same direction.

(D) Bicyclists riding bicycles upon a roadway shall not ride more than two abreast except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles.

SECTION 56-5-3435. Driver to maintain safe operating distance between motor vehicle and bicycle.

A driver of a motor vehicle must at all times maintain a safe operating distance between the motor vehicle and a bicycle.

SECTION 56-5-3440. Manner of riding bicycles; number of persons which may be carried.

A bicyclist propelling a bicycle may not ride other than upon or astride a permanent and regular seat attached to the bicycle. No bicycle may be used to carry more persons at one time than the number for which it is designed and equipped.

SECTION 56-5-3445. Harassing or throwing object at person riding bicycle; penalty.

It is unlawful to harass, taunt, or maliciously throw an object at or in the direction of any person riding a bicycle. A person who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined not less than two hundred fifty dollars or imprisoned not more than thirty days, or both.

SECTION 56-5-3450. Clinging to vehicles prohibited.

A person riding upon any bicycle, coaster, roller skates, sled, or toy vehicle may not attach it or them or himself to a vehicle upon a roadway.

SECTION 56-5-3460. Carrying articles.

A bicyclist operating a bicycle may not carry any package, bundle, or article that prevents the rider from keeping at least one hand upon the handle bars.

SECTION 56-5-3470. Lamps and reflectors on bicycle.

A bicycle when in use at nighttime must be equipped with a lamp on the front which must emit a white light visible from a distance of at least five hundred feet to the front and with a red reflector on the rear that must be visible from all distances from fifty feet to three hundred feet to the rear when directly in front of the lawful upper beams of head lamps on a motor vehicle. A lamp emitting a red light visible from a distance of five hundred feet to the rear may be used in addition to the red reflector.

SECTION 56-5-3480. Signaling turns; penalty.

(A)(1) A bicyclist shall indicate a right turn by extending the left arm upward, by raising the left arm to the square, or by extending the right arm horizontally to the right.

(2) A bicyclist shall indicate a left turn by extending the left arm horizontally.

(3) A bicyclist shall indicate stopping or decreasing speed by extending the left arm or the right arm downward.

(B) A bicyclist is not required to give signals provided for in subsection (A) continuously if the hand or arm is needed to control the bicycle.

(C) A violation of this section is punishable by a fine of twenty-five dollars.

SECTION 56-5-3490. Brake on bicycle; penalty.

A bicycle must be equipped with a brake that will enable the bicyclist to make the braked wheels skid on dry, level, clean pavement. A violation of this section is punishable by a fine of twenty-five dollars.

SECTION 56-5-3500. Violations of article; penalties.

(A) Except as otherwise provided, in the absence of another violation being cited, a violation of this article by the driver of a motor vehicle is subject to a civil fine of up to one hundred dollars unless a bicyclist is injured as a result of the violation.

(B) In the absence of another violation being cited, a person driving a motor vehicle who violates a provision of this article and the violation is the proximate cause of a:

(1) minor injury to a bicyclist, must be assessed a civil fine of up to five hundred dollars; or

(2) great bodily injury, as defined in Section 56-5-2945, to a bicyclist, must be assessed a civil fine of not more than one thousand dollars.

SECTION 56-5-3515. Authorized police patrol bicycles; operating as emergency vehicles.

(A) An authorized police patrol bicycle used as a part of a police bicycle patrol may exercise the privileges of an emergency vehicle provided in Section 56-5-760.

(B) An authorized police patrol bicycle may be equipped with a siren or the officer may utilize a whistle in the performance of his duties, or both.

(C) Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 56-5-760(C), an authorized police patrol bicycle acting as an emergency vehicle is entitled to the exemptions of an authorized emergency vehicle if it makes use of an audible signal meeting the requirements of Section 56-5-4970 or visual signals meeting the requirements of Section 56-5-4700.