Law Ann reports on a great weekend.

It was a great weekend for bikes, at least in my (Ann’s) world.

Thursday was the start of the 3^rd annual North Carolina Bicycle Summit, this year in Greensboro. Work kept me away until Saturday, when I drove up to deliver a presentation, along with Jeff Viscount and Steven Goodridge, and introduce the Bike Law Book #1 (Ride Guide: NC Bicycle Laws).

The talk was called, “What you don’t know can hurt you.” Jeff, a ride and charity events director and founder of www.weeklyrides.com discussed common difficult interactions and misunderstandings between cars and bicycles. Steven talked about interactions with police and how to improve them. I discussed what happens when everything goes awry and you find yourself dealing with insurance and possibly the court system. At this point, I strongly recommend that no one talk with anyone until first talking with an experienced bicycle accident attorney.

The Summit offered so many opportunities for learning and promoting advocacy, with multiple breakout sessions and presentations from leaders in other parts of the country. Coming from a city where creative people are often told, “that can’t be done,” it was great to hear a city planner from Memphis talk about the innovative, exciting yet unorthodox things Memphis is doing to revitalize its downtown and historic areas to improve bicycle and pedestrian traffic. A panel discussion about woman and cycling was pretty enlightening about the obstacles woman, particularly new women riders, face riding. Turns out that getting started is the hardest part!

It was great to see many faithful advocates at the summit, offering wisdom and taking information back to their own communities, including Charlotte’s Pamela Murray, Dick Winters, George Berger, Martin Zimmerman, Asheville’s Joe Sanders and Lee’s McRea’s Ted Silver, and many others.

On Sunday I got to turn off my brain and head up to Black Mountain for the Asheville Cyclocross Series Race at Pisgah Brewing Company. Well attended by a fun crowd from Charlotte (and of course racers from around the state), the race lived up to cyclocross expectations – cool and muddy. Rain started in the middle of my race, making the course slick and goopy – and way more interesting! Great way to break in the new Bike Law kit.

I’ve always said my favorite thing about cycling is the people I get to be around doing it. That certainly was true this weekend.

Ann Groninger

North Carolina lawyer and Bike Law founder, Ann Groninger, has advocated at the state level on behalf of bicyclists in North Carolina for over 15 years. Ann has offices in Charlotte and Durham and has helped bike accident clients in Asheville, Raleigh, Durham, Greenville, Wilmington, Fayetteville, and throughout the state. Read more about Ann on her bio page.