A busy, successful year of a Georgia community making a difference.
When we’re not busy helping injured cyclists with their bike accident claims, we at Bike Law Georgia love to spend our time helping to make the world a better place for everyone who enjoys riding on bikes. We are honored to join the collective efforts of fellow advocacy groups, organizations, cycling clubs and individuals in making Georgia a safer place to ride bicycles. Although we see change and improvement every year, it’s still incredibly frustrating that bicycle commuters, recreational riders and invisible riders in Georgia are victims of traffic violence daily. There is so much more to do!
2019 Bike Law GA highlights:
- Sponsored and had a booth at 3 Atlanta Streets Alive and the first Decatur Streets Alive.
Taught multiple bike safety clinics for kids and teens at Carl G. Renfroe Middle School in Decatur and at Pedal Forward Community Bike Shop’s grand opening. - Sponsored and attended several big bike rides; including Beltgrind, Tony Serrano Ride, the famous Donut Ride, the Georgia 400 Ride and St. Paddy O’Pedal Ride by Olde Blind Dog Cycling Club.
- Participated in the Georgia State University Bike Fair organized by Panther Bikes.
- Sponsored and participated of the 6th annual week-long Atlanta Cycling Festival, hosting multiple events.
Held the 1st Lawyer State Bar Ride departing from the State Bar of Georgia. - Collaborated with BikeFriendlyATL in remembering the lives of cyclists lost to traffic violence in Georgia with the 9th annual international Ride of Silence.
- Hosted our very first Bike Party to celebrate our wonderful community and friends at our office.
- Presented multiple “Bike Law 101” clinics at the Atlanta Cycling Festival, Ladies on Spokes meetings in Coweta and Fayette counties and at the CycNet Cycling Group at the CDC.
- Visited our friends at bicycle repair shops throughout the state and stocked them with bike safety resources for their clients; including Outspokin’ Bicycles and Andy Jordan’s Bicycle Warehouse in Augusta; Pedal Forward Community Bike Shop in Hogansville; Oconee Outfitters in Milledgeville; Atlanta Trek McDonough in McDonough; The Bike Store in Warner Robbins and Douglas Bicycle Shop in Douglas.
- Were interviewed by local media news stations 5 times and were interviewed for a documentary about bicycling in Georgia created by high school students.
- Partnered with Bike Walk Macon and Georgia Bikes instructing police officers in Bibb Country Sheriff’s department through a POST certified training session on bicycle law and safety.
- Publicly addressed Atlanta city elected officials and Mayor Keisha Bottoms about bicycle safety and vulnerable road users 3 times.
- Testified at the House Committee on bicycle safety.
- Collaborated with the students at Grady Highschool in their Biketober- Love to Ride event.
- Sponsored and participated of the 2019 Georgia Bike Summit in Atlanta.
- Participated of the DeKalb Slow Roll and advocacy “think tank” meetings 22 times!!
- Distributed over 5000 bicycle ID cards in Atlanta, Metro Atlanta and throughout Georgia.
- We didn’t keep count of the many water bottles, stickers, t-shirts, bicyclist pocket guides, blinkie lights, caps and cycling gear that we gave away in 2019. We love seeing Bike Law swag and kits at bike rides and on social media.
- Raffled 3 Woom balance bikes for kids and 2 Cycliq bike cameras.
- Worked with Dunwoody City council on crafting the language for a Vulnerable Road User ordinance which was eventually passed, making Dunwoody the first City in Georgia to enact such a law.
- Worked with Georgia Bikes, the Statewide Advocacy organization, on a plan to help get legislation passed to clarify the language of Georgia’s safe passing law, aka the 3 Foot Law.
- Met with fellow Bike Law National Network lawyers for a 3-day summit focused on improving the way that we help injured cyclists including focus on retrieving electronic data, crash reconstruction and biomechanics.
- Participated in the inaugural Bike Law Think Tank with advocates from around the country to discuss local initiatives for bike advocacy and collaborating on ways to help raise safety awareness nationally.
Bike Law GA represented a significant number of bicyclists in personal injury claims, lawsuits and traffic citations in 2019. We are proud of the dedication of our attorneys, litigation paralegals and case managers in pursuing justice and fair recovery for bicyclists and vulnerable road users.
Bike Law ambassadors were busy too! They tirelessly championed for safer streets by speaking to the media multiple times, attending public meetings at Atlanta City Hall, engaging with their local politicians and organizing or participating of important advocacy actions like the Human Protected Bike Lane. 2019 ended with a new weekly bike ride, L.I.P.S Ladies Into Pedaling Successfully – hosted by Bike Law Ambassador Trena Hunter. We are so grateful for every Bike Law Ambassador and their passion!
The Bike Law Georgia Cyclocross Team had an awesome year too! Bike Law Georgia Cyclocross Series hosted the Cyclocross State Championships with Trisha Vandusseldorp from the Bike Law team taking a win in the Cat. ¾ Women’s Race, Michael Weigand in Cat. Men 3 and Christopher Hale in Cat. Men 4. The Bike Law Cyclocross team also hosted a cyclocross clinic as part of the ATL Cycling Festival and volunteered at a repair night for FREE Bikes for Kids.
We also got a new beautiful bike rack at our home office in Decatur! Big thanks to SOPO Bike Coop and our friend Andrew Harding who brought all the tools and materials in their cargo e-bikes and installed a Dero bike rack outside of our office in the spring.
2019 was a fantastic yet busy year for Bike Law Georgia and we are excited about 2020!
Bruce Hagan’s cyclist law firm is fully committed to representing Georgia bicyclists. “All of our attorneys and most of the staff are full-time riders,” he says. Bruce has handled hundreds of bike crash cases and actively helps bicyclists understand Georgia’s bike laws.
