Healthy Memphis

Celebrate the long July 4th weekend by joining the Red, White and Blue Metric Century Ride. For the math challenged, that translates into a 60-mile ride.

Organized by the Memphis Hightailers bike club, all routes depart from the Lakeland Factory Outlet Mall on July 5 at 7:30 a.m. On-site registration begins at 6:30 a.m.

The cost is $10 for members and $15 for nonmembers. For more information or to check out other club activities, visit the group's web site. 

Bicycling Magazine recently rated Memphis among the worst cities for cycling in the country. Memphis tends to top the wrong national lists, but the story is typically more complicated than these lists indicate.

Why is Memphis NOT among the worst cities for bicycling? Memphians had no problem identifying the problems associated with bicycling in the city, but why is Memphis actually a great place to ride?

Still, Memphis is a challenging place to bicycle. Bike lanes are often heralded as the fix-all for urban cycling woes, but besides a bike lane, what could we do to improve the city for cycling?

Log on and join the conversation!

  Dr. David LaVelle, an orthopedic surgeon with Campbell Clinic, sent in this report after completing his seventh 100-mile mile. LaVelle, of Memphis, took seven hours and 17 minutes to complete the 3-State, 3-Mountain Challenge on May 3. His cousin Mike Tomlinson traveled from Florida to Chattanooga for the event. The two men took a break at the 1,600-foot summit of Sand Mountain for this photo. Tomlinson is on the left and LaVell on the right.

Here is his report:

"The storm which caused so much damage and pain in the Mid-South Friday night went through Chattanooga on Saturday morning. Mike, my older cousin and riding partner for the 3-State, 3- Mountain Challenge, and I watched the Weather Channel Late into Friday night. Saturday morning we got up early, got our gear together and rode a little over
a mile to the University Tennessee, Chattangooa stadium where the ride was to take off at 8 a.m.

"The sky was very threatening and about the time we got to the stadium the thunderstorm began. We took shelter in a pavilion next to the stadium for about an hour and then the ride began.

"The ride organizers must have had their eye on the radar because just as the
last of the thunder had passed, they let us leave to begin the ride.

"It rained for the first 25 miles of the ride and then gradually cleared. It remained cloudy until the last 20 or so miles.

"One may ride safely in the rain but it is much less fun. Just like driving a car, it takes longer to break, and the wheels can slip out from under you, so you must go slower on the same roads than when the roads are dry. The rain gets on your glasses and when riding behind someone else to let them cut the wind in front of you (drafting) the water on the road sprays directly into your face. The end result is that my goal of doing the ride in less than 6 hours was doomed from the start. At that point the goal was to finish the ride upright.

"My time was 7:26. Last year I did it in 6:45.

"Mike lives in Tampa, Florida, where cyclists consider interstate over-passes hills to be conquered. He is 60 years old and he got on the cycling kick about the same time I did in 2006. Last year when we did the 3-State, 3-Mountain Challenge, he had to walk up the last section of the last mountain (Burkhalter gap on Lookout mountain). Luckily, I'd been able to train on the hills in Shelby Forest and while much lower and shorter, if you ride them repeatedly, you get the training you need to conquer the 1800 feet it is to make the last climb. So last year I didn't have to walk. Even though I'm 5 years younger than Mike, this has been on his mind for the last year. I made it up the two and a half miles of the climb and he didn't. So this year he emphasized something called interval training and work on this all year. And it paid off. He was able to make the climb.

"I almost gave up. It was much hotter after the rain cleared out. My current bike has fewer lower gears. I had not been able to train as much this year as last year.

"The reason I didn't give up? I really don't know, except that it is not in my makeup. I was panting and thought I'd get sick. But it passed. Then I recalled something my son, the wrestler, had on one of his tee shirts: "Pain is Temporary but Pride and Accomplishment are Forever." Funny how cheesy things might stick in your head.

"On the way into Chattanooga, we passed an accident where a bike rider went down. The ambulance was there picking him up. I have no idea who he was or how he was hurt. A car may have been involved, he may have had equipment failure or just missed a turn. It was a sober reminder that cycling is a dangerous sport. It makes you want to be extra careful, but every human activity carries risk. While working at The MED off and on over the last 20 years, I have seen people hurt every way imaginable. Of course I've seen cyclists but many more car and motorcycle victims. I've taken care of people hurt from falling out of trees, off mountains, ladders and out of bed or from slipping on ice, wet leaves and gum balls. So for me, it's like another corny but true quote, this one from "Braveheart": "All men die, but not all men really live."

"I tried living a safe, secure life from a couch and it nearly killed me. Now I feel like I'm really living."

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Do bikes belong in the Memphis roadways?

Do you find it easy to navigate the Memphis roadways on a bicycle? Is it difficult? What is frustrating as a motorist when driving near bicycles? What would make it easier?

Log on and join the converstaion!

The votes are in, and the consensus is that Memphis is a tough place to be a bicyclist or a pedestrian.

How could an advocacy organization change this? Have you lived in a city with an advocacy group? What did they do? Was it helpful? What strategies would a Memphis Bike/ped advocacy organization employ to make Memphis a better place for bicyclists and pedestrians? Would you like your organization to be a part of such a group?

Log on and join the conversation!

Do you ride your bicycle to work? Do you ride to school? Do you go for groceries by bike, or take your bicycle to the movies? Do you refuse to go by bike in Memphis? Log on and join the conversation!

Kyle Wagenshutz and I left early Friday morning for a three day bicycle adventure. The Plan: To ride 89 miles to Fort Pillow State Park on Friday, bask in the beautiful weather and camp on the riverbluff, ride 60 miles back to Shelby Forest State Park on Saturday for a final night of camping, and pedal the last 30 miles back to Midtown on Sunday morning. 40 miles north of the city, Kyle got a flat. No problem. Quick innertube swap and we're back on the road. Well, no. Kyle's tire ripped as we inflated the tube, a non-reparable problem and fatal blow to our cycling vacation. With no cell phone reception and a stray dog we named "Bandit" in tow, Kyle and I began the long walk down Tennessee Highway 59.

Kyle chimed in: "You know, Burt Reynolds is actually a pretty good looking guy." I looked at him skeptically. "Hear me out on this," he replied. You have to understand we had a lot of time on our hands. After arguing for awhile about whether Burt Reynolds sans mustache was a handsome man, we decided to take a risk and air up Kyle's tire enough to ride. Before we knew it, we were rolling into the Gulf station 15 miles west of Covington on Highway 59. You know the one. After socializing with the locals (they insisted we check out some freshly downloaded pictures of crude rock formations shaped like human body parts), Kyle's wife arrived to cart us home: a great adventure lost to a bad tire.

On Saturday, the Memphis Hightailers hosted the "Bluff City Blues 100" century ride. My roommate Zac Holford rode the 100 miles and stopped in at the Gulf station 15 miles west of Covington on Highway 59. Kyle and I had gained a reputation in those parts. "One of those boys had a colorful tattoo," the Gulf attendant told Zac. "They were having some problems." Indeed.

Though neither Kyle nor I rode the Hightailers century on Saturday, we had our very own Bluff City Blues cycling experience this weekend.

Cycling mishaps? Bluff City Blues Stories? Tell us about it!

The USA Today ran a story this morning about the increasing interest among city leaders in creating bike friendly cities.

Government leaders in New York, Boston, and San Francisco are holding their cities to the standards of European cities like Copenhagen, where nearly 40% of trips are made by bike

"'We're re-imagining the streets of New York,' says Janette Sadik-Khan, the
city's transportation commissioner. Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to add
200 miles of bike lanes by 2010 to serve a growing population.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino last month named a former national cycling
champion to be the city's director of bike planning. The city is
identifying the best roads for bicycling in a mapping project that
cyclists eventually may be able to access online. It also plans to add 250
bike racks by next fall and this month will hold a summit of cycling
experts to determine a long-term bike strategy.

'There's never been so much attention from cities collectively for cycling
as a mode of transportation,' says Loren Mooney, executive editor of
Bicycling magazine. 'Cities are recognizing that it is a realistic and
inexpensive solution to a lot of different problems — to the traffic
issues, to pollution issues, to personal health issues because instead of
sitting in cars for an hour you have people out burning calories.'

Chicago is striving by 2015 to have 5% of all trips shorter than 5 miles
to be taken by bicycle. Mayor Richard Daley also is considering launching
a bike program he saw in Paris. That effort, begun in July, allows
residents and visitors to check out a bike at one location, ride free
during the first half-hour and park the bike at another location near
their destination."

There are, however, the skeptics among us. The article went on:

"'I don't think encouraging cycling is going to reduce congestion or
significantly change the transportation makeup of our cities,' says Randal
O'Toole, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. 'There really is very
little evidence that any of (these efforts) are reducing the amount of
driving. They're just making it more annoying to drivers.'"

It was reported yesterday in this very newspaper that City Councilman Tom Marshall has proposed the development of a citywide bicycle transportation plan. That's great! Except Memphis already has one.

Could it be improved? yeah. Memphis' Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee improved the plan as recently as this past July.

The hot question is Who will step up and flex the political muscle necessary to improve the City of Memphis by creating a bicycle
infrastructure? From where I write, it appears that citizens will take the lead, and the monthly critical mass rides appear to be the first charge in a public push for cycling improvements.

In other cities mayors are taking the lead--Can our new City Council muster the political wherewithal to develop the 21st century urban sensibility of thriving metropolitan areas like Boston and San Francisco? It's worth reminding our readers that former Memphis City Schools superintendent Carol Johnson recently accepted a position in the Boston Public schools system. I wonder if she commutes by bike? If not, Boston would be a good place to start.

This past Friday marked the 15th anniversary of the San Francisco Critical Mass Ride. Critical Mass rides are informal, "unorganized" rides that occur on a monthly basis. Around the world, cyclists gather on the last Friday of each month and ride through the streets of their town in a public display of cycling unity and fun. The ride varies from town to town, as a central component of the Critical Mass phenomenon is that the character of the ride emerges from spontaneous group decisions rather than from a group or an individual leader. This means Critical Mass rides can attract the surliest cyclists among us, riders bent on "reclaiming the roads", but Critical Mass also attracts the more modest cyclists, rolling slow on cruiser bikes and riding simply to enjoy the weather. The nature of these rides vary from confrontational to friendly. In 2004, Cyclists in New York combined a Critical Mass ride with a protest at the Republican National Convention, and the ride ended in a clash with police. Cyclists were manhandled, arrested, and bikes were confiscated. Elsewhere, cyclists just gather and ride their favorite routes without any intention of confrontation or politicization. The New Yorker magazine described the New York Critical Mass Rides as "monthly political-protest rides", calling into question the non-political character of the CM. But as Critical Mass operates in more than 325 cities now, it is impossible to characterize the ride as any one thing. The rides are as varied as the people who attend.

This past Friday (the last Friday of the month), about a dozen cyclists gathered at Overton Park's Rainbow Lake parking lot for a "Celebration of Bicycle Riding". Riders rode from the park to Downtown Memphis, cruised along Front st. as the sun was setting, and rode back through Central Gardens, enjoying the cool of dusk and the sweet smell of blossoming crepe myrtle trees. A Critical Mass ride? Well, one needs a "critical mass" of riders first. The ride was more a celebration of the two wheeled wonder that is the bike, the beautiful city streets that are Memphis roadways, and the fellowship that springs from bicycling. The group agreed to meet up again next month--5:30 p.m. on the Last Friday of the month at the Rainbow Lake parking lot.

What do you think about Critical Mass Rides? What is their place in Memphis--if the rides have a place at all?

Here's and e-mail from our Life Cycles columnist Anthony Siracusa:
More than 25 bicyclists held a rally over the weekend to celebrate the presence of bicycles and pedestrians on the streets of Memphis. It started in Overton Park and ended at Peabody Park.
Other rallies are planned, and as one learns best from experience, it is hoped our elected and appointed representatives accept the invitation of learning about the Memphis' cycling and pedestrian experience. The experience may bring some sensitivity to this issue that will benefit Memphians health and welfare.
Read Anthony's latest column:
http://commercialappeal.com/news/2007/sep/10/a10cycle/