Help cyclists: Raleigh cyclist says she was hit by car intentionally
If you have any information, please contact the number in the article. Thank you. Reprinted in portion only, with express permission from WRAL's Managing Editor, and by request of interested parties.
Original article and broadcast by the local CBS affiliate, WRAL News, 7/01/08
By: Adam Owens
"RALEIGH, N.C. — Every year, there are more than 900 crashes between motorists and bicycle riders in North Carolina. Most are thought to be accidental; however, a Raleigh cyclist said the driver that hit her over the weekend did it intentionally...."
"McKeithan said she was pedaling along Old US 1 in Chatham County Saturday afternoon when a car struck her. She suffered cuts and bruises to her arms, shoulders and legs...."
"McKeithan also said she believes the car the hit her was a charcoal-gray Chrysler 300M with a license plate that began with the letters 'X Y T.'"
Vandals Destroying, Stealing Community Group's Property
Original article and broadcast by local NBC affiliate, NBC-17, 6/22/08
By: Chris Cowperthwaite, NBC-17 Cary Reporter
CARRBORO, N.C. - Vandals are targeting people trying to do something good in Carrboro.
Organizers of a community bike repair workshop called the Recyclery say they want to find out who's been wrecking their site.
Chris Richmond, director of the Recyclery , said that he doesn't want the vandals punished; he wants to meet them, and include them in the Recyclery community.
Ideally, he'd even invite them to do a mural on the side of the building.
"We could use their help painting a building rather than just randomly tagging," said Richmond.
He and a handful of volunteers oversee a mini mountain of bicycle parts, and use it to help people learn all about bike maintenance.
"Our basic idea is that if a bike is in better working order, it's going to be ridden more often," said director Chris Richmond.
Help out long enough, and folks can even build a bike of your own to keep.
ReCYCLEry on Facebook and Myspace
The ReCYCLEry now has group pages on Facebook and Myspace. Please join up and feel free to contribute any relevant photos and messages! The groups will be whatever the community makes of them...
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9471439213
Myspace:
groups.myspace.com/reCYCLEry
Also, after you sign up for the 2008 SmartCommute Challenge, then you also add it to your events on Facebook.
Blue Bikes Rolling
Original article published in The Carrboro Citizen Front Page, 7/26/07
By: Jack Carley, Staff Writer (photos by Kirk Ross)
The ReCYCLEry, Carrboro’s nonprofit community bike workshop, is working to bring more bicycles to Carrboro roads. By expanding their bike loan program, called Blue Urban Bikes, or BUB, they hope to get people pushing bike pedals instead of gas pedals.
The Blue Urban Bikes program is the ReCYCLEry’s biggest push to promote bikes on Carrboro and Chapel Hill roads. For the annual price of ten dollars or two hours of volunteer work, anyone can become a BUB member and borrow the refurbished blue bikes for a day at a time, complete with two cargo baskets, lights, a lock and a helmet.
Keeping Carrboro Green
Original post and comments published on OrangePolitics.org, 9/27/06
The News&Observer has a story today about the Carrboro Greenspace effort:
Group aims to buy plot, keep it green, 9/27/06
A group is trying to raise the down payment on $1.4 million it needs to save a green hillside near downtown from buildings, cars and pollution.
The Carrboro Greenspace Collective is trying to preserve about 10.5 acres off of Old Pittsboro Road, where the "Old Sparrow Pool," a community swimming spot, used to be….
The collective is giving tours of the property at 2 p.m. Sundays. Meet at 116 Old Pittsboro Road.
Bicycle Activism Online
Original post and comments published on OrangePolitics.org, 9/18/06
"Simple. Salvage, teach, fix, and ride around… but how should we most effectively engage online?" ...more
Chance to make Estes better for bicycles!
Original post and comments published on OrangePolitics.org, 9/18/06
"I was investigating what was happening about the connecting of the existing bike paths on Estes with Carrboro by using the new Action Line and I got my question answered in one day!" ...more
Program fights traffic by loaning bikes (N&O) (CHN)
Original article published in The News & Observer, 9/12/06
Original article also published as "Cup of java and a bike to go, please" in The Chapel Hill News, 9/13/06
By: Patrick Winn, Staff Writer for Chapel Hill News and the News & Observer
Groups launch $10 rental bike program
CHAPEL HILL -- Public transportation is supposed to be cheap.
Now, in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, it can be good exercise, too.
On Monday, 30 used mountain bikes were reborn as community-owned loaners.
They're the "Blue Urban Bikes" fleet, tuned up and painted an unmistakable Carolina blue.
For a $10 annual membership fee, riders can rent one and roll out for up to 24 hours.
"For people used to driving everywhere, this is an easy, cheap introduction to public transportation," said Chris Richmond of the ReCYCLEry, an amateur mechanics collective that will maintain the fleet.
The ReCYCLEry runs the bike-loan project with the Carrboro-based environmental group SURGE, which stands for Students United for a Responsible Global Environment.
Similar initiatives have cropped up in other college towns such as Davidson -- home of Davidson College -- Austin, Texas, and near Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.
So far, two racks hold the rental bikes. One is in The Courtyard by the 3 Cups coffee shop on 431 W. Franklin St.
The other is in front of the Skylight Exchange cafe at 405 1/2 W. Rosemary St., several blocks away.
Members of the bike-loan program will present something akin to a library card to rent bikes from clerks at 3 Cups or Skylight Exchange.
Each bike comes with a lock and a rack in back to hold book bags or baskets. Helmets are not provided.
The project is expected to grow by 20 bikes each year. Adding more hubs -- one to Carrboro and one to East Franklin Street -- is already in the works, said Alison Carpenter with SURGE.
Though negotiations haven't started, Carpenter also said SURGE and the ReCYCLEry will push for a location on UNC-Chapel Hill's campus.
Terri Swanson, one of 25 people who signed up in advance, knows that's a place best traversed on two wheels.
"When I drive, it's almost impossible to find parking there," said Swanson, who runs a landscaping company with her husband.
Through their business, the couple have a contract with the university and frequently have to make forays into campus from their office on West Franklin Street.
Swanson would much rather zoom straight to a bike rack than hunt for an empty parking space. "It's good exercise and saves wear and tear on our car," Swanson said. "I think it's a great idea."
Event pushes a greener town (DTH)
Original article published in The Daily Tarheel City Section, 9/11/06
By: Eric Shepherd Martin, Assistant City Editor
On Sunday members of Carrboro Greenspace, a local organization to help preserve and secure natural land for public use, held a festival to raise awareness of the threat of development to the property on 116 Old Pittsboro Rd.
The property, which stretches 10.5 acres and holds one residential house, an abandoned in-ground swimming pool, and acts as the operating space for the Recyclery bicycle organization, was recently put on the market by its California-based landowners, said members of Carrboro Greenspace.
The festival, called "Usufruct" after the Latin term referring to the right to enjoy the use of property, was held to educated the community about the area and promote the idea the land as a community-owned, rather than industrialized, area.
Roses & Rasberries (CHN)
"Roses to the groups that last weekend launched a program to provide bicycles on a short-term loan basis for use in and around town..."
