Wheels & Heels: Decatur Is Biking to the Capitol

You don’t need to wear lycra shorts, but you will need a bicycle and a helmet to ride with Decatur Mayor Bill Floyd and Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and show your support next Tuesday as part of the sixth annual Georgia Rides To The Capitol.

Decatur cyclists are a huge catalyst for the annual event, which will start at 10:45 a.m. on March 22 from the north parking lot of the East Lake MARTA station.

Decatur City Commissioner Fred Boykin, the owner of is coordinating the event, which will include more than 35 mayors and other elected officials, students from Glennwood Academy and hundreds of Atlanta-area cyclists.

Governor Nathan Deal will address the crowd from the Capitol steps, Boykin said.

“We ride to raise awareness of the need for bicycle facilities in the state,” said Boykin.

The annual ride is a show of force, demonstrating to Georgia legislators  “that there is a large group of Georgia residents who do support cycling, and who would like to see the state create better facilities and more of them,” Boykin said.

Last year’s event attracted more than 1,500 cyclists, who met with elected officials to advocate for improved cycling conditions in the state. Cyclists successfully got state legislators to authorize a special “Share The Road” license plate, and state officials announced a $435,000, three-year grant for Georgia cycling advocacy groups.

Registration for the event is free, and Boykin encourages all area residents to join in the easy-paced ride, which will include police motorcycle escorts from Decatur to downtown.  Boykin encouraged any Decatur students interested in doing the ride to contact him.

“It’s my understanding that the ride is an excused absence for Decatur students,” Boykin said.

have participated in the ride for several years, said Leslie Stuart, the school’s Safe Routes to School coordinator.

“We are promoting it as part of the Safe Routes to School initiative, whose goal is to get more students actively walking and biking to school,” Stuart said. “All fourth graders have a bicycle safety training class at Glennwood, which is also part of the bigger picture. We have lots of student bikers at [the school]. I would estimate more than 30 a day.”

Decatur has established itself as a bicycle-friendly town, with the addition of new bike lanes, more bicycle parking downtown, and an active cycling community.

At least one legislative priority of cyclists didn’t make it out of committee this session. Cyclists had been pushing a bill that would have mandated that motor vehicles leave at least three feet when passing a cyclist.

But another piece of legislation is still alive. House Bill 101, sponsored by State Reps. Doug McKillip (R-Athens) and Doug Holt (R-Social Circle) would revise Georgia laws pertaining to bicycles, including transporting children on bicycles, riding on roadways and bicycle paths, bicycle equipment, and legalize the use of recumbent bicycles, among other matters.

The proposed bill defines a bicycle lane, specifies striping, and says such lanes “shall at a minimum, unless impracticable, be required to meet accepted guidelines, recommendations, and criteria with respect to planning, design, operation, and maintenance as set forth by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.”

When a road has a bike lane, the law would require motor vehicles to  yield to the cyclist and “not block or impede the bicycle lane from bicycle traffic.”

A part of the law that might be controversial is one that would prohibit anyone from transporting a child under the age of one on a bicycle and would require children ages one to four to be secured in a child passenger bicycle seat, bicycle trailer, or infant sling according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Now, I don’t really trust babies in rear bicycle seats, the kind over the rear wheel, but when my teenagers were babies, I regularly transported them into tow-along trailers and felt they were safe. I would be opposed to any law that would outlaw parents from transporting older babies, at least, on the roads in bicycle trailers.

I do, however, like the section of the law would also require bicyclists to “ride in the same direction as traffic on the roadway,” as long as it would not prohibit cyclists riding on the local PATH from riding in both directions, since the PATH isn’t on both sides of the road. But bicyclists should certainly be forbidding to ride against traffic in lanes such as the one along Ponce.

I applaud the provision requiring bikers riding at right to have white front lights visible from 300 feet away and a red rear light or a red reflector approved by the Department of Public Safety.

Bikers who attempt to negotiate roads at dusk or night without lighting are taking a huge risk. The law repeals a section of the law requiring pedal reflectors, which would make many modern bicycle cleat systems, such as Shimano's SPD pedals that I and many active cyclists use, illegal under Georgia law.

I’m planning to ride next Tuesday. If you can get the morning off, dust off your bicycle and join us.