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Johns Creek Mayor Joins Thousands in Bike Ride to Capitol

Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker joined thousands of Georgia cyclists Tuesday in a bicycle ride to the state capitol to lobby for laws to help make cycling safer.

Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker joined an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 cyclists, including more than 40 metro-Atlanta mayors and city officials, who converged on the capitol Tuesday for the sixth annual Georgia Rides To The Capitol.

Bodker, chairman of the Metropolitan Mayors Association, pedaled from Decatur to the gold dome, where he welcomed the gathered cyclists, attired in a rainbow sea of colorful jerseys and spandex.  The association was a sponsor of the event.

"On behalf of the more than 40 mayors and council members from 28 cities across the metro-Atlanta region joining us today, I welcome you to the Sixth Annual Georgia Rides to the Capitol event, where we call attention to the need for more bicycle and pedestrian networks across the Atlanta region," said Bodker.

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Cycling is a transportation option that is "an affordable, pollution-free, healthy means of travel that can be a real traffic congestion solution, especially around schools, in town, and when paired with transit," said Bodker.

Earlier, Bodker had joined Decatur Mayor Bill Floyd, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and other elected officials who were escorted by motorcycles to downtown, where they met another peloton of than 1,000 cyclists led by Roswell Mayor Jere Wood, who had started in Roswell.

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Cagle, a triathlete used to riding at 17 m.p.h., pedaled his expensive carbon-fiber bike that he admitted “cost more than my first car.”

“Cycling is great exercise,” said Cagle. “I’m seeing the cycling community grow across Georgia.” But he said traffic poses a threat, and advocated better laws to protect cyclists and creation of more paths. He also touted his office’s Healthy Kids Challenge, a program to fight childhood obesity.

Downtown spectators watched the parade of cyclists roll downtown on every kind of bike imaginable, from expensive racing bicycles, to tandem bicycles, bikes with an extra wheel towing a child, laid-back recumbent bicycles, fixed-gear bicycles and at least one old-fashioned “Penny Farthing” bicycle with a high seat, an enormous front wheel and a tiny rear wheel, ridden by Tim Byrd of Conyers.

At the capitol, cyclists expressed disappointment that lawmakers had failed to approve a law that would require motor vehicles to leave at least three feet when passing a cyclist. Although the bill is dead for this session, the cyclists were undeterred, frequently breaking into chants of “Three Feet Rule.”

But another bicycling bill still alive is House Bill 101, sponsored by State Representatives Doug McKillip, R-Athens, and Doug Holt, R-Social Circle, which would revise Georgia laws pertaining to bicycles, specifying that cyclists have the right-of-way in bike lanes, establishing minimum guidelines for safe bicycle facilities, prohibiting children under 1 on bicycles, legalizing clipless pedals and recumbent bicycles, and requiring bicyclists use headlights when riding at night, among other matters.

Bodker introduced Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, who thanked the gathered cyclists for their efforts to adopt local schools and to help provide bicycles for “those who would not otherwise afford it.”  Encouraging young people to bicycle is a key to reducing Georgia’s obesity rate, which Deal said climbed from less than 10 percent before 1990 to 27.2 percent last year, “an alarming statistic.”

Harris Blackwood, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, announced a $164,000 grant to the statewide cycling advocacy group Georgia Bikes and two local cycling groups, the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign and the Savannah Bicycle Campaign, to be used to promote cycling education and cycling safety.

Tom Morris of Decatur, an active cyclist, says bicyclists must learn to obey traffic laws.  

“If cyclists want respect, you have to show respect,” said Morris. Cyclists who habitually ignore traffic laws by blowing through stop signs and red lights represent “the extremes” of cycling,  Morris said. “This is a good represenstation of the cycling community in a public way.”

Dan Conroy, who pedaled about 25 miles from Roswell, agreed with Morris.

“We all need to share the road, whether we’re on a bike or in a car,” said Conroy, a Suwanee surveyor.

"Events like Georgia Rides To The Capitol serve as a catalyst," Bodker said, "presenting communities with alternatives and gaining support from our partners at the state level."

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