Stone Mountain Mayor Joins Thousands in Bike Ride to Capitol

Stone Mountain Mayor Patricia Wheeler joined more than 40 metro Atlanta mayors and city officials and about 2,000 cyclists who converged on the capitol Tuesday for the sixth annual Georgia Rides To The Capitol event.

Unlike other officials, Wheeler was unable to cycle on Tuesday because she had a knee replacement recently. But she attended to show support for cycling, which is especially popular in the Stone Mountain community.

"With the economy the way it is, we all need to be riding bicycles," said Wheeler.

About 25 cyclists gathered in Stone Mountain village to pedal downtown, meeting up with another group from Decatur, said Vicki Thompson, director of the Bicycle Ride Across Georgia (BRAG). BRAG, the annual cross-state bicycle ride, is based in Stone Mountain.

"We're riding in support of better cycling in the state," said Thompson.

When Thompson and the other Stone Mountain cyclists got to Decatur, they joined Decatur Mayor Bill Floyd, Georgia  Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and other elected officials who had a motorcycle escort to ride downtown. There they met another peloton of about 1,000 cyclists led by Roswell Mayor Jere Wood, who had started in Roswell.

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.

On the steps of the capitol, a colorful sea of bike jerseys and spandex unfolded to urge lawmakers to reconsider a law that would require motor vehicles to leave at least three feet when passing a cyclist. Although that bill did not “cross over” and 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, 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 one on bicycles, legalizing clipless pedals and recumbent bicycles, and requiring bicyclists use headlights when riding at night, among other matters

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, who did not cycle, spoke to the gathered cyclists and thanked them for their efforts to adopt local schools and working 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 cycling laws to earn motorists' trust.

“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.