Successful advocacy takes time. This is the story of the dedicated volunteer advocates who have worked diligently for safe bike infrastructure in the City of Greenville. I am proud to share it with you.
Greenville Spinners Bicycle Club Advocacy Chairs.
Beginnings
In 2004, Jason Van Driesch became the first Greenville Spinners Advocacy Chair. He was not into group rides but joined the Spinners for this cause—no other organization represented active transportation bike riders at the time. James Thomas soon joined Jason in advocating for city infrastructure.
In 2005, the Greenville Spinners drew up the Proposed Downtown Cycling Map. Greenville City Council approved it that year. The map shows the first bike lane on River, Richardson, and Townes Streets. This was the first advocacy victory for Jason and James.
James Thomas on the Founding and Impact of Bikeville
In 2007, James Thomas took on the position of Greenville Spinners Advocacy Chair. Thomas provided this history of the City of Greenville’s staff support for advocacy and its progress:
2007 “Andrew Meeker joined the city staff as a landscape architect. He soon started the “Bikeville” meetings leading efforts towards a City Bicycle Master Plan in 2011.”
2008 “With Bikeville we suddenly had a core group of resolute advocates who were meeting monthly. We had city staff members from most departments in attendance at the meetings. Bikeville’s ongoing dialogue and diverse representation was crucial to really developing a community of bike advocates in Greenville. Bikeville changed the minds of the city staff and city council about the value of bike infrastructure.
“Bikeville also started because we needed a group of citizens and city officials to meet regularly. With it, we were able to successfully apply to the League of American Bicyclists to become a “Bicycle Friendly City “
Andrew Meeker and Elise Dunbar
celebrating the Bicycle Friendly Community Designation.
Scott McCrary has memories dating back to this time
“I took over from James Thomas as the Spinners Advocacy Chair in 2009 and engaged in helping move forward many of the city efforts.
Andrew Meeker was the main driving force while I was on the Spinners board, and so working with the city’s Bikeville organization was easily the most fruitful way to accomplish advocacy.
The adoption of the bicycle master plan in 2011 and the designation of Greenville as a bicycle friendly community, were notable achievements in that period. There were additions to the city bike lanes, including the Laurens Road corridor and near the city center.
I also had a personal focus on the Swamp Rabbit Trail, an effort newly spearheaded by Ty Houck with Greenville Rec. This included my renovating the site now owned by Swamp Rabbit Café. “
As all SRT users know the café has been a spectacular success, and clearly Scott was a big part of the story.
Bike Walk Greenville’s Advocacy
I became the Spinners Advocacy Chair in 2011, and my serving in that position provided a great learning experience and launched me as an enthusiastic advocate.
2013 Edward Kinney, employed as a senior landscape architect, took over leadership of Bikeville as part of his duties.
2015 Bike Walk Greenville commenced advocating with the city in October.
2016 Citizen volunteers partnered with the city to build the demonstration protected bike lane project on E. Broad Street in May.
2017-18 Volunteers met frequently with Edward and other staff members to discuss potential new projects.
Over the years, Edward Kinney’s responsibilities increased, allowing only 10% of his workload for biking infrastructure projects. The Bike Walk Greenville Board recognized the need for a full-time staff person and started advocating with city leaders for that position.
2019 The City of Greenville created the position of City Mobility Coordinator, resulting in the hiring of Calin Owens. Bike Walk Greenville considers this our most important advocacy win.
Having a full-time staff person has rapidly accelerated the city bicycle network that we document in The growth of bike infrastructure in the City of Greenville.
The Power of Advocates
Over the last two decades the citizen advocates who have helped convince the City Council to invest in safe bicycle infrastructure have all been volunteers. Because they cared so much, they all found time to do so in their busy lives.
Since we formed Bike Walk Greenville as an all-volunteer non-profit 11 years ago, the number of volunteers that have joined in our advocacy efforts is significant, and we thank all who have done so.
We sometimes even had press coverage when we advocate as was documented in our blog post from 2020, How one City Council Agenda Item led to a 30-minute discussion about safe biking infrastructure.
Citizen advocates have had a significant impact on moving the city forward that aligns with the inscription on our SRT girl on a strider bike statue, “we all need a safe place to walk and ride a bike.”
Of course, advocates do not do the work to implement the projects we advocate for. Thank you to the four city employees who have helped make Greenville a city far safer for people on bikes than two decades ago.
Photos from their LinkedIn Profiles
The 1995 Bikers Map
After we published this post, Hank McCullough, who served as the Greenville Spinners President in 1996, reminded us of the efforts that were underway in 1994 that led to the publication of this map of 12 bike routes in Greenville County that included three in the City of Greenville. Greenville Spinners Bicycle Club volunteer Dave Heitz served on the the Greenville Bicycle Committee and provided an update on the Nov-Dec 1994 Yarn Spinner newsletter that were in the Spinner’s paper files of the progress being made on this map.
Volunteer advocates have been working on safe biking infrastructure in the city for three decades, not two. A long journey indeed!
