As the Saporta Report reports, Atlanta just put out a Request for Proposals on a bike share program that would eventually span to both Atlanta and Decatur.   The initial Bike Feasibility Study (funded by the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation) gives great background on the initiative, including the map above that shows Atlanta/Buckhead and Decatur as the “Phase 1 Market Service Areas”.   (You’ll find a more detailed map on page 6 of the study.)

According to the study, Decatur would initially have 30 bikes at 3 different stations throughout the city, while Atlanta would have 540 bikes at 54 stations spanning the city’s core and up in Buckhead.

The executive summary of the study states that a bike share program “can work in Atlanta and Decatur” and estimates the initial capital and operational costs at $6 and 12.9 million over a six year period.

All this on the heals on the launch of NYC’s new bike share program over the weekend.

UPDATE: One additional point of clarification from Rebecca at Atlanta Bike…

the RFP is for a City of Atlanta system only. COA can’t issue an RFP for Decatur. Our hope is that Atlanta and Decatur will select the same vendor so that people would only need one membership to use bike share in Atlanta and Decatur.

Our bike share feasibility was a joint project between City of Atlanta and Decatur,

DEM provided this link in FFAF, but it seemed the video was interesting enough to share it a bit more prominently.  Two Swedish designers have come up with an “invisible bike helmet”, which is basically an airbag collar that deploys around your head in a fall.   Check out the end of the video above to see it in action!

Decatur Deputy Police Chief Keith Lee sends in this report on the accident Friday involving an SUV and a bicycle near Decatur High School…

On Friday September 9, 2011 the Decatur Police Department responded to a reported traffic accident on North McDonough Street. Upon arrival, officers found that a 15 year old Decatur High School student had collided with a motor vehicle, while crossing North McDonough Street on his bicycle. Based on witnesses’ statements, it was determined the bicyclist caused the accident by failing to yield. The bicyclist was treated for minor injuries on scene by members of the Decatur Fire & Rescue Department. He was later taken for further medical examination by his father.

On another note, the reports of a serious motor vehicle collision on West Ponce de Leon Avenue involving a bicyclist are mistaken. Police and Fire personnel responded to a bicyclist having a medical emergency at that location. The bicyclist was not involved in a traffic collision.

Brent writes in…

I didn’t see any post about this, and with all the bike related commentary going on, I thought I would post this. About 4:45pm today, there was a auto/cyclist accident at the intersection of N. McDonough and Maple, in front of the High School. The accident had already occured when I passed by. There was an SUV in the outside northbound lane of North McDonough, and a bicycle was underneath the tire of the car. Police had already responded. When I passed by again, it appeared that the cyclist was sitting on the tailgate of a pickup receiving medical treatment. My daughter identified him as a freshman at the high school, but didn’t really know him. He didn’t appear to have any life threatening injuries. I figured someone would know more and have already posted about it.

I’ll follow up with DPD and see what more I can find out about this.

Who knew that a “paint on a road” story could have a part II?

First, in case you missed it here, the city has posted a detailed explanation of their sharrow plan-o.  Here’s a blurb…

Ponce de Leon and Sycamore Drive were chosen for sharrows because they are streets that provide important connections through town and have a wide variety of users on the street. Ultimately, the city will continue to place sharrows on all the streets in the Decatur Bicycle Network that call for an “on-street facility” and do not meet the requirements for bike lanes.

And then this report from Sharon this afternoon…

I was just interviewed (on my bike) by one of the local news channels about the sharrows on Ponce. (Maybe CBS, but I’m not sure. And of course I didn’t think to ask when they’d be airing the clip.) Hopefully they interviewed people who are better at thinking on their feet than I am, as I didn’t have much to say… but I did give props to DecaturMetro when they were surprised I had heard of a sharrow.

UPDATE:  Here’s the link to the video.

Dave writes in…

Have you noticed how the bike lines on Trinity and Ponce de Leon between Trinity and Scott are used as turn lanes or passing lanes? I’ve lost count of the number of times I was turning left off of Ponce onto Drexel and a long line of cars would go around me in the bike lane. My step son rides his bike from DHS home along Trinity and Ponce, and is constantly telling me stories about how there are people using the bike lanes as turn lanes into one of the churches or worse, just parked there while they wait to pick somebody up, depriving him the use of the bike lane.

By “bike tattoos” I actually mean “sharrows”.  What the heck’s a sharrow?  That’s a sharrow! —>

Diane sends in details about Clifton Road’s (from North Decatur Road to Briarcliff Road) newest bike-provement from Kathleen Sobush at the CDC…

There is a plan slated for implementation this summer to mark sharrows on Clifton Road and to install Bicycles Allowed Full Use of Lane signage (in accordance with Georgia code). A sharrow is an on street marking of a bicycle and two chevrons indicating the direction of travel as depicted below. There are standards guiding the placement of sharrows. They should be no more than 250 feet apart and no less than 4 feet from the curb. Within those standards there is room for adjustment based on the roadway conditions.

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