Group Rides remain cancelled

While Florida is opening up again, the club leadership has decided to not restart our regular group club rides at least until July 1st. When we posted draft group ride rules aimed at limiting the risk of transmission and based on the recommendations by USA Cycling and their chief medical officer, the response has been mixed. The USA cycling guidelines call for a distance of 4 bike lengths when wearing a mask or 8 bike lengths when not wearing a mask when riding in a group with people you do not necessarily know. The general feeling seems to be that this is either not really a social group ride, and increases risks related to passing motorized vehicles. Considering also the great economic sacrifices related to Covid19 by many of our fellow citizens and businesses, and the recent increase in the number of new infections, we feel that it is not advisable nor responsible to restart group rides at this time. 

CCC is considering restarting club rides - but not as usual

WIth the ban on events by USA Cycling expiring May 31, we are exploring the option of restarting rides sometime in the future. Please note that at the moment all our club group ride activity remains suspended! Please stay safe and ride solo or with members of your household only. 

If sometime in the future we decide to restart our group rides, it will be necessary to mitigate the risk of covid19 transmission as much as possible, and riders will need to adhere to a new set of rules. Below are draft rules we are considering, which are based on guidelines by USA Cycling. You might find it interesting to watch the webinars listed there, especially the first one listed, which focuses mostly on group rides. 

Note that what follows are draft rules. We would appreciate your comments. Email membership@cccyclists.org and/or president@cccyclists.org, or comment on facebook. 

All riders must:
• Register for the ride on our website and (electronically) sign the waiver
• Self-monitor for signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and be clear of these for the previous 14 days.
• Self-conduct a temperature check before participating.
• Not have traveled extensively, or to an area with a high incidence of COVID-19.
• Not be in a group that is at high-risk if exposed to COVID-19, or in regular contact with anyone who is.
• Carry and/or wear a face covering depending on the type of ride, prevalence of local community spread, weather conditions and size of the group.
• Carry hand sanitizer. 
• Come prepared to be self-sufficient with food and drink, as well all tools, equipment and clothing needed so as not to have to share.

Each rider has 2 responsibilities:

1) Assume that you have the virus and don’t spread it to the other riders

♦ Mask: wear a cloth mask to prevent droplet spread.
♦ Bring a spare mask
♦ Reduce droplets: if you have to sneeze, cough, blow your nose, etc. drop back and ensure that no one is in your slip stream.
♦ Distance: ride side by side (6' apart) or more than 20 feet behind.
♦ The farther away the better, but with a mask and low risk riding partners, distances of 20 feet are likely safe.
♦ Wash or disinfect your hands before using public facilities or touching surfaces .

2)Assume that other riders have the virus and don’t catch it from them.

♦ Mask: to prevent you from touching your mouth, nose, face or eyes
♦ No contact: no passing of water bottles, food, etc.
♦ Clean your hands before eating, touching your face, etc.
                ♦ Clean your hands after touching surfaces or public facilities, etc.
♦ Hand sanitizer is very effective and easily transported.
♦ Clean equipment after the ride.

Rides

- No pacelines
- Groups must be split up in groups of 8 or less with staggered start times. 
- With facecoverings/masks the minimum distance between riders should be 20' (4 bikelengths)
- When not wearing face coverings, the minimum distance should be about 50' or 10 bikelengths.
- When passing keep at least 6' lateral distance
- Use social distancing rules at reststops. Do not wait for other (sub)groups.
- Do not share drinks or food.
- Meeting points should be outside with plenty of space for social distancing.
- Avoid use of convenience stores and public facilities.
- When using public facilities, wash your hands before and after using soap and water or disinfectant gel or solution
- Avoid crowded trails.
 

Capital City Cyclists suspends all group ride activity until further notice

It is with regret that we suspend all club ride activity. Capital City Cyclists continues to closely monitor developments regarding the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Following the guidelines from USA Cycling we will suspend all group ride activity until May 31. 

We urge all of our members to stay in contact with their friends and family and be supportive during this trying time. We also urge all of you to be aware of the changing landscape related to COVID-19 and to understand the important preventative practices that may minimize your and your loved ones  exposure. 

Note that you can still exercise on your bike, alone or with your family. There are a few resources to check out:
Riding safely during coronavirus concerns 
Support your Local Bike Shops
Cycling and Coronavirus (British cycling weekly)
Work From Home tips (by Primal)
Being Active during COVID19 (Strava)



Please be safe and healthy, and we hope to be riding together with you all very soon.

Board of DIrectors of Capital City Cyclists

Welcome to Capital City Cyclists, a recreational bike club and 501(c)3 non-profit bicycle advocacy organization for the Florida Capital region.

Bikelanes to be eliminated on Railroad Avenue?

At the bicycle workgroup meeting Feb 10, the city showed the plans for Railroad avenue between Gaines St and FAMU Way. This project has funds for construction in the city's capital improvement program in 2021 and 2022.
The thinking is to create a 12' multi-use trail on the west side of the road, a median, a greenery strip separating the trail and sidewalks from the road, but no more bike lanes. The road would be 2-laned more or less like Gaines St. What would be helpful for trail safety is that some left turns are eliminated (if the affected businesses do not complain about that too loudly), which would be helpful for trail users. However there are still quite a few business entrances and side roads that provide conflict points for those on the multi-use trail. 
Click here for a higher resolution pdf version of the image below.



We are concerned about cyclist safety. We know that riding on the sidewalk is dangerous, with up to 2 times more crashes when riding with the flow of traffic, and up to 4 times more crashes when riding the sidewalk against the flow of traffic. This is a short stretch of multi-use trail that will cross a gas-station entrance, a hotel entrance, 2 side roads, the train station entrance, a dentist entrance, all with a new hotel in construction.  The trail will also not provide a good connection to the bike lanes north of Gaines St.   From the designs we've seen, the roads will have sharrows, but no space to pass, creating an uncomfortable situation for cyclists as well as drivers using the lane. Please let us know what you're thoughts are (email hans@cccyclists.org) while we try to gather more details about the plans and try to formulate the official club position on the proposed changes to Railroad Ave.

Kids On Bikes at Hartsfield Elementary in February

The Kids on Bikes Trailer is at Hartsfield Elementary this month, being used in the Florida Traffic and Bicycle Safety Curriculum at our local elementary schools. Capital City Cyclists provide the bikes and accessories like traffic signs, while the teachers teach the kids the curriculum. These teachers could use some help from volunteers to get the bikes ready for the kids, getting them fitted with helmets, setting up the course, etc. Also at the end of the course, the kids are taken on a community/gruaduation ride on real roads in the neighborhood with help of the Tallahassee Police Department. That's great fun to watch or help out with. If you are interested in providing some of your time and help during the course or the graduation ride, please contact Kyle Root (kroot@wellflorida.org). 

New 2020 Officers elected at Christmas Party

Lights that don't turn green for you? Often the in-pavement detection loop does not detect you, either because the sensitivity is set too low, or you do not know where the sweetspot is for the loop to detect your rims. 
Put your frustration into a citizen complaint on DigiTally. That'll help things to change!  We really would like to see better Bicycle Detection