I've started this blog in order to give some helpful guidelines for bike commuters in the Knoxville area. However, commuting will not be my only topic here. I will also give information on competitive cycling events in the area, brief descriptions of my forays into the collegiate cycling world with the team here at UT, and overall just talk about bike stuff.
As many cyclists and drivers in the downtown area have noticed, Gay Street between Jackson avenue and Summit Hill is apparently closed until the end of time because everyone forgot that block was actually built one story above the original street 90 years ago.
While an urban planning department with amnesia may not be the most encouraging bit of civic engineering trivia in Knoxville, the city is not a total loss on bike-friendliness. Public figures such as mayor Haslam and count commissioner Joe Holtquist have both gone on record stating that they bike to work, so if nothing else, we have some cyclists in the upper echelons of local government. So if you, as a cyclist, have any issues that you think someone oughta know about, try giving one of those folks a call.
So, Knoxville is not a total waste, nor even a partial waste. Our foothills geography allows for challenging road rides, our park system provides ample space for singletrack riding, and that skatepark over by tyson park even lets BMXers play. And bike polo goes down somewhere, too, but who would actually admit to doing that?
-KB
