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From Coast TV website (also featured on their TV news coverage)
GEORGETOWN, Del. - Bikers and hikers will soon be able to enjoy a fully completed Georgetown-Lewes trail.
On Wednesday, DelDOT held a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate their ninth and final phase of their 17-mile long-project. This stretch of road--from Airport Road to Fisher Road-- will begin Spring 2025.
Cyclists hopped on their bikes to head down the trail as the ceremony came to an end. Outdoor enthusiasts shared they are excited to celebrate the beginning of the final phase.
Danton Sherwood is a member of the Sussex Cyclists and he knows first hand how important this project is.
"Well, you're asking the right person. My wife, Terry Martin, was hit by a truck on Gravel Hill Road almost exactly a month ago, and she's still in intensive care in Christiana," Sherwood shared.
Through a planning study, DelDOT started looking at creating this path back in 2012. By 2016, phase one of nine was open to the public. Now, there's just one last stretch of path to pave.
Nicole Majeski, Cabinet Secretary for DelDOT, was emotional. She fought through tears as she thanked everyone involved, calling it a win for the whole state.
"The fact that we have a separated, dedicated, protected bike lane now for our cyclists, for those that are walking is huge to separate the modes of transportation to provide that safety element for people. This trail will save lives," said Majeski.
Sherwood feels the same way.
"This makes a huge personal and group impact, huge. I can't tell you how much, the difference between life an death almost."
Those responsible for bringing this path to fruition say it's about safely connecting communities. The project is slightly delayed compared to DelDOT's original estimate of a Fall 2025 completion. The Assistant Director or DelDOT's Planning Division says we can expect this to be completed by mid summer of 2026.
Originally posted on Facebook by Denny Shook
Today was the groundbreaking event for the final phase of the Georgetown-Lewes trail. Once completed this 37 mile trail will be the longest bike trail in Delaware. Sussex Cyclist was very well represented!
From the Cape Gazette - December 13, 2024
--- READ THE ARTICLE
What great support for today’s Terri Martin Support ride with over 50 members showing their support for Terri and all members who were part of the ride when Terri was injured and still feeling the effects. I’ve never been more proud to be a member of this club. - Denny Shook
Thank you, Denny Shook, for organizing the ride, and Michele Williams and Denny for posting the videos and photos below on Facebook. - Sussex Cyclists
Posted previously:
On November 19, long time club member Terry Martin was involved in a terrible accident while riding in a club ride. She is currently in serious condition at Christiana hospital.
On Sunday, December 8, 2024 there will be a ride to show our support for Terry. The ride will start at the Lewes Library at 10 AM and use the Georgetown Lewes trail. We hope to have as many riders as possible to show our support for Terry.
Georgetown / Lewes Trail Update
WHAT'S HAPPENING? The groundbreaking for the FINAL phase of the trail!
WHEN? Wednesday, December 18, 2024 at 1:00 PM EST
WHERE? 194 Airport Road, Georgetown, DE - adjacent to Sussex Academy
WHO'S INVITED? Y'all - the more the merrier - Let's show the community our Sussex Cyclists pride.
WHEN WILL IT BE DONE? I get this question all the time. DELDOT expects it to be complete in 2026 but a lot of work will be completed in 2025.
WHO HAS HELPED GET THIS DONE? There are a lot of cooks in this kitchen but I can tell y'all DELDOT, Bike Delaware, and Delaware Greenways have played, and continue to play, a significant role. Let's not forget US! Our voice is being heard and we are fortunate.
Happy Holidays,
Bob Browne - opabob1962@gmail.com
Sussex Cyclists and Bike DE
Our thoughts are with Terri as she and her family navigate this challenging time. Out of respect for her privacy, we have decided not to share updates on her condition on our website, as it is public and accessible beyond our members.
As a reminder, we’re holding an informal gathering after this Monday’s ride at Dewey Beer Company in Milton. This is an opportunity to come together, share your thoughts, or simply be among friends as we support Terri and one another.
11/20/24 update:
There no new information to report at this time on Terri. We've been in touch with her husband and will provide more information when available.
11/19/24 1pm update:
Terri is being flown to the trauma center at Christiana for treatment of her injuries.
11/19/24 12:30 pm
An incident occurred during our ride this morning. Terri Martin was struck by a car and was taken by ambulance to Beebe Hospital in serious condition.
Our thoughts are with Terri and her family during this difficult time. We will provide updates as we receive more information from her husband. Please check back for updates.
Thank you for your understanding and support for our fellow members.
Sincerely,
Allen Segal
Sussex Cyclists wishes all those members who served in the military a happy Veterans Day and a sincere thank you for your service.
Mariner Middle School Main Building Cafeteria 16391 Harbeson Rd Milton
Tuesday
12/03/2024
5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Come to the Public Workshop to learn about DelDOT's two planning efforts in the Milton area: The Milton Active Transportation Plan will provide recommendations to improve walking and biking in Milton. Attend to:
- Provide feedback on the draft low-stress bike network grid - Review ideas for projects that will improve safety for people walking and biking To learn more about the Milton Active Transportation Plan, visit publicinput.com/miltonatp
- Provide feedback on the draft low-stress bike network grid
- Review ideas for projects that will improve safety for people walking and biking
To learn more about the Milton Active Transportation Plan, visit publicinput.com/miltonatp
The SR 16 Corridor Study will recommend transportation improvements for SR 16. Stop by to:
- Review the results of the existing conditions assessment - Share your vision for SR 16 in Milton To learn more about the SR 16 Corridor Study, visit publicinput.com/miltonsr16
- Review the results of the existing conditions assessment
- Share your vision for SR 16 in Milton
To learn more about the SR 16 Corridor Study, visit publicinput.com/miltonsr16
If you haven't already voted, check out Bike Delaware's Voter Guide. The Delaware General Assembly We're not going to lie: elections to the Delaware General Assembly (our state legislature in Delaware) are not the top coverage priority for news organizations. Their top priority is the presidential election (with sometimes a little bit of coverage left over for federal senate races). We will all go into the voting booth for this election with a lot of information about presidential candidates but most of us will have very little information about the people running for state senator and state representative. Indeed, many of us will go into the voting booth and be seeing the names of candidates for those two offices for the very first time. That's too bad because who we choose to be our two representatives in our state legislature is an important decision. In fact, for a number of issues, it's actually more important than who we vote for for president. For example, the ability of the next president - no matter who that is - to reduce fatal crashes in Delaware is very low. On the other hand, nearly all the roads where fatal crashes occur in Delaware are owned and managed by DelDOT and it's our representatives who serve in the Delaware General Assembly who make the laws and policies that ultimately govern how DelDOT operates and invests. Not every Delaware Senate and House district has a competitive race in 2024 but Bike Delaware sent a short (just 4 questions) survey to all the candidates in races where there is more than one filed candidate. And most of those candidates took the trouble to respond! Candidate Questions #1, #2 and #4 All 4 questions that Bike Delaware asked candidates running for election to the Delaware General Assembly are about traffic safety. While traffic safety is not the biggest issue in this election (according to surveys of voters), it's at the center of Bike Delaware's mission. And crashes are the 2nd leading cause of death (after guns) of kids in Delaware. The first question asked about their level of support for setting an aggressive goal of reducing traffic fatalities by 50% by 2035. The second question asked about their level of support for recently passed anti-stroad legislation. The 4th question asked about multimodal roundabouts. Candidate question #3: Making safer roads and streets by prioritizing, and then designing for, their main function The 3rd question question in our candidate survey is important because it involves the fundamental issue of function. What is a particular street for? What is that road for? In some cases, it's not complicated. If we're talking about the street where we live, the main purpose of that street is to get in and out of our house or apartment, safely. Anything that interferes with that main function is bad. If suddenly there are dozens of 18 wheeler trucks traveling up and down the street where we live every day, obviously that is going to make our streets less safe. Similarly, imagine somebody who says they want to build a school with direct access to (i.e. a driveway onto) I-95 and then somebody else who says they want to open an ice cream store directly across I-95 (and also with a driveway). You don't need to be any kind of traffic safety professional to immediately grasp that neither of these are good ideas (and that the two ideas when put together are even worse). The problem we have in Delaware (and in the U.S. more generally), however, is in-between those two extremes everyone's intuition about traffic safety tends to break down because the function has become hopelessly confused. But it's all those in-between situations where almost every traffic fatality in Delaware happens each year. So that's why the 3rd question we asked candidates was about establishing clear public policy requiring that all public right-of-way be assigned to a specific "functional category" with clear design requirements to either facilitate safe and smooth traffic flow OR safe direct access to properties (but not both). We understand that it's asking quite a bit of our elected officials to grapple with such an abstract concept. But if Delaware is going to have any chance of meeting its ambitious traffic safety goals, we're going to need to make big changes to how our public right-of-way is designed in all those in-between situations. And that, in turn, is likely to require smart leadership from our elected officials. So check out how they answered question #3.
The Delaware General Assembly
We're not going to lie: elections to the Delaware General Assembly (our state legislature in Delaware) are not the top coverage priority for news organizations. Their top priority is the presidential election (with sometimes a little bit of coverage left over for federal senate races). We will all go into the voting booth for this election with a lot of information about presidential candidates but most of us will have very little information about the people running for state senator and state representative. Indeed, many of us will go into the voting booth and be seeing the names of candidates for those two offices for the very first time. That's too bad because who we choose to be our two representatives in our state legislature is an important decision. In fact, for a number of issues, it's actually more important than who we vote for for president. For example, the ability of the next president - no matter who that is - to reduce fatal crashes in Delaware is very low. On the other hand, nearly all the roads where fatal crashes occur in Delaware are owned and managed by DelDOT and it's our representatives who serve in the Delaware General Assembly who make the laws and policies that ultimately govern how DelDOT operates and invests. Not every Delaware Senate and House district has a competitive race in 2024 but Bike Delaware sent a short (just 4 questions) survey to all the candidates in races where there is more than one filed candidate. And most of those candidates took the trouble to respond!
Candidate Questions #1, #2 and #4 All 4 questions that Bike Delaware asked candidates running for election to the Delaware General Assembly are about traffic safety. While traffic safety is not the biggest issue in this election (according to surveys of voters), it's at the center of Bike Delaware's mission. And crashes are the 2nd leading cause of death (after guns) of kids in Delaware. The first question asked about their level of support for setting an aggressive goal of reducing traffic fatalities by 50% by 2035. The second question asked about their level of support for recently passed anti-stroad legislation. The 4th question asked about multimodal roundabouts.
Candidate question #3: Making safer roads and streets by prioritizing, and then designing for, their main function The 3rd question question in our candidate survey is important because it involves the fundamental issue of function. What is a particular street for? What is that road for? In some cases, it's not complicated. If we're talking about the street where we live, the main purpose of that street is to get in and out of our house or apartment, safely. Anything that interferes with that main function is bad. If suddenly there are dozens of 18 wheeler trucks traveling up and down the street where we live every day, obviously that is going to make our streets less safe. Similarly, imagine somebody who says they want to build a school with direct access to (i.e. a driveway onto) I-95 and then somebody else who says they want to open an ice cream store directly across I-95 (and also with a driveway). You don't need to be any kind of traffic safety professional to immediately grasp that neither of these are good ideas (and that the two ideas when put together are even worse). The problem we have in Delaware (and in the U.S. more generally), however, is in-between those two extremes everyone's intuition about traffic safety tends to break down because the function has become hopelessly confused. But it's all those in-between situations where almost every traffic fatality in Delaware happens each year. So that's why the 3rd question we asked candidates was about establishing clear public policy requiring that all public right-of-way be assigned to a specific "functional category" with clear design requirements to either facilitate safe and smooth traffic flow OR safe direct access to properties (but not both). We understand that it's asking quite a bit of our elected officials to grapple with such an abstract concept. But if Delaware is going to have any chance of meeting its ambitious traffic safety goals, we're going to need to make big changes to how our public right-of-way is designed in all those in-between situations. And that, in turn, is likely to require smart leadership from our elected officials. So check out how they answered question #3.
Oct 4, 2024 Facebook post from Denny
The annual Sussex Cyclists dinner was held tonight at the Big Fish Grill in Oceanview. 69 members and guests attended and had a great time. Serious kudos to the Social Committee, especially Joell Giler and Heidi Lerch for planning this great event. People are already talking about next year.
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