South Dakota Bicycle Coalition - The Beginning

This morning I had the privilege of participating in a call about gathering information and to gauge interest in starting a South Dakota Bicycle Coalition. The response from all on the call was an overwhelming positive experience. The call lasted about 1:15 and had individuals from Sioux Falls, Brookings, Vermillion (guess who that was), Mitchell, Rapid City (including Hot Springs), Spearfish, and a representative from the Thunderhead Alliance.

For an initial call I was very impressed, although not shocked, with the support from all over the state in starting a bicycle coalition. The current plan is to host a South Dakota Bicycle Summit to discuss the formation and plans for such an alliance to get off the ground and running.

The interesting incident to precipitate this initial call for an alliance was when the South Dakota legislators tried to remove cyclists from being considered as vehicles. The reasoning initially was, and eventually ended up being, to allow bicycles (and horses) to be exempt from being considered vehicles for Driving Under the Influence charges. Due to the bill being poorly written initially, cyclists came together from across the state to pressure legislators about the ludicrous nature of the bill.

One of the legislators actually said that in a year that South Dakota was looking at an abortion ban, education funding, and other big issues, the one that caused more emails and communications than any other was when this bill was brought forward. I think there within lies the problem: cyclists tend to be "reactive" versus "proactive". I hope that this is the beginning of a "proactive" group.