Hey all, I'm hoping this is an okay subreddit to ask in. I'm likely visiting TN again in a few months, and I'm curious about riding the Foothills Parkway. I can find a bunch of info describing it and saying it's a good road ride, but I was wondering if any of you can tell me about car traffic volumes, general safety, etc.

The reason I ask is because I live in the Detroit area and while we have some good areas to road ride, there are also others where it's basically suicidal. Or roads that might be fine some times of the day/week but are no-go areas during others. We also don't really have shoulders on our roads, so in-the-lane it is, which makes route selection really important.

This parkway looks like a great way to see the mountains on a road bike, and there's a ton of info out there about the route itself, but can any of you give more details (or point me to better info) on how the traffic is there, etc?

Do you know of a ride this upcoming week? Feel free to post it! Include some details like average pace, is it a drop ride, how big of a group on average, etc.

4/18 - 4/20 | early registration is only $75 for the first 75 registrants with promo code ‘First75’

https://www.bikereg.com/goshdarn8

More important than ever this year

I ride a Trek but I’m not a Trek fanboy but saw this video and thought it was very impressive. With the transit bill being put to the ballot I don’t know that climate has been a big enough issue in this. Of course the naysayers to that are probably naysayers to climate change too. But he makes a strong point about it.

https://youtu.be/lqiqHI7fMdU?si=XRLD81B5ki-sy1RX

Do you know of a ride this upcoming week? Feel free to post it! Include some details like average pace, is it a drop ride, how big of a group on average, etc.

Does anyone know of a company that rents hybrid bikes? Green Fleet said they have mostly cruisers and a few road/hybrid bikes, but the few they do have won’t fit me (5’5”). I do know how hilly Nashville is :)

Thank you!!

I'm so sad, guys!! We just moved out of an apartment with bike storage and, immediately, my husbands bike was stolen from our porch. The guy hid his face from our Ring cam and cut my husbands cable lock. After that, we moved my bike to the back of our complex (away from the street) and someone still found it and cut through my steel padlock. Unfortunately, my husband had a really nice bike.

Obviously, even cameras don't deter these idiots, so this got me remembering back to college when people would come into class with the wheel of their bike lol. Do any of you do that? I don't see how a thief could steal a one-wheeled bike, so I think that might be the only way to keep our bikes from getting stolen. I would think that even with a chain link bike they could cut the lock on it.

What would you guys recommend?

Just recently swapped out my Cannondale Bad Boy 4 Hybrid/Commuter that I had for 8 years for a Poseidon Redwood gravel bike. Super pumped to put some miles on my new-to-me bike!

GF also recommended…

@Middletncycling & @nextthirdsday on ig

Any other suggestions when looking to find a cycling group?

Do you know of a ride this upcoming week? Feel free to post it! Include some details like average pace, is it a drop ride, how big of a group on average, etc.

Election season is almost upon us. Woo. Who's excited to vote for things?! I'm organizing a little community ride from Bicentennial Park to the Howard Office building to early vote and would love to get the word out. We did this last year for Freddie's runoff election and had a turnout of roughly 50 riders. With this being a national election and a lot of talk about the transit referendum we'd really like to make a statement about the importance of having other options than driving a car places. Here's a little blurb. Enjoy.

ROLL TO THE POLLS is back for the 2024 election season! Like riding bikes? Like voting? Like riding bikes to vote in this year's election? Well then, we have a great opportunity for you to come out and ride with us with a bike ride to early vote from the Carillon Bells in Bicentennial Park to the Howard Office Building for early voting.

***Details***
Date: October 19th
Location: Bicentennial Park Carillon Bells
Time: 10:30am Rollout
Social: 9:30am - 10:30am Meet-and-Greet
Destination: Howard Office Building

Follow us for updates:
Instagram: rolltothepolls
Website: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/48304768

*Note: this course is subject to change.

https://preview.redd.it/z2vq124ty8td1.png?width=1545&format=png&auto=webp&s=6678ed0c349cbc54dfb44054b307ffc7fccc498e

Hi, I will be visiting Nashville later this month and am interested in a bike tour of the city. I figure i should get recommendations from those who are actually part of the bike community. I prefer an acoustic bike but found mostly e-bike tours from a quick Google search. Thanks!

Best/safest routing from Germantown to Vanderbilt?

Do you know of a ride this upcoming week? Feel free to post it! Include some details like average pace, is it a drop ride, how big of a group on average, etc.

Hi all,

I’m brand new to road cycling. I love it so far - but some close calls with cars are scaring the **** out of me.

Since I started about 3 weeks ago I’ve not been able to stay off the bike long. I’m absolutely loving being out and exploring town. I’m doing 15-30 miles and largely using Strava for route building + a bit of common sense.

Today scared me.

My ride today took me out to Percy Warner and back on Belmont Blvd, and 16th Ave back to downtown.

While trying to handle some of those descents safely (still learning) I had some close calls with cars a few times. Going down 16th, a car pulled in front of me to start a left turn while I was in the bike lane going down the hill. I braked to avoid running into the side of the car and my back tire skidded hard. I swerved, but saved what would have been a really hard fall.

Am I crazy for being a bit shellshocked? I’m realizing I’ve had a few close calls like this over the past couple weeks.

What do you all do to ride safe? How do you stay visible, find safe routes, and learn to handle these moments?

Is this just par for the course here in Nashville?

TLDR:

I’m new to road cycling - but feeling unsafe on Nashville roads. How do you:

• Make sure you’re seen by cars turning while riding in the bike lane
• Find routes without fast car traffic and “bike lanes” that are just the shoulder
• Stay safe in general while riding in town

OR are close calls with cars just part of cycling in Nashville.

Do you know of a ride this upcoming week? Feel free to post it! Include some details like average pace, is it a drop ride, how big of a group on average, etc.

I was googling for information related to a Lebanon Pk Safety Study for NDOT's VisionZero and was linked to some posts from this sub ... Seems a lot of the concerns of this sub are projects NDOT is slowly trying to address.
I'm subbing both to see what active concerns you folks have and see what your response is to the improvements that NDOT does make. If anyone has any questions about the engineering side of things, I'll try my best to answer.
ETA: I work as a consultant, not for a Metro entity.