2026 Quarter 2 Newsletter

Tennessee Bike Walk Summit

Bike Walk Tennessee is looking forward to hosting the Tennessee Bike Walk Summit in Franklin, Tennessee on November 19 and 20! Through a series of keynote presentations, breakout sessions, and mobile workshops, the Summit is a valuable educational and networking experience. We hope you’ll save the date and plan to join us!

If your organization is interested in supporting the Tennessee Bike Walk Summit, we invite you to take a look at our Sponsorship Packet!

Committee Highlights

Brentwood

Safely Share the Paths - City Summer Campaign

The City of Brentwood has released the following guidelines when using bicycles or e-vehicles on park trails, paved park paths, and greenways:

All parks are no throttle zones
Only Class 1 & 2 e-bikes, and Low Speed Electric Devices (<20 mph max design speed) allowed
No Class 3 e-bikes, ATVs, motorcycles or golf carts on trails
15 MPH max speed
5 MPH when passing
Provide an audible warning when passing
No riding on grass
Keep right and pass on left
Keep right and pass on left
Stay clear of the path when stopped
Yield to emergency vehicles
Under 16, helmets required (use high-quality helmets designed to handle higher impact speeds)
Pedestrians always have the right of way

You can always view the guidelines at brentwoodtn.gov/ebikes.

Brentwood 2040 Plan

The City of Brentwood has begun their year-long effort to update the city's master plan, dubbed the Brentwood 2040 Plan. The chair of Bike Walk Brentwood was appointed by the city commission to serve on the 2040 Plan Advisory Committee and specifically the Transportation subcommittee. We are watching this effort closely as there are many issues surrounding multimodal connectivity being brought to the forefront of these discussions!

New E-Mobility Policy for Williamson County Schools

Beginning with the 2026-27 school year, students who want to ride e-bikes or other electronically powered transportation devices to school will be asked to complete a required safety training session. The new procedures are designed to promote safe transportation practices and help schools maintain a secure environment for students, staff and visitors.

As part of the new requirements, third through twelfth-grade students who wish to ride an e-bike, e-scooter or other electronically powered personal transportation device to school must complete the training session with a parent or guardian before bringing the device to campus. Following the training, students will have to register their transportation devices with their school and display a school-issued identification tag, similar to vehicle parking permits used on high school campuses. Schools will maintain the registration information for each device, including the type of transportation, manufacturer and model.

The new expectations are part of the district’s updated Student Transportation Policy, approved by the Williamson County School Board on June 15. Riding an e-bike, e-scooter or other electronic transportation device to school is considered a privilege and may be revoked if students fail to follow safety expectations.

Additional information, including campus-specific expectations, will be shared by individual schools before the start of the 2026-27 school year.

Chattanooga

National Bike Month Partnerships

During the month of May, Bike Walk Chattanooga promoted National Bike Month and supported activities led by some of our area’s partner agencies. The Hamilton County Health Department hosted a walk to school event at Woodmore Elementary that was attended by our group on May 5, as well as a bike to school event at Lookout Valley Elementary on May 13. Meanwhile, our group supported an additional ride to Normal Park Upper and Lower schools on May 6, as we celebrated National Bike and Roll to School Day, led by the Hamilton County Schools. The collaborations and partnerships continued on Friday, May 15 with National Bike to Work Day with our friends at Outdoor Chattanooga and Velo Coffee. It was great to stand alongside other community partners for this event and to see so many faces show up before they started their workday!

Advocating for a Safer Main Street

Bike Walk Chattanooga is actively working to advocate against the removal of bike lanes and creation of wider vehicle travel lanes through Chattanooga’s walkable Southside neighborhood. To that end, our committee has started an online petition to raise awareness and demonstrate community support. Studies show that wider vehicle travel lanes increase the likelihood of speeding and reduced driver awareness, in an area where stronger safety measures are needed to support pedestrians, bicyclists, and other forms of micromobility along a lively commercial corridor. Bike lanes are further shown to reduce crashes by as much as 30% on 2-lane roadways such as Main Street.

Tragically, the same street segment witnessed a multiple person crash in the fall of 2021 involving reckless driving and a group of city planners. Among the five pedestrians injured was Atlanta’s inaugural Vision Zero Coordinator, who passed away in 2022 after months of suffering. It also involved her husband who was in recovery for three months learning to walk again. Through the online petition, Bike Walk Chattanooga continues to press for safer measures that implement the FHWA Safe Systems Approach in addressing roadway fatalities, as this particular tragedy shines a light on the outcomes of human error, the need for redundancy in safety measures, and shared responsibility from planning to engineering to the roadway users themselves in order to protect vulnerable human lives.

While the Main Street bicycle lane represents a short piece within the city’s overall bike network, it is connected to another bike lane and its removal signals a broader set of changes that could remove similar bike facilities in similar conditions throughout the city. Bike Walk Chattanooga continues to track this effort and looks forward to continued dialogue regarding safer street designs.

Hometown Sports Teams + Bicycle Collabs!

Bike Walk Chattanooga is partnering with our homegrown professional soccer team - the Chattanooga Football Club (CFC) - as well as other community bicycling partners for “Ride Your Bike Night” on July 25! Our group will be providing bike valet for the event as our team takes on the Philadelphia Union II. Two Bikes Chattanooga will lead a ride from its bike shop and White Oak Bicycle Cooperative will be accepting bicycle donations. We’re stoked to be a part of this event and work alongside such great community partners. Our amazing partners at Outdoor Chattanooga help us provide racks as we provide the volunteers.

2026 is shaping up to be a big year for baseball in our city as well, as we celebrate the Chattanooga Lookouts’ inaugural season at their new home in Erlanger Park! The stadium opened in April at the site of the historic Wheland Foundry, and is also conveniently located along the Tennessee Riverwalk with other multimodal connections from on-street bike lanes and nearby sidepaths. Bike Walk Chattanooga continues to raise awareness about active transportation toward this new ballpark and we look forward to ongoing collaborations on bicycle parking and bike valet at its Bike to Ballpark events!

Other Partnerships and Collaborations

Bike Walk Chattanooga continues to gain energy and meet with other valuable community stakeholders. Our group recently attended a community coalition along Rossville Boulevard to hear more about work across the Georgia/Tennessee state line that supports economic development, thriving community activity, and safer streets for all users. We also presented at the monthly meeting of the Chattanooga Bicycle Club and introduced ourselves to the group’s leadership, sharing our mission and goals, as well as opportunities of shared interest and collaboration. Our group’s mission and goals are now publicly available on our social media pages (Instagram and Facebook) - we hope you’ll follow along for more! We love meeting community groups and working toward equal access to alternative mobility options!

Franklin

Collaborating on e-Bike Regulation

Bike Walk Franklin was invited to a work group discussion with other stakeholders as the city considers new regulations for e-bicycles and micromobility devices on roads and paths. We are pleased that City staff share our goal of protecting the responsible use of e-bikes for transportation in public places. We know state law already gives police the ability to ticket riders who are behaving recklessly or who are riding an e-motorcycle that exceeds the regulated speed of an e-bike.

While city ordinances will be updated to better reflect the use of scooters, hoverboards and other battery devices, we are supportive of plans for a simultaneous education campaign around e-bike safety. Our social media video about a Franklin teenager ticketed for being on a 32 mph motorized bike without a driver’s license or insurance reached a combined 200,000 views on Instagram and Facebook. It was a vivid example of why we urge parents to know how fast their child’s e-bike can go and what laws apply.

Opposing 7 Lane Intersection Next to High School

Our social media video about a proposed expansion of Mallory Lane and Liberty Pike prompted news coverage from NewsChannel 5 and WSMV Channel 4. Supersizing this intersection to 7 vehicle lanes on all sides would dramatically harm walkability of the neighborhood, which includes homes, a CVS pharmacy, and Centennial High School. If the intersection must be expanded, we are urging the City to prioritize a pedestrian-focused design with curb extensions and median islands. We are very encouraged by the citizen response on this issue, as many neighbors recognize the harm caused by such car-centric road design.

Kids Get Rolling at Bike Rodeo

Our third year at Franklin’s Touch a Truck Festival was a great success, bringing more than 200 riders through our child-sized road safety course. We loved getting to meet so many families, and look forward to seeing everyone again at Franklin Parks Family Day in November!

Knoxville

Open Streets Knoxville

We had so much fun at Open Streets on Sunday, May 17th! Open Streets Knoxville returned for an exciting afternoon of car-free streets, community connection, and active fun! We experienced Gay Street like never before as it opened up to people instead of cars, from Summit Hill Dr. to Hill Ave., and extended across the Gay St. Bridge.

Open Streets Knoxville is a free, family-friendly event that is open to everyone of all ages and abilities, and invites you to experience Knoxville in a whole new way. Every year we invite you to come out, be active, connect with your community, and enjoy the streets as public spaces meant for people. We can't wait to be back on the streets in 2027!

Walk with Elected Officials

On May 19, Bike Walk Knoxville was proud to host a Walk with Elected Officials along Concord Street, between Sutherland Avenue and Kingston Pike. We were joined by several elected officials, including Mayor Indya Kincannon, City Councilman Matthew DeBardelaben (District 4), Board of Education member Kat Bike (District 4) and Patrcia Fontenot-Ridley (District 3). We also had several candidates walking with us, including Breyauna Holloway (Board of Education, District 1), Kat Bike (Board of Education, District 4), Brandon Huckaby (County Commission, District 3), and Katina Sharp (County Commission, Seat 11). Finally, we were thrilled to have representatives from City departments including Vision Zero, Transportation Engineering, Parks and Recreation - Greenways, and the Knoxville Police Department with us. Thank you to everyone who came out for the event!

Support Our Work!

We rely on your donations to support all that we accomplish across Tennessee. We have a small staff and a grand vision. Help Tennessee realize the social, economic, health, and environmental benefits of bicycle and pedestrian friendly communities by supporting Bike Walk Tennessee. You can support our work by donating to Bike Walk Tennessee or directly to any of our regional subcommittees!

Brentwood || Chattanooga || Cleveland || Franklin || Knoxville