There's so much to love, with many reasons to go out and explore, and to enjoy in the great outdoors

There’s so much to love, with many reasons to go out and explore, and to enjoy in the great outdoors
By:  Michael Lander

Nothing more symbolizes Memphis and its history than the
Mississippi River and there are few things in our river city
that are more beautiful than seeing the sun setting behind
this mighty and timeless and ever-flowing river.

What’s not to love about the great outdoors?

And, when it comes to scenic and picturesque outdoor places, Memphis certainly has more than its fair share of them for people to enjoy.

From the spectacular view of the Mississippi River, (especially at sunset), to the panoramic view of the Heart of the Park at Shelby Farms, to the sight of the 142 acres of the Old Forest at Overton Park, to the natural and urban landscape along the Shelby Farms Greenline and the ever-expanding Wolf River Greenway, to the countless sights that we have from downtown to East Memphis, from North to South Memphis, and so many places in between, we have so much that we can and should be proud of and can love about our river city.

Regrettably, for far too many of us, we often fail to take the opportunity to see and visit and to experience the places that we have all around us.

Spanning the mighty Mississippi River from Memphis to
West Memphis, Ark. are the Memphis and Arkansas, the
Frisco, and the Harahan Bridge in the foreground and
the Hernando DeSoto Bridge in the background.  The
Harahan has recently had a bicycle and pedestrian
pathway (known as the Big River Crossing) installed,
which will eventually connect to a multi-state trail that
will run from St. Louis to New Orleans.

And, even when we do go to some of the many great outdoor places that we have, we fail to consider one of the best ways to explore what we have, which is to walk, run, or to ride a bike to and from and through them.

Being able to see and enjoy the great outdoors may be one of the best and most rewarding experiences in life whether it is in Memphis, or anywhere else for that matter.

From the parks and public lands in and around Memphis, to those throughout the rest of the country, there are so places that we all can go to see and where we can take in the beauty that surrounds us.  Whether it is the mountains, forests, valleys, meadows, and plains, or some of our coastlines, there is a distinctive and unique beauty of each of these places and there are a seemingly endless number of places for us to go out, to embrace, and to fully enjoy.

Even within an urban environment, there are always
reminders of the brilliant and vivid colors and the
effervescent beauty of nature.  This image is of
an area in downtown Memphis on North Main
Street near Court Square.

Wherever you go, there is something in nature and in the great outdoors that is deeply and profoundly restorative for the mind, body, and soul.

When you are outdoors, your perspective of life can change, time can sometimes feel as if it is slowing down or stopping, and you can find yourself standing in awe of a world that allows you to feel the warmth of the sunshine, feel the wind upon your skin, breathe the fresh air, smell a plethora of fragrances around you, see and hear the sounds of insects, birds, and various creatures near you, and see and feel the earth beneath you.   

Whenever you see and experience the magnificent beauty and grandeur of nature, it is virtually impossible not to see it as a gift presented to us from the very hand of God.

Cyclists and pedestrians are greeted with a colorful
bicycle archway as they enter Memphis' historic
Overton Park from East Parkway.  The 342-acre
public park was saved in 1971 when the Citizens
to preserve Overton Park won their Supreme
Court case against the State of Tennessee thereby
preventing it from proceeding with their plans
of having Interstate 40 from running through there.

And, while we may not all feel an immediate attraction, or an affinity, to nature and the great outdoors, most of us seem to have a certain need, or an innate desire, that resides within us and compels us to be outdoors.

Whether there is a genetic link or a primal need that instinctively lies within each of us, or it is just a simple love and an appreciation of what can be found outdoors, the need is very real, none-the-less.   

With all that it is and all that it does, there is little wonder that artists, poets, writers, theologians and others have, for many centuries, found nature to be a place for peace, contemplation, and inspiration.

Nature and the great outdoors are also wonderful way to escape the insulated, disconnected indoor worlds that so many of us find ourselves confined to in our modern day lives.  This may be why cycling has so much appeal because it can provide us with one of the best and healthiest ways to more intimately enjoy the outdoors and to satisfy our need to be out in it.

Overton Park is a popular park in the heart of Memphis
with an old forest that walkers, runners, and cyclists
frequently visit and where they can readily, and
easily, access and enjoy all that comes from being
around nature and the great outdoors.

Whether you ride on roads on paved or unpaved trails, bicycles can take you to practically any place that you want to go.

Is there really any price that you could ever put on that?

Sadly, however, there are some who do want to do just that.

We live in a time when nature and our environment are being threatened, more than ever, by a growing chorus of those who are much more interested in business ventures and who are pushing for less regulation, and who are much less interested in maintaining clean air and water, in protecting and preserving parks and public lands, and who not seeking to further ensure that fragile habitats and ecological systems with wildlife and various endangered species are not negatively impacted.

Memphis' extremely popular Shelby Farms Park has
recently undergone a massive renovation and
improvement project, which included, among
other things, a completely new facelift in an
area known as its Heart of the Park.  The park is
a great get-away for Memphis area residents
who want to do a wide variety of outdoor
activities and who want to experience nature
without having to travel very far in order to do
that.

  
For us, and for future generations, we should never be so shortsighted that we ever place business and profits over everything else and ignore the possible consequences of overriding environmental concerns, or what might be in our best interests, and the safety and welfare of us living now and those to come.

Nothing is worth the exploitation and ruination of nature and our environment.

Instead, we have much more to gain from conservation and preservation efforts and we must never fail to see the value of what we have with nature and the great outdoors.

There are so many intangibles that we gain from nature and one of these is what it can teach us.

The Shelby Farms Greenline, the Wolf River Greenway,
and other trails, (both paved and unpaved in the
Memphis metropolitan area) provide an ample
opportunity for people to see and experience a wide
variety of natural and urban landscapes.

Nineteenth Century banker, politician, and philanthropist, John Lubbock, once said that the “earth and sky, woods, and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent school masters and teach us more than we can ever learn from books.”

Let us all seek to do as Lubbock said and try to find all that can come from the great outdoors. 

The experience can greatly enhance and change your life for the better if you only let it.

Memphis' Bikeway & Pedestrian Program Manager is working to make our streets better and safer for everyone

Memphis’ Bikeway & Pedestrian Program Manager is working to make our streets better and safer for everyone
By:  Michael Lander

Nicholas Oyler (who prefers to go by Nick) is originally
from Germantown, Tenn.  He graduated from the
University of Memphis and received a Master's
Degree at Texas A&M in urban planning, which he
pursued because of his love for Memphis and he
wanted to make the city an even better place to live.

Any one of us is capable of changing the world for the better and making life better for others.  Nicholas Oyler would like to do that in Memphis.

Oyler is Memphis’ Bikeway & Pedestrian Program Manager.  It is a position that he has held since Sept. 6, 2015. 

It was previously held by Kyle Wagenschutz.

Wagenschutz was the first Bikeway & Pedestrian Program Manager for the city when he was hired in September 2010 by former Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton.

During Wagenschutz’s tenure, the city laid the groundwork in developing and implementing the first bike and pedestrian-related programs and facilities, and, in less than half a decade, it drastically transformed our city, and it was recognized, nationally, for the tremendous amount of progress that it had made.

After stepping into the job that Wagenschutz vacated in 2015, Oyler hit the ground running and has shown that he is eager to make even greater progress and improvements on behalf of the pedestrians and cyclists in our city.

In order to accomplish all that he hopes to, Oyler has set three goals for himself.

“The first, and one of my biggest goals for me, is to make all of our streets safer.  Since coming into this job, I have tried to focus on accommodating the needs and the safety of pedestrians and cyclists in our city,” Oyler said. 

“People fail to realize that our roads are a public place and, collectively, they are our largest public places and they are three times the size of that of Shelby Farms Park,” he said.

Oyler loves cycling, but he considers himself to be more of
an utilitarian cyclist and he is much more interested in
riding to get around than in racing or trying to ever
compete at it.

“Unfortunately, our roads in Memphis are a public place that are not as safe as they need to be.  There are about 100 traffic-related deaths on them each year.   If over hundred people died at a public place like Shelby Farms Park each year, there would be in an uproar about it.  The attitude that this number of deaths on our roads is just a risk that we must live with isn’t really any more acceptable than it would be if they occurred in Shelby Farms Park,” Oyler added.

The second goal that Oyler wants to accomplish is filling in the missing gaps with our bike lanes by connecting some of the existing bike lanes that we already have. 

“We presently have a disconnected patchwork of bike lanes and I would like to change that and to fill in those gaps so that they will be a better network for those who need them,” Oyler said.

“We are currently on track to have a total of 400 miles of bike facilities, which includes shared lanes and greenways, by the end of this year.  One of these will include a protected bike lane on Dr. M.L. King Jr. Blvd. to downtown on Cooper north of Central Ave.  This will go from midtown to downtown Memphis.  I especially want to target my efforts on those who don’t currently feel safe walking or riding on our city streets,” he added.

This bicycle stand is one of several around the city of
Memphis.  This one is located outside the front doors
of City Hall where Oyler works.

The third goal for Oyler is to find funding the Pedestrian and School Safety Action Plan.  As of right now, there is not a dedicated funding source allocated for this. 
 
In addition to these goals, Oyler would like to help people to overcome any resistance that they might have concerning bike lanes. 

“We have some people who don’t recognize the greater benefits, like the traffic-calming effects, that can come from decreasing or narrowing car lanes to accommodate bike lanes.  Instead of focusing on any potential, momentary delay that this might cause in getting somewhere, we should also consider the associated safety benefits,” Oyler said.

“It’s been proven time and time again that if we make the roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists, you make them safer for everyone else,” he said.

“Part of the problem for us is that we are living in a car-dominated society with cities that have been built in such a way that traveling by car is about the only way to get around and people are entrenched in this way of thinking and believing that this is the only way that it can ever be,” he added.

Oyler thinks that it will take some time, but that people will eventually come around on this.   

“The us (cyclists and pedestrians) verses them (drivers) mindset will take some time to change, but it is something that will eventually happen.  We’re beginning to see this trend throughout the country and where this has happened, people have come to realize that things have improved and been made safer for everyone because of it,” Oyer said.

Sara Studdard is the project manager for the Explore Bike
Share Program at doug carpenter & associates, LLC.
Oyler is a staunch proponent of things like the bike
share program, which help to provide various
options in transportation for Memphis area residents
and those who come to visit our city.

Oyler believes that Memphis has made great strides and he is excited about some of the things, like the Explore Bike Share Program, that will be rolling out in 2017. 

“I think that the Explore Bike Share Program is great and it is something that will allow Memphis the opportunity to really leap forward after it is fully implemented.   The program will be especially beneficial in neighborhoods that have residents with a limited means of transportation and it should allow people to not have to rely exclusively on only one form of transportation or on a bus schedule,” Oyler said.

“I expect some people may try the bikes out just because of curiosity and I think that they will find out that they will like and enjoy it.  This should get more people out riding bikes and this will eventually help to create interest and momentum and will ultimately be a part of a safer infrastructure that I envision for everyone,” he said.

“There will be some exciting news and updates that will be coming out this year concerning the bike share program and I am optimistic that, with that, and some other things that will be occurring this year, that 2017 will be a great year for pedestrians and cyclists in Memphis,” he added.

One of those things includes a major announcement by the city, in late January, that Memphis had been selected as one of 10 cities in the country to have been chosen for the Big Jump Project from PeopleforBikes, which is a national bicycle advocacy organization. 

Other cities invited to participate include Portland, Austin, New York, and Los Angeles.  The three-year grant aims to boost the number of people riding bikes in a city's chosen focus area by two or three fold.

Oyler and his colleagues settled on the South Memphis area, including the southern portion of downtown, as Memphis' focus area.

Oyler said that he hopes to take the lessons originally learned in South Memphis and eventually apply them to the city as a whole.

For cyclists, Oyler also see other great things in store for them in the year ahead.

Sara Studdard, from doug carpenter & associates, LLC., and
Kyle Wagenschutz, from PeopleforBikes, host the Bike
Nerds podcast on Oamaudio.com.  Wagenschutz was
Memphis' first Bikeway & Pedestrian Program Manager
before Oyler took the helm on Sept. 6, 2015.

“An extension of the Hampline will be breaking ground and it will be open for use in the fall of this year.  This will go where the Shelby Farms Greenline currently terminates at Tillman to Overton Park,” Oyler said.

Beyond 2017, Oyler believes cyclists will find other great things coming to our river city.   

“There is a long-term plan to extend the trails west of the Big River Crossing and Second Street will have a new bike and pedestrian access in the next few years.  The protected bike lanes already installed on Crump and Danny Thomas will also have new connections added.  In addition to that, one of the long-term plans that I am really excited about is one that will put in protected bike lanes on Jefferson Ave. from Danny Thomas to Cleveland Street,” Oyler said

After a setback for having bicycle lanes put down on Riverside Drive in April 2016, Oyler said that cyclists will soon have another chance to show their support for this.

“There will be an opportunity for public input this year regarding a proposal to add protected bike lanes on the full length of Riverside Drive.  I believe that this new proposal goes above and beyond in addressing the concerns that were often heard during the pilot project.  If anyone is interested in seeing bike lanes on Riverside Drive, I encourage them to attend any meetings for this and to speak up,” Oyler said.

“It’s important for the public to get involved, to stay involved, and to speak up and let their elected officials know how they feel.  As public employees, we in City Hall respond to the public's desires,” he said.
 

Oyler is a downtown Memphis resident who either walks or
who tries to take some form of transit instead of relying
exclusively on a motor vehicle to get around.

“There are other valid issues,” Oyler said, “like crime, education, and so on that do compete for the time and attention of the city and its leaders and funding availability is based on what the public determines is a priority.  If people believe that having much safer streets for everyone is something that they want to have, it can be made to be a priority.” 

While funding can sometimes be an obstacle to making progress, Oyler believes that it is even more important for Memphians to have the vision for something better and to start working toward it.

“There are places where walking and riding bikes are not just an accepted and a viable form of transportation, but they are something that is integrated into everyday life.  I believe that this can be a vision for us in Memphis and something that can be a reality for us one day.  Such a transformative change won’t happen overnight, but it can happen, if we really want it,” Oyler said.

With Oyler leading the charge for change, he hopes to help make the world and life even better, at least for those living in or visiting Memphis.

Midtown Memphis man combines a life dedicated to helping others with his love of cycling

Midtown Memphis man combines a life dedicated to helping others with his love of cycling
By:  Michael Lander

This is a photo of Tim Wheat at the Salt Lake Temple for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) in Salt
Lake City, Utah.  He was in Utah from August 12 -
September 2 and had traveled through the state during his
2002 cross-country bike trip.

Like millions of others in the U.S., Tim Wheat is a cyclist, but what makes him different than most is what has inspired him to ride and what drove him to do multiple cross-country trips on a bicycle.

Wheat, who was originally from Huntsville, Ala., and who has been a long-time Midtown Memphis resident, is the program director for the Memphis Center of Independent Living, (MCIL).

He did his first cross-country trip in 1987.

“That year, my friends and I decided that we would run the Bay-to-Breakers in San Francisco so I planned to get in shape by riding my bike across the country.  The ride was great, but it really didn’t help me to run any better.

Three years later, in 1990, Wheat found an entirely different reason, altogether, to make another attempt at a cross-country bicycle ride.

“I was doing student teaching in graduate school, but I did not feel I had enough worldly experience to be a teacher.  I convinced myself that cycling across country one summer would make me an adult, expose me to unique experiences, and give me some distance from the students,” Wheat said.

This photo was taken of Tim Wheat at the Monument Valley
Park in Arizona.  He traveled through the State of Arizona
on his cross-country bike ride from September 5 - 16, 2002.

Wheat readily admits that he did not become an adult like he had planned, but the trip for him was an amazing experience and, through it, he discovered a great way to see the country, travel and meet people, and he knew after doing it that he had to do some more of it.

In 2002, Wheat came up with an idea to ride a bike around the U.S. for a third time after he finished research for a fair housing complaint in Memphis that lawyers said would take years of litigation before it was settled. 

By that time, Wheat had moved from Boulder, Colo. and had begun working for the Memphis Center for Independent Living and he came up with the idea to ride around the U.S. and visit Centers for Independent Living and report back his findings.

Wheat had learned over the years that most Americans don’t know a lot about the 300 Centers for Independent Living throughout the U.S., nor do they know about what they do.

This picture of Tim Wheat was taken of him next to the Rio Grande
as he rode through the State of Texas from April 17 - 26, 2002.

 
He also knew that there was little to no cooperation and marketing between these centers and so he was determined to set out and see what he could do to change all that by visiting as many of these as he could and he figured that, since he had plenty of time on his hands, he could also do this on a cross-country bike ride.

“This ended up being a great adventure for me, personally, but it was not the national celebration of Centers for Independent Living (CILs) that I was hoping for.  Most CILs have a very hard time explaining what they do and, honestly, I did not add much to the public’s awareness of them,” Wheat said.

In spite of this, Wheat was happy about at least having made the effort and the bike riding aspect of the trip was something that he said he will forever cherish.

Whenever he reflects on his three cross-country bike trips, Wheat feels that he has come away with some wonderful memories of the people and places that he came across along the way and how much better that the overall experience was for him on a bike.

Tim Wheat stopped to get a picture next to a sign for the
Loveland Pass, which is located at the Continental Divide
in Colorado.  He rode his bike through there from July
29 - August 12, 2002.

“On my cross-country trips, I have always ridden solo and self-contained and I was that I could ride my bike across the country.  I love to travel and it allows me to see the countryside, to really experience the weather, the hills, and the wind.  I also love it because whenever someone will talk about their travels in this country, I have a related story about the area from my bicycle seat,” Wheat said.

Some of the most memorable and profound experiences for Wheat on his 2002 cross-country journey included the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive up from Asheville, N.C. to Virginia.  The C & O Towpath from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, M.D. was another.

“The C & O Towpath canal must have been a horribly ugly industrial highway 70 years ago when the park service took it over, but they have reversed the trend and recovered much of the natural beauty along the Potomac,” Wheat said.

In addition to that, Wheat was equally entranced with what he found in Utah and Colorado and Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.

Tim Wheat posed with Paisano Pete at Fort Stockton,
Texas.  He had ridden through the State of Texas on his
cross-country bike ride from April 17 - 26, 2002.

“The parks and desert in Utah are a perfect experience by bicycle,” Wheat said.

“On a bike the uniqueness of the country is unreal.  I especially enjoyed the huge space that seemed to dwarf any problems or issues that I had.  My curiosity would build about the different landscape that I would see next and where I would stay and who I might meet next,” Wheat added.

Wheat’s passion for the outdoors and exploration of it on a bike is something that almost matches that of his desire to help others.

“I really wanted to do something unique and I was looking for something in civil rights when a counselor suggested disability rights,” Wheat said.

“I applied for and ended up getting a job at the Memphis Center for Independent Living and I immediately got hooked on the struggle for equal rights.  I was even part of an activist group and was arrested for non-violent civil disobedience in Atlanta,” he added.

Tim Wheat stood atop the roadside marker when he made it
to Texas.  He was in the Lone Star State from April 17 - 26,
2002.

It was years later, in 2002, while waiting for the litigation to work its way through the court system, (that arose from a grant that he had worked on for promoting fair housing for people with disabilities), that Wheat was able to take his bike ride around the country on behalf of those in Independent Living Centers throughout the U.S.

“I was able to do my bike ride for the Memphis Center of Independent Living after its executive director at that time, Deborah Cunningham, gave me a stipend to report back about what I saw at other Independent Living Centers around the country.  She bought me a laptop and I took off on an adventure that was called, ‘Independent Living Across the U.S.,’” Wheat said.

Wheat started at the Center for People with Disabilities as an Independent Living Instructor and he is most proud of his work in giving people the chance to live in the community and help people with significant disabilities to move out of expensive institutions and nursing homes and to live in their own home.

Tim Wheat got a picture of himself in front of a billboard for
the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, which took place
February 8 - 24, 2002.  Wheat was in the State of Utah on
his cross-country bike ride about six months later from
August 12 - September 2, 2002.

These days, after his last cross-country excursion on a bike, Wheat mostly rides a bike for commuting purposes.  He currently has a Trek 460 road bike, a Specialized Sirrus Cross, a Univega mountain bike, and a Cruiser.

“I mostly commute and I am happy to live where cycling to work is easy.  I also love to put my camera in my panniers and ride aimlessly around midtown,” Wheat said.

Wheat finds his bike rides in Memphis, though, to be considerably different than what he experienced while living in Boulder.

“On my three mile ride to work in Boulder, I used a bike path, six bike underpasses, and an overpass where there was no competition with autos,” Wheat said. 

“I find Memphis to be more slowing-going because of the residential riding that I must do.  I am always making my decisions on the path to take by the traffic that I expect to encounter.  Of course, I am riding around midtown, too, to view the people, buildings, and neighborhoods,” he added.

Tim Wheat got a picture of himself leaning against the
roadside marker for New Mexico.  He rode his bike
through that state from April 8 - 17, 2002.

Even though Wheat may no longer be doing any more cross-country bike rides, he still rides his bike to work at the Memphis Independent Living Center and he is continuing to combine his desire to help others with his love of cycling by commuting to his job on a bike. 

To learn more about Tim Wheat, his bike rides, and his life’s work for those with disabilities, you can visit his website:  http://www.timwheat.com.