Well-known bike advocate steps down

The executive director of Charlotte’s largest and most prominent local bicycling advocacy group has resigned. In a note posted Sunday on the website of the Charlotte Area Bicycle Alliance, executive director Martin Zimmerman says he’s leaving the post after eight years.

“The time has come to pass responsibilities onto others,” says his letter on the website. He says he’ll leave by the end of June, “after which I intend to continue a commitment to a sustainable future through a variety of bicycle-related pursuits.”

Zimmerman, an architect and city planner, was formerly director for facilities planning at UNC Charlotte, where he successfully obtained state funding for first-ever bike facilities for the campus.

He lives in the University City area of northeast Charlotte where he gets along almost – but not quite – without a car. "I never got along totally without a car, but will be able to do that once the Blue Line extension comes to University City,” he told PlanCharlotte.org on Monday. "In the meantime I will continue to use a combination of travel modes with as little dependence on the car as possible."

He says he plans to keep working on a number of bicycle-related campaigns, “but right now I need to get a new roof on our house by July 4, and plant some vegetables for summer dining."

Over the years, Zimmerman and CABA have been faithful attendees at local government meetings where bicycle-transportation-related issues and policies were discussed. He and CABA were prominent in support of the city’s Urban Street Design Guidelines, which the City Council eventually passed as policy and then incorporated into city ordinances, despite opposition to parts of it from the local developers’ lobby, the Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition.