To the growing membership of his fledgling bicycling/pedestrian advocacy group, Andrew Nouné is an impassioned, educated leader with a knack for organizing, inspiring and reaching out to diverse parts of the community.

To some longtime bicycling advocates and others involved in the rehabilitation of downtown Sarasota, Nouné is a stubborn, idealistic instigator of 11th-hour controversy that may jeopardize their revitalization efforts.

As co-founder and leader of the Alliance for Responsible Transportation, Nouné has gathered signatures on bike-related petitions; published a quarterly newsletter; organized bike drives, repairing old bikes and donating bikes to the public; and organized or helped with fun-oriented public events such as group bike rides or Saturday's Bike Rodeo for children.

"He's doing a very valuable service for the community, and he's not receiving any compensation to speak of," says Bill Fisher, owner of Jessica's Stand, an organic produce stand that is a sponsor of ART and who is Nouné's part-time employer.

"Anybody who's engaged in trying to work for the good of the community and the public, my heart goes out to people like that. Because it's not money they're driven by; it's the work that needs to be done."

But bicycle advocate and planning board member Shawn Fulker says he has found Nouné to be resistant to information that conflicts with his existing view, a quality he says will only bode poorly for Sarasota's bicycle community as a whole.

"To me, he is the worst kind of person to be dealing with on issues like this," says Fulker, who questions whether ART represents community bicycling interests or the narrow goals of a small group of naive, idealistic young adults.

Nouné helped found ART in fall 2005 from a cavalcade of inspirations.

He had wearied of the discomfort of being trapped in exhaust-filled, slow-moving traffic on Sarasota's clogged roads. Although he saw many bike clubs and groups that advocated the joy of bicycling as recreation or exercise, Nouné realized no one else in the area was working to connect bicycling with conservation.

And finally, Nouné began to experience the benefits of bicycling himself, saving money and gaining fitness by riding his bike wherever he could.

"It really comes down to economics," says Nouné. "Bicycling makes sense across the board. It helps you get a handle on your health, your finances, your stress level ... nothing brings it all together like bicycling."

The youngest of three children, Nouné grew up in a family that could rarely afford new things. Nouné's schoolteacher mother could not provide allowances for her children.

With money scarce, Nouné says he learned to respect it, which evolved into a respect for resources, the greatest inspiration behind his work with ART.

"It's my nature," he says. "You take care of what you have. Because if you don't take care of it, you won't have it."

That mind-set helped earn him a spot at New College of Florida.

While a student there, Nouné joined the progressive band Stone Soup as its drummer and began to write songs for the group that expressed his worldview.

He eventually found the band and the school to be too passive for his passion, and he left them both to devote his efforts to ART.

ART's recent venture into the debate over bike lanes along Fruitville Road has triggered a bit of backlash against the group.

Some bicycle advocates who have been meeting with county officials for years see Nouné as a latecomer who is inexperienced, uninformed and stubbornly attached to his stance of asking city officials to retain bike lanes along Fruitville Road rather than removing them for more sidewalks and increasing bike lanes and routes all around the Fruitville area.

"He is taking a legitimate concern and muddying the issue," Fulker says. "It's very frustrating for people who have studied this plan for several years to have to deal with a guy like that."

Although his opponents are convinced he is immune to their input, Nouné acknowledges his group needs more involvement and input from Sarasota's older community. Nouné also has begun to expand ART's efforts to seeking improvements in the area's public transit systems, a topic that focuses more on pedestrian needs than those of bicyclists.

Others involved with bicycling safety in Sarasota say Nouné's efforts should not be judged by the Fruitville issue alone.

"That's just one component of what ART does," says Irene Maiolo, bike/pedestrian coordinator for Sarasota County. "They come from definitely a community focus, and are dedicated to improving the situation for bicyclists and pedestrians in any way they can."



On the Web: http://www.bikewalklive.org/

Last modified: June 22. 2007 12:00AM