A small fight was won in the struggle towards a more diverse transportation system for the Lowcountry on Tuesday.

The City of Charleston's new bicycle ordinance emerged a day before its first reading at city council with a stringent new provision which prohibited locking bicycles to sign posts, light posts, utility poles and parking meters. Cycling advocates learned of the provision Monday afternoon and it appeared in an article in the Post and Courier on Tuesday.

The number of cyclists on Lowcountry roads has been increasing for years.

Many people don't want to waste commute time sitting in a car and even more time on a stationary bike at the gym later burning off calories. Younger and working class people simply can't afford the five to seven thousand dollars per year it takes to own, insure, maintain, store and operate an automobile with the income from the low paying service jobs available in the Lowcountry economy. Downtown parking spaces are either scarce, inconvenient or expensive.

Bike racks and storage opportunities downtown don't approach filling the existing need, so bikes get locked up nearly anywhere a secure object is available. It's sometimes untidy, but a lot less of a problem than attempting to replace every bicycle in the city with a full sized automobile on streets that are already over capacity, where a significant part of the traffic is people circling looking for parking spaces.

By Tuesday morning Twitter and Facebook were full of buzz about the "boot the bikes" provision. The Holy City Bike Coop and Charleston Moves activated their advocacy networks. Blog posts appeared on local and national sites and received extensive comment. 90 people commented on my post on the Dailykos.com. By 1 p.m., a connected network of dialogue had emerged. Some of us remember to pick up the telephone and talk to people, a critical step easy to skip when electronic communication is so easy.

In about seven hours, 30 cycling advocates had assembled at City Hall to express their opposition. The mayor's phone rang all day. For short notice, in the blazing civic dead zone of late July, it was a respectable turnout.

You don't just get to shoot your mouth off at Charleston City Council. The Mayor has set up the agenda so you pay with a serious dose of civic education and involvement first. Before the public comments there was a committee meeting with extensive discussion about rezoning for a PUD. The interesting issue of what was adequate notice to neighborhoods which lacked a functional residents association or HOA was raised. There was a lengthy exploration of the advantages of traditional tax free municipal bonds and the new taxable "rebuild America bonds" which pay higher interest rates. It was informative.

However, the meeting also included the rich reward of watching Robert Dixon, Charleston's legendary "Singing Chef" being recognized for 34 years of service to the community. The Mayor issued a proclamation. Robert sang.

Twelve people spoke against the "boot the bikes" concept. Afterward, council excised it from the new ordinance and sent the problem back to the committees working on it. It was clear that Charleston City Council and the mayor understand cycling will continue to be a growing option within the city. There is no room for more cars.

It was a small exercise in civics, government, free speech and democracy played out on a hot day in July. It did, however, work far better than the rushed decisions resulting from misleadingly edited videos about racism made at the Department of Agriculture -- the US Senate's faltering commitment to a new energy future for America and a jobs bill which withered in Congress to a vestigial extension of unemployment benefits.

Afterward Jackson and I walked several blocks to the Mellow Mushroom for dinner. Along the way, we passed a dozen bicycles locked to light poles and signs, and two bike hitching posts (one used). Jackson locked his bike to a utility pole and we had dinner. It wasn't a perfect world, but something worked on Tuesday.

(William Hamilton (www.wjhamilton.com) is an attorney who lives in I'On Village. )