Decatur Now Officially “Bike Friendly”
Decatur Metro | October 18, 2012
Decatur, once braved only by the most daring cyclists, has apparently made enough inroads to improve its bike infrastructure to receive “official” designation.
Decatur Active Living’s Cheryl Burnette writes on the Be Active Decatur blog that the city has been designated a “bike-friendly community” (bronze level) by the League of American Bicyclists. Here’s a quote from League President Andy Clarke, via the Be Active blog…
“We are excited that the City of Decatur recognizes that simple steps to make biking safe and comfortable pay huge dividends in civic, community and economic development’. Bicycling is more than a practical, cost effective solution to many municipal challenges – it’s a way to make Decatur a place where people don’t just live and work, but thrive.”
Cheryl points out our new bike lanes, bike racks, sharrows, bike stores and valets. (I can’t believe she forgot the first crowd-sourced bike rack!) What additional bike improvements would you like to see in the COD?
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I’d like to see more bike path connections between dead-end streets. A good example is the path connecting Green street between Candler and McDonough. Bike/ped paths connecting streets like Olympic, W. Davis, Greenwood, Cottonwood,Electric Ave, etc. would allow people to take more direct, low-auto-traffic (i.e. safer) routes to Oakhurst and Downtown, similar to the idea of the beltline path that just opened up.
I don’t agree it is all around bike friendly. I live on Church Street and am still terrified to ride my bike. Am I being a wimp? But I think we need more bike paths and signage for cars to be more aware of bikers. And as a driver I get nervous around bikers too and I slow down and then the jerks behind me honk at me. Still seems a little stressful to me.
More bike lanes and self-service repair stations like this http://www.dero.com/products/fixit/
That’s pretty cool.
Way cool. Chattanooga has them too — along with a very cool, inexpensive bike share program.
Oh, I mean inexpensive to use. Not sure how much the program cost the city.
Congrats Decatur! Let’s go for the gold! We just need more dedicated bike routes like the ones on Ponce westward from the Post Office, ideally protected by physical barriers and safe from doors opening on parked cars.
Is there any hope of bike lanes along Clairmont or Scott or North Decatur (where the cyclist was killed earlier this year)? That would truly make Decatur bike-friendly. If not, maybe we can create connecting routes, maybe in the way that TeeRuss suggests: connections between dead end streets.
I applaud the city for all of the recent bike infrastructure improvements. I think the City of Decatur has a real opportunity to create a truly bike friendly city. It seems that probably a significant percentage of residents would support at least the idea of creating bike friendly city. I would venture to say that this is a rarity in most North American municipalities. I would love to see the city put forth a very bold bike lane and bike path initiative. What the city has done so far is more bike window dressing than anything. Bike sharrows don’t really create a safe space for cyclists. The bike lanes on West Ponce are great, but the bike lanes on Trinity leave a lot to be desired. On Trinity behind Thomas More, the bike lanes disappear for a short period. Then, on Trinity heading east toward the courthouse, the bike lanes basically turn into gutters then abruptly end at Trinity and McDonough. While these do represent real improvements, they are insufficient.
I would love to see the city get serious about biking and at the very least add bike lanes, preferably bike paths (though I understand that doing so would be quite expensive) throughout the city. These should create an uninterrupted (this is key) network of dedicated bike lanes/paths that connect all areas of the city. Obviously this would require substantial public investment. For too long, North American cities have not treated cycling as a relevant form of transportation. My sense is (or my hope is) that many people in Decatur would be willing to treat cycling as a valid form of transportation and approve a significant public investment in a true uninterrupted Decatur bike network.
+1 GreenTea!
Hmph. It’d say it’ll be truly “bike friendly” when we can make those pesky cyclists obey the traffic laws at least a majority of the time.
Oops! Was channeling Junderscore’s bear-poking there for a minute…apologies, folks. As you were.
City of Decatur with input from Bike Decatur published a map recently showing its network of bike routes and trails. Pick one up.
I would encourage enforcement of speed limits in the central business district and school zones. There has been some madness on recent mornings.
+1 on speed limit enforcement.
Great! That’s wonderful news for the city.
Does this mean we can stop reducing our major transportation arteries to half their capacity?
I wish there could/would be more stringent enforcement of traffic regulations targeting everyone — motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. By “more stringent” I mean No Excuses And No Mercy. The scofflaws in every group make things less safe for everybody, by creating hazardous situations as well as by irritating and alienating each other.