Decatur Commission To Vote on PATH Plan for 9.2 Miles of Ped/Bike Trail Improvements
Decatur Metro | December 19, 2016 | 11:30 am
The Decatur City Commission meets this evening to vote on a Decatur PATH Connectively and Implementation Plan.
According to a note from Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon, “The Plan identifies 9.2 miles of bicycle and pedestrian trail improvements in Decatur in 7 segments at a cost of approximately $12 million over a 10-year period.”
The Commerce Drive Cycle Track is the plan’s top priority, connecting an already approved and planned Church Street Cycle Track and the currently under construction North McDonough Cycle Track. The Commerce Drive Cycle Track runs along the westside the of the Commerce Drive downtown bypass and then turns and goes up Trinity to connect with N. McDonough.
The Church Street Cycle Track would take cyclists north to Medlock Road and connect up with the Mason Mill Trail via Medlock Park.
The planned East Decatur Greenway and a proposed cycle track from McDonough thru Oakhurst Village to Kirkwood via Oakview Road are also included on the map.
The Commission meets tonight at 7:30p. Here’s the full agenda for the meeting.
According to Hugh Saxton Dearborn Park was taken off the proposal due to DeKalb County not being informed of the proposal by Path Foundation
The creek path from Westchester to downtown still has a big hole in it.
It will be rammed through. Some improvements are needed, but much of what is proposed will, actually, make it worst. As Bike Roswell said, today, on the opening of a greenspace with a raised path, “It is for baby & new riders”. Yes, make some safe areas, if side roads are simply not enough, for children. But, the concept of making the roads more dangerous {or seem more dangerous} to become safer is misguided. As is running off people who use bikes to commute & for sport. Drivers need to become more aware & drive more appropriately when necessary. Some improvements can be made. However, the plan for DeKalb Ave, East Lake/Kirkwood is a waste of money that will not improve anything, The high school cycletrack is too narrow with large ominous curbs, not particularly fitting for much except slowing people down & curbing cycling. Not any improvement over the road. These feel good ideas are not for better cycling. The road improvements do not help traffic, safety, nor get more people out. they are simply too run people out so property values are pushed up, so people can go, “Oh, look at how safe our privatized roads are”.
They announce these meetings with no warning & then will say the public wants this. No, they don’t.
You could go to city commission meetings and express your opinions.
This plan was presented at a public meeting at the rec center about a month and 1/2 ago. That meeting was announced at least a week in advance, because I heard about it and attended it. All the attendees present that spoke were in favor of the plan.
Yes, this plan has been discussed a lot, with various forums for public input. And the city commission meetings are very accessible, with agendas posted in advance. They even live stream them!
In particular, the Commerce Street cycletrack is a humongous mistake.
Why do you say that, Robert? I was thinking that northern route should extend from Avondale Marta up Sycamore and then across Forkner to Church. That would take the East Decatur Greenspace Trail all the way to Mason Mill Park. But I think the goal of the Commerce/Church trail is more to put that road on a diet rather than help biking.
The Commerce Street plan is great! It will make that stretch of Commerce so much nicer, and not just for bike riders. The road diet plan has been in the works for a long time. The city and the developers of the new development were originally just going to stripe in bike lanes, but now they’re planning on making protected bike lanes instead. Protected bike lanes are great, and this would be a tremendous improvement!
It’s odd that the ~3 mile extension of the Stone Mountain PATH along Deklab Avenue to the Inman Park MARTA station isn’t included on this map. With City of Atlanta passing the TSPLOST measure in November, that should be a funded project.
I believe that is because the map is for CoD visioned projects, within CoD (the blue lines). The PATH extension to inman MARTA is all outside CoD. Which I would welcome (I bike the hills on McClendon every day while the cars traveling on Dekalb get the flat route …)
They likely show the East Decatur Greenway project because it is happening and committed, unlike the Path extension.
By my calculations, this will cost about $493,784 for every single taxpaying household in Decatur, or $21,219 for every adult. All for the mere 13 Decatur citizens who ride bikes on a regular basis.
Is this really where our money should go?
Obviously, I made up these numbers. But that’s not the point. Is this one of our highest priorities as a city? Can we not imagine so other better, more productive use for $12M?
Keep in mind this plan is a visioning policy document; it doesn’t commit city funding. How the various recommendations are taken forward, fine-tuned, and funded is a variable. But using the past as a guide, our complete street / streetscape efforts since the 80s/90s have been funded to a large degree by federal transportation grants. The discussion of how much local money it’s gonna cost is a conversation yet to come.
With a $12M budget, I’m sure the highly efficient Feds can take this off our hands at an easy $19M. 😉
(Still not sure it’s worth the investment, but better ‘them’ than us is my only comfort, I guess)
Also, the PATH Foundation has millions of dollars and would probably support the project, too. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, it’s worth tax dollars to keep kids safe, not to mention trying to help mitigate global warming. The fewer car-miles driven the better for us and our kids. And grandkids.
This is a great plan! If it’s fully implemented, students would be able to bike to many local schools in protected bike lanes: FAVE, Renfroe, Decatur High, Agnes Scott, etc. Studies have shown that protected lanes lead to a significant increase in bike ridership, which reduces automobile traffic and pollution. Bike lanes have also been shown to be a stimulant to local business, with people on bikes spending more time and money than visitors in cars. Most of all, this plan would make Decatur an even friendlier place to spend time, quieter and safer. Bikes are a key part of the transportation future, and a bike friendly city is a friendly city period.
Yes! I fully support this plan as someone who walks, bikes, and drives around Decatur. Great to see CoD encouraging folks to be active in a safe manner. I’ve ridden thousands of miles each year in different cities throughout the U.S. and love riding on protected bike lanes. Can’t wait to use them with our kids.