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Mayor: Bikes, Yes!
Gets 4 Bike Project
Planning Units
Will They Work Here?
In Atlanta, Savannah and some other cities,
county-sponsored neighborhood groups are given
quasi-official representation in planning and land-
use decisions that affect their neighborhoods.
Those neighborhood groups are called
Neighborhood Planning Units (NPUs), and Mayor
Heidi Davison and some commissioners are inter
ested in implementing an NPU system here.
At a work session last week, they heard a staff
report from the planning department on how an
NPU system might work. For the first year or two,
suggested senior planner Bruce Lonnee, a pilot
program could be tested using only a few neigh
borhood groups. After that, the county could be
divided into 15 or 20 districts, with a citizens
group designated to represent each district If no
such group already existed in a district the
county would encourage citizens to organize one.
But Commissioner David lynr. wondered if a
scaled-down NPU program couldn't be imple
mented sooner than the two or three years
Lonnee said it would take.
*1 think we need to get started county-wide
with a very skeletal system,' Lynn said, adding
that such a framework would provide information
about proposed new developments in different
areas of the county. Lynn said he often hears from
citizens who want "better early input" about
developments in their areas.
"They want to know about a development
when the sign goes up," he said. Tm very impa
tient for this process to get started sooner rather
than later." (The planning department's "external
website*—accessed through athensclarke
county.com—now lists planning commission and
hearings board applications by commission dis
trict)
Commissioner Alice Kinman agreed at the
meeting that it "probably makes sense to do baby
Originally, I'd planned to get a motorcycle or
maybe a car. But Hiroshima is incredibly bike-
friendly: no need for anything else. In Japan,
bicycles are ridden on the sidewalk, not the
street You don't have to dodge cars or otherwise
risk your life. Neither is it difficult to ride on the
sidewalk; they are incredibly wide (maybe three to
four times as wide as one in Athens). Pedestrians
and bikes easily share this space. The city also has
great bike paths. For example, a path runs from
my apartment to the center of town; it follows the
river—a very pleasant ride. I avoid cars and traffic
lights, crossing only one road on my 15-minute
journey. There are six rivers in Hiroshima, and
every one of them is fined with bike paths (both
sides). Other paths cut through the city center.
They include tunnels that cross under busy
streets. Bypassing intersections in this way, I can
travel to town in the same time it would take me
to drive.
Drivers benefit from the situation too. Because
so many people cycle, there are far fewer cars on
the road. I've never seen a traffic jam in
Hiroshima, not even at
rush hour. It's also easy to
find a parking space. In
fact it may be more diffi
cult to find a place to
park a bike than a car.
Bicycles crowd every
street every space, every
alley.
As I tool around on my
granny bike, I think of the
poor souls in Athens.
Cyclists have been beg
ging, threatening and
harassing the government
for years, but it's still a
horrible place to cycle. I
once lived off Prince
Avenue and tried to do
without a car. Because
the city's narrow sidewalks
are off limits to bicycles, I
was shoulder to shoulder
with behemoth SUVs,
trucks and cars. Some
brushed by at high speed
and forced me to the
curb. I kept my head
down and remained alert. I tried to hug the edge
of the road. At other times, timid drivers would
stack up behind me: terrified to pass. Td wave
them around, but they'd cruise behind at 15 miles
an hour. Impatient motorists honked.
Occasionally, someone would yelL
Many cyclists tell stories of having bottles
thrown at them, or of being deliberately knocked
off the road. Cycling in Athens is dangerous and
nerve-wracking. No wonder its not popular. A few
stripes on a busy road (a "bike lane") does
nothing to solve this problem. It's a sad and
unnecessary situation.
Athens is smaller than Hiroshima. It could be a
cycling paradise. Bicycles could easily replace cars
as the preferred mode of transportation, just as
they have in Hiroshima. Car traffic would be
reduced. Air quality would improve. Energy con
sumption would drop. People would get more
exercise. The city would be beautified. But the
good old boys continue to do nothing. They are
concerned with wealthy vested interests, not
quality of fife. It's a sad situation. And as the
Hiroshima example proves—totally unnecessary.
AJHoge
AJ Hoge is a wandering freelance writer and the
editor of Hobopoet A Weblog for Neo-Nomads
(www.hobopoet.blogspot.com).
Last week Mayor Heidi Davison persuaded a
grumbling transportation board to add at least
one bicycle project to local road building plans.
The multi-county "MACORTS" (Madison Clarke
Oconee Regional Transportation Study) board
received around 300 citizen comments last year
asking for bicycle and pedestrian projects—and
not just roads—to be funded. But such projects
aren't getting approved by the Georgia
Department of Transportation (GDOT), the mayor
told the board. "This is not a fringe group of folks
that are asking for bike and pedestrian projects."
"We're getting very congested," the Mayor
said. "That's the biggest problem here—our car
emissions." And yet, she said, road projects (like
the widening of Jefferson Road) get leapfrogged
over the county's request for a "dedicated" bike or
pedestrian project—that is, one that isn't built in
tandem with a road improvement (Road projects
these days often include sidewalks and sometimes
bicycle facilities. When Jefferson Road is widened,
it won't include bike lanes, but it will have a
wider paved shoulder that bikes can use.)
"Seven million dollars magically appeared for
Jefferson Road," the mayor said, yet she said, the
county is told that no bike/ ped project will be
funded without sacrificing a road project that's
already been approved.
County transportation planner Sheny Moore
confirmed that it's "possible but not probable" for
a bike or pedestrian project to get funded in the
routine way that road projects are, because,
"quite frankly, DOT sees those road projects as a
higher priority."
A skeptical discussion
of the role of bicycles fol
lowed: they are for recre
ation, not transportation,
and pay no road taxes,
some board members
said. Not so, countered
Davison: all users pay for
roads through property
and sates taxes. In the
end, the group voted to
add a bike/ ped project to
the current projects fist
Depending on feedback
from the public and other
considerations, that pro
ject would be either bike
lanes on Lexington Road,
bike lanes on College
Station Road or three-
laning North Avenue near
the bypass with bike
lanes and a new median.
Public comments on all
the road and bike projects
will be accepted by the
ACC Planning Department
for 30 days beginning Apr. 25.
Planner Sherry Moore told the MACORTS board
there have been no moves toward implementing a
passenger rail fine to Atlanta, and there is no
indication of action in the near future. Funding
for public buses and non-road projects continues
to be minimal compared to road expenditures,
according to county sources, although road pro
jects often include sidewatks now and sometimes
include bike facilities. Ninety percent of ACCs bus
stops still have no shelters, and despite many
requests, there are no plans to extend the hours
of service beyond 7 p.m. All buses do have bike
John Huie rides his bike when it's not in the
bock of his pickup.
Fast Commute
Hiroshima: Who Knew?
Up at 8:30 a.m. and out the door at 9 a.m., I
catch the tail end of Hiroshima's rush hour. Tm
running late and going a bit too fast I weave and
keep a wary eye for pedestrians. The route takes
me over Misasa bridge and along the Otagawa
River. It's a beautiful trip this morning—the
cherry trees are blooming. I cruise under a canopy
of pink blossoms, which rain down when the wind
blows. The sky is clear, and I can see the moun
tains on the edge of the city.
As I cruise into town, traffic picks up. Others
are hurrying to work. Downtown is bustling as I
search for parking. It reminds me of Athens: too
many people looking, too few spaces. I cruise by
my favorite illegal spot but it's folL Traffic cones
mark "no parking' zones in front of store
entranceways. All the best places are cordoned
off. Worrying I'll be late for work, I opt for the
parking deck. It's only 100 yen for the day (about
Si). I park my bike up on the second floor of the
bicycle parking deck and dash off to work.
Athens-Clarke government seems mystified by
the notion of bicycles. Even the idea of 'bike
A parking deck in Hiroshima, Japan.
lanes," little more than stripes on the road, seems
to worry them. Attend a meeting of commis
sioners and you'd think that a bike-friendly city is
impossible. It's not Hiroshima, Japan (my current
home) is bicycle heaven. When I commute to work
on a one-speed granny bike, I am joined by thou
sands of cyclists. Everyone rides: kids, teens, busi
nessmen in suits, hip hop freaks, women in
miniskiits, foreigners, old people. It's common to
see a mother and two children meandering into
town—one child in a rear booster seat another
sitting in front of her. Girlfriends hitch rides with •
their boyfriends.
racks that passengers can use to transport bicy
cles on the bus, and about 100 people use them
each day, according to Athens Transit
John Huie .
6 FLAGPOLE.COM • APRIL 20, 2005