BikeAthens Update

August 14, 2005

This week:

• Bike maps available now
• Old Hull Road update
• Safe Routes takes off at Barrow
• Sidewalk demand outpaces funding
• UGA alt-trans passes now available

BIKE MAPS AVAILABLE NOW

BikeAthens’ 2005 Athens-Clarke County Bike Map is now available free at over a dozen locations in town and on the UGA campus.

In addition to covering bike routes and transit stops in Athens-Clarke County, the topographic map includes a four-panel campus enlargement. The map is the first of its kind in Athens.

Check www.bikeathens.com to find a distribution point near you.

OLD HULL ROAD UPDATE

By Dorothy O’Niell Board member

Consulting with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), BikeAthens has learned that bicycle facilities should have been included in the Old Hull Road concept plan - approved by the county commission without bike lanes earlier this month.

In the creation of the concept plan for Old Hull Road (passed 9-1 by the commission on August 2), the current GDOT policy to add bicycle facilities to roads specifically identified in local transportation plans was overlooked, first at the county level, and then at the GDOT level. Fortunately, according to GDOT, the project is in a sufficiently early stage to make the necessary changes.

As a result, BikeAthens is requesting that the mayor and commission bring the Old Hull Road issue up for reconsideration at the next voting meeting. We will keep you posted.

SAFE ROUTES TAKES OFF AT BARROW

By Kris Boudreau Safe Routes to School Coordinator

On August 3, BikeAthens attended “Taste of Barrow,” the annual meet-the-teachers night at Barrow Elementary school in Five Points. We distributed information about the new Safe Routes to School (SR2S) program, which BikeAthens is establishing in the Clarke County School District and piloting this fall at Barrow Elementary School.

SR2S aims to encourage school children and their parents to walk, bicycle, or ride the school bus to and from school. The following day, a significant part of the traffic to Barrow on the first day of the school year was human-powered: pedestrians, bicyclists, and scooters. Barrow parent and SR2S team leader Mimi Elliot-Gower called this first day a “huge success,” pointing out that at least three cars from the Cobbham neighborhood stayed home that day while kids and parents combined transportation and physical activity.

BikeAthens is currently planning a pedestrian and bicycling safety program to be presented at Barrow, as well as a social and educational event on October 5: “International Walk and Ride to School Day.”

SIDEWALK DEMAND OUTPACES FUNDING

By Brad Aaron Administrator

Athens-Clarke County has a backlog of almost 300 requests for new sidewalks, the mayor and commission learned at an August 9 work session. But of the 102 miles of sidewalk sought by citizens, current funding allows only two miles to be constructed per year.

According to David Clark, director of ACC Transportation and Public Works, the Sidewalk Improvement Program was established in 1995, and the criteria for sidewalk prioritization has remained unchanged since 1996. The first four SIP projects were undertaken in 1997, and since then 10 miles of sidewalk have been constructed under the program, at a total cost of $1.6 million.

Drawing from SPLOST 2005 and the county general fund, the FY06 budget for sidewalk construction will total $600,000, Clark said. At $50 to $75 per linear foot, he said, the county can build about two miles of sidewalk yearly.

By contrast, Athens-Clarke County devotes millions in local funds each year to projects which exist primarily to increase automobile capacity and speed. One project alone - the widening of a short stretch of Barnett Shoals Road - has cost over $3 million in local dollars and has yet to incorporate promised pedestrian and cyclist safety improvements.

Requests for new sidewalks come in constantly, Clark said, and are compiled in a database. T&PW decides which sidewalks to build based on eleven criteria. Of the 291 project requests on the database, approximately 100 of them are “justified today,” according to Clark.

Commissioner States McCarter said Athenians need to understand that sidewalk funding is limited, and suggested the database be purged in order to “get down to something more realistic.”

McCarter also said it makes no sense in some cases to have sidewalks on just one side of a street, and wondered if sidewalks could be widened to encourage bicycle use. (Though it seems safer to many novice cyclists, riding on a sidewalk is statistically far more dangerous than riding on a street with the flow of traffic.)

Commissioner Alice Kinman agreed that the SIP list seems “unwieldy.” She also asked if proximity to schools and commercial areas should be given more weight. Kinman said she hears from constituents who would do more walking if sidewalks were in place, and cited the BikeAthens Safe Routes to School program as evidence of growing public interest in sidewalk connectivity.

McCarter and Commissioner Kathy Hoard suggested that streets where residents are opposed to sidewalks be removed from the database. Clark replied that all projects on the list were generated by citizen requests.

Advocating a holistic approach to sidewalk planning, Mayor Heidi Davison added that sidewalks serve not only those who live on a given street, but also those who wish to traverse that street by foot. Davison pointed out that sidewalks are especially useful for children, the elderly, and disabled citizens.

Clark said the latest list of SIP projects would be brought to the commission in September, for an October vote.

UGA ALT-TRANS PASSES NOW AVAILABLE

By Mark Dodson Co-chair

UGA alternative transportation parking permits are now available for pickup in a small office on the first floor of the Ramsey Center parking deck, at the north end of the first level. Tags should be available there at least through Friday, August 19.

Note that the pass cannot be used in the South Deck near the Georgia Center this year, so the only remaining options are the decks at North Campus, Carlton Street behind Stegeman, Hull Street, and East Campus/Ramsey. This is a considerable drop in the level of service, considering two years ago the Tate Center lot and the South Deck were part of the deal, and the South Deck was included last year.