Becoming an evangelical cyclist – Barnett Shoals Observations

I am tempted to become a militant, evangelical cyclist devoting myself to spreading the word that cycling is good for people and the world.

There is more dislike and anger aimed at cyclists than even I realized. Last night was a public forum on the trial 2-way bike lanes on Barnett Shoals between College Station and the light at Whitehall, a very short stretch but an extension of the bike lanes on College Station. I walked into the public forum at 5:10 pm. It was already very crowded and heated. I proceeded to sit there and mostly listen until 7 pm. It was not a pleasant experience. People were very upset. If the 2-way bike lane had been added as an addition to the four-lane road, I’m sure that people would have been fine. But it was really the reduction of 4-lane road (two lanes in each direction) to a 3-lane road that angered people. The four lanes have become one in each direction with a turn lane in the middle. How could this kind of configuration even be considered? It didn’t make sense and the traffic back-ups were so extreme that people were finding all sorts of ways to avoid the area. And most people hadn’t seen a cyclist on the paths at all. At least, that’s what people reported last night.

I had observed the new configuration as it was being put in two Thursdays ago. It was about 5 pm and there didn’t seem to have been problems then, but I could sympathize somewhat with what people were reporting. It wasn’t just one or two people complaining.

I decided I needed to see first-hand what was happening, so I set me clock for 6:45 am and by 7:45 am, I was in place on Barnett Shoals. Notebook and Iphone in hand, I sat there until 9 am and documented what I observed in front of me.No traffic backups during morning rush hour. No one had to wait through a two rounds of traffic signals. No one had trouble getting out of Greencrest (I was seated 50 feet away). Residents were able to turn out of their driveways. And there were nine cyclists during that time period. I took time-lapse videos every 5-10 minutes during that time. Traffic was clearly NOT a problem.

I plan to return to the intersection later today to observe how the end-of-day rush hour is.

I also road up and down the cycle lanes twice, once when I got there and once when I left. All those people there last night didn’t think that the lanes made cyclists feel safer. Because cyclists ride against the traffic as they head south, it might appear that it would be scary to cycle there. However, with the bollards and striped separation strips, I am here to attest that it does feel safer for cyclists. In fact, it felt quite peaceful and unlike cycling on most stretches of Athens’ roads. I am convinced that if there were a two-way cycle track that continued on towards Gaines School road and out to Lowes, that the number of cyclists would increase significantly. That’s a flat stretch of road, something we cyclists like.

What I experienced last night was a lot of anger – at cyclists and at the government – and a lot of exaggeration and misinformation. Basically, a lot of people really felt that cyclists shouldn’t be on the roads at all. They are for autos and not bikes. Bikes don’t pay taxes, and cyclists are crazy to risk their lives on roads that really don’t belong to them. The end conclusion of many of the arguments presented was that bikes should not be on the road.

I propose a different argument – that we won’t have more cyclists on the road until we build an infrastructure that makes them feel safer. And that’s going to happen little by little. With our new bike pedestrian plan about to be voted on, we will have a process for building a network of safe bike and pedestrian infrastructure that will connect existing pathways and build more. The goal is to build a system that encourages more users. We won’t have the users until we build it. The Barnett Shoals cycle track is the end point right now of bike lanes and paths that can get cyclists from the east side to campus, downtown, and Sandy Creek Nature Center. Being at the very end, of course, there will be fewer users, but we can’t make the better system without such extensions that will not be heavily used until more are built. That seems like common sense to me, but maybe that’s just bike common sense.

Yesterday, I brought my road bike into Georgia Cycle Sport on Baxter for some needed work on my rear hub, pedals, and back cassette. After some bike chit chat, Micah, one of the owners and their star mechanic, offered me one of their Specialized e-bikes to try out. I took the bike for a spin through the hilly parts of Five Points. With the electronic assist, I was able to wiz up the hills without much effort at all and with a big smile on my face.  Specialized, one of the largest bike companies around, anticipates that e-bikes will make up about 50% of their sales in five years. E-bike sales are already reaching those numbers in Europe.

I thought two things. First, I want one of these. That way when I meet a friend for coffee, take a trip to the library, buy groceries, or go to the bank, there will be no question that I will hop on a bike to get the four 3-4 hilly (sweaty) miles that it takes instead of hopping in my car. Second, once everyone else learns about ebikes, there will be a lot more people in Athens riding their bikes because right now it’s the hilly terrain that inhibits a lot of bike riding. With the combination of new bike lanes and paths and ebikes, Athens can really become a bike-friendly town.

My friend Donald just told me I was already a rather militant bike evangelical. Perhaps so but I am not really confrontative by nature. Militant is not my style. But an event like last night does energize me to get on my bike more often for normal daily activities and chores. I want to be on those bike lanes as much as I can be so fewer people will have the opportunity to say that no one uses them. Plus, of course, bike riding just makes everything seem like more fun. I will try to grab my car keys less and my bike lock more. That’s my goal.

Update: Did another observation session from 4:30 – 5:45. Once again, no traffic issues. All traffic able to get through intersection in one light cycle. Didn’t seem much different than during those hours I’ve stood out there waving campaign signs at that intersection over the past almost 20 years.