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Bicycle-friendly? Ha!

Posted on August 30, 2007 by Staff

Philip Duchastel

I noticed a sign attached to the Carrboro “Welcome” sign on Estes Drive the other day. It read, “A Bicycle-Friendly Town.” And Carrboro even has a Bicycle Friendly designation from a national bicycle group. Which got me thinking about that and asking myself, “Are we really a bicycle-friendly town?” And what about our sister town of Chapel Hill? And what about UNC?

If we look at the bikeways maps that are available from the towns, they are full of multicolored lines showing an extensive network of bikeways to and fro. Some of these are excellent bicycle/pedestrian paths that are off-road altogether.

Can we thus pride ourselves, as we officially do, with being avant-garde in the cyclist realm? I daresay, no! Even Carrboro, with its official designation, earned only the lowest level of awards, bronze. We can do better.

Look again at the bikeways map, and three things immediately jump out. One, most of the lines do not connect when we approach downtown. Two, there are few bikeways around our schools. Three, the residential suburbs are pretty bare.

Take Carrboro, for instance. There are quite a few bikeways, mostly bike lanes on major roads that come towards downtown – towards Weaver Street Market, which is a popular attraction in many ways. But then the network disintegrates. Cyclists are expected to fight for some right-of-way alongside fast big cars. Bike-friendly?

Ha!

If we planned better bike access to our schools, we would be encouraging our youngsters to take the bike rather than the big yellow bus. And we complain about child obesity in this country? There should be a vast network of bikeways radiating out of the school areas in our towns, not as it happens in one case: a mere one on-road bike lane along a short stretch of Seawell School Road.

Now, it is true that we have plans to make things better. Carrboro is even setting up a one-year bicycle planning study that promises to shake the world. Alas, the problem with plans is that they often grow stale unless political champions come forth to see them through.

All in all, we are pretty sorry towns when it comes to bicycles. Oh, no worse than most, but that is a poor excuse for this unhealthy state of affairs.

It is pretty plain to see how we got here. We are still a car-driven society and despite all our proclaimed oomph about going green, the car is still king and you bicyclists just have to watch out and keep in your place, too!

There is a way around this predicament, though. It will take some guts, but it should be done. We have just got to unseat the king-car if we truly do value a green future and a better way of life for all.

Two roads to get there should be taken. One, plan for bicycles in all new developments to be built in the future. Insist on it by building it right into our town codes. This is a simple matter that fits in nicely with new developments as mixed-use villages, as all new developments should be.

Two, put it straight into the older parts of town, even if that means at the expense of the car! In Carrboro, for instance, connecting all those bike network lines coming into downtown could be accomplished by rethinking the traffic flows in the old mill area. The streets just north of Weaver Street could all be made single-lane one-ways with ample bike and pedestrian paths alongside. Even better, these streets should be considered as potential woonerf areas, where cars travel at the speed as pedestrians.

Some specific ideas to consider can be found at
http://pduchastel.googlepages.com/chcbikeways.

Imagine Franklin Street around Columbia being a single lane, with the rest of it becoming pedestrian and bicycle ways. With outdoor cafés and umbrellas and trees! Must this just be a pleasant dream, or can we be bold enough to go for it?
And wouldn’t it be great if UNC finally made a move to cater to bicycles in a major way? Currently, students on bicycles have to meld with students on foot on the pedestrian pathways. Not too bad, but not ideal either. And officials keep talking about how to reduce commuting, ha!

We talk a lot in these towns of ours, we dream a lot, but will we be bold enough to put the car in its place and keep it from continuing to ruin our more genteel lifestyles? Let’s be bold!

Philip Duchastel raises chickens in Carrboro.

2 thoughts on “Bicycle-friendly? Ha!”

  1. Pingback: US: Bicycle-friendly? Ha! : Wheels of Justice
  2. Cary Real Estate says:
    September 1, 2007 at 4:20 pm

    i got my undergrad degree at UC Davis. while there, i got pulled over for the first time on my bike – by a bike cop. in fact, i got pulled over by that same guy three times. he patrolled the main routes through campus pretty heavily.

    what a concept. there were SO MANY cyclists that the uc davis campus police had probably a half dozen or more bike cops to keep all the cycling under control.

    hey, davis is not one of the top cycling communities in the nation without its fair share of bike cops.

    man what i wouldnt give to see that kind of cycling migration on a daily basis again. while davis wasnt particularly large (probably geographically on par with chapel hill + carrboro) – you could still get FROM anywhere TO anywhere in town faster on a bike than on a car.

    i could rant about how pedestrians and cyclists get FAR less respect out here in the east than the west, but thats a whole different topic.

    anything we can do to promote cycling and more pedestrian friendly places, im all in favor!

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