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Old 09-30-2014, 12:19 PM
 
10,974 posts, read 10,799,408 times
Reputation: 3435

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Investing 15 percent of bond package on bikeways a good way to make Atlanta a top 10 city for cycling | SaportaReport

Official: Let's Take Training Wheels Off Cycle-Friendly Funding - Bureau Of Big Ideas - Curbed Atlanta


Quote:
With a number of bike-friendly projects either under way or in the offing, Atlanta is clearly embracing the urban cycling movement. But ask the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, and better isn't good enough — not if we want to ride with the big boys. In a Monday guest column with Saporta Report, the coalition's executive director Rebecca Serna suggests the city of Atlanta use 15 percent of a proposed $250-million infrastructure bond for bike-related projects. Arguing that the 12 "complete streets" projects already included in the list aren't enough, she called bikeways "one of the best investments in our city's future." For $10 million, Serna wrote, "we could build out a fantastic 30-plus mile bikeway network in the core of the city (based on the Cycle Atlanta plan), including a bike path along Lee Street connecting the West End to Downtown and Georgia State. It would also include protected bike lanes on streets like Piedmont, and bike lanes connecting Midtown and Downtown with new intown developments like Ponce City Market and the Westside."

...

Census data compiled earlier this summer showed a sharp spike in bicycle commuting between 1990 and 2012; the Beltline is ridiculously popular, and other trail projects like PATH400 promise to be as well; the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition's own "Streets Alive" events have exploded. All that said, Serna points out that recent additions bring the city to only about 60 miles of on-street bike lanes and 69 miles of trails.

That wasn't good enough for the traffic-choked ATL to make Bicycling Magazine's list of top 50 bike-friendly cities. In fact, Atlanta's competitors around the Southeast put us to shame. Places like Austin (1,100 miles), Dallas (1,300), Charlotte (783) and Memphis (575) are planning for hundreds of more miles of bike ways. "These cities aren't investing in bike lanes so weekend warriors in spandex can zip around town," Serna wrote. "They're doing so because it makes good business sense."

Whether you agree or disagree with Serna's proposal, you might want to stop by the seventh floor of the Shepherd Center at 6 p.m. tonight — they'll be holding a public hearing on the infrastructure bond in question.
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Old 10-30-2014, 03:03 PM
 
31,993 posts, read 36,507,354 times
Reputation: 13254
Sounds like this bicycle thing might be a double edged sword.

Quote:
As an up-and-coming bike city, Memphis had a new cultural reputation—and more importantly, a positive one. Bike advocates saw the emerging cycling network as a way to improve social connectivity across the city. Local businesses and developers found ways to leverage cycling into economic growth. Bikes became the centerpiece of what Smiley and company called "a new urban development regime."

But with the future in mind, the researchers are quick to point out the potential drawbacks of such a rapid social shift. Take the city's Harahan bridge project. Efforts are underway to repurpose the former road connecting Memphis with Arkansas across the Mississippi for cyclists and pedestrians. The bridge is backed by a $15 million federal TIGER grant and has encouraged many local businesses.

Exciting as the Harahan project is for city mobility and economic development, Smiley and colleagues point to evidence that it's already leading to gentrification in adjacent neighborhoods. The census tract closest to the corridor was 54 percent white and 43 percent black in 2000; by 2008-2012 figures, it was 66 percent white and 14 percent black. That's an unsettling demographic shift, especially in an area that's home to the National Civil Rights Museum.

The Harahan plan seeks to achieve changes in the image and ultimately the place character of Memphis. Without a commitment to social preservation of place, however, the gentrification evidenced over the last decade may be furthered with the installation of the Harahan, thereby undermining the goals associated with utilising bicycling as a civic change agent.

According to the authors, the message out of Memphis is both "hopeful" and "sobering." On one hand, the rise of cycling has done a lot of good for a troubled city at a cash-strapped time. On the other, not everyone is benefiting equally from the shift, and some of the neediest residents might even have suffered as a result. Onward and hopefully upward, on two wheels.

How Memphis Became a Great Bicycle City - CityLab
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Old 10-30-2014, 03:13 PM
JPD
 
12,138 posts, read 18,206,498 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arjay57 View Post
Sounds like this bicycle thing might be a double edged sword.
So is everything.
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Old 10-30-2014, 04:27 PM
 
2,685 posts, read 6,022,642 times
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All good but whatever happened to spending the money on the 1 billion dollar back log of infrustructure repairs. These are new projects, not fixing roads, sidewalks etc.
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Old 10-30-2014, 06:56 PM
 
Location: Ono Island, Orange Beach, AL
10,729 posts, read 13,261,500 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by noah View Post
All good but whatever happened to spending the money on the 1 billion dollar back log of infrustructure repairs. These are new projects, not fixing roads, sidewalks etc.
Yup. A lot of money for a few cyclists. Sounds fiscally responsible...
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Old 10-30-2014, 07:58 PM
bu2
 
23,841 posts, read 14,619,513 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AnsleyPark View Post
Yup. A lot of money for a few cyclists. Sounds fiscally responsible...
Yes, the dozen or so who are crazy enough to ride on major streets are still in dangerous situations and things get more difficult for the 95% who drive or ride buses.

This idea that transportation money should be spent on cyclists is absolutely ridiculous.

Bike trails are a good amenity, but it needs to be thought of in the park budget.
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Old 10-30-2014, 09:10 PM
 
10,974 posts, read 10,799,408 times
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Bikes are far more cost effective uses of infrastructure money than the Billions we spend on cars.

Ideally, costs should paid directly by users, but we are not there quite yet for local level streets technology-wise. So setting aside 5-10% of the budget for local infrastructure for 5-10% of the users just makes sense.

Arjay - Revitalizing neighborhoods is a good thing. I agree their are some problems with poverty being associated with minorities that we need to better address as a society, but stopping economic revitalization of neighborhoods is not that solution.
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Old 10-30-2014, 09:17 PM
 
2,406 posts, read 3,334,997 times
Reputation: 907
Quote:
Originally Posted by jsvh View Post
Bikes are far more cost effective uses of infrastructure money than the Billions we spend on cars.

Ideally, costs should paid directly by users, but we are not there quite yet for local level streets technology-wise. So setting aside 5-10% of the budget for local infrastructure for 5-10% of the users just makes sense.

Arjay - Revitalizing neighborhoods is a good thing. I agree their are some problems with poverty being associated with minorities that we need to better address as a society, but stopping economic revitalization of neighborhoods is not that solution.
C'mon son.

You think 5-10% of transportation in the area is served by bikes? I don't think that number would be much more than 1%.

Oh look... I'm right.

Is Bicycle Commuting Really Catching On? And if So, Where? - CityLab
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Old 10-30-2014, 09:41 PM
 
10,974 posts, read 10,799,408 times
Reputation: 3435
Fine, I was wrong. You agree bikes should get a share of funding relative to their percentage of trips then?
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Old 10-31-2014, 08:23 AM
 
Location: NW Atlanta
6,495 posts, read 6,066,226 times
Reputation: 4453
Heck, just converting Spring, West Peachtree, Juniper/Courtland, and Piedmont into "complete streets" corridors with cycle tracks would be a huge step forward.
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