4 ms·

Hijacking this thread to comment that Atlanta (while hot and humid during the summer months) is ripe for extreme bike-ablity. It would involve additional expans

Hijacking this thread to comment that Atlanta (while hot and humid during the summer months) is ripe for extreme bike-ablity. It would involve additional expansion of the beltline bike paths, reclaiming roads for dedicated (and protected) bike lines. Encouraging commuters from the suburbs to park near the perimeter and bike/ebike the last several miles to work.

Mountain_Skies 4y ago
Atlanta has a dismal history for their bike infrastructure projects that betrays an deep-seated disinterest in them being anything other than window dressing and the ability to check a box on some urbanist dream list. Bike tracks are almost instantly taken over by taxis and the city does nothing about it. If not taxis, then the city will designate them as loading areas for "special events" where special is a weekly occurrence and thus the bike tracks or lanes can't be relied on to be available without contacting city hall first to find out their daily status. Even the Beltline suffers greatly from too many uses being crammed into too little space, making it quite often poor quality for all users. If Atlanta was serious, they'd convert Peachtree (THE Peachtree Street) through downtown and Midtown into a two lane street, remove as many curb cuts as possible (not 100% achievable but probably 90%), and force turns every couple of blocks to ensure there is no through traffic. Peachtree Street is shady and relatively flat, while the wide, highspeed mostly one-way streets that run parallel to it where the bike lanes have been placed are hilly and mostly unshaded. Plus the bike lanes are filled with debris and storm grates. Push most vehicular traffic off Peachtree Street onto those streets instead. The space gained by making cars and trucks the minority users of Peachtree could be used for multiple bike lanes, pedestrian paths, small linear parks, and perhaps even a low speed lane for those electric scooters that are so popular.
- m348e912 4y ago
  Great ideas. Yes the bike lanes HAVE to be segregated from vehicles because it's clear that Atlanta motorists have little regard for bike lanes and cyclists. I like the idea of dedicated streets. Bottom line is it has to be more convenient to bike downtown than to drive downtown.

Mountain_Skies 4y ago

Atlanta has a dismal history for their bike infrastructure projects that betrays an deep-seated disinterest in them being anything other than window dressing and the ability to check a box on some urbanist dream list. Bike tracks are almost instantly taken over by taxis and the city does nothing about it. If not taxis, then the city will designate them as loading areas for "special events" where special is a weekly occurrence and thus the bike tracks or lanes can't be relied on to be available without contacting city hall first to find out their daily status. Even the Beltline suffers greatly from too many uses being crammed into too little space, making it quite often poor quality for all users. If Atlanta was serious, they'd convert Peachtree (THE Peachtree Street) through downtown and Midtown into a two lane street, remove as many curb cuts as possible (not 100% achievable but probably 90%), and force turns every couple of blocks to ensure there is no through traffic. Peachtree Street is shady and relatively flat, while the wide, highspeed mostly one-way streets that run parallel to it where the bike lanes have been placed are hilly and mostly unshaded. Plus the bike lanes are filled with debris and storm grates. Push most vehicular traffic off Peachtree Street onto those streets instead. The space gained by making cars and trucks the minority users of Peachtree could be used for multiple bike lanes, pedestrian paths, small linear parks, and perhaps even a low speed lane for those electric scooters that are so popular.

m348e912 4y ago
Great ideas. Yes the bike lanes HAVE to be segregated from vehicles because it's clear that Atlanta motorists have little regard for bike lanes and cyclists. I like the idea of dedicated streets. Bottom line is it has to be more convenient to bike downtown than to drive downtown.