City Council candidates on bike lane funding

An article in today’s Greenville News, Greenville City Council at-large candidates split on city goals, points out a few notable differences in opinion between candidates for an at-large City Council seat that is up for grabs in the election this coming Tuesday (June 14th). The city’s bike plan is mentioned in the article, and quotes from each of the two candidates clearly indicate their views on funding for bicycle transportation projects.

Susan Reynolds, the incumbent, states that she wants, “parking and business license improvements to help attract more companies and pedestrian-friendly work to improve neighborhoods for residents. She also wants to closely examine where the city is putting bike lanes to be sure they are useful.” Making sure that the bike lanes are placed where they are useful is the point of Greenville’s Bicycle Master Plan, so I hope that Mrs. Reynolds will, if re-elected, continue to support the progress toward complete streets in the city.

According to the Greenville News piece, her challenger, Jan Williams, “is skeptical of the need for city-funded bike lanes, saying he grew up on a bike and learned to look out for himself. Those who want them should donate to the cause, he said. The only tax money he would use is the hotel tax designed to fund tourism projects.” To me, his reference to tourism projects indicates that he considers bicycling to strictly be a recreational activity, not a component of the transportation plan. I would just like to remind Mr. Williams that bicyclists, like motorists, DO pay the income, sales, and property taxes that currently fund our road construction and maintenance projects. I seriously doubt he would ask drivers to ‘donate to the cause’ if they want improvements designed to make our roads safer, but the fact remains that vehicle registration fees and gas taxes do not even come close to paying for the transportation infrastructure that we all use. South Carolina ranks as one of the worst states in the nation for cyclist and pedestrian fatalities per capita, and I am afraid that 'learning to look out' is not going to be enough to turn that around. I wish it was that easy, but we do have a real safety issue on our roads that needs to be addressed.

To be fair, I am sending an email to both candidates to give them a chance to respond. If I hear back from Councilwoman Reynolds and/or Mr. Williams, I will update this post with their response.

…and regardless of which candidate you choose, I encourage you all to get out and vote next Tuesday. Ride your bike to the polls if you can.

Update 6/11: I received an email from Councilwoman Reynolds late last night expressing her support for bike lanes. I appreciate her quick response, so I want to share it with you in its entirety:

James. Ben asked many questions for the article. And I elaborated on all of them, including the one about bicycle lanes and I was very clear.   I support bike lanes, I am in favor of continuing them.  I do know that we have the bicycle master plan coming up.  I am not a cyclist at the moment. I have had 6 knee surgeries, which prevents me from riding right now.   So I am the first one who needs an education on sharing lanes, why some lanes are better than others- why some are used more than others.   So my comments in completion were about how I am looking forward to being educated on the whole thing.  I do think we need to do a better job of educating the public on how to share the road and I want to be the first to learn.  There is no doubt that bicycle lanes are important to this community.  Having the Pro cycling event here for the last 6 years has been a huge asset to our community. I am optimistic that we will do what it takes to keep it here.   I have no doubt that all of council wants to continue making Greenville a top notch cycling community.  I am eager to see where we have done a good job, and where we need to improve.  And for the record, I am a very visual person- I can read all the information in the world, but I am much clearer when I can actually 'see' the lanes and see how they look on the roads,etc.   I am well known to staff for having them ride me around to actually look at why something is working, how it can be improved, or when it doesn't work. I have no doubt I will be taking a tour around to become educated on the lanes.

I appreciate the opportunity to share my complete thoughts.  Ben and I  talked about many things and of course he could not print all of the things that I said, but it is frustrating when people read one comment on any subject and assume they have heard all that I said. So again, thank you for the opportunity to comment further.  And just FYI, I  look forward to riding a bike again soon, and I sincerely hope by the time I do, I will be much better educated about cycling- that is my intent!  

Susan Reynolds

Update 6/12: I also received an email response from Mr Williams clarifying his position on bike lanes, and I want to share that with you here:

Mr. Thomas,

Thanks for your inquiry. As you probably know, what is heard is not necessarily what was said or intended.

As a child we were taught to ride our bikes and assume all cars were going to hit you because they could not see you since you were so much smaller than a car. And to always allow the car to have lane priority and be sure to signal when slowing down or turning. And of course we did not have any bike lanes in the 1950’s. Courtesy by bike riders and car drivers is necessary for all safe riding.

Since most of our population does not ride bicycles, and we keep hearing how this is a draw for visitors to the city, it makes sense to use the hospitality tax as a source of funding.

Additionally, there are other resources of money, such as “Complete Streets” and the FTA. Some of these provide matching funding at 1% to 20%, which means a group can raise $1000.00 and get a grant for $9,000.00 at 10% rate. The GTA Board was able to provide some grant assistance to the city for bike lanes within 3 miles of public transportation at the rate of 1% and 10%. Placing bike racks on the Greenlink buses has increased ridership, and I am on the Board of Directors for the GTA.

If a group of local bicycle enthusiasts raised some money and helped the city of Greenville provide funding for bike lanes, more residents would appreciate and maybe understand their direction for local riding as a form of transportation instead of just for recreation. And Andrew Meeker, Landscape Architect, City of Greenville, who has participated in the bike lane design, would be a good connection since he knows about these grants.

I hope this helps clarify my position about bike lanes and bikes. Any questions, please feel free to call me at 299-6341.

Jan Williams

Note: As I mentioned to Mr Williams in response to this message, the Greenville Spinners have, in the past, donated significant amounts of money to the city for the design and implementation of bike lanes. The Spinners and local bicycle advocates have also been active in pursuing grants to improve cycling infrastructure in Greenville.

Bike lanes on Pelham and Roper Mountain Roads this summer?

When I served as the advocacy chairperson for the Greenville Spinners several years ago, the club worked with the city to develop a small, downtown bike lane plan that was primarily focused on the central business district. That was definitely the right place to start, but at the time I often heard from Spinners members and other local cyclists who wanted to see those facilities expand beyond the city limits into the suburbs and other parts of the county. Since that time, through the work of many people, bike lanes in Greenville have expanded beyond the CBD… and if you attended any of the Bicycle Master Plan community meetings, you know that the plan is to eventually expand those bikeways much further in order to create a viable network for those of us who want a safe way to get around the city (and county) by bike. That is a long-range plan, but in order for that to happen, we NEED to take advantage of key resurfacing opportunities as they arise.

According to a recent Greenville News article (the same one I mentioned here), the South Carolina Department of Transportation is scheduled to resurface portions of Pelham Road (from Haywood Rd. to the Publix near East North) and Roper Mountain Road (from Blacks to Verdae) sometime this summer. I believe that bike lanes on both of those sections of road could provide critical connections from the heavily populated eastside of town to existing bike infrastructure in the city. Along with the new bike lanes and sharrows on East North, bike lanes on Pelham would feed to the current bike lanes in the downtown district and the Swamp Rabbit trail. Roper Mountain is also very important as it provides a route from eastside neighborhoods to the existing bike lanes at ICAR, where many people choose to ride. Personally, I have noticed a significant increase in the number of bicyclists on that currently dangerous section of Roper Mountain in recent years, so I believe the issue of safety for all users needs to be addressed with the resurfacing.

I am not alone in supporting the idea of bike lanes as part of these resurfacing projects. These sections of road are included in the Greenville-Pickens Area Transportation Study’s (GPATS) Long Range Transportation Plan, and Dan McGee, Transportation Planning Manager for the county, has recently publicly expressed support for including bike facilities in the Pelham Road resurfacing project. The Greenville Spinners board has also expressed support for bike lanes on both of these projects by sending a letter to the SCDOT and the Greenville City Manager on behalf of the club’s 800 plus members. I won’t list them all here, but a number of major employers on the eastside of Greenville have also expressed support for bike lanes as part of these resurfacing projects (Update 6/22: Flour, GE, and Hubbell Lighting are just a few of the companies that have already sent letters of support for these bike lanes). When you look at all the supporters who have taken an interest in these projects so far, it is clear that bike lanes on these roads are something that many people want to see.

In addition to the community support, I believe there are a couple of policy documents in place that support the inclusion of bike lanes as part of these resurfacing projects.

Greenville’s Complete Streets Resolution, adopted by City Council in 2008, states that the city endorses a complete streets policy (with accommodations for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and motorists) when feasible for new transportation projects as well as re-channelization projects and major maintenance. In both of these cases, observed bicycle traffic points to a need for facilities such as bike lanes on these roads.

SCDOT’s “Bicycle Accommodation Policy”, which is similar to the city’s complete streets policy, states that “ bicycling and walking accommodations should be a routine part of the department’s planning, design, construction and operating activities, and will be included in the everyday operations of our transportation system” and that bicycling and pedestrian improvements should be “an integral part of their transportation planning and programming where State or Federal Highway funding is utilized.”

Ultimately, the decision whether or not to include bike lanes as part of these projects will be made by the SCDOT, but certainly community support will be a factor in their decision.  If you agree that bicycle accommodations should be considered with both of these projects, please leave a comment here expressing your support…and feel free to contact me if you wish to get involved further.

Update: It was mentioned in the comments, but I want to reiterate that bike lanes have previously been proposed on both of these sections of road as part of the Greenville Bicycle Master Plan. These are not just random resurfacing projects...both are important components in both the Greenvilly city and GPATS long range plans. See the map on page 58 of the presentation that was given at the March public meeting to see these, and other, identified bike routes.