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.

Bicyclists are not a burden

I hope that some of you caught the article that ran in last Friday’s Greenville News titled, Greenville bike plans proceed in low gear. The piece, by Ben Szobody, discusses the Bikeville events throughout the month, the new bicycle master plan, and future plans for bike friendly infrastructure in Greenville. Overall, it is a very positive article, but it does cover all sides of the issue by mentioning some of the public criticism for bike projects in Greenville. Regarding possible bike lanes on Stone Avenue, local civil engineer James Freeland is quoted as saying, “I can't understand the reasoning to put so many drivers at a disadvantage to serve very few bicyclers.” To me, statements like that should serve as a reminder that we need to stress the point that complete streets are for people. The idea is not to disadvantage one group, but to make streets safe for ALL users (with over 40,000 traffic fatalities in the U.S. each year, safer streets should be a priority for everyone). Detractors like to trivialize complete streets and bike lanes by labeling them as recreational amenities for “lycra clad bikers.” In reality, the idea of making roads safer for all users affects that group as well as children, the elderly, families…really everyone. Unfortunately, stories about kids and young teens being killed on bicycles are much too common in this country. It is a trend that we need to stop, and I really hope that there are not many people out there who would disagree with that.

If you read the comments left in response to the online version of the Greenville News article, you will see that the same old argument about cyclists not paying their fair share surfaces again. The majority of us know that is not the case, but for anyone with doubts, I’ll link to a couple of old posts on that subject again. I know that I probably sound like a broken record, but I just don’t understand why all of those people who are so quick to cry foul about bike projects don’t also complain about our heavily subsidized infrastructure for automobiles. If every user is to pay his or her fair share for use of the roads, why are these people not pushing to raise the gas tax to cover the road construction and maintenance money that currently comes from our property and income taxes? I think it is pretty clear that fairness is not really what they want, but the old “cyclists don’t pay for roads” argument seems to be the best they can come up with.

A few of the commenters referred to bicycle infrastructure projects as wasteful spending by the Mayor and city government. Apparently they didn’t read far enough to see that the cost of several current bike lane-striping projects in the city are “mostly covered by a 95 percent match in federal transit funding.” I shouldn’t be too surprised though…I know that members of the vocal anti-bike minority don’t want to get too bogged down in facts. They just hate the presence of cyclists on their roads, so they keep rehashing the same old flawed arguments every time bicycle related projects are discussed.

Maybe it is time for a change in the discussion though. Instead of referring to bicyclists as a burden on the tax system, we should talk about the economic benefits of bicycle infrastructure. If you don’t want to read the entire pdf file from the League of American Bicyclists study, check out a good summary of the report here. Locally, you only have to look as far as the revitalization of downtown Travelers Rest to see real economic benefits from an investment in bike/ped infrastructure. Ask the owners of any of the new businesses that have popped up near the Swamp Rabbit trail what they think about cyclists and pedestrians. I seriously doubt that any of them will refer to us as a drain on society. The Liberty Bridge in Falls Park is another great example. When it was proposed, there were people who predicted that removing the old Camperdown Bridge to build a pedestrian bridge would mess up traffic and completely wreck downtown. Those same people are probably now taking out of town guests to Falls Park to show off what has become a symbol of the city.

The fact of the matter is, bike infrastructure really is a good investment, and the ROI can be seen in cities like Portland, Palo Alto, or Austin that have committed to those projects. Like any other town that wishes to attract innovative businesses and talented, creative people, Greenville needs to make those investments at some point. I think the city is doing the right thing by realizing that now…and I hope that the Mayor and City Council’s commitment to complete streets and other bike/ped improvements will continue.