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Thursday, July 10, 2008
Atlanta’s Best and Worst Bike Routes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Even if you’ve done the impossible and memorized an Atlanta map in your first months here, you probably didn’t learn the topography, or the potholes. Alas, the map doesn’t show where drivers speed or where the bikes lanes end.
Right about the time I thought I knew where I was going, my car went boom, a bike was left in its place and my delusions of geographic confidence were dashed. My petite four-cylinder engine climbed easily on the inclines around my apartment, but a chain, two wheels and my wimpy, languid calf muscles, mixed up with a bunch of cars and bikers in moisture-wicking bodywear?
Well, I didn’t cry, exactly. On the outside.
The Atlanta Bicycle Campaign conducted its first count of cyclists at eight locations around the city this month, looking at the who, where and how of Atlanta biking. An AJC story by Mike Maciag said some riders skimp on personal safety equipment and even long-time bikers have trouble negotiating the best routes for easy, safe, direct travel.
And let’s be honest: what happens now that gas prices go up and people inexperienced with biking and Atlanta are trying out a much different vehicle?
Here are a few options:
Practice: Rebecca Serna, the Bicycle Campaign executive director, suggests riding a route on a Saturday or Sunday before you attempt it for the Monday morning commute. Know the potholes, know the parallel grates, know when it doesn’t work and you need another plan.
Education: The Atlanta Bicycle Campaign offers classes on Confident Country Cycling and Confident City Cycling, which cover safety inspections, tire-changing, crash avoidance, lane positioning and trail etiquette, among other topics.
Maps: ABC links to bike mobility maps to help with navigation, and ATrain has a build-your-own feature for to walk, bike or use transit. (ABC’s downtown and midtown maps are being updated now, and should be available within a month.)
Bicycle Campaign survey results tallying the best and and worst bike routes are expected to be released in about two weeks, but already some favorites are clear. There’s Edgewood Avenue — the street pictures above — which has a long bike lane that connects residential neighborhoods and downtown. The intersection of Moreland and Euclid in Little Five Points was popular, but also had a lot of cyclists riding illegally on sidewalks.
Peachtree Street is a personal favorite of Serna’s. Pedestrian activity makes it fun, traffic moves slowly because it’s so heavy and there’s power in numbers: Serna’s not the only one that loves it.
What do you say, geography-lovers, biker-riders and sympathetic drivers: what are the best and worst routes for biking, whether for fun or for commuting? And what’s the best way to get to know these roads?
And remember: if you have other questions, about just about anything Atlanta-ish, leave ‘em in the comments or email me at jgumbrecht@ajc.com. We’re back to our regularly scheduled Friday Q&A this week.
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