City, club make Roswell ‘a great biking town'

The League of American Bicycles, a national cycling advocacy group, recognizes Roswell as the only bike-friendly community in the state. The league awarded Roswell bronze status in 2006. Other Georgia cities – Decatur, Columbus, Tybee Island and Savannah – applied for recognition. So far, they’ve only earned honorable mentions.

Roswell has been popular with riders for years because of Riverside Road, a stretch of asphalt that curves along the Chattahoochee River.

"It's flat and it's scenic," said Steve Acenbrak, city transportation director. "It's very enjoyable to ride along the river."

Then the city elected Jere Wood as mayor, a serious road and mountain biker. Wood has bicycled all his life and biked across Europe one summer during law school. He took up road biking about 15 years ago and averages about 100 miles weekly in the spring and summer.

He made bike awareness part of the way the city does business, and a component of all transportation planning. It doesn’t hurt that Acenbrak is also a cyclist and a board member for Bike Roswell, the local riding club.

“That combination is gold for getting good bike projects in place,” said Rebecca Serna, executive director of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition.

“Having the politics and the bureaucracy behind this thing has made this process go much smoother,” Wood said.

Wood helped start a springtime bike race, the Historic Roswell Criterium. A 25-mile loop around town is called "The Mayor's Ride." On a state level, Wood has advocated for more bike funding by organizing the annual “Georgia Rides to the Capital,” a 25-mile trek to Atlanta that often draws several hundred people, including politicians.

"Roswell is taking a leadership role in the state," he said.

Bike Roswell formed in 2005 with Wood's encouragement. The club has about 300 members and sponsors a Thursday night group ride that attracts up to 100 people. It offers classes such as "urban cycling skills" and "group ride dynamics." The club may expand its outreach with classes for Spanish-speaking riders, said club member Manny Ramos.

"They may or may not be here legally, but they're on the road," he said.

Roswell stands out in Georgia, never known as a bike-friendly state. The League of American Bicycles ranks it 35th in the nation. (Washington is first, Alabama 50th.)

The city has about 12 miles of bike lanes and many miles of roads have rideable shoulders. About $10 million was spent on multi-use paths the last five years. When road crews re-stripe or modify a Roswell street, car lanes are sometimes narrowed to create more space for a bike lane.

Take a look and you'll see reminders that bikers are around. Sharrows – symbols painted on the pavement telling motorists to expect cyclists – are found throughout the town of 100,000 people.

Roswell created a couple of bike boxes – squares painted on asphalt where cyclists can wait at the front of the line for traffic lights, making them safer because they’re more visible to motorists. No other city in Georgia has them, Serna said.

Mountain bikers are the scruffy siblings of the road bikers, favoring denim over spandex. In Roswell, they ride at Big Creek Park, which has several miles of bike trails.

“They’re two totally separate personality types,” said Bob Grieco of the Roswell Alpharetta Mountain Bike Organization (RAMBO). “The road bikers don’t have the same blood, sweat and tears invested. They haven’t had to build trials by hand. They just basically ride.”

But in Roswell, mountain bikers are part of the family. RAMBO has a member serving as a liaison to Bike Roswell.

Eric Broadwell, Bike Roswell president, said bicycling is good for the city economy. The club conducted an unscientific survey that showed bicycling had a $2 million annual economic impact on Roswell. The club also found 60 percent of riders don't live in Roswell.

"They come to Roswell to ride," he said.

That may become easier in the future. The city and neighbor Sandy Springs are working together to build a new pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the Chattahoochee River. It would link to sidewalks on the Sandy Springs side and connect to existing trails in parks on Azalea Drive and Riverside Road in Roswell.

The ride is getting longer.

Staff writer April Hunt contributed to this article.