I’m a mom. I have two boys with one more on the way. And I’m a bike commuter. I like to be outside, getting exercise and working off steam on my way to and from work. I would love to be able to bike with kids to school — a proven way to help them concentrate better and achieve academic success.
But there are obstacles to biking in Atlanta, both by myself and especially, with my kids: DeKalb Avenue, Memorial Drive, Lee Street, Courtland, Juniper, North Avenue, Ponce de Leon, Cascade, Peachtree Road. I’m not likely to bike on these streets, and I’m definitely not letting my kids ride on them.
Despite our well-documented traffic problems, Atlanta has so many streets with what engineers call “excess capacity.” Simply put, we have more lanes than we need for traffic to flow. Often, we have the wrong lanes – dangerous, poorly marked reversible lanes, also known as “suicide lanes.” Four lanes work like just two when you don’t create turn lanes to handle cars stopped, waiting to turn left.
An increasing number of Atlantans who bike, or who would like to bike, stand to benefit in a real and personal way from the Green Lane Project. Atlanta was one of six U.S. cities chosen by People For Bikes to get help building better bike lanes — protecting bicyclists from car traffic with physical barriers to create low-stress streets.
Better bike lanes mean more people willing to use them. Other cities are using planters, raised curbs and even rows of parked cars to provide more protection, making people on bikes feel safer and more comfortable.
The Atlanta Bicycle Coalition recently launched a petition to “Fix DeKalb Avenue” to seize this opportunity. In one week, more than 1,000 people signed the petition to support removing the reversible lane and adding turn lanes and a bikeway.
Because the city of Atlanta has scheduled DeKalb for repaving this year and is studying removal of the reversible lane, we have the chance to fix not only the pervasive potholes, but a barrier to a safe and healthy mode of transportation. Neighborhoods along DeKalb are among the city’s most bikeable, yet this flat street that connects them to Atlanta and Decatur is dangerous and uninviting. Adding a separated bikeway — and, importantly, turn lanes — would make the street safer and traffic more predictable, and support the local businesses that draw people on foot, in a car and by bike.
This is just one example of a project that would benefit from some Green Lane love. Lee Street, in southwest Atlanta, is another.
Lee has a whopping six lanes, high speeds and low traffic, and doesn’t do anything to help attract the economic development and jobs the area needs. Like DeKalb Avenue, Lee parallels a MARTA line and is slated for repaving this year. Redevelopment projects like Fort MacPherson, and places like the Historic West End and East Point, would benefit from converting this motor speedway into an inviting main street.
As urbanist Peter Kageyama writes, “Livable is good. It’s a fine aspiration that we have yet to achieve on any large scale. But I think we can do better. Instead of merely livable … we need to start thinking about how we make our cities more lovable. When we love something, we cherish it; we protect it; we do extraordinary things for it.”
As we re-imagine Atlanta for a healthier, more livable and even lovable future, let’s rethink our streets. Let’s create streets that connect neighborhoods rather than dividing them. Let’s create streets that we would feel safe riding with our children. The Green Lane project will help us keep building a city we love.
Rebecca Serna is executive director of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition.
