Bike-walk plan moves forward for Athens

A bicycle and pedestrian plan for the city of Athens is moving forward after a group of citizens met for the second time, providing feedback on preliminary recommendations.

Thursday's meeting covered proposed improvements for bicycle and pedestrian access throughout the city. The meeting reviewed public input from the September workshop and provided an overview of key recommendations. Participants were then asked to evaluate and comment on the specifics of the proposed improvements.

The city has contracted $20,000 with Greenway to establish the Bicycling and Pedestrian Plan. Greenway describes itself as a small consulting firm that focuses on non-motorized transportation planning. Greenway's Web site describes the plan's goal as to reflect a consensus vision of how Athens will, over time, transform its streets, development patterns, government and community outreach to establish an environment that makes walking and bicycling an obvious, safe and attractive option.

City Planner Paul Logue said that all of the information gathered at the meeting will be used to create a draft plan that will be introduced in January.

The plan will be presented at another public meeting and finalized, Logue said. At that point, the plan will go to Athens City Council, ideally for adoption, he continued.

"Once we have that plan, it will help our public works department to identify through the public process what people think we should do and how to prioritize those requests and try to get grant funding for the things that might have a lot of cost to them," Logue said. Easy things the city could do that would come out of the plan would include more bike racks and bike lanes on the streets.

About 50 people attended the meeting, Logue said, and the response was positive.

"I think we're getting a lot of support from the city administration, a lot of support from City Council, but also a lot of public support," he said.

The Greenway Collaborative, Logue said, will be the ones pulling all of the information and input together into a viable plan for the city.

Some of the suggestions in the meeting included support for bike lanes on West Union Street and East State Street, Logue said. For areas where there isn't room for a bike lane for whatever reason, he continued, the city will consider using what's called a "shared-use" arrow.

"This is a recent practice that communities are doing where you basically put some arrows on the road with a painting of a bike underneath it in the area of the street where you would like the cyclist to be pedaling," he said. "It lets cars know where to look where a bicyclist might be, and it takes a bicyclist out of [more dangerous] areas."

Anybody with questions, comments or concerns are encouraged to contact Logue at 592-3338, or visit the Greenway Collaborative online at http://www.greenwaycollab.com/athens.htm.