The city of Asheville wants your help crafting a plan to make the city more bike-friendly. The plan will be the focus of a meeting this Thursday afternoon. Below is a news release about the event from the city.
— Cecil Bothwell, staff writer
“The City of Asheville is asking area residents to offer ideas for making the city more bicycle-friendly. Nationally known experts on bicycle planning will be in Asheville this week to share information and gather public input at an open house Thursday, March 8 from 4-7 p.m. in the City of Asheville Public Works Building.
The city has hired consultants from Toole Design Group and Livable Streets, Inc. to prepare Asheville’s first comprehensive bicycle plan. The plan, which is partially funded by the North Carolina DOT, will provide recommendations for short-term and long-term improvements for bicycle transportation. Strategies might include completing key links in the Asheville greenway system, and connecting that system to on-road improvements such as bike lanes or paved shoulders.
‘We want to make it easier for bicyclists and motorists to safely share the road,’ said Dan Baechtold, a transportation planner with the French Broad River MPO, who is assisting the city on this project. ‘This plan will help identify priorities for making investments in bicycle transportation.’
The city is working closely with the North Carolina DOT because many of the major roads in the area are controlled by the state, and much of the funding for road and bicycle improvements flows through state government. Several years ago the NCDOT initiated a new funding source to complete bicycle plans in North Carolina cities and towns.
At Thursday’s open house, bicyclists of all skill levels, motorists, and any other interested citizens are encouraged to come share their experiences, identify locations that need improvement, and offer great ideas for making Asheville a bicycle-friendly community. For more information, contact Dan Baechtold at (828) 259-5457.”
How about a bike lane from downtown Asheville to West Asheville? How about police that watch out for pedestrians and their rights instead of considering pedestrians as obstacles and nuisances?How about people using their turn signals?How about tickets to people who drive while using their cellphones? How about enforcement of ‘pedestrians have the right of way’? How about the ‘cars must stop when a pedestrian is in the crosswalk’law? How about actually looking where you are turning? Bike lanes aren’t going to do anything in a culture that is late for work,late to pick up their kids from school and too distracted to realize that some people actually like to walk/bike to the store.
How about a way from East Asheville, Haw Creek to downtown. I would gladly ride my bike there. People here are extremely hostile to bikers on the road with cars. How about a bike lane?
Can we put our bikes on the bus and ride to a destination, get off and ride the rest of the way?
It would be nice if you had a bike trail that ran parellel to the main roads,but that did not put you in the road with cars. People here drive recklessly, run over animals and are impatient with humans.
you already can put your bike on Asheville buses, in fact they are pretty ahead of the game on that.
bike lanes which go somewhere people need to go, not so much.