Road improvements ignore needed bike lane
As a relatively new (three years) transplant from the West Coast via Raleigh, I find Greensboro to be a fascinating study of feebleminded attempts to "beautify" the city. Or perhaps more to the point, making Greensboro a more modern and attractive city.
An example that proves my point is putting in a green median along Friendly Avenue with no thought or effort to install bike lanes. This street runs between four colleges!
Now the street will be even more difficult for bikers to ride with the traffic as the cars will have no "move around" space when passing bicycles. No, bicyclists cannot safely run on the new sidewalks that few, if any, pedestrians will use -- let alone have bike lanes to our wonderful parks.
But maybe the city planners have a baby Newark in mind for our future. It's cars or nothin', baby!
Brandon Martin
Greensboro
Comments (9)
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Brandon, thank God you've finally arrived...
Posted on October 5, 2007 6:10 AM
As a lifetime resident of Greensboro and one who rides a motorized bicycle as my primary means of transportation and thoroughly enjoys the fact that it gets 200 miles per gallon of regular gasoline I'd like to not only agree with Brandon but add a couple of points:
1. Motorized bicycles are limited to 20 MPH by law and are also excluded from the so called "safer sidewalks." Remember that next time you pull up behind me and start blowing your horn.
2. Greensboro did the same thing on East Market street-- what were they thinking?
3. Greensboro's plan for bicycles is for the most part about building bike trails that while nice and needed do not address transportation issues because these trails don't lead to and from work and school for most people.
4. Greensboro leaders are still of the mindset that bicycles are something for children and recreation and nothing more but for many citizens bicycles are the most reliable, and cost effective means of basic transportation. Case in point: I live just a little too far from downtown to ride a regular bicycle to work. The cost of driving my Dodge pick-up to work each day totals $10.00 in gas and parking. The cost of riding my motorized bicycle = .19 cents a day. Which, by the way is far cheaper and faster than riding the city bus. Bicycles as recreation are great-- more people need to give it a try-- but bicycles are also a much needed means of transportation for many people.
5. The fact that Greensboro is woefully short on police officers means that motorists are a bigger threat to bicyclists than they would be in a city with adequate police protection.
Wow, I guess that was more than a couple.
Posted on October 5, 2007 7:48 AM
I'm not really sure bike lanes would even help. I can't count the number of times I heard an ignorant statement like: "Get off the road, ride on the sidewalk" from both students and faculty at UNCG. This of course was *after* bike lanes were put in on the stretch of Spring Garden in front of the Bryan School of Business.
Posted on October 5, 2007 8:47 AM
anyone who lives in greensboro should take a moment to kiss the ground. there are far worse places.
before my current stint in the hell-hole they call greenville s.c., i spent four years in eden. eden did all it could to bash me out of it like bert lahr on amphetamines. "mama, reach in the cabinator an get me somethin cole to drank!" and other hellish jargon. the parameters of the residents are so small, they think going to red lobster is a full vacation.
greenville has no synchronized lights and many street signs are either missing or bent inward to resemble a sandwich. most people here pick their noses in restaurants or wear see-through blouses that bare body parts that've seen the worst part of a woodchipper.
greensboro still has an identity, better use of the english language and knows if something's repulsive, to at least cover it up.
pray for me.
i'll be missing you!
Posted on October 5, 2007 8:52 AM
Brandon, at one time, NC was known as the "First in roads, last in education" state.
It seems that Greensboro/Guilford County are taking up that mantle!
Shalom
Posted on October 5, 2007 10:16 AM
Bishop,
I'd rather see you on the road than the sidewalk.
Nothing scarier than somebody flying past your ear on a bike 1/8th of a second before you were going to step to the left.
The one good thing I guess about Friendly is that it is 2 lanes, affording cars an opportunity to pass you on your bike.
Posted on October 5, 2007 11:47 AM
Nice slam at country folk, Bucky.
Posted on October 5, 2007 12:52 PM
About bike riding on the sidewalks....there are times when that is necessary. When I'm alone I ride on the road, but when I'm with my 5 year old son and we're riding bikes to school, we ride on the sidewalk. I'm not letting my 5 year old ride his bike on the road on a busy street filled with cars that are going too fast and school buses. I wish we had bike lanes from our house to the school, but our options are only the sidewalk and the road. The sidewalk wins, hands down, when it comes to my son. We are careful, though...if we see someone out walking or jogging, we do slow way down and in some cases we even stop totally. People have been pretty understanding.
Posted on October 5, 2007 4:42 PM
Residents along Friendly were plenty upset at losing yard/trees to the few additional feet needed for the landscaped median. Do you really believe the city could have sold them on the additional width needed for bike lanes. While bike lanes would be nice we do still live in the real world (at least I do).
Posted on October 5, 2007 6:32 PM