What do you think? Do you see more cyclists around downtown these days? I think there are more compared to just a few years ago. The photographs of cyclists you see with this article were taken as I was walking just before and after the presentation of the Bicycle Facilities Plan at the East Tennessee History Center.
At the meeting Mayor Rogero addressed seventy-five to a hundred members of the community and media. She noted among other things that Knoxville now has twenty-seven miles of signed bike routes and that from federal money only we’ve increased our bike racks from 343 in 2010 to 488 in 2015. She also noted that bike accommodations are now a consideration in any new road projects. (Unfortunately, this does not include the current Cumberland Ave. project as it was begun before the new ordinance was passed.)
She also mentioned the upcoming Bike Conference set for April 23 and 24, (I’ll have more on that later.) and noted that this is the first time the city has ever had a prioritized list of cycling projects for budgeting. In fact, the 2013/2014 fiscal year was the first year there was a dedicated budget for bicycle facilities.
Her remarks were followed by a presentation of the plan which has been a cooperative endeavor among several groups, but has been spearheaded by consulting agency Toole Design Group. Locally, Jon Livengood, Kelley Segars and Jim Hagerman have been central to the project. Ernie Boughman, regional office director from the Toole Design group explained how priorities were established for cycling projects. Some are simple, like adding stripes to a road to denote a bike lane all the way to road construction or widening.
Not all the projects will be launched immediately, but Mr. Boughman emphasized that something must be started soon in order to build momentum. His projected scenario, which he has seen elsewhere, is that the bike lanes, greenways, signage for bike routes and so forth improve, which leads to increased biking, which leads to pressure to improve the routes further or to increase the pace of planned changes.
As is the case at any gathering of cyclists, concern was expressed about drivers. Kelley Segers of the Knoxville Regional Transportation Organization pointed out that representatives speak to every driver’s ed class in Knox County about drivers’ responsibility toward bikers and pedestrians. Still, she acknowledged the challenge and noted that it is the same in many places. Mr. Boughman noted that as the numbers of cyclists increase, drivers become more accustomed to them, accept them and drive in a more reasonable manner.
Costs of the plan were projected to be nearly $40 million, but that cost is set to be spread over the next ten years and as much as 80% could be covered by outside funding through grants and state or federal money. Expenditures are slated to start at a modest level and then increase as time passes, with a goal of having most of the projects completed within ten years. With a little luck and increased pressure from ever-larger numbers of cyclists, I will hope the time-table shrinks.
With this presentation (and again, you can read the full report here) and the Tennessee Bike Summit the end of this month, you might think this is Bike Month. In fact, that is next month and there are a number of fun activities to celebrate that through the IBIKEKNX website operated by the TPO. They also offer Urban Biking 101, a class to help nervous street riders like myself. That may be how I celebrate bike month.
Side Notes: Congratulations to Inside of Knoxville reader Sarah Rowe who won the passes to Rhythm n Blooms. For the rest of you, as I understand it, the three day passes are either gone or nearly so and so are single day passes for Saturday and Sunday, so if you are planning to attend and haven’t bought your tickets, you might want to scramble and do that at the link above. Also, as a result of the festival, I’m not sure how my articles will run through the weekend and into next week, so keep an eye out: I may miss a day and then hit you with two or three. It’s getting crazy out here – and be sure to check out the Chalk Walk on Market Square and the Llama Race on the World’s Fair Park.