Westside cycle track officially opens, linking downtown to (almost) Howell Mill Road

A new PATH corridor, linking downtown to the Westside along the edge of Georgia Tech’s campus, has officially opened.

PATH Parkway, as the project is known, provides a 1.5-mile dedicated cycle track and pedestrian corridor between Centennial Olympic Park (via Luckie Street) and Marietta Street, north of its intersection with Northside Drive.

Construction on the project ramped up more than 18 months ago, with backing from the university.

Granted, the cycle track has been usable for some time, but City of Atlanta and Georgia Tech officials just celebrated its opening earlier this week, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The bike and pedestrian right-of-way replaced the former southbound lanes of Tech Parkway. Tech Parkway was reconfigured to provide for one lane of traffic in each direction on the former northbound side of the road. Thus, the project represents a significant road diet for the north-south corridor on the western edge of Tech’s campus.

While the project is a boon for bicyclists, not everyone is thrilled about the removal of two traffic lanes. Earlier this year, a Curbed reader wrote a missive about the changes, which garnered some pretty harsh criticism itself.

But with cycle infrastructure on the rise in Atlanta, the PATH Parkway project marks another opportunity for safer two-wheeled transportation in the city.

• City of Atlanta opens PATH Parkway at Georgia Tech [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
• Atlanta’s Luckie Street cycle track will soon connect Westside to Centennial Olympic Park [Curbed Atlanta]
• Commuter: Damn you, Atlanta, for removing street lanes near Georgia Tech [Curbed Atlanta]