Who’d have thunk that an Atlanta neighborhood would ever log a Bike Score above “very bikeable” 80? Probably not many Atlantans, including the Lycra-wearing variety.
With the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail on one flank, now joined by Edgewood and Moreland avenue bikes lanes, Inman Park is practically covered in bicycling infrastructure and just might have set the local bar with a score of 81.
But Inman Park is just one success story in a city hellbent on boosting its standing on the national urban-cycling scene—albeit in incremental steps—providing more viable, safer commuting and recreation options for residents and visitors.
And it’s not just locals who’re taking notice anymore.
In 2012, Mayor Kasim Reed’s office pledged to double Atlanta’s bike lanes in four years (committing millions toward the efforts) in a quest to become a top 10 cycling city. By 2016, Atlanta had cracked Bicycle Magazine’s 50 “Best Bike Cities” for the first time, rolling in at No. 43. (Which isn’t quite the top 10 but is progress nonetheless).
Overall, the city’s Bike Score jumped from 43 to “somewhat bikeable” 50 between 2013 and 2015, where it currently remains, although curiously so.
Anecdotally, evidence that Atlanta is warming to—or at least becoming tolerant of, in the case of pro-driving-lanes crowds—its status as a growing bike hub is becoming unavoidable.
Let’s recount a few recent developments:
- From Music Midtown to Mercedes-Benz Stadium and virtually every neighborhood festival, free bike-valet systems are now a thing.
- In June, Atlanta Streets Alive recorded a record attendance of 110,000 people, according to the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition. (The final Streets Alive of 2017 happens this Sunday, when the route will extend from south of Five Points to northern Midtown).
- Atlanta’s Relay Bike Share exploded in less than a year from 100 to 500 blue cruisers, now positioned at 60 stations around town.
- Early this year, Buckhead’s urban-reclamation PATH400 trail hit an impressive milestone: Half of the multi-use amenity has now been built (that’s 2.5 miles), less than three years since the first segment broke ground.
- Any day now, the Beltline should officially unveil three miles of new network (the Westside Trail) as work progresses on the partially open Eastside Trail extension.
- As we reported a few months ago, plans are in the works for a Midtown road diet that would alter a 1.1-mile stretch of Piedmont Avenue, extending from Ponce de Leon Avenue to 15th Street. Planned in partnership with the City of Atlanta’s Renew Atlanta Bond Program, the project would remove travel lanes, rework onstreet parking, and add a separated bike lane for northbound cyclists. The efforts come as work progresses on Juniper Street, one block to the west of Piedmont Avenue. Together, the two roads will provide north- and south-bound access for bicyclists through Midtown.
- A somewhat similar transformation of Marietta Street could be in the offing, too.
- A little farther afield, downtown Decatur is implementing a cycle track at the moment, and cities around Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport are flirting with the idea of a Beltline South anchored by Aerotropolis.
So, yeah, much is happening on Atlanta’s two-wheel front.
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