Let's Talk Bike Trails!
Better late than never! I've compiled some information on current and future bike infrastructure in Cobb County.
Sorry this one is a bit late… A lot of work was put into this (editing videos takes FOREVER), but I wanted to get it out before the end of the week.
In this issue, you will see:
Upcoming Advocacy opportunities and events
A deep dive on the current and proposed bike infrastructure in Cobb
Public comments from people against bike lanes
Upcoming Advocacy Opportunities
As always, you can check out the calendar at www.calendarwiz.com/cobb4transit, but here are some highlights:
Strategy meeting/discussion: Saturday, August 20th 10AM-12PM @ Goldberg’s Fine Foods in the Battery
Bike Ride Along ATL Westside w/ Root Local: Sunday, August 21st 9AM-12PM @ Westside Park: Register here!
Cobb County Commissioner’s Meeting: Tuesday, August 23rd 7PM
Online opportunity: Provide online feedback for Noonday Creek Trail Extension and the Austell-Powder Springs Trail.
Deep Dive on Bikes
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve done a deep dive on the bike/trail infrastructure in Cobb County and tried to compile this information in this post. It was a lot harder than it should have been, and reiterates a challenge we face in the county that I hope will be overcome with a grassroots bicycle advocacy effort: information on current and future bike infrastructure is hard to access and compile. It’s located across multiple sources, is often outdated, and sometimes contradictory.
Hopefully this post is a start to fixing that issue, and the beginning of a grassroots effort to bring more bike trails and infrastructure to Cobb County. Thanks to the help of Atlanta advocate Carl Holt, I’ve added a lot of these trails and projects to his Greater Atlanta Bike Map.
Current Trails
When I first started digging into the bike infrastructure of the county, I was surprised at how much of a trail network Cobb County already has. According to the 2017 Trail & Greenways Plan adopted in June 2018, Cobb has 84 miles of multi-use trails (not including trails located in parks).
Silver Comet Trail: Cobb’s 12.8 mile segment starts in Smyrna and continues westbound towards Paulding county, then continues through Alabama to complete a 94 mile continuous trail along an old railroad bed.
Noonday Creek Trail: A 7 mile trail that connects Kennesaw Mountain with Town Center Mall.
Mountain to River Trail: 13.5 mile trail connects Kennesaw Mountain to the Chattahoochee River. It currently has a 5 star review on Trip Advisor even though there are some gaps in the trail that are planned to be closed in the near future.
Cumberland Trails: Although there is a TON of traffic, the Cumberland CID has done a good job at providing a network of bike trails with 38 miles of trails already constructed.
Other trails include routes along Concord Rd, Dallas Hwy, Lower Roswell Rd, and Barret Parkway.
Currently or Soon to Be Under Construction
There are currently multiple trails under construction that will increase connectivity throughout the county. Most of these projects are funded via SPLOST 2016 (there is one project, Lower Roswell Rd, that is leftover from SPLOST 2011).
Kennesaw Mountain Park Improvements: This project consists of three trails being constructed along Burnt Hickory Rd, Whitlock Ave, and Cheatham Hill Road that will provide better connectivity to the park. Here is a storymap that shows more details of the project.
Connect the Comet: This is a trail to connect the Silver Comet across the river and eventually to the Beltline. A lot of this trail is already funded but is currently facing legal disputes between the state, county and CSX. Connect the Comet has been a grassroots campaign for years, and they are currently looking for new leadership and energy!
Mableton Road: Currently the county is implementing improvements in multiple phases to Mableton Road that will see a side path/trail alongside it from the Silver Comet trail to the river.
Lower Roswell Road: This is a “road safety” project that is about to start construction on Lower Roswell Road later this year. It seems pretty simple and basic with a bike lane being added along with a median and some other elements to reduce crashes along the route. Here is the project brochure where you can see it is just a small portion of Lower Roswell Road.
Yet this small project has received an organized negative backlash. (More on that BELOW!)
Proposed trails
According to the Greenway & Trails Master Plan, there are 8 routes that were determined a priority for the county. I’ve reduced the 250 page document to just the 8 projects here: http://cobb4transit.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/CobbPriorityTrails.pdf
Here’s a recap of those priority projects:
Chattahoochee River Trail: A 3 mile trail along the river that will be the initial representation of the proposed badass 100 mile Chattahoochee Riverlands project. The first phase of the project, about 1.7 miles between Veterans Memorial and Mableton Parkway is fully funded and construction is expected to start in 2023.
Silver Comet Connector/Connect the Comet: Mentioned before, this 3.4 mile tract is the Cobb County portion to connect the Comet with the Beltline and Centennial Olympic Park. Currently, there is delay due to indemnity/insurance issues between the state/county and CSX.
Rottenwood Creek Trail: This is a 3.3 mile trail that will connect Life/KSU South campus with Franklin Road. Future plans call for an extension to connect this trail with the expansive network of trails around Cumberland.
Austell-Powder Springs Trail: This multi-use trail would connect Austell with the city of Powder Springs and the Silver Comet trail along Austell-Powder Springs Rd. The county is currently seeking public feedback on this trail and the public meeting held last night was the first of many!
Alatoona Creek Greenway: This proposed trail in NW Cobb would run N/S and run from Harrison High School northbound connecting multiple “passive” parks (Kemp Park, Price Park, and Alatoona Creek Park). No funding is currently allocated for this trail.
Noonday Creek Trail Extension: This trail would be an extension of the current Noonday Creek Trail mentioned earlier. It would run from Bells Ferry Road up to Shallowford Road and would eventually provide a connection from downtown Woodstock to Kennesaw, Marietta, and eventually the river with the Mountain to River Trail! Unfortunately, at a recent public meeting, there were multiple negative comments from local homeowners.
Nickajack Creek Trail: This 3 mile greenway trail is proposed in South Cobb near South Cobb Drive and Nickajack Creek and would connect to the trail infrastructure along the river. No funding is allocated to this yet.
Hyde Farm-Johnson Ferry Trail: This 2.7 mile trail is proposed for East Cobb and would connect Lower Roswell Road to Johnson Ferry Road along the riverside park.
Conclusion
A safe, comprehensive bike network would be a combination of CONNECTED greenway trails along separated Right of Way and protected bike lanes along roads, “Complete Streets” style. This would allow commuters, exercisers, and recreation users of all ages to have better options to get around the county. What we currently have and what is proposed is a LONG way from that being a reality, but it’s a start.
The issue is even the small changes, like adding bike lanes to one intersection along Lower Roswell Road or extending the popular Noonday Creek Trail is getting a lot of public pushback.
Check out this video I made of highlights from ONE county commission meeting where they were voicing their displeasure about the proposed bike lanes on Lower Roswell Road.
Oof. Pretty rough, right?
Well, that’s who is showing up to ALL of the Public Meetings and making public comment. Whether it’s Board of Commissioner meetings, public meetings on specific projects, or even a meeting about sustainability.
During a public meeting for the Noonday Creek Trail extension, one of the commenters said that they would start a campaign to kill it.
One person went up to the DOT Director and Commissioner and argued that bikers should be OUTLAWED on the roads and streets of Cobb.
If we want safe streets in our county for everyone to use, we need to act NOW.
How we do it
We’re going to launch Cobb Streets for All, a coalition to advocate for safe, sustainable, equitable transportation for everyone.
To get this launched, I need to find FIVE people who want to step up and volunteer to be on the leadership committee and lead one of three other committees:
Outreach & Communications
Policy & Engagement
Events & Special Projects
After five people volunteer to be on the leadership committee, we will schedule a quick call to setup the organization and prepare for the launch. The launch will include website, flyers, and other materials to help spread the word!
I’ve gotten 2 people so far that have signed up for the leadership committee, so we need 3 more! Please email abettercobb@gmail.com to let me know you’re interested and we’ll keep moving forward!
News and Updates
Larry Johnson of the Cobb County Courier is doing an experiment on getting around Cobb County without a car. Follow along with his “Accidentally Car Free” journey with these articles:
That’s it for this week. I’ll get next week’s issue out on Monday as we prep for the Board of Commissioner’s meeting on Tuesday. Hope to see you there!
Nice work. I went through a similar research exercise a while back and was energized by the adoption of the Cobb Greenways and Trails master plan and other state and regional initiatives. Obviously changing transportation habits, especially in affluent suburbia is going to be met with resistance. I didn't expect, however, the level of conspiratorial paranoia voiced in the public comments on the Lower Roswell Road bike lane. My hope is that the underlying public policy to encourage alternate transportation is unaffected, and these things will eventually happen, even in the frustratingly slow patchwork fashion that seems to be the current course.
Appreciate the write-up, this is stuff I've been looking into a lot recently. My wife and I bought a home in East Cobb about 1.5 years ago, before I got into thinking about urbanism and the policy decisions we make that affect the transportation choices available to us. Didn't realize I was moving into what seems to be the biggest dead zone for pedestrian / cycling / transit improvements in all of Cobb!
It's frankly a little hard to get too excited about half-measures like the bike lanes on Lower Roswell Rd. (or get too frustrated about its opposition). Adding one line of paint a few feet from the curb hardly a bike lane makes. And with the volume of traffic on LRR, you won't catch me cycling there too often. How about a fully painted bike lane? Or some bollards? I live off of Sandy Plains and drive through a ~2 mile stretch towards the Canton Connector every morning where there is a "bike lane" like this one. It's better than nothing, maybe, but not enough that it makes me feel confident about switching to a bike commute. So projects like the one on LRR just strike me as spending a lot of money on infrastructure that won't end up getting much usage. But I guess its the most we can hope for, so still worth it?
BTW, do multiple people write this newsletter? Maybe consider signing it, unless its a collaborative thing. But if this is Matt Stigall, I enjoy seeing you provide some counter-programming to the army of nay-sayers at each BOC meeting. Keep up the good work.