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.
It seems as if things are moving along slowly, but there is opportunity for focused public advocacy to ensure that these projects are considered and funded.
The biggest hurdle to success is land use. The suburbs are just spread out so far that until we have areas that densify a bit and bring homes closer to destinations, it's going to be difficult for people to mode switch from the car.
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.
Thanks for the comment, Tom! Currently this is a work of love from Matt Stigall, but I do want to open it up to other writers and make it more collaborative in the future.
I agree that it's hard to get excited about half measures but at this point, any incremental improvements are a good thing.
I believe in the short-term, we push for the proposed trails to be completed and for the county to implement complete streets policies as needed.
The LRR/Johnson Ferry intersection is always going to be a tough intersection for bikes and hopefully there can be an alternate route in the future.
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.
It seems as if things are moving along slowly, but there is opportunity for focused public advocacy to ensure that these projects are considered and funded.
The biggest hurdle to success is land use. The suburbs are just spread out so far that until we have areas that densify a bit and bring homes closer to destinations, it's going to be difficult for people to mode switch from the car.
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.
Thanks for the comment, Tom! Currently this is a work of love from Matt Stigall, but I do want to open it up to other writers and make it more collaborative in the future.
I agree that it's hard to get excited about half measures but at this point, any incremental improvements are a good thing.
I believe in the short-term, we push for the proposed trails to be completed and for the county to implement complete streets policies as needed.
The LRR/Johnson Ferry intersection is always going to be a tough intersection for bikes and hopefully there can be an alternate route in the future.