Wieuca Road saga continues: your input needed again

[Rebecca]

Hi everyone,

The city is running into problems with Wiueca Road and the sidewalk
installation on one side of the road between North Ivy and Loridans.

They do not own the Right of Way (ROW) along several properties near
Wieuca Trace, and the property owners are not willing to donate ROW
for a sidewalk - they want the city to use the bike lane space
instead. One owner is willing to sell, but 1-2 others are unwilling
to donate or sell. The larger neighborhood supports the sidewalks but
the folks living on the street do not. (NIMFY: Not in My Front Yard).

Background: the neighborhood has requested a sidewalk on the side of
the street currently without one, so kids can walk to the new
school.

Another issue is that if the city does not use the bike lane space,
they will have to remove about 20 trees (1/2 pines, 1/2 hardwoods) and
install walls (apparently some parts have steep overhangs?)

Map:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=113434580280616502386.000451c419514f5e70e5b&ll=33.866229,-84.37294&spn=0.007501,0.013797&z=16

Originally we said, based on your feedback, that it would be
acceptable to replace bike lanes with sharrows on one side of the
street on the 3 block section near the creek due to a rock outcropping
that prevented sidewalks, but now due to the ROW issues the city has
asked us to comment on the possibility of removing the bike lane for
the full length of Wieuca Road.

Please share your thoughts on this:
a) Should we oppose or support removing bike lanes?
b) If support, what should we ask for in return? (IE bike lanes on
another street in the area?)
c) If oppose, do we have any suggestions for dealing with ROW issues
and neighbors?

I'll withhold my editorial comments - I want to get your opinion of
this first.

[Jett Marks (Home)]

All:

I've got a number of different opinions, but please discount them according
to a) where I live and b) where I ride bikes. I don't commute by bike in
Buckhead and only ride there recreationally at this time, but since I'm a
consultant who moves from project to project, my next assignment may bring
me down Wieuca road.

It is hard to go backward on bike facilities. In a city where the
population that would ride more is constantly asking for bike lanes, it
would negligent on the part of bicycle advocates not to serve as the voice
of those who are requesting more bike lanes.

I live in Virginia-Highland where we have a good network of sidewalks and
many kids walk to school including both my daughters. I support good
pedestrian facilities and particularly Safe Routes to School. Also, if our
kids spend more time outside of the automobile, we've got a better chance of
changing our car-oriented culture. It seems the neighborhood has already
done the legwork to get support for the sidewalks, but needs one more little
push to bring this about.

There is a working sidewalk on one side of the road. Does it make sense to
ask for crosswalks that would allow kids to use the existing sidewalk? This
alternative may have already been considered, but I'm not sure if it is
being leveraged in the discussion of ROW. Sidewalks could be built where
there were no issues and then funnel pedestrians to the other side of the
street for continuing their journey. Crosswalks with volunteer crossing
guards would calm traffic and do a good job building a sense of community.
Perhaps the neighborhood organization can help by asking the reluctant
neighbors if they would help organize the crossing guards ;).

As a rec cyclist, I use Wieuca a good bit from the intersection with
Loridans northward and into Chastain Park. However, I don't mind the tough
hill on Loridans climbing past Chateauguay Lane whereas I would expect most
commuters would avoid that hill. Loridans does however, provide nice (if
not hilly and sometimes narrow) access from those parts over to the broader
streets around Capital City Club and the Brookhaven MARTA station (perhaps a
bike lane target, hint, hint). I find this route more bike-friendly than
the Phipps Blvd/Peachtree/Roxboro intersection. Still, it would be a shame
to give up a route comting through that intersection since Roxboro is some
of the best bike access to that area from the south and would continue
across to Wieuca if the bike lanes could be kept intact.

I think all of this is a great opportunity to discuss bike lanes, sharrows,
and pedestrian facilities. All of this raises the awareness that cycling is
making a comeback and we need to prepare to accommodate more cyclists at
more levels to more destinations.

Jett Marks

[larry...@aol.com]

I think we should stand firm on what we are willing to accept - the elimination of the bike lane going down Wieuca Road near Loridans where the bike lane is not that useable right now.  It seems that if these people are not willing to sell their property, the City should condemn the property so they can retain both the bike lane and the sidewalks; or additional cross walks need to be put in where necessary to be able to use the existing sidewalk and avoid condemning people's property.  We don't need a bike lane that disappears in places and then reappears in other places. 

 

I'm afraid there are many people living near Wieuca Road that don' care a rip about the bicycle lane and want to do anything and everything to slow traffic down along Wieuca Road, even if that means making bicycle riders ride in the lane of traffic.

 

Larry Kloet

[Kevin McCauley]

I agree with the comments from Jett and Larry that we should make
every effort to retain the bike lanes on Wieuca which required much
effort to get established in the first place. I also agree that
alternating between bike lanes and sharrows beyond what we've agreed
to makes it more confusing for both bicyclists and drivers.

In my mind retaining the bike lanes on Wieuca is critical in creating
a link between 2 main roadways - Peachtree Road and Roswell Road with
the comercial destinations as well as Chastain Park nearby. The
Wieuca Road bike lanes is especially critical in establishing a bike
lane network in Buckhead when you consider there are newly established
bike lanes along Roxboro Road on the other side of Peachtree Road and
there are plans to extend the Peachtree Road Bike lanes to Roxboro/
Phipps Blvd soon (I hope).

The alternative of foregoing the sidewalks and instead putting
crosswalks to the existing sidewalks on the side of
Wieuca opposite the school has already been discussed and has been
rejected because if forces many children to cross Wieuca road twice to
get to school creating an unnecessary safety issue.

One alternative I feel should be explored is look at narrowing the
roadway where the sidewalks need to encroach on the bike lane and
restripe the bike lanes there. This was done on several years ago
when the sidewalks on the west side of Wieuca were originally put in.
Several neighbors complained and the City took part of the roadway
which had the bike lane for the sidewalk and restriped the bike lane.
Do we know what addresses the City is looking at taking the bike lane
for the sidewalk? What are the minimum widths allowed for the roadway
and bike lanes? If I can get that information, I'll be glad to go out
there and measure the roadway to see what we have to work with.

Kevin

[Rebecca Serna]

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I wrote to the city today to let them know we oppose removing the bike lane to install a sidewalk on Wieuca and tried to summarize the many excellent reasons given by this group.

Thanks for your input - I hope the neighborhood will be able to work this out with the holdout property owners.  Such a shame! 

Kevin, I'll be sure to pass along your suggestion regarding narrowing the lane. I'm sure the city has the lane/street widths but not sure if they've considered that option. I believe this is a MARTA bus route so that may have an impact on minimum lane widths, but it's worth finding out.

Rebecca

--
"He was an idealist who, in terms of working the congressional system, was a paramount pragmatist - a paramount pragmatist in the service of his idealism. And he was damn good at it."  Bob Greenstein

[Mike McLeod]

all - sorry for no input, was out of town last week. i defer to the late but great K-Fed McCauley and team on the right solution...
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Mike McLeod
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i b m i n t e r a c t i v e
404 663 1407 cell
mamc...@us.ibm.com

Rebecca Serna ---11/30/2009 01:27:27 PM---Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I wrote to the city today to let them know we oppose re

From:	Rebecca Serna <rcs...@gmail.com>
To:	bike-b...@googlegroups.com
Date:	11/30/2009 01:27 PM
Subject:	Re: Wieuca Road saga continues: your input needed again

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