Columbus and Cycling
You’ve got to be kidding?
From the current edition of Bicycling magazine.
Future Best Cities: Columbus & Fargo-Moorehead
Columbus and Fargo have the potential to improve into great cycling cities
By Brian Fiske
Columbus, Ohio
What happens when you cross a citywide fitness initiative, Commit to be Fit, with an environmentally friendly “green pact” signed by the mayor? A sudden interest in bikes. Columbus is working on its first bike master plan since 1993, and every indication is that it’s going to be a whopper. Mayor Michael Coleman has already pledged $50 million for bike and pedestrian transportation and has linked the bike plan with the city’s 2012 bicentennial by naming it the Bicentennial Bikeways Plan.
Columbus is not the worst city to ride in, but it’s far from the best.
We do have a nice network of trails, especially one running from downtown to Worthington. The down side, it’s not good for serious riding. It’s good from getting to Point A to Point B, if you have time. Typically the trail is crowded with pedestrians walking their dogs, or groups running together hogging the entire trail. And all too often, they get pissed if you politely ask for some room to ride past them. On a sunny late afternoon or weekend, I won’t even go near it.
Commit to be Fit? Who’s spokesperson is the anorexic Andrea Cambern? Great intentions , but Columbus, in 2002, was considered the 6th Fattest City (too much tailgating at Buckeye games?). In 2006, we were down to 16th. So the program may have some positives.
As for the Bicentennial Bikeways Plan. Not much can be found. I did find this article from the Columbus Dispatch. There was this broken link to Alta Planning. Alta Planning, a national planning company, was hired by the city to come into Columbus and analyze the city’s bikeabilty. Does the broken link mean a busted plan?
Busted plan? No way! Just a busted link as we renovate our website- sorry for the down time, but the Columbus Bicentennial Bikeway Master Plan is still alive and kicking at http://www.altaprojects.net/columbus/ and I hear you can expect some big news right around May 16th!
Thanks for the info! That’s great news
I had heard talk of the plan, but after reading Bicycling magazine, I did a Google and found very little information on the plan. The last update I was able to find was when they were requesting feedback thru the survey. Even the city website had little info.
Hope it’s the whopper mentioned in Bicycling!
Streetcars & bike trails are awesome plans. And I suppose the governor biking to work is a nice gesture, but what Strickland & others should really look at is actively and in a timely fashion developing an infrastructure that shares roads & helps promote a safe environment for bicyclists. Since moving here in January, I have yet to ride down a single road without being forced to share lanes with automobiles; many of whom are rude, inattentive, & inconsiderate. I’ll admit I was slightly spoiled in San Francisco; almost every road had a designated bike lane, & those which did not had signs specifying full use of secondary lanes by bicyclists. I suppose that would be asking a lot from a city that’s struggling to implement a single rail line, let alone provide curbside recycling.
The plan was announced yesterday, and the link above is now working. In all honesty, I have not had an opportunity to review the plan, so I will withhold comments.