Three vs. Four
Pete McCommons of Flagpole fame is a big fan of three-laning Prince Avenue. Now, for the longest time I have felt that this is a fairly stupid idea, and after reading McCommons' most recent editorial waxing poetic about dogwoods and bicycle lanes, I'm not really inclined to change my mind. But he does make a very good point in that three-laning Prince Avenue for only one portion - from Milledge Avenue heading into downtown - can help make that area more pedestrian friendly.
Forget the bicycle lanes at this point. You do have several establishments and developments in that area which rely heavily on pedestrian foot-traffic for business and making that small portion a bit more inviting for them isn't necessarily a bad idea. What is a bad idea, however, is three-laning the remaining stretches of Prince Avenue.
This is the primary corridor for folks from Jackson County to reach Athens (as well as how I get downtown from my house), and bottlenecking all of those cars into one lane is an absolutely horrible idea. McCommons vents his frustration over this fact here:
So, anyway, the big debate is whether we can make Prince Avenue an inviting, traffic-calmed, tree-lined entry into Athens, or whether it will continue to be a four-lane race track to funnel SUV's from Jackson County's burgeoning housing tracts into downtown Athens.
My question for him is ... does he think merely three-laning the road will make these SUVs from Jackson County magically disappear from the roads? They're going to keep coming to Athens, and this venture would only make it worse. He talks about how successful other three-laning adventures were, but I'm not sure what fantasy land he's referring to. Lumpkin Road is a nightmare now, while Baxter Street isn't any fun from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. So why in the world would we want to take one of the main traffic arteries in our community - particularly one that runs by our growing medical sector - and make traffic even worse?
Listen, I'm a fan of bicyle lanes. I really am. But I ask with all honesty here ... is it worth making traffic even more awful along one of our busiest roads just so a handful of cyclists can have a sliver of asphalt? Why not explore a plan to widen sidewalks and encourage dual-use pedestrian pathways?
Forget the bicycle lanes at this point. You do have several establishments and developments in that area which rely heavily on pedestrian foot-traffic for business and making that small portion a bit more inviting for them isn't necessarily a bad idea. What is a bad idea, however, is three-laning the remaining stretches of Prince Avenue.
This is the primary corridor for folks from Jackson County to reach Athens (as well as how I get downtown from my house), and bottlenecking all of those cars into one lane is an absolutely horrible idea. McCommons vents his frustration over this fact here:
So, anyway, the big debate is whether we can make Prince Avenue an inviting, traffic-calmed, tree-lined entry into Athens, or whether it will continue to be a four-lane race track to funnel SUV's from Jackson County's burgeoning housing tracts into downtown Athens.
My question for him is ... does he think merely three-laning the road will make these SUVs from Jackson County magically disappear from the roads? They're going to keep coming to Athens, and this venture would only make it worse. He talks about how successful other three-laning adventures were, but I'm not sure what fantasy land he's referring to. Lumpkin Road is a nightmare now, while Baxter Street isn't any fun from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. So why in the world would we want to take one of the main traffic arteries in our community - particularly one that runs by our growing medical sector - and make traffic even worse?
Listen, I'm a fan of bicyle lanes. I really am. But I ask with all honesty here ... is it worth making traffic even more awful along one of our busiest roads just so a handful of cyclists can have a sliver of asphalt? Why not explore a plan to widen sidewalks and encourage dual-use pedestrian pathways?
posted by Jmac at 4:19 PM
7 Comments:
My question for him is ... does he think merely three-laning the road will make these SUVs from Jackson County magically disappear from the roads?
Pete's a great guy, but I always wondered about his arguments in that regard.
Anyway, I do think three-laning from Milledge onward would be a good idea.
Does anyone else think that Flagpole is strangely obsessed with bike lanes? I'm as in favor of multiple transportation options as the next guy, and the more enviromentally friendly, the better. But cmon.
Plus, you're absolutely right. Three laning Prince will ensure two things will happen.
1. Most Jacksonians will continue to use Prince as their main artery, clogging traffic further and causing more wrecks, as they try to wiggle those Chevy Tahoes and Ford F-150s into one lane instead of two.
2. The folks that don't continue to use Prince will instead use Boulevard as an alternate route, to the mass consternation of Boulevardians, as said Tahoes and F-150s come racing down one of my favorite streets. (No doubt blaring some silly Toby Keith, Boot up yer Ass kind of song, and yammering about Caleb's soccer game on their cell phones.)
There is no way, repeat no way, that Prince can be turned into any more of a pedestrian, bike-friendly artery than it already is, short of closing it to thru traffic.
Why can't Prince have four lanes and bike lanes? Just take away the on-street parking and add a little median in the middle, and voila, you have a pleasant, bike laned, four lane road. The Ped folks will scream about the loss of on-street parking as making it less safe for pedestrians, but you already have street trees, etc.
How many people use the on-street parking on prince anyway? Do any businesses depend on it? I always find it very dangerous to open a door into traffic on that road.
BB
That's an interesting point. The only time I see those slots used are by Prince Avenue Baptist on Sunday mornings, though I can't think of what the situation is down by The Grit and those places. But there's pretty decent parking around there ... behind The Bottleworks.
And, yes, Publius, Flagpole does love bike lanes. It's not a bad cause, per se, but often their support and dedication can come across as irrational. And I believe that's the case here. We do need some more bike lanes, but I think you have to evaluate the need and demand for said lanes. In some cases, dual-use pedestrian/bike pathways seem much wiser to me.
I'm not opposed to bike lanes per se, to be sure. I am however sometimes bemused, sometimes irritated at the amount of press bike lanes get in Athens.
I would definitely be much more in favor of dual use options like you were discussing though.
reading about Prince Avenue makes me pine for big city. I love you mango chutney turkey heaven.
Glad to help you out Shep. Enjoy scenic Jackson.
To be fair to Kinman's actual position, she does very much like the idea of dual-use pedestrian/bike pathways, but she has indicated to me that she doesn't think they're very feasible in developed urban areas. So that probably rules out Prince Avenue, though I'd still rather see those pathways come into existence there.
She was meaning areas which are less developed, I suppose making those more conducive to such pathways. Regardless, I'm glad someone's talking about these types of transportation options.
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