This weekend we initiated a series of Saturday morning road evaluation parties that will help inform the creation of a network of safe routes. We’ll meet again on Saturday, Oct 23rd.We worked the entire length of West Main Street from Ridge McIntire Road to JPA, measuring lane widths and photographing key narrowings and bike lane discrepancies. This information will go to Jeanie Alexander, the City’s Traffic Engineer as we start the hands on work of improving bicycle facilities in Charlottesville.We’re going to meet on Saturday mornings for the foreseeable future to tackle the routes we want the city to mark as “primary bicycle routes.”Some of the next routes we want to evaluate:
- Chesapeake St vs. E. Market St as a route from Riverview Park to downtown. Is Chesapeake St. a potential future bike boulevard?
- Rose Hill / Greenleaf / … / Meadowbrook / Rio Rd
- Old Lynchburg / JPA / Alderman
- TransAmerica Bike Route 76 from Monticello Road to downtown
Depending on turn out, we will split into groups with cameras, long measuring tapes, etc. to document key concerns and the potentials with each route.There are a number of other routes which were popular in the Bike Route. We will continue canvasing routes as volunteers are available until we hit all of the key routes.November 11th is the next Bike Safety Committee meeting with the City. These routes are the primary agenda item. Please help us keep making progress on the Bike Ballot goals by joining us this Saturday. We will meet and leave from Blue Wheel Bicycles at 8am on Sat, October 23rd.Event details are also posted on Bike Charlottesville’s Facebook page.Any questions, post them here.– Scott Paisley