Read more
Cooper: Bike lanes worrisome Broad Street bike lane construction is getting mixed reviews Broad Street in Chattanooga is shrinking from six lanes to four
My question is, why.
Why are we overhauling Broad Street?
Why are we shutting down lanes on a street that accommodates 10,000 cars a day to give a minuscule number of bicyclists their own thoroughfare through a downtown artery?
Why are the needs of a few more important than the needs of many?
Why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways?
OK, scratch that last one, but the questions about the city’s waste of a quarter of a million dollars need to be discussed, especially when you realize there are far greater issues with our roads and infrastructure beyond the questionable need for a nine-block biking expressway.
Maybe Republic Parking, which is already making money hand over meter downtown, came up with the idea. After all, fewer downtown parking spaces mean greater demand, which means Republic could raise the rates again if it wants.
Maybe the city government is trying to take one final swing to reverse the disappointment that has been the public bike rentals downtown?
Maybe we are again chasing some mythical title to be the “coolest” or “hippest” or “most groovy biking metroplex in the free world” from some online competition dreamed up by a publication looking for click bait?
Maybe we just are so gung-ho about our outdoors image that we are starting to forget the roots – a tourist-friendly downtown – of our renaissance?
Maybe this string of maybes should make us all pause and wonder how this happened.
After talking with what the city called hundreds of concerned citizens a few years ago, the plan was to add a bike lane. Those hundred or so folks probably have some two-wheeled vehicles in their garage, and that’s cool.
But when did the vocal minority of the bicycling community get such a monster say in what happens downtown?
Hey, we as a town are cashing checks as this Southern outdoor haven, and that’s great. But allowing the biking community a powerful say in the planning efforts of downtown would be akin to allowing the golfing community the chance to carve out nine holes in Renaissance Park.
There are 10,000 cars that drive the nine-block stretch that will be now cut by a third so that a hundred or so bicyclists can enjoy their free space. This is the heartbeat of the tourism district, and cutting parking spaces for workers and walkers and people spending money for a few dozen Johnny Biker Guys seems silly.
Reaction from downtown business owners suggests there was little communication with them. The stunned reaction from the public screams that buy-in was minimal.
The end goal of cutting drivable space by 33 percent on one of the busiest streets in downtown is to boost the number of biking commuters by 5 percent. How does that math compute?
At best it seems like a misguided attempt to placate the outdoor elitists. At worst, it’s a government attempt to either salvage its own poorly received biking program or help a downtown business that is cozy with the city.
If we are not careful, a downtown district with limited and/or overpriced parking options could become a place that, as Yogi Berra said, is “so crowded no one goes there any more.”
And if the end game is to improve the number of biking commuters downtown, well, go pedal that somewhere else.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6343.