Bike enthusiasts and local officials discussed ways to make Charlottesville more biker-friendly at a summit Thursday.
Survey results from 586 local cyclists revealed an overwhelming demand for more on-road bike paths in Charlottesville, specifically along Ivy Road and West Main Street. Last spring, former Graduate Arts & Sciences student Matthew Steven King collided with a utility truck while riding his bicycle on West Main Street. Officials said, however, that the survey and summit did not derive directly from the incident and were meant to address bike safety in general.
The summit, organized by Bike Charlottesville and the Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation, featured speakers Mayor Dave Norris, Albemarle County Supervisor Dennis Rooker and Rebecca White, the University's director of Parking and Transportation.
"The speakers were enthused and committed to collaborating together. This is the most commitment to being bike-friendly and to collaborating on being bike-friendly that this community has ever seen," Bike Charlottesville Spokesperson Heather Higgins said.
Although many officials are in favor of more bike lanes, it still is unclear as to whether they will be successful in adding the lanes.
"We have almost no transportation money from the state," Rooker said. "Where we had $6 million five years ago, this year we have $300,000."
Apart from discussing the challenges of new bike lane construction, panelists and speakers at the summit considered other ways to make Charlottesville and Albemarle safer for cyclists. Higgins said her group is pursuing support for a careless driving law that would create middle ground for law enforcement officials between giving drivers severe reckless driving charges and no sanctions. The group also wishes to increase the legal distance for drivers to pass bikers, which is currently two feet.
Changing the parking arrangement on West Main Street is another possibility, Higgins said. "Some of the options would be removing parking from one side, from both sides or from just the tighter stretches."
Rooker added that he would like to see bike lanes painted a different color to make them more obvious to motorists.\nThrough all of these efforts, summit members ultimately are trying to increase the number of cyclists in Charlottesville.
"Biking benefits everyone," Rooker said. "It reduces the carbon footprint, reduces traffic and provides for a more healthy populace"
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