ACC Commission may delay bike lanes on Barber Street again

After years of waiting, the ACC Commission may delay a vote on bicycle and pedestrian improvements for Barber Street yet again. If they do end up voting, they might go with an alternate proposal or they might decide to do nothing. Anything seems possible right now except the recommended two-way cycle track that’s currently on the table.

Barber Street bike lanes were proposed as a top-tier project in the original 2018 Athens in Motion Plan, previously called the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan. TSPLOST sales tax collections started that same year, which provided some funding for the plan. But five years later, the commission has yet to approve even an initial concept idea for Barber Street, and they might continue to keep bike advocates waiting.

Let’s take a look at the benefits and drawbacks of all possible Barber Street options as we try to figure out why this has been delayed so often.

The recommended option: A two-way cycle track

ACC staff and the Athens in Motion Commission are currently recommending a two-way cycle track down the length of Barber Street from Prince Avenue to Chase Street. This two-lane track would be on the road but offset and thereby protected from car traffic. This plan is endorsed by Bike Athens and the Boulevard Neighborhood Association.

Lauren Blais, chair of the Athens in Motion Commission, told APN that members of the group support this plan because it provides the most safety, the most comfort for pedestrians and because it will cause the least amount of impact on the yards of property owners compared to some other options.

Bike lanes along Barber Street will help connect the growing Newton Bridge Road area to Prince Avenue and downtown, making bike travel easier and safer while reducing traffic for drivers. The downsides of the proposal include the $8 million expense and the loss of some parking spaces. The idea is to remove the on-street parking in-between Boulevard and Prince Avenue to make room for the bike lanes, thereby reducing impacts to property owners and conserving the tree canopy.

Mayor Kelly Girtz is developing a plan to replace the lost parking at a nearby location, but it’s unclear if that would satisfy property owners along the stretch.

The recommended option is supported by Girtz as well as Commissioners Carol Myers and Jesse Houle.

Alternate option #1: A multi-use path

Commissioners Dexter Fisher and Melissa Link are proposing another plan for the commission to consider. This one includes a multi-use path (that is, a path shared by walkers and bikers similar to the Greenway or the Firefly Trail) most of the way along Barber. It also includes a two-way cycle track in the middle for the uphill portion from Oneta Street to Boulevard. They say this plan would be cheaper and would allow keeping the on-street parking in-between Boulevard and Prince Avenue.

Link blasted the recommended option on Facebook, writing that it would “eliminate dozens of mature trees, demolish historic brick retaining walls, take entire front yards” while adding “hundreds of thousands of dollars to the total project cost.” 

This is not entirely true. 

The recommended option is indeed more expensive, but the property impacts involved are roughly the same as in Link’s alternate proposal. The recommended option adds a 12-foot wide cycle track but removes a seven-foot wide row of parking spaces. That’s a total of five feet of property impact, not 17 as Link claims. Similarly, Link’s alternate proposal removes a five-foot wide sidewalk but adds a 10-foot wide multi-use path. That also adds a total of five feet of property impact.

Whichever proposal ends up passing, the final design will be tweaked during the actual engineering phase of this project to mitigate these impacts as much as possible, according to ACC Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Coordinator Daniel Sizemore.

“There’s a lot of flexibility within our existing footprint to narrow it down with cost-saving measures and reduce impact to trees,” Sizemore told APN. “That’s all usually figured out during preliminary engineering.”

Link also told APN that a multi-use path would be safer than a cycle-track because cyclists would be sharing the path with pedestrians and thus would have to slow down. Going slow, cyclists might be better able to notice cars pulling out of their driveways along this stretch, according to Link. There’s logic to this statement, but what if some cyclists refuse to slow down?

“It’s really intimidating when you’re walking on a sidewalk and a biker zips by your shoulder,” Blais told APN. “They’re going like five times as fast as you.”

Unlike Link, Blais doesn’t consider potential conflicts with pedestrians to be beneficial. Rather, she says they’re something to be avoided, which is one of the major reasons the Athens in Motion Commission proposed a two-way track in the street for cyclists together with a sidewalk off the street for pedestrians.

“We don’t want to add stress for people who are walking, forcing them to share a space with people who are using faster modes of transportation,” Blais said.

Finally, Link says that a cycle track is not recommended for neighborhood streets like Barber by the American Association of Highway and Transportation.

Biking on a multi-use path or a cycle track is certainly safer than sharing the road with cars, but that’s what’s being suggested in the final two options below:

Alternate option #2: Sharrows between Boulevard and Prince

Another option, as reported by Blake Aued in the Flagpole, is to add sharrows in-between Boulevard and Prince Avenue, where traffic is generally calmer, and to have a multi-use path for the more dangerous portion of the road from Boulevard to Chase Street. This plan would have the benefits of keeping the on-street parking and completely reducing the property impacts for these houses. It would also reduce the total cost of the proposal by about $900,000. 

This idea was supported by Commissioner John Culpepper at the commission’s May 16 agenda-setting meeting.

Alternate option #3: Do nothing for now

Commissioner Allison Wright said that she was “very disappointed” to see Barber Street bike lanes back on the commission’s agenda this month so soon after the idea was tabled in February. It seems unlikely that she’ll be supporting any of the above proposals. Likewise, Commissioner Mike Hamby also seemed content either to leave Barber Street tabled or to shoot it down entirely.

“If Barber Street is costing $8 million, shouldn’t we look at some other things?,” Hamby said at last month’s meeting. “I agree Barber Street needs some help, but there’s ways you can maneuver down Boulevard and down Chase Street [and avoid Barber Street].”

Doing nothing for the corridor would of course preserve the on-street parking and save the entire expense of the project. The $8 million in TSPLOST funding could then be used for other bicycle and pedestrian projects around Athens, if we can find one the commission would approve.

Next Steps

Link wrote that the recommended concept plan for Barber Street bike lanes was “dead on arrival.” She might be right. We’ll find out on June 6, when the commission will consider this item alongside dozens of others in a packed agenda.

Assuming the commission passes something, either the staff-recommended plan or Link and Fisher’s alternate proposal, ACC staff will work with engineers and other experts to design the safest possible Barber Street corridor for all users. Once they’ve finalized a design, they’ll send it back to the commission to get their final approval.

After years of waiting, Blais hopes that the commission will approve something on June 6 to improve safety on Barber Street, which she considers to be vitally important.

“This is critical, basic infrastructure, as essential as sewer, stormwater or electricity,” Blais said. “It’s concerning how many people are dying in the roads. We have to figure this out.”

25 people were killed on Athens roadways in 2021, including seven pedestrians and one bicyclist according to the Athens-Clarke County Police Department. There have been seven fatal accidents so far in 2023.

UPDATE (6/10/23): The commission didn’t delay this vote and approved alternate option #1 unanimously.

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