Save Our Streets for Bicycling!
Click here for information on the Earth Day Ride of April 21
Click here for a printable petition to save East Wesley bike lanes.
Click here to see a TV news video about East Wesley.
Click here for pictures from previous East Wesley rides.
Click here to see a dozen bike-friendly traffic calming alternatives with pictures.
Click here for information on past road narrowing projects.
Click here to read the latest project updates.
Click here for email addresses of city officials.
When:
Saturday, April 21 at 10:30 A.M.
It was the day before Earth Day, and all through the City, the sun was a'shining, making everything pretty - all except East Wesley Road!
Where:
We met at Peachtree Bikes (the bike shop) located at 2837 Peachtree Road.
To see a map, click here.
What: A Ride to Save our Streets for Bicycling, with bike flags, signs, and "Save Our Bikeways" t-shirts. As a special feature, this time, we held an Earth Day ceremony, presenting the City of Atlanta an Earth Day Award, naming the City:
** Last Place in the bicycle-friendly category (Based on Bicycle Magazine ratings for 2 years running )
** 64th Place among 72 rated cities in the Environmental Category (Based on 2007 ratings by the Earth Day Network)
- see photo below
There are a limited number of "Save Our Bikeways" t-shirts available. You can purchase one at the next ride or click on the PayPal button below to order yours now for only $12. You don't need a PayPal account to purchase a t-shirt.
Press Release On April 21 Event:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Dennis Hoffarth
404-881-1112, cell 404-944-5920
atlantabike@mindspring.com
ATLANTA, GA (April 20, 2007) – On Saturday, April 21, bicycle safety proponents will hold the eighth in a series of briefings for concerned bicyclists and media representatives regarding the removal of bike lanes on East Wesley Road in North Atlanta. The effort will be lead by the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign. Cyclists and supporters will gather for a 10:30 A.M. briefing, followed by an Earth Day Award Ceremony, chastising the City for being WORST in the country in bicycling and 64 th among large Cities in its environmental record. Events will culminate with a colorful bicycle ride on the contested route on East Wesley Road in Buckhead.
The Atlanta Bicycle Campaign and co-petitioners from Buckhead neighborhoods filed an emergency petition for injunction last month to halt the destruction and elimination of a designated and established bicycle route on East Wesley Road in north Atlanta and the construction and installation of dangerous “traffic calming” devices on East Wesley Road. The emergency petition was filed in the Fulton County Superior Court.
The petitioners claim that the project design – now in construction – removes a designated and established bicycle route in violation of federal, state, and local law, including the City of Atlanta’s own Ordinances, Comprehensive Development Plan, and Commuter On-Street Bike Plan, and endangers both motorists and non-motorists. Atlanta’s Commuter On-Street Bike Plan designates East Wesley Road as a designated bicycle route. The petition asks the court to suspend further construction until the project design can be modified to:
The East Wesley Road project, in the Garden Hills Community of Buckhead, is part of a “traffic calming” plan to slow motorized traffic. Until recently, East Wesley has had five-foot striped lanes on each side of the road that serve as established bike lanes. The road is an important route for safe bicycling between Peachtree Street and Piedmont Avenue, connecting people on bicycles to thousands of work and shopping destinations. This thoroughfare is even more important to cyclists after Lindbergh and Peachtree Hills Avenue were recently narrowed to preclude bicycle space.
In addition, many neighborhood residents have strongly voiced their concerns to the City. Many of these residents claim they were not properly notified of the intended design, and they are horrified at what they are seeing happen to their street. In the face of this opposition, the City halted construction twice, purporting to re-evaluate the design. The City refused to disclose any alternative designs it was evaluating to the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign and affected property owners and citizens. In February, Mayor Shirley Franklin decided to continue the project without modification. Cyclists and homeowners are dismayed that the court has not yet acted, and that East Wesley Road will become a permanent dangerous bottleneck for the next hundred years or more.
Dennis Hoffarth, ABC Executive Director, will provide additional details and answer questions pertaining to East Wesley Road at Saturday’s press conference.
Who: The Atlanta Bicycle Campaign, City of Atlanta Residents, Bicycle Advocates, and Safety Advocates
What: A press conference to discuss the Petition for Injunction and the prospects for avoiding a dangerous road design, and the significance of such un-sound environmental impacts on Earth Day.
Where: Peachtree Bicycles, the bike shop at 2837 Peachtree Rd.
(Go to the back parking lot - take Rumson east off Peachtree and take an immediate left
into the parking lot - please DON'T park at Fellini's ).
To see a map, click here.
When: Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 4:00 P.M.
Why: This is Earth Day weekend. The Atlanta Bicycle Campaign sees the City’s actions on East Wesley Road as an important indication of the City’s lack of environmental consciousness.
East Wesley Update
On January 9 we received the Atlanta Public Works Department's long-considered response to our concerns. Here is the heart of their message:
"Our Office of Transportation has worked with representatives from both the neighborhood and the cycling community to review the current plan recommendations and consider possible alternatives to accommodate bicycles. After much review, we have deemed that the alternatives would diminish the original intent of the project, which is to provide traffic calming. Therefore, we are proceeding with the original project design with the inclusion of an alternate route for bicycle usage along West Bolling Road and Pine Tree Drive from East Wesley Road."
In other words, they did not adopt even one change to the project to better accommodate bicycles! The alternate route they suggest was evaluated thoroughly by Atlanta Bicycle Campaign staff and volunteer experts, and found to be fraught with hazards to bicyclists, including the danger of riding on a narrowed East Wesley on both ends just to get to the alternate route, as well as blind curves, and a left turn across traffic on East Wesley.
(See the picture below).
Visualize the pavement to the right of the orange fencing being removed, leaving the narrow lanes with room only for a car in each direction.
With the addition of this fencing, bicyclists trying to use this road are immediately confronted with a hazardous narrow road despite the fact that the pavement removal has not yet begun!
Please write to Mayor Shirley Franklin today!
On Thursday, January 11, we encircled City Hall with bikes with signs and banners, and hand-delivered a letter to the mayor. The letter requested a meeting with her as soon as possible to state our case to her about accommodating bicycles on East Wesley.
To read the full letter, click here.
Send copies to her assistant Luz Borrero. Here are the email addresses:
Write to:
Mayor Shirley Franklin MayorFranklin@AtlantaGa.Gov
With copies to:
Luz Borrero, assistant to the Mayor lborrero@atlantaga.gov
and to ABC atlantabike@mindspring.com
To read more about this problem, click here.