EOTO Feedback, Part 5

Beck Tench’s Each One Teach One Project on bike advocacy is a timely topic with both gas prices and obesity rates in a race to see which one can rise the fastest (my money’s on gas). I’ve always thought of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area as a very pedestrian and bike friendly place, what with all the bike lanes everywhere, but I had no idea that there was a debate as to the safety advantages of not having bike lanes. Speaking only from my experience hauling a 20 foot boat back and forth to Jordan Lake on roads with a high number of cyclists and no bike lanes, I think we need them.

I went to college in Iowa, and they have built an incredible off-road trail system that spans most of the state. In the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area where many people commute the 15 miles back and forth between their homes and work, it is possible to ride from city to city without ever riding on a road. Of course, Iowa winters don’t permit much cycling past October, and Waterloo-Cedar Falls can hardly be called metropolitan, but it’s better than nothing. I’d like to see something similar between Chapel Hill and Durham. I know that there is the Tobacco Trial system and Duke Forest trials, but I believe an actual cement commuter route for bikes only would see good deal of traffic in this area.