With tighter budgets and tighter waistbands, a local group has been peddling a solution to many of today’s problems: bicycles.
Since 2005, Nathan Ebert has been working to transform Athens into a more “bicycle-friendly” city as a way for residents to save money, live healthier and become a better community.
The Athens Bicycle Co-Op was founded to promote bicycling in Athens by helping people learn how to repair their own bicycles and encourage them to use bicycles as an alternative to cars.
With 28 percent of adults saying they exercise as much as they should, according to the PEW Research Center, Ebert wants to stimulate the use of bicycles as a form of exercise and transportation.
“Many jobs don’t involve much physical activity, so biking to work could be a significant, healthy alternative,” Ebert said.
Ebert also said cities with a higher population of cyclists are “more neighborly” because biking enables more positive interactions between people than confining automobiles.
In addition to health and community improvements, bicycles can also save people money, said John Lefelhocz, owner of Cycle Path Bicycle Shop, 104 W. Union St.
“Bicycles are a real magic bullet to help fix these problems,” Lefelhocz said. “It makes us less dependent on gasoline and fuel.”
With a high number of Ohio University students using bikes instead of cars, Lefelhocz said that college students could serve as the “tip of the spear” in making Athens more bicycle-friendly.
Athens officials have responded to the favorably in recent years, passing the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan in 2010.
The plan details the use of non-motorized transportation and suggests further safe routes and bicycle parking facilities via bicycle racks, bicycle lockers and on adjacent streets.
Athens City Planner Paul Logue said that the plan incorporates numerous construction projects that will take a lifetime to ultimately achieve.
“The prohibiting factor of the whole plan is the funding,” Logue said. “We don’t have the money to complete the plan and probably won’t for a number of years.”
Logue said that the plan must be done in a matter of increments, but there are certain projects that are high priority and at the top of the county’s agenda.
“Getting Richland Avenue cleaned up is on our radar and is very high on our agenda,” Logue said.
In 2014, the county intends to build bicycle lanes going north and south on Richland Avenue, south of the Hocking River.
Other high priority plans are to add a bike lane from Morris Avenue to the East Side of the city, and to build a connector from the bike path on the Northwest side of the city to Columbus Road.
The plan also mentions the need for public education in obeying traffic laws and a well-maintained and connected sidewalk system, said Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl.
“Ideally, we should create a ‘complete street’ – have a two-lane road with bike lanes on either side,” Wiehl said. “Bicyclists have as much of a right to be on the streets as drivers do.”
Since Wiehl has been in office in 2004, he has been responsible for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Planas well as implementing bicycle lanes on numerous busy streets in Athens, including Mill Street, Richland Avenue and Jeff Hill.
“I fully endorse the use of bicycles instead of cars,” Wiehl said.
Ebert believes that in order for additional bicycle laws to be accommodated for, community members must be more vocally supportive of non-motorized vehicle use.
“In the end, our goal is to turn Athens into a more bicycle and pedestrian-friendly city,” Ebert said.
az346610@ohiou.edu
