Group wants town to be bike-friendly

Summerville may be known as "Flowertown in the Pines," but it's no rose garden getting around town on a bicycle.

Mark Greenslit hopes to change that. A radiologist who regularly rides his bicycle from Summerville to work and back at Trident Medical Center in North Charleston, Greenslit is peddling a plan to have Summerville officially designated a bicycle-friendly town.

New bike trails and extensions of the Sawmill Branch Walk/Bike Trail, plus bike lanes on roads and highways, "share the road" campaigns, signs to remind motorists that bicycles are present and enforcement of traffic safety ordinances could help earn the town the League of American Cyclists' designation as friendly to bicycles, Greenslit said.

Greenslit, who chairs the Greater Summerville Bicycle and Pedestrian Coalition, told Town Council recently that local bicycle riders would not be the only beneficiaries of the designation. Encouraging more bike riding and less dependency on automobiles would not only boost fitness and health for residents who need to be more active, it would have far-reaching benefits to all.

"It will help promote tourism, reduce traffic congestion, improve citizen health, is good for the economy and can save the town money," he said. He said becoming bicycle friendly "will set the town apart from its peers and attract those who are seeking a high quality of life."

The league has awarded the designation to more than 40 American municipalities since 1996, Greenslit said. Among South Carolina municipalities, only Spartanburg has earned the right to post the league's "Bicycle Friendly" signs. Greenslit said "Bicycle Friendly" communities have to meet certain criteria, which can be described as "the five E's": engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation and planning, he said.

Getting the designation for Summerville will cost the town something, but not too much, he insisted. He said road maintenance and new road construction are under state jurisdiction, and at Summerville's urging, the state can be persuaded to include bike lanes and signage beneficial to bikers when roads are built or modified.

Much can be accomplished simply by the town adopting an attitude conducive to biking and remembering to facilitate bicycling when plans are made and reviewed, he said.

The Sawmill Branch Trail, which begins at Gahagan Road and ends a half-mile beyond Luden Drive, needs to be expanded and joined with more trails like it. Bicycle crossing signs are needed in many places.

Some of the most dangerous places for bicyclists are those heavily traveled by motorists: Central Avenue and U.S. Highway 78, where there are few or no accommodations for nonmotorized vehicles, he said.

Mayor Berlin G. Myers and council members told Greenslit the town is not averse to becoming more bicycle-friendly, but the costs of seeking the designation will have to be clear before action is taken.

"Our hearts are with it," Councilman Aaron Brown said.

"We need some details, and what it's going to cost us. Everything costs money," Myers said.

Greenslit said the league awards bicycle-friendly designations at the platinum, gold, silver and bronze levels. Spartanburg received a bronze. Also at bronze are Cary and Carrboro, N.C.; Roswell, Ga.; and Chattanooga, Tenn. Gainesville, Fla., received a silver designation.

The league outlines its "five E's" criteria this way:

-- Engineering: Includes formulation of a bicycle master plan, well-designed bike lanes and multiuse paths, secure bike parking and plans for accommodating cyclists on public roads.

-- Education: Includes teaching cyclists of all ages how to ride safely in any area, from multiuse paths to congested city streets, as well as teaching motorists how to share the road safely with cyclists. A factor is means of distributing information and bike maps and the number of trained league cycling instructors in the community.

-- Encouragement: How well the community promotes and encourages safe bicycling. Helpful are Bike Month and Bike to Work Week events, community bike rides, commuter incentive programs, a Safe Routes to School program and production of bike maps and route-finding signage.

-- Enforcement: Addresses law enforcement agency's liaison with the cycling community, targeted enforcement to encourage cyclists and motorists to share the road and the existence of bicycling related laws, such as those requiring helmets or the use of side paths.

-- Evaluation and planning: Translates to having a plan and systems in place to evaluate current programs and plans for the future. Important are efforts to determine the amount of cycling taking place in a community as well as ways to reduce accident and fatality rates.