Rails-with-trails

Flagpole's Athens Rising column explores informal uses of urban space and how "the way people use the city doesn’t necessarily correspond with the planning and design intentions of the government."

When families and otherwise “adult” people join the exploring kids as benign trespassers, this may be a symptom of some larger issue in the built environment. Rather than working to eliminate these symptoms, we ought to understand their underlying causes. The guerrilla SPOA (Skate Park of Athens) illustrated a need, which ultimately resulted in a sanctioned skate park being built at the Southeast Clarke Park. The High Line, in New York, is another example of informal park uses taking on a formal status.
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The spaces that people choose to occupy with these informal uses are ones that have been disregarded or left undefined in some way.
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Consider the folks who walk along the railroad tracks. The rail right-of-way provides a useable route between destinations. People who walk along the tracks are interested in the route, and not the rails themselves. Building a formal walking path with a fence between it and the tracks gives people a safer alternative than walking on the rails in the same way that a sidewalk along a road is safer than people walking on the shoulder. This logic has been implemented in many communities around the country, leading to the creation of “rails-with-trails” (the logical outgrowth of the rails-to-trails movement).

That sort of logic should be applied to address the alternative ways people use the city in every case. People do things for reasons, and by understanding the causes of actions, we can build a city which is more interesting and more equitably accessible.

Long Range Plan in the news

Banner-Herald reports.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a comment!

The Athens area "Long Range Transportation Plan" needs your input

The LRTP is a document which outlines the transportation plan for the Athens region for the next 25 years. Now is your chance to tell local planners what kind of transportation choices you would like to see in Athens.

Your input on this plan is critical!

Use our convenient comment form (with suggested comments), or download the hard copy form from MACORTS (pdf).

Comment deadline is August 18th.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to share your thoughts on this important document!

Rail-Trail progress

Also from Flagpole, a nice status update on the rail-trail project:

" Long in coming, Athens-Clarke County’s rails-to-trails project has passed a major land-acquisition milestone and ought to have plans before the Mayor and Commission perhaps by year’s end. This first phase of the project will create a multi-use bike/pedestrian path along the old Georgia Railroad bed from downtown’s Multi-Modal Transportation Center through Dudley Park and then roughly parallel to Oak Street to the planned site of a park-and-ride lot where Lexington Road meets the 10 Loop."

The article pays particular attention to what remains of the "Murmur Trestle over Trail Creek—so named because a photo of it appeared on that R.E.M. album ... All along, the trestle has inspired the rail-trail project by offering a level route over steep topography into downtown."

Firefly rail-trail: Athens -> Greene Co.

From the Banner-Herald:

Plans are in the works to convert an abandoned railroad from Athens to Greene County into a 38-mile trail.

Firefly Trail, still in the early stages, would run from the Multimodal Transportation Center in downtown Athens through Winterville, Arnoldsville and Maxeys before ending in Union Point.

An informal town hall meeting to unveil preliminary plans is scheduled for 5:30 to 7 p.m. today at the Depot in downtown Winterville, but alternative transportation advocate John Devine cautioned that the trail is a long way from coming to fruition.

Kudos to John Devine and the staff at NEGRDC for pursuing this exciting project!

Downtown deck and other trans plans running behind

ABH reports on the delays facing the proposed downtown parking deck as well as the Pulaski Greenway and other projects:

A new downtown parking deck, delayed by negotiations with developers to form a public-private partnership, is running two years behind schedule.

Most of the 33 projects in Athens-Clarke County's $122 million of sales tax-funded construction projects are already done or will be completed on time, but the deck is one of a handful that have fallen behind.

If planning and construction went as originally planned, the deck at the corner of West Washington and North Lumpkin streets already would have opened; now it is scheduled to be finished in August 2011.

Nine other sales tax-funded projects - trails along Pulaski Creek and an unused East Athens railroad; police headquarters renovations; a computerized police dispatch and record-keeping system; a bridge to East Athens Community Park; bridge repairs; Solid Waste Department offices; a new Sandy Creek Nature Center wing; and a diversion center - also are running behind, SPLOST program manager Don Martin told commissioners at a work session Tuesday.

The delays are not unusual and are for "very valid reasons" such as negotiating with railroad companies to buy land, Athens-Clarke Manager Alan Reddish said.

More time to comment on the rail-trail plans

UPDATE:
Please submit comments by Nov 28.

Rail-Trail info packet and comment form (.pdf)
More info about the project

Many thanks to Dorothy for the following info:

Review Still Possible, Comments Still Welcome If you missed Tuesday night's public forum for the Rail-Trail Project yesterday afternoon, there is still an opportunity to review plans and displays downtown at City Hall (301 College Avenue). They will be available in Room 101 for the upcoming 10 days (which, due to the Thanksgiving holiday, may actually mean only through Wednesday Nov 26).Comments may still be made via the web by going to www.dot.ga.us and clicking on Public Outreach found on the Information Center dropdown menu. All comments will become a part of the project record. A few of the issues meriting discussion or comment involve the bridge crossings over the North Oconee River and Trail Creek (into and out of Dudley Park). In particular, the project managers would appreciate some public input on the possible fate of the historic Georgia Railroad wooden trestle (sometimes called the "Murmur" trestle, having appeared on an R.E.M. album cover). Among the options that are under consideration for the trestle are a rebuild and adaptive re-use, or a teardown and replacement with a new prefabricated bridge. There may also be some "hybrid" options that have not yet been defined.

FYI! Hearing on Rail-Trail today

The Banner Herald reports:

Athens-Clarke County is close to securing final approval to convert an abandoned East Athens railroad into a trail.

A state-mandated public hearing at 5 p.m. today at the Multimodal Transportation Center on East Broad Street is the final step before the state Department of Transportation releases a $1.2 million federal grant and allows Athens-Clarke officials to begin designing and buying land for the rails-to-trails project.

"We feel very confident this project is going to go forward and be successful," county Natural Resources Administrator Mike Wharton said.

County officials will seek input on plans for the trail, but those familiar with the project shouldn't expect to hear anything new.

If you are not familiar with the plans or if you want to tell the county to keep as much of the Murmur trestle as possible, you should definitely go!

How to emulate Portland

This week, Flagpole columnist Kevan Williams describes a number of ways Athens could follow the lead of Portland, OR in improving pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. New Commission, take note!

For the rest of us, let's make a concerted effort to tell MACORTS about our desire for this kind of sustainable transportation equality.

Excerpts:

In Portland, drivers stop at crosswalks, even without flashing lights and neon bollards. ... It would take a lot of enforcement to ingrain that pedestrians always have the right-of-way here in the South, but the payoff is worth it: it slows everyone down, and puts drivers in a situation where they ought to be looking for pedestrians, instead of driving through and idling in crosswalks while trying to turn.

Certain routes within Portland are designated as bike routes, regardless of the infrastructure in place. Even if there are no bike lanes or “sharrows,” a flat side street could be made an official bike route. Imagine if BikeAthens’ bike map were adopted by the city, and those routes which were good for bicycling were then signed by the city to guide bicyclists.

In Portland, what we would call greenway trails are considered an important transportation network, just like rail and roads. There is a comprehensive system of off-street bicycle trails, in some cases extending miles without crossing a street. These don’t just follow the rivers, but also rail lines, transmission lines, highways and other easements where access is already limited. Most importantly, these routes actually go places, and are fed by on-street bicycle routes in a logical manner.

Bringing It Home: Portland is a city that’s a lot like Athens; it’s not a metropolis of especially tall buildings, and its greatest strength lies in its walkable neighborhoods. Basic services in Portland can be reached by bicycle on a neighborhood scale just as easily as can thousands of workplaces downtown on a citywide scale. The neat thing is that most of it isn’t done through huge infrastructure and park projects; there seems to be a commitment to a bottom-up approach, which focuses on making neighborhoods and side streets safe to walk first, and then builds up into an entire city of cyclists. After all, if people don’t feel safe crossing the street at the end of their block, they won’t be biking across town on a greenway.

Full article here.

Rail-Trail follow up

Promising news from yesterday's meeting in Oconee County:

A new effort is starting to rumble among residents in Oconee and Clarke counties to convert a mostly inactive rail line from Watkinsville to Madison into a haven for cyclists and joggers.

Organizers face an uphill climb in their nascent move to switch rails to trails on the 20-mile stretch of railroad. At least one previous rails-to-trails effort, about nine years ago, failed after backers met resistance from the rail company and local officials.

Still, about two dozen locals showed up to a meeting this week to support the project, and Oconee County Parks and Recreation officials are excited about the idea now, so organizer Scott Nichols said he feels good about the trail's prospects.

Oconee County rail-trail meeting

The Oconee County Advisory Committee on Recreational Affairs will be holding a meeting on Greenways, Rails to Trails and connectivity between parks, schools and neighborhoods. Guest speaker will be Mike Wharton from Athens-Clarke leisure Services and John Devine from the Northeast Georgia Regional Development Center. The meeting will be held at the Oconee County Civic Center on October 21 at 6:00pm (just before the SPLOST public hearing).

Report on Rail-Trail Work Day (Saturday March 22)

An amazing effort by approximately 20 volunteers resulted in a clearing of vines and invasive species from at least half of the historic Georgia Railroad wooden trestle in Dudley Park. Many thanks to all who turned out, including Janice Denny and Mike Wharton of ACC Leisure Services, Rail-Trail Committee Chair and District 6 Commissioner Carl Jordan and several of his R-T Committee members, and a number of Oconee Rivers Greenway Commissioners. Among the many other illustrious volunteers, we can't fail to mention Joe Kmiec, who operates a unique branch office of his computer business out of his bike on the Greenway (but doesn't pay any real estate, sales, or special use taxes for the privilege). And special kudos to the Mayor of Snellville, who came out to work and brought bottled water for all of the volunteers! Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer also happens to be the managing engineer for the Athens office of O'Brien and Gere, the contractors for the R/T project, and is extremely enthusiastic about the project that will soon, finally, get off the ground.

Slideshow:



Upcoming Rail-Trail Work Day #2 (Saturday April 12):

If you missed Saturday but would still like to pitch in, mark your calendars for the morning of Saturday April 12 to clear vines from the remaining half of the trestle. Bring work gloves and meet us near the pedestrian bridge that crosses Trail Creek (just under the wooden trestle) in Dudley Park. Closest parking is in the ACC lot off of Poplar Street, where you can compete for a space with diners at Mama's Boy (bring your lunch money!). 9:00 a.m - noon. ACC will provide the tools.

Rail-Trail Work Day

RAIL-TRAIL WORK DAY

Saturday March 22

9:00 - 12:00

Meet at Historic Wooden Trestle, Dudley Park

The engineering firm of O'Brien & Gere, contracted by ACC to guide the Rail-Trail committee through project design and construction, has suggested that it would be a good idea to "stabilize" the historic wooden trestle in Dudley Park by getting rid of vines that are beginning to overtake it.

So from 9:00 - 12:00 Saturday morning, volunteers will be gathering at the foot of the trestle in Dudley Park to help with this task. The ACC Rail-Trail Committee and ACC Leisure Services would appreciate your help. Please come prepared with a pair of work gloves. You can bring tools if you wish, but ACC will also have tools on hand to loan out.

Parking for the event is available in the Chicopee lot off Broad Street (across from the Chicopee Building), or in the Dudley Park lot on Poplar Street (behind Mama's Boy restaurant).

Upcoming in April - Look ahead to a public meeting sometime in April to view and comment on concept plans for the Rail-Trail!

ABH: "A-C seeks new loop interchange"

From today's ABH:

Athens-Clarke officials want the state Department of Transportation to build a new Athens Perimeter interchange in West Athens.

The new interchange would be located off a dead-end, four-lane road near Heyward Allen Toyota, between the Oglethorpe Avenue/Tallassee Road and Atlanta Highway exits. It is intended to take cars off increasingly busy Westside streets like Mitchell Bridge Road and Oglethorpe Avenue that can't be widened, Athens-Clarke transportation planner Sherry Moore said.

"The idea is to relieve some of the congestion on Atlanta Highway and get that traffic on the loop without taxing the surrounding roadways," Moore said.

No money is available for the $28 million interchange, and engineering, right-of-way acquisition or construction won't begin before 2011.

For years, the DOT has planned to rebuild several perimeter interchanges, including ones at Olympic Drive, Lexington Road and Atlanta Highway, to handle increasing traffic.

To pay for the new interchange, MACORTS, a board of officials and residents that oversees state-funded transportation projects in Clarke, Oconee and Madison counties, will scale back plans for three other local projects.

Road planners will give up a project that would widen travel lanes and add a center turn lane to South Milledge Avenue between Whitehall and East Campus roads, saving $8 million. They'll scrap wider travel lanes from long-range plans for Jefferson River Road, saving $9 million.

MACORTS also is drastically cutting back a politically unpopular four-lane road connecting U.S. Highways 29 and 441. Instead, they now want to build a two-lane road connecting U.S. 29 to Danielsville Road, primarily to serve fire trucks at a new fire station in that neighborhood, Moore said. That change will save $11 million.

MACORTS is likely to approve the changes when its policy committee meets this morning. The changes will be open to public comment for 15 days beginning Feb. 25, Moore said.

The DOT also has pushed back $1 million in funding to buy land for an East Athens trail along an abandoned railroad from this year to next year.

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 021308

Commentary to come...