A Bike Boulevard In Edgefield?

The HEN board has received some questions about a new Walk and Bike Plan, and we’d like to share what we currently know about the issue.

To clarify: The WalkNBike plan is a county-wide Metro Government master plan, not to be confused with Walk Bike Nashville, which is a non-Metro nonprofit group that does advocacy and training around pedestrian and bike safety generally. 

From our Councilman Brett Withers: The WalkNBike Plan, which is still in draft form, was led by Public Works in conjunction with MTA, Planning, and Parks. Walk Bike Nashville is a separate nonprofit advocacy group, but the WalkNBike Plan is a Metro-generated plan that is being formulated with extensive public participation. The names are similar, but Walk Bike Nashville is not the lead on the WalkNBike Plan – that is Metro Government.

If you go to page 115 of the Draft Plan, you will see green lines marked for a county-wide bike boulevard network, including Fatherland Street going all the way through Edgefield, East End and Lockeland Springs. Bike boulevards do not have bike lanes per se, but they are streets that are identified for extensive traffic calming in order to make those streets safe for cars, bicyclists, as well as pedestrians. On these streets, bikes and cars would literally share the travel lanes, and parking is permitted on the sides pretty much as normal. 

But whereas today Metro paints some "sharrows" and that's about it, on bike boulevards, special attention is paid to striping, signage, etc. Then, in some cases, sidewalk bulb-outs, mini-roundabouts and other traffic-calming devices are reviewed by engineers. And we anticipate that the speed limits on those streets may be lowered.

If you'd like to learn more, please attend our neighborhood meeting on Tuesday, July 25, at 7PM, at East Park Community Center. All neighbors are welcome!