Jessica Luton
The Union-Recorder
MILLEDGEVILLE —
The Milledgeville Bicycling Club held a forum Wednesday at Georgia College & State University in an effort to get the wheels turning on the mission of making Milledgeville into a more bicycle-friendly community.
In a one-hour presentation to members of the community and other public officials including Milledgeville Police Department Chief of Police Woodrow Blue and Baldwin County Commissioner Emily Davis, members of the Milledgeville Bicycle Club laid out the benefits of becoming a bicycle-friendly community — a designation awarded to communities by the League of American Bicyclists.
To become a bicycle-friendly community with the League of American Bicyclists, communities must be working toward the five main goals that include engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation and planning as a means to creating a bicycle-friendly community.
Working to become bicycle-friendly and receiving that designation would put Baldwin County on the map as the second bicycle-friendly city or county in the entire state of Georgia, just behind Roswell.
The benefits of becoming a bicycle-friendly community are numerous, according to Milledgeville Bicycle Club President Adam Heagy, other members of the club who spoke, Heather Langston with the Oconee River Greenway and Dr. Jim Lidstone, director of the Georgia College Center of Health and Social Issues.
First and foremost, according to Lidstone, bicycling is a great way to reduce obesity and other obesity-related problems in the local area community.
According to a study that was done in Baldwin County, approximately 68 percent of girls and 61 percent of boys ages 10, 11 and 12 are classified as overweight or obese.
Bicycling, he said, is a safe, low-impact activity that can be fun and offers healthy benefits to both children and adults.
Lidstone, who oversees the “Live Healthy Baldwin” project made possible by a $360,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told The Union-Recorder last week that one of project’s main focus areas for the next 18 months will include pursuing bicycle-friendly routes and creating a safe route to school with the implementation of the Fishing Creek Community trail, among other focus areas.
Another benefit to making Baldwin County a bicycle-friendly community is the potential impact that putting more bikes and less vehicles on the road can have on the environment.
According to Milledgeville Bicycling Club member Liz Heagy, 65 percent of trips less than 1 mile are made by car, but can easily be made by walking or biking.
Additionally, the League of American Bicyclists reports that motor vehicle emissions represent 31 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, 81 percent of carbon monoxide emissions and 49 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions released in the United States, she said.
Former Milledgeville Bicycling Club president and current member Benny Watson told the group of the possible benefits of creating more bicycle-friendly events and trails into the area as a way of bringing in tourism.
Bringing bicyclists into the area through events and trails would bring in money for small businesses in the area, he said, as bicyclists are known to stop in town and spend money on food, accommodations, bars and other shopping in the area.
Efforts are already under way to bring in more bicycling tourists via the annual April Fool’s Ride, the Oconee River Greenway and planned extension and the rails to trails bike path that is proposed from Milledgeville to Macon.
Additionally, a Baldwin County Bike Trail proposal has been created and plans are in the works for a Fishing Creek Community Bike Trail.
Bicycling can also help with other issues in the community, according to the presentation, as businesses would have the potential to see more business if tourists came to the area and other sustainable options were available to get to downtown businesses.
Parking problems could also be reduced if bicycling is promoted and bike racks are installed in convenient locations, the presentation highlighted.
“We as a community are facing some pretty steep job losses, and it is really important to work to counteract those changes,” said Heagy in speaking about the potential benefits that bicycling could have on the community.
As Baldwin 20/20 is looking into steering Baldwin County into becoming a retirement-based community, that goal could be helped with bicycling, as many Baby Boomers will want an active lifestyle upon retiring.
Heagy also shed light on the amount of people who are potentially riding bikes out of a necessity, as opposed to a choice.
According to U.S. Census information, 23.3 percent of people in Baldwin County are living at or below the poverty line, a circumstance that may not afford them an automobile, auto insurance or gasoline, he said.
A bicycle-friendly community would provide those people with a safe, affordable, alternative form of transportation.
To make Baldwin County into this type of community, activists are proposing bike trails in and around Baldwin County, using calming measures on the roads such as painting bicyclists onto the street to designate a bike route or even creating bike lanes many years down the road.
Heagy reached out for help in the community, especially in the areas of enforcement of laws regarding enforcement and education, as many bicyclists in town are not familiar with the correct rules to follow.
“According to the law, when you ride a bike you are a vehicle and therefore must follow traffic laws,” he said.
Right now, bicycle riders are riding the wrong way down the street and on the sidewalks, and that endangers not only the bicycle rider, but also pedestrians and other motorists on the road.
“The more we act like cars, the safer we are,” said Watson, a bicycling club member who had an accident with a car earlier this year.
Heagy asked for help with education and enforcement, especially from law enforcement, as well as assistance from local government and anyone else who could help make this idea an achievable future.
“We want to put ourselves out there and work with everyone on this issue,” he said.
For more information on the effort or on the Bicycling Club of Milledgeville, visit www.mvillebikes.com. For more on bicycle-friendly community standards, visit www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica.
