ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701240041
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
BICYCLING isn't just for fun and health. It's also serious business - and the Roanoke Valley, at long last, should get down to it.
Something called the Bicycle Advisory Committee, formed last March, is about to unveil its proposed Roanoke Valley Area Bikeway Plan. After hearing public comment (Monday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the Roanoke County Library Headquarters) and taking the plan on the road to local governing bodies, the committee hopes to have communitywide consensus for a network of bike lanes that will work.
Work, that is, to get people to work. Or to the store, the library, school, grandma's, or just about anywhere they need to go. At least some of the people, some of the time.
Cycling now is regarded almost exclusively as recreation. Little kids learn to ride bikes around their neighborhoods for fun. Big kids learn to mount bikes on the back of the family's four-wheel-drive so they can haul them to a far-off trail - where they can ride around for fun.
Briefly - for those few months between becoming physically coordinated and getting their drivers' licenses - adolescents ride bikes to get where they want to go.
They shouldn't quit. Cycling is a legitimate form of transportation that should not be abandoned as soon as a kid acquires the keys to the minivan. Unfortunately, this transportation mode gets little support from governments still fixated, at all levels, on the automobile.
There are all sorts of reasons to ride bikes, starting with avoiding traffic congestion, pollution, gas expenses and dependence on nonrenewable fossil fuel. Cycling also offers the physical benefits of exercise, the spiritual benefits of closer proximity to air and landscape, a sheer pleasure that grows on you. Above all, it can get you somewhere.
First, though, people must be able to ride safely. Census figures show only 0.15 percent of people in the Roanoke Valley bike to work each day, less than half the piffling 0.32 percent who do so nationwide. The Federal Highway Administration wants to encourage more people to pedal. Its goal, set in 1994, is a doubling to 16 percent of Americans' trips made on foot or bike.
The Fifth Planning District Commission and the valley's Bicycle Advisory Committee have taken a commendable first step to help the region wean itself from overdependence on cars. To encourage cycling, localities must have roads with bike lanes. To get built, bike lanes must be part of a bike plan. The commission staff has written a comprehensive bike plan, with the advice of committee members representing all valley localities, including Botetourt County, as well as the Greenway Steering Committee, Roanoke Valley Bicycle Club, Valley Beautiful and, yes, even the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Next, local governments will need to adopt the advisory plan, which would not require localities to build any bike lanes, but would guide them in doing so if they wished. Then, they need to wish.
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB