Life

Fourth Avenue may be city's first bike-sharing road

By Bill Moss, Published: March 13, 2014

Hendersonville could get its first "bicycle boulevard" soon, thanks to the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club and the City Council.

The council reacted enthusiastically to a request by Bicycle Club president Joe Sanders, who lauded the benefits of bicycling. Biking promotes good health, he said, because it's good aerobic activity.
"There are other things but bicycling tends to be one of the most fun ones," he said.
He asked the council to designate Fourth Avenue from the western city limits to Jackson Park as a bike boulevard.
A motor vehicle and bike sharing roadway, a bike boulevard works best on low traffic, low speed roads — less than 1,500 cars per day moving less than 25 mph.
Sanders said the bicycle club had received a $10,500 donation that it planned to use to buy signs for the Fourth Avenue bike boulevard. "Way finding" signs would tell riders the distance to Jackson Park, for instance, or where to turn to reach City Hall or the Playhouse Downtown.
Road markings 3 feet wide by 9 feet long indicate the travel path for the two-wheelers. The purpose of the road markings "is really two-fold," Sanders said. "To make motorists aware but also to make this inexperienced bicyclist see where they should be riding."
Council members expressed support.
"I live on Fourth Avenue and I love the idea," Councilman Jeff Miller said. "If nothing else, it may slow some of these idiots down that are in cars. I really don't see a bad side of this."

The council directed staff to work out the details with public works and report back.