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Bike-friendly Spartanburg


djh1963

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Another positive step for Spartanburg. The City Council has agreed to a new amendment to the off street parking ordinance.

" The amendment allows an option for developers, except for single-family units, to reduce their parking spaces (...) if they agree to allow additional bicycle parking or racks for their parking lot."

This is the break down:

reduce parking by	 bike racks or spaces to add


	10 percent			   2 

	15 percent			   3 

	20 percent			   5

This is a very positive step for Spartanburg's Bike Friendly designation!

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That's quite a progressive move by city council. I think this can have far-reaching implications in terms of parking requirements in an urban setting. I think Mark Scott hit the nail on the head when he talked about the overabundance of parking in downtowns, largely due to municipal regulations.

I've been liking the precedent set so far by Spartanburg in areas such as this. :shades:

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  • 1 month later...

Great news! Spartanburg is officially the first City in the state to receive recognition as a bike-friendly community by The League of American Bicyclists. The City received an honorable mention last year, and the bronze designation this year. The Partners for Active Living originally set this year as a goal to reach this designation.

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Hopefully we'll get a larger update on what the city and county have done to improve biking in the area later this week.

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Here is the article on what the City has done to make this achievement happen. There have been lots of new bike racks installed, new bike lanes added, grants, etc. Good stuff.

  • A quick rundown of the city's efforts since 2004
  • 6 new segments of bike lanes inside the city
  • 4 to be installed in the next six months
  • 45 bike racks have been placed downtown
  • Smith-Barney Classic for the past 3 years
  • A community bicycle lending program has been started
  • The Mary Black Rail Trail and Wadsworth Trail were established
  • bicycling education programs have been launched.

I've never heard of the Wadsworth Trail. Does anyone know anything about it?

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Congratulations to Spartanburg and to everyone there who has worked hard to make this happen in the last few years. I hope that this designation will lend a little extra motivation to Greenville to speed up efforts toward official BFC designation.

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Congratulations to Spartanburg and to everyone there who has worked hard to make this happen in the last few years. I hope that this designation will lend a little extra motivation to Greenville to speed up efforts toward official BFC designation.

Greenville could easily have it today if they had been lobbying hard enough. I am amazed at how many people currently ride around Greenville everyday - more than I've ever seen in the past. I have yet to see half as many doing the same in Spartanburg. This tells me that the designation is based on other factors than the number of riders out on the roads and paths. If the designation proves to be a major boost for cycling traffic in Spartanburg, then perhaps Greenville will indeed make the final push to achieve the same and use it to promote cycling as both recreation and alternative transportation in an attempt to lure even more people to this lifestyle. It would be so easy, but obviously priorities would need to change to gain the designation.

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Its not a competition, and its not about the number of bikers on the road. Greenville is probably going to have more bikers by default just because its a larger city (though there is no way to prove that). Charlotte probably has more bikers than Greenville and Spartanburg combined, and it means absolutely nothing. This designation about the effort that the City and the community are making to turn Spartanburg into a place that is bike friendly, and bring awareness to the cause.

I would argue that you are more likely to see bikers in the place that you live and spend the most time. I worked in Greenville for about year and I only occasionally saw bikers. Living in Clemson, Columbia, Spartanburg, and now Charlotte, I can say that I've seen them all over the place in each of those cities.

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...

I would argue that you are more likely to see bikers in the place that you live and spend the most time. I worked in Greenville for about year and I only occasionally saw bikers. Living in Clemson, Columbia, Spartanburg, and now Charlotte, I can say that I've seen them all over the place in each of those cities.

I challenge you to visit Greenville any morning between 7am and 9am then. Cycling traffic has surprisingly grown dramatically within the past couple of months. I spend a great deal of time in Spartanburg as well, so I have a pretty good understanding of the situation there. Like I said above, it obviously comes down to campaigning specifically with this designation in mind. If a city is willing to put forth the time and effort, it is easily achievable and I do applaud the City of Spartanburg for their resolution to be the first in the state to claim the title.:)

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I drove through downtown Greenville every morning last summer, and several times a week during the school year on my way to work east of downtown from Clemson. I didn't see many more bikers there than I did when I worked in downtown Spartanburg the year before. Biking to work isn't really a relevant comparison, IMO, as you are going to see more people in downtown Greenville because its a larger city, as I said before.

Spartanburg has a good set up for recreational biking, which I know is happening. Like most cities, it doesn't happen on the main thoroughfares, so you may not be aware of where its happening. Its an honor for Spartanburg to the first in the state, as its not a simple task. Only 70 communities of the 174 across the nation that applied have received any recognition.

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Its not a competition, and its not about the number of bikers on the road.

A little friendly competition between nearby cities can be a good thing, but Spartan is right. The designation is based a city's efforts to actively support cycling, not just the number of cyclists on the roads (read more about it at http://www.bicyclefriendlycommunity.org/). Spartanburg has made this a priority and has worked hard to achieve it. As someone who volunteers time to try and improve conditions for cycling in Greenville, I can certainly say that we have a way to go before we can get the designation. I do think it will happen, but the fact is that Spartanburg was ahead of Greenville on the implementation of amenities for transportational and recreational cycling.

I am someone who bike commutes in Greenville. Several of us are out on the roads everyday, but that factor alone doesn't make the city a bike friendly place. The message that cyclists belong on the roads needs to get out in Greenville, and all of the Upstate. It is happening slowly and this designation in Spartanburg helps all cyclists in the entire region by increasing awareness. Congratulations again to everyone in Spartanburg who volunteered their time to make this happen. I certainly commend them.

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  • 4 months later...

I pass by Spring St on my way home every day as I am going up Henry and I will say that traffic heading into Hampton Heights from this direction has increased in the last year, but almost all of it has been via automobile. I see very few bikes going either way on this street due to its close confines and the amount of traffic. I personally think it'd be a good place to get clobbered on a bike, but thats just my opinion. I haven't seen any bike lanes yet but have noticed a lot of new concrete sidewalks (I assume) being laid on Church St by the Goodyear place. I am not sure what is up with that.

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Partners for Active Living and the Preservation Trust got the bike lanes and historic lights on S. Spring through a Mary Black Fdn. grant. The bike lanes connect at the Marion Avenue intersection of the Rails Trail and come west on Marion which turns to W. Hampton turns onto S. Spring St and goes straight into downtown. I live in the n'hood and see some folks on bikes but not many. Hopefully more soon. I have to admit to have a fear of being clobbered ANYwhere in Spartanburg on a bike.

As for GoodYear, I heard the folks that own that business are working with the City to clean it up and make it look better. Yay!

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I guess next time I'm in town I need to drive down Spring Street. I don't picture it with that much traffic, and I also think of it as having street parking for cars which would really cause a problem for bikers in the bike lanes. The connection to Marion St makes more sense. Its basically an alternate way so bikers don't have to get on Church Street.

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There is going to be a more 'official' way to get bike racks in Spartanburg. The City has agreed to install bike racks to any business that will buy the racks via the Partners for Active Living. This a great step towards becoming a truly bike friendly city. The cheaper bike racks run in the $200 range. That plus free installation by the City is a pretty sweet deal, IMO.

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