Celebrating the Important Victories

"Victory" is defined as "an act of defeating an enemy or opponent in a battle, game, or other competition." Obviously this applies to bike races like the Tour de France, but it applies to other areas of life as well.

The Charleston peninsula

Recently, we witnessed a truly encouraging victory for cyclists here in the Lowcountry when the Charleston City Council approved a proposal to add a bike lane to a bridge that is currently dangerous even for experienced cyclists.

Living on the coast, having bike lanes along bridges is essential for those of us who commute by bike, as many times that's the only way to get where we need to go. Charleston is a peninsula: you WILL need to cross water to travel between the various urban and suburban areas, but many of these vital connections are either dangerous for cyclists or actively closed to anything but car traffic. If you don't live in a coastal area, it's hard to process just what a big inconvenience this can be. To put it in perspective, picture only having one road between where you live and where you work, and not being able to safely bike along the road because there is a wall on either side and no shoulder.

The current bridge - not very bike friendly.
From The Post and Courier

This brings us to the Allen T. Legare Bridge (pictured), which connects downtown Charleston to the well-populated West Ashley region. To give you an idea of just how important this bridge is, roughly 56,000 cars travel over it DAILY, and it's one-way. Just think - how many of those people would give bike commuting a try if it was safe for them? How much would that reduction in traffic compensate for the lost fourth lane? Even if only a measly 1% of people crossing this bridge daily make the switch to bike commuting, that's 560 cars off the road, and 560 people living happier, healthier, more engaged lives. Not to mention, a prior study determined that replacing the fourth lane with a bike lane would only add 16 seconds to people's commutes, eliminating concerns of traffic congestion.

Sadly, even though there was a precedent for how valuable, appreciated, and widely-used this infrastructure is (the Ravenel Bridge, completed in 2006, has a hugely popular separated biking and walking path), there was still resistance to adding a bike lane to the Legare Bridge. Why? I honestly can't figure it out. People resist change. People ignore evidence (16 extra seconds) and convince themselves that it will cause massive traffic jams and delays. Maybe people just don't get how wonderful bike commuting is. Whatever the reason, 5 council members voted against the project.

But 8 council members voted FOR it, thanks in large part to widespread support and a tremendous push by local advocacy group Charleston Moves. The project was approved, and now it's just a matter of implementing the changes, and cyclists will finally have a safe way to travel over the Ashley River.

So why should you care about this one bridge in Charleston, SC? For the same reason I care, even though I am not likely to personally use this new bike lane (it is well outside of my normal commute). It's a victory because it reflects a larger, ongoing shift towards opening up roads to bike traffic. It reflects a growing desire by people to have options; to not be limited to traveling by car. It also reflects a growing willingness on the part of legislators to listen to cyclists and take us into consideration when planning roads and urban areas. And it shows that cyclists can be given options, space, our own lanes, without negatively impacting existing traffic. We can coexist, we can have choices for how we get from point A to point B, and we can all enjoy the ride.

Is there a bridge or road where you live that stops people from bike commuting? If so, see if there's a bicycle advocacy group in your area that can help make sure cyclists have a voice and contact your local legislators to let them know that cyclists have a place on the roads, too.

Thanks again to all the people who keep working to make bike commuting an easy choice, especially Charleston Moves. Keep it up.

-Keegan