Stop Bike Path on Commerce Drive in Decatur

Letter of concern:

We the undersigned are residents, employees and patrons of the City of Decatur and are concerned about the impending protected bike path on Commerce Drive in Decatur, GA 30030. While we do not object to protected bike lanes in general, the use of Commerce for this project is unacceptable.

Commerce Drive has been consistently pushed as the route one should use to go around the city when driving motor vehicles. Last year, Decatur allowed a new apartment building to take away a lane of Commerce Avenue by building right on top of the lane, thus decreasing vehicular access already.

Now, the city officials want to remove another lane to allow a built out protected bike path.
This will crush the already overwhelming traffic on Commerce. Additionally, it will cause severe safety issues by forcing vehicles to cut through neighborhoods and through downtown Decatur.
That is unacceptable because Commerce Avenue was purported to be used to avoid that.

The so-called “road diets” in Decatur have been immense in the last few years.
McDonough has been cut in half to build a protected bike lanes, Church has also been cut in half near Glenlake park. Additionally, there is a planned “road diet” for Howard near Decatur High School, thus removing a lane of Howard.

With the influx of hundreds of apartment buildings, new surrounding businesses and a tight real estate market mostly bringing in families with children, the effect of traffic on quality of life is becoming unbearable. People need to be able to drive their children to daycare and school, and then drive to work. That is the reality of life. Most of that cannot be done on a bike, especially when you have more than one child.

Protected road lanes serve a few, while the majority of residents struggle daily to get their kids to school on time and then get to work on time and, later, pick their kids up from daycare / school on time and get home.

We request that you choose another road to put the protected bike path on. Commerce needs to be the way for vehicles to get around the city without cutting through it.

And - at minimum - test the impact this project could have before moving forward. Boulder, CO had a similar bike path tested with rubber bumpers before tearing up the streets to see what the city impact would be.

Please do the responsible thing and respect the quality of life of those living in Decatur.
I hear the arguments that people don’t want to encourage others to use Decatur as a cut through city, but they don’t - because traffic is horrible. However, people that live here need to be able to get out of their homes, through the city, and to work / school.

Please respect the citizens of this city and their quality of life.
We appreciate the consideration of the City of Decatur Commissioners regarding this concern.