News

Bicycle enthusiasts weigh in on greenway plan

Gordy Jenks (left) and Marie Reed check out a display as engineer Trung Vo explains a bicycle plan process.

By Bill Moss, Published: May 16, 2016

Bicycle evangelists like Joe Sanders invariably peddle a famous study that categorized the universe of bicycle riders or potential riders. Less than 1 percent are the fearless “spandex warriors," about 7 percent are confident and enthusiastic and a third are “no way no how.” The vast majority — 60 percent — are "interested but concerned" about safety.

“Sixty percent would love to ride,” Sanders says. “What’s it going to take to get them out there? The only way to do that is to give them a protected lane or a greenway.”
Monday night’s workshop on a comprehensive bicycling plan for Hendersonville may turn out to be a baby step in that direction. The next question is the shape of the plan, approval by the Hendersonville City Council and, of course, funding.
Earlier in the day, the city’s bicycle plan steering committee met and broke up into two teams. One team drew a one-mile radius from Main Street and brainstormed about greenways connecting greenways. The other took a broader look.
“How do we connect greenways to the schools?” Sanders said. “If we say downtown is our destination, how do we connect to it?”
In fact downtown came up a lot in comments from the 16 people who showed up to look at maps, nominate their own bike routes and learn about the process.
A young couple squarely in the confident and enthusiastic category showed up to view the plan and ask questions.
“Biking is our main mode of transportation,” said Marie Reed, who was holding their son, Isaac, who at age 2 logs a lot of miles in the family bike trailer. “Every day we ride to either the library or the YMCA or hands on. We want to make sure that the roads are safe so that he can ride, too.”
Gordy Jenks and his wife moved from Asheville to Hendersonville.
“In general it’s pretty good,” he said of the city’s bike friendliness.
After a drop-in session from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the county Land Development Building at 100 N. King St. the steering committee and consultant Kimley-Horn will present a preliminary bicycle network plan at 6 o’clock Tuesday night at the City Operations Center, 305 Williams St.
“We have learned that there are a lot of different opinions about what bicycling might look like in Hendersonville,” said Trung Vo, an engineer with Kimley-Horn, the city's traffic consultant. Although bicycling enthusiasts wanted to talk about the Ecusta Trail, connecting routes to Asheville and other global concepts, “the focus of the study will be Hendersonville,” Vo said.
Ian Edwards lived in some of the bicycle-friendliest cities — Berkeley, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. — before settling in Hendersonville, where he works for Appalachian Coffee Co.
“I live in town and I manage a business in town,” he said. “I’m on the Environmental Sustainability Board for the city and I’m also a rider. I think Hendersonville has a lot of potential. I’m just glad this is being undertaken.”