Is Montgomery Bicycle Friendly?

by Ellis Eskew

A statewide bicycle summit is taking place this weekend to help make Alabama a more bicycle friendly state. Thursday a specialist took a look to see how Montgomery is doing when it comes to being bicycle friendly.

On any given day you can find Montgomery resident Deana Acklin biking her way through town. 

“Yeah, pretty much every day,” said Acklin.

She’s been riding for about 2 years and feels Montgomery is bicycle friendly for the most part.

“I may not always get the space that I need. But I think the more that they’ve seen me specifically out, they’ve gotten used to seeing me out and then they just kind of know,” said Acklin.

Montgomery already has 157 miles of bicycle infrastructure currently in place.
Officials say the goal  is to create an interconnected network so people can walk or cycle anywhere in the city.
 

Thursday Bicycle Friendly Community specialist Stephen Clark with the League of American Bicyclists met with city leaders and cyclists to see where the city could improve.

“See if there is room for a bike path or in some cases we recommend road diets where you remove a travel lane so that there is room for a bike lane,” said Clark.

While there is still some improvements to be made, officials say the main goal is education.

 “We do need to enhance our infrastructure, but the main thing we need to do is alert people that bicycling can be done with the conditions that we’ve got right now,” said City of Montogmery Public Information Director Michael Briddell.

Acklin agrees.

“I think that’s what it’s going to take, seeing more people on the road and more people to react accordingly that they have to share the road,” said Acklin.

“If we can get this bicycle friendly community status, then people who are deciding ‘hey, where do I want to move with my family?’ that might be one more feather in our cap,” said Briddell.