Ten new communities were honored with the League of American Bicyclists prestigious Bicycle Friendly Community designation…none of with were located in the state of Georgia.  The city of Roswell remains to be the only city in Georgia to achieve this designation.

The five categories local and national reviewers look at are:

Education: Does the community have systems in place to train children and adult cyclists?
Engineering: Are bicyclists included in the city’s transportation plan?
Enforcement: Do police officers understand and enforce bicyclists’ rights and responsibilities?
Encouragement: Does the community participate in Bike Month, offer bike rodeos, host community bike rides, or otherwise encourage cycling?
Evaluation: Does the community have methods in place to ensure their bicyclist programs are making a difference?

Roswell is one of only 19 communities nationwide that renewed their bicycle friendly status.

Read more here.

In an effort to improve operational safety of the Roswell road network for all users, the Roswell Transportation Department is launching two new safety initiatives – Bike Box and Sharrow (or Share the Road Arrow.) Installation is currently underway for these features.

There is a growing national trend to mark roadways in certain situations to provide more positive guidance to both vehicles and bicycles. This is especially important in areas where there is considerable bike traffic, but there are no bike faculties such as shoulders and bike lanes.

The Bike Box is designed to allow bikes to come forward at an intersection that shows a red signal. This increases visibility of the bikes for the vehicle drivers. This practice is used widely across the country and has proven to be an effective measure to prevent motor vehicle and bicycle accidents. The first installation of the bike box will be at Dogwood Road and Riverside Road intersection.

The second safety feature is the Sharrow (or Share the Road Arrow.) This symbol is designed to explain to vehicle drivers how to “share” the pavement with bikes. This feature is positioned near the edge line to show that vehicles should expect bikes and that they should generally expect them to be on the right side of the lane. Sharrows are used in other cities including Athens, Georgia. Citizens should begin to see these markings around Roswell within the next few weeks.

For more information, please call the City of Roswell Transportation Department at 770.594.6420 or visit the City of Roswell website.