A New Bike Network Takes Shape, and Atlantans Turn Out in Droves

Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets.

The capital of the New South is working on its latest "highway" network. This one is going to be a lot quieter.

The massive Beltline trail and an impressive grid of protected lanes that will connect the trail system to key urban destinations are poised to remake transportation in the city that anchors the country's ninth-largest metro area. Striving for Mayor Kasim Reed's goal of making Atlanta one of the country's top ten cities for biking, Atlantans have shown their enthusiasm with their feet: An estimated 95,000 to 106,000 people attended the open-streets event Atlanta Streets Alive on September 28 -- shattering the previous record by at least 12,000 people.

For comparison's sake, Portland's Sunday Parkways festivals also set an attendance record in 2014 -- by drawing 109,000 attendees to all five events combined.

As the video above shows, Atlanta's embrace of open streets is part of a bigger shift in a city that's shaking off its old "Sprawlville, USA" image with a combination of new housing and bike and transit infrastructure.

"It's really shifting the way people think about living in the City of Atlanta," says Rebecca Serna, executive director of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition. "The focus is on the core of the city."

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