Big kudos to the people at Georgia Bikes for working to create at least a small silver lining on the dark cloud that is the Ga. 400/I-285 interchange project. The Georgia Department of Transportation has committed to building a multi-use path for pedestrians and cyclists along both roadways at this junction. The AJC has the story – here’s a quote:“The final design for the path will be determined by the design-build team (which is still to be selected),” said GDOT spokeswoman Natalie Dale. “It will be a separated facility from the roadways.Construction on the interchange is expected to be complete in 2019 following a 2016 start. As some may recall, I have criticized this project heavily as being an inappropriate use of $1 billion given the serious transportation-funding issues in Georgia. Also, the Atlanta region has many other mobility needs that are not being addressed well that could use this kind of funding, including expansion of alternative transportation for the new suburban poor and for the growing ranks of seniors aging in place. This highway projects is, in effect, a billion-dollar subsidy for employment-age people in the northern suburbs who can afford cars. Given that, I’m encouraged to read that the DOT is committing to some much-needed, safe pedestrian and cycling paths through this jungle of highway infrastructure. Studies show that protected bicycle paths reduce injury risk up to 90 percent. Also, places with protected bike lanes have seen a surge in cycling. Could this path help remove some cars from the roads as commuters in that area try out cycling as an option? That would be a good outcome, though I can’t help but question how many people would feel comfortable cycling through all of this exposure to Georgia sun, alongside the tailgate emissions of a major highway interchange. Will the bike paths abruptly end on arterial roads that have no protected bike lanes? If so, I wonder what the overall safety and growth in cycling will be.“No choice but to drive”Despite my questioning of the number of people who will take advantage of the bike path, it’s certainly true that trying whatever we can to reduce the number of solo car trips among commuters is a good thing. This project certainly has the potential to help. As the AJC points out, this path will be “providing more human-powered transportation choices” which could “help reduce traffic for others who have no choice but to drive.” Which hits exactly at the source of the transportation problem – there are too many people in the Atlanta region who “have no choice but to drive” due to our car-centric built environment. A bike and pedestrian path through this massive area of dead space and car infrastructure is a good thing, to be sure. It allows for safe routes. But it’s nonetheless a case of backward development practice: we’re trying to retrofit bike/ped routes into an environment that was built very specifically for cars and that is fairly difficult to traverse by any other means; the shape of our places in the metro directly informs the range of troubles we have with transportation. Addressing only the transportation aspect in a silo – without a region-wide effort toward better urban planning that allows for infill that is friendly to bike/ped/transit options – that’s the regional dog once again chasing its tail around and around. Thanks to induced demand effect on the highways, we’ll be wanting another road upgrade in no time.The $1 billion expenditure on car flow and car safety here should be accompanied by plans to create places that are less dependent on cars. Population is rising in the region, and that means an increase in the number of people who will commute over time; we can’t just keep chasing our tail with expensive infrastructure for car-flow improvements.This bike/ped path will be a wonderful improvement in safety for existing walkers and cyclists in the area around this interchange, and I’m sure there will be some who will try out switching to a bike commute from a solo-car commute when the path is complete. But the area all around the interchange would benefit from compact urban development that is designed specifically for human-powered transportation that is safe for everyone, not just the brave few.Reducing the amount of car traffic for those people who have “no choice” but to drive – that’s an OK goal for the short term. But it needs to work hand in hand with the much more important long-term goal of reducing the number of people who have “no choice” in transportation, and doing so by making our urban places more accommodating to safe alternative transportation options across the board.