By Travis Jaudon / travisLjaudon@gmail.com
Sept. 8, 2024 – Maybe one day, you’ll grab a bicycle and confidently repeat the immortal words of the beloved Doc Brown: “Where we’re going, we don’t need no roads.”
For some, bicycling is a cost effective and environmentally friendly way to get around. For others, their livelihood may depend on it. Whatever the reason, enthusiasm for bicycling remains strong, after centuries of pedaling history, and the bicycle’s popularity appears to be growing in Savannah. While the Savannah area’s biking infrastructure has come a long way over the past decade, there is still a lot more to do. To accommodate the growing need, bike lanes, paths, bicycle voucher programs and other forms of assistance are gaining support from nonprofits and government agencies.
For instance …
Just this past week, Savannah was awarded $9.9 million federal funding to improve safety on 37th St. As part of the US Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program. The improvements include upgrading 15 intersections with updated signals, dedicated left turns, sidewalks, crosswalks, and extended bicycle lanes, according to the announcement on Sept. 5. The funding comes after three years of the city trying — and failing — to win federal funds for Savannah streets, as reported by The Current.
Bike Walk Savannah, a nonprofit dedicated to “making Savannah safe, friendly and convenient for people who ride bikes and walk,” secured almost $46,000 earlier this year in state and federal grant funding to provide lighting along biking and walking paths in the city. The lighting along the Truman Linear Park Trail is part of a series of biking and walking routes in Savannah and Chatham known as the Tide-to-Town Trail Network.
Tide to Town, a “protected network of walking and bicycling trails connecting all of Savannah’s neighborhoods” will stretch more than 30 miles and extend to downtown, the islands, midtown and southside Savannah, providing bikers, joggers and walkers with safe and efficient routes for recreation or for necessity.
The trail was partially funded by a 2-percent hotel-motel tax increase approved by Savannah City Council in February. Funding has also come from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) as well as various grants, including some awarded to Tide to Town because of its potential impact on underserved people and areas.
“A large portion of the Chatham County residents who would benefit from improved walking and biking infrastructure are our African-American and low-wealth population,” according to a 2021 document posted to the nonprofit’s website. “Because of this, the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) Grant–awarded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention–has financially powered the early stages of Tide To Town.”
The REACH Grant was for a total of $3.4 million, according to the document.
Savannah Alderman Nick Palumbo, a major advocate for building out Savannah’s biking and walking infrastructure, recently touted (while riding his electric bike) the progress being made for non-driving citizens, and Savannah’s place within Georgia’s overall biking community.
“This is part of a much bigger vision and it’s really exciting to have all these communities connected together in one continuous loop. The investments are coming in from hotel-motel taxes and it’s just exciting to see it all come to fruition,” Palumbo said. “It is encouraging to see these investments, and the excitement for it, but we still have so much more to do. The goal is to have everybody–whether they choose to bike, walk, or ride–have the ability to get to their destination safely.”
At a cost of almost $8.2 million, construction of the next phase of the Truman Parkway Linear Trail began in the spring and will connect 52nd Street/Bee Road to DeRenne Avenue near Jenkins High School.
“We’ve gotten off to a good head start through pieces of infrastructure like the Habersham Street bike lane, but Savannah still needs a protected bike lane through the city itself,” he said. “The first leg of that journey is complete, but we have over 30 miles that we would like to encompass the entire city for Tide-to-Town. So, the encouraging news is that the heavy lifting and the hard part is done. We’ve got a good start now we have much more that we can do.”
Bicycle advocate groups like People for Bikes have data backing up Palumbo’s assessment. The organization annually ranks American cities based on a rating system measuring biking infrastructure. They do so by grading each city in more than a dozen different categories before eventually settling on an overall Bicycle Network Analysis Score (BNA).
In 2024, Savannah received its highest score (18.33 BNA) in five years after falling to an objective low point in 2020 (6.52). It is a marked improvement from last year (7.49) and could be evidence of the “good head start” Palumbo was referring to. Still, Savannah’s 2024 score was well below the national BNA average (28.19) and ranked 33rd out of 87 in Georgia cities.
Palumbo’s claim that there is “much more” to be done to help the city’s biking residents is backed up by Savannah’s poor grade in three specific categories used by People for Bikes to formulate the overall score. On a scale of 1-100, Savannah received a 4 in the category measuring how well people can reach Social Services by bike. The next lowest scores were in categories seeing how well bikers can reach major transit hubs (7) and community centers (8).
Savannah’s Southside alderman, Kurtis Purtee, said projects like Tide to Town will bring the various portions of Savannah closer together, especially for those without cars.
“For me, it’s about connecting communities and actually putting together that accessibility, connectivity, equity and opportunity piece,” Purtee said. “I think it’s great that we provide folks with other means for travel and transportation, especially for those that have bicycles and for those that want to bike safely from point A to point B. It also is going to help us connect the Georgia Southern (University) community with the other parts of town. So, for us, we’re most excited about that connectivity piece for the southside of town now.”
With the new pieces of infrastructure, comes a renewed sense of passion for bicyclists. Bike shop employees are also noticing the increase in popularity for E-Bikes.
“Demand is growing for E-Bikes nationally and it’s the same for us here,” said Brian Davenport of SAV on Wheels. “Lots of our customers are choosing to rent, but we have seen more interest in buying as well. The majority of rentals are for people wanting to ride for entertainment purposes, but it’s not strictly that.”
Davenport recalled a customer who came into the shop after a car accident, forcing her to find other means of transportation for a week while her vehicle was fixed.
“She chose to rent an E-Bike instead of renting a car,” Davenport said. “I do think people will begin considering that as an option. If you’re forced to choose between renting a car or renting an E-Bike, there is no doubt that one is cheaper than the other. And now the riders have more options as far as these new trails and bike routes go in Savannah.”
The United States Environmental Protection Agency Climate Pollution Reduction Grant was awarded to select portions of Georgia earlier this summer and helped to provide an E-Bike Voucher program worth $20 million. It was designed to allocate “at least 75% dedicated to Low-Income and Disadvantaged Communities Members,” according to the agreement between coalition members Chatham County, Athens-Clarke County, Macon-Bibb County, and the Atlanta Regional Commission.
“A total of $28.4 million over five years has been budgeted for e-bike vouchers and the accompanying workforce development and outreach components,” reads the agreement approved on June 14 by Chatham commissioners.
The funds are to prioritize low-income participants by dedicating 75% of voucher funds to eligible households that are below 80% Area Median Income.
Bike Walk Savannah’s New Standard Cycles program also serves people who need safe, affordable and reliable transportation to get to work, to school and to other important destinations. Through this program the organization accepts donated bicycles (and parts) and recondition them.
Residents Invited to Help Shape the Future of Tide to Town
The city of Savannah is inviting residents to help shape the future of the Tide to Town urban trail project by attending one of several upcoming community engagement activities and adding their voice to an online survey.
The public survey can be found at //savannahga.gov/tidetotown.
Fing more information about the upcoming meetings at savannahga.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=3000
Savannah Agenda’s Eric Curl contributed to this article
Travis Jaudon is a Savannah native. He has been writing in Savannah since 2016. Email him at travisLjaudon@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter/Instagram @JaudonSports.
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