You might call this the year of the bicycle in Baton Rouge.
Local legislators, urban planners, attorneys, physical therapists, police officers, BREC officials, entrepreneurs, Yahoo! groups, survey takers and charitable organizations are all talking up the benefits of the bicycle. Not coincidentally, the city now hosts more competitive and recreational riding clubs and events than ever before. Hippies, squares, athletes and pencil-pushers of all ages are doing it. Even the mayor’s right-hand man is an avid cyclist.
Maybe it was only inevitable. Almost four years ago The New York Times published a piece in its style section about the power elite of Silicon Valley ditching health clubs and golf spikes and suiting up, Lance Armstrong-style, on road bikes for long-distance rides. It must be an easy ideological leap to make for the triathlon-blazing tail end of the Boomer generation. Not only is cycling easier on the knees than golfing is on the back, but you can get a better read on your staff while steadily increasing their lactate thresholds over the course of 40 miles than knocking one back at the 19th hole.
It’s only a theory, to be fair, but the thesis is clear: cycling is the new golf.
That claim may be a bit exaggerated, but the prominence of biking groups for every skill level and the abundance of trails, lanes and overall connections for non-motorized transportation have become white-collar quality-of-life and economic-development issues similar in many ways to the proximity of gorgeously manicured golf courses for the CEO set.
But for all this increased interest, there is more angst, too—caused by friction between cyclists who feel unsafe and unsupported by the city-parish’s facilities, and motorists who, already frustrated with their traffic-choked commutes, want bicycles off the road completely.
Simply put, bikes are on the Baton Rouge brain—whether the city is ready for them or not.
Now, if you’re like me, at some point several months back you first took notice of the new white paint on some of our streets stenciled in the shape of a bicycle and two chevron arrows. And like me, you may have thought to yourself, Cool, they paved a bike lane up ahead. But like me, you’d be wrong.
Well, not completely. There is a bike lane. You’re driving in it.
The markings are called “share-the-road” or “sharrow” signs. The Department of Public Works borrowed the idea from San Francisco, and now the symbols cover more than 20 miles across our city. They’re most prominent on Park Boulevard from Government to Magnolia, Highland Road from South Boulevard to West Parker and Burbank Drive all the way from Jennifer Jean to Siegen Lane.
“The challenge is that many of our roads are simply not wide enough for bike lanes,” says Melissa Guilbeau, DPW’s urban transportation coordinator. “The share-the-road signs are our direct response, because it’s easy, and it’s low-cost.”
These “sharrows” may have been the low-hanging fruit for the city, which—according to Guilbeau—has a larger awareness campaign and more dedicated bike lanes in the planning stages. But BREC and bike enthusiasts in the region are coming up with progressive ideas on their own.
On June 9, 2008, 28-year-old Dr. Colin Goodier was training for his first triathlon with a brisk ride down River Road. The young surgical resident died, on a stretch marked by “Share the Road” signage, when a truck struck him from behind.
Taylor Alexander and her husband Chris rode up on the scene moments later.
“That’s our route,” says Alexander, the business manager for Remson Haley Herpin Architects. “If we’d been there 10 minutes sooner, it could have been us. It shocked me. It’s obvious that awareness is the problem. Motorists just don’t expect to see cyclists there.”
Goodier’s death does not stand alone. Louisiana recorded 985 traffic deaths in 2007–22 of being cycling related–according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That total makes Louisiana, by population, the second most dangerous state for bicycling behind only Florida.
While not unique, Goodier’s fatal accident became the impetus for new legislation aimed at protecting local cyclists. After witnessing the aftermath of Goodier’s accident, Alexander and her Tiger Cycling Foundation teammate Darron Leach researched laws on other states’ books that require a three-foot buffer when motorists pass cyclists. They presented a proposal, now known as Louisiana 3 Feet, to Mayor Kip Holden that fall as change was under way at the mayor’s office, too. Holden’s then-chief administrative officer, Walter Monsour, was about to step down and be succeeded by cycling supporter Mike Futrell.
According to records, city officials have conducted six bike lane studies since 1972. “It’s crazy. None of those got made,” Futrell says. “When we started looking at that, the mayor said, ‘Enough. No more studies. What can we put into action now?’” That decision triggered the “sharrow” markings and helped make biking a major component of Holden’s new Healthy Baton Rouge campaign. Still, the mayor was reluctant to pursue Alexander and Leach’s proposed city ordinance without the power of a statewide law backing it. Holden brought in Rep. Michael Jackson, and the independent state representative agreed to sponsor what would become House Bill 725, the Colin Goodier Bicycle Protection Act, during this year’s legislative session.
After a heartrending speech by Goodier’s grieving mother on the House floor, HB 725 rocketed through the House and Senate without opposition. “You couldn’t have voted no after hearing that,” Alexander says. “You wouldn’t be human.” In addition to the rule requiring motor vehicles to keep three feet of distance when passing a bicycle, anti-harassment laws were added to protect cyclists from verbal and physical assaults. Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the bill into law in June. It took effect Aug. 15.
“The law is about awareness and safety more than anything, but it is no less enforceable than any other traffic violation,” says Leach, a sergeant with the Baton Rouge Police Department. “We can enforce it if we see it. Just like someone speeding or running a red light, it gets reported like any other offense.”
Competitive cyclists recognize the importance of Louisiana 3 Feet. But they caution that, like the “sharrows,” it should only be seen as a beginning step. An awareness campaign and education for both drivers and cyclists is crucial, Alexander says.
“Three feet—that’s a minimum,” says attorney and competitive cyclist Randy Pipes. “Go stand on the side of the road, close your eyes, and let a car go by at 60 miles an hour. See if that doesn’t scare you out of your shoes. That’s what it feels like to get buzzed from three feet away.”
Cyclists call it getting “buzzed”—or sometimes, when the car actually hits them, getting “smoked.” Whether they’ve been passed too close for comfort, yelled at, grabbed, shoved to the pavement or even slammed by a car, most bike enthusiasts in Baton Rouge have their own horror stories to tell about riding the roads.
Unfortunately for cyclists, they are sharing streets with drivers already exasperated with the city’s traffic. And studies show drive times for Baton Rougeans are getting longer.
According to a recent INRIX National Traffic Scorecard, auto congestion in the Louisiana capital increased 19 % in the first half of 2008, putting us among the Top 40 worst traffic cities in the nation—and climbing.
The irony is that while all this traffic piques interest in alternative modes of transportation, it also means fewer cyclists are willing to risk riding on busy roads. The result is a dysfunctional transit system that satisfies no one. Drivers are infuriated in their cars, and cyclists are frightened on their bikes.
“The more cyclists there are, the safer we are,” says Joshua Rosby, a competitive racer and a longtime clerk and bike tech at the Bicycle Shop near the North Gates of LSU.
There he watches traffic grind to a halt daily on Highland Road between Aster Street and Dalrymple Avenue. “This city was built around Exxon and everyone buying and driving a car,” Rosby says, motioning to the congestion outside. “Now, you can go sit in that if you want, but depending on where you are going, riding a bike can be less frustrating and more efficient.”
Though bicycling has been one of the obvious victims of heavy traffic, it has also been a solution to heavy traffic. City officials and residents have set the precedent for using bike lanes to alleviate congestion and speeding. Last year DPW presented the Capital Heights Neighborhood Association with options for slowing the high-speed traffic on its main thoroughfare. The group chose to convert Capital Heights from Acadian Thruway to Jefferson Highway into a one-way street with bike lanes on either side of a single westbound lane for motor vehicles.
Mark Martin, a historian, author and photo archivist for the LSU library system, applauds developments like the Capital Heights transformation. Martin has not owned a car since 1991, and four years ago he founded Baton Rouge Advocates for Safe Streets. The 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization was instrumental in raising awareness among legislators and cyclists for HB 725, and the group—known commonly as BRASS—organizes regular Velo! rides for cyclists to tour unique and historic parts of the city. The goals, Martin says, are to build a community among local riders and to help improve the city’s transportation options.
“There is no way Baton Rouge will ever get out of this transit morass we’re in unless we begin to look beyond the privately-owned, single-occupancy motor vehicle,” Martin says. “We need to have a robust, well-rounded, multi-optional transportation system that includes mass transit, private motor vehicles, bicycling and walking.”
Follow the trends and you’ll follow the money, too. Wampold Companies and Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers have snapped up sponsorships for Baton Rouge-based USA Cycling clubs.
The Baton Rouge Area Mountain Bike Association recently partnered with Tunica Trail Riders to assist the West Feliciana Parks & Recreation Department in revitalizing and maintaining the extensive trail system local riders affectionately refer to as “The Beast.”
When 47-year-old Tom Townsend, a longtime Entergy employee, wanted a career change last year, he bought the Bicycle Shop. Cycling, he believes, is a major growth industry in Baton Rouge.
“The biggest growth I’ve seen has been among women riders,” says Townsend, who picked up cycling through triathlons. “Susan Hayden deserves a lot of credit for that, for creating Rocket Chix. She’s gotten so many people excited about it.”
Hayden, owner of Moss Engineering, partnered with restaurateur Pat Fellows in 2006 to launch Rocket Chix, a series of female triathlon competitions. “We’d been doing Rocket Kidz races, but soon realized that kids are not making the decision to be active all by themselves,” Hayden says. “It’s the primary caregiver. So we thought if Mom is more active, then the kids—the next generation—will be too.”
These biannual events, typically held in May and late July each year on the LSU campus, attract about 450 women each. They’ve been so successful that Hayden and Fellows are adding companion competitions for men. More importantly, Hayden’s Rocket Chix are exercising regularly throughout the year.
“This is a hard job, but the payback is riding around on Saturday and getting passed by a pack of 40 women all on their bikes—that’s so rewarding,” Hayden says. “Cycling is a more casual approach to fitness. It’s non-impact, and you can get out and enjoy the outdoors virtually year-round in Baton Rouge. That’s why it has such long-term appeal to a lot of people.”
Except for young children, riding a bicycle on the sidewalk is illegal.
Cyclists have just as much right to the road as cars and motorcycles do, and verbally or physically harassing a cyclist from a motor vehicle can result in a minimum $200 fine or 30 days in jail.
When passing a cyclist, a motor vehicle must maintain a distance of three feet from the bike.
Cyclists must use the right lane and remain as far right within the lane as possible, but two riders can bike side by side within the lane.
Cyclists must use hand signals when turning and obey traffic laws such as stopping for red lights and yielding.
When riding at night, bicycles must be equipped with a front-mounted white light, a rear-mounted red reflector and reflectors on each side of the bicycle.
Though strongly encouraged, cyclists over the age of 12 are not required by law to wear a helmet.
As triathlons and community-wide races gain popularity, so do the city’s certified USA Cycling clubs. Among them are a handful of nationally recognized cyclists. The elite Tour de France-level riders are tabbed Category 1—there are five categories total—but 52-year-old engineer Stan Prutz of Tiger Cycling Foundation regularly beats out riders half his age in Category 2. Earlier this year the MIT graduate rode against Lance Armstrong at the Leadville Trail 100 in Colorado.
“I got into it late, in my 40s,” Prutz says. “I needed to find fitter friends. Meeting people through cycling is so enjoyable, because cyclists are well-educated professionals and health-conscious college students.”
Competing in Category 4, 29-year-old Baton Rouge attorney Dustin Flint is ranked No. 1 in the United States. Also a Tiger racer, Flint is on the road almost every weekend for competitions near and far, but he downplays his lofty ranking. “A lot of people stay in Category 4, because if you move up to the next one it’s so competitive,” Flint says. “It’s fun to compete, but the rank isn’t real important to me. I’m definitely not the fastest guy in the country.”
The proof of cycling’s popularity is not in the groups, but in the rivalries. How popular would LSU football really be if fans actually tolerated Ole Miss? Raising Cane’s Racing may playfully rib the cyclists from the Wampold-sponsored Tiger Cycling Foundation like corporate softball league teams talk smack, but many competitive cyclists vehemently disagree with the tactics employed by Critical Mass. The grassroots group takes to the streets monthly to raise awareness of cycling in the city.
Loosely affiliated with BRASS, the group of nearly 300 riders—many in their late teens and their 20s—rides from the LSU Memorial Tower at 5:30 p.m. on the last Friday of each month. Some racers claim that Critical Mass riders fail to follow traffic laws, so that their attempt to draw attention from motorists only draws the negative kind.
“Critical Mass is violating every rule you can think of: blocking traffic, riding across lanes, riding on the sidewalk,” says Pipes, a member of Tiger Racing. “That doesn’t have anything to do with what we do.”
BRASS founder Mark Martin and board member Hallie Dozier, an associate professor in LSU’s Forestry Department, disagree. Dozier describes the event as a peaceful protest. “Critical Mass blocks traffic, and it’s a bit wild and pretty chaotic, and even ‘in your face,’ but it only happens for a very short time once a month,” Dozier says. “It is not so much about following the rules as it is about demonstrating to the motoring public that there are large numbers of people who ride bikes. It is all about visibility.”
Martin says he only spotted three riders out of 285 in the August Critical Mass ride whom he believed were out to cause problems. Other riders outside of Critical Mass appreciate the group’s efforts.
“I enjoy their spontaneity,” says cyclist Ed Gaskin of Trahan Architects. “While I understand how a motorist might suddenly feel their car has been stripped of its perceived power and authority over time and space, which is disconcerting, it remains a free country. The simple acts that reaffirm this is a free country are very refreshing.”
Baton Rouge hosts group riding opportunities for cyclists of ?all experience levels. Here are some of the most popular:
Who: Beginner to intermediate riders.When: Saturdays, 7 a.m.Where: City Park.Distance: 30 miles.
Who: Beginner to intermediate riders.When: The last Friday of every month, 5:30 p.m.Where: LSU Memorial Tower.Distance: 10 to 15 miles.
Who: Intermediate to advanced riders.When: Saturdays, 9 a.m.Where: Walgreens on the corner of ?Bluebonnet Boulevard and Burbank Drive.Distance: 35, 45 or 55 miles depending on where you turn around.
Who: Intermediate to advanced riders.When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:30 p.m.Where: Farr Park Horse Activity Center on River Road.Distance: 34 miles.
For more up-to-the-minute information on local rides, ?join one of these Web-based groups:
Gaskin is featured in a new public service announcement for safer streets. Produced by the city-parish, the 30-second TV spot has Mayor Holden calling for drivers to “share the road and respect our friends and neighbors on bikes,” while Gaskin and a handful of others remind viewers that their commute by bicycle means one less car on the road.
Gaskin pedals from his house in the Capital Heights area down North Boulevard to his downtown office each morning. He rides his bike to LSU football games and to visit relatives across town in Woodstone, too.
Gaskin graduated from the University of Cincinnati, then Harvard, and he has also lived in Baltimore and London. Two years ago, after moving to Baton Rouge, he re-engaged in cycling.
“I’ve been pretty impressed with Baton Rouge,” Gaskin says. “Visibility for [cycling] has increased, and the mass rides are super-cool. The city needs a campaign for bike safety and commuting, but there’s no magic bullet. Ultimately, with enough awareness and education, people will learn to share the road.”
While Critical Mass’s car-challenging riders and competition cyclists have their differences, some newer niche biking groups are just plain different. Every Saturday and Sunday, riders zig-zag underneath a stretch of I-110 in high-energy games of bike polo (see sidebar on page 80). Monthly Alley Cat Races give competitors the chance to race through marathon-length bike messenger-style courses while stopping at checkpoints to complete physical challenges.
Of course, most cyclists do not take their bikes to such extremes. Many are like Phelps, Dunbar attorney Randy Roussel, who simply enjoys Sunday rides with his kids. At 53, Roussel is trim and looks a decade younger. He enters the occasional triathlon or adventure race, but a typical ride sees the Roussels leave their Southdowns home and wind through the tree-shaded neighborhood then around the LSU lakes to end up at Walk-Ons for lunch.
“After a nice little ride, you don’t feel bad having dessert,” Roussel says.
Although Roussel counts himself as a casual cyclist, he’s not staying out of the fight for safety and connectivity. He was once forced off the road by an LSU professor. He caught up with the offending motorist down the road and gave him a piece of his mind.
Bicycle enthusiasts in Baton Rouge have a favorite mantra, and it goes like this: “Awareness.” Louisiana 3 Feet and anti-harassment laws went into effect in August, yet many motorists in the area don’t even know that cyclists are allowed by law on streets just like motor vehicles. “Get on the sidewalk!” is what riders often hear.
225 polled its readers in September with the following question: “Should cyclists share local roads with motor vehicles or only use dedicated bike lanes and paths?” The reaction was huge, with nearly 1,200 responses in two days, and more than a handful of cycling advocates angry that 225 asked the question at all. The results, however, reveal readers’ honest opinions on the motorist/cyclist dynamic and indicate how far the city needs to go to raise awareness of the laws and bicycle safety.
74% said, “Share roads.”26% said, “Only use bike lanes and paths.”
Last March, Roussel traveled to Richmond, Va., with the Baton Rouge Area Chamber on its annual Canvas Workshop. There, he made a point to connect BREC officials Bill Palmer and Ted Jack with the designers of Richmond’s innovative—and in many cases, retrofitted—bike paths and lanes. Designs had been under way here at home for a few years, but Palmer and Jack certainly got the message in Richmond. Five weeks later they broke ground on one of our city’s most ambitious multi-use park projects ever.
The first quarter of 2010 will see the grand reopening of the Perkins Road Community Park at Kenilworth Boulevard near the BREC Velodrome. In addition to a skate park, a rock-climbing wall, new green spaces, fencing and seating, the $4.5 million renovation will include leisure biking and walking trails, an off-road BMX course and a state-of-the-art flat track for competitive races.
The new park will be a cornerstone for BREC’s destination-oriented system, but the organization’s next pursuit will follow Richmond’s focus on connectivity and include a linear park trail linking three of the biggest retail centers in Baton Rouge.
Mary Fernandez, a landscape architect for BREC’s planning and engineering department, says the parks group is actively negotiating a land deal with the Mall of Louisiana for the trail. When the specifics are finalized, construction will begin on the estimated $1.4 million project to create a nearly four-mile, 12-foot-wide bike trail connecting the mall and Perkins Rowe on Bluebonnet Boulevard with the Siegen Lane Marketplace, home to Lowes, Sam’s Club, Old Navy and other commercial outlets and restaurants.
The trail is the first piece of BREC’s $4 million Capital Area Pathways Project, an ambitious initiative designed to link city-parish parks with walking and bicycle paths. The project began as a response to survey results that showed bike and walking trails were the most-desired new features for local parks.
“Of course we want to see it in place as soon as possible,” Fernandez says. “We’ll be able to use this trail to show people how it works and then get more support for others like it around the parish.”
In his groundbreaking 2002 bestseller The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida wrote that having multiple transportation options relieves stress, while walkable and bikeable cities foster a greater sense of community—a key characteristic that young professionals look for when choosing where to live.
“Until Baton Rouge shows corporations and the people of my generation that it’s really interested in and equipped for health and family fitness, how well is it going to do, realistically, against, say, Austin?” Flint says.
In August, the term “bikeability” was one of the big buzzwords to come out of Baton Rouge’s Smart Growth Summit.
“An effective public transit system does not begin and end with buses and rail cars,” says Phillip LaFarge, spokesman for the Baton Rouge’s Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX). “Development must support walkability and bikeability between transit hubs and places of work, living and recreation. Streets should be well connected—instead of widened—so cars, cyclists and pedestrians all have multiple routes to chose the best and safest paths to their destinations.”
With the impending overhaul of the East Baton Rouge Parish Comprehensive Plan, CPEX will be working with Portland-based urban planner John Fregonese on distilling these many ideals into achievable goals and guidelines for smart growth. LaFarge says that both cyclists and non-cyclists in the community will have a “golden opportunity” to voice their opinions at upcoming public input sessions.
In addition to the Louisiana 3 Feet law, a concurrent resolution from last spring’s legislative session calls for the state’s Department of Transportation and Development to form a large workgroup to ensure pedestrian and cyclist needs are addressed in future projects statewide. BRASS representatives Mark Martin and Hallie Dozier hope to have a voice in that group. “Anytime you go in for repair or to construct a new road, why not look at accommodating other modes of transportation, like biking and walking?” Dozier says.
Compared to the rest of the state, our city may be the most demanding of such considerations. Of the recent bike-themed public meetings held around Louisiana, the session in Baton Rouge was the best attended. “This confirms,” says Brian Parsons, bicycle and pedestrian coordinator with DOTD, “that Baton Rouge is very interested in these issues.”
So, what do Baton Rougeans want? There are three types of riders on our city streets: competitive racers, recreational riders and commuters. While they all want essentially the same things—well-placed lanes and paths that make the city safely navigable by bike, and more public awareness and education for cyclists and motorists—each faces unique challenges in a city with streets that weren’t exactly planned for connectivity to begin with.
It says a lot about the community that one of Baton Rouge’s most dynamic bicycle advocacy groups is also one of its smallest: husband and wife team Darron and Ashley Leach. Sgt. Darron Leach was instrumental in grabbing the attention of state Rep. Michael Jackson and creating the Colin Goodier Bicycle Protection Act earlier this year. His wife Ashley is a physical therapist for the McMains Children’s Development Center and has been raising funds since 2007 to purchase adapted bikes for patients with disabilities through a unique partnership called Wheels to Succeed.
“As a cyclist myself, I knew the joys and benefits of it, and as physical therapist, I saw how much fun and exercise children with physical disabilities had on an adapted bike at our center,” Ashley Leach says. “After several attempts to get insurance companies and Medicaid to purchase adapted bikes for our kids and being denied, I approached Tiger Cycling Foundation to help.”
The McMains Center partnered with Tiger Cycling Foundation two years ago, and since then Wheels to Succeed has provided more than 20 bicycles to patients with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Down syndrome. The group hosts three annual events: two for children to cycle, and an upcoming fundraising ride for adults on Jan. 16, 2010. That ride will see Alvarez Construction founder Jairo Alvarez cycling 72 miles to celebrate his 72nd birthday in hopes of raising $35,000 for Wheels to Succeed.
For more information on this event and the McMains Center visit wheelstosucceed.org and ?mcmainscdc.org.
“I don’t see widening for bike lanes being an easy issue,” Alexander says. “They just widened Perkins, and there’s still no shoulder. We need some bike education and safety in schools, and some additional bike-related questions on driver’s license tests.”
Hayden decries the lack of shoulders on city streets, too, especially on Highland Road. “What better way for all those commuters to get to and from LSU?” Hayden asks.
The bottom line is that commuters and leisure riders want to have some fun and save on gas without putting their lives in danger. Roussel agrees with many of the riders who attended a public input workshop in September and used provided maps to draw bike lanes along Boone Drive from Lee Drive to Bluebonnet Boulevard.
“The city can’t afford to do dedicated bike trails all over. I understand that,” Roussel says. “But if the city were aggressive with this, they would build a trail through the Lee High site, come out by the bridge and tie that into Boone without having to dedicate an entirely new bike trail.”
Competitive cyclists say the 3-mile levee-top bike path is not long enough for intense group rides—even though a 1.8-mile extension could be under construction before the end of next year. Relegated to River Road, these racers are increasingly concerned with their safety alongside speeding motorists and 18-wheelers.
“It’s plenty dangerous,” says Flint, who would like to see police more frequently patrol River Road for speeding. “But I’ve never heard anyone suggest a better route with less traffic. After being buzzed, it’s always in the back of your mind. You get the feeling that at any time you could die.”
Through BRASS, Martin talks to both casual and competitive cyclists. He used to sell bikes at the Bicycle Shop and says safety is both the No. 1 concern among those considering a bike purchase and the biggest factor hindering greater popularity for cycling in Baton Rouge.
“You can’t get more people riding until they feel safe enough to do it,” Martin says. “And you can’t do that until you have the facilities.”
Josh Weir manages Capitol Cyclery on Essen Lane and would like to see the city-parish lobby for federal Rail-Trail dollars to turn the Kansas City Southern line that cuts straight through the city into Baton Rouge’s version of the St. Tammany Trace. The Trace is a loop of popular bike paths linking parks and retail centers in Covington, Abita Springs, Mandeville and Slidell. “Right now, there’s no viable connection between LSU and the Mall of Louisiana,” Weir says.
The current tough economy may make this an inopportune time to request federal funds of that size, but big ideas like Weir’s will only become louder and louder talking points as the city grows—because traffic congestion and the popularity of commuting and recreational cycling are growing with it.
In the short term, Mayor Holden’s bike path initiative does kick into gear next year. In June, the roughly 68 miles of Phase 1’s “sharrows” should be completed, and Phase 2 will begin in earnest.
“Phase 2 will be about connectivity—that’s the big push,” Futrell says. “Where do people want to go? We’ve got plans to connect Sherwood Boulevard, the Garden District and LSU to downtown with dedicated bike lanes and paths. It will be harder to do than Phase 1, and it will take more time, because we’ll need more funding. But we’re positive about it. We’re moving forward.”
Click here to read what Baton Rougeans are saying about cycling.
Click here to read “Bike polo, anyone?”
Click here to follow our favorite St. Francisville ride.
