Atlanta’s Bicycle Super Highway

Mayor Kasim Reed breaks in the BeltLine

Have you bicycled the Eastside Trail, yet? The 14 foot wide concrete path stretches from Irwin Street on the south end to 10th Street and Monroe Drive (southeast corner of Piedmont Park) on the north end. Bicycling on the BeltLine is a breeze!

This changes everything for cycle commuters in the Piedmont Park, Virginia Highland, Poncey-Highland, Inman Park and the Old Fourth Ward areas.

The reason the BeltLine Eastside Trail is a game-changer for intown trails is that it reuses an old railroad right-of-way. The original rail line was surveyed and engineered for ease of transport and slight grades (usually 2% or less). If you’ve ever rode a Rail Trail like the Silver Comet, you know what I’m talking about. The difference between riding this exquisite path of least resistance and the hilly, pot-holed, dangerous streets of Atlanta can’t be overstated. You glide over or under street intersections and never in the traffic. Granny and the kids can ride safely and with ease!

Bicycling is well-documented as the most efficient form of transportation known to man — 5 times more efficient than using the train and 15 to 20 times more efficient than driving a car. If you look at the planned 33 mile loop of trail as a kind of inner perimeter highway for bikes, then the Eastside Trail could be the first segment of a spoke-and-hub bicycle superhighway.  The Eastside Trail already intersects Freedom Parkway Trail and the case has been made for developing the Full Loop of trail as a first priority. Other plans are underway for two significant spoke trails. The PATH400 Trail, a 5 mile spoke trail, will link Buckhead to the BeltLine. Also in the works is the Emerald Corridor, a 7 mile trail-and-stream linear park that would wind along Proctor Creek connecting ATLiens from the BeltLine to the Chattahoochee river.

Here are some of the neighborhood amenities along the east section of Atlanta’s emerging bicycle superhighway:

• Piedmont Park
• Park Tavern
• Trader Joe’s
• Midtown Cinema
• Whole Foods
• Home Depot
• Starbucks
• Kroger
• CVS Pharmacy
• Paris on Ponce
• Ponce City Market (with a planned spur trail directly into the building)
• Dancing Goats Coffee Bar
• Historic Fourth Ward Park
• Skateboard Park
• Inman Park Village
• Parrish Restaurant
• Rathbun’s Restaurant
• Stoveworks
• Studioplex
• Irwin Street Market
• Krog Street Market

Of course, embedded along this amenity-rich corridor are new and existing townhomes, condos and live/work lofts for sale with direct access to the BeltLine. At the time of this writing, First Multiple Listing Service shows over one hundred homes for sale within the Eastside Trail BeltLine corridor. Let me know if you’d like to take a look…