The Facts:
In addition to renovations for increased parking and pedestrian ease, Hillsborough Street will receive bike lanes as part of the rejuvenation project.
Our Opinion:
The new bike lanes will be great for the campus community, improving the campus commute and taking a burden off the streets and sidewalks.
During the duration of the Hillsborough Street renovation project, students and the campus community have suffered through traffic delays and general havoc. Everyone has waited in anticipation for the new and improved version of the street to reopen.
In an exciting new development, motorized vehicles and pedestrians will not be the only ones getting some new pavement; bikes will too.
Plans are finalized to lay down the lines for a bike lane —students and the rest of the community should be excited.
Honestly, any change that makes the campus commute easier is a godsend. Perhaps, it will even get people to exercise a little more, taking their bikes instead of the bus or a car.
This push for a bike path could be part of the equation that reduces the traffic on our street by motivating people to keep the car parked for their small commuter trips around campus.
Businesses on Hillsborough seemed worried, at first, about the bike lane. After all, there is a chance that the traffic will slow with less room for the cars to move. But in all likelihood the lanes will make it easier for pedestrians and will ease the accessibility to shops; bikes don’t clog up the expanding but still limited parking.
The University has the potential to become a great biking institution if it invests in the proper infrastructure, like with the bike lanes and the WolfWheels program. It’s especially true considering the scale of campus and the limited parking, which is too sparse for students to drive to most classes. Likewise, the bus schedules don’t always line up with classes.
The next step forward is an evaluation of where bicycle access can be expanded. Many of those challenges must be addressed with the Centennial Campus expansion plans and the physical master plan, which could effectively utilize bikes as a primary mode of transit.
The future bike lane seems like a great idea, and, hopefully, these kinds of projects will continue to develop with the new construction.
