By Peggy Mackenzie
The Lewisburg City Council approved a motion by council member Josh Baldwin to create a bike route through a portion of Lewisburg’s “low traffic” city streets during Tuesday’s monthly meeting. The approval of the motion was applauded by several bike club members in the audience that evening.
Parks commission member Merrick Tracy, charged with laying out bike routes for the city, delineated the route which will run through low traffic-volume streets in the southwestern quadrant of Lewisburg. The route proposed would incorporate the Greenbrier County Library, Dorie Miller Park, North House Museum, New River Community and Technical College, Court and Church streets, and the Graham Addition as one route.
Tracy researched signage and estimated the route would require 68 signs, displaying bike route icons and directional arrows. The bike route, he said, would be the first of possibly two routes for biking through Lewisburg’s neighborhoods. Looking ahead, Tracy stated a second route would incorporate a route around the northeastern part of Lewisburg, and would focus on the neighborhoods around WVSOM. He clarified that a bike route was not the same as a bike lane, stating a bike route means that bikes have the same use of the roadway as a vehicle.