Asheville City Council approved a Comprehensive Bicycle Plan. The plan requests that 181 miles of bikeway be striped, including the road that leads to Councilman Brownie Newman’s house. The most popular use of bikes was for recreation, and local parks were the premier destination.
Recently-elected Councilman Bill Russell, an experienced businessman, found it difficult to grapple with the fact that the “plan†had no budget. Planners argued that increasing construction costs, combined with uncertainties in the plan’s execution and numerous opportunities to share costs with state and federal agencies, made calculation of a total price for the plan inadvisable. The Asheville Tribune added up the costs for the proposed road stripings and found that to be in excess of $4 million. More would need to be added for signage and bike racks. The cost of planning alone was $47,915.a The Blue Ridge Bicycle Club, to their credit, pledged to pay $1000 of the planning amount.
The plan comes with an education and outreach component, which was not factored into the costs.
