Bicycle Friendly America Fall 2017 - 11

CARROLLTON, GA -
"THE FRIENDLY CITY" BECOMES
A BICYCLE FRIENDLY COMMUNITY
KEN MCLEOD

FALL 2017

MARTYNA GRIFFIN

arrollton, Georgia is the commercial center of Carroll County, which
sits on the Georgia-Alabama border.
Nicknamed "The Friendly City" and
home to the University of West Georgia,
West Georgia Tech and the Southwire
Company, this city of roughly 26,000
and growing embarked on a bold vision
for improving bicycling over a decade
ago. Through persistence, cultivation and
collaboration the seed of the Carrollton
Greenbelt grew into a physical and cultural asset that is changing what bicycling looks like in their community.
The Carrollton Greenbelt is in some
ways a microcosm of the evolution of
bicycling in the United States. In the
1990s, the Greenbelt existed as a mountain bike trail, singletrack and rugged. To
be a bicyclist was a conscious choice and
not for everyone. In the initial phases of
the Greenbelt, it mirrored two strategies
for incorporating bicycling in communities that have been pursued nationally -
creating Safe Routes to School programs
and providing recreational trails. The
first mile of the Greenbelt was a proof of
concept, improving the mountain bike
trail of the 1990s to create a safe, paved,
path next to a school and became a recreational destination. As the trail grew,
thanks to a public-private partnership
including significant local foundation
funding, it began to connect businesses
- including the community's three largest employers - and became not just a
destination, but part of the transportation infrastructure. As a completed trail,

Krystal Zanefski's three daughters leaving Carrollton Elementary School and avoiding the 30 plus minute
waiting time for car pickup (Krystal not pictured)
BICYCLE FRIENDLY AMERICA 11

http://www.carrollton-ga.gov/ http://www.carrollton-ga.gov/ http://www.carrolltongreenbelt.com/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Bicycle Friendly America Fall 2017