PATH continues push for network of bike trails connecting metro Atlanta
Nonprofit says it’s already raised two-thirds of funding for Ga. 400 trail
Atlanta City Councilman Aaron “Pedal to Alabama” Watson and Ed McBrayer, founder of the PATH Foundation, hosted a luncheon at City Hall on Monday to fill us in on the nonprofit organization’s grand 20-year vision of a network of bike trails throughout metro Atlanta.
The grand plan — a nifty conceptual map of which can be viewed here — would turn Centennial Olympic Park into the hub for a regional network of off-street bike trails that would, after connecting to the Beltline, stretch outside the perimeter in six different directions.
“If we can truly do this, I think we would be the most connected city in the United States,” McBrayer said.
The proposed network would provide carless Atlantans with a contiguous web of bike trails that would give access to destinations far and wide, including Lakewood Amphitheater, Piedmont Hospital and Lenox Mall.
According to McBrayer, a plan to build a bike path between Loridans Drive and Peachtree Creek in the shadow of Ga. 400 has “taken off like a bullet.” The group has already raised two-thirds of the funding needed to build the six-mile stretch of trail. PATH is scheduled to construct the project within three years.
One other useful (and far cheaper) development: PATH is also planning to build a connection to CL’s favorite grocery, Your DeKalb Farmers Market, via the Stone Mountain Trail.