Louisville bicycling progress: "While we are painting bike lanes and sharrows, other cities are doing much more."

Note that in New Albany, the current regime intends to do precisely that: Chart cycling progress by gallons of paint purchased to inscribe meaningless sharrows symbols on otherwise unaltered city streets.

Opinion: Louisville needs more than bike lanes to achieve real cycling progress, by Chris Glasser (Insider Louisville)

... Yes, it is true that in the last two years Louisville has invested more in its on-street bike infrastructure than ever before. But it is also true that while we are painting bike lanes and sharrows, other cities are doing much more.

Fundamental traffic calming and a willingness of political leaders to take ownership of the project? Two more aspects we shan't be seeing in New Albany any time soon.

1) We need to stop thinking simply in terms of bike lane miles and start building infrastructure that vastly improves safety and convenience. We should be implementing cycletracks like those in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati (and lots of other places), providing fully-separated, on-street pathways for bikers. And we should be investing in traffic-calming measures like they have in Seattle and Portland — speed humps, traffic diverters, or simply just more four-way stop signs on residential streets.

2) Since it’s not really about money, we need local political leaders (from neighborhood associations to Metro Council members to Mayor Fischer) to really go to bat for this idea. Mayor Bill Peduto in Pittsburgh has done it for his city, while Seattle neighborhood associations have spearheaded massive change there. There will always be bikelash, but the argument for biking is sound and easy to make: it’s good for the health of citizens, good for their pocketbooks, good for the local economy, and good for urban revitalization. Louisville needs a voice that will simply say this as many times as it needs to be said.