Say hello to
Bicycle City—Gaston, South Carolina’s entry into sustainable, green living. The planned bicycle-only development, which will not allow cars, will be home to 10 eco-friendly houses and 4.5 miles of inter-connected bicycle and walking trails.
Founder and co-developer Joe Mellett hopes to begin construction this summer/fall on homes situated on the 160-acre tract of land that he and his fellow investors purchased for nearly $1 million. The company has the option to purchase an additional 600 adjacent acres.
“There are other industries—solar, wind, what have you—that address the individual components of climate change, but Bicycle City puts it all together into one home,” says Mellett.
Bicycle City’s homes, which will be up to 1,600 square feet, will be constructed according to one of two eco-friendly building guidelines—the
U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certifications or One Planet Living’s
ten principles. Lot price tags will range between $25,000 and $35,000, with individual homes clocking in at around $200,000. Plans for “bicycle taxis” are in the works.
“The beauty of that is that if you want to live next to your car, you buy a lot on the perimeter of the community and you’d be within under a minute’s walk to your car,” says Mellett.
Eighty-seven million Americans ride bicycles, according to the
Outdoor Industry Association. And there are more bicyclists in America than skiers, golfers, and tennis players combined, according to a survey conducted by the
National Sporting Goods Association.
“It is a fairly bold plan that reflects the growing awareness on the part of Americans that bike-friendly places to live are good places to live,” says Tim Blumenthal, President of
Bikes Belong, a nonprofit organization dedicated to getting more folks on bikes more often.
Developer Mellett’s first foray into bicycling-for-the-better came in 1986. That year, as a member of
Alpha Phi Omega, Mellett and two friends, in an effort they named “4,200 Miles For Kids,” cycled cross-country to raise more than $1,000 for
Big Brothers and Big Sisters and
United Cerebral Palsy.
“I saw what a great way bicycling was to see the country,” says Mellett.
The idea to develop a bicycle-only community didn’t germinate until after Mellett read
John Naisbitt’s national best-selling book “Mega Trends.”
“He said the future of communities will be high tech-high touch—with people more and more having an overload of technology, that they would embrace the high-touch side of life like nature, exercise, and community,” says Mellett.
Fast forward to 2006 when Mellett was finally in the financial position—he and three others sold the rights to People Working With People, an online college directory website, to Monster.com—to make his dream come true.
Mellett says the Gaston location was chosen for three reasons. One, it is relatively close to Columbia’s numerous college communities. Two, Gaston is located in Lexington County, which has recently built many bike-only green ways that connect the county car-free. Three, this summer, a state of the art
South Carolina State Farmers Market will open, which Mellett says he hopes will entice home buyers with a penchant for organic farming.
Newton Boykin, the project’s Director of Land Acquisition and Development, says that Mellett has been hyper-conscious about ensuring that Bicycle City is eco-friendly and sustainable from the get-go. “When I was creating the bike paths, he wouldn’t let me cut any trees that were over four inches in diameter,” says Boykin.
And what of Bicycle City’s potential pitfall, needing cars in the case of emergencies? “There will be a permeable services access way, that has a strong gravel support underneath it, such that an emergency vehicle can drive over it,” says Mellett.
On Monday night, Mellett met with Lexington County officials to go over the plans for Bicycle City. “It went well—they are very supportive of bringing this green destination to the area.”
In addition to taking Bicycle City to the national level, Mellett plans to move into one of the community’s first ten homes—though only part-time at first.
Here's a great example of forward-thinking urban planning: a downtown, all-in-one bicycle parking facility that prioritizes human-powered transportation. The competition entry BIKE for the Delaware Valley Green Building Council by architect Annie Scheel recently won first place - and for good reason. It's a proposal would not only reduce urban congestion and pollution in downtown Philadelphia, but also would include all the bike-related bells and whistles, making the bike a more attractive choice for city commuters.
Bike parking takes less space than cars but can still cover a lot of ground. Then there is the rampant theft. The bike tree deals with both problems; Abhinav Dapke of Bahrain and India designs a "parking stand design for congested bicycle parking."
Here in Orlando we are having our Bike to Work Day on Wednesday May 19th. Join Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer in support of reducing our impact on
Common sense and transportation experience informs most people how they are supposed to ride a bike on the roadway. You would assume that common sense would also inform people on how to use a simple bike rack, but assuming such a thing would be too easy. On a short trip to Barnes and Noble tonight, after grabbing a bite to eat, I get the fun realization that one bike is taking up the entire, lone bike rack. Let's see, do I find a sign or other street furniture to lock my bike to or do I just roll back home. I decided to go on home, since I didn't want to use their silly "wheel bender" of a bike rack anyway. If I could hand out parking tickets for bikes, that bike would have definitely been tagged.
Yesterday I had the pleasure to head up to Gainesville to teach a Saturday course at the University of Florida and it is amazing how much the university and city has changed since I was last there in '09. The real pleasure came from seeing all of the new bike facilities that they have introduced. 
The most noticeable change was on SW and NW 13th St. The city took the old bike lanes and when they re-striped the road, they added a 2-3' striped buffer between the cyclists and the cars. They also widened the lane to at least 6' and added several bike route signage. This route is a main thoroughfare in and out of the city on its North-South axis and is where many road cyclists train and ride toward Micanopy and Ocala.
Almost all of the other streets that we drove on seemed to have added 5' bike lanes when they re-striped the roads and narrowed up the travel lanes to gain the extra distance that they needed. The city added roundabouts at intersections of roads that were labeled as bike routes, to keep the flow of cyclists continuous and reduce the amount of stop and go movements. The city also added planted medians to some of their center turn lanes, to create a boulevard type feeling as you ride down the street. The campus itself still has bike lanes on every street and is building its bike culture to be prominent enough to place Gainesville as one of the top 50 biking cities in the US. 
Another interesting change that I haven't seen in too many places, was the addition of a large sign at the city limits, that listed their current safety record for pedestrians and cyclists. It was reminiscent of factories or industrial areas that place a sign or billboard that states how many days it has been since an accident. It definitely made drivers think about pedestrians and cyclists being on the roads and at intersections and was a good way to draw attention to how safe Gainseville's streets are for biking and walking.
