Asheville for All

ASHEVILLE — The local grassroots political advocacy organization Asheville For All has issued a statement endorsing the plan to add bicycle lanes to College St. and Patton Ave. in downtown Asheville.

The group’s statement links the goals of incentivizing walking, biking, and transit on one hand and solving the region’s housing shortage on the other. “Just as suburban sprawl, exclusionary zoning, and segregated land uses make it hard for us to adopt alternative modes of transportation,” it states, “so does auto-centric road design make it harder for us to achieve housing abundance in vibrant, amenity-rich neighborhoods accessible to all kinds of working families.”

The city’s current proposed plan to add bike lanes to downtown follows the priorities laid out for transportation and accessibility by the Asheville City Council’s 2036 Strategic Priorities and Vision and the 2018 Comprehensive Plan. The new bike lanes would foster a more connected network for bicyclists in the urban core, make crossing the street easier and safer for pedestrians, and the new road design would increase loading space for downtown businesses.

While Asheville City Council has previously resolved to support “complete streets”—streets that serve the needs of bicyclists and pedestrians, rather than those of only automobiles—councilors appeared divided on the matter at an August council meeting, and the implementation of the plan for College and Patton is at risk for delay.

The City Council is scheduled to discuss the project further at its October 10th meeting.

Asheville For All’s full statement is as follows:

Statement: Asheville For All Endorses Complete Streets for Downtown

Asheville For All believes that there is no path to reaching the abundance of housing and variety of housing types that Asheville needs to resolve our area’s housing crisis that does not include transforming our auto-centric street design, land use, and culture. Therefore, we strongly support the proposed bicycle lanes and pedestrian improvements for College Street and Patton Avenue in downtown Asheville.

Let’s start with some basic facts about the housing crisis. There’s no debate that a prime cause of housing scarcity and unaffordability are the zoning codes, incentives, and subsidies of the past century—at local, state, and federal levels—that have made apartment buildings scarce and have induced suburban sprawl. To the extent that housing is available for renters and home buyers at prices that they can afford, it is likely to be far from job centers and transit. Everyday people face impossible choices, trading off between exorbitant housing costs near city centers, and costly and soul-crushing commutes in exurbs that lack amenities and opportunities. The result is automobile dependency. Not only are homes more expensive than ever, but American families , averaged over the life of the vehicle.