For Immediate Release: June 3, 2013
Bike Walk Greenville introduces online mapping tool for the community to identify sidewalk and bike lane needs in Greenville County
Bike Walk Greenville, the voice for active transportation in Greenville County, is pleased to announce the launch of a new web based application available through our website bikewalkgreenville.org.
“Sidewalk and Bike Lane Needs in Greenville County” was developed to allow citizens to easily identify locations where new sidewalks, bike lanes or other opportunities to improve pedestrian or bicycle safety are needed.
Greenville County has only 35 miles of sidewalks on the 1700 miles of county maintained roads. Only 20 percent of Greenville County Elementary Schools are walkable.
There are 270 square miles of urbanized area in our county, of which 66 square miles reside in the six cities. Greenville County Council has jurisdiction on 204 square miles of urban area.
One of the near term goals for Bike Walk Greenville is to encourage Greenville County to develop a comprehensive long term master plan for pedestrian and bicycle travel.
BWG Advocate James Thomas states, “By creating this online tool, we will be able engage the community through social media techniques, and it will allow us to share the database of citizen ideas with the County Planning Staff. We will also share the information with the cities for recommendations within their jurisdiction.”
The online mapping tool was developed by Bike Walk Greenville volunteer Mike Nice, who is a software engineer by profession and is a community activist who readers may know from Mike’s postings in the GreenvilleDailyPhoto blog. Mike also has developed a trip planning application at trip.greenvilleopenmap.info.
The mission of Bike Walk Greenville is to increase the quality of life and economic vitality of Greenville County by advocating for the improvement of pedestrian and bicycling opportunities and promoting the importance of health, safety, recreation and equitable transportation options.
Bike Walk Greenville is currently applying to be a non-profit 501c3 organization.
For more information contact BWG Community Outreach chair Pamela Wood Browne at pamela@browneeyemedia.com.