The Lynn Lane multi-use path won’t just promote alternative forms of transportation for Starkville residents and MSU students.
It will also show that Starkville and MSU can set aside past differences and improve overall quality of life.”These paths are literal connections between the university and city,” said James Everett, an MSU alumnus and landscape architecture graduate.
Starkville in Motion, a grassroots organization that advocates alternative transportation, wrote a grant for the creation of the Lynn Lane path. The path will run 3.4 miles along Lynn Lane and Locksley Way, said Social Science Research Center associate research professor Ronald Cossman.
“The Lynn Lane route is going to make it easy for people to get on campus quickly,” said Cossman, who also served as chair of the Lynn Lane committee. “It’s becoming difficult if not impossible to get from your home to campus and then to class in a reasonable amount of time.”
Everett said he’s jealous of those who will take advantage of the Lynn Lane path.
“I lived at Little London, and it was scary to ride my bike to school,” he said.
SIM wrote the grant for the Lynn Lane project on behalf of Starkville and MSU.
The city and university will each be responsible for different sections of the path, Cossman said.
MSU will handle the development at the Spring Street and Locksley Way intersection and up to Robert L. Jones Drive.
The Lynn Lane path will differ from the bike paths on University Drive, Cossman said. The University Drive project required the city to work with limited space.
“We had to take away on-street parking to get the space for the bike lane [on University Drive],” Cossman said.
In contrast, the Lynn Lane project will be a median that is physically separated from the road. Everett said the term “linear park” describes the path well.
However, for both the Lynn Lane project and University Drive paths, Cossman said SIM members met publicly with business owners on the affected streets to receive input on the paths.
This allowed owners to voice their opinions about paths that would run close to their establishments.
“I think a lot of people might have the ‘Not in my backyard’ attitude, if there is any opposition,” Everett said.
During the public Lynn Lane meeting, an owner of a business on Industrial Park Road suggested that the path should run through McKee Park. Cossman said SIM adopted this suggestion because the path wouldn’t be as accommodating along Industrial Park Road.
“The business community has been very supportive of all our efforts,” he said.
Starkville Mayor Dan Camp said that by allowing the development of pedestrian-friendly routes, Starkville is showing the general public that it cares about health and safety.
“You find less obesity in communities that promote walking and biking,” Camp said.
“It’s generally going to improve safety in getting around town on a bike,” Cossman said.
But pathways for alternative transportation also affect the economic development of cities. Having amenities to attract corporations is important. “We don’t measure up when we look at other SEC towns,” Cossman said.
The Golden Triangle Region has recently attracted international corporations like PACCAR.
The international employees of these corporations are already accustomed to pedestrian-friendly environments, and some of them choose to live in Starkville.
The availability of bike paths affects the overall attractiveness of Starkville to these employees, Cossman said.
“In part, it’s to improve the quality of life for people who already live here and for those who are coming with the new jobs,” he said.
Camp said the management of the upcoming PACCAR plant is from Holland.
“What do they do in Holland? They bicycle, bicycle, bicycle,” he said.
To show how often paths are used, SIM has conducted censuses to indicate how many people are using the current bike paths. In fall 2006, counters determined that more than 300 people used the University Drive bike paths during one day, Cossman said.
“We’re using that as evidence for other grants we’re writing,” he said.
Everett said Starkville has been interested in developing a transit system in the past. But this system can’t work unless pedestrians have safe ways to arrive at stops.
“That’s the way all transit systems work–the successful ones anyway,” Everett said.
One typical argument against bike paths is that paths create cyclist/vehicular conflict. Everett said this argument is not true.
“The more bikes lanes you have, the more people will be aware of cyclists,” he said.
Camp said there haven’t been any critics per se against the development of bike paths in Starkville.
However, citizens have been more vocal about how these bike paths should fit into their communities.
Besides spearheading the development of bike paths in Starkville, SIM also gives students opportunities that can build resumes, Cossman said.
One of Everett’s projects at MSU, “A Plan for Starkville: Smart Growth, Smart Schools, Safe Routes,” has influenced Starkville’s “Safe Routes to School” proposal, which has been awarded about $280,000 from the Mississippi Department of Transportation.
“It will always be on my resume,” Everett said. “It’s great to be a student and work on a project that actually gets built.”
The Lynn Lane path was awarded a $1.5 million grant from MDOT in December. Cossman said if SIM couldn’t find money through grants, the bike paths would probably face opposition from local government.
“Their biggest concern–like any small-town government–is the money,” he said.