Newton Trails

Riding with two friends Sunday afternoon on the final leg of the Covington Community Bike Ride, we were chatting about public health, the role of trails in providing a response to the growing American obesity epidemic, and the difficulty of getting folks to see the connection.  "Personal health is a choice," one said.

And, that started me thinking.  (I do actually do that from time to time, despite what some might say.)  Just what kind of choice are we really giving people?

Since 2009, Newton County has added 33 acres of recreation space.  We've built 1.2 miles of paved trails in Oxford (largely with private funds and investment by the city and college).  Oh, and we've added some 40,000 people in the past decade!  We fall farther behind every day, while our county lags at the bottom in most public health measures, in a state that is near the bottom nationally.

Meanwhile, we've gone from one McDonalds to five -- soon to be six.  My parents live in Dunwoody, and they have to drive several miles or more to find most fast food restaurants.  We can find multiples of most chains within walking distance.  Not that walking is an option, mind you, with US-278, the Covington By-Pass, Washington Street, Brown Bridge Rd, Salem Rd, GA-36, and GA-212 all presenting quite formidable barriers to travel by foot or by bike.  Sure, people can choose, but the combination of fast food proliferation and streets designed for auto-only travel determines what the realistic choices are.

Recently, a Cobb County woman was prosecuted for vehicular manslaughter -- even though she didn't own and could not drive a car!   She was prosecuted and convicted by a jury because she chose to cross a busy five-lane highway with her three kids, rather than walking an extra 6/10ths of a mile at sundown to get home to her apartment complex just across the street from the bus stop.  When her youngest broke away and was struck and killed by a driver with prior hit and run convictions, who confessed to drinking and taking painkillers that day, the mother was prosecuted.  Her choice, right?

These are the kinds of choices we give pedestrians and bicyclists every day.  We engineer our roads to be dangerous by design.  We place unhealthy food choices on every corner.  And, we treat funding for safe walking and biking like it's a precious commodity of which the public is just not worthy.  Healthy living is a choice, you know.  Kind of like dissidents  speaking out in China, or women's rights advocates speaking out in Iraq or Iran...  It's a choice.  A sad an unnecessary choice.

After two nail-biting nights sitting through long-running city and county meetings, this morning we have cause to celebrate.  Tuesday night, the Newton County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 to approve a staff request to commit $100,000  to match a $400,000 federal Transportation Enhancement (TE) grant request .  The grant was necessary to cover the  $460,000 shortfall in funding needed to complete all 2.6 miles.

On Monday night, the Covington City Council declined to provide additional money toward the project, but did hold firm on the $225,000 they have already committed.  That meant the county needed to come up with the $100,000 match for the additional request.  In this extremely challenging fiscal environment, it's understandable that some commissioners were reluctant to vote in favor of the grant application.  Commissioners Ewing and Fleming both sought alternative approaches to reduce the cost (ie, crushed gravel instead of concrete), but those alternatives would have meant starting the project over and losing the money already spent for construction-ready plans.

In the end, the commission voted to proceed with the matching funds coming from the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) funds already budgeted with funds set aside for to-be-identified road projects throughout the year.  Legally, a multi-use trail is a legitimate use for these funds.  But, even more than that, I feel this is an important step towards recognizing that walking and biking are indeed significant transportation modes, and should be seen as such.  Commissioner Schulz made that point last night, as did Chairman Morgan.  And, in doing so, both echoed the direction set this year in a new policy statement from the Federal DOT.   In that statement (viewable here), the DOT urged local governments to give walking and biking the same priority given to other modes of transportation.

However, I don't need US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to tell me how important walking and biking are.  I only need to ask my legally blind neighbor, Anne Wheeler, who cannot drive and thus rides an adult tricycle from her home on Floyd St to the Newton County Public Library or to the Square.  Anne can't wait to have that trail built through the tunnel under the by-pass road, so she can bike to the Ingle's and buy groceries on her own without someone having to drive her.  Or, I can ask Jimmy -- the man who lives on Butler St and bikes past my home on the sidewalk several times going about his daily routine.  I don't know if Jimmy can't drive, or if he chooses not to.  But, I do know he is afraid to bike in the street with traffic.  Jimmy, too, will have a whole new world of safe access when that trail is built.

It wasn't easy, but last night, our county took a small step forward on a very large need.  And, so, this morning, I celebrate and give thanks.