Easley Grapples with Bicycle Lanes and Parking

Easley residents and members of the religious community were given an opportunity to voice concerns over the city's bicycle and pedestrian lanes Thursday morning during an informational meeting with city's Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee.

A recent debate has risen over parking in front of the city's churches where bike lanes have been established on South 1st Street and East 1st Avenue. Recently the Easley Police Department issued warning tickets to vehicles that were parked in the bicycle lanes in front of a few downtown churches in an effort to enforce a South Carolina state law.

Pastor William Seel of Easley Presbyterian Church told the committee his church members were not necessarily upset over police issuing the warning tickets.

"The issue for the churches is that we don't have our parking on Sundays that people are accustomed to using," Seel said. "Particularly for our elderly folks who use those places because it's an easy, flat entrance into our sanctuary."

Councilman Chris Mann said he has received concerns from businesses on East 1st Avenue and First Baptist Church regarding the lack of parking on Sundays.

The bicycle lanes currently run on both sides of each street. Councilman David Watson suggested eliminating one of the lanes to allow for more street parking.

"The thing is you are teaching people to ride in the direction of traffic which is dangerous," said Councilwoman Kim Valentin.

Mayor Larry Bagwell said this could also cause a problem between churches as to who was able to use the side without a bike lane.

"Is there any possibility of gaining an exemption on Sunday mornings from 8:30 to 12:30," Seel asked the committee.

Mann said even if city police were to grant such an exception, there would be no way of guaranteeing that county or state police wouldn't issue a citation to vehicles parked in the lanes.

"You can't ask a police officer to ignore the law," Police Chief William Traber said. He further explained that if a vehicle traveling on a street with a bicycle lane were to strike a car parked in that lane, the parked car would have contributed to that accident.

"The person who parked that car, on the accident report, would be shown as having been illegally parked," Traber said. "And there's no getting around that."

Seel also mentioned to the committee that the lanes were not marked anywhere near the churches and asked the city to add more bicycle lane symbols to alert drivers to its presence. Easley City Administrator Jonathan Simons said state law requires the lanes to be marked with a special thermo plastic material which costs the city $250 per marker.

Mayor Bagwell reminded the group that the city decided to move forward with the establishment of the bicycle and pedestrian lanes to encourage residents to follow a more active lifestyle. Bagwell also stressed that the addition of these new lanes and the construction of more sidewalks would be an ongoing process for the city over the course of several more years.

"This is a problem that we are going to face for a while," Bagwell said. "We will work through these problems, it may not be what everyone wants, but somehow we will get through these problems."