Travel Lightly Day encouraged students and other city dwellers to leave their car in the garage for a while and celebrate alternative transportation.
The celebration was held all day Tuesday on Greene Street as a partner event to Earth Jam. Organizations lined up tables on Greene Street to inform students about how they are working to create a better way of living for Columbia and USC’s campus.
Michael Juras, a member of the Bike Pedestrian Advisory Committee, stood behind the BPAC table and shared with passersby what the organization calls the “Master Plan.”
“We are here to sort of promote what the Walk Bike Columbia Master Plan has recommended for the city in terms of pedestrian intersections and bicycle facility improvements,” Juras said, “to make the city a little bit more accessible to those who don’t want to use a car.”
Juras said Columbia is one of the last major cities in the country to have this plan take place. The “Master Plan” includes bike lanes, buffer bike lanes and cycle tracks, all designated parts of the road to accommodate for bikes and pedestrians.
Focusing more on the specific area of USC’s campus, Richland County's Transportation Penny Program had its own table during the celebration.
Anthony Lawrence, TPP’s assistant program manager, said the program is dedicated to creating sidewalk, bikeway, greenway and pedestrian improvement for the university. He brought his own giant map to show the progress.
“This map illustrates the sidewalk projects and bikeway projects primarily that are in and around the University of South Carolina,” Lawrence said. “These are projects that are scheduled to be constructed over the next couple of years. They will in essence improve the quality of life here at USC and Richland County and in the city of Columbia.”
Betty Gregory, the community involvement coordinator for TPP, said they will not only focus directly on campus but also have plans to improve traffic flow around Williams-Brice Stadium during game days and increase safety of students who want to bike to campus.
Students walking through the event, such as first-year education student Meredith Funk, were pleased to see the effort going into keeping them safer on campus and around the city.
“I was glad to see this out here,” Funk said, “because campus is accommodating to pedestrians but some bikes get in the way going down small pathways during class change. They’ll try to dodge you and it’s not good.”
After the Travel Lightly Day setups on Greene Street, students are more confident that efforts are being made to create better and safer ways to bike and walk around Columbia.