Originally Posted by
GTcommuter
I don't completely disagree with the previous two posts, but they've painted an overly grim picture. I've been biking around the city for a while now and enjoy my ride every day. I'm coming from Decatur, on the east side like everyone has recomended, and have about a 8 mile commute to school. I know about a dozen people that do that everyday, mostly from Candler Park, Edgewood, Reynoldstown, and Decatur.
Atlanta has developoed a lot of traffic problems over the past few decades, but a lot of positive changes are in the pipeline. The new Beltline project should be underway in the next few years, connecting most of the intown neighborhoods with a paved bike path and eventually light rail. And the boom in intown housing and infill, along with some progressively minded developers, should start to update the neighborhood street systems and increase routes for commuters.
Bike commuting in Atlanta is great year-round, though it often takes some creative and dedicated route finding. Email the
Atlanta Bicycle Campaign to find some local biking groups or advice on routes. Try to live on the east side of town in the the Ponce de Leon or Dekalb Avenue corridor neighborhoods and you'll be all set.
+1. It's not hard to find bad roads. It's not very difficult to find good roads. It takes a good bit of planing at first. Then you'll learn good arteries and quicky put together routes you like. I live in Decatur and work in Sandy Springs. I can ride on terrible roads and get to work in 15 miles. But I ride a very sweet route I've learned and do 20 instead.
East/West the Stone Mountain trail is great. North/South, the Beltline. More and more offshoots keep getting built. Significant improvement just in the last year with more in the plans for 2014. The mayor wants us on the top ten cities list.
I've commuted here for 20+ years. It gets better all the time.