(by Mary Newsom, PlanCharlotte)

The local nonprofit group Sustain Charlotte on Thursday announced a campaign asking residents to urge the City of Charlotte to build a protected bike lane through uptown by the end of 2016, to connect east to west.

So … what’s a protected bike lane? It’s an on-street bike lane separated from auto traffic by curbs, planters, parked cars or posts —in other words, by something more than just a stripe of paint on pavement. New York City began installing such lanes in 2007. On streets with on-street parking, for example, pavement was re-painted to place the bike lanes next to the sidewalk with the parking lane next to traffic, using the parked cars as a buffer between cyclists and moving motor vehicles. 

“These are protected bike lanes are being built all over the country, and we don’t have any yet in Charlotte,” Sustain Charlotte executive director Shannon Binns said in an interview. “And we think it’s time that we have them too.” 

Read more here.