DUANE SHERRILLEditor

Cycling enthusiasts are urging city leaders to consider a bicycle lane on Jackson Street as crosswalks and other safety upgrades are being made to the city’s main thoroughfare.

Hunter Norris, President of the Highland Rim Bicycle Club, called for the consideration when he spoke recently before the city board of mayor and aldermen.

“On Jackson (the idea) is to have a small pathway for cycle and pedestrian use but not car use,” he said. “It’d cut down from Atlantic Street and come between Dr. Mahan’s offices and that building and I assume the cross walk would be in that area and that would allow cyclists to go across that crosswalk and that’d be much safer.”

Norris pointed out that the club recently held a Ride of Silence to bring attention to dangers faced by cyclists. However, this year, there was no police escort so he had to personally get out and stop traffic so that the bikes could cross the crowded thoroughfare.

Along with work on Jackson, Norris shared that another big safety issue for cyclists is on Atlantic Street where railroad tracks that are not being used present a danger to bicyclists.

“They are oblique across the street so when a cyclists comes across that they have to go 90 degrees,” he pointed out. “Those tracks are not being used but they’ve been there ever since I’ve been here. I would think they would be very easily removed if we could get CSX to do that.”

Along with addressing cycle safety, Norris also lamented about there being no soap box derby race in Tullahoma this past year. According to city sources, the derby is not dead but is instead being retooled and should be back next year.

“I’m invested in that because I’ve been involved in almost every race for the past 20 years,” Norris noted. “The very first champion we had in Tennessee was from right here in Tullahoma.”