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Rob Ladson, Kosciusko County Highway superintendent and engineer, is working on establishing policies regarding bike paths in the county.
Tuesday, he asked the county commissioners for their input so he would have clear direction when groups approach him about establishing bike paths.
Commissioner Brad Jackson suggested Ladson work out policies on his own and then "bounce them off" the commissioners.
Ladson said he believes bicycle paths need to be physically separated from traffic. In this area, bike paths likely will be used by schoolchildren, not semi-professional riders, so there is a safety factor. He asked the commissioners if they wanted bike paths to be at the same grade of the road or separated.
Some places, commissioner Avis Gunter said, won't be able to be separated because of the lack of land available.
Ladson said the message he's received from the county was that the county won't fund bike paths or maintain them. Bike paths are a good thing, but the county needs standards for them.
The county, commissioner Ron Truex said, needs to be careful about calling a wide road a bike path.
Aesthetics also is an issue, Ladson said, as is maintenance of the bike paths. The speed limit of the road the bike path follows is a consideration, said Jackson.
Jackson said there are going to be some areas where a four-foot shoulder will have to be called a bike path because there will be no way around it. As the process of the creation of bike paths unfolds, Jackson said, there will be some good ideas and some bad.
The consensus of the commissioners, Truex said, is that the county, at this point, will not maintain or fund bike paths, but the commissioners are supportive of them.
