About three days a week Gator Cochran commutes by bicycle to the Broad Street office of his construction company.

It’s a healthy, cheap and eco-friendly way to travel.

But the benefits were dramatically offset in March when he was struck by a van that made a left turn into him as he rode down North Augusta's Five Notch Road.

"I tried to get out of his way. He never saw me," Cochran said.

Cochran was thrown 10 feet from his bike as it went under the van. He ended up in the hospital with a football-sized hematoma – a bruise-like sack of clotted blood – on his hip and possible nerve damage in his hand, he said.

He still rides but said he'd like to see increased driver and cyclist education and more bike lanes.

Bike lanes – especially in downtown Augusta – would create more driver awareness and encourage bicycle commuting, according to Cochran and other cyclists.

Although the area has several recreational facilities such as the Augusta Canal tow path and the North Augusta Greeneway, there are few on-street bike lanes connecting commuters to their workplace destinations.

Richmond County, for example, currently has less than a mile of dedicated lanes: half a mile along Fenwick Street from 9th to 13th streets and a tenth of a mile on Fury's Ferry Road inside county lines.

Fixing the problem may take decades rather than years

"As with most public investments it's a gradual thing," said Paul DeCamp, planning director with the Augusta-Richmond County Planning Commission.

One long-standing project – reported by the Augusta Chronicle in 1999 to be completed that year – would have created bike lanes on Wrightsboro road between Barton Chapel and Belair roads.

That project has been extended east to Bobby Jones Expressway and may go to the funding stage in 2009, DeCamp said. The Georgia Department of Transportation is acquiring right-of-way for land to widen the road, and then the project will wait for construction funding.

Other projects reported in 1999 for Columbia County's Baston and Old Petersburg roads are also in the right-of-way acquisition stage, DeCamp said.

DeCamp and an official from the Georgia DOT said road widening projects can stretch longer than anticipated for many reasons including environmental concerns and the time it takes to negotiate for necessary parcels of land. The project to widen Wrightsboro Road, for example, involves 159 property owners.

But there is hope for cyclists who want to ditch their SUVs before gas hits $10 a gallon.

Help is on the horizon

DeCamp said 6.4 miles of bike lanes will be created through projects in Richmond County in the next two years:

- Wrightsboro Road widening: 2.4 miles

- Alexander Drive widening from Washington Road to Riverwatch Parkway: 1 mile

- St. Sebastian Way-Greene Street extension that will connect the medical complex to Riverwatch Parkway: 3 miles

And, in the next four to five years, a widening scheduled for Windsor Spring Road will include eight-foot multi-use paths.

"The whole strategy is to create an interconnected network of bike and pedestrian facilities on arterial roadways," DeCamp said.

It's part of a regional plan for bike and pedestrian facilities developed in 2002 and 2003 by Augusta and neighboring governments.

Cochran, the commuter, said bicycling's popularity is growing tremendously, but he wishes the community was "a little more bicycle-aware".

"If you had the lane, people would respect the lane," he said.

It's a sentiment echoed by other bikers.

Josh Farrow, an employee at the Medical College of Georgia, bikes 2 1/2 miles to work along Greene Street every day. Despite that road's broad width, he said he would feel safer if there were bike lanes.

The biggest problem isn't space – it's drivers not being aware of cyclists and their right to the road, he said.

"If bike icons were painted inside the lanes, it would be self-explanatory. And it might encourage more people to ride bikes," Farrow said.

Cyclists are required to travel in the road with the flow of traffic rather than on sidewalks because bikes are considered vehicles.

People who bike Richmond County's roads to work or school must do so with limited bicycling "facilities," the term for resources such as lanes, road striping and signage.

"We have almost none," said Dennis Ellis, traffic engineering technician with Augusta-Richmond County's traffic engineering division.

Besides the canal path and the Fenwick Street lane, there is State Bike Route #50 which travels from downtown to Thomson and has "Share The Road" signs but no dedicated bike lanes.

DeCamp said one of the regional plan's accomplishments is the three miles of bike lanes on Fury's Ferry Road from Riverwatch Parkway to Evans-to-Locks Road which travel from Columbia County into Richmond County.

Cochran, the bike commuter, said he considers that stretch a perfect example of what is needed elsewhere. He uses that road whenever he is in the area, he said.

Old neighborhoods present challenges

DeCamp also cited improvements to the Augusta Canal tow path and an extension of the Evans-to-Locks Road Multi Use Trail.

These off-street multi-use trails in Columbia and Richmond counties can be shared by cyclists and walkers.

But when creating bike lanes on the street, new road projects may present fewer problems for authorities

"To retrofit existing roadways would be a bit of a challenge," DeCamp said.

Ellis said narrow roads in the city date from the 1700s and 1800s. Roads near the Hill, for example, can't be widened because they are in historic areas, he said.

A safe bike lane requires 12 feet for vehicle traffic and three to four feet off to the side for the bike lane, he said. But car lanes on the hill of Walton Way are only nine to 10 1/2 feet wide.

Ellis added that the problem is exacerbated when cyclists disobey laws by going against the flow of traffic and adopting the mindset that cars must stop for them.

"Honestly, I expect a great many accidents," he said.

Comparing Augusta to Atlanta, Ellis said he doesn't think Augusta is behind the times.

But Andy Jordan, a bicycle shop owner, said Augusta is "grossly behind the times."

"I don't see anything encouraging bikes to be ridden. And if the city wants to improve its image, it needs to spend some money," he said.

Bodily harm isn't the only danger for bike commuters. They also have to worry about the security of their bike while they spend the day in the office.

Jordan said commuters who spend thousands on their bikes don't want to leave them outside, exposed to the elements. So to encourage transportation alternatives among their employees businesses should invest in bike lockers rather than racks.

But even bike racks are rare in Augusta, Jordan and Farrow both said.

Despite the difficulties, Farrow said Augusta is a beautiful place to ride.

Gas prices didn't drive his decision to start commuting by bicycle. But he said he does think biking is cheaper, healthier and better for the environment than driving a car.

"I feel better about myself because I'm getting the exercise I need and I'm not contributing to our pollution problem."