What a disaster Asheville’s Merrimon Avenue road-narrowing project has turned out to be. 

The 1.5-mile segment on Merrimon from W.T. Weaver Boulevard to Midland Road (at Beaver Lake) recently was changed from a four-lane to a two-lane, with a turning lane in middle that, evidently, few people know how to use.

Worse, the extra lane that was removed from use by motor vehicle traffic was divided into a half lane on each side of Merrimon for bicycle lanes — that rarely, if ever, are used.

So all of the aforementioned amounts to a scenario where a minuscule, well-to-do group of elite bicyclists (Ashevillke on Bikes, led by Mike Sewell) are being catered to, while the great majority of motor vehicle traffic is being significantly unfairly disadvantaged. And those motor vehicle drivers, to a large extent, are the hard-working laborers who are the backbone of Asheville’s economy.

And this is just the tip of the “road diet” iceberg nightmare, as plans are in the works for similar road-narrowing projects to allow for bike lanes on busy thoroughfares throughout the city. 

To address this injustice, we think it is high time that Asheville impose a bicycle registration fee on those few elitists on bikes who are so greatly inconveniencing the deadline-driven, hard-workers who make our local economy run. 

We should take a page from Honolulu, Hawaii, where “all bicycles in the city and county of Honolulu with 20-inch or larger wheels are required to be registered.” 

In the Honolulu system, its code states, “There is a one-time fee of $15 — and a fee of $5, when transferring ownership of a bicycle. 

“After payment of the fee, the owner will be provided with a decal to be attached to the bicycle frame’s seat tube facing the forward direction. 

“All taxes collected from the registration fees are deposited in a special bikeway fund (Fund 140) which can only be used for bicycle-related city projects and programs.)”

The funds from the bicycle registration fee then should be earmarked to fund any future bike lanes and bike paths in the city, with no other taxpayer funds used for those purposes.  

In closing, we think it is time to declare the Merrimon Avenue road-narrowing a complete disaster — and the city should cough up the $300,000 it reportedly will take to return this crucial north-south corridor to its former — and managable — four lane configuration.