onehandman

I'm moving to the Atlanta GA metro area from Michigan and need help locating a community to live that has same interest as me(cycling, and running). I would prefer to live in the suburbs. My main goal is to stay within a reasonable driving distance to the airport hr to hour and a half. The research i've done appears I will want to look towards the north north east side, but never living in GA I am unsure where to start. Thanks in advance, Paul

RonH

You can't use cycling and Atlanta in the same sentence.
I moved from there 1.5 years ago to get away from the traffic.
If you MUST live there try Decatur/Tucker and you can ride to Stone Mtn or Little Five Points (L5P). Lots of cyclists and bike commuters in that part of town.
Good luck.

tbdean

I live in the area you are describing - hour from the airport, north east suburbs. I would also like to find a community that likes cycling. Because it's not Lawrenceville, I can tell you that.

In addition to the area Ron suggested, I've also hear Roswell is good.

DaHaMac

Check out Peachtree City on the Southside of Atlanta and Southside Cycling Club (SouthSide Cycling Club, serving riders in Atlanta's South Suburbs) or down 75, check out McDonough and Southern Crescent Cycling (Southern Crescent Cycling - Home).

I live way, way south of the Airport out in the country with the dogs and pick-up trucks.

ahsposo 

You don't specify the type of riding you prefer.

The loop around Stone Mountain is a great road ride if you don't mind repetition. There's a velodrome in East Point if you are a trackie. If you like MUPs there is the Silver Comet trail in Smyrna.

Here's a map of mountain bike trails in the area: Atlanta Area Mountain Biking - Mountain Bike Trails


Oh, and I used to enjoy doing hill repeats at Kennesaw Mountain...

I never rode this but always heard good things about this raod ride in SW metro: https://www.sadlebred.com/maps/silksheets2.pdf

Athens80

Atlanta is the 9th most populous metropolitan area in the US and people are still moving to Atlanta at a brisk rate -- 4.5% growth so far in 2010s. Here's a generalization -- the subdivisions put up in recent decades to receive that population growth favor motorized traffic, not walking nor cycling, and not much public transportation. Many subdivisions are isolated from one another, connected only by wide, higher speed roads with lots of vehicles. Tbdean's Lawrenceville and much of Gwinnett County (population 842 thousand) probably fit that bill: lots of residential developments that connect only by busy arterial roads.

To ride from your home, it's better to be near a neighborhood which has not exploded in population in recent decades, whether inside Atlanta or in a neighboring town with some history at a certain size. There are plenty of residential roads which connect. You do encounter stop signs and traffic lights.

Judging by the many recreational cyclists I see, plenty of people are happily riding in Atlanta.

That's supported by the 2014 Alliance for Biking and Walking Benchmarking Report. Among 52 large US cities, Atlanta (speaking of the city, not the metropolitan area) is middle to upper-middle in cycling activity and safety (18th in bicycle commuting, 15th in project spending, 7th in bicyclist fatality rates -- where 1 is best and 52 worst).

To borrow from another recent thread:

Check out the Southern Bicycle League, Southeastern Cycling and the Path Foundation.

If you are willing to ride with cars a fair bit and to plan your routes to avoid the least suitable roads, you'll be fine inside Atlanta and neighboring cities such as Decatur.

To check out areas of interest, look at where people actually ride -- use lots of data, in addition to the comments of some friends at bikeforums. Use mapping sites like Google maps (turn Bike Paths on) and RideWithGPS.com to see routes which cyclists have identified. Zoom in on the Strava Heatmap to see where Strava cyclists actually ride. The active route you see heading west into Alabama is the Silver Comet trail; you can read more about that at the Path Foundation. Heading east from Atlanta a popular route is the Path to Stone Mountain.

Atlanta is moderately hilly; not much flat, but lots of alternating up and down. For a day trip to longer climbs, head a little ways up to north Georgia and ride the terrain that was part of the Tour de Georgia, which was a 2.HC UCI stage race until it closed during the Great Recession. The hills of the Six Gap Century are probably the best known.

BikePackin

Paul - While recognizing your interest in the "north north-east side," the west (maybe think Smyrna vicinity & west there of?) side would nearly always be less time getting to/from the airport while also offering you close access to the bike/hike contiguous trails Silver Comet Trail + Chief Ladiga Trail (90+ miles worth of well maintained paved surface, in addition to various spurs).
Best wishes with your living location evaluation process.

wphamilton

Roswell has some acclaim as bicycle-friendly, at least in the context of Georgia cities, but I just don't see it. Maybe I never haunted the friendly parts, but I prefer Alpharetta if you can deal with heavier traffic.

Athens80

Strava themselves have been making their aggregate ride data more accessible to the public. They host a nice heatmap of Atlanta area Strava rides here.

harrysachz

i live in the atlanta but i've read this about decatur: Decatur, GA makes Bicycle-Friendly Communities list! | Atlanta Bicycle Coalition

jschlarb

I live in Gwinnett (Duluth) and there are plenty of great rides from my front door. My favorite is a 50-mile ride to Lake Lanier and back, which passes through Suwanee and Buford. There are also 3 very nice multi-use greenways in Gwinnett, about 10 miles each. I prefer the secondary roads so I don't have to dodge strollers. ;-)

Check out out the Strava heat maps, they'll show the most heavily travelled roads by bike. I use this to create my routes.

RamahX

Not sure how far North your willing to live but Dahlonega is great for riding toad bikes