Asheville Street Tweaks Team

Final plan for Street Tweaks Tactical Urbanism Project

Who is on the Street Tweaks team?

Asheville Street Tweaks is a collaborative effort led by Asheville on Bikes, the AARP, North Carolina, Mountain Region, and the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club. As a group, we are focused on making public spaces more accessible, safe, and functional for all users. This is a big goal, but we can achieve it effectively and efficiently with the input and help of the community.

Current projects:

  1. Westwood Place and Waynesville Ave Traffic Circle (Installed Summer 2021)
  2. Coxe Avenue Corridor Improvements (Installed 2018, left in place at City request)

Want to see proof that tactical urbanism works?

Read the study from the Coxe Avenue tactical urbanism project!

Coxe Avenue relationship of vehicle speed to pedestrian risk

What does the Asheville Street Tweaks Team do?

We design and build improvements using tactical urbanism: smaller-scale, community-driven efforts as opposed to large-scale, top-down projects. We make incremental, cheaper changes to identify what really benefits street users before the city invests huge amounts of time, tax dollars, and people-power in redesign. Tactical urbanism removes much of what city officials fear when facing these projects—high costs, lengthy disruptions, and risk the work won’t pay off—and allows positive changes to happen quickly with little risk.

Tactical urbanism works because the entire process is community-driven and empowers community members to re-envision and rebuild their infrastructure in a way that serves them.

Our projects are experimental and temporary in nature. The Street Tweaks Team works with the community and planning experts to design, install, and track months-long experimental changes to specific streets and public spaces in Asheville. The goal is to figure out which changes stick and which ones aren’t practical or useful. Street tweaks we make include:

  • High visibility crosswalks
  • Separated bike lanes
  • Sidewalk extensions to accommodate multiple users
  • Protected on-street parking
  • Bike boxes/ corrals

Asheville Street Tweaks projects

Westwood Place and Waynesville Avenue Neighborhood Traffic Circle

Coxe Avenue Tactical Urbanism Project

  • The Coxe Avenue Tactical Urbanism project was built between November 1st and Nov 4th, 2018.
  • In January 2020 we released our study of the results from the Coxe Avenue Project, including before and after photos, a before and after traffic study, and survey responses. Click here to view the Coxe Avenue Tactical Urbanism study results.
  • After a successful 1 year+ install, this project was scheduled for removal during the Spring of 2020, following guidelines set out by the Memorandum of Understanding and instructions from City staff. The City asked us to pause that removal work because this project created a much wider public sidewalk area, allowing for proper social distancing on the corridor. Thus this project is left in place for the time being, pending further guidance from the City of Asheville. Thank you to all who participated!

The Coxe Avenue redesign was our first tactical urbanism project. For this project, The Asheville Street Tweaks Team worked with Street Plans Co-Founder and tactical urbanism expert Tony Garcia, as well as members of our community. The City of Asheville plans to redesign this corridor in the near future, and the Coxe Avenue Street Tweaks report will directly inform what permanent changes are made.

Tony Garcia of Street Plans during a public meeting to gather input for the Coxe Avenue project
Mike Sule speaking at a public planning session

Read more about our Tactical Urbanism Projects:

Help Asheville Street Tweaks make better streets. Donate today.

This is our loving ask: give us your money so we can put it to work changing Asheville forever. Your financial support is vital and our tactical urbanism projects are big ticket items for our non-profit. Giving to Asheville on Bikes is something you should do if you like causing change – we are taking real action right now to improve Asheville’s public spaces. Together we can build the streets that you and your neighbors feel safe and happy using.