Nearly 1 million tires are illegally dumped on Memphis streets each year, according to Keeping America Beautiful.

But one local group has found a unique method to move the rubber rubbish from vacant lot eyesores to a practical uses protecting local cyclists.

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Binghampton Development Corporation and artist Tad Pierson are addressing the issue by turning 420 of the tires into bicycle lane barriers. 

Trainees in BDC’s workforce development program began on Monday, Jan. 17 installing the barriers along Broad Avenue and will finish by mid-February. When done, the tire barriers will stretch 1.2 miles between Collins Street and North Holmes Street.

“One, I think it’s a practical idea,” Pierson said. “But, two, I think it has an artistic touch to it. When you see it run down the street in a long line, it almost looks like a sculpture. So I’m pleased with it.”

Pierson began working with BDC nearly two years ago to come up with the perfect design for the project. After a six month- design process, Pierson came up with a final configuration he felt was most natural. 

“I just took one tire, sliced it and stretched it out lengthwise,” Pierson said. “A tire wants to retain its memory of being a circle. And so it just naturally has a wave to it when you lay it down flat.”

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Other design concepts he considered, and that may still be used in some capacity for this project, include a delineator with vertically placed tires standing against each other and a construction cone made from tires formed in the shape of a clover.

For the barrier, the sidewall of the tire is cut from the tread with a tread cutter, and then the tread is painted with white stripes and nailed to the road with a variety of tools, including four-inch concrete screws, hammer drills and impact wrenches. 

Although Pierson designed the tires, the trainees in BDC’s workforce development program have taken on the manufacturing and installation process. 

The five trainees have worked out of BDC’s new Business Hub since October. The six-month workforce development program they are participating in was created to help trainees, who may have criminal backgrounds or addiction issues, develop soft skills needed to enter or re-enter the workforce. 

“We love this project, because it’s really full circle,” Andy Kizzee, Business Hub director, said. “It’s taking tires that are causing blight in Binghampton and other neighborhoods like Binghampton and turning that blight into job training opportunities for Binghampton residents.

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“And then the third thing bringing it back full circle is using that product that’s made by trainees into making Binghampton streets safer with bike lanes that are already there, to be more visible and be safer for cyclists and pedestrians.”

The organization has received $60,000 from the City of Memphis, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and other groups to pull off this work. The project is currently in a 12-month observation period. After that time, if the city deems the barriers effective, it will approve them for other parts of the city.

In the meantime, Kizzee plans on marketing the idea to other municipalities and private businesses and organizations. 

If orders come from anywhere within the Mid-South, BDC will carry on the installation. For any entity outside the region, however, BDC would ship the pieces to them along with installation instructions.

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A portion of the bike lane on Broad Avenue being lined with the tire bicycle lane barriers is a part of The Hampline. Sometime in the next couple of years, that section will be upgraded with raised medians to separate the bike lanes from car lanes. At that point, the tire barriers would be removed and placed in other parts of the city. 

“We needed something in the interim to provide a better sense of separation and protection than just paint on the ground,” said Nick Oyler, bikeway and pedestrian program manager for the City of Memphis. 

For now, Oyler thinks the barriers provide just the right kind of low-cost protection needed for the destination popular to bicycle enthusiasts. Eventually, he thinks the barriers could be useful in other communities, as well. 

“I think we are being pioneers here,” he said. “I told some of my peers around the country what we’re doing, people who also work for improving bicycling and walking in their communities. And everyone I’ve talked to about it is pretty excited to see how this goes and sees the potential for their communities as well. So I think it’s great, not just that we’re testing this for our own benefit, but I think, across the country, a lot of other communities could benefit as well.”