Grindstone Pkwy between Providence Rd and Hwy 63

I thought I would start the actual reviews with what I think is the best bike lane in town. This bike lane isn't perfect, but it's really not bad. Here are a few photos that I took while headed east on the road:

As you can see, there is a sign indicating that the bike lane is for bicycles only.  It is wide, free of debris, lacking potholes or drainage grates, and those seams are too tight to get even the skinniest of bike tires stuck in.  All of these are excellent qualities for a bike lane to have.

It also has signs indicating that motorists making right turns must yield to bicycles.















The westbound bike lane is comparable to this one.

Really, the only problem with this lane is its location.


View Grindstone Pkwy Bike Lane in a larger map

First, I'd like to apologize for the quality of the map.  I couldn't figure out how to make it automatically display at a closer zoom.  I'm also not sure why the line along Grindstone isn't syncing up to the road.  It looks right on the original.  Maybe I'll figure be able to solve both those problems for future entries.  In the meantime, I think you can figure out which road the bike lane is on.  Go ahead and take a second to zoom in and view the whole thing in all its splendor.

The square near the top is central Columbia, where most bicycle commuting happens.  This area includes not only downtown, but three universities, two hospitals, loads of student housing neighborhoods, and more businesses than I can count.  Furthermore, it's relatively flat which is incredibly conducive to the average bicycle commuter.  Anyone living outside of this area is likely to commute into central Columbia at least four days per week, often more.

The line along the bottom is the bicycle lane currently under discussion.  It's approximately two miles long.  In that two miles, there are precisely two roads that connect it directly to central Columbia:  Providence and Rock Quarry.

Rock Quarry is a narrow, windy, and hilly road that I didn't even bother to take pictures of.  Just imagine a two lane with no shoulder, trees on both sides and visibility of less than 30 feet at any point.  Now you have it.  It's quite beautiful, but also quite dangerous to travel along by any means other than an automobile.  This being the case, anyone wishing to get from the Grindstone area to central Columbia (or vice versa) by bicycle is likely to take Providence.

Providence is a massive road with a large shoulder.  It is four lanes wide, has a speed limit of 55mph, and is heavily trafficked at all hours of the day.

This is the southward view standing just south of Stadium Blvd, or just outside of downtown Columbia.  This is the road that you must travel to get between Grindstone Pkwy and central Columbia.

You are looking down a large hill that leads to another, equally large hill heading upward.  (This picture was taken with my cameraphone and doesn't come close to doing them justice.)  Each of these hills is about 3/4 of a mile long.  Climbing them from either direction is no joke.  Frankly, these hills may be virtually impossible to climb for anyone but the most dedicated commuter.

As if that weren't bad enough, the shoulders are in wretched shape.

This picture was taken facing northward in the valley between the aforementioned hills.  I am only including the one picture, but this is what the shoulder looks like on average for the entirety of this road along both sides.  Sure, some sections are better, but some are worse.  This means that not only is it difficult to climb these hills, but a cyclist must also exercise extreme caution descending the hills.  It's a no-win situation when traveling this road.














There's basically no reason for anyone to ever ride along Grindstone.  There's nothing out there but shopping centers.  Sure, people live out that way and could conceivably ride from their house to the store, but again, this is something that only the most dedicated commuter would consider.  Unfortunately, there's no way that a dedicated bicycle commuter would move out there in the first place.  A dedicated bicycle commuter will choose his or her residence with that mode of transportation in mind and there's simply no way that anyone with that consideration in mind would move to this area.  This is probably why I've never seen anyone riding a bike in these lanes.

Fantastic Timing!

I think that the gods have smiled on this blog.  One of our local newspapers posted this article today:  GetAbout Columbia trail projects delayed, but progressing.

The story itself isn't that interesting, but note the neat little interactive map under "MoreStory".  (Yes, it's all one word like that.  I'm not too sure about their editors.)  You can also just click here if you're lazy and want to cut to the chase.

This fancy little drawing makes it look like CoMo is super bike friendly, doesn't it?  Well, since they've provided an interactive, let's make this an interactive blog.  Follow the directions below.  

1. Open that map in a new window or tab.
2. Click where it says "hide info icons".  They're just messy and in the way.  
3. Let's only deal with the Existing Systems since we don't actually know which of the Planned Systems will be approved.  We also don't actually know which will be successful if and when they're finished.  Let's just remove them all for clarity's sake.  Click on each of the items under "Planned Systems", that will get the job done.
4. The existing bike trails in Columbia are magnificent recreational trails.  Unfortunately, they're made of crushed limestone.  If you try to commute on them, your nice work clothes get covered in a fine, white dust.  Basically, they're useless for anything beyond recreation.  Click on "Trail" to remove them from the map. 
5. You'll notice by now that our map is looking pretty sparse.  Still, we have few striped bike lanes (I'm not sure what an unstriped bike lane looks like) around town.  Pause for a second and note how many of those are barely two miles long and how sparsely they are spread as a whole.  

This is the reality of Columbia's bicycle transportation system.  Sort of.  The reason I say "sort of" is simple: most of those bike lanes are mostly useless.  We'll talk about why that is in the future.

Next time on Failed Bike Lanes:  What makes a bike lane fail?

Stay tuned!

Goals

I've been commuting primarily by bicycle for over ten years and let me tell you, cyclists living in Columbia, MO are pretty dang lucky. Granted, it's no Davis, CA, but it sure isn't bad.

Despite living smack in the middle of the Midwest, a region that is generally hostile toward cyclists, Columbia is well known among its populace as generally being a bike-friendly town. Our recently retired mayor, who was a huge advocate of non-motorized transportation, remained in office for 15 years and was often seen cycling to and from work. During that time, he actively campaigned to encourage non-motorized transportation in Columbia.

Furthermore, in 2005 we received a $21.5 million grant from the federal government to explore how we could make our community more cycling friendly. The stated purpose of this grant is to "demonstrate the extent to which bicycling and walking can carry a significant part of the transportation load, and represent a major portion of the transportation solution, within selected communities." Columbia's specific application of this grant was to attempt to make the city safer for, and more appealing to, those wishing to employ non-motorized transportation; basically an "if you build it, they will come" approach.

You have probably guessed from the title of this blog that I haven't found much of the application of this grant to have been very successful, specifically the applications to bicycle commuting. My goal for the remainder of this blog is to show what the shortcomings have been so that, hopefully, others won't make the same mistakes in the future. That's not to say that I think that the purpose stated by the grant writers hasn't been proven (in fact, I think Columbia residents had proved this before the city received the grant), rather that Columbia has been unsuccessful in creating a safer and more appealing environment for bicycle commuters, and in many ways has actually made the city less safe for us.