I was very pleased to see this article about a proposed bike path in the Tribune recently. This seems like a very good use of the funding that we have received from the federal government.
The proposed trail would be in a suburban area that is home to a large number of families. It will connect these subdivisions to our second largest high school. Offering students the chance to commute to school is an important part of laying the foundation for future bicycle commuters. In order for children to experience the sense of self-sufficiency that a bicycle can offer, their parents must give them the freedom to get around by bicycle. An essential component of that permission is the perceived safety of commuting by bicycle.
Some of the roads that this proposed bike path would connect are roads that have been previously reviewed in this blog, namely Providence and Grindstone Parkway. As previously described, Providence is a large road with high speed limits, a terrible shoulder, and no bike lane. Grindstone is a bit better. It offers a decent bike lane, but probably has too high of a speed limit and too much traffic for parents to feel comfortable about allowing their children to ride on it. As I understand it, this new bike path would offer commuters the opportunity to bypass Providence for at least two miles. If it further connects to the MU Recreation Trail, as indicated, it could also provide a safe way for children to commute from the outskirts of town into the downtown area where they are most likely to hang out.
I have previously mentioned that I don't believe the recreational trail system to be a viable rout for bicycle commuters. However, I hadn't considered that children and teens might use it as a commuting route. There is an essential difference between young commuters and adults. Quite simply, children and young adults are not as likely to be concerned about getting a bit dirty. Furthermore, as this two mile stretch of trail is going to be paved, it is useful for adults as well, even if the rest of the trail system isn't.
I am glad to see the city investing in a project of this type. It represents a realization that simply painting lines on the road isn't always enough to create a safe and viable method of bicycle commuting. The proposed rain gardens also ensure that this will not only be a practical route for people to commute on, but an enjoyable one as well. Expect to hear more about this project as it progresses. In the meantime, I'll be looking forward to traversing the finished project.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Columbia: 1, St. Louis: 0
Admittedly, the sole intention of this blog (thus far) is to disparage Columbia's bike lanes. However, I must give credit where credit is due.
I went to St. Louis a few days ago for a baseball game. The girlfriend and I decided that rather than deal with stadium traffic, we'd park at a bar I'm fond of about five miles from the stadium and ride to the game. You see, I grew up in St. Louis and I was wanting to hit this bar after the game for pizza. I had also been noticing on my last few visits that some bike lanes had been springing up around town. I was hoping that we would be lucky enough to stumble across a few so that I could review them. I figured that heading into downtown, we would be bound to see at least one or two.
Well, I saw one. It was a 15 to 20 foot long strip at an intersection that I didn't take a picture of because I would have needed to stop traffic in order to do so. That's it. One single bike lane on five miles of roads stretching from downtown to The Hill.
Oddly enough, we also didn't see many bike racks either. In fact, the only one we saw was right outside the stadium and it was completely packed. We cruised around looking for another one to no avail. We even stopped to ask a police officer who laughed at the idea and told us, "This isn't a very bike friendly town. The only place that they really put bike racks is in The Loop and U-City. They don't put 'em downtown where they might be useful." He kind of trailed off at the end, probably realizing that bike racks are, in fact, also very useful in the U-City area. He went on to tell us that most of the bike trails and lanes were funded by the Parks & Rec department. I found this to be a strong indicator that the City of St. Louis does not view bicycles as a viable form of transportation, but merely as a form of recreation.
All of this was in spite of the fact that we saw signs indicating that St. Louis is a bike friendly town. Wherever we saw these signs, we saw sharrows as well. These sharrows were all fairly well placed within the roadway, but were all on roads where they weren't really necessary. They were on narrow, crowded streets with cars parked along both sides and a light but steady stream of traffic. These are the type of streets where a cyclist doesn't need sharrows, we simply ride where we can. We just don't need the extra guidance. Motorists don't need them either since traffic isn't moving quickly and there's enough going on that they have to pay careful attention to everything.
So Columbia's bicycle transit system might have shortcomings, but so far it appears to be far superior to St. Louis in bicycle friendliness, even though Columbia is a third the size of St. Louis (taking into account only St. Louis's population within city limits). Our efforts might be falling short, at least we're making a real, concerted effort.
I went to St. Louis a few days ago for a baseball game. The girlfriend and I decided that rather than deal with stadium traffic, we'd park at a bar I'm fond of about five miles from the stadium and ride to the game. You see, I grew up in St. Louis and I was wanting to hit this bar after the game for pizza. I had also been noticing on my last few visits that some bike lanes had been springing up around town. I was hoping that we would be lucky enough to stumble across a few so that I could review them. I figured that heading into downtown, we would be bound to see at least one or two.
Well, I saw one. It was a 15 to 20 foot long strip at an intersection that I didn't take a picture of because I would have needed to stop traffic in order to do so. That's it. One single bike lane on five miles of roads stretching from downtown to The Hill.
Oddly enough, we also didn't see many bike racks either. In fact, the only one we saw was right outside the stadium and it was completely packed. We cruised around looking for another one to no avail. We even stopped to ask a police officer who laughed at the idea and told us, "This isn't a very bike friendly town. The only place that they really put bike racks is in The Loop and U-City. They don't put 'em downtown where they might be useful." He kind of trailed off at the end, probably realizing that bike racks are, in fact, also very useful in the U-City area. He went on to tell us that most of the bike trails and lanes were funded by the Parks & Rec department. I found this to be a strong indicator that the City of St. Louis does not view bicycles as a viable form of transportation, but merely as a form of recreation.
All of this was in spite of the fact that we saw signs indicating that St. Louis is a bike friendly town. Wherever we saw these signs, we saw sharrows as well. These sharrows were all fairly well placed within the roadway, but were all on roads where they weren't really necessary. They were on narrow, crowded streets with cars parked along both sides and a light but steady stream of traffic. These are the type of streets where a cyclist doesn't need sharrows, we simply ride where we can. We just don't need the extra guidance. Motorists don't need them either since traffic isn't moving quickly and there's enough going on that they have to pay careful attention to everything.So Columbia's bicycle transit system might have shortcomings, but so far it appears to be far superior to St. Louis in bicycle friendliness, even though Columbia is a third the size of St. Louis (taking into account only St. Louis's population within city limits). Our efforts might be falling short, at least we're making a real, concerted effort.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Sharrows
Dear reader, allow me to introduce you to the sharrow:
Sharrow, meet our readers. Readers, meet the sharrow.
Shared Lane Markings, more commonly called "sharrows", are one way that Columbia has tried to make motorists more aware of cyclists. The one pictured above is an outstanding example of a well-placed sharrow. If you read the linked Wikipedia article (and for those of you who didn't), the purpose of sharrows are to:
When I first saw these popping up (not literally) on the streets of Columbia, I thought they were kind of dumb. As a friend of mine put it, "What's the point of those things? I just drive right over them." I initially thought that they were simply a more visible version of a bike route sign. However, after doing a bit of homework, I think I rather like them. That is, of course, when they're installed correctly. Columbia has many sharrows, some are in perfect locations and others are not. As the focus of this blog is to chronicle failures, we'll naturally be reviewing the ones that are less than perfect.
Sharrow, meet our readers. Readers, meet the sharrow.
Shared Lane Markings, more commonly called "sharrows", are one way that Columbia has tried to make motorists more aware of cyclists. The one pictured above is an outstanding example of a well-placed sharrow. If you read the linked Wikipedia article (and for those of you who didn't), the purpose of sharrows are to:
- Assist bicyclists with lateral positioning in a shared lane with on-street parallel parking in order to reduce the chance of a bicyclist’s impacting the open door of a parked vehicle;
- Assist bicyclists with lateral positioning in lanes that are too narrow for a motor vehicle and a bicycle to travel side by side within the same traffic lane;
- Alert road users of the lateral location bicyclists are likely to occupy within the traveled way;
- Encourage safe passing of bicyclists by motorists; and
- Reduce the incidence of wrong-way bicycling.
When I first saw these popping up (not literally) on the streets of Columbia, I thought they were kind of dumb. As a friend of mine put it, "What's the point of those things? I just drive right over them." I initially thought that they were simply a more visible version of a bike route sign. However, after doing a bit of homework, I think I rather like them. That is, of course, when they're installed correctly. Columbia has many sharrows, some are in perfect locations and others are not. As the focus of this blog is to chronicle failures, we'll naturally be reviewing the ones that are less than perfect.
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