Matariki

The American Tobacco Trail, our local rails-to-trail, was for many years split by I-40 into northern and southern segments. Only by negotiating traffic-laden multi-lane roads could an intrepid cyclist bridge the two. In planning for many years and in construction many more, the bridge finally opened in 2014.

This report goes a long way in showing the return on investment for such endeavors and perhaps will precipitate such projects in other communities.

CliffordK

This is always good to see. One of the important things for a trail is to have good connections.

I used to ride the Springwater trail in Portland, but at the time, it had horrendous connections, for example it just ended at McLoughlin Street with no way to get onto or off of the trail. I think they've now extended it a bit, so I'll have to check it out again.

St. Louis did a huge project connecting the Creve Coeur Park to the Katy Trail. Very nice indeed, although the miles would add up quickly. Now if they only extended the trail into St. Louis and Kansas City, but perhaps that will come in time.

One of the things that the City of Eugene does is whenever they need to punch a pipe across the Willamette river, they build a bicycle bridge, so there are now more bike (MUT) bridges than car bridges, although sometimes it takes a few years to get all the infrastructure joined (I now see a few people on a bridge to nowhere that was built a few decades ago).

AbbertHobs

At my place, motorcycles are the most popular transportation so the road infrastructure is also quite suitable for cycling. I can bike to wherever motorcycle or car can go and even where cars can not reach.

Deal4Fuji

With such a detailed study on almost all impacts of the ATT, you would think crime rate would be mentioned somewhere. I brothers in both Raleigh & Chapel Hill, and my brother in Raleigh refuses to ride the ATT because he's read so many reports of crime. Hopefully with the new bridge and increased usage, the number of incidents has gone down. I'm really glad to see the improvements and hope we'll get him to change his mind

spare_wheel

I could not disagree more. I think recreational cycling resources should be a low priority because they are:

1) Expensive.
2) Typically inferior shared facilities that are potentially dangerous for transportation cyclists.
3) Typically disconnected from the transportation network.
4) Very costly to maintain over time.

I have no problem with dual purpose transportation resources that can be secondarily used for recreation but, IMO, facilities that emphasize recreation harm the adoption of cycling for transportation.

Chris516

I am glad it was finally bridged.

genec

You make some good points... and based on most paths that I have seen, you are generally correct. Bike paths should be designed for transportation by roads departments and then properly built and maintained as such. Here I see both... the "parks department" stuff is rough and sad, with tight radii turns which require cyclists to go slow. The stuff designed by Caltrans (state road department) is wide, well maintained, well marked and quite smooth. I can't ride faster than the trail is designed for... it will easily handle 18MPH cyclists.

So the real issue is not that bike paths are bad or that they don't increase property values... but that they should be designed for transportation, as you point out. And parks departments should not be in the bike path business.

AngeloDolce

Is Caltrans involved with offroad paths, or just on street facilities?

The trails I've seen in PA (especially Chester Valley and others nearby, large parts of Schuylkill) are justified as facilities for commuters to secure transportation funds, but they are built and maintained by the parks dept. As park facilities, the trails have stop signs at all road crossings, and are officially closed at dusk. Since darkness prevents their use for winter commuting, there is no snow removal.

genec

To answer your first question... for the most part Caltrans does highway work and the streets that cyclists normally use are taken care of by local city resources... however... in one local instance, when a farm highway was being upgraded to a limited access freeway, Caltrans designed the adjacent bike path (cyclists were not going to be allowed to use the freeway... but had commuted for decades on the farm highway).

Caltrans used their transportation knowledge to design a nice pathway very suitable for high speed commuting... it joins a private pathway (belongs to some condos) and a city pathway (has your basic park path issues...) for the end result of a complete pathway that somewhat parallels the old farm highway.

The part that Caltrans designed and built is very suitable for high speed cyclists, and somewhat resembles a scaled down limited access freeway; it has wide radius turns, signs and exits. Even a couple of nice bridges.

The city portion has some issues... it crosses a weir that floods a couple of times a year (a bridge would have worked perfectly), and then at the terminus to a rather busy arterial road, there are no curb cuts for the path... so cyclists have to lift their bikes over the curb... but again, this is the city portion... you know, park paths...). Oh and the city portion has no signs indicating that the path even exists... it's like that old joke... "county road maintenance ends here."

BTW the very stuff you cite is just a clear cut indicator of how bikes are NOT treated as viable transportation... just toys. Closed at dark... sheesh. Do they close the hiways at dark too?

Worknomore

My son lives about a mile from the ATT so I get to ride it frequently every visit. What a treat it has been watching this beautiful trail progress each year. With the I 40 bridge I can now ride all the way into downtown Durham not having to brave very busy, narrow roads. I'm hoping progress moves south towards Apex now, then I can ride off street from one son the the other!!

CliffordK

Roads and freeways are expensive.
Putting in a 5 foot wide path that follows the terrain is cheap. Rails to Trails are also cheap as most of the infrastructure already exists.
As mentioned, Eugene decided a while ago that whenever they needed to put in a main water/sewer branch line that crossed the Willamette River, that they would build a bike bridge, as the added expense was minimal. Portland hasn't done the same thing, perhaps because the river is 2 or 3 times as wide up there.

Many of the bike paths around Eugene have not been repaved for decades. I presume they sweep them periodically, but they should be able to manage the maintenance costs. Root damage? Perhaps it depends a bit on the path foundation. Missouri decided not to pave the Katy Trail. I assume it needs periodic grooming, but they saved up front on the paving.

The best trails around here are in fact connected to the main transportation network, and it may in fact be a shortcut to get between certain locations. There are many rides that are much, much easier on the bike paths. In fact, the alternative to get to some locations may be taking a busy freeway with several interchanges.

There is one new trail in Springfield that is a bit isolated, but it does get quite a bit of use in part because it is isolated from the transportation network.

As far as parks maintenance vs highway maintenance. I could care less. If it is a median strip, perhaps it should be defined as a highway. If it is a isolated and surrounded by greenery, then it is a park, even a long, skinny park.

Ok, here is a simple route comparison.
Going from REI in Eugene to Valley River Center in Eugene.


By Car (BLUE), head to 6th avenue (one of the busiest streets in Eugene), through a stoplight, then up over the Washington Jefferson Street Overpass/Bridge FREEWAY (HWY 126/135). Do a loopity-loop onto Delta Highway. Another loopity-Loop exit onto an overpass back over the freeway. Through about 3 more stoplights, and you arrive on some very busy roads leading to the shopping mall. Total distance according to Google, 2.2 miles.

By bike, (GREY), head directly towards the river. Along the river, catch the riverside bike trail for about 3/4 mile. Then cross the bike/pedestrian bridge, and end up at the back side of the Valley River Center parking lot. Not a single stoplight, and perhaps a couple of stopsigns. Total distance according to Google, 1.6 miles (which is probably overestimating it if you count just to the edge of the parking lot).

Depending on where you're headed at the shopping center, a bike could likely beat the car by a couple of minutes.

Now, who wants to do a price comparison of 2.2. miles of freeway, about half of it elevated above ground level vs 1.6 miles of bike path?

spare_wheel

Exactly what I meant...and less inflammatory too.

spare_wheel

So trails that are intended to function as a transportation route are better than trails that are intended as recreation? I should also note that some of Eugene's best trails were modeled after the Davis green loop and were therefore intended to function as transportation (and recreation).

howsteepisit

My experience on the Eugene trails is that they are shared as recreation paths with dog walkers, joggers, kid strollers and housewife coffee klatches all taking up the width of the trail. It's impossible to think of them as serious transportation links under a shared recreation scenario. I still like and use them, but it's mostly when I am recreating, not actually trying to get somewhere in a reasonable bit of time.

But the bridges are fantastic!

CliffordK

I'm not sure.
Maybe.

The notes I'm seeing on the Davis Green Loop indicate that it was mainly planned in the mid 80's, although there may have been some isolated paths before that.

The main bike path in Eugene along the Willamette river between D street in Springfield and the UofO Campus and Valley River Center was certainly in existence prior to 1980. I believe the Amazon path and Pre's Trail date back to about Steve Prefontaine's death in 1975.

There certainly has been a lot of building since then including expanding the Alton Baker Park area and both converting roads to trails and extending the paths along the freeway and further into town.

No doubt there is collaboration between communities with reasonably successful trail systems. Part of the "greenway" idea is the use of natural resources (river, canals, etc) to expand MUTs.

CliffordK

It may depend on where you're headed to and from. I frequently hit the trails when going between Springfield and Eugene, and often choose the trails on the south side of the river as they usually have fewer pedestrians than the north side.

I participated in a race of Jr High students on the trails years ago. What a stupid and dangerous idea. So, I don't think I'd think of them as a serious racing/training area to hit 20+ MPH. However, they are handy for ordinary commuting.

There are a few roads that I try to stay with traffic, 20 - 25 mph, and that just beats me up, especially if there are too many stop lights.

spare_wheel

Yeah...this is the area I was referring too...

B. Carfree

Ah, but the devil is in the details. Since the grey bike route is "just" a bike route, the cops won't do any patrol work there. So, as you roll along Washington St, choose between the under water, muddy bike path or the gravel road that has twenty inch deep potholes. If you choose the path, don't annoy the trolls who have taken up residence or they will take your bike. And be sure to have fenders; all that's brown isn't mud. Turn west onto the South Bank Path and wave to the trolls who live under the freeway overpass. If you're female, be prepared for a bit of a sprint. More than one woman of my acquaintance has had to fight for possession of her bike here. Oh, and be careful; all the trolls have knives. Continuing west, watch for falling trees as you approach N. Adams. The trolls are "harvesting" fuel for their nightly bonfire there. At Maurie Jacobs, be aware that five trolls control the rest rooms (just hold it until you get to the mall) and their friends have the bench on the other side of the path. They move between the two without warning, as does their unleashed pit bull, so take care. Assuming you make it to the Greenway Bridge, watch for fish hooks flying through the air (whether or not it's fishing season); glasses are a good idea. Fun stuff that motorists never get to see.

Is it any wonder Eugene has fewer cyclists now than it did four years ago?

B. Carfree

As someone who lived in Davis from 1980-2000 and Eugene from 2000-present, I've got to object to this. This so-called green loop was nothing more than a plan on paper that was basically a grad. project until after the turn of the Millennium. Even though it was "adopted" by the city after the bikes mostly left, it made no changes to what was planned and it certainly doesn't connect anything. It's not even a joke, just some stencils on sidewalks.

Eugene basically has two bike paths of any length. One was initially set up in the '70s under our only city politician who ever rode a bike, the same time that Davis was booming with bikes (but no bike infrastructure to speak of). While it has been slightly added to, it's basically a crappy, unnecessarily curvy thing with willfully placed hazards throughout that was clearly designed by a landscape architect who has never ridden a bike.

The other path is similar, but has several low-ceilinged underpasses that flood with mud with the slightest rain (it does rain occasionally here) and has so many stop signs at minor roads it wouldn't be worth using but for the horrific nature of the parallel roads (door-zone bike lanes, two-foot bike lanes, high-speed commuter traffic, all of the above). Of course it is always strewn with large chunks of glass, so it can be an expensive ride. The western section of this kind of goes no where, unless you think being dropped off on a commuter short-cut road is somewhere.

You were sooo right when you said bike paths should be designed for transportation. These are clearly more for recreation, as in illegal off-leash dog walking and such. They are almost dysfunctional as bike paths.

CliffordK

B. Carfree, I suppose we have a bit different view of the Eugene paths. I've been on them since I was in my young teens, and have never had a problem, nor have I ever thought that anybody would try to take my bike (if they could catch me). I did meet some grumpy people at Alton Baker Park after dark when I arrived late for an event once. But, I just left, and let them be grumpy.

Yeah, a few potholes down around the old Planing Mill (REI). That is sometimes an end-point for me, heading East from that section, so there are ways of getting to the path without running through a gravel parking lot, and perhaps only loosing a few feet of travel distance if one chose to cut back westward.

As far as waste on the path... I did pass a few Canadian Honkers that weren't that wild and making a quite mess. Do people feed them?

Glass?
Much less on the bike paths than the roads.

Yes, a few connections make one just wonder what they were thinking. The new DeFazio bridge does have reasonable road connections, but ends about 10 feet above the bike path without good connections down to the path.

The new Springfield bike path is supposed to close at dark. I haven't tried it after dark because it is in an awkward location. Too bad they haven't connected the two paths yet.

Yes, some things are a bit odd with the design, and not designed for 20 MPH maneuvering (not bad for a casual stroll though). However, in the busy areas, I don't want to be more than a second away from being stopped with my foot on the ground.

Matariki

There were a few incidents, upon which the news gravitated excessively, playing on folks' fears. The issue is the perception, not the reality.