Originally Posted by
Torrilin
Sounds like the roads around your malls are better designed than around here. West Towne Mall is a contributing factor to a really *dire* sequence of intersections. East Towne Mall is if anything worse - probably 4-5 miles worth of poorly designed intersections on the main street running past the mall. I can and do bike to West Towne, but the last 1/4 mile is a real mess and I tend to end up walking. Once I'm through the last 1/4 mile, parking my bike is easy. I should try biking to East Towne at some point (it should in theory be the more accessible mall for me) but the area is so badly designed that I keep putting it off.
The remaining "malls" are all strip malls and are unspeakably inconvenient in winter. No bus stops, piles of snow block sight lines, parking lots iced over... It's not very accessible or comfortable for me, and someone in a wheelchair or walker would find it impossible. If I'm going to walk in an open air mall in winter, I'd rather go downtown and hit State St. State St is *less* impossible, but it's still not a place any sane person would want to be in winter (you do get door to door bus service, but that's *it*).
There are bike lanes out toward East Towne. But I haven't tried biking it. There is no way I am biking out there with the kids. The bus stops out side one of the entrances and there is even a shelter there. So couple times a year we take the bus.
I like State Street, even in winter. I'm not a winter biker though, I take the bus there in winter. And keep in mind that it is not nearly as bad most winters as it was this past winter. Last winter was insane.