Fuck Gas

D.C. marked contraflow bike lanes along two blocks of New Hampshire Avenue a few days ago. I would assume bike lane advocates can’t even be stoked on this one. This is completely counter productive in working towards any kind of bikes are traffic mindset which, in my opinion, is the only logical thing that is going to make the streets any safer. As well, check out the diagram below and Greater Greater Washington for an overview of the debacle.

In case you haven’t heard, the construction on Eastern Parkway at the University of Louisville is finally complete and the road is open. This makes travel in the area a hell of a lot easier with the major thoroughfare open, but what was the point? The project took about a half mile or so of Eastern Parkway between Third Street and I-65 down to one automobile lane and one bike lane in each direction with a large central median and a 25 mile per hour speed limit. The last thing being about the only good I see from the project.

For the bike lane advocates out there this must be pretty damn frustrating. As with most bike lanes in Louisville, these are poorly designed as well. The eastbound bike lane ends at a highway off ramp, where the hell do you go from there?

The biggest feat I see that this whole thing accomplished seems to be mere aesthetics. The newly renovated patch of road makes the university appear extremely pedestrian friendly. However, a few minutes spent circling campus will prove otherwise. In all reality 25 miles per hour is plenty fast when considering high pedestrian congestion, regardless of a road being a major thoroughfare or not. I’ve said it plenty of times before, if you drive, slow the fuck down. A speed limit is just that, a limit. You can go slower. After all, what’s the damn hurry?

Looking at the above photo I live to the right, just outside the picture. I work and “play” as they say to the left, a bit farther outside the picture. In the bottom right is one of the most dangerous expressway to surface road interchanges in the city as the looping exit ramps keep automobile traffic on the high end and it is a bit unpleasant to ride through to say the least. That pretty red, yellow and orange loop doesn’t do a lot to help myself and many others ride their bikes to work. However, it’s damn fine for the weekend warriors. Great work Louisville. You’re really setting a benchmark in recreational pedestrian and bicycling facilities. $14.7 million worth.
Here’s the highlights:

• Building walking trail at A.B Sawyer Park, $616,000. The path would start at Whipps Mills Road in Lyndon and meander to near Hurstbourne Parkway. The path would be known as the A.B. Sawyer Greenway.
• Seneca Loop extension $988,350. This project, creating 40 jobs, will provide a 3.9 mile trail loop for pedestrians and bicycles in Seneca Park and around Bowman Field.
• Louisville Loop, $687,500. This project will repair a slope failure on the existing trail adjacent to Shawnee Golf Course and create as many as 35 jobs.
• Neighborhoods sidewalk construction and repair, $7.4 million. Abramson and his “Louisville At Work” team, in consultation with the Metro Council, will determine where to build and repair sidewalks. The projects could create up to 620 jobs.
• Resurfacing 70 miles of streets, $5,500,000. The “Louisville At Work” team will help determine which roads get priority paving. This could create as many as 600 jobs.
• Installation of bicycle lanes along Taylorsville Road from McMahan to Hurstbourne, $88,000 and creating 8 jobs

Can we please get the mayor’s chubby ass along with these other bureaucratic sheep out on bikes in real traffic for a couple days and then have them consider where $14.7 million might help?

There are people being killed out there - fuck recreation.

Off to Louisville Bike Summit 2… updates to follow.

Update:

Made it through the better part of Bike Summit today. Would have updated this sooner but there was a lack of electrical outlets and internet access so here I sit. While I may delve deeper into this later, right now I’ll just go over some general impressions I walked away with.

First off, it’s good to see this dialogue happening in the city. There were likely 200 or so people in attendance and even a fair number that got there by bike. With that in mind, I would like to note the lack of proper bike racks at the facility. Bike Summit in a building with no bike rack - dialed.

Second, the city seems to be more concerned with making a name for itself in the recreation venue than attempting to keep riders out on the roads alive. With goals aimed at adding nearly 300 more miles of “bike routes” and a morning dedicated to the 100 mile “Louisville Loop” these goals don’t do too much for getting people to the grocery, school and work safely by bike. With this sort of aim Louisville seems destined to keep bicyclists and pedestrians at bay. Yes there is now a complete streets program implemented in all new road construction, but that does little to serve our existing network of dangerous roads.

Lastly, I have to address what is a level of ignorance that hopefully this sort of forum helps curb and allows Louisville and other cities to progress. This became especially clear while during the engineering break out session one of the workers noted how he had never even contemplated the issue of having to make a left turn while using bike lanes that are located on the far right of roadways… WTF? Like I said, hopefully this communication between riders and the people behind planning roads and what not will just make for a more bicycle and pedestrian friendly system in the end.

That really is the bottom line here. Creating a better system. Obviously the one the country has been going by is totally fucked and it seems government at every level is realizing this. As much as Louisville Bike Summit seems like an opportunity for city bureaucrats to pat themselves on the back for their efforts it does provide an opportunity and I am happy I took part in it.

Great video from TheOilDrum.com featuring some amazing improvements New york has undertaken in order to provide safe and useable streets for everyone.