Re: Another Reason Why Bike Trails Are Not the Answer
<frkrygow@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1128968991.107658.134380@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Some cities may be different. But in my experience, you can take
> almost every city map. Put down dots representing residential
> neighborhoods, and dots representing "traffic generators" like shopping
> centers, schools and places of employment. Only a tiny percentage of
> possible trips between those dots will be, or _can_ be, connected by
> MUPs.
The MUT (around here, they're always "trails", not "paths") that Dane and I
use for commuting connects two major employment centers, Factoria/Eastgate,
with downtown Seattle. The trail parallels the interstate, so just as much
as the interstate connects activity centers, so does the MUT. It's not that
surprising that this trail is the most heavily used bicycle commuting
corridor in the state. Neither one of us lives right on the trail. We both
have to ride to it, him on one end and me on the other, and both of us have
a little ways to go after its terminus to get to our actual work site. This
is pretty much what we'd be doing with a car commute -- driving on
neighborhood streets and arterials to get to the major transportation
facility, and then exiting that facility and making a short trip to the
workplace.
There's downsides to having a MUT be near a major freeway. Fortunately,
there's a sizeable sound wall between the MUT and the freeway, which helps
keep down the noise. The stiff breeze that always seems to be blowing across
Lake Washington helps improve the air quality. There's also something quite
gratifying about cycling at about the same pace as the cars on the freeway
(as I did for a while this morning) just to the left of you, or riding past
a zillion cars backed up on an off-ramp.
Lately, because of changes in street use downtown (another story for another
time), I've been using a different MUT to get to work several days a week.
This one parallels State Route 520. This one is right against the freeway
pretty much the whole way. It's not as pleasant of a ride. And it isn't
complete -- it dead-ends at the junction with the 405, and right now, you
have to use an arterial with no shoulder for a half mile before you can get
back to a non-motorist experience. Further, there is only motorized traffic
at the bridge, so bicycles have to load onto a bus to continue. Some day,
some day, the whole thing will be complete, though, and you could then ride
on a MUT from the University District, a major activity center, to Overlake
and beyond to the Microsoft campus, and then further on from that to
downtown Redmond. And the upside of being right next to the freeway is that
there are very few recreational users -- no one is going to joyfully skate
or walk their dog alongside the freeway. It's basically a bike way.
Another thing I'd point out: for the I-90 trail, and for the hoped-for one
day when the 520 trail is complete -- these both go, and will go, where
there is no street alternative. Right now, certainly, if the I-90 trail
didn't exist, you'd have to run an extra 15 miles or so around the bottom of
the lake. Dane may choose to do that for fun (and I do it every so once in a
while for fun, too, in the summer), but it'd be a drag to have to that every
day. If you want to cross the lake, it's either the MUT or you swim.
Interestingly, the railroad ROW that runs along I-405 has recently come up
for grabs. The big question is, who gets it? Will it be a commuter rail
corridor? Or another MUT? Or could you possibly do both? If it does become a
MUT, then it'd be another example of a trail running along a freeway, with
the same advantages and drawbacks.
Anyway, I've wasted all these electons because I thought it was reasonable
to point out that there is another sort of MUT that is not a rail-trail or
riverside path, that does favor transportational cycling, that does connect
major activity centers, and is not primarily a recreational facility.
--
Warm Regards,
Claire Petersky
Personal page:
http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky
" cyclists. But seldom does a "serious" pack use it as the heavy use
