Another Reason Why Bike Trails Are Not the Answer

wrote:
wrote:


And of course, other people may not enjoy the given activity at all.
But it's when the activity gets rejected based on bad information that
discussion can do some good.

That's exactly why those of us who live near and ride on
well-designed MUPs have a duty to inform those of you who
don't.

With MUPs, I think the most prevalent bits of "bad information" are
that they are justifiable as transportation facilities, and that they
are necessary because of the danger of riding on roads.

As I've said, if you want to spend your time in a linear park, that's
fine by me. I can sometimes enjoy it - provided the MUP is well
designed, not burdened with too many road crossings, and essentially
empty.

But I'd be bored silly with doing that exclusively. There are so many
places to _see_, and so much _practical_ use for a bike.

So whether they're fun is a pure matter of opinion. Whether a proposed
path's cost is justified for transportation is a different issue.

- Frank Krygowski

(Coming in a little late to the discussion, to add some data about
Pittsburgh. It'd be helpful if Robert would tell what city has the
marvelous trail facilities he describes, just out of curiosity.)

wrote:
[...snip...]
I'd like to know more about these fully separated MUPs. See below.

[...snip...]

The one detail I'd _really_ like to understand is your statement back
up top, where you describe them as "fully separated." How do the
cyclists get to them, if they're "fully separated"??

Most of the MUPs in the Pittsburgh area are rail-to-trail conversions.
These have the usual clot of "anti-destination league" personnel all
about them; however, that might not be such a problem in the morning on
a weekday. In the afternoon and early evening, strollers and such can
still abound.

In the downtown area, there are two trails in particular of which I'm
familiar: the Allegheny Riverfront Trail (aka "Heritage Trail") which
runs along the north shore of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers from
Washington's Landing in the East to the McKee's Rocks Bridge in the
West, a distance of about ten miles or so. Supposedly, after some
detours on surface streets, there is additional trail-age further east
on the Allegheny shore, but I've never been that far. The Allegheny
trail is clotted with pedestrians, joggers, etc., and trying to maintain
a serious pace is hazardous. Fortunately, there are few blind turns.

The other trail of my acquaintance is a genuinely useful facility
called the Eliza Furnace Trail, known to the locals as the "Jail Trail,"
because the downtown end starts next to the city jail. This is a
rails-to-trails conversion that is genuinely billed as a bike path, not
a MUP, and it swiftly rises to become an elevated pathway, following a
previous railway ROW, so that there are *no* intersections for its
entire length. There are access trails to it from the streets it
crosses, but it passes over those streets on railroad bridges. One can
get on this thing downtown and really haul up to Greenfield (or the
other way), a distance of five-ish miles.

Getting *to* the path, or *from* the path to your eventual destination,
is another matter. For me to get from the office to the path involves
about a mile or so of surface streets with no shoulder (i.e., you're up
against the curb, but fortunately, there is no parking and hence no door
zone), and then a sidewalk to cross the Fort Duquesne Bridge to Point
State Park (the bridge forms part of I-279; hence, bicycles are not
permitted on the actual roadway). From Point State Park, one negotiates
city streets to the Boulevard of the Allies and doglegs right instead of
going up the ramp onto the expressway out of town. At the other end of
the path, one has some real climbing to do to get out of Greenfield on
up to Squirrel Hill, on narrow streets chock full of on-street parking.
To be safe, one is going to have to take the lane. To be courteous, I
guess one is going to have to pull over from time to time to let the
stacked-up cars pass, if they cannot get around any other way, as
passing opportunities are not going to be plentiful.

Fortunately, one need not take Murray Ave. There are streets parallel
to it that are MUCH less-travelled.

--
Chris BeHanna
'03 Specialized Allez Elite 27
'04 Specialized Hardrock Pro Disc

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