West River Parkway
The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board is in the process of reconstructing the bicycle and pedestrian facilities along West River Parkway. There are still signs of construction, but the bike and pedestrian facilities are already in place in what I assume is their final state. I've been really excited about this project - the old bikeways along West River Parkway were in pretty poor shape.
For the most part, the new trail is great. The new pavement provides a much smoother ride than the old pavement. The ornamental streetlights are attractive, and as near as I can tell, there won't be any more street signs placed right in the middle of the bikeway anymore. You can see the photos here.
There were a few things that I would have done differently:
1. There are a few locations where I would have removed a few trees to avoid awkward curves in the trail. I appreciate that the MPRB tried to preserve as many trees as possible, but in some instances, the new trail suffers because of it. In the long run, we would have been better off removing a few trees now and planting twice as many new trees in more appropriate locations to replace them.
2. There are a handful of parking lot access points along the roadway where the bikeway and the roadways intersect. In all these locations, the automobiles are given preference over the bikeway users, despite the fact that the bikeway users vastly outnumber the parking lot users. At each crossing, cyclists will have to ride through two access ramps and over two concrete curb strips - clearly entering "automobile space" as they do it. A much better design would have provided cyclists with an uninterrupted pavement surface (or at least one without ramps and curbs) that requires cars to cross the "bicycle space." Such a design would be safer for all users.
3. The bicycle and pedestrian facilities are separate throughout the corridor, although they combine frequently when limited space requires. Some of the areas where the combinations and separations occur are a little bit awkward.
So what do you think of the new design? What do you like? What would you have done differently?
Comments
Streetslights
It looks like they deferred to cars when choosing the streetlights, too. They may me ornamental and attractive, but their height and placement mean they were clearly designed to light the streets, not the paths. Any light on the pedestrian or bicycle space is strictly incidental. Seems like a pretty huge autocentricism-induced oversight. Shame, since unlike pedestrians, automobiles tend to already have their own means of lighting the road.
Michael, interesting
Michael, interesting observation. The lights ARE aimed more at the roadway than the bike/ped facilities. Obviously the lights weren't on while I was out there - it will be interesting to go back after dark and see much of that light spills back onto the bike/pedways. Also, I noticed that there are no lights at all south of Lake Street (or thereabouts). I wonder why?
It would have been nice if
It would have been nice if they made the Parking lot enterances raised keeping the bike path level.