Bike projects

[Bruce Dwyer]

Updates on priority of bike projects:

1.  Raleigh: At the Jan 18 meeting of the Park and Rec. Commission, Connie
West, Chair of the Holmes Run Committee spoke in favor of the bike path
through Holmes Rum Park at Raleigh.  He felt that the eastern route closer
to the shopping center would be the preferred route.  The Holmes Rum
Committee plans to walk the routes with Chan to make a decision and
subsequently send a letter to the Park and Rec. Commission.  District III
Commissioner Joanne Tomasello felt that many of the local neighbors would
also like nature trails for recreational walking. I would suggest that both
paths and trails are appropriate and should not be played off against one
another.  The bike path is primarily to serve a bicycle and pedestrian
transportation need and the nature trails primarily a recreation need and
should be funded accordingly.   I made a site visit today to check
out the eastern route.  Gee, both routes have a lot of merit, but I can see
why the neighborhood would prefer the eastern route because it is much more
direct to the shopping center and the Eisenhower Valley, which I expect is
the main traffic flow. It certainly would be an acceptable route for
bicyclists going in either direction. Except for a small shape rise at the
tree line, the route has a very gentle grade.  It also has an exit right at
the end of Raleigh Street to avoid a longer and more hilly route up the
existing path to the park.

2.  Tarleton:  Elizabeth Wright, Chair of the Tarleton/Strawberry Hills
Citizens Association spoke favorably about the bike committee working with
them on the ride we did for the kids in December and for working with them
on the path.  They are very much in favor of a path along the current
alignment of the gravel path along the stream bed.  The route through the
open field at the west end still needs to be worked out.  They are not in
favor of the bridge directly to Wheeler. The citizens feel that the path
will help reduce crime and unwanted behavior in the neighborhood with more
public access, just like the studies show. All of this is consistent with
what Chan has worked out with the association.

3.  Chambliss:  I talked to Steve Dujack who lives on the north side of the
Holmes Run and who has met with us previously.  He is a cyclist but still
feels his neighborhood would not enthusiastically embrace the project. He
said that the citizens association is not very active, so there is not a
good forum to make a presentation. He referred my to another cyclist who is
against the project and who we also met with previously. Both of these guys
have said that the city should spend money fixing up the existing paths, for
example, Holmes Run, before doing new projects. I know of at least one
neighbor to the south who is very negative about the project.  We still have
the citizens associations to the south in favor of it and they have made
some attempts to work with the north side neighbors.  This effort is getting
bigger than I can deal with so I suggest that we put it on the back burner
until TES does its transportation dog & pony show in the west end.

4.  Abingdon:  As we agreed at the meeting, this is on hold because we can
find no good solution.

5.  Holmes Run:  We have discussed this in the past.  It serves a much
broader constituency that bicyclists.  It is not in the bike plan, but we
have championed it.  However, we feel it is beyond the scope of the meager
bike budget.  Steve Dujack reminded me again of the bad condition of the
trail.  Removing the gravel and fixing the pothole was a good first step.
But there still is a lot of water, as I saw on a site visit today.  I could
ride my bike through it, but a pedestrian would get very wet.  I keep
putting this on our list because it is a very important bicycle and
pedestrian transportation link that is not getting the attention it
deserves.

As we agreed at our last meeting, the city needs to begin implementing the
Plan City Council passed almost 3 years ago to show some progress.  We also
agreed that we recommend starting on the Tarleton project since it has
citizen support now and since it is the easiest from an engineering
perspective. I think that the updates above confirm our recommendation.