SpringfieldCyclist.com

The City’s Public Works Department held an open house on Tuesday to share/discuss/solicit comments regarding their Pedestrian / Bicycle Plan.  I decided to attend, primarily because I had a few comments I wanted to share.

I expected there would be a few bicycles parked out front, and there were exactly two when I got there (the third one is mine).  Interestingly, the bike in the front with the white bar tape is a Cross-Check, nearly identical to mine, except it had 42 cm tires.

Once inside, I was somewhat surprised to see a quite a roomful of people.  They obviously didn’t come by bike.

What you can’t see in the picture above is the second table that was full out people filling out comments and the TV camera setting up behind me.

There were lots of maps of existing and proposed cycling routes, paths, and pedestrian facilities, as well as a couple of folks from the City to answer questions.

I had seen all the maps before, so they didn’t really tell me anything new.  As I said, my primary purpose was to provide my comments, so I filled out my form and dropped it off before heading for home.  Essentially, my comments were as follows:

1. Please, please, please!  Finish the Link by completing the trail under Chestnut Expressway.  If they would do that, I would probably save 10-12 minutes every day by not having to wait on the light.
2. Stop painting bike lanes in the door zone of on-street parking.  There is a lot of that around Drury and OTC, as well as along Booneville Street.  Use sharrows on those sections of street instead.
3. Paint sharrows on all of the established City Bicycle Routes in addition to the existing signs.
4. Add sharrows on the narrow, 2-lane section of Kimbrough where it passes the downtown area.

As I headed home, I was treated to a nasty headwind and some off and on rain.  No big deal, except the wind was a royal pain.

God bless…

TW

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This entry was posted on March 1, 2012 at 5:15 pm and is filed under bicycle, Bike Commute, Cycling, Fitness. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: bicycle, Bike Commute, Cycling, Fitness

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