Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Don't stop with sidewalks; Slate Run's redevelopment should include room for bicycles.

JB and BWS already have noted this point in the comments section of the newspaper's web site, so permit me to reiterate: Any such redevelopment plan that does not include bicycle lanes is ridiculous, and a source indicates that at least one member of council already has scoffed at bicycles as part of this plan.


At the meeting yesterday, CM Diane Benedetti expressed the view that Slate Run Road is too busy for bike lanes.
To the contrary, Slate Run is the ideal place to initiate a bicycling connector between the vicinity of IUS and downtown -- unless, of course, we just nationalize the railroad track running along Grant Line and use it as a rail-to-trail.

I bike Slate Run regularly, and as it currently stands, autos treat the road as a high-speed thru-way. Traffic calming would be a wonderful idea there, and a wee bit of sharing, with both pedestrians and cyclists, stands to make them better drivers as they trundle off to pay tolls on Kerry Stemler's and Michael Dalby's bridges.
New Albany seeking input on Slate Run construction; Addition of sidewalks goal of project, by Daniel Suddeath (Tribune)

A multi-million dollar project, with a main goal of upgrading pedestrian traffic flow along Slate Run Road,will be the topic of a public meeting.

New Albany Redevelopment Commission members will join administration officials from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 31 at the Slate Run Elementary School gymnasium for the open hearing.

6 comments:

bayernfan said...

We used to live in some apartments on Slate Run. I'm much more of a novice bicycle rider than R and some others here, but I was absolutely terrified riding on that road because of the speeds some cars would get to there.

dan chandler said...

If the plan were to just paint a stripe along one side of the existing roadbed, I would have safety concerns too. However, there's more than one way to design a bike lane. You can have a stripe of paint, you can put up a small "bump" barrier, you can have the lane completely out of the roadway and be more like a second sidewalk, etc. None of us are engineers so none of can say any of these plans will or will not satisfy safety concerns.

The first step should be to explore various design options, preferably with a traffic engineer with bike lane design expertise. Maybe there is an option that will address the "too narrow" or "too fast" concern. It is a very important corridor and I agree that it's important to get all parts of the design right the first time.

Iamhoosier said...

Boulder Colorado is laughing their ass off. Too busy?

B.W. Smith said...

Slate Run is fairly narrow, but it looks like plenty of ground exists on either side of the right-of-way to work with. If the city needs to buy a little land here and there to make it happen, then so be it.

Since most of Silver Grove is now in the Slate Run school district, it would be nice to have the sidewalks and bike lanes connecting the neighborhood to the school, in addition to all of the other benefits improving the corridor.

Tommy2x4 said...

riding my bike in new albany is a lot like eating a box of chocolates...you never know what kind of adventure it will be...

i've been rode off the shoulder of slate run more than i care to remember.

i've never been on a ride in new albany where some toothless meth-head provides his commentary on my mode of transportation...

dan chandler said...

Louisville finally is taking baby steps towards educating both bikers and drivers about how bikes and cars can and should share the road. Like so many others, that issue is off the radar here. It’s off the radar with the public, the adminsitration, the council and the police. More people are biking in New Albany. Maybe it will take a serious accident or death to grab attentions.