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| Roanoke City Mayor (riding illegally on sidewalk?) in 2009 |
- This really ticks me off. They have made the streets ... VERY unfriendly to bikes, and have offered no alternative for bikes.
- I'm all for this. Bicyclists riding around people on sidewalks is very dangerous .. it damages our standing in the community having cyclists ... on the sidewalks.
- If someone does ride safely . . . they should be allowed ...
- Back to the cultural shift idea. Do you lead the way by encouraging change toward a more alternate transportation friendly environment or do you legislate the problem away aggressively? It’s much easier to go the second way ...
- Va Tech needs to do a better job of separating cyclists and pedestrians on campus. Only policy wonks understand the difference between campus and the town.
- I think one of the best things we can do (other than get involved in the planning process) is continue to ride our bikes through downtown and obey the traffic laws. If this means you have to go down an extra block to make your turn, so be it ... (but) Putting bikes, skateboards, and peds on the same sidewalk (not multi-use path) seems like a really bad and hazardous idea.
It is legal to ride bicycles on Virginia Tech sidewalks.*
The northern sidewalk along Collage Avenue is Virginia Tech property.†
Therefore, it is legal to ride a bicycle on the northern (VT) side of the College Avenue sidewalk.
†According to The College Avenue Promenade Concept Plan (Aug. 2010), p. 95-97 includes 12/13/09 release of property from VT to the Town with the property line from the southern edge of the sidewalk southward toward the street.
While planning missed the mark a bit on the recent streets-cape and infrastructure work in downtown Bburg, I think the downtown situation is salvageable, especially using the ideas you noted in conjunction with ample education and community involvement. The redesign on Main, and now on College addressed some inter-modal interaction, but left out bikes. It was designed for drivers and pedestrians, so oops on that. It seems a little auto-sovereign and it seems that the planners wanted to accommodation walking students. We would have done well to copy The Netherlands and Denmark, and we had the room downtown to have done it.
ReplyDeleteThe world is changing--car use is declining, but not all planners are on board yet with the new world order. It's getting better though, and I think with ever increasing energy prices, we'll see better design in our built and urban environments. We'll have to do it.
Don't think of me as overly critical on the recent changes downtown--I'll add some of the landscape design was great, and I think the open concept of College looks nice and will also do well with street festivals like Steppin' Out. Who knows, we might be able to do a Ciclovia event every now and then too. I'm not heavy handed in my criticism, but I would have designed bike lanes separated by a curb with auto traffic and separated by at least a line if not a curb for ped traffic. There was enough room for sure. As it stands I avoid South Main by the campus entrance and stick to the alley from PK's to Mill Mtn. We have a chance to better use this alley to divert bike traffic, but it's clumsy compared to what it could have been. This would have radically increased the cost, especially in getting storm water management right, but it would have been so worth it.
Finally, I took issue with the language of this release, and I suspect it was written by a motorist that doesn't ride a bike regularly on the streets. The notion that "bikes are welcome" to use roads that they're legally entitled to use is a subtle hint at the mindset of the author. Bikes aren't invited guests--they road users. This is about people and what they're using to get around is really secondary in terms of rights and responsibilities. Designs that promote synchronicity between user groups and education that promotes situational awareness are where it's at!
Thanks for the good words on this!