View Single Post
  #5  
Old Posted Jul 29, 2011, 8:46 PM
City Of Trees City Of Trees is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 728
Since Cottonwood mentioned bike commuting as a good topic for this thread, I thought I'd start off on a topic that I know we've talked about before--making 8th Street a backbone of bike transportation through Downtown, from the river to the North End. I'll explain some thoughts that I've had on this matter in several parts.

The first section I'll start with is from the river to Front Street. Please note that this drawing that I put up is the most complex example. A far simpler solution is to completely shut down 8th Street to motorized traffic (especially from Myrtle to River)--and I certainly wouldn't oppose it. However, I have a feeling that there will have to be some compromise for loading zones, street parking, etc. As such, here's a compromise I came up with that tries to make it as safe as possible for the bikes:



The idea is to dedicate half of the street to a bike path, and the other half to one lane plus parking for motorists. You could separate it via a treed median (marked in bright green), just like what already exists on 8th Street in two places--behind the library and in between the 8th Street Marketplace.

Note the alternating directions of 8th Street for each block. The idea is to discourage thru traffic down the road as much as possible, and to prevent crossover between cars and bikes. For that latter reason, I also turned Fulton into a one-way westbound street, which is at quite a tricky intersection.

You'd also want to put a traffic signal at 8th and River. They really need one there right now anyway--there's a ton of pedestrian traffic that uses the crosswalk signal anyway. There will also need to be some green paint on the intersections with Myrtle and River as proper guides.

Finally, look at the top of the map at Front Street. I would get rid of that stupid bend in the road that makes absolutely no sense for bikes to try and get across.
Reply With Quote