reportingsjr

Sorry for the late response on this Shawk. So, some of the mountain biking community was getting excited about this, but they basically didn't talk to CORA at all until literally that press conference Cranley held. I did some math and immediately realized that most of that money was going to be used on a concrete path (if it actually happens). Quality dirt trails run maybe $30k/mile at most. To give Cincy a huge boost at becoming a regional mountain biking destination, plus bring many miles of hiking trail up to modern standards would only take maybe $1mil of that money. On the other hand, paved asphalt paths (think lunken and otto armleder) cost $150-300k, more if structures are involved. As expected, Cranley and the parks mentioned something like $4mil for a paved loop and the rest for invasives remediation and other. I really hope their minds can be changed, as I think this is a big mistake. I think the ideal option for everyone would be a shorter paved path for people who want an easier place to visit (elderly, people with young kids, etc), and put maybe $1-1.5 million of that towards greatly improving the natural surface trails. A mixture of mtb only, mtb/hiking like what CORA is already building, and some hiking only trails. Just this much money would seriously put Cincy on the map for outdoors recreation, since right now it isn't. The closest destination of this sorts is probably 2 hours away in Brown County, Indiana.

I know this is digging back a bit (I only read this site a couple times a year, mostly follow stuff on twitter/fb), but this feels like a really terrible way to look at this bike lane. I bike a pretty regular amount around the city and the area, including being one of the people who helped design and build the new trails at Mt. Airy that you are calling intense. That's a ridiculous thing to compare to adding a bike lane in the city. If you mountain bike you're choosing to bike in riskier, but predictable situations as a challenge. If you're naysaying a bike lane in the city because it isn't "good enough" you're forcing people to put themselves in risky, unpredictable situations when they may not want to. I live a few blocks from Clifton Ave and frequently bike the route where this protected lane was put in, and I couldn't be happier about it! Every time I got past the Jewish college my anxiety would go up a ton, because people absolutely tear down Clifton and you're forced in to the travel lane instead of the fairly open parking lane. Additionally, my S.O. works at the Chipotle on W Clifton and after years of taking 30-40 mins to walk there from our place, I convinced her to start taking red bike from the Howell Ave station up to the station right by that Chipotle. However, she refuses to ride in the street, and I don't blame her. She (carefully) rides on the sidewalk, and even still has been hit by cars twice while slowly crossing streets. Not quite the "Instagram selfie" taker you're trying to call out for wanting this bike lane. I'll also be sure to tell the woman I watched get absolutely blasted by an SUV last summer while biking past Clifton and Dixmyth that she didn't need any extra safety or a bike lane, because she clearly only cared about instagram seflies. I just want to say that your take is one of the worst takes on bike lanes I've seen in a while and totally ignores many of the people who would gain safety from this stretch, even if it isn't the perfect spot or the perfect design.

I rode the portion of this new bike lane that's open, and it is pretty nice! I bike up Clifton Ave a lot, and have always felt extra unsafe as soon as I crest the hill and am forced in to the travel lane. The only thing I didn't really like was that they put large gaps in the bollards/curbs for bus stops, which there are a ridiculous number of along clifton ave. I wish they had just put bus stop signs in line with the bollards and had people cross the bike lane. I ended up having a bus cut in front of me a bit, then since I couldn't tell how long the bus was going to take I went around, and then the bus started pulling away as I was passing it! Here's hoping that they close the slip lanes from clifton to ludlow and MLK to clifton as well!

I noticed about a month ago that there is a switchback going from Central Parkway up to MLK/Hopple street that is pretty much done. Why can't we have more stuff in the city like this?! It was so nice to be able to take my time going up the grade rather than having cars flying past. It is still technically closed (I emailed the project manager to see when it would be opened), but there is enough room by the closed signs to scrape by. It's not a great design though, as it just drops you perpendicular to Central Parkway. Anyone know if there is any reasonable design to integrate that in to bike lanes if the city decides to continue them further up Central? I can't imagine anything that doesn't involve a full interchange or a bike/pedestrian bridge. I can take pictures in the next day or two if anyone is curious about this.