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Charlotte trying to be more bike friendly


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Thanks, I'll add those. I noticed the map WAS saving my additions, but there are so many lines you have to click to the second page to see them all.

I wish the county compiled a resource like this, because the city bike plan only has the city limits, and greenways are on another map(s). Plus a PDF map isn't as easy to use as Google. The addition of bus stops in the map has been wonderful. Now we just need to get bike lanes and greenways in it.

It's been a while since I looked into the Coffee House and I must say that your bike map InitialD is something to behold...

You've put a great deal of effort & thought into it.

Nice work.

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That reminds me, it looks like Hawthorne between 7th and Central is getting striped with bike lanes this week.

That's good. In other news, a non-existent road is a bike route. I shamefully admit that I did stop by the new U City Wal-mart. I noticed that the road on the right hand side of the store has about a hundred yards of bike lane. If you come from where the road dead ends towards Tryon, there is a sign that says the bike route ends there. I guess there are plans to make a bike route through the area when the other roads are built.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Painting of the lines is underway on Hawthorne. Because it isn't complete, I think some cars were getting confused and trying to drive in what appear to be a lane a bit too small for a car. These poor car drivers, so easily confused. Anyway, from what i can tell it looks like there is now on the street parking, a wide bike lane (to avoid the car doors), two lanes of car traffic, and what looks like a pretty skinny bicycle lane on the other side.

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Well, "skinny" is all relative :) Its a matter of perspective. The parking on the north side of Hawthorne makes the bike lane appear wider.

I haven't measured it, but the bike lane next to the on street parking feels wider. I was thinking it was wider to allow enough room for car doors to open without impeding cyclists. Still, it was both sad and funny watching cars try to drive in the half-painted lane.

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I haven't measured it, but the bike lane next to the on street parking feels wider. I was thinking it was wider to allow enough room for car doors to open without impeding cyclists. Still, it was both sad and funny watching cars try to drive in the half-painted lane.

I finally visited Hawthorne Dr. The bike lanes are the same width. The one on the side without parking looks narrower because the gutter pan is part of the space for bikes... there is technically less asphalt though.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Probably best to post here than elsewhere... I'm in Toronto for the next couple of days and lo & behold a proposal is before local council to allow for a 42 story condo tower in downtown Toronto with 315 bicycle parking spaces, 9 car share rental spaces and NO auto parking ....

This is certainly a stretch even in ped/bike friendly Toronto, but what a statement this makes in regards to a changing shift in this region's willingness to step away from auto dependency. Maybe someday the Queen City we'll see a similar shift in our auto parking requirements that would allow a demonstration project ( maybe not so grand) that doesn't mandate auto usage....

Toronto Star - 9.16.2009

http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/NewsFeatures/article/696394

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  • 2 months later...

Yeah that is more of a "preview".,...hasn't been publically released yet. But when I find out where its going to be I'll post it on here.

I scanned in my hard copy today (although the *$#! scanner cropped off the top and bottom inch). The quality of the images below is better than the previously posted PDF, but it's not high-quality printable.

I have the high res PDFs that I might be able to email to folks who are interested, otherwise you should contact Mark @ CABA for a printed map. I'm a little surprised a good copy hasn't been posted online by CABA or CDOT yet.

post-20160-12597188634852_thumb.jpg

post-20160-12597190138988_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

Some resurfacing projects for this summer were announced. One of the stretches is Woodlawn from South to Park (which badly needs it). This stretch is, according to the bike master plan, destined for striped bike lanes - lanes that would be an extension to what already exists from Old Pineville to Murrayhill on Woodlawn.

So here's the question: when they repave it this summer, will bike lanes be included? It has never been clear to me how the city's policies work in this regard.

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I don't think Woodlawn is wide enough for bike lanes. The city or state would have to widen it. Currently there are four 12' lanes for the most part. You need 4' for a bike lane at a minimum, so the only way to achieve that on Woodlawn with the existing cross section would be to reduce all travel lanes to 10 ft. The fact that it's a state road essentially rules out anything below 11 ft lanes, so at best that still leaves 4 feet to account for.

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Woodlawn will be striped without a bike lane. The lanes will be adjusted to give the outside lanes more width to allow for cyclists ( God's Speed if you dare.... ). The best route going toward Park Rd from Woodlawn would be to use the bike lanes that are striped from South Blvd to a right onto Murrayhill, to a left onto Wedgewood, to a left onto Bradbury, to a right onto Montford, to Park Rd. All quiet, low traffic, residential streets..

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Excellent! You can check the "More" button to turn on the bicycling layer. It includes lanes and "preferred" streets, although I don't know who determines what is a preferred street.

There's still info missing, though (it is in beta, so i can live with that). The light rail trail is only shown as far as Tremont, for example. I've spied a few other good bike cut-throughs and roads not identified. Hopefully there is some forum to add that information.

* Ouch, South Blvd between Park Ave and 277 has a "preferred" status. That's really not what I would recommend.

** Sweet Jesus, West WT Harris also has that "preferred" status. That's terrifying!

Edited by tozmervo
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http://maps.google.c...eocode=&q=28202,+NC&sll=35.225113,-80.848088&sspn=0.014829,0.027595&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Charlotte,+Mecklenburg,+North+Carolina+28202&t=h&z=13&lci=bike

There is a link for easy access.

I'm intrigued about some of the choices. For example, why isn't North Davidson through NoDa considered, yet WT Harris and Old Concord are? Why is the section of the Lynx line from 9th to 5th listed, but not the rest of the way to MLK? Why not include a block or two more of the Irwin Creek Greenway, which is complete all the way to Ray's Splash Planet

It also has some odd gaps, such as having only half of the South Blvd /Belk interchange, but not the other half. This is definitely a good start, but hopefully both the CDOT and Google will update their maps to be more logical now that they are so readily accessible by the public.

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