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Triangle Parks and Greenways


orulz

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I'm a bit irritated, though, that they're lighting the bridge to be pretty, but they're not lighting the trail so it can be used as transportation after dark.

I guess Meredith doesn't want people going through their property late at night, but still. The Reedy Creek greenway is nice, and it does provide a vital link in the system, but it's short on practicality as a means of transportation.

The whole triangle area could use a lesson from Carrboro when it comes to treating greenways as transportation.

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Merideth College has been nice enough to let the greenway pass through, but there is no connection to the rest of campus except at the Hillsborough Street entrance. If it was treated as a transportation project, it should have a fork that allows users to get to Wade Ave east of the

Moore Drive passes under Wade Ave

and then cross at the Ridge Road light and continue along wade, linking up to the existing sidewalk east of Faircloth Street. This would give residents northeast of the Wade/440 intersection and east of Merideth a nice trail to the museum/park complex. There is a gate at the Ridge Road/Wade intersection, but I don't know if it is open during the day or not at all. The Faircloth entrance closes after the last classes, which is understandable.

I don't know what the cost/benefit of lighting the existing Merideth greenway would be, but a path from Hillsborough/Faircloth to Wade/Faircloth to Wade/Ridge would already be lit by existing street lights. Only Ridge to Moore would need to be lit, and it may already be behind the trees and brush along Wade. Could the trail west of 440 be lit in such a way as to not disturb the day/night cycles of animals living there?

If the greenway was treated as transportation, would it fall under DOT? Does it already fall under DOT or is it under parks and recreation? How many ways could DOT screw it up? Greenways to pieces of land owned by developers who make campaign contributions? Toll boths on all new paths and extentions to existing ones?

EDIT: I had to stop at the Ridge Road light, and noticed the sign on Merideth's gate specifically states no greenway access. There seems they could extend the greenway along Wade to the north if Meredith doesn't want it near their campus. The only problem is crossing Moore, which only goes to the Chancellor's house I belive. Whole Foods could get involved, but I don't see that happening.

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god, the greenways here confuse the living sh*t out of me... I tried going from where i live, off wake forest near whitaker mill, to the greenway by crabtree creek. i rode my bike down a little ways, came to a dead end. ride my bike over to optimist park, get on the greenway, go a good ways, end up in the middle of some neighborhood near our lady of lourdes school. ride around for a while, find the next greenway entrance, and continue riding until i get to lassiter mill, and on to the gym, finally. that was the last time i tried being an earth friendy bicyclist. now if i ride, it is just for the fun of it. if i need to be somewhere by a certain time, i take my car, like everyone else. i was really excited when i found the greenway trail tho, because i thought i could take it all the way from my place near optimist park to crabtree along the creek... but it dead-ends in several places... maybe in 20 years i guess. haha i just realized this has probably been covered earlier in this thread. i guess starting at the beginning is a good idea...

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You can't get where you're going solely on greenways. Not yet, anyway. You have to be willing to ride on streets (in some case pretty major streets like Hillsborough or Oberlin or something) in order to get around. It's just something you have to get used to.

Check this blog by Joe Miller at the N&O for updates about Raleigh Greenways. The long-delayed Middle Crabtree Trail should finally be open today (excluding the Atlantic Avenue underpass).

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While looking through Triangle area Yahoo groups, I found this: Get to the Greenway

It is a group that is looking for better access to the Reedy Creek Greenway from the Ridge Road area.

They have the backing of the local CAC, but it seems things have been quiet there since a resolution was passed in November. I forgot about the Ridge Road bike trail, even thoguh I rode it a lot while I went to State.

Also, it looks like the Middle Crabtree Creek trail is *still* not open on either side of Capital Blvd. There is a big fence blocking it on both sides of the Crabtree Creek bridge. I don't know if there is anything similar blocking access under the bridge itself, but there was not anything when I went under Capital late last year.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Rocky Branch: An Earth Day Inspiration" Friday, April 21, 2006; 2 p.m

Join North Carolina Sea Grant and North Carolina State University for

Phase 2 stream restoration,

ribbon cutting, tour and stream sampling demonstration by the "Girls in

Science" from the N.C.

Museum of Natural Sciences. Guest Speaker: Louisa Koch, NOAA Director

of Education.

Location: Rocky Branch Greenway (west of Pullen Road near Western

Boulevard)

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.

Watch for an update next week with a map and details on campus parking.

Please wear comfortable walking shoes and attire.

RSVP appreciated: 919/515-5287 or [email protected].

For information on the Rocky Branch Stream Restoration,

go online to: www.ncseagrant.org/rocky_branch .

--

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god, the greenways here confuse the living sh*t out of me... I tried going from where i live, off wake forest near whitaker mill, to the greenway by crabtree creek. i rode my bike down a little ways, came to a dead end. ride my bike over to optimist park, get on the greenway, go a good ways, end up in the middle of some neighborhood near our lady of lourdes school. ride around for a while, find the next greenway entrance, and continue riding until i get to lassiter mill, and on to the gym, finally. that was the last time i tried being an earth friendy bicyclist. now if i ride, it is just for the fun of it. if i need to be somewhere by a certain time, i take my car, like everyone else. i was really excited when i found the greenway trail tho, because i thought i could take it all the way from my place near optimist park to crabtree along the creek... but it dead-ends in several places... maybe in 20 years i guess. haha i just realized this has probably been covered earlier in this thread. i guess starting at the beginning is a good idea...

Well I am glad that someone in the neighborhood has the same problem. I connect to the greenway at Kiwanis Park and head west having it dead end at the old Lassiter Mill site and wondering where it the connecting segment !?!??!?!? you would think there would be better signage on the greenway to give people some wayfinding. The most that I see sometimes is a little greenway directional sign below a street sign indicating the path of the trail.

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  • 3 weeks later...

There was an interesting article in Thursday's N&O (plus a PDF map) about the completed Middle Crabtree Trail. This gives a 11+ mile long trail along Crabtree Creek. They also talk about future extension to Umstead, and the connection to the Reedy Creek greenway.

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There was an interesting article in Thursday's N&O (plus a PDF map) about the completed Middle Crabtree Trail. This gives a 11+ mile long trail along Crabtree Creek. They also talk about future extension to Umstead, and the connection to the Reedy Creek greenway.

What a great map of that segment of the Greenway! I hope the new Greenway map from the City will be that discriptive when it comes out near the end of the year.

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  • 1 month later...

I was looking through the N&O's Wake County for something else, and found this story:

Link to greenway will avoid Meredith

A connector is being built from the Ridge Road / Wade Ave. intersection to the east end of the 440 bridge. This is a win-win situation because

- the residents north and east of Merideth can get to the trail without having to go all the way up to Hillsborough Street.

- Merideth College will be able to keep the north gate closed and keep unwanted traffic out.

I didn't realize how important the second issue was until my girlfriend who teaches part time reminded me that it is an all-female school which lets students let their guard down with a perceived sense of security, and how this is tempting to some unsavory types.

A sidewalk along Wade from Blue Ridge to Faircloth will probably never happen, but walking through the shopping center is somewhat acceptable. I have no idea why the greenway didn't go this way, and then up faircloth to continue east.

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I can tell you that the right of way that the greenway uses to travel through Meredeth College was donated by the school to the state with the understanding that the state build the greenway using federal bike/pedestrian $$ and the city of Raleigh maintains it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Triangle Rails to Trails Conservancy has set up an online petition asking Durham City Staff and Officials to complete the American Tobacco Trail in Durham. As stated in the petition, there are delays in getting the project moving. As we all know, time is money

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  • 2 months later...

I heard on the news last night that all of the greenways will be connected so that you can ride a bike from DT Raleigh to DT Durham if you wanted. Sorry to upset any bikers but is this really necessary? Along with that huge pedestrian bridge over 440 does this seem like a waste of money that could be put to better use in public transportation?

I mean just the other day I wanted to try and take a bus from Edwards Mill Rd. to the airport and the estimated transit time was 1.5 hours! With the new greenways maybe I could ride a bike there faster! No wonder more people arent using the TTA buses.

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Well, keep in mind, no single entity is actually building a greenway from downtown Raleigh to downtown Durham. No one would propose that. :rolleyes:

But...Raleigh has a greenway. Cary has a greenway. Umstead State Park has greenway/trails. And Durham has a greenway. All of them transverse pretty much the entire city/town/park/whatever. (Or they will when they're finished.)

So...they figured, if I'm building a greenway from one end of my city to another, why not when it hits the border of my city with the next city over, we have them connect to keep things free-flowing?

Just like when a state builds an interstate freeway up to the border, it joins with a freeway in the next state. NC didnt' build I-95 from Maine to Florida, we built our part of it and had it join on the Virginia and SC sides.

Makes more sense when you think of it that way, doesn't it?? :D

Waste of money? Not really...these aren't just transportation projects, but park/conservation too. Not only will you be able to "bike from downtown Raleigh to downtown Durham", but you'll have a conserved green corridor that transects pretty much the whole Triangle. That's an added plus! :thumbsup:

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keep in mind that the 440 bridge was build with mostly (80-90 percent)federal funds that could only be used for a bike/ped project as part of one of the federal transportation bills. I think we got a very nice project for that kind of dough. If they hadn't build it, it would have gone to another state.

Also, while very few ppl will actually bike the entire length, think about how many will use short sections for recreation purposes or perhaps an alternative way to get from here to there. Ever been on the Black Creeek Greenway (part of the interconnecting system) in Cary in the evenings, heavily used by both bikers and walkers.

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keep in mind that the 440 bridge was build with mostly (80-90 percent)federal funds that could only be used for a bike/ped project as part of one of the federal transportation bills. I think we got a very nice project for that kind of dough. If they hadn't build it, it would have gone to another state.

I'm not arguing or anything, but that's absurd that the Federal Government is in this business. This is the kind of work states ought to be doing for themselves.

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i agree, but that's the way it is. maybe that money could have been given to us for another road need, such as toward widening the beltline or I-40 btw. Wade and Crossroads. gotta love the politics.

Whether or not it should have been built, the bridge does look nice, especially with the lights the city installed (and maintains) on it at night.

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Federal money for greenways and trails comes from the gasoline tax.

18.4 cents is collected on every gallon of gas sold and sent to the federal government. They then redistrubte the money collected for various projects. The idea is that some states would sometimes need more in some years and less in others. Also some states would not be able to build and maintain the highway system based solely on the fuel taxes collected in their state.

North Carolina has been a "donor" state -- put more in the pot than they draw back -- for years, because NC politicians in congress have not made their case for money. And bridges need to be built in Alaska!

The "art bridge" was built with the "other projects" money collected by the federal fuel tax. Similar bridges are planned for Cary across the new 1/64 corridor, and across I-40 in Durham to continue the American Tobacco Trail south through Southpoint -- between the Sears Automotive outpost and the HomeGoods big box area. Why should the states be doing this when there is money collected and earmarked for this specific purpose?

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