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Charlotte Greenways and Trails


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11 hours ago, JoshuaDrown said:

 I’m completely onboard with Vision Zero and feel like we should be more bold in our approach, but I feel like the city only has one leg on.

Meh, it’s only about preventing Charlotteans from getting killed in public spaces, what’s the hurry?

/sarcasm/

Edited by kermit
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27 minutes ago, JoshuaDrown said:

I’m very happy about Phase 1... but Phase 2 taking until 2021? That’s really disappointing.

There should already be a route that feels safe to all levels of riders that crosses Tryon St from 3rd and 4th Wards. I’m completely onboard with Vision Zero and feel like we should be more bold in our approach, but I feel like the city only has one leg on.

FWIW I saw a tweet last night Phase 2 is because they need the Carolina Theater/Intercontinental construction to finish before the connection can be completed.  Not excusing the fact a temporary route couldn't be determined in the meanwhile, but that is at least the reasoning on this configuration.

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I commute into work every day from 7th street in Elizabeth.  Every time I drive down 7th I think about how dangerous it is that they shift the middle lane from being one direction to the other.  I don't have data, but I have to imagine this causes a ton of accidents.  If they turned 7th into a pure 2 lane one-way street there would be enough room for a bike lane protected by street parking.  That would connect kind of perfectly to this.

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36 minutes ago, SouthEndCLT811 said:

FWIW I saw a tweet last night Phase 2 is because they need the Carolina Theater/Intercontinental construction to finish before the connection can be completed.  Not excusing the fact a temporary route couldn't be determined in the meanwhile, but that is at least the reasoning on this configuration.

So it definitely is going to be much later than 2021 then...

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Not too excited about this.  I don't think that the bike lanes should be on one of the busiest roads going through uptown.  The amount of traffic on this road is absurd. Especially at rush hour. Cars entering and leaving the many parking decks, delivery trucks parked in the lanes, taxi stands at the hotels, especially at rush hour. Plus the amount of people walking from the light rail and the surface lots are huge.  Throw in the an event at the arena and your screwed.  I remember when the temporary bike lane was up and all the headaches it caused.  

I agree with the need for bike lanes, it just seems like choosing one of the busiest roads in town was ill conceived.

   

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10 minutes ago, Jasons0013 said:

Not too excited about this.  I don't think that the bike lanes should be on one of the busiest roads going through uptown.  The amount of traffic on this road is absurd. Especially at rush hour. Cars entering and leaving the many parking decks, delivery trucks parked in the lanes, taxi stands at the hotels, especially at rush hour. Plus the amount of people walking from the light rail and the surface lots are huge.  Throw in the an event at the arena and your screwed.  I remember when the temporary bike lane was up and all the headaches it caused.  

I agree with the need for bike lanes, it just seems like choosing one of the busiest roads in town was ill conceived.

   

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/09/citylab-university-induced-demand/569455/

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1 hour ago, NYtoCLT said:

I commute into work every day from 7th street in Elizabeth.  Every time I drive down 7th I think about how dangerous it is that they shift the middle lane from being one direction to the other.  I don't have data, but I have to imagine this causes a ton of accidents.  If they turned 7th into a pure 2 lane one-way street there would be enough room for a bike lane protected by street parking.  That would connect kind of perfectly to this.

If you use the tunnels under Charlottetowne and Kings, then swing over to 7th from LSC, this seems like a pretty sweet bike route for you now :o

Edited by SgtCampsalot
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2 hours ago, Jasons0013 said:

Not too excited about this.  I don't think that the bike lanes should be on one of the busiest roads going through uptown.  The amount of traffic on this road is absurd. Especially at rush hour. Cars entering and leaving the many parking decks, delivery trucks parked in the lanes, taxi stands at the hotels, especially at rush hour. Plus the amount of people walking from the light rail and the surface lots are huge.  Throw in the an event at the arena and your screwed.  I remember when the temporary bike lane was up and all the headaches it caused.  

I agree with the need for bike lanes, it just seems like choosing one of the busiest roads in town was ill conceived.

   

I agree.  I would much rather shut down Trade for this than hinder 6th.

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On 3/21/2019 at 8:49 AM, SouthEndCLT811 said:

FWIW I saw a tweet last night Phase 2 is because they need the Carolina Theater/Intercontinental construction to finish before the connection can be completed.  Not excusing the fact a temporary route couldn't be determined in the meanwhile, but that is at least the reasoning on this configuration.

And don't forget, as soon as the Carolina Theatre development finishes up, the Main Library work starts (hopefully) so they would end up making 6th one lane

Quote

 If they turned 7th into a pure 2 lane one-way street there would be enough room for a bike lane protected by street parking.  That would connect kind of perfectly to this.

If you live uptown, or use the street grid north of the square often you realize how important it is to have 7th as a two way street.

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On 3/22/2019 at 6:27 PM, CLT> said:

And don't forget, as soon as the Carolina Theatre development finishes up, the Main Library work starts (hopefully) so they would end up making 6th one lane

If you live uptown, or use the street grid north of the square often you realize how important it is to have 7th as a two way street.

I think you misunderstood my point.  I wasn't saying 7th street in uptown should be 1 way.  I was saying that from Kings Road on through Elizabeth could be 1 way.  Right now it is 3 lanes with 1 switching directions.  It is dangerous and could be better designed. 

 

And regardless, I think RDF's point above stands, traffic has a way of filling what is available.  

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What makes it protected? Not to play the cynic but if it’s just painted lines I don’t know how many cars that are used to speeding through there will even notice it or care to respect it.

Guess we’ll need to see the finished product. In any case I’m all for this sort of thing and hope to see more of it around town. 

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10 minutes ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

What makes it protected? Not to play the cynic but if it’s just painted lines I don’t know how many cars that are used to speeding through there will even notice it or care to respect it.

Guess we’ll need to see the finished product. In any case I’m all for this sort of thing and hope to see more of it around town. 

I was under the impression that it would be "protected" with some type of median, usually like these below (I've also seen planters and concrete barriers).  May be wrong about ours though.

54dae3d106530.image.jpg.d1a01e137ee2e09b49f53a9e646c656f.jpg

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39 minutes ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

What makes it protected? Not to play the cynic but if it’s just painted lines I don’t know how many cars that are used to speeding through there will even notice it or care to respect it.

Guess we’ll need to see the finished product. In any case I’m all for this sort of thing and hope to see more of it around town. 

Dude, it says "progress on." This is what it'll look like when finished.

image.png.5f75585f013f6ba4bd20f27e5d9f39e1.png

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  • 2 months later...

The O has a story on the failure of the Independence interchange ped bridge to get money (apparently it scored well in the grant competition but...) and what CDOT will do without it (protected bike track on the Central ave bridge).

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article231725313.html

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On 6/22/2019 at 11:15 AM, atlrvr said:

If it scored well, can't they resubmit for next round?  Assuming this is annual TIGER grant???

Yea, and CDOT appears to be debating the probability of success on resubmission versus the project delays which resubmission will cause.  The article implies that the reason it didn't get funded was that the current administration prefers to funnel the TIGER / BUILD money to rural and road-related projects so regardless the score the proposal received its unlikely to be successful in this environment. 

The administration has been transparent about shifting the BUILD program to emphasize rural projects, rather than urban -- doing that requires ignoring any objective scoring system which calculates cost-benefit.

image.png.4b8c90bc2c17e8599ec0c020c6062c18.png

image.png.b3182fa062b4b0cba3acf3b22f4d1679.png

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/12/12/tiger-is-a-roads-program-now/

 

 

 

Edited by kermit
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Even if we don't get the ped bridge, I'm stoked about the linking of the two segments. I admit that though I've never taken the Greenway on the other side of Independence, I love the urban section that winds past Metropolitan and down past CMC. I would love an excuse to get my lazy non-bike-owning butt on longer walking trips, hahaha.

Besides, crossing Independence in any way shape or form will be quite a boon for the overall experience, merging pleasant creekside hikes with an overlook from an always-busy artery and a great view of the skyline.

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The southern section of the greenway behind CMC is always full of people (a decent portion from the hospital itself) but if they could connect it fully, would open up an entire section of the greenway that seems to be very quiet for only having a mile or so of continuous traffic. I hate making the jog along 7th street and can't wait for a fully finished product that would let me travel all the way to Montford without a decent gap

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1 hour ago, southslider said:

Yet Hickory got $17M for bike-ped projects, including a signature trail bridge over 321, or their version of Independence Blvd:

http://www.hickorync.gov/content/city-hickory-awarded-17-million-build-grant

I would love to see photos of this area old/new. It is indeed nice to see things like this being prioritized for smaller cities and towns. 

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