Bike Lanes in and around DTR

You should tweet at them about this, assuming you’re on Twitter. I’ve found that’s usually a very good way to get a response from a business (though I’m more cautious about how I approach it with small businesses, because I don’t want to put them on blast or anything).

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There’s at least one small bike rack there. :slight_smile:

I’m actually friends with the owner or RBC and she’s very involved and a sponsor of a cycling group which trains for the MS 150 ride in New Bern. RBC has a strong cycling connection.

Go there on a Tuesday starting later this month and you’ll see many many bikes laying around.

I’m not sure RBC is at liberty to put a bunch of bike racks in the parking lot though.

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Please don’t get me wrong and think I was complaining about it. We really like that place and have nothing but good things to say about it. We really like their beer as well.

I think you are talking about the small wood rack they have. It wasn’t really bad to park the bike there but it would be nice to see a little more parking, however I’m sure there were more rails around. I thought it was good to see how many bikes there were. I may have to go on the Tuesday.

Decided to bike today on such a beautiful day and took the Crabtree Creek Trail all the way from Raleigh Blvd to Lassiter Mill, and then decided to keep on Lassiter Mill/ St Mary’s into downtown back to my place. But this bike ride got me thinking that dedicated biking lanes would do great on St. Mary’s/ Lassiter Mill. It’s one of the longest stretches of road in the city that isn’t a main thoroughfare, and would connect Downtown, The VD, and North Hills together by bike, as well as meet up with the Crabtree Creek Trail. The toughest part might be selling the idea to those who live along that stretch, but I think it could be a great success.

Edit: Also, in no way do I think my idea is new, I just think it should be introduced as a possible priority to the city for better bike infrastructure.

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How did you feel going down Lassiter Mill/St. Mary’s? I’ve avoided that because I’m concerned going super slow up that way with the hills going to downtown.

Today I ended up on Crabtree Creek Trail and met up with my friend who did the loop from Crabtree > Falls Lake Dam > Anderson Point Park > back to Crabtree. I met up with him at N Raleigh Blvd. We stopped off at House of Hops/Hightop Burger before heading back to Crabtree Mall. The temperature got cold tonight.

I was out on the Rocky Branch from Dix over to Wilmington yesterday and I have to say, how could something so close to downtown feel so far and spooky.


I think I mentioned it before but an auxiliary path at this point over the road would instantly be a tourist attraction. Would be game changing to have scores of people taking and posting pics from here every time
they come to the city. Currently our “money shot” can legally only be captured by car and that should be considered criminal.


Also we need to focus on Trail oriented development because we have some assets that aren’t being realized.

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The hills are pretty tough, especially since I only have a fixie. But, getting over the worst part of the incline by walking, going up the rest wasn’t terrible. I think this could allow the city to possibly have E-Bike stations at North Hills, Lassiter Mill Park, and a few other stops at more populated areas.

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Completely agree. Oaks & Spokes has an event coming up next month on the topic of trail-oriented design: https://oaksandspokes.com/events/

The new greenway master plan opens the door for trail-oriented development through the new trail classification system, which includes the “Oak City Trails” classification.

“Where appropriate, adjacent development should provide direct access to/from trails. TOD includes residential, office, retail, and food/beverage services that face adjacent trails for easy access. Ample wayfinding signage is critical to direct local residents or one-time visitors.” - Page 68

Passage of the master plan has hit a snag over security concerns at Meredith college, but I’m optimistic that this can be resolved.

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Really good video that someone in Philly made about the crazy long process of trying to get a road diet with protected bike lanes on a stroad. How to Kill a Stroad - YouTube

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Cool. Thanks for sharing. A friend of mine in Philly bought a new townhouse on that Washington Ave. corridor, right where this video was centered.
The fact that this struggle has been, well, the struggle it is, makes me really thankful that Raleigh was able to get its renovation of Hillsborough St. several years ago.
The problem is that change is so difficult to attain, even when the final result makes everyone’s lives better, and people end up liking the change.

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I spent a good bit cycling around town this past weekend, and while I fully support the cities efforts to build out more bike lanes, they are mostly useless in the current state - with countless parked cars, trash, yard waste, and other debris scattered through the bike lanes.

They need to at a minimum put up those skinnier bollards to keep cars from parking in them, or start ticketing, along with some regular sweeping. As it now, I find myself riding on the outside portion of the lane, trying to avoid debris and flat tire, and then swerving out into car lanes periodically to go around parked cars.

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Appropriate post by @JetsJessie in the “Where in Raleigh” thread.

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This is how Miami Beach is addressing this issue.

The city used to use those flexible upright poles like this below.

That’s an old Google Maps photo. They have since been replaced by armadillos.
In the article, you’ll see that there was resistance to them when they were initially installed, but since then I’ve not seen any actual resistance, and I haven’t heard of any issues suffered by cyclists. I can say that they are way more attractive than all of those ugly uprights.

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Don’t forget Friday is bike to work day! Hope to see y’all at one of the pit stops.

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They installed those things on Hampton Valley Rd recently as well. They aren’t reflected in the Google street view yet.

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I was in Miami Beach earlier this month and was relatively impressed with the bicycle infrastructure they had there on the island (Miami on the other hand - yikes!). Totally escaping my mind what they are called but they also had the low curb stop barriers instead of the poles in some places like here
image

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Part of the Gorman street bike path from Ligon to Hillsborough has something similar:

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it’s not continuous but just spaced frequently enough to be effective

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I’m very mixed on the bollards. Only reason being is that you can’t pass (or be passed in my instance haha) by faster cyclists. This is not a huge issue yet since I haven’t seen too many cyclists. The only section I’ve used with the bollards is N. West St. Yesterday was the first day where I biked south on this street and didn’t realize there was no bike lane going south. I didn’t really have any issues biking around, but it was only 8:30AM. I do love the lanes on Gorman St.

Downtown isn’t too bad only because the traffic runs pretty slow (outside of S. Dawson/McDowell) due to the numerous intersections. Depending on the street, outside of downtown can be a little iffy. I’ve started getting used to riding on Blue Ridge Rd northbound (which is downhill). Going the opposite direction I use the greenway since it’s uphill.

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My observation is that the bike lanes with the armadillos/bollards are mostly used by the slower citibike crowd and children, while the serious road cyclist continues to ride at faster speeds in the car lanes. If painted bike lanes and armadillos/bollards give more nervous cyclists confidence to use the bike lanes, then I’m all for it.

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