Cycling on Greenways in Raleigh

[paytonc]

@Kanatenah

you can take Crabtree Creek to Umstead. Ride the gravel roads to Harrison Av & western, then black creek greenway into downtown Cary.

Reedy Creek Road is better than Harrison.
The ultimate route between the downtowns is Walnut Creek:

Walnut Creek Greenway – Cary Bond

Would also require Raleigh to finish a trail from Lake Johnson (Jones Franklin end) to Buck Jones.

[clairebertt]

I’ll jump on this. It’s kind of wild that this bridge was torn out with no plan for replacement. The reality is people are going to get on Ebenezer because it’s the only work around. I’m curious what the timeline on this is going to look like, because this is a very well used trail.

[greenway_guy]

Try this route from DTR train station to Cary Station -

Raleigh_train station to Cary train station

I have done that route a few times and find it pretty safe. I utilized the greenways whenever possible.

The triangle has the best greenway on the East Coast in my opinion. Here is a greenway map with

*all the greenways in Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Durham and CH

*all the bike shops in Raleigh, Cary, Durham

*all the remote bike tool stations in Raleigh and Umstead

*this map is built on google maps, so all restaurants, bottle shops close to the greenway are also listed

*including Umstead and the ATT, the triangle area has about 275 (!) miles of greenways, and they are constantly being improved.

*feedback to improve the map is welcome

www.bit.ly/ncgreenway

[wanderer]

I would like to rescind my props for the crew that’s working under 440 and the Crabtree Creek Greenway. I’ve been meaning to post this, but the work was originally mentioned of having a completion date of July.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been biking through this area at night and having a few shout at me which normally ends up me just passing and ignoring them. Last time they pretty much ended up blocking section again. I ended up riding on Glenwood since it’s more of a direct route to my place.

Cycling on Greenways in Raleigh

Not sure of what the progress is, but it seems that the Crabtree Creek trail section under 440 may be open now? It’s been open for a little over a week. There’s still some barriers set to the side, so it’s hard to say if it’s a temporary open. The Greenway Alerts page mentions completion date of May 31st 2024. If this is pretty much complete, then props to the staff for completing the project early. It was originally slated for July (Click here for my complaining post). It could be that they a…

Separately. Did a bike ride from Ponysaurus to Sneaky Penguin and back. We took Atlantic Ave. to the greenway, but pissed off a few people when we came to a stop to get onto the greenway (there’s a curb).

Overall the ride was nice.

[Philip]

@wanderer

I would like to rescind my props for the crew that’s working under 440 and the Crabtree Creek Greenway. I’ve been meaning to post this, but the work was originally mentioned of having a completion date of July.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been biking through this area at night and having a few shout at me which normally ends up me just passing and ignoring them. Last time they pretty much ended up blocking section again. I ended up riding on Glenwood since it’s more of a direct route to my place.

I biked on Crabtree Creek under 440 today and it was open, but lots of equipment still parked there.

[wanderer]

They’ve been closing it off starting around 6:00. I’ll use it for commuting from/to work which is part of when I’ve been riding and them not being happy about it. During a group ride, we rode through there about the same time and also ran into the same issue.

[clairebertt]

I’ll just say as someone who has worked in utilities, if someone rode their bike through an active job site that I was working on I would be a bit frustrated too. It’s unsafe for the biker as well as for the workers in the area, especially if the area is barricaded off and you aren’t expecting someone who isn’t actively working on the job site to come through.

Unfortunately the way it’s set up is set up to frustrate someone because there just aren’t good detours and yet maintenance still has to happen. It’s really a no win situation.

[Kanatenah]

Lack of good, safe detours is a serious issue. See my post on this from a while back.

Cycling on Greenways in Raleigh

Thanks for your feedback. I understand that Greenways are often built in sewer right of ways, and sometimes big long projects are needed to repair sections. I guess my gripe is the lack of marked detours and communication. I clicked your greenways alerts link and signed up for the text alerts. There are detour maps available there, but this information should be posted on the trail as well. Riding NRT at 401, there is zero indication that a detour is even available, or for how long the project …

[clairebertt]

Yeah I agree, and I had previously read your post you linked, I’m just offering my experience. My utility work has been on the NCSU campus and dealing with students wandering into jobsites was a constant issue. It really was extremely unsafe not only for them (which I guess they could be like “I accept this risk to myself”) but also to the people trying to do the work.

I don’t think that when the greenways were planned anyone thought they would be used this heavily, otherwise surely someone would have thought about detours earlier on.