Yes! For purely selfish reasons I’m super glad to see the big branch route at the top.
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Is that section supposed to make it all the way up to Cedar Hills park / Spring Forest ?
Not sure. Hard to tell on the map with my phone.
Yeah me too.
That’s what it looks like to me.
Can you tell what the route would be? Would it be a new greenway along big branch?
Well, hell to the yeah…
I would love that access instead of riding around my Whoo-Hah to get anywhere on the greenway.
We’ll see what shakes out in 2027.
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I’m just worried that the Big Branch greenway will wind up being a super watered-down version of a greenway, that contains mile-long stretches where it’s nothing more than a sidewalk along a collector street or arterial, like the Mine Creek Trail. There’s a lot of backyards this would have to go through to create a contiguous corridor.
At the absolute minimum it’s really important that they get this connected from Crabtree to North Hills as something that feels like an actual greenway, not essentially a bike side path along Six Forks that crosses 2,927 driveways and exposes greenway users to multiple conflicts with right-on-red.
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I am not sure if a final route has been determined. I think generally it would follow Big Branch Creek. But as orulz said, there are a lot of backyards to go through.
Hopefully it punches under I-440 and up through the NH innovation district, after that who knows. perhaps they will run it along Quail Hollow drive, that road is wide enough and could easily accommodate a nice wide trail on one side.
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Yep. One of those backyards would be mine lol. I was thinking it might go along Quail Hollow too. Either way I look forward to some day having greenway access to Crabtreee Creek greenway.
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What’s wrong with the Mine Creek Trail? I use it quite a bit for short rides to the lake. Reedy Creek Trail is a bit more of a sidewalk along a street. Walnut Creek Trail literally splits an apartment complex near Bluffs View Drive.
The “sidepath” along Falls of Neuse Road is a good example of what not to do. I used it to get up to Falls Lake Dam. Had one car cut right in front of me near Falls of Neuse and Stonegate Drive. No way I’m riding directly on Falls of Neuse Rd.
Some of that green on the Raleigh map is a lie. There is no contiguous connection between Lake Johnson and Lake Raleigh. That is one instance of a (narrow) sidewalk filling the gap. They also show the full loop of Lake Johnson in greenway, but only half of it is. And unless I’m mistaken (I haven’t been in a couple years so let me know if they fixed it) Lassiter Mill is not contiguous yet despite being shown as contiguous.
The greenway system is very pretty for recreation and there’s enough of it that you can really geek out exploring, but the numerous unannounced gaps make it impractical for commuting. There is also the issue that it gets so busy–particularly around Shelley Lake and Mine Creek, that biking is kind of tricky or just impossible.
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I thinks it’s great for recreation. Neuse River you can go from the damn to Clayton with barely a road crossing, Crabtree and Walnut are also good trials for recreation. But for commuting they are mostly useless as they don’t go to/from destination points. I think this plan will go a long way to make that happen. It needs to be more a network of trials, connected to on-street bikeways, to make them commuter friendly. The bones are there, just need the connective tissue to make it work.
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When this was built, there were a few people who were salty about it, sold, and moved out. The vast majority of folks stayed - and today, basically all of them love having this greenway so close and accessible to their homes.
I think greenways have become popular enough of late, that the Overton window for what is possible has expanded significantly compared with say 15 years ago. Pretty much every person running for town council in Cary has put it near the top of their platform. I think it will be OK if a few people’s feelings get hurt in the process of making a fantastic greenway system.
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Agreed, we just need a lot of protected bikeways and possibly some two-way tracks going through parks.
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The greenway system in Cary (and the Triangle at-large) is truly one of, if not the, best in the country. This region doesn’t sell it enough.
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Is that I-40 bikeway still a thing? That seems like a huge connector piece.
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I believe so. Going to take years of planning and environmental analysis but that will truly be a gem and will get national attention when constructed.
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They just completed the draft final report!
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