I created this blog because I bicycle-commute along the West River Road in Minneapolis's Longfellow neighborhood, and there is one intersection that has always bugged me as being especially inconvenient and unsafe for bicyclists. It's the intersection of West River Road and Lake Street, on the south side. Here's a picture.A few months ago I finally decided to make a few phone calls and see what it would take to improve the intersection. By a bizarre coincidence, the very next day a bunch of guys with a front-end loader were tearing up the intersection--the exact spot that is problematic. During the Lake Street reconstruction, they had to re-route buses onto 32nd Street and over to West River Parkway, and they had to widen the access point back up to lake Street. When Lake Street construction is completed, the plan is to rebuild the intersection exactly as it was.
What's the problem?
Here is the view from the bicycle trail along the parkway, facing north. The Lake Street Bridge is ahead of you. To reach the bridge, you turn onto the access road that branches off to your left. The pedestrians in the photo are crossing at the official crosswalk. The crosswalk has curbcuts on either side, so if you're pushing a stroller or rollerblading or bicycling or in a wheelchair, this is the convenient place to cross. Once you reach the other side, the sidewalk hooks around the corner in a J-shaped path, which then leads up to the bridge.
If you're a pedestrian this is fine. For all other forms of conveyance, it's not so good because of the J-hook at the base of the hill. It throws you off balance to go around a hairpin turn like that, and it makes you slow waaaaay down. So a lot of people either avoid the J-hook, or avoid the crossing altogether. In the foreground you can see bare spots on the earth where bicyclists jump the curb and cross into traffic towards Lake Street. Likewise, on the other side (just ahead of the pedestrians in the photo) cyclists often skip the J-hook entirely and create their own cow-path of least resistance, which in this picture is a gravelly gully.
The intersection has already been partially demolished. Rather than rebuilding it as it was before, with all of its flaws, let's rebuild it better. Got any ideas? Submit your comment here. I'll throw out a few ideas in my next post.
3 comments:
This intersection is a major concern of mine and has been for years as a suburbanite biking up to the cities and using River Road, and now as a nearby resident.
I have the same questions you have and feel that this intersection is not only unsafe, but engineered to be very user unfriendly. Indeed, it encourages a biker to either not cross at the designated crosswalk or nearly fall off the bike trying to make the turn and accelerate up the steep ramp. For all but the most athletic and agile bikers, this is extremely challenging.
I am pasting an email I sent to TLC last fall, when they were soliciting feedback about problems with biking infrastructure.
LAKE ST. AND W. RIVER ROAD
On the south entrance to Lake Street and the Lake Street Bridge, there are no crosswalk markings or any signage indicating that crossing, despite the fact that this is a very busy intersection. Many people, enter or leave the W. River Road bike/pedestrian path connecting to Lake Street and that bridge, especially since the next closest river crossing is Franklin Ave. Bridge and the Ford Bridge, over 2 miles to the south. The way it exists now is dangerous. If you are biking on the road and leaving Lake Street to head south, there is no curb cut for bikers to use to enter the bike path. If you have used the sidewalk on the bridge and remain on the sidewalk, the combination sharp turn and steep descent are difficult and dangerous. Motorists heading south under the Lake Street bridge are also not as visible to the bikers, nor they have a clear view of bikers on the sidewalk.
SUGGESTION: A crosswalk sign and paint markings are needed minimally, or 3-way Stop is needed there. The curb cut that exists could be widened to align better with the sidewalk across River Rd. Add a second curb cut about 20-30 feet south of the existing curb cut to align properly with the hill leading down from Lake Street, so bikers can enter the bike path.
Sharing the Road
As a bike commuter from the Seward neighborhood to the north of this intersection, I too think the reconstruction of Lake Street should address this issue. I have also spent several hours counting bikers/walkers at this intersection, as part of a project being done by Transit for Livable Communities. There is indeed an accident waiting to happen here!
I think bike and car engineers could put their heads together to design some combination of curb cuts, signage and pavement markings to allow northbound bikers on the bike trail to seamlessly and safely enter onto West River Road and then make the left-turn onto the short spur that meets Lake Street. Our tax dollars go to nicely designed roads for cars; I'd like to see a nicely designed intersection that acknowledges and encourages the increasing number of bikers using River Road and Lake Street.
I ride on the bike path on West River Road, too. You are certainly correct about the difficulty of heading up that hill.
I don't know what is a practical solution to the problem, but I hope that your blog helps bring good ideas out for discussion.
Post a Comment