PedalGR » Infrastructure

BikeStation at Rosa Parks Circle?

Joshua Duggan — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:28:29 +0000

Washington DC's new BikeStation - http://www.flickr.com/photos/brownpau/ / CC BY 2.0

A segment on NPR this morning (via Facebook) covered the new, nearly complete BikeStation outside of Washington, DC’s Union Station.

Implementation of the BikeStation concept varies, but they generally provide secure, sheltered bicycle parking for a modest membership fee. They often have a mechanic on hand during certain hours to perform maintenance or repair. You can have regularly scheduled tune-ups done while you’re at work! Some also offer bicycle rentals, a restroom, and even shower facilities.

How awesome would it be to have a similar venue in the warming hut at Rosa Parks Circle? In the summer the zamboni could be stored elsewhere and racking for bicycles could be installed in the garage. In the winter, the need for bike parking would be reduced, the racks could be moved, and the zamboni would get its home back, with parking remaining elsewhere in the building.

Grand Rapids Chalk Flood 2009 (by Richard Deming, Jr)

I’m not aware of any efforts to make this a reality, but I think the need is there. There is certainly a lack of visible bicycle parking downtown. It’s around, but you often have to search it out. At many events this summer, I saw lots of bicycles haphazardly locked to trees and parking meters. With the efforts going on to network our existing trails and create more on-street facilities, bicycle commuting to downtown will only become easier. The station could also handle traffic from events downtown, and rent out bicycles to tourists and conventioneers.

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Millennium Park – More Fantastic Every Year

Joshua Duggan — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:59:41 +0000

Tuesday marked the opening of Phase 1 of the Fred Meijer Millennium Trail that will eventually connect Johnson Park to John Ball Park.

Words can’t really describe how great this new trail is, so I will just agree with Fred Meijer and say, “It’s beautiful, absolutely beautiful.” And it starts less than 2 1/2 miles from Fulton and Monroe!

Now, onto the good stuff.

First a map of the new trail, as best as I could draw it up from memory. Thanks to Microsoft for the aerial imagery. I started my trip at the west end of the new trail. I also drew in the location of the fantastic viewing deck that you can see in the above photo. To view a larger version, click any photo to visit Flickr. Once at Flickr, click the “All sizes” icon and select “Large” or “Original”. My complete set of photos may be found by clicking here.

The wires remind you that this is still an “urban” park.

This was the site of a large washout of the trail that happened during an 85-year flood that happened in January. The bridge was placed to protect the trail from future high flood events.

This is part of the site of the proposed ampitheather (looking west)

That’s it for the tour. More photos are here. We’ll probably be riding this trail on a PedalGR ride in July, on our way to Versluis Orchards, so keep an eye out. I hope that you get a chance to visit this trail soon, as the photos don’t really do it justice. If you’ve been on it already, what do you think? Please pass on this link to others, so they can get an idea of what a treasure this park will become!

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Black Hills/Butterworth bridge construction delayed

Joshua Duggan — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:44:19 +0000

The City of Grand Rapids will likely reject the two lowest bids for the renovation of an old railroad bridge connecting the Black Hills Neighborhood to the future Butterworth Park (2mb .pdf of preliminary site plan) because the contractors were not properly pre-qualified to receive a contract of this type and amount. The third bid they received could have been an extra $200,000 once contingency costs were factored in. Because the contractors thought they had all their paperwork submitted, the city has decided to advertise for new bids for four more weeks. This will allow the two low bidders to get properly pre-qualified and re-submit their bids, along with any other interested contractors. Construction on the bridge is still expected to be completed by the fall, with landscape finishing work taking place next spring.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotoman311/3192689679/

This bridge is a key connector between SW Grand Rapids and the West Side. It will eventually connect with the Plaster Creek Trail and allow someone to ride all the way from Ken-O-Sha Park at 32nd and Kalamazoo to Millennium Park, mostly on beautiful, wooded trail. You can read my first post about it from January, including an additional map, here. The city staff I communicated with were VERY excited to get this project done. I am, too!

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Two (Relatively) Quick Updates

Joshua Duggan — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:38:04 +0000

Ball/Perkins park charette

While no official results have been posted on the City’s newly designed Green Grand Rapids website, the unofficial results are pretty clear. Mountain bikers and their supporters showed up en masse to cast their dot votes to have “Multi-use natural surface trails (singletrack suitable for mtn biking, trail running, xc skiing, and hiking)” integrated into the master plan for this park.

This photo taken by Thomas Fish of The Motion Initiative shows that 30 minutes prior to the end of the charette, “Multi-use natural surface trail” had received 107 votes. The next closest categories were “Natural/Preservation Area” and “Walking/Hiking/XC Ski trail” with 58 and 57 votes respectively.

I have heard that some concerns were raised about allowing mountain bikers to use the trails. It seems to me that trail use conflicts between hikers and bikers and fear that mountain bikes will destroy the trails and cause erosion are the two biggest obstacles that we must work to overcome as we try to have facilities built in our public parks. Trail use conflicts can be overcome with proper trail management and education of trail users.

The fallacy of increased environmental impacts has been addressed by the International Mtn Bicycling Association, but many times those unfamiliar with the sport make the wrong assumptions. The IMBA has a website summarizing the scientific studies that have been done comparing the relative impacts of different kinds of trail use on erosion, vegetation, and wildlife that can be found here. Although more research should be conducted under different kinds of conditions, the studies that have been done indicate there is no increased impact of bicycling over hiking.

Additionally, the new Green Grand Rapids logo indicates support of off-road bicycling. The new main graphic on the Green Grand Rapids website clearly shows a bicyclist riding on a hillside surrounded by trees. While I’m pretty sure it was not intentional, I can only hope this is a good omen for the future of mountain bicycling in our great city!

GR Bicycle Film Festival in the GR Press

Just a reminder, the Grand Rapids Bicycle Film Festival is coming up this Saturday, February 7th, 7:30pm at the Wealthy Theater. It’s going to be awesome!

Howard Meyerson, the Outdoor Editor for the Grand Rapids Press wrote a great article on the festival in this Saturday’s paper. Meyerson has been very supportive of bicycling (along with most other outdoor activities…it IS his job) in Grand Rapids, so be sure to check out his article here:

http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2009/01/grand_rapids_film_festival_to.html

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And then there were three…

Joshua Duggan — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:59:50 +0000

Two pedestrian bridges cross the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids, MI. The blue railroad bridge that connects GVSU’s Pew campus to downtown, and the former Interurban train line that used to carry passengers across the Grand River and eventually on to Muskegon (if my history is correct). I ride over each of them quite often as low traffic alternatives through downtown.

If all goes smoothly, there could be a third in 2010.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotoman311/3192689679/

This retired bridge connects the Black Hills neighborhood with the west side of GR. It creates easy access to the future park to be developed at the Butterworth landfill site (the big brown spots directly to the west of the bridge) and Kent Trails. This trail will connect south to the Plaster Creek trail, and will eventually provide a connection all the way from Wyoming to Kent Trails and Millenium Park. There is the long-term possibility of the riverside trail on the east side connecting south from Fulton all the way through the City of Grand Rapids facilities down to this trail, allowing easy, riverfront access from downtown to the Butterworth Landfill and Kent Trails.

Existing pedestrian bridges in green, the new bridge is in yellow.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotoman311/3192689677/

I was told that the city currently has this project out for bid. If the city receives a bid within their budget (this could be a big if, and one of the major roadblocks to the project), they will proceed with the renovation through next year, with project completion likely in the summer of 2010. There are some issues with lead paint on the bridge that will need to be addressed by the contractor.

This project provides an important link across the river in an area that doesn’t have a lot of options for conveniently crossing the river by bicycle or on foot. I can’t wait for it to be done!

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