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Bike Plan

Bike Plan

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PostDec 03, 2009#1

Here is some good news. Much better than spending billions on a new interstate.



Great Rivers Greenway has hired CH2M Hill to provide planning and engineering services for the development of a comprehensive bicycle master plan for St. Louis City and County.



http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... ily46.html
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PostApr 18, 2010#2

They just finished the bike trail link from Highway 141 at the Meramec River Bridge in Valley Park along the river to existing trails in Simpson Lake Park and Greentree Park. It is all asphalt and has concrete pads along the trail periodically with benches for resting, or viewing the river. So now you can go from Highway 141 at the Meramec River Bridge in Valley Park along the river almost to the I-270 where it crosses over Marshall Road -- all off road. A section T's off across Marshall and 2/3 the way around Simpson Lake, a nice County Park lake.

With this extension, I'd say the total trail is about 1/2 the length of Grant's Trail -- about 4-5 miles. It doesn't seem to be well known and is never crowded, but a nice shady ride along a river and lake.

PostJul 01, 2010#3

I would like to see a bicycle/pedestrian bridge like this across the Meramec river bend near Unger park (Soccer Park) in order to link the 141 to I-270 bike trail on the North side of the Meramec River with the Unger Park trail on the other side of the river near Soccer Park running down the West side of the Meramec River to Fenton and Arnold.

I wonder how much something like this would cost. If we all looked for change under our sofa cushions...

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PostOct 13, 2010#4

There are open houses for the St. Louis regional bike plan today and tomorrow from 4:30-7:00 pm. Today's open house is in Maryland Heights; tomorrow's open house will be in Richmond Heights.

One thing I'd love to see is passageways cut through all of the city's 262 street closures, where reasonable, to let bikes get through without having to jump onto a sidewalk.
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PostOct 13, 2010#5

I agree. That encourages the kind of traffic residential areas want -- bikes and walkers. Bicycle boulevards that cut across street barriers can make bicycles the fastest form of transportation in some areas. Check out the Berkeley video at Streetsblog.org.
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PostOct 14, 2010#6

I bike to work downtown about twice a week, starting from Macklind/Chippewa. More than likely, I'll join/patron the new Commuter Station under construction.

Side streets make it relatively easy and safe to get around. The problem with biking are the choke points.

Crossing over 44/55 and the railyards is a hair-raising gauntlet, especially with the truck/bus traffic during the morning hours.

I'd like to see some widened/dedicated bike lanes or (!) even a bike/pedestrian bridge that get bike commuters safely into downtown.
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PostOct 14, 2010#7

^Me too and roughly from the same route. Crossing I-44 isn't bad if you cross over at Compton or Mississippi. I cross into downtown on 14th and for the most part it is ok, but it can be harrowing at times as you say.
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PostOct 17, 2010#8

I'd really like to see the Katy/Centennial/Chouteau Greenway and the Mississippi River Trail (MRT) made into the main bike corridors for the region. Other greenways are important, but having a good east-west and north-south would make a lot of headaches disappear. Shadrach's impressive commute would be a lot easier if the Chouteau Greenway was completed and running along the southern edge of I-64 in Forest Park. He could just take Macklind north and hop on the greenway. (I know that wouldn't be very direct)

I went to St. Gen recently for the Thomas Hart Benton exhibit they were showing, and I found the MRT signs the most interesting part of the town. 61-67 in Imperial (where my family lives) is extremely unsafe, but bears MRT signs. The trail does indeed go through St. Louis, but who knows about it? The Katy Trail gets many times more attention, and it doesn't even connect to the city limits yet.

A solid link between Jefferson Barracks and the arch grounds along the MRT would make a big difference for a lot of south city neighborhoods.
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PostNov 13, 2010#9

I spent some time in Gravois Park today and noticed that Broadway, from Jefferson all the way down to Dover (right at Bellerive Park) has been reduced to 1 lane in each direction with a clearly designated bike lane and an on-street parking. This is huge step toward reducing auto speeds and providing more safe biking options for long rides. Cheers to St. Louis for this change!
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PostDec 05, 2010#10

The folks from Bike STL were on NPR this week discussing their plan. Thought it may be interesting.

http://www.kwmu.org/programs/slota/arch ... howid=4275
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PostDec 14, 2015#11

I took advantage of the unusually warm December weather Saturday and did a bike ride on the Meramec River trail and on top the Valley Park levee there. I was thinking -- except for occasional ice and snow, is there a better city for off-road road-bike rides in the US? Our metro has five types of features that allow for great flat road bike trails.
  • 1. Riverside parks - These allow long flat trails that go under road bridges to avoid frequent street intersection crossings. And they are usually shaded by lots of trees for nicer rides in the summer.
    2. Long levee trails - These are perfectly flat on top by design. You are more exposed to wind and sun, but you are also up high giving a nice view of whatever creek or river would be held back by the levee.
    3. River bottomland - Even far from creeks or rivers, bottom land, such as the trail around Creve Couer Park, allow for long flat trails for road biking.
    4. Abandoned railroad lines. The East side has done an amazing job turning the huge number of abandoned rail lines into walking and biking trails. Is there a metro that has more abandoned lines than the Great River Region? And we took advantage to create the Katy Trail, and soon another cross-state trail.
    5. Flat farmland in Illinois. The most popular Trailnet rides are in Illinois farmland. The roads there are almost completely flat going through cornfields, past beautiful farmsteads, and through tiny towns. Illinois has somehow managed to pave almost all farm roads, as near as I can tell. On the Sunday morning rides, these roads are pretty much deserted.
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PostDec 14, 2015#12

Speaking of bikes, what's the status of the bike share program? How pathetic is it that practically every city large and small has had bikeshare for years, and we can't even come up with money for a "feasibility study"?
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PostDec 14, 2015#13

^ GRG only sees itself as a facilitator and unless someone steps up as a champion we'll be going nowhere.... I wish somebody downtown like Stiefel or Wells-Fargo would step up. Or perhaps BJC; I believe Detroit Medical Center is a lead sponsor for their bikeshare.
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PostDec 14, 2015#14

stlgasm wrote:Speaking of bikes, what's the status of the bike share program? How pathetic is it that practically every city large and small has had bikeshare for years, and we can't even come up with money for a "feasibility study"?
I'd rather they take their time and do it right rather than just launching a bikeshare so they can say "St. Louis has bikeshare!"

A bunch of nearby smaller cities technically have bike sharing, but as with any transportation network, you need a robust system to really function. Bikeshare only works if you have a station at your origin and your destination.

Putting in six stations and calling it a day is a waste.

Look at Indianapolis:
https://www.pacersbikeshare.org/station-map
Those stations are all basically walking distance from one another.

KC has had it for years, but it's just now starting to become a real network.
https://kansascity.bcycle.com/station-map
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PostDec 14, 2015#15

Eee123-- "Take their time"? It's been what five years since the idea was first explored for St. Louis? Not having our s**t together is different than taking our time. It's pretty obvious that the former is the case. There is no reason we should be the last city to get a bikeshare system. Most embarrassing of all is that there's no forward momentum (at least publicly), so are we closer to launching a program than we were half a decade ago?
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PostDec 14, 2015#16

^ yes, this is a case of not having our sh*t together. And we can't blame an out-dated, corrupt taxi commission for it.
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PostDec 14, 2015#17

GRG applied for $3m in cmaq funds at east west gateway and missed the "funded" cut off by 2 projects I think

Basically they have $25m up for grabs and based on scoring they fund jobs until $25m.
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PostDec 15, 2015#18

stlgasm wrote:Eee123-- "Take their time"? It's been what five years since the idea was first explored for St. Louis? Not having our s**t together is different than taking our time. It's pretty obvious that the former is the case. There is no reason we should be the last city to get a bikeshare system. Most embarrassing of all is that there's no forward momentum (at least publicly), so are we closer to launching a program than we were half a decade ago?
I agree, we need bikeshare. I have no insight into the current state. But to say we're last is disingenuous.

Of cities anywhere near here, most have a few stations so they can say "We have bikeshare!" I love bikeshare, and I've ridden it in Chicago, Denver and NYC. Most of the rest of the bikeshare systems are so pitiful as to not even be worth the cost. Most of them are bikeshare systems in the same way the Delmar Loop trolley is transit.

We do it right, and we instantly pass most every city in the central time zone except Chicago.
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PostDec 15, 2015#19

eee123-- I don't disagree with you. The problem is, there is apparently no progress on the program, so nothing is happening here. Even cities with a half-assed bikesharing system have one! I'm not suggesting that anything is better than nothing, but where is the vision and planning? As of now, the plan is collecting dust. Meanwhile, Des Moinesians and Oklahoma Citians are pedaling around on bikeshare, while St. Louis waits for a "good" system. It's beyond embarrassing.
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PostDec 15, 2015#20

dbInSouthCity wrote:GRG applied for $3m in cmaq funds at east west gateway and missed the "funded" cut off by 2 projects I think

Basically they have $25m up for grabs and based on scoring they fund jobs until $25m.
Are CMAQ funded projects selected by the East West Gateway Council of Governments based totally on a region-wide scoring using technical measures/criteria or is there some element of a "fair" distribution of the funds among the political entities at the table also at play in the selection process? Is it possible for bicycle and/or pedestrian type projects to be strong competitors in the technical process given the scoring criteria currently in use?
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PostDec 15, 2015#21

its purely scored on technical matters...projects that reduce emissions the most finish higher....Metro could take up the entire $25M with bus replacement but Board realized that so it capped the amount Metro can apply for each year....
There is no backroom regional quota for distributing the $
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