Bike racks, safety tips and hills: Riding along with Mitch
I love riding for recreation, my longer rides into the countryside around Bloomington are always a treat. It's a half hour to the edge of town in any direction, and then you are in the country, riding ridge tops and karst, racing down the various valleys leading to the Bean Blossom, Salt, or Clear Creek valleys.
But as I add up the numbers from my weekly riding, only about half of my miles are long trips; the other half is from bopping around town. It's a mile to work or the library, a little more to Bloomingfoods or the Farmer's Market; two miles to the doctor or dentist's office. Everywhere is somewhere close on a bike. Truth is I have come to enjoy my errands riding around town, but I am quite cautious with all the traffic.
Over the past year the city installed nearly 100 new bike racks around the downtown area. Now I may be bonking, but it seems to me the new racks have been in heavy use since installation. I know it is only anecdotal data, but doesn't it feel like there are more bikes on the streets this year? Both on campus and downtown the racks are filled with bikes. During the day bike parking on campus is particularly tight at Ballantine Hall, the School of Music, the Wells Library, and Memorial Union. Downtown, the racks at the Library, the Uptown, Roots, and Bloomingfoods are always filled. Hey, that's good, right?
This year also saw the installation of about 280 new signs reflecting the bike routes laid out in the Bloomington bike map (see: http://bloomington.in.gov/maps/imgs/pdfs/bicycle.pdf). The Bloomington Planning Department has been holding meetings, taking input on a revision of the city's Greenways Plan. There has been new talk of bike boulevards and connections to the various trails. Bike boulevards take existing streets, and designate them as bike friendly, giving cyclists safe contiguous routes through town.
The University Architect's Office has been working on a plan for multiuse paths around and through campus, and they have been in discussions with Indiana Department of Transportation to improve the proposed path that will parallel the soon to be widened SR 46 Bypass. The university feels that a larger separation is needed from the highway, and is willing to help with the improvements. The university is also planning an extension of 14th Street to cross the bypass, and have proposed a bike/pedestrian underpass as well.
Bikes can be an important component of a city's traffic infrastructure. For some ideas on how things can be, go to A Billion Bikes (see: http://www.abillionbikes.com) for a great video series on biking in Copenhagen or watch "Portland Bike Ride" on Bike TV (see: http://homepage.mac.com/trorb/BikeTV/iMovieTheater73.html)
As more bikes are used for basic transportation, we will have less auto traffic congestion, more parking, cleaner air and healthier citizens. Forty percent of all urban traffic is to destinations within 2 miles, an easy bike ride if the streets feel safe. I just used the map on Clif Bar's 2 Mile Challenge page (see: http://www.2milechallenge.com/home.html), and all Bloomington east of SR 37 is within my circle. So if you see me in a car, take a picture, it is rare.
Safety tips: Why sidewalks are bad news
Another bicyclist just about creamed me the other day, I had stopped at the intersection, and then came through, and as I did, a bike whizzed by a foot in front of me. He was riding the sidewalk at high speed against traffic, with no regard for anything but his speed and momentum -- this is not how to win friends and influence people!
Statistically, riding the sidewalk against the traffic is the most dangerous thing you can do on a bike. Two of the three most recent bike fatalities in Bloomington happened to cyclists riding against traffic, one on the road, and the other on the sidewalk. It is always safer to ride with traffic, and on the street. When you sidewalk ride you not only endanger pedestrians, you are often not seen by traffic, especially by vehicles turning into and out of driveways and alleys. By riding against traffic, you double the approach speed of any cars you encounter, and they do not expect two-way traffic in their lane. Bikes are subject to the same rules and regulations as cars, and you can be ticketed for busting through stop signs. Remember, be safe out there.
Lawrence County
Visit scenic Lawrence County! I know people come from miles around to visit Brown County in the fall, but let me plug our neighbor, Lawrence County just south of Lake Monroe. It is glorious in the fall, and well connected with quiet, well-paved roads. Be prepared for the hills, the Salt Creek south of the dam and all of its tributaries create a patchwork of valley and ridge top farms interspersed with wooded streambeds and patches of forest. Make sure you have a map with you -- the roads don't square up, and you can easily ride in circles.
The easiest access from Bloomington is down SR 446 past Lake Monroe and up the ridge that divides Lake Monroe/Salt Creek Valley from the Little Salt Creek Valley to the south. The ridge runs for about 7 miles through the Hoosier National forest, and then drops out of the highlands into Hunter's Creek Valley, which runs into the Little Salt Creek.
You are now in Lawrence County and if you take the first or second road west off of 446, and you will end up in the same place, Bartlettesville. You can head any direction out of town to ride past the old farms and forests, and when you get tired, you can either go back up 446, or find your way to Guthrie, and north over "The Alps" and past the dam to ride Strain Ridge Road to Smithville and home. It's quite a haul any way you go, so bring plenty of snacks and water, and expect to get lost. What more could you ask for (but a compass and a map!)
Hill climbing in Monroe County
Hey, did you read about that race up Boltinghouse hill? Not only was the winner in his late fifties, but also he lapped the other competitors several times over. Kind of crazy in my mind, in the words of Howlin' Wolf, "I'm built for comfort, not for speed". The winner climbed the hill 13 times in one hour, pretty amazing. The Bloomington Herald-Times reported that the climb is 300 feet, but that is not what I see in Google Earth. At best the climb is about 190 feet of steady climbing. I've thought that Miller Road riding west from Shiloh to Robinson Road. is even worse. It climbs from the valley floor at 605 feet almost to 820 feet at Robinson Road. The climb stays steep the whole way, getting even tougher at the top.
Want to test your mettle? Just ride out Old 37 north, turn right on Anderson Road, and follow it past the old Monroe County Landfill, then turn right onto Shiloh Road, where you cross Bean Blossom Creek and begin the long climb up the ridge. This is not so bad; Miller Road cuts off to the west well before the going gets tough. You drop into a scenic old farming valley, with little or no traffic. The climb out is a killer, if you make it without walking your bike you are a ten percenter -- it has bested me time and again.
Mitch Rice is an Indiana University Bloomington staffer (IU Office of Creative Services). He also is chairperson of the Bloomington Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Commission, which is called upon to comment on new construction, recommend bike routes and hear the petitions of neighborhoods asking for traffic calming. He recommends these bike safety Web sites, saying the first one "is the best:" http://bicyclesafe.com/; http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/TSF2003/809768.pdf; http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/health/risks.htm; and http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/bc/perspective.cfm.
