Like many cities with greenways and off-street bicycle trails those in Indianapolis are officially closed dusk-to-dawn, creating outlaws of bike commuters forced to ride in the dark whether due to night shfits or the changing dawn of the season. In most communities commuters are given a pass on this practice as law enforcement has more pressing needs than busting pannier laden teachers commuting to their classroom. This was the case up until a few weeks ago when dozens of tickets were given over a few days to early morning commuters on the Monon Greenway in Indianapolis. According to NUVO Newsweekly, after discussions between various cycling entities and the city, the tickets are being forgiven and it seems as if the whole incident has sparked constructive talks between everyone on the future of the trail system in Indianapolis, effectively making lemonade out of the lemons police officers handed out earlier.
“Part of why it takes so much diligence is that all of these trails have unique aspects to be considered,” (Indianapolis Parks Employee) Lowry said. “We want to create the right model. It’s something we’re trying to do correctly the first time, so it may take a little time to plan.”
Read the full article here.
You can read even more about this situation at http://www.theindycog.com
It was a kind surprise to see my article posted on here. Thanks for the nod, Brad.
I worry a little about this. I commute on some very nice greenways but one of them has many signs stating it closes at sunset. By this late in the year I am sometimes on it after that, but I really doubt I would get a ticket. There is no opens at sunrise sign and the other greenway I travel, in the same town, is newer and has no signs about opening or closing.
The other thing that disturbs me about the sign is that there are no signs to help you find the greenway or let you know where to turn to get to particular roads. They seem to have spent all the sign budget on the closes at sunset signs. Every entry to the trail features one of those.
Travelling around east and west the past 5 years, I always choose trails over motor roads. Almost all parks are “closed” after dark. Such laws are standard, but they’re designed to be used against vandals, muggers and rowdy keggers. Despite being an obvious bag-laden vagabond, I’ve never been hassled. Seems to me the Indy PD needs a lesson from higher up.
As for charging cyclists to use the public ways? Your taxes already paid for it, and compared to motor roads, bikeways are incredibly inexpensive. Phoenix, Arizona, is building a 242-mile bikeway in and around their megasprawl. Cost - $5 million for 242 miles. If I remember right, that’s about what it costs to build a half-mile of motorway.
As more people get car-free, there’ll be more demand for protected non-motorized routes. The danger of dicing with cars keeps a lot of people in cars for self-defense. But more people are becoming aware they can replace an $8,000-a-year car with a bicycle, and all they need are safe routes from home to shopping and transit hubs. They’re gonna get ‘em, too!
$5M for 242 miles? If that’s right, then Indy needs to learn the secret of their success. Here they are spending, what, $50M for just a few miles of Cultural Trail.
At a glance, it seems like 2 costs vary wildly from place to place - wages and land. The Phoenix area uses existing canal and power-line rights-of-way, plus parks, for a pretty extensive trail system.
If you’re interested, the trail article should be here:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/surprise/articles/2009/11/24/20091124maricopatrail1124.html
To check my figures, I googled road costs, and gat a handy little pdf sheet from Florida DOT on a variety of constructions and alterations. It’s here:
ftp://ftp.dot.state.fl.us/LTS/CO/Estimates/CPM/summary.pdf
For the curious, I’ll end this note with a few sample costs per mile from F-DOT.
Two Directional 12′ Shared Use Path $240,408.46
Rails to Trails project 12′ width $199,638.66
New Construction Undivided 2 Lane Rural Road with 5′ Paved Shoulders $2,486,073.68
New Construction Divided Urban 6 Lane Interstate with 22′ Closed Median with Barrier Wall 10′ $11,581,715.07