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Wednesday, May 01, 2024

Biking In Anchorage In Full Swing

 First off, I should say that for the fat tire and studded tire bikers, Anchorage is a year round biking town.  For folks like me, biking doesn't really start until most of the snow is off the bike paths.  The paths along the main roads have been clear since April 1 at least.  Here's Dowling on one of my early April rides.  


But as of the past weekend, the trails I've tried - and from reports of others - the bike trails along the greenbelts are now snow and ice free.  This was the trail from Goose Lake along Northern Lights and then over the the Alaska Native Medical Center last Friday.  The shiny stuff on the trail is melt water from the snow on the edge of the trail.  



Goose Lake, last Friday was still covered with ice as have been other small lakes I've been by.  






I still can't imagine the folks that designed these bike paths on the roads that bulge into the street at the corners.  The biker has to move left into traffic.  What were they thinking?  OK, you can have space marked off from the cars, but only most of the way.  Then we push you into the roadway.  I'm guessing this wasn't a biker.  Or even worse, an engineer who hates being forced to add bike lines, so he (a she wouldn't have done this) does the trail part way and then gets revenge at the corners.  (Any engineers reading this - I'm just being playful, like the person who designed this.)
On Bainbridge Island, where they have a similar design, they have curb cuts so bikes go on the sidewalk instead of the street.  


But this is a fairly recent improvement for the bike lanes on Bainbridge Island.  



Saturday I explored the Campbell Creek trail going south.  It was mostly clear, but there were still a few stretches with ice/snow.  So coming back I decided to explore along Old Seward Highway.  I didn't realize how grimy some of the streets between Old and New Seward are.  This was 66th I believe.  There was a fire in the old barrel in the middle.  






And not all the paths along main streets are great. This is one of the worst.  36th Avenue west of the Old Seward Highway on the south side of the street.  The big gravel lot north of New Sagaya feeds rocks and gravel onto the sidewalk.  There are big holes in the sidewalk.  This is just east of the little mall that has ACS and the Pita Pit.  The sidewalk has disappeared under rock and broken asphalt.  

And here's a picture in Spenard.  I can't quite believe this was the first moose I've seen since we got back into Anchorage early March.  It paid no attention to me.  I was biking back from the Providence branch in the old REI space.  No one had bothered to tell me that my doctor had recently moved from their to Building S over on the main Providence campus.  But, I got to see the moose.






3 comments:

  1. Hi Steve. That 4th photo in your list showing road layout for its bike lane seems to be show (as a walker) a reduced crossing distance for a 'Pedestrian Crossing' at this point.

    Since I walk everywhere and bike some wheres (as our small city is quite poor about transportation, sans auto), I see road design from 2 points-of-view. It popped out for me, I guess. But same problem for any non-motorized means of getting somewhere.

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    Replies
    1. My blindspot. I didn't think about the pedestrian point of view, though I do walk too. The streets they do this on are invariably two lane roads without much traffic, so a pedestrian can watch and go when it's free. A bike has to either move into the car lane or stop and wait. The solution on Bainbridge allows for both the pedestrian and the biker. Though it could put the pedestrian in the biker's path if both are focused on cars only. Another problem is when there is a 'pork chop' island. This steers the right turning cars in the right lane. There's an island on the other side of the right lane, so pedestrians can cross without conflict with cars turning right. Except the cars often block the pedestrian's path to the island.

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  2. That 36th Avenue mess (west of Old Seward) meant a flat tire for me in a pothole. Had to purchase 4 new tires. Rough on cars and bikes. I hate biking across that area.

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