Some may recall my puzzled query about the bizzare "bike lanes" in
Shorewood Hills between Shorewood Boulevard and Marshall Court, in the
vicinity of the Pool. After Shorewood announced they would be
cracking down on cyclists who ignore stop signs, I sent a letter to
the WSJ pointing out that this was the same jurisdiction that thought
their lane markings in that region made sense.
Well, I have no idea if it was the letter or coincidence (probably
coincidence, it happened a bit too quickly), but some of you may be
aware that they redid the markings in that area. It's still far from
perfect -- too many opportunities for head-on bike-versus-car
collisions or bike-versus-pedestrian (particularly with kids running
around near the pool entrance), but it's better. There are now right-
side bike lanes in both directions and some sharrows. I imagine any
real upgrades will take some money and careful planning.
I think the best solution is probably to build a direct bike path that
parallels University Avenue and connects the Campus Drive Path to the
path leading to Old Middleton Road, but I don't see that happening in
the near future.
In other notes:
o the Kendall Bike Boulevard is a delight, and I can't wait to see it
extended further west, particularly since the incidence of speeding
and reckless driving on Kendall/Bluff has gone up thanks to drivers
trying to avoid University Avenue during construction.
o while it's not bike-specific, the crossing improvements at South
Owen Drive and Mineral Point Road will make both pedestrian and
bicycle crossings much easier with a center traffic island and a
pedestrian-acutated flasher. Your Federal Tax Dollars At Work, via
the Safe Routes to Schools Program. (Recently threatened by Rep
Cantor (R-Va) as "wasteful spending"...)
o Moving further west, the bike lane stripes on northbound Junction
road are more or less non-existent due to paint fading. I've reported
it twice on the City's web site (I think via "Bikeway concerns", but I
don't recall for sure), but no re-striping yet. I'm sure motorists
think that I'm simply riding in "their" extra-wide right-hand lane.
(and while a white line isn't going to "protect me", it certainly
indicates to them that I'm where I'm supposed to be, particularly as
we approach the turn onto Old Sauk.)
If anyone's at Ride the Drive tomorrow, come say hello at one of the
two American Family Children's Hospital Helmet Fit Check stations!
Peace and Prosperity,
Dipesh
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