Category Archives: Article

by Lorenz M. Worden | October 28, 2019 · 6:28 am

South End Bikeway Connector Rumbles Along – 10/26/19

Construction is fully underway on the long-awaited South End Bikeway Connector. [Photos from 10-26-19. For route description, go to end of this post.]

LOOKING NORTH – New CDTA bus stop at Mt. Hope Dr. People on bicycles will ride behind it and then veer off to toward the river and onto the cycle track on the I-787 northbound entry road. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA LOOKING NORTH – The new cycle track on Frontage Road, the I-787 northbound entry road leading to Church and Vine Sts. (“One lane taken form cars, one lane added for bicycles.”) (“Tank Bombs” very much in evidence.)LOOKING SOUTH TOWARD THE RAIL TRAIL – Cycle track replacing the eastside parking along S. Pearl St. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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LOOKING NORTH – Cycle track under construction on east/river side of S. Pearl St. Note brave cyclist riding in the motor vehicle lane. There is no choice while the road is under construction. For orientation, note the blue and white Bennet sign to the west. Note pavement cut marks and compare final width shown in Photo #3 and 4. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA LOOKING SOUTH – Helderberg Hudson Rail Trail trailhead and parking lot is to the left just past the pylons.

~ The South End Connector Bikeway Route Description ~

The bikeway begins at S. Pearl St./Old S. Pearl St. in the Helderberg Hudson Rail Trail trailhead and parking lot. Between Old S. Pearl St. and Mt. Hope Dr. and the Frontage Road (the I-787 northbound entry road), there will be a separated, on-street, two-way cycle track. (This two-way feature alleviates the need for people on bicycles to cross S. Pearl St.) The cycle track will continue onto the east/river side of the Frontage Rd. to Church St./Vine St. It will then briefly turn west before continuing on an off-road, 10-foot wide, multi-use trail and linear park underneath I-787 to Broadway and Quay St. To skirt the I-787 support structure, at the Church St./Bassett St. intersection the connector will be on-road until Rensselaer St. Here it again it will shift back off-road until the turn toward the Hudson River, the Slater and Dutch Apple mooring, and the Mohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike Trail/Albany Riverfront Park. To accommodate the connector’s path, Church St. from Rensselaer St. to Bassett St. will become a one-way southbound. Broadway currently consists of four travel lanes – two eastbound and two westbound. One lane on will be removed to construct the multi-use path on the south side of Broadway (where it passes under I-787), resulting in one westbound lane and two eastbound lanes.

Pay Attention!

Car #1 stops for pedestrian in crosswalk. Car #2 – Dreaming? Texting? Yaking? Eating?

Result?

Pay Attention EB 10-13-19

The backstory is the person slumped in the seat of Car #1 was a passenger on the way to the ER for a post op situation. The driver of Car #1 – even with an ailing passenger – has enough responsibility to stop for people walking. The driver of Car #2?

You’ll witness this identical behavior if you do some test walks on the “circles of death” on Washington Ave. and Fuller Rd. Try it …

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[Photo and story courtesy of Alert Cyclist Ed.]

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Burlington’s Bike Boxes are Beautiful

It’s always great to visit Burlington to see the latest efforts by the city government to make the city more livable for it citizens and more rideable for people on bicycles.

The latest addition is a Bike Box on a major east-west thoroughfare, Pearl St., at its intersection with Union St. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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Update 10-10-19 ~ The City of Albany has four bike boxes – three at Shaker Rd/Northern Blvd. (see “Bicycle Lanes in the City of Albany”) and one at Madison Ave./Lark St. None has colored pavement as a background color.

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If you are unfamiliar with “bike boxes,” view “How to use a Bike Box” by Streetfilms.

Or, read the instructions.

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The basic concept is pretty clear – if you are on your bicycle, traveling in the bicycle lane, and need to turn left (in this case, east bound off Pearl St. onto northbound Union St.), the petrovehicles are stopped before the green box allowing you to safely ride into the box ahead of the cars and make your left turn as soon as the traffic light indicates. See also: https://nacto.org/publication/urban-bikeway-design-guide/intersection-treatments/bike-boxes/

Why have bike boxes? (SOURCE)

Increases visibility of bicyclists.
Reduces signal delay for bicyclists.
Facilitates bicyclist left turn positioning at intersections during red signal indication – This only applies to bike boxes that extend across the entire intersection.
Facilitates the transition from a right-side bike lane to a left-side bike lane during red signal indication. This only applies to bike boxes that extend across the entire intersection.
Helps prevent “right-hook” conflicts with turning vehicles at the start of the green indication.

Typical Applications: (SOURCE)

At signalized intersections with high volumes of bicycles and/or motor vehicles, especially those with frequent bicyclist left-turns and/or motorist right-turns.
Where there may be right or left-turning conflicts between bicyclists and motorists.
Where there is a desire to better accommodate left turning bicycle traffic.
Where a left turn is required to follow a designated bike route, access a shared-use path, or when the bicycle lane moves to the left side of the street.
When the dominant motor vehicle traffic flows right and bicycle traffic continues through as at a “Y” intersection or access ramp.
Provides priority for bicyclists at signalized bicycle boulevard crossings of major streets.
Groups bicyclists together to clear an intersection quickly, minimizing impediment to transit or other traffic.
Pedestrians benefit from reduced vehicle encroachment into the crosswalk.

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Here’s another Burlington feature, a “Neighborhood Greenway” – how nice is that!

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Filed under Bike Lanes, Burlington VT, City Review

by Lorenz M. Worden | September 4, 2019 · 9:37 am

A Bicycle That Is Loved Will Return the Sentiment

For the right person, this is truly a dream.

Here’s a happy cyclist with her “new” bicycle. Thanks to a gracious donation of this pristine “Japanese steel” bicycle, Lauren can join her family and friends on rides on the Helderberg Hudson Rail Trail.

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Almost since purchase, this bicycle was stored inside and seldom ridden as evidenced by its overall prime condition. Just note the whiter-than-white handlebar tape! A forty or so year old bicycle in this condition is rare. All it needs is air, lube, and love.

This is the right bicycle but only for the right person.

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The donor of this Araya bicycle was unclear as to when it was purchased, but it was clearly one of the great Japanese steel frames from the 1970s and 80s. A hint comes from the SunTour V-GT Luxe rear derailleur – introduced in 1973 “ … In line with their process of continual improvement, SunTour took the SunTour V series and upgraded the parallelogram plates from steel to aluminum – the result is the 1973 SunTour V Luxe series.” (Image #3 below.) So … this bicycle cannot be older than 1973. (SOURCE: http://www.disraeligears.co.uk/Site/SunTour_V_GT_Luxe_derailleur_1500.html )

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Araya, as a bicycle manufacturer, is little known because most of their frame production was re-branded (e.g., the Austrian Puch for example). Currently, Araya focuses on rims, wheels, spokes, and nipples. Araya Industrial has 100 years’ experience making bicycle rims with the first ones of wood. Current production is in aluminum, titanium, carbon fiber, magnesium, and stainless steel. In the 70s and 80s, their rims were well known on high quality road, MTB, and BMX bikes. You might check the wheels on your own bicycles to see if any came from Araya.

Links: http://www.araya.co.uk/ and http://www.araya-usa.com/about-us

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Bicycle Lanes in the City of Albany

UPDATE: 10-10-19 and 6-27-20 ~ At the time of the original post, the bike boxes were outlined and had the required bicycle-with-rider symbol but were not painted green as is the common practice. Photos taken 10-8-19 show that the boxes remain uncolored – note car encroaching on and stopped in the bike box (no people on bicycles present at the time).

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The National Association of City Transportation Officials recommends that “colored pavement should be used as a background color within the bike box to encourage compliance by motorists.” Observations are that “ … the percentage of motorists that encroached on the stop line decreased significantly with the implementation of the skeleton [uncolored] bicycle box.” See: https://nacto.org/publication/urban-bikeway-design-guide/intersection-treatments/bike-boxes/

If you are unfamiliar with “bike boxes,” view “How to use a Bike Box” by Streetfilms. http://www.streetfilms.org/how-to-use-a-bike-box/ Or, read the instructions. The basic concept is pretty clear – if you are on your bicycle, traveling in the bicycle lane, and need to turn left (in this case, east bound off Pearl St. onto northbound Union St.), the petrovehicles are stopped before the green box allowing you to safely ride into the box ahead of the cars and make your left turn as soon as the traffic light indicates.

Here are views of all three Bike Boxes at the Shaker Rd./Northern Blvd. intersection.

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As part of the Northern Blvd.-Van Rensselaer/Rt. 377 bicycle lane network, an additional 0.3 miles of buffered lanes are now open on Shaker Rd. (It’s “Albany-Shaker Rd.” in the Town of Colonie and “Shaker Rd.” and then Loudinville Rd. in Albany.

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The 6 ft. lanes have a 3-ft painted buffer but on the driving lane side. These facilitate the ride down (or up) the hill by Memorial Hospital to and from Broadway. The lanes also should reduce petrovehicles speeds on this busy route. Eventually the lanes will continue the additional 0.5 miles to Broadway.

Alb-Shaker BL at Northern Blvd 8-11-19 (3).JPG

Below is an inventory of installed bicycle lanes in the City of Albany. Please report any change/corrections to lorenzworden@gmail.com

Madison Ave.

Partridge St. – Allen St. 0.4 (2016 completion)
Partridge St. – Willet St. 0.9 (2018 completion)
SUBTOTAL 1.6

Clinton Ave. 1.7 (Manning Sq. to Ten Broeck St.)
Ten Broeck St. 0.2 (Clinton Ave. to Livingston Ave.)
Northern Blvd. 0.9 (McCrossin Ave./Pennsylvania Ave. to Van Rensselaer.
Albany-Shaker Rd. 0.3 (Northern Blvd. to Van Rensselaer/Rt. 377
SUBTOTAL 3.1

TOTAL (installed) 4.7 (2019)

Bicycle Network – The bicycle lane-to-lane connections are as follows:

Ten Broeck Ave. and Clinton Ave. – Total mileage of 1.7 + 0.2 = 1.9 mi.
Northern Blvd. and Albany-Shaker Rd. – Total mileage of 0.9 + 0.3 = 1.2 mi. (This also ties in directly to the 1.5 miles of Van Rensselaer/Rt. 377 bicycle lanes which are mostly in Menands (for a total mileage of 0.9 + 0.3 + 1.5 = 2.7 mi. See – https://albanybicyclecoalition.com/2017/07/08/89398/ )

The Madison Ave. bicycle lanes are isolated.

Albany Bicycle Master Plan – The City of Albany approved its Bicycle Master Plan in December 2009. It called for a 20-year completion period as follows: “This bicycle master plan identifies a bikeway network to be phased in over the next 20 years,” (SOURCE: Pg. ES3, https://albany2030.org/files/City%20of%20Albany%20Bicycle%20Master%20Plan.pdf ) In the first 10 years, the city installed 4.5 miles of bicycle lanes for an average of 0.45 per year. At this rate, the City of Albany will have 9.0 miles of bicycle lanes at the end of the 20-years.

By comparison, the City of Troy’s Uncle Sam Trail is 6.3 miles in a combination of shared lanes, cycle tracks, bicycle lanes, and off-road multiuse paths. Troy plans to close the 0.8-mile gap for the “Hudson River Promenade,” now under construction, in 2021.

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Filed under Bike Lanes, City Review