BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Yes pleasseeeeeeeee. I don't know how much it would cost, but I would gladly pitch in if I had to. I have near misses with people riding way too fast through there all the time (and still have some near misses with people going super-slow since it's so narrow and so blind).

If we can't have legitimate trail infrastructure there, we should at least get something like that. It's ridiculous that's supposed to be part of a bike trail but that they made it so narrow that they have to put up signs telling you not to ride your bike through it

This isn't a solution, but I don't bother with that stretch. Just jump the tracks. What few trains there are aren't moving all that fast, and they're louder than a Prius.

Yeah, I always see people doing that, but carrying my loaded bike up that little gravelly hill and over the tracks always seems kind of unappealing. I may be headed that way tomorrow without my bike as heavily loaded as usual, so maybe I'll try it.

There used to be a mirror on the western of those corners. I used to yell "Yo" loudly on those corners until I got my dingy bell.

I don't know why anyone would ride next to the wall heading towards town- you can go with and as fast as traffic down the short hill and around to where you make the right up towards the maintenece sheds and parking lot.

I wish those who jumped the tracks would clear the rocks away periodically for those of us who do not. One of these days I am bringing my old mill shovel and doing some serious rock moving.

I don't know what it is about traffic there, but I always say the next time will be the day I just ride on the road for that section, and then without fail I see some giant construction truck go flying through there or some car running one of those lights or something like that and think... "nope, not today." Hopefully I'll get over that eventually.

I hate that corner, I typically just take the road - but I'm never there at rush hour, usually on a lazy Sunday.

I crossed the tracks there once, and I didn't like it. It just didn't sit well with me, and I won't do it again on my own. Perhaps watched too many train wreck movies as a child.

I think a real solution needs to happen there, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

On mirrors: My grandparents used to live on a blind hill on a blind curve off a busy road, it was difficult for the 7 people who lived on that road to get from their road to the main road without inducing a crash. They lived there for 40 years. They started putting up mirrors there in the 70s. At some point the township got tired of replacing them when they got stolen (average once a year). Then the residents got fed up with replacing them when they got stolen. So it's still a double blind intersection.

If a mirror is going to get put up, make sure it's theft-resistant.

I usually take the road too. But I just 311'd a request for a mirror there.

My DIY solution has just been to start shouting something along the lines of "I'm coming, watch the hell out!" when I get close to the corner. I figure announcing my presence will at least make the silent speedsters think twice? Mirrors would def be an upgrade.

I was rolling through the cattle chute one time, pretty slowly, too. A family was riding the other direction. A 9-year-old girl must have thought she didn't have room to get by, and took a dive into the wall. Started with a handlebar tip, then her entire arm and helmet contacted. She didn't go down, but came to a solid stop. The parents riding behind her saw she had easily 18" between me and her without moving over, so there were no hard feelings, but crap, what a way to spend an afternoon out biking as a family. She was OK but shaken.

Ever since then, I've crossed the tracks. It's a lot like crossing a street. Stop look & listen, check both ways, make sure nothing is coming, and then just go. Easier to cross that than a corner on Penn Ave.

So noted on moving the gravel. I don't go through there that often, maybe once every two months.

I usually cross the tracks or ring my bell continuously until I get out of the barriers. (I have loaded panniers all the time, isn't too bad)

Helen S, do you ride the sidewalk portion of the trail? Is that where you're encountering rocks?

The rocks I think he is referring to (the ones that I am) are the ones here.

That is the spot! Interestingly, when I rode through this evening, the rocks were cleared away pretty far, although not as much as in that old picture. It elicited and out loud "WOW" on my part.

I don't feel the traffic is any worse going down that small section then anywhere else hence I reserve the lane behind the barriers for going outbound uphill.

I guess I'm weird, I ride on the road from the park until I get past where the rocks usually are, but then I get back on the sidewalk to go under that overpass and through the jersey barriers. It's probably just coincidence that I've seen so much misbehavior at those intersections; I don't know why the traffic there bothers me more than anywhere else. Probably has something to do with the fact that I'm always coming and going there sometime between 4:30 and 6pm.

seriously who labeled the eliza furnace trail as "The Jail Trail" on google maps... wtf

I'm with you pearmask - I think there are cars that wait in the bushes for a bike to dare use the road there. You do have to slow way down to make the right up the hill - it's kind of treacherous, and there's *always* a car right behind me.

The chute sucks, but I use it in the other direction and ring the hell out of my bell.

Carrying a loaded bike across those tracks and down that steep hill is crappy.

That "connection" is a serious embarrassment and a safety hazard. They should get rid of one of the traffic lanes there, push the barrier out 10', done.

Then they can fix the connection between the Smithfield St. bridge and the South Side trail.