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It's all about the bike

Veloise

By Veloise
in Grand Rapids Coffee House

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fotoman311 Burg

fotoman311

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Coming to a bike park near you: http://www.joyboxexp.../joybox2010.pdf

"Mr B" is riding across the state, towing his upright piano on a three-wheeler. Also riding are members of his quartet.

They reach GR on Sunday (I invited them to find a street corner and hang out to play for the fireworks crowd) and will be performing at the GR Bike Park on Monday. (They might be on the WGVU Morning Show earlier that day.)

To add to this, the show at the GR Bike Park will be from 2pm-4pm. It's a free show hosted by Musical Arts for Justice in the Community (MAJIC) and any donations collected will go to fund future shows.

GR Bike Park is located SE of US-131 and Burton on Kirtland St near Pioneer Construction. Map of park location

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zenstyle Hamlet

zenstyle

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I was scootering to a play rehearsal last evening about 6:45. All along Lake Drive to Fulton, and continuing downtown, there were bicyclists aplenty on the streets. Not kids, not spandex-clad enthusiasts, but regular adults on bikes, getting to where they needed to go. Ages young 20's through 60's, and the variety of bikes was a treat for the eyes. The experience made me hopeful for a more bike-intensive future for GR.

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fotoman311 Burg

fotoman311

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There's a ton of new bicycle path construction going on from Maynard near Millenium Park all the way up to Remembrance.

Anyone have a link for info?

They are working on a connection up to Walker/Standale. The idea is that it will eventually connect up to the Musketawa trail, so that the Standale area and all those residents just to the west of GR will have access to both of these great trail resources.

I love how great a job the county, area municipalities, and other trails advocates, including the West Michigan Trails and Greenways Coalition and the Meijer Foundation, are doing completing all these connections and forming an actual trail network. When combined with a network of on-road facilities, GR could have a good foundation to move ourselves up the bicycle friendly ranks and improve the health and quality of life in our metro area!

This article has more info and a useful graphic: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/01/walker_makes_deal_to_extend_tr.html

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fotoman311 Burg

fotoman311

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The Musketawa / White Pine Connector should be under construction next summer. It's my understanding the design was stopped for a while "they' dealt with the farmer in Marne but has resumed.

Context found here, for those of you not keeping score. :) (ie, everyone but Raildudes_dad and myself, hehe)

http://www.mlive.com..._musketawa.html

I can't wait to see that connection completed as well.

Also, we'll be riding up the new trail on Maynard on the 7/28 PedalGR ride. It will take us from Millennium Park to Versluis Orchard, where we'll be eating peaches right from the tree. I saw Nate Versluis last night at Founders and he confirmed that the beginning of the peach crop should be ready then. YES!!! I love West Michigan!

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arcturus Burg

arcturus

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They are working on a connection up to Walker/Standale. The idea is that it will eventually connect up to the Musketawa trail, so that the Standale area and all those residents just to the west of GR will have access to both of these great trail resources.

I love how great a job the county, area municipalities, and other trails advocates, including the West Michigan Trails and Greenways Coalition and the Meijer Foundation, are doing completing all these connections and forming an actual trail network. When combined with a network of on-road facilities, GR could have a good foundation to move ourselves up the bicycle friendly ranks and improve the health and quality of life in our metro area!

This article has more info and a useful graphic: http://www.mlive.com..._extend_tr.html

Great info, just made a donation to WMTGC based on that article.

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fotoman311 Burg

fotoman311

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I started a photo blog on Tumblr. It's mostly bicycle related photos from events around Grand Rapids, with some beer and other random photos thrown in. I'm trying to post 3 photos a day for at least a couple weeks, then at least one a day after that.

Check it out: http://cyclevangelist.tumblr.com/

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fotoman311 Burg

fotoman311

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Will some bicyclist here please respond to the knuckle-dragging morons commenting after this GR Press story? I'm so pissed I can't type lucidly. Do it for my blood pressure, if nothing else!

My link

My wife has stopped reading the comments on bicycle articles because the ignorance of many posters makes her too mad. Anyhow, kzbrian posted a pretty rational response.

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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I noticed today that they are moving right along turning the train bridge over Market Ave into a bike path. I want to say it's called the Black Creek Trail? Comes out of the Butterworth landfill area and dumps into an abandoned rail line in an industrial area near Godfrey/Black Hills neighborhood.

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John E Burg

John E

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I noticed today that they are moving right along turning the train bridge over Market Ave into a bike path. I want to say it's called the Black Creek Trail? Comes out of the Butterworth landfill area and dumps into an abandoned rail line in an industrial area near Godfrey/Black Hills neighborhood.

That is the Oxford Street Trail that should have been completed a long time ago. Progress has been real slow. The bridge over Market Street and the river has been done, but the bridge over Chestnut Street is almost open with more work needing to be done at the start of the trail at Oxford Street. A couple trees have been blown over across the trail between Oxford and Chestnut. I have photos up on Flickr.

~John

http://www.flickr.com/johne777

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fotoman311 Burg

fotoman311

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I noticed today that they are moving right along turning the train bridge over Market Ave into a bike path. I want to say it's called the Black Creek Trail? Comes out of the Butterworth landfill area and dumps into an abandoned rail line in an industrial area near Godfrey/Black Hills neighborhood.

What John E said...

Construction has been super slow on this. The major construction on the actual railbridge over the river and the bridge over Chestnut was all completed last year. It's been taking them forever to put in the retaining walls for the access from Chestnut Street. I feel like the whole project should have been done by mid-June or July, but they didn't actually start until around the beginning of June. The weather was suitable for that kind of work in mid-April, and it's just dragged out forever and ever.

It's weird, because Wolverine, the company that won the bid, is a pretty reputable firm.

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elcelc Whistle-Stop

elcelc

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I took a quick look at the not quite finished Buck Creek Trail extension today. This will be a nice alternative to the Ivanrest underpass at I-196 and another link to Millennium Park.

The graphic in the paper is not completely accurate. The path comes off the North end of Broadway, heads west right alongside the highway and takes a very sharp right to head under the highway along Buck Creek. I wonder if they're adding a railing along the creek since it would be quite a tumble down the rocks into the water.

Can't wait!

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fotoman311 Burg

fotoman311

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I took a quick look at the not quite finished Buck Creek Trail extension today. This will be a nice alternative to the Ivanrest underpass at I-196 and another link to Millennium Park.

The graphic in the paper is not completely accurate. The path comes off the North end of Broadway, heads west right alongside the highway and takes a very sharp right to head under the highway along Buck Creek. I wonder if they're adding a railing along the creek since it would be quite a tumble down the rocks into the water.

Can't wait!

That looks great! Now, if they would just put bike lanes along the length of Canal down to 44th...imagine how many more people they would be connecting to the Grand River.

I won't hold my breath, but sometimes Grandville surprises me. :)

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Allison Slater Town

Allison Slater

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I'd say not likely. They've actually -removed- crosswalks at Canal & 44th. You can still see the rough outline on the pavement of where the crosswalk on the east side of the intersection used to be. I think the push button hole still exists, and both ends of the ghost crosswalk still connect to sidewalks. Crossing signal is gone. They want you to cross 5 lanes of traffic west, to cross 8 lanes of traffic south, and cross another 6 lanes back east, instead of just crossing 8 lanes outright.

I just watched the traffic lights for the cars and crossed where the crosswalk used to be at my own discretion.

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fotoman311 Burg

fotoman311

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Adventure Cycling gave Michigan some good coverage in our progress on the US Bicycle Route System:

ProposedUSBikeRoutesMap.jpg

http://blog.adventur...es-through.html

Route 30 that will head through GR has not been defined yet.

Route 20 from Ludington to Bay City to Marine City has received approval from all the local authorities and will be moving one step closer to official designation from AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials).

2nd thing:

The cooler weather has not stopped the bike parking issues out in front of Kendall College that I see everyday on my ride home.

http://plixi.com/p/52056650

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John E Burg

John E

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.

The trees have been removed from the Oxford Street Trail. There needs to be some clean-up but it is usable now from Oxford Street going across Chestnut, Rail Road Tracks, Market and the Grand River to Wealthy Street. The trail is accessible at Chestnut Street.

Getting ready to spray grass seed as last of joggers use the trail.

5164954312_31ec57ffe0_z.jpg

http://www.flickr.co...57625233059537/

Video of spraying grass seed:

http://www.flickr.co...777/5164348947/

~John

.

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fotoman311 Burg

fotoman311

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.

The trees have been removed from the Oxford Street Trail. There needs to be some clean-up but it is usable now from Oxford Street going across Chestnut, Rail Road Tracks, Market and the Grand River to Wealthy Street. The trail is accessible at Chestnut Street.

Getting ready to spray grass seed as last of joggers use the trail.

5164954312_31ec57ffe0_z.jpg

http://www.flickr.co...57625233059537/

Video of spraying grass seed:

http://www.flickr.co...777/5164348947/

~John

.

That looks much better than I imagined it might be. I'm still perplexed why they needed to build access to the trail on BOTH the north and south sides of Chestnut. Glad this project is finally completed, though!

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Raildudes dad Hamlet

Raildudes dad

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That looks much better than I imagined it might be. I'm still perplexed why they needed to build access to the trail on BOTH the north and south sides of Chestnut. Glad this project is finally completed, though!

I don't understand the double ramp either. Not sure why they even have a ramp to Chestnut :dontknow: .

BTW: I'm "working" on a route for USBR30 from Muskegon to St Johns :thumbsup:

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