Bicycle Planning

Key West at Eye Level: Part 3

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“Key West at Eye Level” is a reference to “The City at Eye Level”. I am trying to focus on positive things as I have many negative thoughts regarding the approaching immigration nightmare. One positive thought is how I got a new bike rack installed near my home in Key West. I saw a neighbor’s bike locked to the speed limit sign pole, so I used the Key West Connect app to work with my coworkers to install a new bike rack near the existing bike rack.

Photo credit: Ray Atkinson

Future Blog Post

The next few months are going to be life-changing for thousands of documented, legal immigrants and their families in Key West. Many of these immigrants are about to lose their jobs and legal status. I bike, walk, and ride transit with immigrants daily. They are some of my closest friends in Key West. While I struggle with learning new languages, they are helping me to learn and practice my French, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, and Spanish skills. I am returning the favor by providing them with opportunities to learn and practice their English skills. Since I do not want to risk losing my job by spotlighting the immigration nightmare, does anyone know how to spotlight this situation without receiving backlash from all levels of the government?

Key West at Eye Level: Part 2

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“Key West at Eye Level” is a reference to “The City at Eye Level”. I am going to keep this post short because I do not enjoy writing about depressing topics. As the below graph of the Cow Key Channel Bridge shows, Key West is experiencing a major year-over-year drop in bicycling. The Cow Key Channel Bridge is located between Key West and Stock Island. While the northern part of Stock Island north of US 1 is part of the City of Key West, the southern part south of US 1 is part of unincorporated Monroe County.

Cow Key Channel Bridge is located between Key West and Stock Island. Source: Google Maps

Since the homes on the northern part of Stock Island are usually more expensive than the homes on the southern part and most people who bike in Key West are low-income people, I think it is reasonable to assume that most of the people who bike live on the southern part of Stock Island. Many of these people, who likely work as low-income construction and hospitality workers in Key West, live on Stock Island because they can’t afford to live in Key West.

The southern part of Stock Island also has many Haitian and Hispanic residents. Many of these residents are in the process of losing their legal status. Many Haitian and Hispanic immigrants have told me that they no longer feel safe biking because ICE and other federal agencies have been focusing their immigration enforcement efforts on popular bike routes.

Haitians who have a Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will likely lose their legal status and start being deported on February 3, 2026. Many Hispanics will also lose their legal status and be deported in 2026. How far do you think the year-over-year bike usage will drop for the rest of 2025 and in 2026 at the Cow Key Channel Bridge?

Source: https://app.powerbigov.us/view?r=eyJrIjoiNzRlNjhiMzYtODk5Yy00ZTczLTk3ODMtMGM1ZmRmZGEwZmJhIiwidCI6ImRiMjFkZTVkLWJjOWMtNDIwYy04ZjNmLThmMDhmODViNWFkYSJ9&pageName=ReportSection57074e80abb8698619bc

I want to end this post by sharing something fun that happens on the Cow Key Channel Bridge. I took the below photo on Easter. While the event likely did not have much racial diversity due to the nearby Haitian and Hispanic residents likely having to work on Easter, I am thankful that the fun event happens.

Future Blog Post

I hope to feel comfortable writing longer posts again someday. What do you want to read?

Ray’s New E-Bike Fits On Bus Bike Rack

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Greetings from Memphis! I wanted to publish a post when I moved to Memphis during Labor Day weekend. I felt the need to postpone blogging because I have been busy with moving, unpacking, organizing, meeting neighbors, and preparing for my new job, which starts on Monday, September 11th.

Podcasts About Ray’s New Job

In case you are curious to learn more about my job, I recommend listening to the below podcasts where my predecessors and other people were interviewed about their active transportation work and the future work that I will be managing. Due to the history that is shared in each podcast, I recommend listening to Episode 3 first before proceeding to the next podcast. I copied the episode descriptions, so the descriptions were not created by me. As you will hear in the podcasts, my predecessors and other passionate champions did impressive work to help Memphis become known as a national active transportation leader!

Making bikes affordable to more people by founding Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop led Anthony Siracusa to bike advocacy work on the local, state, and national levels. In time, he saw the bike as only one lever to affect change among many. Anthony’s doctoral studies at Vanderbilt deepened that knowledge by showing him the many Champions and their causes within the Civil Rights Movement. That led him to his current work at Colorado College, where he helps students better champion their own causes.
Kyle Wagenschutz was a critical figure in growing and sustaining Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop in Memphis, alongside founder Anthony Siracusa. Together, the two shared a love for bikes and punk rock, and they found that each subculture played a role in helping them build a community around bikes. Kyle advocated for bike lanes in Memphis, first from his perch at Revolutions, but then as the City of Memphis’ first bicycle/pedestrian coordinator. Anthony and Kyle’s effective “inside-outside” game showed what can happen when government and grassroots work together. The two friends’ partnership helped move Memphis from a “worst city for biking” to “most improved” and on to being a national leader in just six years. Now the Director of Local Innovation at PeopleForBikes in Boulder, CO, what Kyle learned through trial and error in Memphis is benefiting people in other cities.

Episode 30: Nick Oyler is not on the Champions of the Lost Causes’ website, so you will need to access it through this Google Podcasts link. The episode 30 description is below:

Nick Oyler is the Bikeway & Pedestrian Program Manager for the City of Memphis. When the push for bike lanes in Memphis resulted in early victories for the bike/ped movement and then gave way to the city’s initial buildout, Nick was away at college, grad school, and then working in Germany. Following all that news from afar, Nick thought that he might have missed his moment to get involved. But as many multifaceted causes require, there was plenty of work left to be done when he got back to his hometown. Nick’s experience of riding a bike when he was young helped pave the way for his interest in city planning and to his current role, and helped him see the many benefits to cities and people of having a well-designed system of bike lanes and walkways. Memphis has come a long way, but it still has a lot of work ahead of it.

Champions of the Lost Causes
John Paul Shaffer from PeopleForBikes and Nick Oyler from the City of Memphis join us to talk about how Memphis has gone from 2 to 300 miles of off- and on-road bicycle facilities over a decade; which projects have been truly transformative, such as Shelby Farms Greenway and the Harahan Bridge Crossing; and how an intentional focus on equity and neighborhood-based programming has helped more Memphians get on bikes for recreation and transportation.

Later in the program, regular commentator Charlie Santo reflects on moving from transportation mecca Portland, OR to Memphis and trying to navigate the local system. Charlie and Emily also talk about how bike infrastructure and related improvements like traffic calming can potentially help increase access to public spaces such as Tom Lee Park and Riverside Park.
Nick Oyler, bikeway and pedestrian program manager for the City of Memphis, makes a return visit to Memphis Metropolis to talk about pedestrian safety. This past week, Smart Growth America issued its Dangerous by Design 2021 study, which found that pedestrian deaths due to traffic accidents continue to increase nationally. Moreover, the study found that Memphis was the third most dangerous city for pedestrians, with pedestrian deaths up around 75 percent since 2019. In the show, Nick explains the connection between street design and pedestrian safety, why COVID and driver distraction have contributed to the rise in fatalities, and how dedicated funding for pedestrian infrastructure could help change the trajectory. And, why his team created a special map to help memorialize the lives of Memphis pedestrians that have been lost.
Pedestrian deaths in Memphis are at an all-time high and the city is one of the most dangerous in the U.S. for people who get around on foot. But while driver behavior and poor street design are the primary contributors to the problem, pedestrians themselves – the victims – are often blamed. Nick Oyler, Bikeway and Pedestrian Program Manager in the city’s engineering department, pays a return visit to Memphis Metropolis to discuss what the law actually says about where pedestrians can and cannot cross the street, why pedestrian behavior that seems illogical often is quite rational, and how “windshield bias” – seeing the problem exclusively from the driver perspective – is inhibiting the development of solutions.
Nick Oyler has spent the last several years working in and with the community to improve the city’s active transportation systems, first with the Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and most recently as bike and pedestrian program manager for the City of Memphis. Nick is leaving Memphis to pursue new professional opportunities in Denver, and we asked him to return to Memphis Metropolis one last time to reflect on the successes, frustrations, and opportunities he has experienced during his tenure here.
A city’s ParkScore is a measure of how it compares to other places, using criteria such as access, acreage, equity, and investments. The ParkScore Index is prepared annually by the Trust for Public Land, a people-focused parks and public land advocacy organization. In this show, Noel Durant of the TPL’s Tennessee office visits Memphis Metropolis to talk about why ParkScores are so important and how Memphis ranked in their recent study. Memphis park advocates JoAnn Street also joins the conversation to provide a local perspective. JoAnn is the founder of HUG Park Friends, a support organization for three North Memphis parks, Hollywood, University, and Gooch.
Jackson McNeil, a longtime friend of Memphis Metropolis, recently joined Innovate Memphis as Director of Transportation and Mobility, overseeing the Commute Options program. In this show, we discuss the hard work of (and many obstacles to) getting Memphians out of their cars and onto alternate modes of transportation. Jackson and Emily also discuss the recently published Safe Speed Index, which ranks cities on the average vehicle speeds on streets used by pedestrians.

Ray’s New E-Bike Made His Car-Free Life Easier

Since my blog is focused on my car-free lifestyle, I wanted to share the most significant improvement to making my car-free lifestyle easier. As I shared in this 2022 post, my first e-bike did not fit on the bus bike rack because it was too heavy (58.4 pounds) and long (47″) to fit on the standard bike rack. Thank you to Brandie Macdonald for making me aware of the Wing Freedom ST.2 e-bike, which is light (39 pounds) and short (42.9″) enough to fit on the standard bike rack. I frequently had to leave my old e-bike at home in California because I knew it would not fit on the bus bike rack. I was excited to put my new e-bike on the bus bike rack when I went shopping in East Memphis last week!

I had to rush to get on and off the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) bus, so I did not have time to take a photo of my e-bike on the bus bike rack. Taking selfies with my bike was possible on the Big River Crossing, which is an impressive and wide active transportation bridge between Tennessee and Arkansas. The views are fantastic! My new Memphis friends, who were also born and raised in the Charlotte region (all three of us went to high school in Cabarrus County!) and graduated from UNC Charlotte around the same time as me, invited me to join them on a walk across the Big River Crossing. I am not an early bird, especially when I prefer to sleep in during the weekend, so I felt accomplished with waking up in time for the 8am walk today!

Biking on the Big River Crossing. Photo: Ray Atkinson
View of downtown Memphis from the Big River Crossing. Photo: Ray Atkinson

My new church, The Church of the River (First Unitarian Church of Memphis), is near the trailhead to the Big River Crossing. I honestly had difficulty focusing on the sermon because the church has such an impressive natural view! I felt like I was forest bathing during church!

View from The Church of the River (First Unitarian Church of Memphis). Photo: Ray Atkinson

Future Blog Post

I am trying to keep this post short, so I will share more about Memphis in a future post. Since I have never seen a bike ride combined with cooking and feeding low-income people living on the street, I am excited to experience the Urban Bicycle Food Ministry’s weekly bike rides on Wednesday night and Saturday morning!

Car-Free Redwood National Park Vacation Barriers

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I was hoping that planning my June 24 – July 2 car-free Redwood National Park vacation would be as easy as renting an e-bike in Eureka and then biking to Redwood National Park. I normally have Fridays off work, so I wanted to clarify that my vacation starts on Saturday and not Friday because I will be attending the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in the US Conference in San Francisco on June 22-23. I enjoy catching up with colleagues and meeting new people at conferences. Will you be attending this conference, or do you live in San Francisco?

Since I do not feel safe or comfortable enough to bike on Highway 101, which only has “bike share the road” signs, I am not willing to bike on Highway 101. I briefly wrote about bike signage in this 2015 post. I was excited when I found Hammond Truck Road, which is shown in the below Google Maps screenshot, because I thought I found a route to avoid biking on Highway 101. Redwood National Park is the dark green area in the top right corner. Eureka is located south of Crannell. Due to Google Maps showing “This route has restricted usage or private roads,” I contacted Humboldt County staff to clarify whether I could bike on Hammond Tuck Road. As Bob’s reply shows, I would be trespassing if I biked on this road.

The route that you are considering is through private property. These roads have locked gates and are posted with signs indicating no trespassing.

Bob Bronkall, Humboldt County Surveyor

I do not want to embarrass Humboldt County too much. They are at least trying to plan for people who do not drive by providing the Hammond Trail, which I plan to bike on during my vacation. I just wish this trail went all the way to Redwood National Park. Hopefully, this trail will be extended further north someday!

Ray’s Backup Plan

It appears I will be biking less than I wanted during my June vacation. Thankfully, transit services exist between Eureka and Redwood National Park. Redwood Coast Transit operates Route 20 along the below route. While Route 20 does not provide frequent service and only operates on Monday-Saturday, I do not have any safe alternatives to consider. Due to Route 20 ending in Arcata, I may stay in Arcata to avoid having to transfer to another bus to reach Eureka. I wish there was one regional transit provider in this rural area so I could avoid having to transfer!

As this 2022 post shows, I am also concerned about whether the e-bike that I plan to rent will fit on Redwood Coast Transit’s buses. I have not found a transit system in the US that has an entire fleet that can fit e-bikes. While I am waiting for Redwood Coast Transit to confirm that my e-bike rental will not fit on their buses, I assume that I will have no e-bike when I reach Redwood National Park. Despite being used to riding an e-bike, I may rent a non-electric bike so I can take a bike on the bus to Redwood National Park.

Source: http://redwoodcoasttransit.org/routes-schedules/route-20/

Difficulty Finding Redwood National Park Tour

My next barrier after reaching Redwood National Park is finding a group tour. Redwood National Park has limited or no cell and internet services, which is great for disconnecting from social media and emails. I will be traveling alone, so I would prefer to find a group tour to prevent anything bad from happening when traveling alone in an isolated place. While I was excited to find Redwood Adventures, they only offer private tours to groups of at least two people. I emailed them to ask if I can join a larger group or schedule my tour on a less busy weekday. I realize they make more money by preventing single people from scheduling a private tour. I wish I had a girlfriend to go on the tour with me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZzJ6C5ujSw&t

Future Blog Post

I may not blog much during my June vacation because I want to enjoy exploring Eureka, Arcata, and Redwood National Park. I also may not have reliable internet access, which I think will be great to help me disconnect from social media and emails. I hope to have time in July to publish posts on how my vacation went. What do you want to read about?

It is not the destination, but the journey.

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I’m probably one of the few master’s degree graduates who has been looking forward to using some of my newfound free time to keep writing. Since I didn’t have enough time before fall 2015 term started to finish blogging about my study abroad trip last summer to the Netherlands, I want to keep blogging about this trip. Due to how much interest there is in the United States to learn from the Netherlands, I plan to use specific examples from the United States and the Netherlands to show how the United States can learn from my experiences in the Netherlands.

My graduation cap was inspired by my study abroad trips to Denmark and the Netherlands in 2012 and the Netherlands in 2015. The words, “It is not the destination, but the journey”, were inspired by The Slow Bicycle Movement.

2016-06-11 13.44.05

Ray Atkinson’s 2016 Graduation Cap

As I discussed in my previous blog post and the below video shows, most cyclists in the United States are too concerned about arriving at their destination as fast as possible that they forget about enjoying their journey. My study abroad experiences in Denmark and the Netherlands showed me that most cyclists in these countries enjoy their journey and don’t care too much about arriving at their destination as fast as possible. Through my bicycle advocacy work at UNC Charlotte and Portland State University, I tried to advocate for cyclists to shift from focusing on arriving at their destination as fast as possible to focusing on enjoying their journey. Wherever life takes me after graduation, I plan to continue advocating for this shift and hope to someday see most cyclists in the United States enjoying their journey.

I realize world-class bike infrastructure alone cannot achieve a culture shift in the United States from fast to slow biking so we need local, regional, state, and national comprehensive bike plans. Through my next blog posts, I plan to show how the Netherlands created and has been implementing local, regional, provincial, and national comprehensive bike plans. Since the United States is light years behind the Netherlands when it comes to local, regional, state and national comprehensive bike planning, I also plan to show how the United States can learn from the Netherlands.

Ray’s Redesign to Create Bike Connection

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Kannapolis has been talking about the proposed widening of Mooresville Road, which includes wider outside travel lanes for cyclists, and proposed road diet and buffered bike lanes on Loop Road for several months. However, very few people have been talking about the missing bike connection between these two projects. I hope this blog post will provide Kannapolis and NCDOT with a potential redesign to safely and conveniently connect both projects. Before I discuss my redesign, I want to make sure everyone knows where the missing bike connection is located in Kannapolis. I also want to provide a short overview of who owns Loop Road and Mooresville Road because I feel this has impacted both projects.

Where is the missing bike connection?

In order to show the location of the missing bike connection, I first need to show how the missing bike connection is connected to the Loop Road and Mooresville Road projects. The below map shows both projects. Starting from the left side of the map, the Mooresville Road project begins at Kannapolis Parkway and concludes at Dale Earnhardt Blvd, which is located where the red highlight is. The Loop Road project begins at West C Street, which is where the white dot is located above the orange highlight, and concludes at Main Street, which is where the pointer is located at 100 Loop Road. The missing bike connection, which can more easily be seen in the next map, is located between the Mooresville Road project and Loop Road project.

Where are the Mooresville Road and Loop Road projects located?

Where are the Mooresville Road and Loop Road projects located?

The below map shows where the proposed project on Loop Road ends at West C Street/South Walnut Street, which is where Loop Road changes names to Dale Earnhardt Blvd. The below map also shows where the proposed project on Mooresville Road ends at Dale Earnhardt Blvd, which is just before Mooresville Road changes names to Watson Crick Drive. The missing bike connection, which is highlighted in blue, is located on Dale Earnhardt Blvd between West C Street/South Walnut Street and Mooresville Road/Watson Crick Drive.

Loop Road to Mooresville Road Bike Connection

Loop Road to Mooresville Road Bike Connection

With the location in mind, below are the Mooresville Road and Loop Road project maps to provide proof that the missing bike connection is real. Since the Mooresville Road project maps are PDFs, I can’t show the maps so I have provided the links to the maps below. As NCDOT’s notice shows, there is a public hearing about the Mooresville Road widening project on Wednesday, July 9 from 4-6:30pm at the Cabarrus Health Alliance Building, which is located at 300 Mooresville Road in Kannapolis. I will be in Silver Spring, MD so cannot attend, but I encourage anyone interested in this project to attend.

Mooresville Road Widening Project from Kannapolis Parkway to Bethpage Road

Mooresville Road Widening Project from Bethpage Road to Dale Earnhardt Blvd

Below are the Loop Road project maps as of February 11, 2014. Since public hearings are still occurring for both projects, all the project maps are subject to change. Do you see the missing bike connection between the Mooresville Road project and the Loop Road project?

Loop Road Buffered Bike Lanes from Biotechnology Lane to West C Street

Loop Road Buffered Bike Lanes from West C St/S Walnut St to Biotechnology Ln

Loop Road Buffered Bike Lanes from Biotechnology Lane to Main Street

Loop Road Buffered Bike Lanes from Biotechnology Ln to Main St

Kannapolis Owned vs. NCDOT Owned

The sections along Loop Road where the proposed road diet and buffered bike lanes could be installed may be transferred from NCDOT owned to City of Kannapolis owned. The sections along Mooresville Road where the proposed wider outside travel lanes for cyclists could be installed are currently NCDOT owned. Since both projects are not along sections of road that are city owned, I feel it is creating a difficult situation to make sure there is a safe and convenient bike connection between the two projects.

As of the resolution that was approved by Kannapolis City Council on Monday, June 23, Kannapolis is requesting NCDOT to abandon sections of Loop Road and Dale Earnhardt Blvd from State maintenance. This includes the entire project area for the road diet and buffered bike lanes on Loop Road and the missing bike connection on Dale Earnhardt Blvd. If NCDOT accepts the Kannapolis City Council’s request, these sections will be added to the City of Kannapolis’ Street System for maintenance. However, from what I have observed on the project maps, it doesn’t appear that this means the road diet and buffered bike lanes on Loop Road will be extended beyond the intersection of Loop Road and West C Street/South Walnut Street to the intersection of Dale Earnhardt Blvd (Loop Road changes names) and Mooresville Road/Watson Crick Drive. Since the Loop Road project will still end at West C Street/South Walnut Street, the missing bike connection will still exist.

After speaking with individuals involved in the Loop Road project, I discovered they have an alternative plan to create the bike connection between both projects. Instead of extending the road diet and buffered bike lanes to the intersection of Mooresville Road/Watson Crick Drive,  they want to end the road diet and buffered bike lanes at West C Street/South Walnut Street and route cyclists onto a multi-use path. They want to create this multi-use path through widening the sidewalk shown in the below photo. As one can see, there is a power line adjacent to the sidewalk. It probably is expensive to relocate the power line so the sidewalk can be widened for the creation of the multi-use path.

Power line may prevent widening of sidewalk for multi-use path

The Mooresville Road project, which is owned by the NCDOT, introduces another issue. Since the City of Kannapolis doesn’t own the sections of Mooresville Road where the proposed project is located, I feel it has less control over the proposed wider outside travel lanes for cyclists on Mooresville Road than it would have if these sections were owned by the city. One example of this can be seen in how the Mooresville Road project ends at Dale Earnhardt Blvd, which is just before Mooresville Road changes names to Watson Crick Drive. Since it would make the missing bike connection from the Loop Road project safer and more convenient, I would like NCDOT to extend the Mooresville Road project from Dale Earnhardt Blvd to Laureate Way.

Watson Crick Drive between Dale Earnhardt Blvd and Laureate Way

Watson Crick Drive between Dale Earnhardt Blvd and Laureate Way

Ray’s Redesign to Create Bike Connection

With the location and ownership details discussed for both projects, I will begin to discuss my proposed alternative route to create a safe and convenient bike connection between the Loop Road project and Mooresville Road project. This redesign assumes the City of Kannapolis and NCDOT cannot connect the two projects using the travel lanes on Dale Earnhardt Blvd.

Since I don’t yet (Portland State University has classes that teach photoshop) have photoshopping skills, imagine what the intersection of Loop Road/Dale Earnhardt Blvd and West C Street/South Walnut Street, which is shown below, would look like with a two-stage left turn box with bike detection. While I would prefer four two-stage left turn boxes be installed at this intersection because there are four possible locations to turn left, two boxes are needed to complete the alternative route that I am designing. One of these boxes needs to be installed for cyclists turning left from Loop Road onto South Walnut Street and the other box needs to be installed for cyclists turning left from South Walnut Street onto Dale Earnhardt Blvd. This redesign, along with the rest of my redesign, should encourage “interested but concerned” cyclists to bike between where the buffered bike lanes end on Loop Road and the wider outside travel lanes for cyclists start on Mooresville Road.

Inspiration for the words “Put a two-stage left turn box with bike detention on it!” in the caption for the below photo came from Complete Blocks. Complete Blocks is a cool project co-founded by Aleksandra Borisenko and Keihly Moore, who graduated from UNC Charlotte and now work for the Lawrence Group. Check out their website to see all the amazing complete block redesigns!

Put a two-stage left turn box on it!

Put a two-stage left turn box with bike detention on it!

The below photo shows two-stage left turn boxes in Portland, OR. A similarly designed two-stage left turn box could be installed in Kannapolis.

Two-stage left turn box in Portland, OR

Two-stage left turn box in Portland, OR

Since most people in Kannapolis probably don’t know how to use a two-stage left turn box, Kannapolis would need to install the below sign to educate people, especially motorists and cyclists, on how to use the two-stage left turn box.

Sign on how to use two-stage left turn box in Portland, OR

Sign on how to use two-stage left turn box in Portland, OR

After turning left onto South Walnut Street, cyclists could bike on Rite Aid’s private road, which is located behind Rite Aid and connects to South Juniper Street. Several cyclists from the Central Carolina Cycling Club told me they already use this route so the City of Kannapolis could work with Rite Aid to make this a public-private sponsored bike route by installing multiple sharrows and Bikes May Use Full Lane signs. These sharrows and Bikes May Use Full Lane signs would direct cyclists where they need to be on the road and inform both cyclists and motorists where to expect cyclists to be biking. Since few automobiles use this route, which I know because I took several photos while standing in the middle of the road, and the automobiles that do use the route are traveling so slow, this route would provide a safe alternative to biking on Dale Earnhardt Blvd.

Put sharrows on it!

Put sharrows and Bikes May Use Full Lane signs on it!

Here is an example of what a sharrow is and what the Bikes May Use Full Lane sign looks like. Notice how the sharrow is properly installed outside the door zone. I see too may sharrows installed in the door zone so it is nice to see a properly installed sharrow.

Sharrow with Bikes May Use Full Lane Sign

Sharrow with Bikes May Use Full Lane Sign

After biking on Rite Aid’s private road, cyclists would turn right onto South Juniper Street then turn left onto Southern Select Community Credit Union’s parking lot. Sharrows and Bikes May Use Full Lane signs can continue to be used. Additional wayfinding may be needed if the sharrows don’t provide enough direction for cyclists to know where to turn.

Leaving Rite Aid and turning right onto Juniper Street

Leaving Rite Aid and turning right onto Juniper Street

Turning left into Southern Select Community Credit Union's parking lot

Turning left into Southern Select Community Credit Union’s parking lot

The alternative route concludes on the other side of Southern Select Community Credit Union’s parking lot, which connects to Watson Crick Drive. Watson Crick Drive changes names to Mooresville Road beyond the below intersection so the alternative route is complete. I am hopeful that the City of Kannapolis and NCDOT can work together to make sure the proposed wider outside travel lanes for cyclists on Mooresville Road will be extended to where Watson Crick Drive intersects Laureate Way.

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Turning right onto Watson Crick Drive, which changes names to Mooresville Road at the intersection

My proposed alternative route, along with suggested redesigns, should encourage “interested but concerned” cyclists to bike between where the buffered bike lanes end on Loop Road and the wider outside travel lanes for cyclists start on Mooresville Road. Whether or not my proposed alternative route is considered by the City of Kannapolis or NCDOT, I am hopeful that the City of Kannapolis and NCDOT can work together to make sure there is a safe and convenient bike connection between the Loop Road project and the Mooresville Road project. How feasible do you think my plan is? Are there areas I can improve my plan?

Since I will be moving from Kannapolis, NC to Silver Spring, MD on Sunday for a transportation planning internship with Toole Design Group, my next post will discuss my expectations for living car-free in the Washington, DC region. Since I have been dependent on an automobile for nearly every trip in Kannapolis and this is my first time moving outside the Charlotte region, I am confident that I will experience challenges. However, I also expect to experience many benefits from living car-free in the Washington, DC region.