Here’s the southbound bike lane on Salem Avenue west of Waverly Lake on Friday evening.
It’s the end of November, so it must be time to get exercised about piles of dead leaves on Albany streets. Not that complaining does any good.
So there are piles of leaves all over the place. So what? What else do you expect in the fall in a city that has thousands of maples, walnuts, chestnuts, oaks and other deciduous trees?
Well, you might think we could do a better job clearing the leaves away.
On its public works website and social media, the City of Albany lets people know about the official “leaf pickup” days. It tells people that there are three 11-day periods in the fall when Republic Services goes around and picks up leaves from paved streets within the city limits, streets, that is, that have curbs and gutters.
Two of those periods are already past. The second one ended on Nov. 15. The third and last one won’t start until Dec. 2 and go until Dec. 13.
On Salem Avenue west of Waverly Lake, two or three big piles of leaves completely covered the southbound bike lane on the evening of the day after Thanksgiving. Traffic was heavy enough that I hesitated to swing the bike into the traffic lane. That’s what brought leaf disposal up in my mind.
The city and Republic want people to rake up their autumn leaves and dump them in their yard debris carts to be picked up once a week on trash day. That’s sensible advice.
Excess leaves, they say, may be raked into the street and piled up in long and narrow rows, 2 feet from the curb, to be cleared away when the Republic leaf crew comes around.
“Rows must not block storm drains, driveways or bike lanes,” the city website says. It’s easy to say “must not,” but on streets with bike lanes there’s no other practical place to put those piles.
One way to deal with this might be to have the leaf pickup operation start a little later, and then to run it continuously until the bulk of the autumn leaf harvest is gone. (That, obviously, is a question of money and resources.)
The other way is to realize that there are far worse problems to solve, and to relax about this one. Let’s have a little patience and work around those bike lane obstacles while they are there.
Even if it means I stop the bike until I no longer see headlights in the rearview mirror and then ride in the traffic lane for a few yards. (hh)
‘Must not block’? Easier said than done
Here’s the southbound bike lane on Salem Avenue west of Waverly Lake on Friday evening.
It’s the end of November, so it must be time to get exercised about piles of dead leaves on Albany streets. Not that complaining does any good.
So there are piles of leaves all over the place. So what? What else do you expect in the fall in a city that has thousands of maples, walnuts, chestnuts, oaks and other deciduous trees?
Well, you might think we could do a better job clearing the leaves away.
On its public works website and social media, the City of Albany lets people know about the official “leaf pickup” days. It tells people that there are three 11-day periods in the fall when Republic Services goes around and picks up leaves from paved streets within the city limits, streets, that is, that have curbs and gutters.
Two of those periods are already past. The second one ended on Nov. 15. The third and last one won’t start until Dec. 2 and go until Dec. 13.
On Salem Avenue west of Waverly Lake, two or three big piles of leaves completely covered the southbound bike lane on the evening of the day after Thanksgiving. Traffic was heavy enough that I hesitated to swing the bike into the traffic lane. That’s what brought leaf disposal up in my mind.
The city and Republic want people to rake up their autumn leaves and dump them in their yard debris carts to be picked up once a week on trash day. That’s sensible advice.
Excess leaves, they say, may be raked into the street and piled up in long and narrow rows, 2 feet from the curb, to be cleared away when the Republic leaf crew comes around.
“Rows must not block storm drains, driveways or bike lanes,” the city website says. It’s easy to say “must not,” but on streets with bike lanes there’s no other practical place to put those piles.
One way to deal with this might be to have the leaf pickup operation start a little later, and then to run it continuously until the bulk of the autumn leaf harvest is gone. (That, obviously, is a question of money and resources.)
The other way is to realize that there are far worse problems to solve, and to relax about this one. Let’s have a little patience and work around those bike lane obstacles while they are there.
Even if it means I stop the bike until I no longer see headlights in the rearview mirror and then ride in the traffic lane for a few yards. (hh)
Tags: bike lanes, don't block bike lanes, leaf pickup, Republic Services, Salem Avenue, yard debris carts