Looking south along the bike lane on the west side of Pacific Boulevard on Nov. 7, 2023.
A few days ago I took the bike to 53rd Avenue in south Albany. The trip on South Pacific Boulevard and back illustrated a glaring gap in Albany’s bike infrastructure.
There are bike lanes on both the east and west sides of this five-lane highway. But heavy motor traffic at close to freeway speeds makes using those lanes more than routinely dangerous.
The noise alone tells you why a guy on a bike would not want to be on that road if there was an alternative. This little video, mostly full of the roar of vehicles speeding past, may show what I mean.
The trouble is that there is no alternative route between west or central Albany and the south end of town including Linn-Benton Community College and the residential areas off 53rd Avenue.
Local transportation planners and their consultants keep churning out plans for better ways of getting around the Albany area in cars, on foot and on bikes. One plan is followed by the next, but not much changes on the ground.
On South Pacific, the problem could be fixed with a little imagination. The narrow sidewalk and the highway shoulders or bike lanes could be combined as a multi-use path and then protected from the traffic lanes. This would make life easier and safer for both people on bikes and the occasional pedestrian.
Is that likely to be done? No, it’s not. So the only alternative bike riders have is to ride on the sidewalk, stopping to let pedestrians pass and being especially careful at the few intersections to watch for cars. (hh)
You say: “This would make life easier and safer for both people on bikes and the occasional pedestrian.”
I think you must mean also the occasional person on a bike. There are so few people riding bicycles in Albany I could drive around all day during the seven rainy months and not see any. Even in summer, the esteemed (I mean that) Hasso Hering is likely to be lonely in this occupation.
For the most part bike lanes are an absurd outlay of taxpayer dollars upfront, and an inconvenience to automobile drivers on the back end (people trying to get to work to pay those burdensome taxes!).
Welcome to our current problem. All of these “minority” fractions are making so much noise asking (or telling) the majority to cater to their whims. Politicians, corporations and the media have been doing just that. We’re not getting more diverse, just the opposite, we’re getting more divided.
So you prefer they slow an entire lane of traffic instead. Legally they can do that when no bike lane is present.
I would offer this additional thought regarding your comment, “I think you must mean also the occasional person on a bike. There are so few people riding bicycles in Albany I could drive around all day during the seven rainy months and not see any.”
Many of us (bike riders) choose to go to Corvallis, even Eugene, for leisurely riding partly because of the reasons Hasso cited. There are many more bikes to be seen there, even during the seven months of rain. Maybe it boils down to short term thinking or long term planning?
Peggy, you being ignorant of the facts about urban planning doesn’t make them untrue. Bike lanes are good for everyone they reduce traffic, increase health reduce pollution, increase customers at local business.
Car infrastructure is the most expensive type of transport infrastrure we have in this country. Bike infrastructure is practically free and pays for itself.
Anyone arguing for car centric infrastrure in 2023 is so incredibly uniformed they don’t deserve a seat at the table.
The only uniform I ever wore was in high-school gym.
Good comeback, Peggy. These men, who in modern times, still call women ignorant need to be drawn and quartered!!!
Even when correct?
A frequent bike rider around Albany, including myself, witnesses several others riding bikes along the many decent bike lanes in Albany. Those in cars have fast travel times, relative to bicycles, hence they do not “see” us. Drivers pull out directly in front of us, turn right directly in front us, don’t yield to us at intersections, frequently drift into bike lanes, forcing bike riders to move over quickly or be struck by car or mirrors — in other words, vehicle operators DON’T SEE us!
I regularly see people biking in Albany. That said, I am confident that there would be more (me included) if we had a better biking infrastructure. I say this with confidence because I grew up in Corvallis and biked there, using the network of off-road bike paths for casual recreation. At times, I also biked to work and college many decades ago.
I neither bike in Albany (except when I bought an ebike a few years ago and was quickly scared for my life on fast roads with a simple bike lane) nor encouraged my children to do so specifically because of the lack of biking infrastructure.
I fully support off-road mutltiuse paths as suggested by Hasso in this article, protected bike lanes, and all other responsible options that encourage alternative forms of travel for both recreation and transportation. It is an investment in residents” physical and mental health as well as in our children’s future transportation options.
I won’t take a class at LBCC at my somewhat advanced age because everyone on that stretch of old 99E/S. Pacific Blvd. drives way over the speed limit. That stretch is posted at 35 mph, 45 mph, and 55 mph, depending on where you are on it. All vehicles, except mine, exceed the speed limit. Fixing the bike lane would have been a better expenditure of money than the gentrification of downtown (devoid of traffic on a Friday evening, I might add) Albany. And riding bikes helps give us some hope that the planet can be saved from carbon emissions from fossil-fuel-burning vehicles.
Take the bus
Take a bus!? (You take a bus and hopefully one with no round-trip service!). If I were to take a bus to LBCC, I would have to walk a mile to a bus stop and then wait in the extreme heat or cold weather. (Those are the only two weather scenarios we now have.)
And, it would take all day, even on the new bus schedules. No, thank you.
Ride a bike
If we build it, they will come. Linn County has some or the best biking gateways, too bad it is so difficult to get to them. Riding to Corvallis or Lebanon shouldn’t involve risking our lives.
Good biking infrastructure pays dividends. If anything it will piss off the old tyrannical “majority “ who can only focus on single self serving issues.
Hear, hear! I’m all for pissing off the “old tyrannical majority.” They can just sit in their “counting houses” and count their gold, a la “Scrooge.”
Yeah yeah! Count their gold. Very nice!