The Mike Noonchester Legacy(*) Bike Path

(with a short, narrow, two-way bike lane)

Here's a little tour of the new "Mike Noonchester Legacy Bike Path" in Southwestern Logan. It might be a textbook example of how not to build a bike facility. The path follows the route outlined in orange on the map at the left. The two red arrows mark the special danger spots mentioned below.

The path apparently begins at a midblock crosswalk at about 800 South on 500 West Street and goes north through Willow Park, although it sort of connects back to the cottonwood-lined Logan River Trail via the wobbly sidewalk along Golf Course Road. The path becomes a roadside sidewalk on the west side of the Fair Grounds, continuing north to 300 South Street where it turns west (pictured). It looks just like a nice, wide sidewalk with ADA curb cuts. A bike stencil has been painted on the crosswalk approaches, and a yellow diamond warning sign has been installed. Notice that the warning sign is not visible to northbound motorists crossing the "bikepath crosswalk".

Looking back to the east, we can see where a branch of the path will eventually be extended toward the High School, the Rec Center and Main Street. Beyond the tanks and warehouse you can see our beautiful mountains and sky.

At 600 West Street, the path turns north along the east side of the road, but uses a midblock crosswalk to switch to the west side of the road. Even a cautious bicyclist can give a motorist a scare by turning toward the crosswalk before stopping to look and yield. But if they neglect to look and yield.....

Continuing north on the path (sidewalk), bicyclists pass right in front of the steps at the entrance of a small business. Some sight distances are not good for conflicts between path users and motorists on the cross streets. To be safe, cyclists must travel at pedestrian speeds and yield before entering the crosswalk, even though they could safely take the right of way riding on the right side of the adjacent street.

The biggest problem comes as the path approaches the parking lot for the restored Logan Train Depot. At this point the two way path leaves its sidewalk position and, as it crosses the parking lot driveway, becomes a two way bike lane on the west side of 600 West Street. Now here's an interesting situation: If a bike is northbound on the sidewalk part and another bike is southbound on the bikelane part, and a car is going south, too, then the northbound bike rider will need to keep to the right edge when swerving into the bike lane to avoid a head on collision with the other bike. If everyone has steel nerves, and complete confidence in each other, then the motorist will not swerve into the northbound lane.

Looking back to the south, you can see that the two way bike lane is about 3 feet wide (plus gutter pan). I need a picture of the tight squeeze if a southbound car meets bike riders going both directions in this non-compliant facility. I wonder if I can get some bike riders to take the risk for the photo opportunity?

Beyond the Train Depot, the two way bike lane just quits at the other parking lot driveway. It is probably supposed to return to the sidewalk position, but that isn't done yet. Meanwhile, north bound bike riders are just dumped out into oncoming traffic.

Additional funding has recently been obtained to extend the MNL Path along 600 West to a proposed park at 1200 North. The extension must cross Valley View Highway (200 North) and at about 800 North, it must cross either the roadway or the railroad tracks, or both.

This clumsy, dangerous design around the Train Depot is particularly ironic because the Train Depot was restored with ISTEA Enhancement funds and the bike path was funded as a part of that project. The bike path made the project "intermodal" to make the Train Depot restoration project more likely to get Enhancement Funding.

Everybody who knows anything about bike facility design standards knows that you don't put a two way bike lane on one side of a street. But no one with that knowledge apparently had anything to do with the design of this public works project.

And anyone who is familiar with current research and results of accident data analysis knows that urban streetside sidewalks are more dangerous places to ride a bike than riding on the adjacent roadway according to the rules of the road. This bike path is just a city sidewalk with some stencils and a few signs, except where it becomes a clearly hazardous two way bike lane.

My recommendations? Remove all the bike stencils and and bike signs and the bike lane stripe and just call 'em sidewalks, like they really are. Then bike riders wouldn't be fooled into riding, or required to ride, where they aren't really as safe as if they were riding on the right side of the road. The path (sidewalk) should probably have been kept on the east side of 600 W. That's the side with all the residential development and the probable source of most of the local pedestrian traffic. It's also a more pleasant location to walk than between the roadway and the railroad tracks or the warehouses next to the tracks.

(*) I have nicknamed this facility in honor of Mike Noonchester, the transit manager and chief of staff who got the ISTEA Enhancement funding for the depot/trail project. Mike demonstrated how little he knew about bicycling when he produced Logan's 1994 Bike/Pedestrian Plan. He assured the City Council that they could approve the plan without creating any fund obligation because he just needed it to apply for the ISTEA grant. Nobody realized then that the city would be obligated to build an unsafe bicycle facility that doesn't conform to currently accepted design guidelines.

Wobbly Sidewalks

Roadside sidewalks that weave and wobble their way thru the parking strip area may have some architectural appeal for the motorists driving by, but they do not promote, encourage or invite pedestrian use. Maybe the design treatment should be applied to the roadway instead of the walkway.

Several Cache Valley locations proudly provide wobbly sidewalks: