The city of Lansing is doing a survey on possible configurations for the South Washington rebuild/streetscape project coming up next year. They have options that I very much like as presented. There's three A/B/(C) questions:
-For street type, I'm in favor of option "B - Curbless Street"
-For bike system, I'm a fan of "Option B" (basically an extended Capitol Loop separated bike lane route, no bike lanes on Washington Sq).
-For the "Washington Sq options" I'm less certain. "B1", a curbless straight road is my safe choice. "A", a curbless road with gentle curves, is interesting.
It sounds like they plan to implement these designs with the CSO work, they say in the post this is in preparation for that.
As far as I can tell there's a question as to whether or not they want to create a main cycle path down Washington Sq or do a loop on some combination of Capitol/Walnut/Shiawassee/Grand/Pine/Kalamazoo. I'm a fan of the loop that includes Grand & Pine. If they do a cycle path down Washington it looks like one side would turn into parallel parking with the other angled, if no cycle path then they'd go with angled instead of the current perpendicular parking on both sides. They're also talking about doing the same curbless treatment on Washtenaw from Capitol to Grand.
I like the aesthetics of the bricks but don't find the unevenness of the surface acceptable for driving or even crossing the street on foot, much less if there's going to be a focus on street festivals. If they want to do a concrete underlayment for the bricks or something then actually maintain them properly then I'm all for it, but I don't see that happening.
I drove down the fresh pavement the other day, after E Michigan by Frandor it feels like velvet, and I kind of sigh in disbelief that it has taken this long to accomplish the rebuilding of a couple of miles of urban roadway. I have been back in Lansing for ten years, that is how long it has taken at least. That is how long it took to build The Big Dig in Boston! My dream is that it does not take ten more years to finish the repaving of E Michigan, it has already been three years of bombed out road way there. I noticed a large number of new trees at the city green houses on Mt. Hope, I wonder if they are for this project.
Thank you for the information, I'm amazed by the schedule They could have just laid a temporary blacktop when they were done digging up the street. Oh well come next fall I will have to find something else to complain about!
Yes! thank you for that information. It may be better to rebuild the road, but I will be happy with repaving. There were crews and what looked like volunteers clearing out the weeds along the drain streams which looked better. I think they may want to do that more often. The rest of Michigan toward downtown is a real improvement although the "bike lane" is kind of lame. I hope they plant the trees soon. I wonder if there could be some way to get the owners of all the vacant properties to get their places leased.
I am worried about the crime on the river trail. This morning, my wife's bicycle was stolen from our home in East Lansing. Especially since it was an e-bike and they didn't steal the charger (crime is such a wasteful activity), I figure they might ride it for a few miles, at which point it turns into a super-heavy manual bike, and they just dump it. So I bike a long stretch of the river trail to see if I encounter it. I did not. But just this evening on the trail:
1. I have to deal with an aggressive guy downtown who is acting very weirdly and starts asking me strange questions about my own bicycle (I had stopped to look at a map). When I go to bike around him (way off in the grass, mind you) he moves to block me. I keep going anyway, and he yells something after me. I suspect he was one of those guys who just gets a thrill from intimidating other people, but that was an alarming incident.
2. I witness what I think was another bike theft in progress. I'm not 100% sure but, four young people walking along, except one on a bicycle. The guy on the bicycle gets off and throws it to the ground right beneath him, and then another guy says "just leave it man, just leave it right there". Then original guy picks up the bicycle and starts walking with it. I don't know for sure, and of course I had "bike theft" on the mind, but I felt like I was seeing a guy who had just stolen the bike and was having second thoughts about it. Weird behavior anyway.
3. I also encountered a new homeless camp, right on the trail, northeast of Crego Park. Nobody appeared to be around, so I walked through it actually, noticed quite a few bicycles and bicycle parts, but not the one I was looking for.
To me, basic safety is issue #1 on the river trail right now. (And I'm a man, which offers me some protection. How do women who want to use the trail alone feel about all this?)
By the way, man who stole my wife's bike left his previous bicycle behind, and it has mismatched wheels, almost certainly an indication that he had stolen both the frame, and a wheel, from two previous people. He left these stolen items behind and stole himself an upgrade (until the battery dies, anyway). Just so wasteful.
I've got to agree with you, and sorry about your bike! I've been back to using the river trail more as well after not biking much for several years, and also have been concerned. I tend to get on at Kalamazoo downtown and just head over to Crego Park and south from there because of the homeless camps, loitering and confrontations elsewhere on the trail. I used to enjoy riding out to old down and downtown, but its so unpleasant now. Under the bridges was always questionable, but now it's terrible. I remember riding on these trails without parents when I was maybe 12 years old. I'd never let a child ride on them alone now.
It's too bad because the river trail is such a great asset, but it's not going to be if this keeps up. I've seen many more more vulnerable populations (I'm also a man) walking it in the evenings and always worry for their safety.
Seems like there should be some efforts to have LPD bike patrols in the problem areas...I've never seen one on the trails.
I've seen a definite turn for the worse on the trail in the past month or so. The Kalamazoo bridge is back to being a problem spot, more tents in open park area, trash, etc... That's also true along the eastern and Moores Park stretches of the trail more generally. The Lansing Shuffle area has never been the same since that big shooting last year (or the year before???), many less people around often more homeless than patrons. There's bound to be setbacks like that but they have to be addressed to not become persistent problems, perceived or real.
I've been out a lot less this year but I'm still riding my bike often twice or more a week over 10 miles, almost all on the trail, so it's concerning to me to see the week-to-week change. This stuff comes from the mayor, when people got frustrated last year and the city got people out the problems went away quickly and didn't really come back until now. I think the mayor is scared of the same loudmouths who make Reddit a horrible place, they're the main supporters of his opponent. They'll cry and protest if you do anything other than bend over backwards for the worst our society has to offer. Schor has been defenseless against them. Bernero wouldn't put up with this lol
Yeah...it sure seems that way. I tried reporting the problems on the Connect app and sure enough the city closed the report quickly, no comment and nothing was done. Can't believe it's so hard to get Schor voted out.
Also, can't agree enough! Seems like the worst in our society, paying little to no taxes, seem to get the biggest voice in our city. I can't start to explain how much that aggravates me.
Comments
-For street type, I'm in favor of option "B - Curbless Street"
-For bike system, I'm a fan of "Option B" (basically an extended Capitol Loop separated bike lane route, no bike lanes on Washington Sq).
-For the "Washington Sq options" I'm less certain. "B1", a curbless straight road is my safe choice. "A", a curbless road with gentle curves, is interesting.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19VyhgKsjC/
I sounds like they're thinking about the right things.
As far as I can tell there's a question as to whether or not they want to create a main cycle path down Washington Sq or do a loop on some combination of Capitol/Walnut/Shiawassee/Grand/Pine/Kalamazoo. I'm a fan of the loop that includes Grand & Pine. If they do a cycle path down Washington it looks like one side would turn into parallel parking with the other angled, if no cycle path then they'd go with angled instead of the current perpendicular parking on both sides. They're also talking about doing the same curbless treatment on Washtenaw from Capitol to Grand.
I like the aesthetics of the bricks but don't find the unevenness of the surface acceptable for driving or even crossing the street on foot, much less if there's going to be a focus on street festivals. If they want to do a concrete underlayment for the bricks or something then actually maintain them properly then I'm all for it, but I don't see that happening.
1. I have to deal with an aggressive guy downtown who is acting very weirdly and starts asking me strange questions about my own bicycle (I had stopped to look at a map). When I go to bike around him (way off in the grass, mind you) he moves to block me. I keep going anyway, and he yells something after me. I suspect he was one of those guys who just gets a thrill from intimidating other people, but that was an alarming incident.
2. I witness what I think was another bike theft in progress. I'm not 100% sure but, four young people walking along, except one on a bicycle. The guy on the bicycle gets off and throws it to the ground right beneath him, and then another guy says "just leave it man, just leave it right there". Then original guy picks up the bicycle and starts walking with it. I don't know for sure, and of course I had "bike theft" on the mind, but I felt like I was seeing a guy who had just stolen the bike and was having second thoughts about it. Weird behavior anyway.
3. I also encountered a new homeless camp, right on the trail, northeast of Crego Park. Nobody appeared to be around, so I walked through it actually, noticed quite a few bicycles and bicycle parts, but not the one I was looking for.
To me, basic safety is issue #1 on the river trail right now. (And I'm a man, which offers me some protection. How do women who want to use the trail alone feel about all this?)
By the way, man who stole my wife's bike left his previous bicycle behind, and it has mismatched wheels, almost certainly an indication that he had stolen both the frame, and a wheel, from two previous people. He left these stolen items behind and stole himself an upgrade (until the battery dies, anyway). Just so wasteful.
It's too bad because the river trail is such a great asset, but it's not going to be if this keeps up. I've seen many more more vulnerable populations (I'm also a man) walking it in the evenings and always worry for their safety.
Seems like there should be some efforts to have LPD bike patrols in the problem areas...I've never seen one on the trails.
I've been out a lot less this year but I'm still riding my bike often twice or more a week over 10 miles, almost all on the trail, so it's concerning to me to see the week-to-week change. This stuff comes from the mayor, when people got frustrated last year and the city got people out the problems went away quickly and didn't really come back until now. I think the mayor is scared of the same loudmouths who make Reddit a horrible place, they're the main supporters of his opponent. They'll cry and protest if you do anything other than bend over backwards for the worst our society has to offer. Schor has been defenseless against them. Bernero wouldn't put up with this lol
Also, can't agree enough! Seems like the worst in our society, paying little to no taxes, seem to get the biggest voice in our city. I can't start to explain how much that aggravates me.