Indy Adds to its Multi-use Trails

While you probably weren’t looking, the city of Indianapolis increased total multiuse trail mileage by a little under two miles with a project on the near northside connected to the city’s newest park and one build in one of the city’s oldest parks. 

Reverend C. R. Williams Park

Click for larger image

Those who’ve ridden the Monon Trail in the past couple of months – and face it: who hasn’t? – might have noticed the ribbon of asphalt that has appeared along the north side of Sutherland Avenue. This short stretch is a spur that reaches to the newly built Reverend Charles R. Williams park at 32nd and Sutherland. Honoring the civic leader and former CEO of the Indiana Black Expo, the park has an amphitheater, playground, and other recreational areas. It also has a shelter for Monon users caught in the rain. And, like all but the largest Indy parks, it has no restroom facilities.

Click for larger image

Riverside Promenade

On the west side, the city cut the ribbon in October on about 1-1/3 miles of the Riverside Promenade, which runs along the west side of East Riverside Drive from 16th Street north before curving to follow 29th Street to the White River bridge (and, presumably, the White River-Wapahani Trail). The broad asphalt strip is punctuated at intervals by patterns painted on its surface and “nodes” with rest stops and interpretive signage. Trail users can access the Burdsall Parkway bike lanes and (sometimes) facilities at the recreation center.

Capital Avenue Bike Lane

On a similar topic, DPW continues to build a buffered bike lane along Capital from Fall Creek to 18th Street. The existing “dirty bike stripe” on the west edge of the street will be decommissioned and bikes will have a protected path on the east side. It isn’t striped yet, but appears to wide enough for a bidirectional lane similar to that on Illinois south of 18th. At the same time, a bike lane from the Monon to Capital along 22nd is taking shape, but the last blocks won’t be finished any time soon due to a giant hole created by every Indy resident’s favorite traffic hazard, DigIndy. Speaking of which, the detour on the Fall Creek Greenway trail between 32nd and 34th has been closed and the trail now follows its mapped route again. One has to wonder why, in a project that cost more than two billion dollars, the city couldn’t find an extra $25K to put some restrooms in that space.

Watch this space for more updates as the gummint infrastructure cash trickles down to reshape our streets…

copyright © 2023 scmrak

Fall Creek Greenway Trail Gets Bit Longer

New bridge over Fall Creek

It's common for cities to place multiuse trails alongside waterways – I rode many miles along the Platte River and its tributaries when I lived in Denver twenty-five (sigh) years ago; and even bike-hostile Houston boasts trails beside White, Bray's, and and Buffalo Bayous. Indy may be far behind cities like Minneapolis and Tucson, but (thanks to federal grants) we're catching up. In the past few years, a series of Fall Creek Greenway Trail extensions had reached the point where Fall Creek Boulevard disappears into Burdsall and the Creek bends sharply south toward its confluence with White River.

Within the past weeks, our fair city quietly finished another two or so miles of the trail, extending a paved surface (protected by a concrete curb) from where Burdsall crosses the canal to the intersection of 10th and Indiana. The construction includes a spanking new bridge across the creek near 18th Street and a crossing (with pedestrian walk light) at Aqueduct and 16th Streets.

I'm Not a Lawyer, but...

Update: as of August 1, 2023, the pipe and bridge have been removed.

 

...I'm going to suggest that this ramp isn't ADA-compliant.

I encountered these workers installing the ramp over an 18-inch pipe laid across the Fall Creek Greenway on June 28th. The work was going on about a quarter mile north/east of 39th Street (that's the parking lot of Pro-Strip, 4020 Millersville, in the background). I'll grant that, unlike the makeshift plywood ramps cobbled together by DigIndy contractors across the trail at sites near Central and Illinois Streets in recent years, the ramp is actually... semi-safe. It's constructed of metal mesh with handrails and doesn't have overly steep approaches.

Indy’s Most Dangerous Bike Trail Intersections: Number Five

Following the untimely death of local bicycle icon Frank Radaker (October, 2021) at the Monon Trail where it crosses 86th Street, members of the cycling community lobbied Indy's government for changes to make cycling in the city safer. To our uncertain knowledge, there has been a change. By “a change,” we mean just the one: DPW reprogrammed the pedestrian crossing lights at site of Radaker's death; granting trail users a few seconds when no motor vehicles have a green light. Now, if they could just reprogram some drivers who routinely ignore the “no turn on red” signs…

Although it's certainly dangerous, in our opinion the intersection where Frank died is not the most dangerous intersection for Indianapolis cyclists, not even the most dangerous intersection of a trail and a street. Without further ado, here is our next nomination in our bottom six street crossings in Marion County…

Indy’s Most Dangerous Bike Trail Intersections: Number Three

After the death of a well-known local cyclist (October, 2021) where the Monon Trail crosses 86th Street, many within the cycling community called for changes to make improve the city's cycling safety. We've noticed that there's been a change, but not much of one: traffic engineers reprogrammed the pedestrian crossing lights at the intersection where he was killed to give trail users a 10-second window when no motor vehicles have a green light. Now, if engineers could just reprogram those drivers who routinely ignore the “no turn on red” signs…

Although it's certainly a dangerous crossing, in our opinion the intersection where he was killed is not the most dangerous in Indy for cyclists, not even the most dangerous intersection of a trail and a street. So without further ado, here is our next nomination within the bottom six street crossings in Marion County, number three…

2022: the Indy Cyclist's Summer from Hell

Never mind that the weather so far this year has been abnormally hot (an even dozen 90-plus degree days so far this year, including one of 99°) and, for most cyclists' tastes, a tad windy. No, we who choose two wheels and muscle power are inured to the fickleness of the weather gods. What's getting our goat this year is how much stress DPW and private construction companies are putting on cyclists. 

Take the Monon Rail Trail. Sure, purists and wannabe TdF competitors claim to eschew the trail, but take a look at it on the Strava heat map: it's white-hot! Well, it's a lot less white-hot this year...

More Monon Construction Begins; Fall Creek Trail Blocked

Updated 10 July 2022

The Monon south of Fall Creek is again closed in two sections. The original asphalt between 22nd and 25th Streets and between 29 Street and Sutherland has been scraped off and crews are working throughout the week. This is in addition to closures north of the Fairgrounds. Detours are marked, if somewhat poorly, and there is a nearly useless map posted on the DPW website (it does have a moderately useful timeline chart). You might want to ignore the "official" detour and use the marked bike lanes on Pennsylvania and Illinois/Capitol, although none is in particularly good condition.

Usable version of the DPW's "South Monon Bicycle Detour"

Monon trail closure

After three months of poorly-marked detours on streets that bear a striking resemblance to jeep trails, reconstruction work on the southern three miles of Indy's Monon Rail Trail is essentially complete. Only the detour around North Split construction south of 14th Street remain, a section that will not be completed for many months. Three sections of the trail have been widened and resurfaced: 16th to 23rd, 25th to 28th, and Sutherland to Fall Creek. With the exception of sections temporarily closed for the removal of equipment and tree trimming, the trail is now open between 42nd and 10th Streets.

Now begins the next phase: Fall Creek to 56th Street.

Monon Construction Update - June 27, 2022

June 29th: 

See next newer post...

Updated: 27 June 2022:

Still no activity other than tree trimming between 49th and Fall Creek Greenway. Barrier to southbound traffic removed at Fall Creek bridge, so (logically speaking) the section north of Sutherland is now open. Detour signs still litter the area, however. 

Updated: 23 June 2022: 

Signs are posted at 56th, 52nd, and 49th Streets advising that the trail will be closed "On or after June 20, 2022." Trail is open as of this date. Survey markings, flags, and stakes are abundant plus there is heavy tree and brush trimming on the east side of the trail between 46th and 42nd. No other changes in status.

Work Continues on Fall Creek Greenway Trail

Updated June 29 (see below):

Trail users on the northeast side of town have long bemoaned the condition of the paved trail in the Fall Creek Greenway, which is supposed to (eventually) stretch from near downtown all the way to Geist Reservoir. At present, the trail starts somewhere around Fall Creek and Illinois and continues to the west entrance of Fort Harrison State Park in Lawrence Township, some ten miles interrupted by a death-trap crossing at 38th Street.

The Indy Cyclist’s Guide: Fall Creek Trail

If the Monon Rails to Trails project is the centerpiece of the Indianapolis cycling universe, the Fall Creek Trail is its redheaded stepsister. This trail – for the most part – sees far less traffic than the Monon; probably because the latter connects two of the Circle City’s most popular hipster havens, Broad Ripple and Mass Ave. That may also be why the Fall Creek trail is often – to be polite – less well-maintained.

The trail has an “official” length of just over 13 miles (20.9 km), beginning at… well, no one knows quite where it begins, since it’s supposed to connect to the White River Greenway near 10th Street (but doesn’t). An official map shows the trail beginning at the intersection with the Monon half a mile or so south of 38th Street, though the physical trail continues south along Fall Creek until interrupted by construction near Central Avenue. On the northeast, the map shows it ending at mile 11 (actually mile 12) near Skiles Test Park, but in reality it extends to the Boy Scout Road bridge over the creek and a back entrance to Fort Harrison State Park. I’ll be talking about the section between the Monon and Fort Harrison.

Monon Trail to Binford Boulevard

The Monon Trail crosses Fall Creek and the trail on an elevated bridge. An access ramp connecting the trails can be found on the east side of the Monon near the north end of the bridge. Warning: watch for bicycles coming up the ramp! Down on the Fall Creek trail, there’s a small rest area equipped with benches. A cement post a few yards upstream marks this as Mile 6.0 on the Fall Creek Trail. From there, a paved asphalt trail extends in both directions…

…for a while: a little under half a mile up the trail, riders come to 38th Street – near northern Indy’s busiest east-west artery. The trail continues – if you can call it that – east on the sidewalk of the 38th Street bridge over Fall Creek. The broken, poorly-patched concrete sidewalk is studded with utility poles and barely wide enough for two pedestrians to pass. In short, it’s extremely dangerous – parents thinking this would be a good place for a child with training wheels will be shocked to find this on a “hike and bike trail.” Riders turn north to cross 38th at an intersection without a signal before the paved trail picks up on the other side.

The trail briefly follows Millersville Road and the (mostly abandoned) Nickel Plate rails before diving under Keystone Avenue and winding through a small, surprisingly woody area. After crossing the creek on a pedestrian bridge parallel to Binford Boulevard, the trail reaches a parking area just east of the intersection of Binford and Fall Creek Parkway North, at approximately mile 7.5 of the trail. A side trail at 39th Street gives trail users access to the east entrance of the Fairgrounds via a historic limestone bridge and a signal-controlled crossing of Binford.

Binford Boulevard to Skiles Test Park

The 2.25 miles between the parking area and the six-way intersection of Fall Creek Parkway, Emerson, and 56th Street runs between parkway and creek. It passes under 46th, Emerson, and 56th before turning east to follow the Parkway from its intersection with Kessler Boulevard at about mile 10. Watch for a steep, slick climb northbound on a wet wooden bridge under 56th street, and beware of heavy growth of poison ivy in the adjacent underbrush. The pavement in this section is often narrow and rough, with many ridges caused by tree roots. It’s also subject to flooding and mud when the weather has been rainy. Road cyclists generally ride on the Parkway, which alternates between smooth, fresh pavement and broken, potholed asphalt. From Kessler and Fall Creek the trail again runs between the parkway and the creek. This section is wide and smoothly paved, unlike the portion of the trail west of Emerson, with a better surface than the street it parallels. It's curvy and and has lots of little rolling hills. Pullouts along the Parkway about every half mile act as parking areas for the trail, with an official trailhead near mile 12.25 where there's a side trail into Skiles Test Park. Four tenths of a mile up that trail lies another parking area, and the trail continues up a steep (for Indy) hill 0.75 miles to meet 65th street east of Johnson Road.

Skiles Test Park to Boy Scout Road

The Fall Creek Trail continues, passing underneath I-465 – watch for mud beneath the southbound lanes, which never seems to be cleaned – then alongside Fall Creek Road for 0.8 miles to the current end of the trail at Boy Scout Road. The trail crosses the intersection to the sidewalk on the north side of the bridge, at the end of which a trail continues into Fort Harrison State Park. The intersection's crosswalk is clearly marked, but still unacceptably dangerous because of heavy, high-speed traffic and the need to make a sharp right-hand turn from the pavement to the narrow sidewalk. Many cyclists prefer to ride in the traffic lanes instead of attempting the crossing.

The Bottom Line

There are no amenities along the trail beyond an occasional bench at a trailhead. There are no water fountains and no public restrooms anywhere in its length. Water and restrooms are available within Fort Harrison State Park, and there are businesses at the Fall Creek / Emerson / 56th Street intersection – including a Starbucks, a CVS, and Lincoln Square Pancake House.

Unlike the Monon, the Fall Creek Trail is usually lightly traveled. On weekdays, riders may encounter only a handful of pedestrians and cyclists on their trip. Perhaps because there’s less traffic, the trail is not as well-maintained as the Monon, overhanging branches and underbrush are common (be wary of poison ivy in the mix!) and obstructions like mud and fallen trees aren’t removed with such speed. On the other hand, you almost never run into three people walking abreast pushing strollers...

copyright © 2017-2020 scmrak