Tag: bike trail

The best bicycle infrastructure in the country…is in Florida?

When it comes to transportation, most agree that things work best when every mode gets their own exclusive right of way. Mixing cars, buses, bikes, pedestrians, and trains results in poor or dangerous experiences for all. The speeds of the various modes aren’t the same, which generate conflict, and the patterns of travel are different as well.

As such, many bicycle advocates look with envy at cities or countries that have invested great deals of money in keeping the transportation modes apart. Being able to bicycle to work, or the store, or to dinner, completely separate from cars, on a direct trail? Yes please. It’s safer. It’s more pleasant. It’s FUN. Even substandard improvements, like 8-foot trails that spill out onto sharrows are major victories in places like New York. A protected intersection? Groundbreaking. Click to read more!

Fresno downtown and midtown photo update!

This will be my last Fresno construction update photo dump for awhile! Once again, I’ve gotten far behind and my photos are quickly becoming out of date. So rather than 2-3 posts, they’re all going in here!

This follows a couple of other recent photo updates:
Clovis Infill
Fresno BRT
Fulton Mall

This update contains:

Manchester Mall Revitalization
Mid-Fresno Trail pre-construction
Fancher Creek
Trolley Creek Park
Kings Canyon Steak n Shake and Del Taco (plus lack of BRT work and residential parcel).
Cosmopolitan Restaurant
H Street Redevelopment 
Greyhound Station
Community Hospital
Cultural Arts Park
Park Crossing  (Fresno 40) Click to read more!

Fresno area trails to get a little bit longer

The Fresno area trail system is growing slowly, but every few months a new contract goes out to bid for a half mile or so here and another mile there.

A quick refresher on some recent construction:
Old Town Clovis Trail Gap Filled
New Clovis Trailhead 
Enterprise Trail Section

Here’s what has been approved this summer:

1)

Veteran’s Boulevard Trail, between Hayes and Polk, approved 7/16/2015.

Here’s an interesting one. Veteran’s Boulevard is a long-planned 6 lane highway to cut diagonally across the west side of Fresno. It is currently scheduled to begin construction in 2020, but it looks like a small trail section, which will parallel the highway, will open sooner. Click to read more!

A look at the newest bicycle trailhead in Clovis (picture tour)

Let’s take a little break from Downtown Fresno and jump all the way up to the far reaches of Clovis, or more specifically, Shepherd and Sunnyside. Clovis has built a new park and trailhead for the “Dry Creek Trail” that runs south and eventually connects with the Old Town Trail. In the future, the trail will continue north, and presumably link to the partially built trail to the west (Enterprise).

The trailhead includes some nifty new features, such as a bike repair station, a water fountain with a water bottle feature, some interesting art, maps, and more.

For some history, way back in July 2013, this project was announced, and I last looked at this project in August, when work had barely begun. Click to read more!

Quick look at new trailhead construction in Clovis

It’s embarrassing how long it has taken me to get these pictures up, but I’m almost done! What that means is that construction will be much further along than noted, but thee pictures give a good idea of the space being taken up.

I’m talking about a new trailhead being built for the Dry Creek Trail, and eventually (maybe), the Enterprise trail.

This map shows the existing Dry Creek Trail in blue, and the enterprise trail in purple. The dotted section has a property in the way, so we may be looking at 10+ years for that to happen.

 

The trailhead parcel is quite large


We start across the canal Click to read more!

Pictures of newly extended Enterprise Trail in Clovis

I’m still making my way through a backlog of pictures. These were taken last month.

I’m looking at a new section of the Enterprise Trail in Clovis. I previously looked at it before here.

Construction happened very quickly, but it’s a very odd trail. Goes absolutely nowhere. In this map I showed before, the green was the existing, and the orange is new.

There was one modification, a section of trail was built from the end of
the orange line to the west, where the road dead ends. Thats a shopping
center with a Mcdonalds, Starbucks, etc. I believe that section is temporary.

We start at that little shopping thing, looking west. It’s just a sidewalk. Click to read more!

Enterprise Trail Construction Under Way

It was only a month ago that I posted about Clovis getting a new trail extension. The Enterprise trail currently runs adjacent to a canal from Nees (near Temperance) to near Fowler and Shepherd.

The new extension starts at Temperance and runs along the canal towards the 168 freeway.

Oddly enough, the new construction does not connect to the existing trail. existing is green, new is in orange.

Let’s have a look at what’s been done:

While a gravel road runs along the canal, as is always the case, the trail runs besides that. I think it’s a shame because you don’t get to run/bike along the water. Click to read more!

Three minor trail updates coming to area

Some small trail news from Fresno and Clovis.

Fresno will be adding five new drinking fountains on the sugar-pine trail that runs along Shepherd. I’d prefer lights, but it’s something. While Clovis has many amenities along the trail, Fresno does not.

Fresno will also be adding in another new section of trail along Herndon.  A couple of months ago, they approved an addition between Fruit and Palm. Now it will be between Marks and Valentine. Green is existing, orange is new.

Google Map

  photo trail2_zps039ac3a3.png

Clovis will be adding a new half-mile trail on the far east side of town, along the Enterprise Canal. The trail will connect from nothing to nothing. Makes no sense really. Click to read more!

New Google satellite imagery for Fresno! (Spring 2013)

Some parts of the country, including major cities like Boston, only get updated satellite imagery from Google every 3 or so years.

For Fresno, it’s never more than a year before we get the freshest pictures. The latest update, rolled out last week, shows Fresno and the surrounding area as of March 15, 2013.

The previous update, pushed out November of 2012, featured images from August 26, 2012. I did a photo summary of that as well.

That’s less than 7 months between updates! Older images are still accessible via the history slider in Google Earth. 

These updates are a great way to follow development in the area, and see how fast some areas are still growing. Click to read more!

Old Town Clovis Trail Gap to Finally be Closed!

It’s finally happening!

The two blocks in Old Town Clovis where the regional bike trail disappears will apparently be completed as soon as this year.

The next city council agenda has this surprise:

City staff intends to bid and construct the Clovis Old Town trail connection on the west side of Hughes Avenue from Third to Fifth streets in the 3rd quarter of 2013.
Council document (PDF)

The gap is especially notable, because it’s in the heart of Clovis, and there is absolutely no accommodation to direct trail users through the missing area.

Here’s where the gap is, Clovis Avenue is the large road on the left. The red lines are the existing trails points, where they suddenly end. A parking lot was built on the rail right of way (ROW). Click to read more!