A North End Bicycle Network Blooming?

Submitted by whitemice on Mon, 03/10/2025 - 12:00

Is a bicycle network blossoming into existing in the north corridor along the river? If all the proposed projects are manifested it certainly looks like it. Grand Rapids has, legitimately, been criticized for having a haphazard collection of bicycle infrastructure. Disconnected segments, clearly built opportunistically. More ambitious projects have been quickly abandoned when someone thought they overheard what might have been the annoyed sigh of a Baby Boomer. And yet, here we are!

As with the Oxford Trail and Godfrey Ave the city is moving toward something better described as a network-with-gaps than random-scattered-bits infrastructure. In what has only been fifteen years of - sometimes frustratingly half hearted - effort: not bad. If we can get all these built.

Our city staff, a collection of tireless advocates, and most of our City Commissioners, deserve a tip of the hat. 🎩 This is an accomplishment. Remember that in 2012 the headline was: "See where Grand Rapids will add 16 miles of bike lanes this fall". That was $71,100 for 10 miles of bike gutters measured in tenths of a mile increments. A cyclist at normal speeds can cover a tenth of a mile in roughly thirty seconds.

"Bike lanes provide a place on the street that's for the cyclists, that makes the cyclists feel like the city is looking out for their safety, People shouldn’t think of bikes lanes as a luxury we can’t afford, but they should think of it as a smart (cost-effective) investment. There are dollars that can be saved by bike lanes" - Tom Tilma, August 2012

Project 1: Ann St, Monroe Ave to Plainfield Ave

Status: Construction

Elevated bike lanes will exist on both sides of Ann St, the grade elevation will be the only separation. This is an improvement over the current bike gutters. The road itself is also currently in very poor condition and the rebuild will be an improvement for that as well - the edges of the road for the bike gutters are in particularly bad condition.

How the Ann St and Monroe Ave intersection will be treated is still an open question. Achieving that shift in balance will be important for users of east bound Ann St particularly as the highway-drunk Motorists will be approaching them behind as they climb the grade.

Project 2: Ann St, Monroe Ave to Turner Ave

Status: Proposed

The Ann St bridge is designated as a "Balanced" street by the Vital Streets Plan, connecting Ann east of the river which is "Bicycle: Commuter" with the west side which is "Vehicle/Trunk".

The problem with terms like "Balanced" - a favorite of American Urban Planning - is that it commits to nothing. Just as restoring Balance to The Force means, what exactly? A love-sick Anakan Skywalker only murdering an appropriate number of children? "Balance" nearly always means someone is quietly saying: "don't spend too much time thinking about this." In the context of the Vital Streets categories "Balanced" appears to be a stand in for more candidly described categories of either "Hamstrung" by historical choices and the absence of any complimentary infrastructure, or "Transitional" referring to a section of road or street at the boundary zones of mode preference. In the case of the Ann St bridge a category of "Transitional" is appropriate.

The west side of the river is heavily industrial: the interstate, a chemical factory, a metal recycling facility, a plastic sheeting manufacturer, a rail yard, and a rail facility for loading frack sand. It would be difficult to draw a sharper contrast with the far too many single unit residential blocks of the east side [generally downwind of...? yeah, America]. Ann St, on the west side, also - unfortunately - has an interstate exit and on-ramp. As an extremely [more than daily] user of the Monroe St & Ann St intersection I witness the expected quantity of motorists who have not yet recovered from their highway driving high or are eagerly jonesing to get to their next fix. The right turn lane - oops, I meant bike gutter! - on southbound Ann St is particularly perilous. Once you cross to the West Side the truck traffic can be intimidating; at least truck drivers are professionals with additional licensing. While trucks are larger and louder than SUV, they are generally operated in a far more responsible and predictable manner.

The current road and bridge is two (2) lanes in each directions, for a total of four (4) lanes. Additional lanes for left turns are scattered about as if they were glitter a child tossed into the wind. The sidewalks on the bridge are narrow and in medium to poor condition. It is not good.

So, the Ann St. bridge is a legitimately challenging problem. In light of that challenge and the existing hostile and chaotic design the proposal by the city is bold!. Hat tip. The proposal would reduce the four lane race track to two lanes with buffered bicycle lanes on each side. The city is also considering what type of physical barrier could be installed in the buffer zone. This would not only be a significant improvement for cyclists but for pedestrians as well given the how narrow the sidewalks on the bridge are.

Project 3: River East Trail

Status: Unknown (Federal ARP and possibly other grant funding involved) 🤞

This project would convert the long abandoned railroad spur into downtown into a connector between the riverside trail which exists from Canal Park to Leonard with the White Pine trail which currently terminates at Ann St. Currently this section of Monroe Ave (Leonard St to Ann St) features a bike gutter.

This project was planned to go out for bid at the end of 2024 but there were comments that the city was running the obligation of the funds down to the wire. ARP funds not obligated - the spend committed - by a certain date can be clawed back by the thing which now animates the corpse of our federal government.

How the interface with of the trails with Leonard St will be managed is unknown, and that will likely be a future project. Leonard St is a particularly unpleasant road, it has no traffic calming measures and carries a large amount of traffic exiting from US-131.

One benefit of this trail not obvious is one of temperature. As a frequent user of the Monroe Ave bike gutter, Monroe Ave is hot in the summer. The abandoned railroad right-of-way, while currently unimproved, is clear enough to use as a pedestrian trail and I've done so during the hottest months. The shade, next to the river, away from the asphalt of the streets and so many parking lots, is perceptibly cooler.

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bike-lane