New Bike Lanes Added in Des Moines

Posted May 13, 2008
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A first in Des Moines, a new bike lane with an "inductive bicycle loop”

By DM Biker So I was riding to work today (Wednesday, May 14th) and as I approached Cottage Grove and I-235, I couldn’t help but notice all the commotion ahead. It was about 2 p.m. (Hey, I work the late shift!) and a parade of city trucks and workers lined the street ahead of me. One crew was attaching the “Bike Lane” signs to the light posts on the this stretch of road that goes over the freeway and intersects with one of the most heavily traveled roadways in the city (M.L. King Parkway). In the street next to them a caravan of street painting trucks putting down lines for the aforementioned bike lane. Now it’s not a long stretch of roadway but anyone who has tried to navigate this diagonal entrance to or exit from downtown, will agree it will help keep everyone safer and more aware of their respective lanes. In addition, Gary Fox, with the city Traffic & Transportation Department, told me they’ve installed a “bicycle loop” which is a sensor-detector IN THE BIKE LANE so the traffic signals will recognize an approaching biker in the east bound lane and change the stoplights along ML King! This used to require a motor vehicle to trigger the sensor. (If you have an all-carbon bike frame with carbon wheels it still may not “trigger” the sensor!) I figured it was a good time to check with Richard Brown over at the DM Parks & Rec department for a trail update and Richard was happy to oblige. Of special interest was the “missing link” trail connecting the Bill Riley and Walnut Creek Trails. “I get calls on that every week, almost every day!” he says. So, what does he tell them? “Construction should begin this Friday (May 16th),” and completion should be late summer or early autumn. The wet spring didn’t help them out at all Brown told me. “It all depends on the weather.” Brown says Des Moines is also on schedule to construct another important connector trail this year. That’s the one that will split off from the Meredith Trail at the east side of Gray’s lake and go under the Fleur Drive viaduct. It will continue along the abandoned rail bed to a levee, and eventually make it’s way to SW 30th where it will veer north into Water Works Park, go along a park road until it hooks up with the Raccoon River bridge. Bikers & pedestrians will be able to avoid crossing Fleur, and avoid the sometimes crowded Kruidenier Trail around the lake. Finally, getting back to the bike LANES in Des Moines, Brown says existing Walnut Street bike lanes hopefully will be extended east to the State Fairgrounds. And even though they are not designated as bike lanes right now, the “lines” along Beaver Avenue and Urbandale Avenue should become “lanes” in the future. Photo caption (Des Moines city crews put "Bike Lane" signs along a stretch of Cottage Grove)