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so you've probably heard that the johnson creamery tower is leaning

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and they closed the b-line on january 13th of this year

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those detour signs are actually brand new, they were re-installed yesterday
afternoon.  they had gone missing months ago.

i read the text carefully and i think it suggests this route

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it's an awkward fact that the b-line doesn't actually meet up with city
hall, you have to ad lib a trip across the parking lot, there's no direct
crossing.

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but if you're on a bike, you can't use that crossing because there's
stairs.  so you use this one.  and you shouldn't be biking on the sidewalk!

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did i mention that there's curbs?  that's the red lines here, and they have a huge effect on cyclist behavior.

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oh and some people like to park right there exactly at the curb cut. it's
usually uber drivers or parks and rec employees parked there.

anyways, if you're coming from the south

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the sidewalk does connect but the bad news is, it's behind you.  here's
the route they recommend from the south

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you can't ask that.  it's actually illegal in the state of indiana to ask
that.  MUTCD says pedestrians won't backtrack, full stop.

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but that's fine, no one does that.  instead, we all cut a much shorter
route through the parking lot like this

so now you're walking or biking in the parking lot, and no one knows what
you're doing there.

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there are parked cars all over, obviously, and there are moving cars too.
and you and the moving cars sometimes can't see eachother because of all
the parked ones. depending on where people park, you can be forced to go
between parked cars or to travel all the way to the end of the aisle.

then you get to this path at the corner of the parking lot.

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which has a 72", that's 6 foot, curb cut.  it's carrying all of the
traffic of the b-line which is 12 feet wide.

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the typical width of the path pavement is actually about 70".  it varies
because it's curvy.

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and there's vegetation growing over it so it's actually only 60"

obviously, looking at how that grass is trampled down, a lot of people
chose to walk on the right side of those boulders there.

pathbike2.jpg 

including a lot of cyclists, who endure a 2"

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oblique vertical discontinuity.  it's kind of designed to knock over road
cyclists.

so a lot of people, including myself, go between the boulders.

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that path is only 56" wide, which is the effective bottleneck of this
detour.

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if the boulders weren't there, it actually widens up at the opening, it
would be 115"!

i have bike trailers.  i have a cargo trailer

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it is only 25" wide but it is 8 foot long.  i have navigated it through
that gap 6 times so far, just to go to black's lumber.  and i have
another trailer for my kids that is 32" wide, so it leaves just a foot on
either side.  i'm gonna be going through there every day this summer
taking my kids to kid city day camp at 3rd street park.  i've already
gone through there with the kid trailer 4 times, but soon i'm going to be
be doing that 4 times a day.  i'm able to do that kind of gap but it's
hard.  the path is curved.  there's grade.  it's a nightmare.  i
shouldn't have to be super-dad just to navigate the detour without
scraping a wheel off my trailer.

but that's nothing compared to the challenge for my 10 year old.  10 year
old.  hard to get used to saying that.  he rides his own bike, and man
i'm gonna have to teach him how to anticipate the kind of blind corners
that are formed in a parking lot.  great.

if i don't do a good job of it, he might die.  no pressure.

and so i am at my wit's end looking at this.  pedestrian transportation
is supposed to be our highest priority but it's been closed for more than
4 months already and they haven't even got a maintenance of traffic plan.

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we need to get rid of those damn boulders.  we need to clear all of the
vegetation off of the path to the very edge of it.

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we need to designate a path through the parking lot and we need to
protect that path with temporary barriers.  and the signage should be
standardized MUTCD signage, it shouldn't be some office printjob run
through the laminater invented by non-engineer staffers in parks & rec.

honestly, i'm irate.  i can't believe i'm asking for the B-line to be
treated like transportation.

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i'm sorry i didn't have this ready in time for the agenda, but should we
pass a resolution?  why should we even have to do that?  if engineering
knows that the B-line is transportation then why do we need to ask for it
to be treated with a little respect?  is anyone going to say that this is
good enough?  is anyone going to say it complies with the MUTCD?  is
anybody going to say that since it's probably only gonna be for another
couple of months longer, there's no point doing anything about it?