Bicycling on interstate freeway bridges--yup, it does work

As the campaign moves forward to include a bicycle/pedestrian path on the new Paseo Bridge in Kansas City--creating the first safe way for bicyclists and pedestrians to cross the Missouri River in the Kansas City area--some questions have come up.

Again.

One of them: Is it safe to include a bicycle/pedestrian path on an interstate freeway bridge?

It's not only safe, it's commonly done in pretty much every other part of the country.

See MoBikeFed's extensive list of interstate freeway bridges that include bicycle/pedestrian paths for numerous examples.

Terry Richard of the Oregonian bicycled two bridges (one interstate, one multi-lane state highway) that include separated bicycle/pedestrian paths in Washington and writes about his experiences:

One bridge is 187 feet above the water; the other floats on it. Both make an excellent bike ride.

With thoughts about what Portland and Vancouver could do for cyclists and pedestrians on the planned Columbia River Crossing, I visited Tacoma and Seattle to pedal the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the Interstate 90 Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge. . . .

Interstate 90 Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge
The I-90 bike paths must do the job because I encountered more than a thousand cyclists during my two-hour exploration. Of course, it was Seafair Sunday, with the Blue Angels getting ready to perform overhead.

To cycle across the I-90 floating bridge, I parked in Bellevue's Enatai Beach Park, directly beneath the freeway as it enters Bellevue from the west. Signs note Bellevue's bike-friendly reputation, with links east all the way to Lake Sammamish, but I was bound west for Seattle.

A bike path leads directly from the park to the bike lane on the north side of the freeway. The westward crossing of Lake Washington's East Channel was partially obstructed by construction in the bike lane, but the lane soon emerged onto Mercer Island for a much more pleasant ride away from the freeway.

The crossing of Mercer Island is through a string of neighborhoods and pleasant parks, though the bike path is a bit confusing as it joins the sidewalk to pass in front of the island's park and ride.

The floating bridge awaits on the west side of the island, with the bike lane heading toward it with no fanfare.

The I-90 Lake Washington bike crossing carries traffic both ways on the north side of the twin highway bridges. It's a 9-foot-wide concrete path, with a 54-inch outside steel railing and a 35-inch inside concrete railing. A narrow hazard parking strip separates the bike lane from three lanes of speeding traffic. (Two reversible lanes on another part of the bridge increase the auto capacity each day.)

Crossing the lake, the second-largest in Washington, is memorable because of the type of bridge. With the bridge floating on the lake, the water looks close enough to reach out and touch.

As the bridge climbs off the lake to enter Seattle via a tunnel, the bike lane veers uphill to the East Portal Viewpoint, five miles from where I started in Bellevue. This is a grand vantage point for two of Washington's four floating bridges. (The Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge carries I-90 eastbound traffic but has no bike lane.)

The bike path continues west through the 15-foot-wide I-90 Bike Tunnel, emerges into Sam Smith Park, then threads its way past the twin major league sports stadiums to the central city skyscrapers. . . .

Tacoma Narrows Bridge
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is built across the narrowest part of Puget Sound.

I started riding the Scott Pierson Trail on South 25th Street, one block west of Sprague Avenue, in a south Tacoma neighborhood. The bike path passes Cheney Stadium, Tacoma Nature Center and Living War Memorial Park to reach the eastern side of the magnificent bridge.

Despite the oddity of a floating bridge, it can't match the spectacle of the twin Tacoma Narrows Bridges, the closest thing the Pacific Northwest has to the Golden Gate Bridge. The westbound bridge opened in 1950, the eastbound bridge, with its bike lane, just last year.

The ride across the bridge is simply stunning, with its high perch above Puget Sound, views of distant mountains and close-in neighborhoods, plus the components of the bridge itself. The cables are mesmerizing.

The 10-foot-wide two-way bike lane is on the south side of the new bridge. Railings are similar in height to those on the I-90 bridge, but the hazard lane that separates it from four lanes of traffic is nearly twice as wide. And the bridge surface is still new enough that traffic is less noisy. I passed about 60 cyclists during a two-hour ride.

The new Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a thing of beauty, well worth the drive just to ride a bicycle across it. Portland and Vancouver should be so lucky to have something similar one day.

MoDOT has already found 10 feet of deck space to include a bicycle/pedestrian path on the new Paseo Bridge.

That represents about 75% of the cost of creating a bike/ped river crossing.

But they don't want to cough up the remaining 25% that will turn a potential bike/ped crossing into an actual crossing--the first safe bike/ped river crossing in the Kansas City metro area.

Your pledge to the Put People On Paseo Campaign can help turn that around.