Road Construction continues on East Burlington from D Street to the Highway 34 on-ramp. The first layer of asphalt is nearly complete. I witnessed the misery of other drivers waiting in line for the pilot car while I zipped around on my bike. I also witnessed first hand how Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) feels when you ride over it on a bike wearing flip flops (not good). Read more about the HMA work being done on Burlington Ave.
Speaking of bikes. Bike lanes are coming to Burlington Avenue. The current four lane striping is temporary. Another layer of asphalt will be applied later in the summer and then new striping will be put down: two lanes, center turning lane and bike lanes.
Burlington isn’t the only place getting new asphalt. Everybody’s has re-surfaced their parking lot and implemented a new parking lot layout. I was unsure whether the daily comedy (or frustration depending on your perspective) of parking errors was due to people or the design of the lot. If the new design proves anything, it’s that the error was in the design. Hey, I personally didn’t have any problems parking my car in the old design, but I admit the new layout is more user friendly.
Whether or not you’re a fan of this odd summer weather we’re having, the Jefferson County Trails are a fantastic place to enjoy the cooler temperatures. I’ve biked eastern portions of the trails and they are a comfortably cool, well maintained and a great place to spot wildlife. I recommend the wetland area to the east of the Country Club – it’s a great place to stop and look out for turtles, fish, snakes and birds.
There’s a new slide in at Howard park. It’s a metal one too! The concrete is still drying so it won’t be open until this coming Monday July 13th. The Fairfield Kiwanis Club volunteers put the new slide in with the help of donated equipment from Schaus Vorhies Contracting Inc. Now if only they’d bring back the awesome merry go round.
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Do you know what's going on with them ripping out the sidewalks in Central Park? Are they putting more brick in?
Not sure, but guessing yes. And I know it's a tradition, but I really wish they'd lose the roses – for a "green" town, those flowers take a ton of fertilizer and pesticides to grow – at least the way they manage them now. Wish they incorporated really green practices in the reworking of the square. Someday, someday…….
LOVE the new Everybody's parking lot lines! They say they only lost one space re-doing the lines this way and they are much more user friendly.
I've been thinking about the bike lanes on Burlington for a while. I'm curious about how the decision was made to add bike lanes to this road vs. making one of the side roads (say Jefferson and Stone) bike priority (meaning double bike lanes with cars having lower priority when bikes are present). Not that I object to the bike lanes on Burlington at all.
I'm somewhat ambivalent about the dual-purposing of a main thoroughfare primarily for bad-weather and late-night reasons. I never feel safe on a bicycle with higher-speed traffic. And I dislike being sloshed on by passing vehicles in bad weather (rain, snow).
Then again perhaps this is the best way to make people less car-centric. Maybe we should start up Critical Mass in Fairfield!
Sundar, I agree. I'm always looking for the road least traveled for biking. I hope to heck that the Burlington bike lanes may hopefully slow down traffic on that thoroughfare, but I have my doubts.
For those of us not familiar with the NW, can you or Will explain Critical Mass, post some video, report results? Google helps, but it'd be cool to hear it from those who lived there.
From what I'm reading about the 230 rides in North America, I think it'd be very cool to have a Critical Mass event in FF once a month.
Yep more brick.
Everybody's lost only one space in the re-design? Impressive. Did anyone win the contest to design a new lot? #fairfieldia
I do miss Critical Mass in Seattle. I know it annoyed thousands of car commuters but I loved it.
I'd say the best source of information on Critical Mass is the wikipedia article on the topic. It's essentially a way to subvert the car-centric world by taking over a main street during one of the busiest commute hours of the month. Usually that's the last Friday afternoon of the month. But to alleviate the stress, CM is often themed – the cyclists dress up and it becomes sort of an activist parade in costume.
There are a couple of CM rides in Iowa: http://criticalmass.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_rides…. />
But there are a *lot* of pictures on flickr and google images on the topic.
I wish I had taken pics of CM in Albuquerque or Chicago when I lived there, but never did
This is a perfect opportunity to illustrate what I was talking about in my post about Social Media and Tags. Go to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/criticalmass” target=”_blank”>http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/criticalmass (notice how I stuck the tag "criticalmass" on the end). And there you will find what is essentially a collaborative (photo) blog on the topic of Critical Mass.
Critical Mass is an event held round the world in major cities. Basically tons of people on bikes (mostly made of bike messengers at the core) converge at a time and place and fill the streets. They follow a designated route and essentially take over the roads for awhile. Some are HUGE. They'll take over all four lanes of a city street for several blocks. Basically in Seattle the police now provide escort and it ends up being a compromise between chaos and control – shutting down traffic in a relatively organized fashion. It's pretty awesome to watch of bike in.