I made an interesting discovery on my bike today. I found a way under
Carlisle at I-40. There’s a paved path with railing along the arroyo on the north side of I-40. Paved, that is, directly under Carlisle,
but gravel before and after. I rode west of Carlisle on the wide gravel path between the Interstate and the arroyo, hoping for a
connection to the bike path that travels under I-40 between Indian School and Menaul (near the tumbleweed snowman barely east of the
Big-I).
Oh, but there
isn’t a connection. Instead, the trail ends at a gate before the confluence of arroyos. The other trail is in sight, but to get to it
would require a steep ride down and out of the arroyo (which had water today, to my surprise).
Obviously, what’s needed here is a
bridge, maybe one of those arching bridges like those that span Tramway, carrying bicyclists and walkers above the level of the
Interstate so we can look down on folks stuck in traffic and they can look at us and think, “maybe I should get out of my car, too.”
A simple bridge there would
probably cost less than re-striping Montaño Bridge or extending Paseo del Norte. It might even cost less then the yet-another damn
billboard going up nearby. (When will we finally outlaw that crap? Never.) mjh
2 thoughts on “You Can’t Get There From Here”
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Here’s how I remember the explanation they gave for that back when they were building the Carlisle-
I40 intersection. In the long range bike network plan, they have a trail planned for the north side there. They didn’t have the money to
complete the whole thing, but they designed the Carlisle bridges to include the bike underpass now, so it’s there when they add the bike
path later.At the time they did it, I thought it showed a bit of foresight, though I guess it’ll only really be foresight if/when they
actually complete the thing.
It looks from the GIS maps on the city’s web site like the plan is to take trail over along the
diversion channel to Jefferson, which would be great for us, as there’s currently no good way (and by good, I guess I mean “safe”) on a
bicycle around that Carlisle-I40 mess.
Thanks, John. I appreciate that things can’t all be done at once; and, I’m not at all informed
on the plans. Still, that underpass may be going to waste currently. Why not tell people it’s there as a way to get across Carlisle?
Couldn’t pedestrians benefit? If they changed the gate on the west side ramp, one could go up to the Carlisle sidewalk, over the arroyo
and behind the restaurants to avoid having to ride much along Menaul. Immediately useful — perhaps. peace, mjh