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| Marion portion of Linn County Trails and Bikeways Map (downloaded from linncountytrails.org) |
Linn County's first designated bicycle boulevard, announced ten years ago, may be forgotten but it is not gone. Nor is it a bicycle boulevard, but there is no need to chew that cabbage again.
The trusty trails maps show three types of trail infrastructure in Marion. The most distinct are offstreet trails, such as the Grant Wood trail that runs east-west through Uptown Marion and on to the county line, the soon-to-be completed CeMar trail that will connect Marion with Cedar Rapids, and the Indian Creek Trail that runs parallel to 10th Street and connects to the Linn-Mar Community Schools campus.
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| The north end is at Tower Terrace Road, next to the football stadium |
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| The landscape is lovely, including creek crossings (not pictured) |
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| Mowed paths connect to nearby subdivisions |
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| Flashers for crossing 10th Street north of Boyson Road |
Several major streets have side paths, which are wide sidewalks that accommodate bicycles as well.
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| Tower Terrace Road has both a side path and a painted bike lane: Aesthetically I like the wild growing median, but I think it encourages cars to go faster |
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| Prudent riders of all ages choose the side path |
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| The path invites conflict with turning traffic (here at Dollar Tree, but crossing 10th Street is even dicier) |
Some streets--McGowan Boulevard, 29th Avenue, and 31st Street--are designated "bike-friendly streets." This means, in the case of McGowan, the dreaded sharrow.
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| McGowan Boulevard, looking east from 10th Street |
Geode Street, which becomes 3rd Street north of 29th Avenue, does not appear on the trails map since the 2021 edition, but should still qualify as a "bike-friendly street"--not because of its sharrow, but because it's a low-traffic street that is the only north-south street in that neighborhood that goes all the way from Boyson to Tower Terrace. In fact, Geode continues south of Boyson to Lininger Park, where it connects to the Creekside Trail, which eventually connects to the CeMar Trail.
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| Geode Street, north of Boyson: Sign and sharrow, with additional designation "BLVD" |
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| Some of the sharrows have been repainted |
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| Crossing 29th Avenue by Novak Elementary School, with its track and excellent playground, remains rough |
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| 3rd Street facing south from Tower Terrace Road |
So, yeah, calling Geode/3rd Street a "bicycle boulevard" was silly puffery. But it's certainly an important cog in an increasingly connected trails system.
ORIGINAL POST: "Linn County's First Bicycle Boulevard," 29 August 2016
SEE ALSO: "Do Bicycle Boulevards Need a Purpose?" 17 July 2018
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| yard by Gill Park (2016) is still decorated, but alas bikes have been replaced by dogs and Charlie Kirk |
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