From: Frank Gmeindl Date: May 15, 2012 9:16:58 PM EDT To: perry.j.keller@wv.gov Subject: Bicycle Plan Comments Perry, Thank you for conducting the interconnectivity workshops in Morgantown as well as the other WV cities. ��Your presentation was impressive, encouraging and trustworthy. ��I admire your diligence, attentiveness and energy. ��If I had to conduct 2 workshops each night in 8 consecutive cities while balancing all your other duties, I wouldn't be able to remember what I said or heard from one workshop to the next. Please consider the following comments. When the expenditure of public funds creates facilities that injure, endanger and exclude one group of users while adding incremental��benefits for another group of users, it is time to redirect funding to make those facilities safe for all users. �� In order of priority, please consider making the following routes more bicycle friendly: ��� Rt. 100 from Morgantown to Rt. 19 ��� Rt. 857 from So. Pierpont Rd. (CR 67) to the Pennsylvania line ��� Rt. 19 from the PA line to Fairmont ��� Rt. 7 from Whetzel County to Morgantown ��� Rt. 73 from Morgantown to Fairmont ��� Quarry Run Rd. (CR 69/5) from Goodspeed Highway to Rt. 73 ��� Rt. 73 to Bruceton Mills ��� Rt. 26 north of Bruceton Mills ��� Kingwood Pike (CR 81) ��� Halleck Rd. (CR 87) ��� Snake Hill (CR 75) Improvements could include R4-11 Bicycles May Use Full Lane signs and widening climbing lanes to enable motor vehicles to��safely��pass��bicyclists. ��In addition to engineering improvements, education and enforcement improvements should also be implemented.����How many infrastructure improvements would be unnecessary if we just slowed down and paid attention to our driving? Following are justifications for improving the routes in the above enumerated list. Rt. 100 Please consider Rt. 100 from Morgantown to Rt. 19,��http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1159657����to be the top priority roadway in the Morgantown area to improve to a Bike Route.����Rt.��100 is the flattest and most direct route to the Pennsylvania Bicycle A-Route which begins in Mt. Morris.����Rt. 100 has been the most heavily��used road by cyclists heading out of Morgantown for more than 40 years.����Rt. 100 leads to hundreds of miles of superb road cycling��comparable to some of the best in the world. ��The "Taylortown Loop"��http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1159653��was probably the most ridden bicycle route around Morgantown before the Longview Power Plant was built. Rts. 857, 73 and 26 A second priority would be Rt. 857 from its intersection with So. Pierpont Rd. (CR 67) to the Pennsylvania line,��http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1159636.����An earlier version of the WV��bike route descriptions (WV Bike Route 7) includes this route.����It is an essential corridor to Coopers Rock State Forest as well as to Maryland��via Quarry Run Rd., Rt. 73 and Rt. 26.����Local cyclists are very thankful to WVDOH for paving Quarry Run last year from Rt. 857 to the top of the��mountain however, the descent from there to Rt. 73 being steep, rutted and loose gravel, if also paved would make a wonderful seamless��route from Morgantown to Bruceton Mills. ��http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1159777 is one sample great ride. ��There are already great routes from Bruceton Mills but making Rt. 26 more bicycle-friendly north of��Bruceton Mills and perhaps south to Albright or at least to Prison Rd. (CR13)would open that whole area to marvelous bicycling comparable��to Italy, France and Switzerland! Rts. 19, 7 and 73 In fact, there could well be 1,000 miles of fabulous road-cycling in the Morgantown area if only certain corridors that cyclists must inevitably��use to access these routes were made more bicycle-friendly.����In addition to the aforementioned corridors, these corridors include Rt. 19 from��Mt. Morris to Fairmont; Rt. 7 from Whetzel county to Morgantown and Rt. 73 from Morgantown to Fairmont. ��The Blacksville loop,��http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1159835 and Hundred Hundred are two classic loops that utilize the Rt. 7 corridor. Other roads Less major local roads that have traditionally been highly popular bicycle routes but that are becoming less bicycle friendly because of increased speed and increased traffic volume, especially trucks include the��Kingwood Pike (CR81); Snake Hill Rd. (CR75); and Halleck Rd. (CR87). As we discussed, Rt. 119 south of Morgantown was once a somewhat favorite route heading north from��Halleck to Morgantown but now, the traffic volume and especially the speed have become so excessive that it is even unsafe to drive a motor vehicle��as demonstrated by the seemingly weekly closings due to horrific crashes. Finally, I'll reiterate Eric Henderson's remark that more miles and hours are probably ridden on routes that these corridors feed than on the routes that you have mapped. ��Unfortunately, we don't have bicycle traffic counts to substantiate that but we should apply funding where there will be the most benefit. �� Frank D. Gmeindl Chairman, Morgantown Municipal Bicycle��Board LCI #1703 491 WilsonAvenue Morgantown, WV 26501 304-376-0446 Cyclists fare best when they act and are��treated as drivers of vehicles