Louisville Magazine

OCT 2014

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

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16 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 10.14 thebit 'm more inclined to think of bicycle riders as potential victims than as insensitive cads, which is the way they've been painted by some of the pedestrians who take strolls across the Big Four Bridge. After all, cyclists are otherwise forced to share the road with 33-ton cement trucks as well as 6,500-pound Chevy Tahoes and Dodge Durangos with chrome cowcatchers broad enough to take out an elephant. Everyone remembers George Cronin's death on the Clark Memorial in 2007. Te Big Four allows them to cross the river without the risk of becoming a statistic. Te walker-rider controversy — which came to a head in August when complaints about pushy cyclist behavior on the bridge prompted the Waterfront Development Corp. to shut down the center bicycles-only lane and consider requiring riders to walk their bikes — has cooled for now, mostly because a major project to light the span has created construction "pinches" that impede any thoughts of zipping over to Jefersonville. But bad vibes are likely to re- emerge. Te potential victim will once again become the aggressor. Here are the logistics that identify the root of the problem: Te bridge path is 20 feet wide. Te former bike lane, drawn to mimic the width of a standard railroad track — four feet eight and a half inches — leaves about seven feet seven inches of room on either side. Tree adult companions walking side by side (fgure, conservatively, two feet from arm to arm for each and a half-foot of space so they don't have to brush arms) take up seven feet. If they march in perfect lockstep, or if one walks behind the other two, there is no bother accommodating the bike lane. But people don't do that; they tend to relax and wander in their footpath, swing their arms a little. And then there is the complication of some people walking faster than others: pedestrian passing. And baby strollers. And bowlegged grandmas. Houston, we have a problem. Obviously, even on a less- than-busy day, cyclists can't expect — shouldn't expect — a clear, fast trip across the bridge in a dedicated lane. Tey'll have to be watchful and ride at a leisurely, meandering pace that occasionally has them touching their toes to the ground. Even the stern guys in the Tour de France suits. Controversy on the Big Four. A Tale of Two Cyclists By Jack Welch Illustration by Carrie Neumayer I HAIKU REVIEW JUST SAYIN' "Hey, that's (music producer) Kevin Ratterman weed- whacking!" over HEARD ( ( ( ( ( ( CITYsentence. in a Grimes-McConnell re-runs are on again tonight. Use Your Bow and Arrow Jennifer Lawrence: Be Katniss for Halloween, hunt photo leaker.

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