Simply Cycle: Summertime

May and June got eaten alive by minor remodel projects. Glad that's over and I can get out for a little bit of recreational riding. I visited some of the ongoing upgrades to our local non-motorized infrastructure.

A new trail is under construction along the east and south sides of Austin Lake which is going to connect the Vicksburg trail to the Portage trail system. That connection has been 10 years in the process between construction delays and property issues. It looks like a great project through a small forested area which will be a boon for both communities.

Portage is also continuing with the diet and redesign of the business area on Portage Rd between Centre Ave and Bacon Ave, which will slow down the dragstrip and improve access to the retail business between Austin and West Lakes. That has been kicked around for at least a decade and will be finished this fall, finally.

Also, work is ongoing on Westnedge south of Centre avenue in conjunction with some water main replacement which will upgrade the street configurations and extend the existing cycling infrastructure. That is planned to be complete this summer.

Also, in Kalamazoo, we are finally scheduled to see the road diet on Portage St south from the Edison neighborhood to Cork St. That piece of the puzzle was planned years ago but got snaffued by a bureaucratic glich. In my opnion it should be more, but I'm glad to see it happening.

The KRVT is finally going to extend from Galesburg to Augusta and is intended to be complete before the snow flies again.

A lot of good things are happening to develop our network of cycling infrastructure, it feels like we're constantly crawling uphill, but things are getting done. The powers that be see the need and are developing a real network of cycling along with all the other road projects.