Bike lane on juniper

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I live at Castlepoint and go to ND. while there is a good walking
path along Cleveland, what prevents me from biking to campus is the
fact that there is no bike lane/walking path on Juniper from Cleveland
to the campus. Does anyone know of plans to create a bike lane on
juniper? It seems to make sense to have one given the number of
bikers I see when I drive to campus.

Freddy

[JB]

I would also love to see this. I live north of Clay High School and
the section of Juniper between Auten and Darden is generous in width
which allows for relatively stress-free biking. However once I hit
Darden and go south to campus it is considerably narrower with a
somewhat rough shoulder that makes things more dangerous as the SUV's
go flying by. I have wondered about this myself and would love to see
some improvements on this particular stretch. Who knows what would be
the process for making something like this happen? Is this stretch
under the control of the City of South Bend? How would we make an
appeal for such an improvement?

Thanks for bringing this up Freddy.

-Justin

[Adam Bee]

That is a tough one! I personally have found that Cleveland is the
tough part and Juniper the less tough part, but I can really see how
that wouldn't be true for folks who prefer not to ride on the street
with the rest of traffic.

The biggest obstacles are I-80 and Juday Creek. My personal
preference would be this route:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3267406

But if the rider(s) would prefer to stay completely out of traffic,
and the bikes tires aren't skinny racing tires, then maybe this way
might be worth exploring (though maybe not at night, unless you are OK
w. the possibility of dealing with NDSP, heh):
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3267445

If/when the LaSalle Trail connects up to Darden, that will go a long
way to solving this puzzle. In the meantime, here's one longer route
that should be relaxing, except for an illegal left turn on Cleveland
followed by 30 yards of riding on its shoulder:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3267423

Good luck, and please do report back and let us know what you find
out-- I know a lot of other Castlepoint residents would probably like
to not have to drive (and park) so much!

Best,
Adam Bee

[Paul Taylor]

Unfortunately, there are no plans to add biking or walking
infrastructure along Juniper. Bike access to campus from the east,
west, and south is pretty good, but not from the north. That area is
unincorporated St. Joseph County, and bicycles are pretty low on the
county's priority list. If you want to voice your concern, feel free
to contact Jessica Clark, County Engineer at JCL...@co.st-joseph.in.us
and/or Jessica Mitchel, MACOG Regional Planner at jmit...@macog.com.
You might want to take alook at http://www.southbendin.gov/docs/CED_BikeMap0909.pdf
for a bike route map of the area.