RR tracks on Kemper near the Blue Ash fire station

[mister t]

here: http://tinyurl.com/RR-tracks-BA

These are very dangerous. I have to cross these at an extreme angle to
traffic and I time my approach so that there is no traffic when I
cross. Going Northbound I actually take the side road and cross them
on the sidewalk if there is traffic. Southbound, I wait in fire
department's driveway until there is no traffic.

A sign to let motorists know what I'm about to do would be helpful if
I ever misjudge traffic. Perhaps one with a bike and an arrow drawn
perpendicular across a set of angled RR tracks.

In addition to the sign, a solution, for my Southbound trip is to put
a gate through this wooden fence (http://tinyurl.com/wooden-fence-
needs-a-gate) that separates the subdivision from the Tri-Health
walking track. I could get on this track on the North side of Tri
Health through parking lots at the end of Millington CT and then go
through the gate to come out on Kemper at Kenridge. There are other
gates in this fence but they open into the back yard of private homes.
If a gate was put where the green arrow is on my map, it would open up
into a street.

I've not gotten any responses to my prior concerns about the trash
bins in the bike lane on Cooper (but I have noticed an improvement) so
could anyone with better contacts than me, either forward this email
or give me a different contact?

Thanks,
Tracy

[Albigensia]

Mr. T,

Yeah, I wiped out on those tracks after a snow last winter - they are
nasty. A little slick on steel and my wheels got caught in the groove.
The sidewalk / bike trail does this weird curvy thing at that point,
making it far more convenient to travel on the street, but after that,
I mostly stayed to the sidewalk.

Of course, I don't have much excuse to travel that way any more, until
the thaw makes the ride up from Loveland and the bike trail enjoyable.
I looked at your map and I'm not sure what your route is that makes a
gate in that wooden fence a reasonable option - sounds like you're
gonna cross the tracks either way. Anyway, to touch on the bins, my
guess is that you should bug your alderman... or all of them, to move
them from the access way. However, my bet is that Rumpke is the one
who shoves them back wherever they feel like when they're done, so you
may have better luck with their representative.

In Blue Ash and riding all points south,
Marcus

[Mark Stosberg]

On Jan 6, 10:49 am, mister t <tmse...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> here:http://tinyurl.com/RR-tracks-BA
>
> These are very dangerous. I have to cross these at an extreme angle to
> traffic and I time my approach so that there is no traffic when I
> cross. Going Northbound I actually take the side road and cross them
> on the sidewalk if there is traffic. Southbound, I wait in fire
> department's driveway until there is no traffic.

My wife broke her leg cycling across tracks angled much like that in
Richmond, Indiana.

She contacted the Railroad company about it, and they settled out of
court for her costs, plus some additional pain and suffering money.
They reviewed the tracks and said they didn't meet their own safety
standards. I don't know if they considered the extreme angle a
problem, but the asphalt had also chipped away some near the tracks at
that time, so the grooves to get caught in were even bigger than
usual.

If you know someone who gets hurt on tracks like this, they should
consider contacting the property owner about them as well-- likely the
railway company.

It would be a great location to preemptively have a sign put up to
warn cyclists about the crossing. This photo of a sign I took in
Portland gets the point across nicely:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/markstos/2927533371/

Mark

[Alan]

In Harrisonburg Virginia (of all places) there is at least one sign
that warns motorists that bicyclists will be crossing the tracks at an
angle, and shows a depiction of a cyclist crossing the track at that
angle.

[Daniel Mocsny]

mister t wrote:
> here: http://tinyurl.com/RR-tracks-BA
>
> These are very dangerous. I have to cross these at an extreme angle to
> traffic and I time my approach so that there is no traffic when I
> cross. Going Northbound I actually take the side road and cross them
> on the sidewalk if there is traffic. Southbound, I wait in fire
> department's driveway until there is no traffic.

What tire width are you riding? Tracks that pose an existential
threat to my road bike tires become almost inconsequential when I'm
riding on fat mountain bike tires - when they are dry at least.
Fat tires slow you down, but they give a lot more options for riding
through the marginal crap that defines bicycling in Cincinnati.

It would be nice if someone could defy the laws of physics and
give us a fat tire that never flats and rolls as easily as a fragile
road tire.

--
--- Daniel J. Mocsny

[Larry Parker]

http://www.yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2011-01-24

GREAT comic today. The battle we all fight, whether internally or with
spouses, friends, or co-workers!