Kercher Road

[John Yoder]

Yesterday was the first time I'd seen the barriers for the
bicycle-pedestrian path on the south side of Kercher Rd. at the railroad
crossing. These are very depressing installations. It would be difficult
for anyone to actually ride through this maze. No tandem could, I'm sure.
Three-wheeled bikes that have a short turning radius would find it difficult
-- something I'll need to verify. My immediate thought was that a rider
approaching these barriers from either direction would be strongly tempted
to ride out onto the road to avoid them, which would make the rider coming
from the east riding against oncoming traffic.

What motivates this overkill of obstruction? Is it a need to appease the
railroad? The gates on Monroe in a similar situation are at least far enough
apart that you can ride through them. And why is it necessary to put up
barriers for pedestrians going three mph and bikes going 15, but nothing for
cars and trucks going 35 mph? All that is needed to deter walkers and bikers
is to install a simple arm on the other side of the current gates for cars,
an arm that comes down to block the trail when a train is coming. Once
again, no one consulted the bikers to see if this was a rational safety
measure.

Does anyone else understand the rationale for these barriers?

John Yoder
Yoder...@gmail.com
574-596-4299

[Elvie Bontrager]

John,
I agree those barriers on Kercher Road are terrible. I stopped at the Parks Dept. and was told they did not design those. The barriers were done by the city engineering dept. She said the Parks dept. will take a look at it but probably can’t do anything about it until the road project is done. At that point I went home! I did not bother calling the Engineering Dept.
Elvie Bontrager

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[Adam Scharf]

Goodness gracious, agreed...this is a counterproductive-to-safety and over-the-top installation that I do not understand either. I for one had no idea it was planned. You're right, it continues to be frustrating that there is no predictable channel for review of these kinds of things. The whole project ran through Redevelopment Commission. 

I am coupling this with the lack of curb cut at Kercher/Violett in a request to Engineering Dept for review. There's no formal channel for this, but we will try...and try to cut a channel in the process.

~Adam

[Patrick Buller]

I went through with my daughter on a tagalong this afternoon. Even though I had read this email, I still smacked her handlebars when I went through the first time. 

Patrick 

 

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From: goshe...@googlegroups.com on behalf of John Yoder <yoder...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2019 2:59 PM
To: Goshen Bikes
Cc: Chet Peachey
Subject: [Goshen Bikes] Kercher Road