Bloomington SR-37 Bicycle Bridge

SR-37 serves as a bicycle barrier separating the west side of Bloomington from the rest of the city. It is so difficult to bicycle from the west side into the central city that most people would not do it. Those that do usually take a long way around using Vernal Pike on the north side or That Rd on the south side.

There is actually a second bicycle barrier, Curry Pike, which is a very busy highway running parallel to and west of SR-37. Except for Second St and Third St, with heavy traffic, there are no roads that cross Curry Pike. Between these two barriers is a business district traversed by Liberty Dr and Gates Dr. Beyond these two barriers Gifford Rd has been the only suitable road for connecting to the good bicycling roads and large residential neighborhoods west of Bloomington. When the Karst Trail is completed there will be a second good way of connecting to the west. The Karst Trail will connect to Sierra Dr which will lead to Curry Pike.

The solution to connecting this region west of Bloomington to central Bloomington is to route bicycles from the west to a properly placed bicycle bridge. The only good roads from the west to Curry pike will be Gifford Rd and Sierra Dr. Constitution Way is the only bicycling road available to get from Curry Pike to Liberty Dr and beyond to SR-37 where there should be a bicycle bridge. The other side of the bridge would connect to Basswood Dr. From there a cyclist can easily get to central Bloomington.

The greatest utilization of a bicycle route that crosses SR-37 would come from people who live in the many of homes west of Bloomington. Another large group of users would be people who want to get from central Bloomington to the bicycle friendly roads west of Bloomington. I designed the bicycle route and bridge with these purposes in mind. For a project to be worth doing it has to be one that these people will use.

Gifford Rd and Sierra Dr will be the only good roads for bicycling west from the Liberty-Gates commercial corridor. By connecting these roads to Basswood Dr with a bicycle trail and bridge, people living in the residential neighborhoods west of Bloomington will be provided with a fairly direct route into central Bloomington with no or low traffic.

This map shows how these many residential neighborhoods will be connected to the route into Bloomington:



The above map also shows how cyclists in central Bloomington would be connected to the many bicycle friendly roads west of Bloomington. These roads include Leonard Springs Rd, Airport Rd, Vernal Pike and Woodyard Rd. Very importantly; it would provide reasonable bicycle access to Ivy Tech College. In addition, people living near the bridge could walk to Menards.

Even though the city plans to put bicycle lanes along Third St, it should be pointed out that there is no safe design that will get a bicycle past the curved entrance and exit ramps on the Third St Bridge (or the Second St Bridge). These ramps are nonstop with no seeing around the corner.  A car will turn into a cyclist on an exit ramp.  An entrance ramp places a cyclist between lanes of traffic.

On the west side of the Third St Bridge  (or the Second St Bridge) you are not where you want to be on a bicycle. You are not in a good position to get to the bicycle routes west of the city. To put the bicycle crossing of SR-37 anywhere other than where suggested here would mean that the cyclist would have to go a considerable distance through traffic to connect the crossing with a west side residential neighborhood.

FROM GIFFORD RD OR SIERRA DR TO SR-37

The Figure shows the route from Gifford Rd or Sierra Dr to the SR-37 Bicycle Bridge site using Curry Pike, Constitution Way and Liberty Dr. Proposed new facilities are shown in blue. Where the route uses existing infrastructure it is show in purple. The plan calls for a bicycle side path along the east side of Curry Pike. There is a sidewalk there now. To cross Curry Pike a traffic signal is placed at Constitution Way. Along Constitution Way bicycles could ride in the quiet street while pedestrians could use the existing sidewalk. The west side of Liberty Dr from Constitution Way to the dry detention pond is very good for a bicycle side path. Along the way there is a wide grassy swath and very few driveway crossings. At the dry detention pond a tunnel is used to get across Liberty Dr. A bicycle trail is placed across the dry detention pond leading up to SR-37.



THE SR-37 BICYCLE BRIDGE

INDOT should put a bicycle bridge across SR-37 connecting the proposed bicycle trail west of the highway to Basswood Dr east of the highway.

On the east side of SR-37 the bridge abutment should place on a high spot. One exists just west of one of the Forest Ridge buildings.

Here is a street view showing this high spot.



The abutment for the east end of the bridge will be placed on state highway property here. From this location at the east end of the bridge the trail goes parallel to SR-37, ether north or south or both as shown here:



The route south from the abutment leads to Basswood Dr without crossing Forest Ridge property. Once on Basswood Dr there will be no problem bicycling the rest of the way to downtown Bloomington. The other option goes north from the abutment and then turns east and follows the bank of a deep stream valley, one that will never be used for further development although it is on Forest Ridge property. This route also connects to Basswood Dr.

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