dcrowell

Last Friday the I-64 bridge over the Ohio River in Louisville was closed to all traffic due to a crack in a structural support piece. This is better than a collapse, but is quite disruptive to commuters.

There are three traffic bridges across the Ohio River between Louisville and southern Indiana. One of them is now closed, overloading capacity on the other two.

I used to have to cross the river to get to work before I moved last year. The one bridge I could ride my bike across has never been great for bicycles, but it's now has "convertible" lanes. Three northbound lanes in the afternoon, three southbound in the morning.

Car commuters are angry and impatient. I'm glad I live close to work and can avoid most of it. It may mean riding the sidewalk now and again to get past the gridlock downtown on the commute home.

This will probably last for months.

More here:
https://www.wdrb.com/story/15441215/car

and here:
https://www.wave3.com/story/15445762/...edirected=true

I stayed home from work today due to illness, but I'm not exactly thrilled to deal with impatient frustrated drivers.

cruzMOKS

I consider myself invisible when I ride the sidewalk. I look all directions when I cross driveways and intersections. Take care, and be patient also.

dcrowell

I modified my route for the commute yesterday. That allowed me to miss the worst of it. I didn't need to get on the sidewalk.

On a side note, there was a blurb on the news about one woman who is walking to work across one of the bridges because it's much faster than driving the same route.

gerv 

Wow... makes you wonder the state of the car infrastructure across the US. It might be an incentive for motorists to support an increase in the gasoline taxes. Might make their future commutes a little safer and a little less frustrating.

bragi

+1. We have a transportation infrastructure in the US that isn't much better than that of some third-world countries. Here in Seattle, supposedly a wealthy and progressive city, the roads are literally crumbling. Bicycling is still possible, of course, but in many areas you literally have to cut your speed in half to avoid crashing. The city is painting new bike lanes all over town, but the sad truth is that many of the bike lanes are on roads that are in such bad repair that they are virtually useless. (They're also in the "door zone" most of the time, but that's another issue entirely...)

And don't even get me started on public transportation.

Roody

Are they fixing or rebuilding the bridge that's closed? If so, I hope they put in good provisions for cyclists and pedestrians.

As for the miserable motorists, if some of them would leave their cars at home and find an alternative, it would make life better for them and everybody else.

dcrowell

A plan for re-opening the bridge has not been settled yet. It could be closed two months or two years. Nobody knows yet. Rumors are that if the other interstate bridge is inspected, it would be closed also, leaving us with a single, narrow, bridge.

My gut feeling is that the bridge will be repaired. Even with replacement, I seriously doubt there will be provisions for anything but motor vehicles. This IS Kentucky after all.

There are a few that have found alternatives. The buses are getting more use on the cross-river routes. People are changing their work schedule. One of our river-tour-dining boats is being used as a ferry during rush hour. One woman who lives nearby, but on the other side of the river was on the news for walking across the Second Street bridge sidewalk, making it to work more than an hour ahead of those stuck in there cars.

hank0604

I've got a similar bridge situation that I'm going to be dealing with soon.

I'm moving from Chicago to my Louisiana hometown of Shreveport-Bossier City. As you may be able to tell by the name, it's really two cities that lie across the river from each other. NO ONE stays on only one side of the river; if I had to guess, I'd say that more than 70% of the people there cross the river every day.

This is my only concern about continuing my carfree lifestyle there. There are 5 bridges, total, to cross the river. Two are for interstate highways--completely out of the question for bike use. The third is only two lanes--one westbound, one eastbound--and is a dangerous crossing in a car, much less a bike. That leaves me with 2 options, each of which are easily enough traversed by bike, that'll just make things a little inconvenient. Depending on where I end up working and living, it could be as much as an extra 8-10 miles per trip just to get to the right bridge. (Of course, I complain, but I'll probably end up liking the extra saddle time).

Artkansas 

Little Rock is relatively well set in this regard. We have three bicycle-pedestrian bridges and one more under construction. In addition, city fathers have decided that one of the car bridges is reaching the end of its life and as active as the bicycle advocacy group is, I suspect that the bridge to replace it will have bike lanes.

Ekdog

Or, knowing the way things often go in the States, demagogic politicians might use this as an excuse to further cut or eliminate the meager amounts that are spent on such things as cycling infrastructure and mass transit and claim that motorists are being persecuted.

Roody

By the time you read this, it may already have happened. The "dirty extension" of the Transportation Bill is likely to elimintate ALL highway spending for bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure in the United States. This is a big goal of the Congressional Republicans, and they will most likely accomplish it in very short order.

Ekdog

Roody, after making my last post I went over to Daily Kos and saw this: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) Forcing FAA Shutdown Over Bike Safety Funding. How sad!

Edited to add this, which someone quoted as a response to the article about Sen. Coburn's intransigence:

Biking and walking currently account for 12% of our trips, yet we spend less than 2% of federal transportation funding on infrastructure to make these trips safer or add the paths, trails, sidewalks and crosswalks we need. Investments in walking and biking, under the federal program called Transportation Enhancements, help give people safe, clean, and convenient travel options that allow us to get around without Big Oil.
So, this year, while we are draining our bank accounts to spend $491 billion on gasoline (which keeps Big Oil happy) we're investing only a tiny amount on safe walking and biking through our national transportation policy. And it turns out, spending on biking and walking infrastructure actually helps create more jobs than spending on roads and highways!

Yet, one Senator is ready to hold up an entire bill to about federal transportation spending over the small portion of funds in the bill dedicated to safe walking and biking.

Roody

Breaking news--the clean extension to the Transportation was apparently just passed, averting shutdown of the FAA and elimination of funding for bike infrastructure. Of course the issue will come up again when (or if) the Congress ever gets around to writing a new Transportation Bill.

https://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63614.html

gerv 

Apparently Congress isn't completely brain dead. How could they not vote for a bill that would reduce traffic congestion and make the population healthier?