Lowell Michigan
04-17-22, 08:45 AM
#1
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Lowell Michigan
We'll be with some much younger riders, using the Fred Meijer Flat River Valley Rail Trail from Greenville/Belding into Lowell. I want to get them safely through Lowell and connect to the Fred Meijer Grand River Valley Rail Trail toward Saranac and beyond. Has anyone found a child friendly route through Lowell that doesn't require travel on busy roads.The attached link, from 2020, shows some 'proposed' routes and road routes. Alden Nash Rd. goes past a Meijer Store so I imagine that is a fairly busy area. I believe the Mid-Michigan rail still has rails and RR ties along its route. Any help is greatly appreciated.
https://www.addorio.com/lowellareatra...03.12.2020.pdf
https://www.addorio.com/lowellareatra...03.12.2020.pdf
04-17-22, 10:21 AM
#2
don't try this at home.
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For unfamiliar areas, I like to use Google Maps with Bicycling selected. Here's the Lowell map. Zoom way in on the trails, and the trail name is repeated along the green trail line. Zoom out to whole state level, and the trails disappear from the map.
And the Strava Heat Map. This is a year of strava ride recordings, coloring in the roads by cycling popularity. Red--least popular, white hot--most popular. "Updated monthly". Big cities have the most riding, so they show up when zoomed out. Zoom in, and it recalculates the local popularity, nice! Strava riders tend to be more "serious", willing to ride with traffic at times. And some roads are just the easiest way to join two places, not necessarily the nicest route.
I especially note where one road is dim red, or even not colored in, and a nearby road is popular. Riders are avoiding that road, perhaps for traffic reasons.
Here's Lowell on the Heat Map. The URL changes as I pan and zoom, so it's easy to link to the current view. Click "Labels" on the left sidebar to see street and town names.
Looks like most riders take the obvious route from one trail to the other. I would have suggested taking side streets through town, but that won't work in Lowell.
Oh, strava limits the zoom unless I'm logged in. I clipped the local area below.
Routing for a group
I try to do left turns at stop lights if possible, it's easier with a group. I use a Garmin to follow my loaded route, so I don't care about having lots of turns. I really like having a "sweeper" rider, that stays near the back of the group, and makes sure nobody loses contact off the back. The ride leader waits until the sweeper appears at each turn, so no need to count riders, which is really difficult! My sunglasses mounted mirror is an essential tool to help manage a group when I'm leading.
I looks like there's only a few roads that connect the inbound and outbound trails. But riding on Main Street, the only E-W connector, is only a few hundred feet before you turn off again.
Oh, Street View on N Hudson shows what look like bike lanes, with No Parking signs. No bicycle signage, perhaps it was just re-striped when the google car came through.
I would have picked Riverside St, but it's one-way northbound, so it won't work.
Riding on streets with no bike lane, including the Segwun Ave bridge and Grand River Drive SE, I'd "take the lane". Ride two wide, and keep together, with a ride leader up front and another at back. Keep the pace a bit slow so all the riders can keep up okay. Cars will just have to wait.
The new bike infrastructure doesn't seem to be done yet. It'll be very nice when finished, though.
The pdf's routes don't show on street view or the satellite view, or as a dotted "bike friendly" road. Google Maps can sometimes be a bit slow to pick up new changes, other times they appear right away. I'd email the town and see the status. And there's no Heat Map activity where the proposed trails and connectors will be -- that indicates that it's not done yet. Even a few riders exploring on a path will show up on the heat map.
Strava Heat Map details.
I switched to the light background so I could draw in the connection in orange.
This heat map shows dim blue as least popular, purple as moderately popular, dark red as most popular.
And the Strava Heat Map. This is a year of strava ride recordings, coloring in the roads by cycling popularity. Red--least popular, white hot--most popular. "Updated monthly". Big cities have the most riding, so they show up when zoomed out. Zoom in, and it recalculates the local popularity, nice! Strava riders tend to be more "serious", willing to ride with traffic at times. And some roads are just the easiest way to join two places, not necessarily the nicest route.
I especially note where one road is dim red, or even not colored in, and a nearby road is popular. Riders are avoiding that road, perhaps for traffic reasons.
Here's Lowell on the Heat Map. The URL changes as I pan and zoom, so it's easy to link to the current view. Click "Labels" on the left sidebar to see street and town names.
Looks like most riders take the obvious route from one trail to the other. I would have suggested taking side streets through town, but that won't work in Lowell.
Oh, strava limits the zoom unless I'm logged in. I clipped the local area below.
Routing for a group
I try to do left turns at stop lights if possible, it's easier with a group. I use a Garmin to follow my loaded route, so I don't care about having lots of turns. I really like having a "sweeper" rider, that stays near the back of the group, and makes sure nobody loses contact off the back. The ride leader waits until the sweeper appears at each turn, so no need to count riders, which is really difficult! My sunglasses mounted mirror is an essential tool to help manage a group when I'm leading.
I looks like there's only a few roads that connect the inbound and outbound trails. But riding on Main Street, the only E-W connector, is only a few hundred feet before you turn off again.
Oh, Street View on N Hudson shows what look like bike lanes, with No Parking signs. No bicycle signage, perhaps it was just re-striped when the google car came through.
I would have picked Riverside St, but it's one-way northbound, so it won't work.
Riding on streets with no bike lane, including the Segwun Ave bridge and Grand River Drive SE, I'd "take the lane". Ride two wide, and keep together, with a ride leader up front and another at back. Keep the pace a bit slow so all the riders can keep up okay. Cars will just have to wait.
The new bike infrastructure doesn't seem to be done yet. It'll be very nice when finished, though.
The pdf's routes don't show on street view or the satellite view, or as a dotted "bike friendly" road. Google Maps can sometimes be a bit slow to pick up new changes, other times they appear right away. I'd email the town and see the status. And there's no Heat Map activity where the proposed trails and connectors will be -- that indicates that it's not done yet. Even a few riders exploring on a path will show up on the heat map.
Strava Heat Map details.
I switched to the light background so I could draw in the connection in orange.
This heat map shows dim blue as least popular, purple as moderately popular, dark red as most popular.
Last edited by rm -rf; 04-17-22 at 01:00 PM.
04-17-22, 01:35 PM
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The parks & Recs of Greenville, Belding, & Lowell might be a resource to reach out to for input. At a minimum, I'd expect them to be able to produce a current map of the pathways they oversee.
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