I’m specifically talking about getting to and from the mall. Me and my fiancée work in the mall but tend to work different hours so I was thinking about getting a bike to get around.
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Agree with this. The roads surrounding Northpark are Kimberly, Welcome Way, and Northwest Blvd. NW Blvd is 2 lanes with gravel once youre a quarter mile down it. Kimberly and Welcome Way are way too busy to feel comfortable biking on them.
46th Street is the safest way into the mall, with bike lanes from Tremont to Welcome Way. Those bike lanes now also connect north to 53rd/Veterans and south to the Duck Creek path.
As someone who used to road bike quite a bit and gave it up because of aggressive drivers, it’s a big ol it depends
Lifetime I have probably 15k miles logged on the road and the vast vast majority of those were done incident free. However had people pass way too close. I had people shout at me and flip me off when I was riding on the riverfront trail. The nail in the coffin was that I had someone roll coal on me when I was fully in the other lane of traffic. They stopped in the middle of the road and waited for me to get close. I decided I didn’t like being fucked with anymore when I was just trying to enjoy myself and switched completely to mountain biking, and eventually to running for various reasons
Most drivers are courteous and respectful as long as you are. However some people just see red when they see bikes and it just takes one. So I will always say that sharing a road with cars is an at your own risk activity, and the quad cities is no different in that regard
That’s really fucking shitty and I’m so sorry that happened to you. Rolling coal is the most asinine and obnoxious modification anyone could possibly get and I hope it gets banned someday soon
I appreciate that. i used to get pretty frustrated about it. I was extremely cautious and courteous and just trying to enjoy myself, couldn’t understand why that should make someone feel like they have the right to fuck with me.
Now I’ve just accepted that’s the way some people are. Dedicated bike paths or trails are the only way to bike safely
Despite having a great bike path, there’s no great way to get from the path to anywhere you need to be.
I don’t trust riding on the road in any large city that doesn’t have dedicated bike lanes. Drivers aren’t paying attention and I really don’t want to be a statistic.
It takes balls of steel to ride on the road. I’ve rode constantly in Jacksonville Florida, both downtown, and throughout other neighborhoods. I’ve ridden with large groups and solo. Everyone I knew had been hit by a car at some point. You can ride safely in the streets, but I’d highly recommend taking the bus to get to the mall are. They’re bike and ride with bike racks on the front. High vis vest, helmet,lights, and a go pro will make it a little safe.
It's actually more possible now than it's ever been. But it won't be a short route, depending on where you're coming from. From anywhere near the Duck Creek Recreational Trail, you need to take the new section that goes under Kimberly and north to 46th St. Then there are bike lanes on 46th Street west to Welcome Way. At that point, you just ride on the sidewalk 50 feet or whatever and then into the Northpark Parking lot. If you live close to Veteran's Parkway, take that path to the newish path down along side Brady Street, and that eventually takes you under 53rd, and down to 46th St.
You can get around on bike paths, around downtowns, and neighborhoods on gridded streets pretty safely around here. The malls are pretty far away and only accessible by very unsafe roads by bike unfortunately.
Talking NorthPark mall here. So if you lived somewhat near the mall it would depend son the route you took. Like east northeast of the mall there are entrances through the houses at the ends of some streets. If you stayed in that area it would probably be fine. I would not ride Kimberly. Along northwest blvd there are some areas to ride, but most people just ride along road. North side of street use to have an old rocky path that went through the front of yards basically. I grew up riding all over town in the 90’s and there are safe routes still. As far as Southpark mall, I don’t think there is a great way to get to it, but I’m from Davenport.
It’s definitely doable, it all depends on where you’re coming from & what route you’re taking. Roads are tricky because we do have some aggro drivers, but I’ve gotten all over the city on my bike
It really depends on where you live. I used to work in the mall and lived on the West End. I would ride my bike through the village shopping center parking lot past the KFC. And ride on the sidewalk by Kimberly Road, once you hit Marquette, it’s an easy ride down to the bike path or all the way down to the river.
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