Schenectady will never be a bicycling paradise like Portland, Ore., or Boulder, Colo., but county officials are clearly interested in making it more bike-friendly. And they have been quite successful recently in getting grant money to improve trails and bike routes and create more of them. That’s great, but they also need to push activities that will encourage people, not just residents but tourists, to use them. The first grant was to make an easier, safer connection between Schenectady County Community College and the on-street trail that starts at Washington Avenue in the Stockade, a project completed a few years ago. Next was state money to improve signage and crossings on the off-road Mohawk-Hudson Bike Trail that runs through the city’s North End. But those were modest projects compared to two new ones now in the works. The first, a $628,000 “greenway” running from Central Park, down Bradley Boulevard and through Vale Park to City Hall and North Jay Street, was the subject of a well-attended public meeting last week. The other project, funded by $1.5 million in federal stimulus money, will be to fix up the existing city bike path to the Rexford Bridge and to close the gap between the path and Washington Avenue, adding information kiosks at Washington Avenue and North Jay. That link, and creating routes through neighborhoods such as the GE Realty Plot, are part of a comprehensive bike plan for the city adopted in 2003. The idea is to get people to use not just the trail but the streets, to enjoy the city, visit and spend money there. The new projects should help. But to really get people to come, the city needs some special events such as bike races and tours, bike rodeos for kids, and occasional road closings downtown where bicycles, rather than motor vehicles, rule for a few hours or a day.
I like bike riding. However, I would not bike in the city of Schenectady. I would not feel safe. Actually, I will bike ride in neighborhoods that I'm familiar with. No bike trails for me.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Last year we did a lot of biking in the city...GE Plot, Central Park, etc. There are some nice, quiet, not too traffic-ey places to ride. Always felt safe, like I usually do when I'm in the city.
This is what passes for economic stimulus? Wasting $1.5 MILLION on a stuna bike path. With kiosks on North Jay-that should really help dead, Metrograft failure, Little Italy. More nothing from the anti-car "planners".
Instead use that money to fill in pot holes that make the streets of Schenectady look like the Burma Rd.
No argument there, benny...there's no doubt the money would be better spent elsewhere. But as far as biking in the city, I was just giving my two cents
There is nothing wrong with biking. I would suggest the Niskayuna/Colonie Bike Path (by River Rd) or 5S in Rotterdam Junction.
Let's not pretend this is any answer to the complete collapse of all the City's business districts. Typical nonsense from the so-called "planners" and so-called "editors".
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This is what passes for economic stimulus? Wasting $1.5 MILLION on a stuna bike path. With kiosks on North Jay-that should really help dead, Metrograft failure, Little Italy. More nothing from the anti-car "planners".
There is nothing wrong with biking. I would suggest the Niskayuna/Colonie Bike Path (by River Rd) or 5S in Rotterdam Junction.
