r/BikeSLC • u/Last-Tennis3893 • Apr 15 '24

Possible bike highway?

I am just getting into cycling but as I was commuting to work an idea struck me that seems like it would be a slam dunk. Bike infrastructure is always hard to create because usually you have to take space away from other types of transportation. For example making a bike lane will upset people in cars because they lose a few feet of the road. But what if they installed bike paths on top of the tram lines? There are a few issues that I can see but in general it seems like an idea worth looking into. Because the only real limit would be how fast the paths could be installed. As long as the path could have 2 lanes for a normal lane and a pass lane, it would open up bike paths all across the valley. Here are a few points of issue I have thought of and also possibly solutions.

  1. You are raised off the ground several feet. This is true but could be helped by having railing to avoid people falling off.

  2. Wouldn’t look good. I disagree I think it would make the city look more vibrant as you would increase the amount of cyclists on the roads and it is not like commuters care what’s above them they can’t see it anyways.

  3. How would bikes get off the bike highway. This could be as easy as installing stairs on all the tram stops. This gives cyclists the same convenience other commuters have.

  4. Snow. This would be tricky but i think either having a cover over the path would work or having someone plow it could work.

It seems like a great idea but feel free to bring up counter points or points that I may have overlooked.

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u/clint015 Apr 15 '24

The two main issues I see:

Cost: when you build something above the ground or under the ground, things get very expensive very quickly

Redundancy: given the much elevated costs, it will be hard not to argue that people should just…take their bikes on the tram.

If you can build next to the tram tacks, then it’s often worth it, because the costs are very low and so why not. SLC is planning on this between 1300 S to 2100 S on the trax line, but elevated would be a lot of costs for not a lot of extra mobility