We couldn’t agree more.
Those who ride the bike trail are among the Parkway’s most loyal and caring users and they need a priority effort expended on their behalf when the trail is disrupted, as it is now from the trestle rebuild.
Editorial: Don't forget cyclists
Trestle detour frustates key commuters
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, March 22, 2007
The fire that destroyed the Union Pacific trestle has disrupted travel for Amtrak commuters and forced UP and other railroads to reroute their hauling of freight. To their credit, UP is moving quickly to rebuild the trestle, and Amtrak has organized buses to help passengers get between Auburn and Sacramento.
Unfortunately, local officials and UP haven't responded as quickly to ensure that another group of commuters aren't endangered or unduly inconvenienced by the construction work -- bicyclists.
Bicyclists? Those sweaty, lycra-clad Luddites? We can already hear some readers questioning why anyone should care.
Actually, we all should. Every day, hundreds of local residents commute to downtown jobs by bicycle; more would likely do so if they could depend on safe, reliable routes. The American River bike trail is essential to such commuting.
Yet as The Bee reported Wednesday, demolition and construction on the trestle has prompted authorities to create a problematic detour that forces cyclists traveling east "to dismount from their bikes at least twice, scale a steep, grassy section of the levee, go down the other side along a dirty path, take up to six turns on surface streets -- some of them unmarked -- before scaling a steep ramp covered in think gravel back onto the levee."
