Vacationing in Fbkx

[Carbonfiberboy]

My wife and I will be coming up to spend a few days this summer for my 50th LHS reunion. Hoo-haa. We'll be bringing our tandem. So I haven't ridden in Fbkx for 50 years and the map sure looks different. My question is: where should we not ride? Some of that new asphalt looks like freeway. Any of that forbidden? If not forbidden, what's dangerous and should be avoided? We'd like to ride up the Steese a little way, maybe to Harding Lake and back, up to the U of A campus, that sort of thing. Use surface streets, pick up Old Steese, avoid 2? Which might be more fun, Chena Hot Springs loop or a Goldstream loop? We can climb, but we're not enamored of it.

I've looked at your posted ride maps which look a lot like my childhood biking routes, but I notice no or not much freeway riding shown. Advice, please? I've mapped a possible route to the lake and back here:
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/fa ... rding-lake

Pretty weird to see Cushman one-way and our old homestead now an industrial wasteland.

Thanks, David.

[tclark]

I'd say steer clear of the Johansen Expressway and Airport road. Neither of which is very bike friendly, and both have signs saying "No bicycles". The Steese Expressway to the east of town is unpleasant due to lots of traffic and messy shoulders, but it gets better up past the intersection with Chena Hot Springs. As far as dangerous, various people will have various opinions...

Goldstream will have lighter traffic but rougher roads, owing to most of it being chip-seal "pavement". Chena Hot Springs will be smoother. The first five miles contain a few good hills, but after that things get easier.

Your mapped ride looks pretty reasonable. The Mitchell Expressway does have an overpass that you probably shouldn't ride over, so using the Old Rich highway to get around it is a really good idea.

I think that you'll pretty quickly get a sense of where you should and should not ride while you are here...

Tom

[Carbonfiberboy]

Thanks, Tom. That's what I was looking for. I'd say "No Bicycles" is fairly definite. So north of town do people use College to go east and west? Even when Airport Rd. was two lane, I used to prefer the side roads anyway. No problem there. Interesting to see how much is paved now. They've really made a mess of the place with those freeways, haven't they? Even towns of over 100K have no need of freeways, except for people to go through and not stop. Crazy. Too much oil money, I guess.

Our homestead was more or less on the corner of Van Horn and Lathrop. Good grief.

[tclark]

Y'know, I should really try to be more accurate.

I re-read my reply to your post, and I have to make some corrections.

While it IS true that bicycles are not welcome on the Johansen Expressway, there is a fine "bike path" from one end to the other, thus connecting University Avenue with the Steese Expressway, and a few points in between. If you are careful, it can even be ridden on a road bike with skinny tires.

College Road has a sidewalk along the length of it, but it is not suitable for a true road bike. Cruisers, touring bikes, mountain bikes, and the like, have no trouble with the side walk there. (Hm, that's not true either. I had a spectacular, bloody crash on the side walk near the fairgrounds some years back due to a chunk of sidewalk being missing, and me not paying attention.)

Don't discount Farmers Loop. It has a bike path (that will eat you for lunch near the eastern end) and broad shoulders. Good way to get from the University to the east side of town.

It does seem excessive to have two expressway things here, but Fairbanks is a vehicle town, spread thinly over a wide area. Add to that the shipping that goes on with stuff getting trucked into and out of town, and the expressways make more sense. Sorta.

[Carbonfiberboy]

I see the bike path along the Johansen now. Is it paved? Hard to tell from the photos. I also see the bike path along Farmer's Loop, though I've always found the shoulder to be safer than a bike path. The sidewalk along College looks unrideable to me. OK for people on bicycles, but not for cyclists. Not to be an elitist or anything, heh. The way the city is cut up by freeways, sloughs, and the river is sure a heck of a way to build people=friendly infrastructure. There is a complete streets movement active in many cities now, see http://www.completestreets.org. Back when I was a boy, the town had complete streets. I could ride my bike anywhere, and did. I used to ride out to North Pole and back when I was 12, up Chena Ridge, out the Steese, everywhere, mostly places I've long forgotten.

I sure thank you for all your help. I'll look for rides - maybe we can come out on one.

[Carbonfiberboy]

I emailed Mayor Cleworth about my perception of the cycling difficulties in Fairbanks. I was very gratified to get a prompt personal response from him. Among the topics he discussed was that Cushman and Barnette are scheduled to become Complete Streets. Another is that the City is struggling to accommodate what they perceive to be two user groups: "people on bicycles" and "cyclists." (My phrasing, not his.) The first group would be better served by more bike paths, while the second is perceived as being better served by roads with better shoulders.

So if you want something to happen, contact the mayor and council. I think they need a Bicycling Master Plan and your club should be a lead in developing it. My hometown of Everett, WA just did this and a good job of it, too. Here's the plan (warning, 133p PDF):
http://www.everettwa.org/Get_PDF.aspx?pdfID=4465

Just so you can get an idea of what goes into a document like this. This document is the result of a lot of work by a lot of people, both on the City and the user side.

[dajohnson53]

A quick brain dump:
Johansen - as mentioned, decent bike path from Steese Expy to University. Not very well used most of the time, reasonable caution required, but you can usally move safely at speed.

College Road: worthless, sidewalks only, probably the main road I get harassed if I ride on the road (which really is the only option there).

Mitchell: I just ride the shoulder when I (rarely) need to ride on that road, but don't know if it's legal or not. It's plenty wide and I consider it safe.

In town, the only real drag is Airport Road because you're not supposed to ride on it and it only has true sidewalks, nothing close to being a decent bike route. You can pick your way along the access roads on the north side for a lot of it.

Parks: decent bike path to Ester, rideable shoulder all the way to the Pedro Monument and beyond to Nenana.

Gold Hill Road and Old Nenana Highways are nice rides and can loop w/ the Parks.

Farmer's loop - decent bike path the whole way, plus the shoulder is nice and wide and very ridable (sp?). Bike path is really multi use with kids and walkers, so the shoulder is often much better option if you want to ride at speed.

Steese Expy north: I usually ride the shoulder from Airport or the Johansen to CHSR and beyond, but you can avoid it by taking the bike path north from the Johansen bike path, up to Farmer's Loop where you can get on the old Steese, and get actually all the way up to Goldstream and Fox on the Old Steese. It's a very pleasant ride on the Old Steese after CHSR, just "OK" before that (no shoulder, cars driving close to same speed as expressway - which is why I often just ride the Expressway shoulder between town and CHSR).

Goldstream - as already described. Very nice ride, low traffic, but a lot of chip seal and narrow shoulders.

Loop various portions of Goldstream, Old Steese, Farmer's Loop, Ballaine, Johansen, Miller Hill, McGrath... many options which you should be able to figure out with a map.

Steese and Eliot Highways out of town, north and east of Goldstream Rd: excellent riding, hilly, reasonable low traffic.

CHSR: good wide shoulders out past Nordale Rd, then narrower shoulders on and off the rest of the way, but nice riding and many out and back destinations with a break alongside the river. Check the FCC schedule - there's an organized ride to CHS every summer that's a lot of fun.

There's a lot of other loop rides, too many to mention, but look at your map and link up various sections of Cripple Creek, Isberg, Chena Ridge/Chena Pump, McGrath, Skyline, Sky Ridge, Summit along with the above major roads, etc. etc. Are all very nice rides and you can make loops depending on how far you want to go - lots of places to start on all those loops.