The following is an edited version* of an email exchange between a Goshen Bikes participant and Mary Cripe, one of the city engineers The content of this exchange focuses on areas on the southeastern side of Goshen. Thanks to Elizabeth Yoder for making the effort and passing along the information.
*extraneous content and email addresses removed to reduce size and clutter of this post and protect Elizabeth’s privacy.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Cripe, Mary marycripe@goshencity.com
Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 3:09 PM
Subject: FW: bike lanes
To: Elizabeth Yoder
Thank you for the email, and we are also excited about the development of the bike paths in Goshen. The following projects are in the planning process.
College Avenue – The section between the railroad at Goshen College and 15th Street just got milled and paved this year. We will be striping a bike lane on each side of the street. We have hopes to reconstruct this road from the Railroad to US 33 in the near future, and this road will include a multi-use path.
Kercher Road – The project limits are from Dierdorff Road/ CR 27 to US 33. This project is anticipated to be constructed around 2011, and contains a 10′ wide bike/pedestrian path on the south side of Kercher Road. The newspaper had a misprint on the limits of construction of this project by stating that we were starting on at SR 15.
Extension of Maple City Greenway from Bethany Christian Schools to Prairie View Elementary School. – This path will be 8-10′ wide, and will commence at the existing railroad crossing at Bethany Christian Schools, run south parallel with the railroad, then meander eastwardly to the land owned by Goshen Parks Department just south of Waterford Crossing Retirement Community, then meander through the park land to Prairie View Elementary School.
Grant Application for Safe Routes to School – The City and Goshen Community Schools have a grant application in for an 8- 10′ wide sidewalk to extend along the east side of Dierdorff Road/CR 27 from Davis Drive to Fairways Drive (first entrance into Broadview Subdivision). We should know by the end of the month if we received funding.
Diedorff Road Reconstruction – We will be reconstructing Dierdorff Road from CR 40 to Kercher Road, which will include an 8-10′ wide path on the east side of Dierdorff Road. This will go to construction around 2010 or so.
Hopefully this gives you an idea of what we have planned over the course of the next few years. Please feel free to contact us with further questions or concerns.
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To: Cripe, Mary
From: Elizabeth Yoder
Monday, August 18, 2008 9:17 PM
Subject:bike lanes
It has been exciting for me to watch the development of safe biking paths in Goshen. However, at this time there is not a good safe biking route going east and west in the south part of Goshen. College Avenue is being widened and I noted recently in the Goshen News that the city is acquiring land for the widening of CR 38 between SR 15 and US 33. These roads lead east to significant shopping and employment sites. Athough I am able to ride my bike to work at GGH by way of the bike path, my husband is not able to ride to his employment in the industrial park due to the narrow road. In fact last summer there was a bicyclist killed while riding to work on CR 27 between CRs 38 & 40. In order to facilitate safe biking, it would seem prudent to add marked bike lanes along CR 38 and College Avenue while these roads are being widened. In the future I would hope that bike lanes would also be developed along CR 27. I believe there are many who would use these bike lanes regularly. Perhaps all of these bike lanes are already in the planning stages. If not, I request that they be given serious consideration. I believe more safe biking would add to the this wonderful community.
Thank you for considering these suggestions.
Elizabeth Yoder
