This route took me to an area south of Lansdowne-Merrick park, around and along Tates Creek Road. In contrast to the area north of the park, homes here are multifamily, duplexes and condos. This area is also home to some businesses including the Lansdowne Shoppes. This seems like a good formula to me, similar to the Alexandria drive area. I need to remember to pass through here on a pleasant weekend day to see if it has a similar vibe.
Tag Archives: Lansdowne
Day 88-Multimodal
Today brought me back to the Lansdowne area, and my path focused on the northwest side of the Lansdowne/Tates Creek intersection. The houses and lots here are large by urban standards. The landscaping tends to be more wild–not so much of the manicured but bland look that I see in brand new neighborhoods with similar size lots. There were probably enough interesting things to mention on there own, but because of its proximity to two recent multi-modal infrastructure projects, I wound up really focusing on the challenges involved in improving Lexington’s walkability and bikability.
Lexington recently added a sidewalk to a significant stretch of Tates Creek Road including the stretch I walked along today. The sidewalk is nice, the ramps are designed so that one doesn’t have to angle into moving traffic to cross with traffic. There are some challenges though–note the guy wires strung across the ramp, just barely high enough to give clearance to a 6-foot tall person. Crossing Tates Creek was frustrating because of the timing of the lights and the need to provide long turn signals for traffic turning off Lansdowne onto Tates Creek. There were long stretches of time when no cars passed, especially during the portion of the cycle dedicated to left turns. Breaking the crossing into two stretches across Tates Creek, utilizing the median as a refuge island, could help. I remember visiting Burbank, California and being a little shocked that pedestrians actually waited for walk signals rather than just waiting for a reasonable break in traffic and making a dash for it. I’ve come to attribute this behavior to the fact that short light cycles (made possible, perhaps, by slower speed limits) made waiting for the light less frustrating.
Pedestrian traffic is frustrating and confusing to drivers, too. My recent return to suburban Denver reminded me of how many more people walk there, and perhaps because of that, Denver drivers pay more attention to things like pedestrians crossing. Not far from here on a recent Monday morning, I watched a woman wait as car after car made right turns in front of her despite the fact that she had the right-of-way. And so, we have signs like this one notifying drivers that yes, they have to yield to pedestrians.
Last summer, the city painted a bike lane along Lansdowne. This road is a natural bike route and was already identified on biking maps of Lexington as a bike-friendly street (there may have been existing signage as well). I’m glad the city added the lane lines. But again, it exposes some of the challenges, some of the behavior changes that need to occur. Many drivers ignore the lines, sometimes driving for extended periods within not just the first line but also the 2nd line. In the meantime, the curb side of the lane is filled with loose aggregate for long stretches. As a bicyclist, this is a bad mix–a hilly, curvy road with a treacherous surface on one side and operators of 2-ton machines who aren’t expecting to see a bicycle on the other side. There is not a lot of room for error here. If more bicyclists rode along Lansdowne, drivers would probably be more cautious, and when drivers are more cautious, perhaps the road will seem a little less treacherous and more people will consider riding.
City leaders are heeding the advice of bike/walk proponents and moving in the right direction, but it will take incremental, iterative change among ourselves to get the city to become multi-mode friendly.
Day 54-Water Features
Today’s walk took me to Lansdowne, specifically the southwest corner of the neighborhood near Tate’s Creek and Malabu. This was mostly residential, an area with large lots with ranch houses along with several apartment buildings located along Malabu and townhomes along Overbrook Fountain. Most of the homes here date from the 1960’s, though the townhomes along Overbrook Fountain were added in the 1990’s and the condos on that street are even newer. The condos and townhomes had some unique features including an out-of-use pool and an odd fountain, both apparently in disrepair despite their relative youth.
The area with single family homes was similar to some of the Gardenside areas from Day 52, but somehow more inviting, a little more interesting. The mix of single family and multifamily homes follows what I’m beginning to see is a common formula to try to balance density (this appears in other neighborhoods, including Gardenside, though it isn’t always apparent from my route). One noticeable difference between today and Sunday is that today, I saw people walking, jogging, biking despite the light rain in higher numbers. Is there something structurally that makes these activities more comfortable here? Comparing Malabu and Lansdowne to Parker’s Mill, I would say yes. A defined curb makes these streets feel “slower” and more accessible to bikes and pedestrians (sidewalks help too, along the busier streets). Combine the setbacks and house heights from those parts of Gardenside where they were ideal with feeder routes that feel as safe as Malabu and you’d have a pretty pedestrian friendly neighborhood.