Other pictures

I've been meaning to get to taking these pictures for a week or three. A while back, Louisville got really excited about the "soft" opening of the Big Four Bridge. In my comments on that event, I alluded to some dissatisfaction with regard to its value as a transportation option.

Let me restate my opinion a bit: It's a GREAT "skinny park" that spans the Ohio River, and affords views of Louisville and Southern Indiana that have been denied to people for generations. It's a ten- or fifteen-foot wide multi-use path, in essence, in that walkers and bicycle riders are allowed, and many walkers bring their dogs, children, and other family members to enjoy their outings.

I remain a bit disaffected, however, as part of the "selling" of this bridge to the community was that by having it redone in this manner, Louisville, Kentucky, and Indiana could meet a federally-mandated requirement to include bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in the eventual new I-65 bridge over the Ohio River, to be built alongside the existing I-65 bridge over the Ohio River, as part of the Ohio River Bridges Project, a 1950s solution to a twenty-first century problem. Because it is a skinny park, it is NOT a viable transportation option for cyclists wishing to ride apace. My fear is that one result of this bridge being open to cyclists is that the current Clark Memorial Bridge, the only bicycle-legal bridge for some forty or fifty miles up- or downstream, will be repurposed as an off-ramp for I-65 Southbound into Louisville from Indiana, with zero bicycle access available. This is called "putting all the transportation eggs in too few baskets."

At any rate, another objection I have to the way the bridge is arranged is access to the ramp. If one parks in the lot nearest the bridge ramp entrance, and is using a wheelchair, one must be sure to get on the sidewalk exactly at the disabled-specific parking slots, and NOT the ones on the opposite side of the lot from the ramp. Otherwise, one would have to go to the end of the lot at the road to get on the sidewalk along River Road first.

A cyclist entering the lot from River Road must use the sidewalk--and riding on the sidewalk is strongly discouraged in most places, for a variety of reasons. That one must use the sidewalk here reinforces the notion that riding on the sidewalk is acceptable in other places, frankly. To make this a bit easier to understand, here's a link to a googlemaps image showing the ramp during one or another construction phase.

 
View Larger Map

Looking toward River Road from just west of the ramp:

Looking at the sidewalk from in the parking lot:

From deeper in the parking lot. Note the curb in front of my bicycle, which is standing in an area that used to be two parking places:

Looking sort-of east on River Road. Witherspoon Street enters River Road to the right. The ramp is partly visible to the left.

The ramp, as seen from the same vantage point:

Despite my misgivings about this bridge as a transportation option, I remain happy that it's open as a park. I am very happy to see that the community has repurposed this old rail bridge and made it useful again.