Is the Raleigh area bike friendly? (Cary: home, dangerous, safe) - Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary - North Carolina (NC) -The Triangle Area - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

SALUKI_LOVER · 12-09-2009, 03:50 PM

Lovebrenton, does your friend ride with the Gyros? I do about two to three hundered miles a week so just curious.

lovebrentwood · 12-09-2009, 06:09 PM

Sorry, I don't know the name of the group.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SALUKI_LOVER

Lovebrenton, does your friend ride with the Gyros? I do about two to three hundered miles a week so just curious.

Bmateo · 12-09-2009, 06:46 PM

OK, here is a different perspective.

In general, most replies here are right, it is not bike friendly, especially if you are comparing to just about anywhere out west. BUT, there is a HUGE, and I do mean HUGE cycling community here.

I assume you are asking mostly about road riding, but let me start with MTB first. Go to www.trianglemtb.com. They have forums there where you can ask questions, and there are nearly 100 miles of legal singletrack here, and more.... We have many bike shops, and Chapel Hill Carboro is the HQ of Performance Bike (they used to be a cool company).

While the roads are not the greatest, and the drivers are not that aware, there are several regions where riding is great. South Wake County is one, near Jordan and Harris Lakes. North Wake, near Falls Lake, and the Orange/Durham County areas are all well used by road cyclists.

Cary claims itself to be a bike friendly community, but that is a mis statement. But one thing to consider is if you are in proximity to the Raleigh Greenway system, you can get around a lot of places. Umstead State Park is tied into the system, and is a great way to pass from one side of I 40 to another. You can get from near the airport to near the art museum very easily, then that is tied to NC State and Near Downtown, which is tied to the Atlantic Road Area and near Crabtree Mall, and you can also tie into the Apex area, and I'm sure many others.

My point is this. If you want to live and work here, and commute, you can do it VERY effectively, you just got to pick where you work and live with a little bit of foresite (I know you don't always get to pick where you work).

I encourage you to visit the website I linked above, and from there you can get links to some of the road related sites that are also available. I ride both, but do almost all of my road riding Solo, because I live out in the sticks, and don't want to drive to a road ride.

Hope this helps. As I said, the other replies are totally accurate, but ther is more to the story.

sowk09 · 12-09-2009, 07:01 PM

There was an avid cyclist who taught about bike/road safety that was killed by a driver here, I think in the summer. Others probably have more info and of course that's not common, but no, I don't think we're very bike friendly, unforunately.

MikeJaquish · 12-09-2009, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sowk09

There was an avid cyclist who taught about bike/road safety that was killed by a driver here, I think in the summer. Others probably have more info and of course that's not common, but no, I don't think we're very bike friendly, unforunately.

Unfortunately, the cyclist abruptly turned in front of traffic.
The driver was under the speed limit and not at fault.
Cyclist killed in collision with vehicle in Apex :: WRAL.com

Sad, sad story, but not an indicator of how much or little the area caters to bicycling.

Emitchell · 12-09-2009, 10:26 PM

No. I'll echo - basically no bike lanes, no shoulders on the roads and many drivers are aggressively hostile to cyclists. Unfortunately, some cyclists make it worse for the rest of us by not following the rules of the road - riding 3-4 abreast blocking track, blowing through intersections, which only fuels driver anger.

Bmateo · 12-10-2009, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emitchell

No. I'll echo - basically no bike lanes, no shoulders on the roads and many drivers are aggressively hostile to cyclists. Unfortunately, some cyclists make it worse for the rest of us by not following the rules of the road - riding 3-4 abreast blocking track, blowing through intersections, which only fuels driver anger.

Unfortunately, this is probably the most true statement in this discussion. Probably true of anywhere, but certainly the case here too.

But I still maintain that with some decent home/work planning you can commute without much problem. I forgot to also mention that RTP (one of the largest employment areas in the region) is very bike friendly, with wide lanes and bike paths. Many of the employers (including mine) have decent facilities including showers. I see a lot of commuters in RTP, every day, rain or shine. (and know of a lot of others in the areas I mentioned in my earlier post.)

miamiblue · 12-10-2009, 06:24 AM

I would definitely say "it depends" based on location. Two of my coworkers bike to work (just north of 440 in North Raleigh) from within a 4-5 mile radius. They have to be creative with their routes, due to the main roads being very dangerous for cyclists, and this adds miles. Additionally, our office does not offer any facilities for people who might be biking or walking to work, such as even a locker room to change in. I live in downtown Raleigh and see many bicycle commuters, but do not commute because of the lack of facilities at my office.

If you live relatively close to your work, it can be doable. There are "bike routes" in Raleigh (I am not sure about other Triangle towns and cities) that will mostly keep cyclists off the more dangerous roads. However, drivers are often not aware that the road they are on is also a bike route because there are no bike lanes or sharrows (although signs are posted, they are very small like mile markers).

I think many people are deceived into thinking that an area absolutely must have bike lanes to be bike friendly, but that is not always the case. In some cases, bike lanes can even be more dangerous, but I do agree that their presence often makes drivers more aware of the fact that cyclists might be on the road with them. That alone is a big help.

I was very surprised at the lack of bike lanes in this area, especially around the local colleges and universities. I know that sharrows are planned for the new and improved Hillsborough St in Raleigh, and at least that is a step in the right direction. However, due to the sprawled out nature of the area and the higher speeds on main roads, it will be challenging for bicycle commuters in many cases.

mdp_az · 12-10-2009, 07:29 AM

I live 13 miles from my office but choose to bike commute occasionally. I live in northern Durham and work in the northern part of RTP. While part of the ride is a bit unsavory, I do enjoy a long stretch on the American Tobacco Trail greenway and some bike lanes. I see others every day doing the same thing. I also ride my bike to the grocery store which is only about a mile away. I live on the outskirts of town, so not really an ideal location for commuting, errands, etc... by bike. However, I am located close to some wonderful country roads in Durham and Orange Counties which are fantastic for a nice long road ride.

Now, if I lived in downtown Durham I would ride a lot more for errands and such. I have lived the majority of my life in Raleigh and did not find it to be very bike friendly at all. Durham, by contrast, seems much more tolerant of cyclists and you see a higher number of them than in Raleigh. I have also lived in Fort Collins, CO where bike lanes and greenways are EVERYWHERE, so I do know what a true bike-friendly community looks like. Durham has a long way to go, but we're getting there.

rnc2mbfl · 12-10-2009, 07:52 AM

As a recreational cyclist, the outlying areas in the triangle are really fun to ride in groups. The rolling hilly nature of the area is pretty and sometimes challenging. There are many mapped routes that regulars use and every nice weekend sees lots of action.
When gas spiked a few years ago to over $4 a gallon, I decided to see if I could live without my car. For almost a month that fall, I didn't drive my car at all. I bought a upright quasi-mountainish type bike and a basket for its front and lived the car free life. It wasn't easy but it wasn't impossible either. My best advice is to leverage slower neighborhood roads and the greenway system. As a resident of Downtown, I found the roads are much less daunting than they are in the burbs. They are narrower, slower and bikes feel more in scale to the activity and the surrounds. In the burbs, I'd definitely look for secondary streets that are more residential.
While I do like the extensive greenway system, I found that it needed better markings to make navigating its "forks in the roads" possible. I would often get to a fork and have to get out my map to figure out where I was. If the forks noted what sort of "destination" was in each direction, it would have been helpful.