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beige_alertAutumn is here, the leaves are falling off of the trees. It's still early enough in the year that I have daylight for my trip back home from work, but there is very little extra time now to make any side-trips without ending up in the dark. We're not yet at the point in fall where huge unmarked dark piles of leaves get deliberately placed on the road for (eventual....) pickup by the city. That doesn't come until the season of darkness. Always great to have the roads narrowed by loose mounds of debris when it's dark out in the late fall.
The thing I was really thinking about is the off-road section of Oak Leaf Trail between Villard Avenue and West Congress Street in Milwaukee. This was in terrible condition and was completely torn up and repaved over the summer. The pavement is smooth and it's been slightly raised in places so it will hopefully flood less. This is actually a useful route in a part of town where few streets actually run all the way through and connect to anything else, and being beside the river it avoids actually intersecting streets except at the ends, so it's reasonably safe. In the US bicycle/pedestrian routes generally just run randomly into streets and intersections in whatever the cheapest manner is, without regard to traffic safety.
So, when they finished the paving, for a few weeks, it was brand new and clean. No loose debris, no broken glass, no sticks and branches, no wet slippery leaves. Since it's out of the way enough to not be clogged with dog-walkers, you could really ride fast on the smooth clean surface. (In the US there is no such thing as a cycle facility, only dog-walking facilities that are shared with bicyclists. It makes for very slow, somewhat hazardous cycling in nice weather when the walkers are out.)
Unfortunately, the leaves are falling. It will never be clean again. Right now there are wet slippery leaves all over, and the loose gravel and mud is starting to build up. The pavement itself will be in good condition for years to come. Later in the year the fall of leaves will stop and the accumulation will dry out and partly blow away. The mud and dirt will reach an equilibrium. The debris will get better and worse, but it will never actually be completely clean again like it was for a month or two. I sweep up some broken glass from time to time, but clearing a few kilometers by hand is not really a one-person unofficial volunteer project. Sure, in theory a sweeping machine could be run through, but where the money for that would come from, I can't imagine in this country. Completely impossible.
It is too bad that 107th street in that area, probably the best on-road route, is in such horrible condition. Real roads, the ones used for cars, are always cleaner, and no dog-walkers. It's an unnecessarily wide street, with little motorized traffic, but the pavement is really wrecked. It makes it hard to move to the right to let people pass, then get back out to get around the occasional parked car, because the road holes and cracks are so bad you have to hunt for a spot to move left or right. Someday that will get repaved, and the northbound downhill will be fun someday when the road is good enough to enjoy the speed.
The thing I was really thinking about is the off-road section of Oak Leaf Trail between Villard Avenue and West Congress Street in Milwaukee. This was in terrible condition and was completely torn up and repaved over the summer. The pavement is smooth and it's been slightly raised in places so it will hopefully flood less. This is actually a useful route in a part of town where few streets actually run all the way through and connect to anything else, and being beside the river it avoids actually intersecting streets except at the ends, so it's reasonably safe. In the US bicycle/pedestrian routes generally just run randomly into streets and intersections in whatever the cheapest manner is, without regard to traffic safety.
So, when they finished the paving, for a few weeks, it was brand new and clean. No loose debris, no broken glass, no sticks and branches, no wet slippery leaves. Since it's out of the way enough to not be clogged with dog-walkers, you could really ride fast on the smooth clean surface. (In the US there is no such thing as a cycle facility, only dog-walking facilities that are shared with bicyclists. It makes for very slow, somewhat hazardous cycling in nice weather when the walkers are out.)
Unfortunately, the leaves are falling. It will never be clean again. Right now there are wet slippery leaves all over, and the loose gravel and mud is starting to build up. The pavement itself will be in good condition for years to come. Later in the year the fall of leaves will stop and the accumulation will dry out and partly blow away. The mud and dirt will reach an equilibrium. The debris will get better and worse, but it will never actually be completely clean again like it was for a month or two. I sweep up some broken glass from time to time, but clearing a few kilometers by hand is not really a one-person unofficial volunteer project. Sure, in theory a sweeping machine could be run through, but where the money for that would come from, I can't imagine in this country. Completely impossible.
It is too bad that 107th street in that area, probably the best on-road route, is in such horrible condition. Real roads, the ones used for cars, are always cleaner, and no dog-walkers. It's an unnecessarily wide street, with little motorized traffic, but the pavement is really wrecked. It makes it hard to move to the right to let people pass, then get back out to get around the occasional parked car, because the road holes and cracks are so bad you have to hunt for a spot to move left or right. Someday that will get repaved, and the northbound downhill will be fun someday when the road is good enough to enjoy the speed.
