The Observation Deck

DougHuntingdon wrote:However, you do sound very obnoxious. Your street is not any more important than any other street.

If you live on Lake, you know that, aside from property values, few streets allow for that kind of unmitigated speeding. It's not uncommon to find people doing 50 or higher on a weekday morning.

You're right. Many of the Lake speed merchants are home-grown, and the price of homes should have nothing to do with how laws are enforced.

I actually had one otherwise-reasonable citizen tell me that it was OK for Lake drivers to go a little faster than on, say, Franklin, because the treelawns were wider!

Don't worry, kids. You've got an extra six feet of grass to protect you!

Un-blankety-believable!

john crino wrote:This may sound obnoxious to some ...

Well at least you realize it.

My youngest attends Carleton College where they have a thriving yellow college community bike program. The president (of the college) pointed out at parent orientation that there has been no bike theft on campus since the program was initiated. The bikes may not always be in the greatest shape but if you're in need of transportation around campus or to the town (a few blocks), they serve the purpose.
Maybe we could get the city to donate some bikes that aren't sold at their annual auction and have a Lakewood Observer paint and maintenance party to get this started? Who's in?

Also, fwiw, I support making Lake Ave a dedicated bike route (ok, a mixed use pavement). What about an online petition to present to council?

DougHuntingdon wrote:I live on Lake, too. However, the pot is calling the kettle black. A lot of the speeders on Lake live on Lake.

As previously mentioned on this board, my opinion is that speed enforcement as well as enforcment of many other city laws/ordinances is seriously lacking in Lakewood. However, you do sound very obnoxious. Your street is not any more important than any other street.

If you think you are too good to live in Lakewood, maybe you should put your house up for sale before the speeders decrease its market value too much.

Doug

You seem to have not understood anything I wrote. My immediate neighbors and myself drive down Lake at 30mph pissing off whoever cannot get around us fast enough, I don't care if the speeders are mybest friends down the street. I also don't give a shit where people live or what street they are driving down they shouldn't be speeding. My kids and dogs are forbidden from leaving the back yard because of traffic on Lake. Yes, I chose to live on Lake, but if I had known I would have not bought there as would my neighbors like I mentioned. Regardless, you don't believe traffic should be traveling detroit or madison or maybe the 5 lane state route one block up? Yes, I am concerned with my street and my neighborhood and my city,is I was not concerned I would move. I also mentioned that this was part of the equation concerning quality of life in Lakewood. It also being a tangent broken from the thread of adding a bike lane to Lake for all the same reasons.
Please read before rebuttel.

Ivor you say you got hit while riding your bike on the sidewalk? I presume you were in a crosswalk or perhaps a driveway

You're correct. Kind of.

There's a hidden drive across from the bank on belle and madison. It's the driveway to the parking for the appartment building and you cannot see the car flying out or the driver can't see the pedestrians until they pull out half way into the sidewalk.

With my luck, I had a quick introduction to a pair of headlights on the way to school one morning. I don't think any cup of coffee has ever woken me up as fast as those two headlights!

Even with the marked off lanes for biking, I still think drivers won't pay attention to what's going on. I can't tell you how many countless times I've had to curse at drivers for their mistakes. It's a mentality.. "well.. my car is bigger, heavier and more powerful than your bike, so I have the right of way no matter what the light says".

I love going on bike-rides in the Metroparks though, sometimes 15-20 miles a ride.

John

John it is funny I see two groups with the same idea that will be soon working against each other. Where common sense would say direct traffic to the "travel zones." Clifton and Franklin/Hillard, OR, down the business zones hoping some stop and shop it seems the opposite is being pushed. Some on Detroit are trying to shut it down to driving traffic and make it walking and bike zones! And with the way lights are on Clifton, a person can make it to the other side of town twice as fast using Lake over Clifton. So locals almost always choose Lake.

Now imagine that traffic with a mall at the west end of Lake(WestEnd), or a shopping district(Sloan Ave) and you can see how it would be worse. These are the little things that people like you do not see when the cry is put out for economic development. Lower taxes(probably not) but more traffic, more outsiders, more crime, mor opportunities for crime.

This is the part of the equation always left out of more ED. The negatives. While Lakewood grew up a charming little bedroom community that was safe for kids, people and dogs. We now have big bars, and soon big malls. People have to get to them, and usually these people have no connection with the city that hosts them.

Back to the problem. Does the city have a master plan? I have heard of enough "developments" to put a mall about every 5 blocks in this city. Can we handle the traffic? Are the residetns ready to give up security for $25.00 off their taxes? Now is the time for the city to come together and figure out where the hell Lakewood is going. We have Grow Lakewood that actually seemed to understand Lakewood, as they live here. Homes, homes, homes and a couple new offices, and we have other groups that are desperate to teach us about the NEED for Economic Development, so that we can lower taxes.

John you yourself have made the CRY for more stores, malls etc. But now you do not want the traffic in your front yard. Buddy, you can't have both. This is why I love the Cliffs, why I would love ONE MORE APARTMENT ON THE GOLD COAST, tear down the Lakew House and buils something 50 stories. Condos, bring in residents, they live here, they will care about Lakewood, they will add to the tax base. Malls just provide areas to steal cars, shop lift, sell drugs, and increase traffic that will drive as fast as they want to get there. It is insane.

FWIW

PS - Good fun last night at Bela, it wa great seeing your family and another three familes all kicking back, having fun, and just enjoying the neighborhood.



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For the record I do not want MORE stores or ANY mall. What would be nice is an entity that brings jobs to the city. Not Walgreens jobs or car lot jobs but good, middle class producing jobs. Small manufacturing or small software co jobs. There is plenty of space tucked around Lakewood for either or both. You are right about one thing I do not want the speeding traffic in my front yard. Side streets and residential streets are what makes the city of Homes,the city of Homes. Cars should go down the 7 lane state route that is Clifton blvd or the business routes of Madison and Detroit.
It is all part of the city life, there is a place for everything.

Honestly when I'm going east/west in Lakewood I always use Lake or Hilliard/Franklin. Why? Detroit and Madison have an insane amount of traffic and even more lights to make them anything but frustrating to use, especially Detroit now with all the construction.

I use Lake instead of Clifton because eventhough Clifton might be wider, there are more lights, which IMHO, are poorly timed. No matter what I try to do when driving on Clifton I always hit a majority of the lights. If it wasn't for that I would use Clifton.

Unfortunately, anyone who regularly travels through Lakewood knows those same things so I don't imagine things will improve on Lake any time soon.

FYI...

33 1/2 mph gets me from one side of Lakewood to another with no stops on Clifton- as long as there are no school zone lit.

(I remember learning that when I waas 16 from one of the local officers... and it still seems to hold true for me)

Peace,
~Charyn

Back to bike racks. Madison Park needs some solid, trustworthy racks. My bike used to get stolen from there all the time when i was a kid. Bikes picked up off tree-lawns on the day before garbage day don't grow on trees, you know.

I cycled through Valley View today. Construction is underway to build a bike bypass for this city, but while it’s under construction the few sidewalks/paths that exist have been closed as have some of the major motorized traffic arteries. Bike traffic has been pushed into the high speed, high traffic roadways while motorist have become confused and overly aggressive due to the road closures.

Today as I rode along Canal Rd., a Red SUV gunned the gas as it passed me. As it sped past a young boy a few car lengths ahead it blasted the horn. Luckily the kid was unfazed.

I know a Lakewood citizen that was run down on this very same road. The officer responding to the accident told him he was lucky to be alive.

I also rode through another construction site on Madison near West 85th. I had to roll slowly due to the amount of debris in the road. A car politely followed me with ample room, slowly passing once the construction site was cleared.

I see that some that post here do not feel that Lakewood is a safe place to ride. Indeed an accident between a car and a cycle can be easily fatal, the dangers increase exponentially as the speed of the vehicles increase.

I also see that some of the more experienced riders believe that Lakewood and Cleveland are relatively safe places to ride.

I would suggest that it’s the relative ease of riding here compared to the outright hair raising road conditions of many of the other suburbs that makes Lakewood prime real estate for the cycling savvy. I hope the city can provide cycling encouragement (such as bike racks) when possible.

I don't traverse Lakewood very often on Lake Ave, so I might not be the right person to comment on this, but if everyone knows that the easiest way through Lakewood is on Lake Ave at 50 mph then why haven't the police figured this out. It seems to me a well placed squad car could not only slow down traffic but perhaps it could raise enough funds for an overpass at Lakewood Park to open up Lakefront access.