CV Link: What Do You Think?

[Perry]

Here's a couple web pages:
http://www.coachellavalleylink.com/
http://www.friendsofcvlink.org/

And quite a few newspaper articles:
http://www.desertsun.com/search/cv%20link/

I just hope we can have something to bike ride on that's away from cars, whatever that something may be.

[Wildhorse]

It sounds like they envision a path for low speed electric vehicles and pedestrians as well as bicycles. It sounds like a good place for a stroll or run, or for riding a bike slowly while dodging pedestrians and electric vehicles. I think it is hard to predict how it may turnout, and how it may evolve over time.

What I hope for most is a better biking infrastructure all over our cities, so that more of us can bike instead of driving around town to commute, or go to the store, or whatever. The proposed path sounds more like a recreational thing. That is nice, but it won't get us out of cars.

I would like to see Palm Springs become a bicycle priority zone (at least in the older parts of the city.)

I glanced at the organization promoting this. I think it is strange in that it lacks younger people. In other cities, the desire for a city that supports bicycling as transportation (rather than recreation) is promoted by much younger people.

[zippetydude]

I think it's a great idea from the outset.

Yes, there will be bugs to work out...like mixing electric vehicles with bikes with pedestrians...different speeds, different widths, different worlds. But work through that, and it will take some giving and compromising on all sides, then we could end up with a great place for community interaction. In this day and age of people sitting in a crowd staring at their iphones in total mental isolation, any step to reconnect human beings one with another would be an accomplishment.

I can see myself going for a run, then getting a ride with some older person in a golf cart and buying them a beer when we get back to the starting point. Or doing intervals on a mountain bike, going hard on empty, desolate stretches, then slowing to a crawl and making conversation with others as I got to crowded areas. This could work. It will take people participating with one another, not dictating to one another, but has it not always been thus?

Besides, it'll open up the opportunity for another Warning Sign thread on the board here. I can just see a few years from now ..."37 people have died on the CV 50 during the past 5 summers. Don't be the next!"

z

[phydeux]

A real world example of a similar trail is the Santa Ana River Trail through Orange County. It started as a river-side path for maintenance vehicles back in the 1960s and evolved into the multi-use path that it is today. I live near the ocean end of it, use it occasionally for workout bike riding, but Ill only ride on it in the early morning. At other times its packed with bicycleriders/pedestrians/walkers/dogwalkers who are pluggedin and tuned out, paying no attention whatsoever to the other persons around them. And the SART does not allow golf carts; that's going to be a real nightmare when a cart traveling 20mph hits someone!. Most of the use is on the weekend; I've been out riding on it in the middle of the week and there are usually very few persons on it, including anyone commuting weekday mornings or afternoons.

Another factor to consider is a lot of these 'alternative transportation' plans are made for the sole purpose of keeping government transporation project money flowing into the area. Today the Federal government requries alternative plans be put in place (not necessarily implemented) to keep the flow of $$$ coming in, so don't be surprised if this plan gets approved by the CVAG, then ends up on a shelf.

And lets face it, its gets HOT out in the Coachella Valley, so who's going to use this pathway for commuting in the spring/summer/fall when it'll be hot enough to cook an egg on the asphalt!

[Perry]

Very interesting. Heat, collisions, and politics. I had not noticed the age of the people or known about that $ flow tactic. Hopefully this is a legit attempt to build something.

I have been concerned about golf cart collisions. Has this type of multi-use path been done before? Opening it to golf carts does require widening the path which increases costs.

I haven't finished looking through the proposal. It is long, multi-document, and a lot of issues considered.

From what I've read in news articles, the biggest obstacle is the City of Rancho Mirage. Residents may get to vote on this in April.

In the proposal, it looks like the objections of the golf courses in the Whitewater Wash creates the need for detours and intersections that add cost. Can a private entity build inside a flood control channel and keep the public out?

I'm a little skeptical that it would get use by commuters. It would be interesting to see results of an unbiased survey. I think the buses are the most crowded during winter. The roads definitely are.

The proposal says that similar bike paths have boosted tourism in other areas. If that's true, then it might pay for itself over time.

Working through some rough numbers, I think a lot of money can be saved by using non-tinted non-stamped concrete on existing service roads and prefabricated footbridges at crossings and eliminating unnecessary extras. But that might not have the tourism boost of a nice looking path.

[cynthia23]

The CV Link could be an enormous boon to tourism--IF the cities of Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells don't interfere and block it. With fifty plus miles of flat, protected bike way in a scenic area in which it seldom rains, there is an obvious potential for big century-style events and races. My understanding is that the golf cart lane (it will have its own lane) is included because the money to build this comes from funds dedicated to improving non-gasoline transportation in the valley.

The opponents in Rancho Mirage are mostly very elderly people who don't understand that recreational bicycling is now a big industry. Nor do they grasp that the Coachella Valley is going to lose its 123 golf courses, probably within the next ten years--in our new hot and dry future, there is no way that we are going to be able to keep pumping billions of gallons of water into turf. We desperately need to develop new recreational industries to keep drawing tourists--our principal industry-- and that's why the CV Link is so important, along with protecting our local mountain trails. The future of the Coachella Valley will lie in biking, hiking, and cultural recreation like film festivals and architectual tours.

[zippetydude]

I'm not too sure about the golf courses going away. The same people that own them are the ones who "own" the government, so to speak. Right and wrong, reasonable and unreasonable, these are nothing before the quest for money.

As long as there is money involved, I bet they'll find a way to keep those golf courses open. It may involve back room dealings to acquire water rights, but the same guys who traded all those parcels of land will be more than happy to continue their "business as usual" with water, or transportation, or anything else that continues to funnel $$ into their pockets. Hope that doesn't sound too cynical, just being realistic.

On a more positive note, I hope this thing begins to materialize despite detractors. Even 20 or 30 miles would be a great starting point.

z

[Wildhorse]

I also hope it is built, even while I believe it is not revolutionary and comes no where close to being able to fulfill the claims its supporters make.

As for golf courses, I know that they mean much to people who enjoy golf. Not for me, but for friends, they are spiritual places, and golfing is meditational and conducive to intimate friendships, just like hiking. Gold courses trouble me ecologically, although not as much as many human constructions do. Concrete, on the other hand, like the new CV linear park will be covered with, makes me crazy.

Maybe someone will make innovative low speed electrical vehicles that will be fun to ride and cause no harm to the earth.

Still, I hope that in the future we remake all our roads as multi-use paths that accommodate motor vehicles, but that are not explicitly designed for them as our roads are today. I hope that they will have shorter lives and will be permeable. I find the proposed pathway interesting and worthwhile, but at a low level only. It does not inspire me or give me hope. It sounds quite commercial and institutional.